RealTimeData/bbc_alltime
This dataset contains BBC News articles from 2017 to 2022. The articles are arraged by month. Access the specific month by using the format "YYYY-MM" as config. Such as load_dataset("RealTimeData/bbc_alltime", "2021-1").
0332
1{"title": ["Freda and Ken Walker: Murder charge after couple in 80s attacked at home - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Austrian parliament approves mandatory vaccination order - BBC News", "Russell Bishop: Babes in the Wood murderer dies - BBC News", "Tearful Adele postpones entire Las Vegas residency - BBC News", "As it happened: Covid: UK records a further 95,787 cases and 288 deaths - BBC News", "American Airlines plane turns around mid-flight over mask row - BBC News", "Christian Wakeford: Ex-Tory MP 'threatened' over Bury high school funding - BBC News", "MP blackmail claims: Downing Street not investigating accusations - BBC News", "Carlow body: Inquiry after 'dead man' taken into post office - BBC News", "Hundreds miss breast cancer screening after NHS Lothian error - BBC News", "Boris Johnson: I've seen no evidence of plotters being blackmailed - BBC News", "Gabby Petito: Boyfriend of blogger 'responsible' for her murder - BBC News", "Man jailed for killing dad-to-be outside Aberdare pub - BBC News", "Looks like checkmate for Boris Johnson, says senior Tory Steve Baker - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: More restrictions lifted as case numbers fall - BBC News", "Aquind cross-Channel cable permission refused by government - BBC News", "US charges four Belarus officials with aircraft piracy over flight diversion - BBC News", "Lone women drivers are top priority, says AA after tweet backlash - BBC News", "BT to introduce inflation-busting price rises - BBC News", "Firms call for urgent help with energy bills - BBC News", "Mother sues Meta and Snap over daughter's suicide - BBC News", "US comic Louie Anderson dies aged 68 - BBC News", "Meat Loaf: Stars pay tribute to 'one-off' Bat Out Of Hell singer - BBC News", "Russia Ukraine: Emergency diplomacy offers up few results - BBC News", "Omicron spread led shoppers to desert High Street - BBC News", "As it happened: Drakeford slams Johnson as Covid rules ease - BBC News", "Ukraine ambassador on Russia invasion fears: Assistance piling up - BBC News", "Afghan women taken from their homes after speaking out - BBC News", "A1(M) crash: Woman critical after car plunges from bridge - BBC News", "Ukrainians wait as Russia faces off with the West - BBC News", "Anglesey carer jailed for defrauding Alzheimer's patient - BBC News", "Murderer dubbed potential 'Ripper' by judge faces whole-life term - BBC News", "Amazon's Alexa returns after morning snooze - BBC News", "Encryption: UK data watchdog criticises government campaign - BBC News", "Ukraine tension: Minor incursion or invasion? Biden clarifies Russia comments - BBC News", "First-time buyers surge: 'I couldn't keep paying rent' - BBC News", "Met Police detective Neil Corbel jailed for three years for voyeurism - BBC News", "UN condemns deadly air strike on Yemen prison - BBC News", "Fly-tipping: Government plans to tackle 'new narcotics' of waste crime - BBC News", "Tonga volcano: Plume reached half-way to space - BBC News", "Tonga: Survivor tells of sea escape from tsunami-struck island - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 14 - 21 January - BBC News", "Peloton pushes back at production pause report after shares plunge - BBC News", "Trains told to get rid of torrent of 'Tannoy spam' - BBC News", "Pastor Mick: Duke and Duchess show support for Burnley charity - BBC News", "British man killed in 'reckless' Georgia shooting - BBC News", "Britishvolt: Electric car battery plant gets millions in funding - BBC News", "Do Ukrainians and Russians believe a full-scale war is possible? - BBC News", "Covid test firm urges end to tests for travellers - BBC News", "As it happened: Is Russia preparing to invade Ukraine? Your questions answered - BBC News", "Grindr scammer jailed for blackmailing men - BBC News", "Carlisle lottery winners nearly denied £2m jackpot by roadworks - BBC News", "False banana: Is Ethiopia's enset 'wondercrop' for climate change? - BBC News", "Blood donors saved Merthyr Tydfil mum and her daughters - BBC News", "Newport: RSPCA appeals to find man filmed kicking cat - BBC News", "US man who faked death re-arrested in Glasgow - BBC News", "Capitol riot inquiry asks Ivanka Trump to voluntarily testify - BBC News", "Scores killed in Yemen prison air strike carnage - BBC News", "Covid vaccinations: Anti-vaxers use 'crime number' to try to halt jabs - BBC News", "Peter Wright wins PDC World Darts Championship title for second time - BBC Sport", "Chelsea 2-2 Liverpool: Mateo Kovacic & Christian Pulisic cancel out Mane & Salah goals in thriller - BBC Sport", "Scottish pupils urged to get second jabs before new term - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: 'Crunch week' as latest data awaited - BBC News", "Child and woman rescued off Mumbles rocks by helicopter - BBC News", "Thousands arrested for West Midlands car thefts - BBC News", "Covid: Doubts that ex-teachers will return by January - BBC News", "Covid: Thousands needed hospital treatment after lockdown DIY - BBC News", "South Africa parliament: Man arrested over massive fire - BBC News", "Colorado wildfire: Two people remain missing and presumed dead - BBC News", "Sound Of 2022: Lola Young's slow-burning anthems are bubbling over - BBC News", "Lake District mountain rescuers plea after busiest-ever year - BBC News", "Covid: Israel Omicron spike could bring herd immunity but with risks - health boss - BBC News", "ScotRail introduces temporary timetable for January due to Covid - BBC News", "Morriston Hospital: Stay away unless seriously ill, patients warned - BBC News", "PDC World Darts Championship: Michael Smith and Peter Wright in final - BBC Sport", "E-scooter rider, 74, dies in crash with parked cars - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Nothing in current data to support new curbs in England - ministers - BBC News", "BBC 100: Mr Darcy's shirt included in online centenary exhibition - BBC News", "Covid staff shortages will continue into New Year - BBC News", "Hillingdon murder inquiry: Police arrest teenager over stabbing - BBC News", "Northern Ireland lamb returns to US market after rule change - BBC News", "Covid-19: Schools may face 'significant disruption' in new term - BBC News", "Hong Kong: Pro-democracy website Citizen News is latest to close - BBC News", "Covid jab offered to five to 11-year-old children in Ireland - BBC News", "Covid: Classroom masks in England for no longer than necessary, Nadhim Zahawi says - BBC News", "Covid-19: French MPs get death threats over support for vaccine pass - BBC News", "Zaian Aimable-Lina: Second murder arrest after boy stabbed to death - BBC News", "George Alagiah: Cancer will probably get me in the end - BBC News", "Covid: Pupils to wear masks in class in England's secondary schools to tackle Omicron - BBC News", "Virginia Giuffre: Prince Andrew accuser's deal with Jeffrey Epstein to be released - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Cases hit record high of 20,000 - BBC News", "Covid: Lincolnshire hospitals declare 'critical incident' over staff shortages - BBC News", "Covid: England must stick with Plan B to protect NHS - PM - BBC News", "Chaperones help keep pupils safe on school walk - BBC News", "David Bowie: Singer's estate sells rights to his entire body of work to WCM - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Another record high number of infections - BBC News", "New fire at South Africa's parliament 'contained' - BBC News", "Covid-19: At least 120 outbreaks in care homes in Northern Ireland - BBC News", "Sudan coup: Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigns after mass protests - BBC News", "Haiti PM Ariel Henry survived assassination attempt - officials - BBC News", "Aoife Beary: Berkeley balcony collapse survivor dies, aged 27 - BBC News", "EU flag removed from Arc de Triomphe after right-wing outrage - BBC News", "Evergrande suspends shares in Hong Kong as firm tries to raise cash - BBC News", "Manchester United 0-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers: Joao Moutinho scores late winner - BBC Sport", "Covid: Hospitals under pressure but plans unchanged - PM - BBC News", "Prince Andrew accuser’s 2009 deal with Jeffrey Epstein made public - BBC News", "Zaian Aimable-Lina: Teen charged with murder after 15-year-old stabbed - BBC News", "Vandalised Mwnt church passes £20k fundraising target - BBC News", "Pembrokeshire: Stranded starfish on Welsh beaches - BBC News", "Amazon halts plan to block UK Visa credit cards amid talks - BBC News", "Djokovic three-year visa ban could end early - Australian PM - BBC News", "Tonga tsunami: Body of Briton Angela Glover found, says brother - BBC News", "Government says its climate change curbs inadequate - BBC News", "Brick smashes through Cardiff City Ladies team bus on M4 - BBC News", "Gracie Spinks death: Parents to take Gracie's Law petition to MPs - BBC News", "Double jobbing: DUP leader denies Westminster deal - BBC News", "Cladding crisis: Norwegian wealth fund urged to pressure firms and builders - BBC News", "Starmer accuses PM of breaking law over No 10 parties - BBC News", "Nadine Dorries: BBC licence fee announcement will be the last - BBC News", "Piel Island: Search for licensee to run 300-year-old pub - BBC News", "Hostages freed after stand-off at Texas synagogue - BBC News", "Crime bill: Lords defeats for government's protest clamp-down plans - BBC News", "Former city minister Lord Myners of Truro dies age 73 - BBC News", "Texas synagogue siege: Rabbi describes escape from gunman - BBC News", "Covid-19: Staff absences in half of NI schools in term's first week - BBC News", "Climate change: Wales has 'duty' due to coal mining history - BBC News", "Sabina Nessa killing: Does following the 'rules' keep women safe? - BBC News", "Thousands without power as US and Canada hit by winter storm - BBC News", "Man seriously injured in targeted Glasgow shooting - BBC News", "Peter Seabrook: Gardening writer and broadcaster dies aged 86 - BBC News", "Rafael Benitez: Sacked manager did not realise magnitude of Everton task - BBC Sport", "Pacific volcano: British woman reported missing after Tonga tsunami - BBC News", "Texas synagogue hostage stand-off not related to Jewish community - FBI - BBC News", "Ruth Davidson had mental health concerns over leader role - BBC News", "Channel migrants: Armed forces set to take over English Channel operations - BBC News", "Covid: Call to cut self-isolation to five days in Wales - BBC News", "Anne Frank betrayal suspect identified after 77 years - BBC News", "Charity says soaring energy bill almost same as staff bill - BBC News", "Braintree missing cat found after owner hears meow on vet's phone - BBC News", "Eric Zemmour: Far-right candidate found guilty of hate speech - BBC News", "Texas synagogue siege: Rabbi describes being held hostage - BBC News", "Masters snooker final 2022: Neil Robertson beats Barry Hawkins - BBC Sport", "Women's safety: 'I begged the bus driver to let me travel home safely' - BBC News", "Boris Johnson was warned about lockdown drinks - Cummings - BBC News", "BBC licence fee to be frozen at £159 for two years, government confirms - BBC News", "Pacific volcano: New Zealand sends flight to assess Tonga damage - BBC News", "Covid: Self-isolation cut to five full days in England - BBC News", "As it happened: We're in a better place to lift restrictions - Zahawi - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Crowd restrictions lifted for outdoor events - BBC News", "CPD Llanberis backs player after racism allegation - BBC News", "Texas synagogue siege: Teens held in UK as Briton named as hostage-taker - BBC News", "Manchester Arndale shopping centre stabbing spree attacker detained - BBC News", "Boris Johnson not in danger over parties, says Nadhim Zahawi - BBC News", "JK Rowling tweet by trans activists 'not criminal' - BBC News", "Funeral costs drop for first time in 18 years - BBC News", "Retired GP broke Covid rules to hug bereaved woman at clinic - BBC News", "Derby woman completes bid to run length of New Zealand - BBC News", "ScotWind offshore auction raises £700m - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine crisis: UK sending weapons to defend Ukraine, says defence secretary - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: 'Only something powerful can come out of this' - BBC News", "Pacific volcano: Daughter's fears after Tonga tsunami - BBC News", "More MI5 alerts to come to counter foreign interference - BBC News", "Star Hobson murder: Court of Appeal to review Frankie Smith sentence - BBC News", "Rust: Armourer on Alec Baldwin film sues prop supplier over ammunition supply - BBC News", "Southampton boat crash: Men charged over girl's speedboat death - BBC News", "Christopher Kapessa: Challenge over failure to charge boy - BBC News", "Christmas sales soar for Marks & Spencer and Tesco - BBC News", "Hoda Muthana: Alabama IS bride loses appeal for return to US - BBC News", "What next for Boris Johnson after his party apology? - BBC News", "Dutch King Willem-Alexander retires coach amid slavery row - BBC News", "Ovo Energy tells staff it will cut a quarter of its workforce - BBC News", "Boris Johnson party row: Mixing work and socialising in No 10 - BBC News", "French holiday bookings surge after rule change - BBC News", "About 4.3 million Covid infections estimated in UK - BBC News", "RAF man unleashes Virgin Orbit space rocket over Pacific - BBC News", "Scottish politics in 2022 - five things to watch - BBC News", "In full: Boris Johnson's apology over lockdown drinks party - BBC News", "Armed police force entry to flat to end Coventry stand-off - BBC News", "Llangennech oil spill: Derailment caused by brake issue - BBC News", "Care services struggle with Omicron staff-sickness spike - BBC News", "Australian Open: Novak Djokovic in draw, Emma Raducanu plays Sloane Stephens - BBC Sport", "Sheffield couple found guilty of imprisoning autistic son - BBC News", "Downing Street party: Has Boris Johnson's apology won over the Conservatives? - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: About 10,000 NHS staff sick or self-isolating - BBC News", "German court finds Syrian colonel guilty of crimes against humanity - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Man arrested over Tullamore murder is released - BBC News", "Minibus death: Samuel Barker suffered 'catastrophic injuries' - BBC News", "Prince Andrew accuser unlikely to accept money settlement alone, says lawyer - BBC News", "Jonathan Van-Tam to leave role as deputy chief medical officer - BBC News", "Marks & Spencer: Midget Gems change name after academic's campaign - BBC News", "Parkrun: Outdoor mass group exercise ban 'not justified' - BBC News", "Top Republican slams Biden voting speech as unpresidential - BBC News", "Kim Kardashian sued in crypto 'pump and dump' case - BBC News", "Lockdown parties in No 10 on eve of Prince Philip's funeral - BBC News", "Omicron: Care rationed by a third of councils in sickness spike - BBC News", "Prince Andrew loses military titles and use of HRH - BBC News", "Isolation times cut and French travel opens up - BBC News", "Prince Andrew: Emily Maitlis says duke's interview answers are critical to sex assault case - BBC News", "Energy bills: Ministers approve one-off £200 support payment - BBC News", "Man damages BBC headquarters statue with hammer - BBC News", "MI5 warning over 'Chinese agent' in Parliament - BBC News", "Ovo Energy to shut five Scots bases amid job cuts - BBC News", "Covid-19: Robin Swann asks for assistance from military - BBC News", "Boris Johnson: Ministers rally round PM as he faces calls to quit - BBC News", "Police to consider investigation if No 10 party probe points to criminal offences - BBC News", "Downing Street party: Johnson apology 'too little, too late' - BBC News", "London 'hitman' on trial over plot to kill Pakistani activist in Netherlands - BBC News", "Covid: Wales could be turning corner on Covid says minister - BBC News", "Eminem-inspired rapper-poet says writing saved his life - BBC News", "Ukraine tensions: US says Russia faces stark choice - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic in Australian Open draw despite visa uncertainty - BBC News", "Carabao Cup semi-final second leg: Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Chelsea (0-3 agg) - BBC Sport", "Covid: Swansea Cinema & Co owner asked to clarify appeal - BBC News", "Sainsbury's raises pay to £10 an hour - BBC News", "Sidney Poitier: Hollywood trailblazer dies aged 94 - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic visa: Australia says tennis star not being held captive - BBC News", "Cladding: More flat owners to be freed from bills - BBC News", "Covid: Sajid Javid concern over admissions in older people - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic will be deported if he hasn't told truth, deputy PM says - BBC News", "Covid-19: Further NI Covid restrictions 'not necessary' - BBC News", "Harvey Parker: Body recovered from Thames is missing student - BBC News", "People rush to book holidays after Covid travel rules relaxed - BBC News", "Covid vaccine should be offered to vulnerable five to 11-year-olds - BBC News", "Berlin cannibal jailed for murdering engineer - BBC News", "Covid: Wales scraps pre-departure travel tests and PCR arrival tests - BBC News", "US Supreme Court scrutinises Biden vaccine mandates - BBC News", "Benjamin Mendy: Rape-accused Man City footballer granted bail - BBC News", "Covid: Hospital trusts declare critical incidents over staff shortages - BBC News", "Peter Bogdanovich: Barbra Streisand leads tributes to late film director - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: Drop restrictions to pre-Omicron levels, urges expert - BBC News", "Dementia cases expected to almost triple across the world by 2050 - BBC News", "Kazakhstan unrest: BBC witnesses apocalyptic scenes in main city - BBC News", "Boris Johnson faces questions over support for exhibition plan backed by donor - BBC News", "Peter Bogdanovich: The Last Picture Show director dies aged 82 - BBC News", "Kazakhstan unrest: Troops ordered to fire without warning - BBC News", "Chester FC: Probe into Covid rule break at Welsh ground - BBC News", "Hillsborough Law would level scales of justice, say mayors - BBC News", "Hunterston B nuclear power plant closes down after 46 years - BBC News", "Russian submarine hit Royal Navy warship sonar in North Atlantic - BBC News", "President's residence gutted as Kazakhstan clashes continue - BBC News", "Gunfire heard as BBC visits scene of Kazakh clashes - BBC News", "Boris Johnson criticised over Downing Street flat refurbishment probe - BBC News", "Labour MP Jack Dromey dies aged 73 - BBC News", "Covid: Drakeford accuses Johnson of failing to protect England - BBC News", "A66: Snow closes road amid travel disruption in north of England - BBC News", "Biden accuses Trump of creating a web of lies - BBC News", "Edward Colston statue case could be sent to appeal court - BBC News", "Capitol riot: What happened to these rioters? - BBC News", "Kazakhstan country profile - BBC News", "Covid: Military in hospitals and pupils refusing to wear masks - BBC News", "As it happened: Lawmakers recall 'terror and tragedy' of Capitol riot - BBC News", "Covid: Deadly Omicron should not be called mild, warns WHO - BBC News", "Scotland in 'worst case scenario' for Omicron cases - BBC News", "Kazakhstan unrest: Fresh gunfire as president says order largely restored - BBC News", "No 10 drinks may have broken lockdown rules, says PM's ex-aide Dominic Cummings - BBC News", "Ice warning with chance of snow in north east of Scotland - BBC News", "Covid absences put pressure on England's hospitals - BBC News", "Investors threaten drug maker bonuses over vaccine access - BBC News", "Covid: Anti-vaccine campaigns are mumbo jumbo, says PM - BBC News", "Truck spends three days dangling over China cliff - BBC News", "Tredegar terror convict jailed after beheading threats - BBC News", "British farmers unhappy as Asda retracts beef promise - BBC News", "Westminster double murder: Lee Peacock denies killing two people - BBC News", "Covid: Armed Forces send 200 personnel to support the NHS in London - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Police use probationers to cover absences - BBC News", "Sidney Poitier: Remembering the Oscar winner and Hollywood trailblazer - BBC News", "Yiewsley death: Second arrest over west London stabbing - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 31 December - 7 January - BBC News", "As it happened: Concern as more older people catching Covid - Javid - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic thanks fans as he awaits deportation decision - BBC News", "Covid: Boris Johnson confirms Plan B rules to continue for three weeks - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: PCR tests not required for asymptomatic cases - BBC News", "Covid-19: Pre-departure test dropped for double jabbed arrivals - BBC News", "Alice Clark: Paramedic, 21, killed in Tonbridge ambulance crash - BBC News", "Scotland eases home working rule as Omicron 'in reverse' - BBC News", "Sir Elton John postpones US shows after positive Covid-19 test - BBC News", "Marcus Rashford & Jesse Lingard: Manchester United duo condemn anti-Semitism after rapper photo - BBC Sport", "Ros Atkins on... Investigating No 10 parties - BBC News", "Middlesex chairman apologises for 'painful' and 'outdated' views on black and South Asian interest - BBC Sport", "As it happened: PM doesn't believe he's broken any laws - No 10 - BBC News", "Toxic 'forever chemicals' found in British otters - BBC News", "Cardi B awarded over £2m in damages in defamation case win - BBC News", "Covid-19: Schools get updated guidance on testing - BBC News", "Brewdog chief James Watt accused of inappropriate behaviour - BBC News", "IS militants surrender as Kurdish-led forces surround Syria prison - BBC News", "Thousands needed to try a new Covid antiviral treatment - BBC News", "Australian Open: Rafael Nadal beats Denis Shapovalov in five sets to reach semi-finals - BBC Sport", "Marmite maker Unilever to cut 1,500 jobs worldwide - BBC News", "Hymen repair surgery and virginity testing to be banned in UK - BBC News", "Royal Mail to cut jobs amid ongoing postal delays - BBC News", "Doug Beattie 'deeply ashamed' by past tweets - BBC News", "Playboy 'strongly supports' women accusing Hugh Hefner - BBC News", "Gay couple refused south London house viewing and purchase - BBC News", "IMF expert: Families may need help with energy bills - BBC News", "Star Hobson: Bradford Council children's services to be run independently - BBC News", "Hippos can recognise their friends' voices - BBC News", "Koshka Duff: Met apology to woman over language in strip search - BBC News", "Met Police: Deceived activist Kate Wilson awarded compensation - BBC News", "How anti-social behaviour can devastate lives - BBC News", "London bus crash: Children injured as double-decker hits shop - BBC News", "Norwich boy, 4, died after neck got trapped in stair gates - BBC News", "Louise Smith death: Covid-19 restrictions 'could have prevented appropriate support' - BBC News", "Climate change threatening buried UK treasures - BBC News", "Brecon Beacons: Caver trapped for 54 hours relives survival fight - BBC News", "Holiday bookings jump as UK Covid travel tests axed - BBC News", "Conservative minister resigns in anger over Covid fraud - BBC News", "Scotland's work from home guidance to be relaxed next week - BBC News", "Ros Atkins On... Ukraine tensions - BBC News", "Australian Open: Peng Shuai T-shirt ban reversed after outcry - BBC News", "Johnson: UK would boost Nato troops if Ukraine invaded - BBC News", "Ukraine: US troops on alert as West voices unity - BBC News", "Nusrat Ghani: PM orders Cabinet Office to investigate 'Muslimness' claim - BBC News", "Emmerdale and Coronation Street rescheduled in ITV shake-up - BBC News", "Taylor Swift calls out Damon Albarn over songwriting comments - BBC News", "James Webb telescope parked in observing position - BBC News", "George Floyd: Three ex-officers face civil rights trial - BBC News", "Africa Cup of Nations: At least eight killed in crush at Cameroon stadium - BBC News", "Police party investigation ups pressure on Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Inflation surge sends UK interest payments higher - BBC News", "One in eight pupils out of school as Covid worsens - BBC News", "Roy Hodgson: Watford appoint former England boss as new manager - BBC Sport", "Police to investigate Downing Street lockdown parties - BBC News", "Covid left Manchester student who took own life 'literally isolated' - BBC News", "Cardiff's 'Mona Lisa' mural removed for McDonald's ad - BBC News", "US comic Louie Anderson dies aged 68 - BBC News", "Meat Loaf: Stars pay tribute to 'one-off' Bat Out Of Hell singer - BBC News", "German navy chief resigns over Ukraine comments - BBC News", "Russia Ukraine: Emergency diplomacy offers up few results - BBC News", "PSNI postpones recruitment of 85 officers over finances - BBC News", "UN condemns deadly air strike on Yemen prison - BBC News", "Australian Open: Dan Evans loses to Felix Auger-Aliassime in Melbourne - BBC Sport", "Covid: Hampshire midwife fears for job over vaccine refusal - BBC News", "Briton killed in attack in Thailand named by police - BBC News", "Dave Ryding wins Britain's first gold in alpine skiing World Cup - BBC Sport", "Arnold Schwarzenegger involved in Los Angeles car crash - BBC News", "Chris Boardman to lead bid to get more people cycling and walking - BBC News", "Kiribati goes into first lockdown after Covid flight cases - BBC News", "Afghan women taken from their homes after speaking out - BBC News", "Anoosheh Ashoori: Iranian-Briton starts hunger strike in prison - BBC News", "A1(M) crash: Woman critical after car plunges from bridge - BBC News", "MP blackmail claims: Tory William Wragg to meet police - BBC News", "Carlow body: Inquiry after 'dead man' taken into post office - BBC News", "What are whips and are MPs scared of them? - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine crisis: Why Brussels fears Europe is 'closest to war' in decades - BBC News", "Women's Ashes: England v Australia second T20 abandoned because of rain - BBC Sport", "Thich Nhat Hanh: 'Father of mindfulness' Buddhist monk dies aged 95 - BBC News", "Gabby Petito: Boyfriend of blogger 'responsible' for her murder - BBC News", "High Street pharmacies in England to help people lose weight - BBC News", "Ukrainians wait as Russia faces off with the West - BBC News", "Should bad science be censored on social media? - BBC News", "Call to delay compulsory Covid vaccines for NHS staff - BBC News", "Man in court charged with murder of Freda Walker, 86 - BBC News", "New Cross Fire: Artwork to commemorate 14 young people who died - BBC News", "Fans sue Universal Pictures over film without Ana de Armas - BBC News", "Covid: Hospital boss admits they may lose staff over compulsory vaccines - BBC News", "West Indies v England: Tourists bowled out for 103 to lose first T20 in Barbados - BBC Sport", "Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam defends Covid hamster cull - BBC News", "Georgia Shooting: British man Matthew Willson shot through wall - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine tensions: UK warns of plot to install pro-Moscow ally - BBC News", "Period products for NHS staff 'a basic necessity' - BBC News", "British man killed in 'reckless' Georgia shooting - BBC News", "Jean-Jacques Savin: French adventurer dies crossing Atlantic Ocean - BBC News", "‘His voice became my constant companion’ – how Dan Johnson kept his dad’s memory alive - BBC News", "First-time buyers surge: 'I couldn't keep paying rent' - BBC News", "Mother sues Meta and Snap over daughter's suicide - BBC News", "Google will spend £730m to 'reinvigorate' its UK offices - BBC News", "Channel migrants: Thirty rescued as man dies off French coast - BBC News", "Boris Johnson party row: Mixing work and socialising in No 10 - BBC News", "Armed police force entry to flat to end Coventry stand-off - BBC News", "Don't use refund firms to claim tax rebates, says Which? - BBC News", "Squalor of Sheffield autistic man's attic 'prison' revealed in picture - BBC News", "Jacob Rees-Mogg: Covid inquiry must look at whether rules were too tough - BBC News", "Prince Andrew accuser unlikely to accept money settlement alone, says lawyer - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Pictures of vigils for murdered teacher - BBC News", "Energy bills: Ministers approve one-off £200 support payment - BBC News", "Prince Andrew: Emily Maitlis says duke's interview answers are critical to sex assault case - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: The politics behind Australia's decision - BBC News", "MI5 warning over 'Chinese agent' in Parliament - BBC News", "US man who faked death found alive in Glasgow - BBC News", "Boris Johnson: Ministers rally round PM as he faces calls to quit - BBC News", "Downing Street parties: Will two Tory tribes go to war with the PM? - BBC News", "Milton Keynes couple Ron and Joyce Bond celebrate 81-year marriage - BBC News", "Prince Andrew accuser welcomes decision to let legal case continue - BBC News", "Dutch King Willem-Alexander retires coach amid slavery row - BBC News", "YouTube rich list: MrBeast was the highest-paid star of 2021 - BBC News", "Number of Covid deaths in Scotland passes 10,000 - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Vigils across Ireland for murdered teacher - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: About 10,000 NHS staff sick or self-isolating - BBC News", "Babies in England hospitals with Omicron as a precaution - BBC News", "Samuel Barker: Pupil died after falling while opening bus doors - BBC News", "Lockdown parties in No 10 on eve of Prince Philip's funeral - BBC News", "As it happened: Djokovic to be detained in Australia but not yet deported - BBC News", "Omicron: Care rationed by a third of councils in sickness spike - BBC News", "Extinction Rebellion: Jury clears protesters who climbed on train roof - BBC News", "Harry Dunn crash: Anne Sacoolas UK court date postponed - BBC News", "Downing Street apologises to Queen over lockdown parties - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy murder: Police give press briefing - BBC News", "London 'hitman' on trial over plot to kill Pakistani activist in Netherlands - BBC News", "Ex-supermarket boss Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover dies at 94 - BBC News", "UK economy above pre-Covid levels in November - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Australia to detain tennis star after visa cancelled - BBC News", "'High confidence' Omicron is less severe in UK - BBC News", "As it happened: Parties on eve of Philip funeral regrettable - No 10 - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Galway musicians play at vigil for murder victim - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Man arrested over Tullamore murder is released - BBC News", "Parkrun: Outdoor mass group exercise ban 'not justified' - BBC News", "Andy Murray beats Reilly Opelka to reach Sydney Tennis Classic final but Dan Evans out - BBC Sport", "Ex-Covid taskforce head Kate Josephs apologises for leaving drinks - BBC News", "Djokovic Covid timeline: Did he break rules after testing positive? - BBC News", "Energy firm E.On apologises for sending socks to customers - BBC News", "Southampton boat crash: Men charged over girl's speedboat death - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 7 - 14 January - BBC News", "China denies interfering in UK politics after MI5 alert - BBC News", "Sutton Coldfield Tories vote unanimously against PM - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy murder: Man cleared of involvement now 'in hiding' - BBC News", "Manchester Arena attack: Man arrested over bombing wanted in drugs probe - BBC News", "Covid: Dad fears for mentally ill daughter in isolation - BBC News", "Biden plans dealt crushing blow by fellow Democrats - BBC News", "Racism in cricket: Government should limit public funding unless progress is made - DCMS report - BBC Sport", "Prince Andrew loses military titles and use of HRH - BBC News", "Greyfriars Bobby and the dogs immortalised in statues - BBC News", "Downing Street party: Minister who lost babies in pandemic criticises Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Save the Cinema: How Jurassic Park helped Carmarthen theatre - BBC News", "Covid: Wales could be turning corner on Covid says minister - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: How tennis player won visa row court case - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Restrictions are working, insists adviser - BBC News", "Ichthyosaur: Huge fossilised ‘sea dragon’ found in Rutland reservoir - BBC News", "Manchester United 1-0 Aston Villa: McTominay the difference for Red Devils against Villa - BBC Sport", "Millionaire murderer Robert Durst dies in prison - BBC News", "Ovo Energy sorry over advice to cuddle pets to stay warm - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Why world number one is such a polarising player - BBC Sport", "Barry Bennell: Men lose case against Manchester City over abuse - BBC News", "Driver fined £100 over 'porthole' windscreen in Bonhill - BBC News", "New York fire: At least 19 killed in apartment block blaze - BBC News", "Pakistan snow: Hundreds rescued from vehicles in deadly blizzard - BBC News", "Russia downplays threat to Ukraine in talks with US - BBC News", "Bronx fire: 'A horrific, painful moment ' says New York City Mayor Eric Adams - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic focused on Australian Open after winning court ruling - BBC Sport", "Past seven years hottest on record - EU satellite data - BBC News", "Met policeman David Carrick charged with further rapes - BBC News", "Antarctica: Invasive species 'hitchhiking' on ships - BBC News", "Covid: Chester could move game amid England-Wales row - BBC News", "Golden Globes 2022: The winners and nominees - BBC News", "Covid vaccine: Pregnant women urged not to delay getting jab - BBC News", "'Is this for real?' No escape for No 10 from party claims - BBC News", "Michael Gove misses interview slot after getting stuck in BBC lift - BBC News", "Scala dei Turchi: Sicily's famed cliffs streaked red by vandals - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Is his vaccine saga an unforced error for Australia? - BBC News", "As it happened: Novak Djokovic 'grateful' after winning Australia court battle - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Judge orders immediate release of tennis star - BBC News", "Ikea cuts sick pay for unvaccinated staff forced to self-isolate - BBC News", "No 10 drinks may have broken lockdown rules, says PM's ex-aide Dominic Cummings - BBC News", "Chester FC: Probe into Covid rule break at Welsh ground - BBC News", "Covid-19: MLAs recalled to debate school pressures - BBC News", "Bob Saget: US actor and comedian found dead aged 65 - BBC News", "Sarah Everard: First phase of independent inquiry to conclude this year - BBC News", "Kazakhstan unrest: Internet returns to Almaty following a five day outage - BBC News", "Jeremy Clarkson Diddly Squat Farm restaurant refused permission - BBC News", "Covid-19: Common cold may give some protection, study suggests - BBC News", "'They looted everything': Counting the cost of Kazakh protests - BBC News", "Housebuilders told to remove unsafe cladding on low buildings - BBC News", "EastEnders: Danny Dyer to leave BBC soap later this year - BBC News", "Boris Johnson promises action over rising energy bills - BBC News", "Covid: Hospital boss admits they may lose staff over compulsory vaccines - BBC News", "Venues must have anti-terror measures under government plans - BBC News", "Queen's Platinum Jubilee: Celebration plans unveiled by Buckingham Palace - BBC News", "Covid: We'll look at science of cutting isolation period - PM - BBC News", "Man gets genetically-modified pig heart in world-first transplant - BBC News", "Anglesey crossbow murder victim 'defrauded' of £200,000 - BBC News", "Virgin Mobile and O2 users will not face EU roaming charges - BBC News", "Morrisons scraps 'use by' date on milk in favour of sniff test - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Australia says tennis star given no visa assurances - BBC News", "Edinburgh shop worker abducted on street for store robbery - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Chester drive-in movie bogged down by lockdown loos - BBC News", "Duchess of Cambridge: New photos mark Kate's 40th birthday - BBC News", "Water safety: Ruthin mum's bid to cut drowning deaths - BBC News", "Djokovic Covid timeline: Did he break rules after testing positive? - BBC News", "Silicon Valley's trial of the century - BBC News", "Covid: Cinema & Co flouted ban to show conspiracy film - BBC News", "As-it-happened: PM warns of challenging weeks, as UK Covid cases top 200k - BBC News", "Pardons extended to all abolished same-sex crimes - BBC News", "Peter Wright wins PDC World Darts Championship title for second time - BBC Sport", "General Motors 90-year reign as top US car seller ends - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic will compete at Australian Open with medical exemption - BBC Sport", "Covid: Hospital trusts declare critical incidents over staff shortages - BBC News", "Pregnancy: 'I felt fat-shamed by banter at my 12-week scan' - BBC News", "ScotRail introduces temporary timetable for January due to Covid - BBC News", "NHS Tracker: Find out about hospital waiting times in your area this winter - BBC News", "Taking pictures of breastfeeding mothers in public to be made illegal in England and Wales - BBC News", "Lake District mountain rescuers plea after busiest-ever year - BBC News", "Pupils return to Covid testing and masks in class - BBC News", "Tony Blair: Petition to block knighthood tops 700,000 signatures - BBC News", "Adele's 30 was the biggest-selling album of 2021 - BBC News", "Nirvana's Nevermind cover art lawsuit dismissed - BBC News", "Wrexham FC: Hollywood stars donate £10k after player's baby dies - BBC News", "Covid-19: Omicron variant spreading at exceptional pace in NI - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: 'Congestion' warning over testing system - BBC News", "Covid: Vaccines for all every four to six months not needed, says expert - BBC News", "Covid-19: Schools may face 'significant disruption' in new term - BBC News", "Elizabeth Holmes: Theranos founder convicted of fraud - BBC News", "Second man charged over Amber Gibson's death - BBC News", "Milton Keynes to hold large-scale driverless car trial - BBC News", "Omicron: Staffing issues placing Welsh NHS under 'major strain' - BBC News", "Covid-19: Northern Ireland transmission reaching 'extraordinary levels' - BBC News", "Covid-19: French MPs get death threats over support for vaccine pass - BBC News", "DUP MLA Diane Dodds condemns 'callous' dead son tweet - BBC News", "Ryanair plane from Manchester diverted to France over smoke smell - BBC News", "Covid: US reports record 1m cases with peak still to come - BBC News", "Prince Andrew: Decision soon on dismissing case - judge - BBC News", "Downpatrick: Murder inquiry after man dies in stabbing attack - BBC News", "George Alagiah: Cancer will probably get me in the end - BBC News", "Brazil's Bolsonaro in hospital with intestinal blockage - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Cases hit record high of 20,000 - BBC News", "Covid: Lincolnshire hospitals declare 'critical incident' over staff shortages - BBC News", "Police probe alleged death threats sent to Karen Adam - BBC News", "Covid: England must stick with Plan B to protect NHS - PM - BBC News", "Covid-19: At least 120 outbreaks in care homes in Northern Ireland - BBC News", "David Bowie: Singer's estate sells rights to his entire body of work to WCM - BBC News", "New fire at South Africa's parliament 'contained' - BBC News", "UK steel future uncertain without US tariffs deal - BBC News", "Covid-19: Four-day figures show 15 deaths and more than 30,000 cases - BBC News", "Haiti PM Ariel Henry survived assassination attempt - officials - BBC News", "Theranos scandal: Who is Elizabeth Holmes and why was she on trial? - BBC News", "Sir Keir Starmer vows to restore trust if he wins power - BBC News", "Prince Andrew accuser’s 2009 deal with Jeffrey Epstein made public - BBC News", "Channel migrants: Crossing numbers in 2021 triple 2020's figure - BBC News", "France's Bogdanoff TV twins die of Covid six days apart - BBC News", "Banksy: Port Talbot man wanted to destroy Season's Greetings - BBC News", "Liverpool request Carabao Cup match at Arsenal is postponed because of rise in Covid cases - BBC Sport", "Covid: Critical incidents declared over staff shortages - BBC News", "Pembrokeshire: Stranded starfish on Welsh beaches - BBC News", "Blue Diamond Affair: Saudis end dispute with Thailand over stolen gems - BBC News", "Sir Elton John postpones US shows after positive Covid-19 test - BBC News", "Marcus Rashford & Jesse Lingard: Manchester United duo condemn anti-Semitism after rapper photo - BBC Sport", "Prince Andrew denies close friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell in US court files - BBC News", "Sinn Féin MLA tweets 'unacceptable' - Michelle O'Neill - BBC News", "Ros Atkins on... Investigating No 10 parties - BBC News", "Middlesex chairman apologises for 'painful' and 'outdated' views on black and South Asian interest - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: Vaccine passports scrapped in bars and restaurants - BBC News", "Message in a bottle from Scottish girl found in Norway after 25 years - BBC News", "Two-thirds with Omicron say they have had Covid before - BBC News", "Covid-19: Schools get updated guidance on testing - BBC News", "Covid: Warnings of 'counterfeit' NHS face masks were dismissed - BBC News", "Texas synagogue siege: Two men arrested in Manchester - BBC News", "Star Hobson: Bradford Council children's services to be run independently - BBC News", "Downing Street parties: Boris Johnson vows to fight on as MPs await Sue Gray report - BBC News", "Met Police: Deceived activist Kate Wilson awarded compensation - BBC News", "Sainsbury's and John Lewis asks shoppers and staff to keep wearing masks - BBC News", "Covid fraud: Rishi Sunak denies writing off stolen support funds - BBC News", "Ukraine crisis: US rejects Russian demand to bar Ukraine from Nato - BBC News", "Maida Vale deaths: Man who killed Yasmin Chkaifi was wanted by police - BBC News", "The story behind the picture of this lone survivor - BBC News", "Unvaccinated man denied heart transplant by Boston hospital - BBC News", "England captain Owen Farrell to miss entire Six Nations - BBC Sport", "Norwich boy, 4, died after neck got trapped in stair gates - BBC News", "Key worker pay falling behind price rises, says TUC - BBC News", "Sue Gray: Johnson refuses to resign as report wait continues - BBC News", "Ofcom to investigate BBC's anti-Semitism report - BBC News", "Jack Monroe hails inflation-measure shake-up - BBC News", "US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire - BBC News", "Major legal changes needed for driverless car era - BBC News", "Scotland's work from home guidance to be relaxed next week - BBC News", "Boris Johnson authorised Afghan animal evacuation, leaked email suggests - BBC News", "Pet spending boom continues despite rising cost of living - BBC News", "'I grew up in care alone - why did no-one tell me I had siblings?' - BBC News", "Bute Park attack: Dr Gary Jenkins begged attackers to stop - BBC News", "Arbroath cliff rescue man 'a finger's grip away' from death - BBC News", "Police party investigation ups pressure on Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Boris Johnson in Commons fight as No 10 parties report looms - BBC News", "Call for rethink of Scottish gender recognition reforms - BBC News", "Koshka Duff: Professor says she faced victim blaming over police claim - BBC News", "Virginia Giuffre: Prince Andrew accuser seeks evidence he could not sweat - BBC News", "Roy Hodgson: Watford appoint former England boss as new manager - BBC Sport", "Police to investigate Downing Street lockdown parties - BBC News", "Forced adoption: 'My baby was taken' - BBC News", "Gas prices: Regulator warns of 30% increase - BBC News", "Self-harm guidance to include advice for schools and prisons - BBC News", "Downing Street party: No 10 can't control what happens next - BBC News", "Tonga tsunami sparks 'unprecedented disaster', government says - BBC News", "Australian Open: Andy Murray beats Nikoloz Basilashvili in Melbourne - BBC Sport", "Six Nations: Irish stadium crowd restrictions ended - BBC Sport", "French skier investigated over collision with British girl - BBC News", "Boris Johnson party row: Mixing work and socialising in No 10 - BBC News", "Hostages freed after stand-off at Texas synagogue - BBC News", "Texas synagogue siege: Rabbi describes escape from gunman - BBC News", "Covid contract to Dominic Cummings friends ruled lawful by Appeal Court - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Mourners line the streets for the teacher - BBC News", "Nursery fined £800,000 over choking death of baby Fox Goulding - BBC News", "JK Rowling tweet by trans activists 'not criminal' - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine crisis: UK sending weapons to defend Ukraine, says defence secretary - BBC News", "Tonga tsunami: Health warnings over toxic volcanic ash and sulphur - BBC News", "Double jobbing: Six parties call for end to government plans - BBC News", "Scotland on 'downward slope' of Omicron wave - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Families remember loved ones lost to coronavirus - BBC News", "US airlines warn of impending 5G flight disruption - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy killing: Irish police arrest man - BBC News", "MPs urged to back move to make misogyny hate crime - BBC News", "Channel migrants: MPs criticise use of navy to tackle English Channel crossings - BBC News", "Braintree missing cat found after owner hears meow on vet's phone - BBC News", "Texas synagogue siege: Rabbi describes being held hostage - BBC News", "Women's safety: 'I begged the bus driver to let me travel home safely' - BBC News", "Wales' universal basic income pilot too small - report - BBC News", "Downing Street party: Is 'pork pie plot' a serious threat to the PM? - BBC News", "Sue Gray: The Partygate investigator and civil servant - BBC News", "Pay rises fail to keep up with the cost of living - BBC News", "Double jobbing: DUP leader denies Westminster deal - BBC News", "As it happened: UK records highest number of deaths since February - BBC News", "Backlash as US billionaire dismisses Uyghur abuse - BBC News", "Calls for Scottish Covid rules to be eased further - BBC News", "Covid-19: Staff absences in half of NI schools in term's first week - BBC News", "Sabina Nessa killing: Does following the 'rules' keep women safe? - BBC News", "Man charged after toddler in nappy found on Paisley street - BBC News", "Mobile firms agree another 5G delay at US airports - BBC News", "Texas synagogue hostage stand-off not related to Jewish community - FBI - BBC News", "Eric Zemmour: Far-right candidate found guilty of hate speech - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: 'Community is needed to overcome such evil' - BBC News", "BBC licence fee to be frozen at £159 for two years, government confirms - BBC News", "Phoenix Group drops 'energetic' from job ads to woo older applicants - BBC News", "The Apprentice contestant Shama Amin leaves show on health grounds - BBC News", "PM who lied to Parliament would normally resign - Dominic Raab - BBC News", "Tonga tsunami: Runway ash hampers relief efforts as scale of damage emerges - BBC News", "Manchester Arndale shopping centre stabbing spree attacker detained - BBC News", "Texas synagogue siege: Teens held in UK released without charge - BBC News", "Tonga tsunami: Body of Briton Angela Glover found, says brother - BBC News", "Coercive behaviour: Carwyn Roberts controlled girlfriend - BBC News", "Covid: Face mask rules and Covid passes to end in England - BBC News", "Carlisle man admits modern slavery of victim kept in shed - BBC News", "More MI5 alerts to come to counter foreign interference - BBC News", "Plastic crisis needs binding treaty, report says - BBC News", "Afcon 2021: Ghana dumped out by debutants Comoros - BBC Sport", "Dean Verberckmoes: Police find body of Belgian four-year old - BBC News", "Crime bill: Lords defeats for government's protest clamp-down plans - BBC News", "Licence fee freeze will hit programmes, BBC director general says - BBC News", "Specialist mental health unit failures exposed by patients - BBC News", "Hong Kong seizes hamsters from pet store for mass cull - BBC News", "Texas synagogue hostage-taker was known to MI5 - BBC News", "Nobody warned me drinks event was against rules - Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Scotland to lift most remaining Covid restrictions - BBC News", "Boris Johnson was warned about lockdown drinks - Cummings - BBC News", "Joss Whedon: Buffy and Justice League director denies misconduct claims - BBC News", "Wales' Unesco World Heritage benefits 'should be shared' - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: 'Community is needed to overcome such evil' - BBC News", "Australian Open: Emma Raducanu beats Sloane Stephens on Melbourne debut - BBC Sport", "Ashling Murphy: 'Only something powerful can come out of this' - BBC News", "Ten die after Brazilian cliff collapses onto leisure boats - BBC News", "Covid: UK records more than 150,000 deaths - BBC News", "Ashley Cole: Police investigate racist abuse towards ex-England defender at Swindon - BBC Sport", "Truck spends three days dangling over China cliff - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Why world number one is such a polarising player - BBC Sport", "James Webb telescope completes epic deployment sequence - BBC News", "The Ashes: Usman Khawaja's century leaves England fighting to save Sydney Test - BBC Sport", "Texas teacher 'locked Covid-positive son in car boot' - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Having Covid gave tennis star vaccine exemption - lawyers - BBC News", "BBC seeks swift response to bus anti-Semitism story complaints - BBC News", "Murdered black jogger's mum: Verdict won't bring him back - BBC News", "NHS Tracker: Find out about hospital waiting times in your area this winter - BBC News", "Sidney Poitier: Hollywood trailblazer dies aged 94 - BBC News", "Crook teacher banned over terrorist funding - BBC News", "Is this NHS crisis really worse than ones before? - BBC News", "Kazakhstan unrest: BBC witnesses apocalyptic scenes in main city - BBC News", "Covid: Visualising 150,000 UK coronavirus deaths - BBC News", "Cladding: Michael Gove to vow to pursue firms behind safety problems - BBC News", "Marilyn Bergman: Oscar-winning lyricist dies at 93 - BBC News", "Alice Byrne: Family plea over Portobello woman missing since New Year's Day - BBC News", "Is the DUP about to hit the emergency stop button on Stormont? - BBC News", "Cladding: More flat owners to be freed from bills - BBC News", "Jack Dromey: Birmingham 'will not be the same' without the veteran MP - BBC News", "Covid: Sajid Javid concern over admissions in older people - BBC News", "Pakistan snow: Deadly weather traps hundreds of drivers - BBC News", "Freya Bevan: Funeral held for cancer 'warrior' aged nine - BBC News", "No 10 drinks may have broken lockdown rules, says PM's ex-aide Dominic Cummings - BBC News", "Covid: Thousands protest in France against proposed new vaccine pass - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic thanks fans as he awaits deportation decision - BBC News", "Basmah bint Saud: Saudi princess released from jail after almost three years - BBC News", "Marble Arch Mound: Much-mocked tourist attraction to close - BBC News", "Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict: Dozens killed in airstrike at camp, say aid staff - BBC News", "Canada party plane influencer 'idiots' fly home to face music - BBC News", "Tories call on Treasury to fund green energy plans - BBC News", "Covid vaccine should be offered to vulnerable five to 11-year-olds - BBC News", "Labour MP Jack Dromey dies aged 73 - BBC News", "Covid: Drakeford accuses Johnson of failing to protect England - BBC News", "Berlin cannibal jailed for murdering engineer - BBC News", "Covid-19: Pre-departure test dropped for double jabbed arrivals - BBC News", "Duchess of Cambridge: New photos mark Kate's 40th birthday - BBC News", "Kazakhstan unrest: Blinken questions Russian troop deployment - BBC News", "Sir Keir Starmer tests positive for Covid for a second time - BBC News", "NHS Tracker: Find out about hospital waiting times in your area this winter - BBC News", "Harvey Parker: Police seeking missing student find body in Thames - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Australia cancels top tennis player's visa - BBC News", "Grammy Awards 2022: Omicron postpones music's biggest night - BBC News", "Covid: US reports record 1m cases with peak still to come - BBC News", "Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur: Blues win Carabao Cup semi-final first leg - BBC Sport", "Prince Andrew: Decision soon on dismissing case - judge - BBC News", "PMQs: Angela Rayner challenges Boris Johnson on energy bills and cost of living - BBC News", "Covid: Greater Manchester hospitals cancel surgery as NHS pressures mount - BBC News", "UK air travel sees huge slump in 2021 due to Covid - BBC News", "Ghislaine Maxwell: Lawyers call for retrial over juror comments - BBC News", "Taking pictures of breastfeeding mothers in public to be made illegal in England and Wales - BBC News", "Covid: Maidstone mother drives to Italy to get daughter jabbed - BBC News", "Tony Blair: Petition to block knighthood tops 700,000 signatures - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Tennis star's Australia entry delayed over visa row - BBC News", "Covid-19: Omicron variant spreading at exceptional pace in NI - BBC News", "Meghan to receive £1 in damages after privacy case - BBC News", "DUP MLA Diane Dodds condemns 'callous' dead son tweet - BBC News", "Downpatrick: Murder inquiry after man dies in stabbing attack - BBC News", "Carmarthenshire gritters begin 12 days of industrial action - BBC News", "James Webb Space Telescope extends secondary mirror - BBC News", "Covid: French uproar as Macron vows to 'piss off' unvaccinated - BBC News", "Ministry of Defence 'failing taxpayers' by wasting £13bn, Labour says - BBC News", "Covid: Wales' self isolation period cut from 10 days to seven - BBC News", "Kantar: Shoppers return to supermarkets for festive feasts - BBC News", "Vodafone and EE delay EU roaming charges return - BBC News", "General Motors 90-year reign as top US car seller ends - BBC News", "Newport: Ryan O'Connor stabbed to death for Gucci bag, court hears - BBC News", "Nirvana's Nevermind cover art lawsuit dismissed - BBC News", "All cancer waiting time targets missed in Northern Ireland - BBC News", "Six Nations 2022: Welsh Rugby Union considering hosting games in England - BBC Sport", "Covid in Scotland: 'Congestion' warning over testing system - BBC News", "Covid: Vaccines for all every four to six months not needed, says expert - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon to give update as cases rise - BBC News", "Second man charged over Amber Gibson's death - BBC News", "North Korea fires suspected ballistic missile into the sea - BBC News", "US science teacher arrested for vaccinating 17-year-old student - BBC News", "Cervical cancer: PHW apology over screening changes - BBC News", "Army officer completes remarkable solo South Pole trek - BBC News", "Postcards from Lanzarote arrive in Devon seven years late - BBC News", "Banksy: Port Talbot man wanted to destroy Season's Greetings - BBC News", "Covid-19: Four-day figures show 15 deaths and more than 30,000 cases - BBC News", "Covid: Critical incidents declared over staff shortages - BBC News", "France's Bogdanoff TV twins die of Covid six days apart - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Isolation time reduced as restrictions remain - BBC News", "Barry Bennell: Victim secures settlement from holiday park - BBC News", "Covid: Pre-arrival tests and travel isolation to end in England - BBC News", "Edward Colston statue: Four cleared of criminal damage - BBC News", "Covid-19: Northern Ireland transmission reaching 'extraordinary levels' - BBC News", "Covid: Scottish self-isolation period cut to seven days - BBC News", "Police probe alleged death threats sent to Karen Adam - BBC News", "Dog charity Hope Rescue braced for £30,000 monthly vet bill - BBC News", "Covid: Boris Johnson confirms Plan B rules to continue for three weeks - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: PCR tests not required for asymptomatic cases - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Australian Open vaccine exemption ignites backlash - BBC News", "Lord Ahmed: Former Labour peer guilty of child sex offences - BBC News", "Prince Andrew: Emily Maitlis says duke's interview answers are critical to sex assault case - BBC News", "Manchester Arena bomb victim's mum hails 'beautiful' memorial - BBC News", "Liverpool request Carabao Cup match at Arsenal is postponed because of rise in Covid cases - BBC Sport", "Aidan Mann stabbing: Man in court over Downpatrick murder - BBC News", "Ukraine crisis: Nord Stream 2 pipeline could be axed, US warns - BBC News", "Prince Andrew denies close friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell in US court files - BBC News", "Covid: Care home restrictions to be eased in England - BBC News", "Covid passes and face mask rules end in England - BBC News", "NHS Tracker: Find out about hospital waiting times in your area this winter - BBC News", "Covid: Warnings of 'counterfeit' NHS face masks were dismissed - BBC News", "Small period changes after Covid jab seen to be short-lived - BBC News", "Sainsbury's and John Lewis asks shoppers and staff to keep wearing masks - BBC News", "Ukraine crisis: US rejects Russian demand to bar Ukraine from Nato - BBC News", "US economy grows at fastest pace in decades - BBC News", "Covid vaccines: The unvaccinated NHS workers facing the sack - BBC News", "Jack Monroe hails inflation-measure shake-up - BBC News", "Call for rethink of Scottish gender recognition reforms - BBC News", "Virginia Giuffre: Prince Andrew accuser seeks evidence he could not sweat - BBC News", "Drug and alcohol harms 'significant and growing', says Stormont report - BBC News", "Daisy Hill Hospital is forced to halt emergency surgery - BBC News", "Northern Ireland students: Third got top degree grade in 2021 - BBC News", "Rose Ayling-Ellis calls for British Sign Language recognition - BBC News", "Grenfell Tower fire: Ulster Rugby 'should remember victims' anguish' - BBC News", "Council lose £6.5m claim against bus firm over Glasgow bin lorry crash - BBC News", "Liz Truss defends using government plane for Australia trip - BBC News", "Bute Park attack: Dr Gary Jenkins left for dead in Cardiff, trial hears - BBC News", "Chris Whitty assault: Man jailed for eight weeks over attack - BBC News", "US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire - BBC News", "Why Boris Johnson is coming out fighting - BBC News", "Train firms bet on mindfulness to lure commuters back - BBC News", "Boris Johnson authorised Afghan animal evacuation, leaked email suggests - BBC News", "'Camp Auschwitz' shirt Capitol rioter pleads guilty - BBC News", "'I grew up in care alone - why did no-one tell me I had siblings?' - BBC News", "Teenage pair found dead by police near Dorset town - BBC News", "Elon Musk SpaceX rocket on collision course with moon - BBC News", "Extra cash for Scottish councils in bid to avoid tax hikes - BBC News", "Government pledges £100m for Sizewell nuclear site - BBC News", "Climate change: Cold callers shock farmers with tree-plant plea - BBC News", "Koshka Duff: Professor says she faced victim blaming over police claim - BBC News", "Sue Gray's No 10 parties report will be published in full, says Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Is this England's earliest report of ball lightning? - BBC Weather", "'I had to pay for Tourette's diagnosis' - BBC News", "Maida Vale deaths: Man who killed Yasmin Chkaifi was wanted by police - BBC News", "Climate change: Key crops face major shifts as world warms - BBC News", "Bute Park attack: Dr Gary Jenkins begged attackers to stop - BBC News", "Covid-19: Hotel operators to receive financial support - BBC News", "Women's Ashes: Dropped catches hurt England as Australia take control of Test in Canberra - BBC Sport", "Barry Cryer: Tributes paid to veteran comedian and writer - BBC News", "Holocaust Memorial Day: Seven survivors get royal portraits - BBC News", "US Supreme Court: The women in the running to replace Stephen Breyer - BBC News", "Apple sales soar despite chip supply shortages - BBC News", "Exeter Chiefs to drop Native American branding - BBC Sport", "Sandbach baby born at 23 weeks goes home for first time - BBC News", "Downing Street parties: Boris Johnson vows to fight on as MPs await Sue Gray report - BBC News", "Holocaust Memorial Day: Portraits of last remaining UK survivors unveiled - BBC News", "Terror case dropped against trafficking victim, aged 16 - BBC News", "Boris Johnson denies authorising animal evacuation from Kabul - BBC News", "Kwarteng: No U-turn on National Insurance tax rise - BBC News", "Covid: Rape reports surge after Sarah Everard murder - BBC News", "Ofcom to investigate BBC's anti-Semitism report - BBC News", "Brexit: Liz Truss says protocol deal must work for everyone - BBC News", "Man says he drove without licence for more than 70 years - BBC News", "Nicola Faith: Fishermen's families work to improve sea safety - BBC News", "As it happened: Masks no longer legally required as England's Plan B ends - BBC News", "Scotland: First Minister's Questions - BBC News", "Northern Ireland records new high for alcohol-related deaths - BBC News", "Car production falls to lowest level for 65 years - BBC News", "Manchester United 1-0 Aston Villa: McTominay the difference for Red Devils against Villa - BBC Sport", "Ovo Energy sorry over advice to cuddle pets to stay warm - BBC News", "HS2: Vast Roman settlement found by archaeologists - BBC News", "Climate change destroying homes across the Arctic - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Up to tennis star to explain PCR grey area, says Serbia PM - BBC News", "Met policeman David Carrick charged with further rapes - BBC News", "PM facing growing anger over Downing Street drinks party - BBC News", "As it happened: Labour questions PM's integrity over drinks party - BBC News", "North West 200: Road race confirmed to return in May after two-year absence - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: MLAs recalled to debate school pressures - BBC News", "HMP Styal: Prisoner who had stillborn baby 'will never forgive jail' - BBC News", "Housebuilders told to remove unsafe cladding on low buildings - BBC News", "Covid: Quebec to impose health tax on unvaccinated Canadians - BBC News", "Boris Johnson faces PMQs showdown as Tory mood darkens - BBC News", "Sort it out or step aside, Tory donor tells Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic's visa controversy 'damaging on all fronts' - ATP - BBC Sport", "Novak Djokovic: Questions raised over tennis star's travel declaration - BBC News", "Downing Street lockdown drinks defy belief, says Welsh minister - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Restrictions are working, insists adviser - BBC News", "Russia downplays threat to Ukraine in talks with US - BBC News", "Covid: Matt Hancock contracts virus for second time - BBC News", "Covid: Ministers 'will look at' easing Wales' rules next week - BBC News", "Why I went from being an actor to a clowndoctor - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic focused on Australian Open after winning court ruling - BBC Sport", "Covid: Half of Europe to be infected with Omicron within weeks - WHO - BBC News", "£150,000 starting salaries as firms fight for staff - BBC News", "'Is this for real?' No escape for No 10 from party claims - BBC News", "Covid PCR tests end for asymptomatic cases in England - BBC News", "Covid: Hospitality businesses face support payment delay - BBC News", "Afro wigs: Aberdare girl's six-year wait to donate hair - BBC News", "NI families 'desperate but cannot access £2m fuel scheme' - BBC News", "Serbian PM comments on Djokovic PCR test - BBC News", "Covid: Shoppers swap party clothes for loungewear - BBC News", "Edinburgh shop worker abducted on street for store robbery - BBC News", "Covid: Welsh word cwtch used in Parliament for first time - BBC News", "Heathrow Airport warns return to normal travel years away - BBC News", "EastEnders starts filming on troubled new £87m Albert Square set - BBC News", "Antarctica: Invasive species 'hitchhiking' on ships - BBC News", "Usk Prison: Ian Miller's suicide prompts call for change - BBC News", "David Sassoli: Flags lowered for EU parliament leader - BBC News", "Scotland's covid passport scheme could be extended - BBC News", "Gritty Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot reveals first (real) trailer - BBC News", "No 10 drinks may have broken lockdown rules, says PM's ex-aide Dominic Cummings - BBC News", "Jeremy Clarkson Diddly Squat Farm restaurant refused permission - BBC News", "Millionaire murderer Robert Durst dies in prison - BBC News", "Mental health: Ex-soldier builds castle to help people - BBC News", "Schools struggle amid Covid as one in 12 teachers off - BBC News", "Sacked belly-dancing teacher sparks Egypt debate over women's rights - BBC News", "I thought Dad's pig heart transplant was delirium - BBC News", "Magawa, the landmine-sniffing hero rat, dies aged eight - BBC News", "Prince Charles commissions Holocaust survivor portraits - BBC News", "Andrew Gosden: Two men arrested for trafficking and kidnap - BBC News", "BBC boss says personal error to blame for Alan Dershowitz interview - BBC News", "Fans to return to Scottish stadiums next week - BBC News", "Covid: Seth Burke, 13, returns home after weeks in hospital - BBC News", "Vicar of Dibley actor Gary Waldhorn dies - BBC News", "Man gets genetically-modified pig heart in world-first transplant - BBC News", "No 10 staff intervened to stop Downing Street events - BBC News", "Durham A1 crash: Lorry driver was browsing dating sites - BBC News", "Kate Josephs: Sheffield Council boss 'must stand down' - BBC News", "Nino Cerruti: Italian fashion great dies aged 91 - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Australia to detain tennis star after visa cancelled - BBC News", "Kuenssberg: What's a PM to do when even kids joke about his future? - BBC News", "'High confidence' Omicron is less severe in UK - BBC News", "Man who had pig heart transplant was guilty of 1988 stabbing - BBC News", "Prince Andrew's lawyers say accuser may have false memories - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Tennis star detained ahead of deportation appeal - BBC News", "Djokovic Covid timeline: Did he break rules after testing positive? - BBC News", "Charities and Covid: Call to follow Sheen's donations lead after losses - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: Rules easing welcomed by sports clubs - BBC News", "Sutton Coldfield Tories vote unanimously against PM - BBC News", "Hostages freed after stand-off at Texas synagogue - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Thousands gather at Ireland and UK vigils - BBC News", "Tottenham v Arsenal: Spurs 'extremely surprised' at north London derby postponement - BBC Sport", "Dual mandates: MPs to be allowed to sit in Stormont - BBC News", "YouTube rich list: MrBeast was the highest-paid star of 2021 - BBC News", "London Underground: Northern Line Bank branch closes for four months - BBC News", "Jailed 'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli ordered to repay $64m - BBC News", "Squalor of Sheffield autistic man's attic 'prison' revealed in picture - BBC News", "Ex-supermarket boss Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover dies at 94 - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Vigils across Ireland for murdered teacher - BBC News", "Jacob Rees-Mogg: Covid inquiry must look at whether rules were too tough - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Court to decide player's Australian Open fate - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic visa saga 'not great for tennis, tournament, Novak' - Andy Murray - BBC Sport", "Novak Djokovic: Is his vaccine saga an unforced error for Australia? - BBC News", "Aston Villa 2-2 Manchester United: Philippe Coutinho scores on debut to rescue point for hosts - BBC Sport", "Babies in England hospitals with Omicron as a precaution - BBC News", "Rust shooting: Alec Baldwin turns phone over to investigators - BBC News", "As it happened: Djokovic leaves on flight from Melbourne - BBC News", "Giant Tonga eruption caught on satellite images - BBC News", "Covid coma pregnancy: Wolverhampton mum 'devastated' to lose son - BBC News", "Get away from shore - US and Japan warn on tsunami - BBC News", "Jovenel Moïse murder: Ex-senator arrested in Jamaica - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: The politics behind Australia's decision - BBC News", "Energy firm E.On apologises for sending socks to customers - BBC News", "Ex-Covid taskforce head Kate Josephs apologises for leaving drinks - BBC News", "Serial killer Peter Tobin admitted to hospital - BBC News", "Plans to protect England's national parks set out - BBC News", "US man who faked death found alive in Glasgow - BBC News", "Downing Street party: Minister who lost babies in pandemic criticises Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Downing Street parties: Will two Tory tribes go to war with the PM? - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: 'Cause for optimism' in case rate data - BBC News", "Andy Murray loses Sydney final to Aslan Karatsev - BBC Sport", "Downing Street apologises to Queen over lockdown parties - BBC News", "Prince Harry in legal fight to pay for UK police protection - BBC News", "Covid: Coastguard set for busy staycation summer in 200th year - BBC News", "Lead or step aside, senior Tory Tobias Ellwood tells Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Kazakhstan: Who sparked deadly violence? - BBC News", "Marmite-owner Unilever makes three bids for GSK consumer goods arm - BBC News", "Dual mandates: Most parties oppose return of MPs sitting in Stormont - BBC News", "Family's shock at boy, 3, found wandering streets in school time - BBC News", "Cardiff's 'Mona Lisa' mural removed for McDonald's ad - BBC News", "Royal Family photos found in 'emotional' collection - BBC News", "German navy chief resigns over Ukraine comments - BBC News", "Auschwitz: Dutch tourist fined over Nazi salute at former death camp - BBC News", "Ukraine: UK withdrawing some embassy staff from Kyiv - BBC News", "Briton killed in attack in Thailand named by police - BBC News", "Dave Ryding wins Britain's first gold in alpine skiing World Cup - BBC Sport", "Stretford stabbing: Five murder arrests after boy, 16, dies - BBC News", "Brexit: UK-Ireland lorry traffic at Holyhead port slumps - BBC News", "HMS Montrose: Royal Navy seizes drugs in Gulf of Oman - BBC News", "Anoosheh Ashoori: Iranian-Briton starts hunger strike in prison - BBC News", "Hossein Vafaei becomes first Iranian to win a snooker ranking title with victory over Mark Williams - BBC Sport", "West Indies v England: Jason Roy, Moeen Ali and Reece Topley star in second T20 - BBC Sport", "MP blackmail claims: Tory William Wragg to meet police - BBC News", "Stowaway found in South Africa plane wheel at Amsterdam airport - BBC News", "Swansea: Woman, 18, dies and another hurt in car crash - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine crisis: Why Brussels fears Europe is 'closest to war' in decades - BBC News", "'Surreal' January wildfire shuts California highway - BBC News", "Brexit: Stena Line 'committed to Wales' despite traffic drop - BBC News", "Ukrainians wait as Russia faces off with the West - BBC News", "Covid: New Zealand PM Ardern cancels wedding amid Omicron wave - BBC News", "Covid: Wales could recruit non-jabbed English NHS staff - BBC News", "Officer hit by motorbike going wrong way on M25 airlifted to hospital - BBC News", "Call to delay compulsory Covid vaccines for NHS staff - BBC News", "Nusrat Ghani: Muslimness a reason for my sacking, says ex-minister - BBC News", "In pictures: The changing face of UK industrial estates - BBC News", "Sedef Kabas: Turkish journalist jailed for reciting proverb - BBC News", "John Lewis says it is wrong to cut sick pay for unjabbed staff - BBC News", "Welsh ports had 30% less traffic due to Brexit - shipping chief - BBC News", "Fans sue Universal Pictures over film without Ana de Armas - BBC News", "Inflation: Four things that are going up in price and why - BBC News", "West Indies v England: Tourists bowled out for 103 to lose first T20 in Barbados - BBC Sport", "Queen flies to Sandringham after Christmas Covid delay - BBC News", "Georgia Shooting: British man Matthew Willson shot through wall - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine tensions: UK warns of plot to install pro-Moscow ally - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Restrictions impact 'worth it', says Sturgeon - BBC News", "Jean-Jacques Savin: French adventurer dies crossing Atlantic Ocean - BBC News", "‘His voice became my constant companion’ – how Dan Johnson kept his dad’s memory alive - BBC News", "Wolves fire: Blaze causes 'significant damage' to Molineux - BBC News", "Cardiff City to pay for Ashton Gate damage caused by fans - BBC News", "Four sexual assaults on girls in south east London could be linked - BBC News", "Map drawn from memory helps reunite kidnapped Chinese man with family - BBC News", "Colorado wildfire: Two people remain missing and presumed dead - BBC News", "Desmond Tutu: Body of South African hero to be aquamated - BBC News", "Coronavirus pandemic: Antarctic outpost hit by Covid-19 outbreak - BBC News", "Covid: UAE bans foreign travel for citizens without booster jab - BBC News", "New Year Honours 2022: Lumley and Redgrave become dames - BBC News", "California's fires threaten to ravage mighty sequoia forests - BBC News", "NHS Tracker: Find out about hospital waiting times in your area this winter - BBC News", "New Years Honours: Welsh Olympics and Paralympics winners recognised - BBC Sport", "Newtown: Food saved from landfill feeds 465 people - BBC News", "French car-burning returns for New Year's Eve - BBC News", "New Year Honours: Whitty, Van-Tam and Blair knighted, Lumley and Redgrave made dames - BBC News", "Covid: More restrictions a last resort, Sajid Javid says - BBC News", "Emma Raducanu withdraws Melbourne Summer Set after Covid-19 isolation - BBC Sport", "Covid-19: Changes to NI testing system due to record PCR demand - BBC News", "County Tyrone road deaths 'cast dark cloud' over community - BBC News", "New Years Honours: Paralympian Aled Sion Davies 'humbled' by OBE - BBC Sport", "Warmest New Year's Eve recorded in Somerset ushers in 2022 - BBC News", "Juno: Norfolk search dog recovering well after rescue - BBC News", "Betty White: Biden leads tributes for Golden Girls actress - BBC News", "South Africa holds state funeral for Archbishop Desmond Tutu - BBC News", "Rowley Regis: Driver arrested after girl, 14, dies in crash - BBC News", "Notable deaths 2021", "Covid: Wales pubs welcome in quiet new year - BBC News", "Kim Jong-un: North Korea to focus on economy in 2022 - BBC News", "Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman: Mother would meet PC jailed for crime scene photos - BBC News", "French ban on plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables begins - BBC News", "Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer 'fine' after hospital drama during panto - BBC News", "Blair becomes 'Sir Tony' and joins top royal order - BBC News", "Covid booster 88% effective against hospital treatment with Omicron - BBC News", "Covid: Next few days crucial for the NHS, says health boss - BBC News", "Fireworks mark subdued UK new year amid Covid spread - BBC News", "US flight cancellations hit new holiday peak amid Covid and bad weather - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: Pub singers 'out of pocket with no compensation' - BBC News", "New Year Honours: Lauren Price to turn professional in 2022 - BBC Sport", "Croydon stabbing: Boy, 15, killed in London park named - BBC News", "Colorado: Residents return following devastating fire - BBC News", "Crystal Palace 2-3 West Ham: Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini on target for Hammers - BBC Sport", "New Year Honours: Chief Medical Officer Gregor Smith knighted - BBC News", "Virginia Giuffre: Prince Andrew accuser seeks evidence he could not sweat - BBC News", "Omicron: Rising numbers of NHS staff off work because of Covid - BBC News", "Colorado Wildfires: Thousands evacuated as buildings burn - BBC News", "New Year's Day is warmest on record in the UK, Met Office says - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Australia loses bid to delay tennis star's visa appeal - BBC News", "Ten die after Brazilian cliff collapses onto leisure boats - BBC News", "Covid: UK records more than 150,000 deaths - BBC News", "Ashley Cole: Police investigate racist abuse towards ex-England defender at Swindon - BBC Sport", "New York fire: At least 19 killed in apartment block blaze - BBC News", "James Webb telescope completes epic deployment sequence - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Having Covid gave tennis star vaccine exemption - lawyers - BBC News", "Pakistan snow: Hundreds rescued from vehicles in deadly blizzard - BBC News", "BBC seeks swift response to bus anti-Semitism story complaints - BBC News", "NHS Tracker: Find out about hospital waiting times in your area this winter - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Government 'not contemplating' reducing isolation - BBC News", "Bronx fire: 'A horrific, painful moment ' says New York City Mayor Eric Adams - BBC News", "The Ashes: England cling on for draw on tense final day in Sydney - BBC Sport", "Six Nations 2022: Welsh Rugby Union considering hosting games in England - BBC Sport", "Is this NHS crisis really worse than ones before? - BBC News", "Covid: Visualising 150,000 UK coronavirus deaths - BBC News", "Cladding: Michael Gove to vow to pursue firms behind safety problems - BBC News", "Alice Byrne: Family plea over Portobello woman missing since New Year's Day - BBC News", "Is the DUP about to hit the emergency stop button on Stormont? - BBC News", "Scala dei Turchi: Sicily's famed cliffs streaked red by vandals - BBC News", "Hanef Bhamjee: Tributes as anti-apartheid campaigner dies - BBC News", "BBC reporter covered by snow flurry while filming - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Is his vaccine saga an unforced error for Australia? - BBC News", "As it happened: Novak Djokovic 'grateful' after winning Australia court battle - BBC News", "Pakistan snow: Deadly weather traps hundreds of drivers - BBC News", "Covid-19: Cutting self-isolation to five days would be helpful, Nadhim Zahawi says - BBC News", "Freya Bevan: Funeral held for cancer 'warrior' aged nine - BBC News", "Mohamud Mohammed Hassan death: Family seek answers a year on - BBC News", "Kazakhstan unrest: Internet returns to Almaty following a five day outage - BBC News", "Covid: Scottish self-isolation period cut to seven days - BBC News", "Covid: Thousands protest in France against proposed new vaccine pass - BBC News", "EastEnders: Danny Dyer to leave BBC soap later this year - BBC News", "Covid: Hospital boss admits they may lose staff over compulsory vaccines - BBC News", "Venues must have anti-terror measures under government plans - BBC News", "Look familiar? How rapid tests changed the pandemic - BBC News", "Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict: Dozens killed in airstrike at camp, say aid staff - BBC News", "Covid: Self-isolation cut from 10 days to seven with negative tests - BBC News", "Morrisons scraps 'use by' date on milk in favour of sniff test - BBC News", "Covid: Drakeford accuses Johnson of failing to protect England - BBC News", "Labour urges energy firm tax hike to help cut household bills - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Australia says tennis star given no visa assurances - BBC News", "Duchess of Cambridge: New photos mark Kate's 40th birthday - BBC News", "Windsor Castle no-fly zone application after security breach - BBC News", "Downing Street party: No 10 can't control what happens next - BBC News", "US Capitol riot committee issues subpoena to Rudy Giuliani - BBC News", "Six Nations: Irish stadium crowd restrictions ended - BBC Sport", "Boris Johnson party row: Mixing work and socialising in No 10 - BBC News", "Unilever says it will not increase £50bn bid for rival - BBC News", "Covid in schools: Inquiry launched to find 100,000 pupils absent in England - BBC News", "Premier League considering changing rules around match postponements - BBC Sport", "Tonga volcano: New images reveal scale of damage after tsunami - BBC News", "Christian Wakeford: Bury residents react to Tory MP's defection to Labour - BBC News", "Hana Horka: Czech singer dies after catching Covid intentionally - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Mourners line the streets for the teacher - BBC News", "Tory MP Christian Wakeford defects to Labour - BBC News", "Ben John: Extremist ordered to read books is jailed - BBC News", "Ingrid Betancourt: Former Farc captive announces presidential bid - BBC News", "Depression rise at Christmas linked to stress over Covid - BBC News", "In the name of God go, David Davis tells Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Double jobbing: Six parties call for end to government plans - BBC News", "Dairylea cheese ad banned for showing girl eating upside down - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy killing: Irish police arrest man - BBC News", "Londonderry: Shop owner receives apology for theft 30 years ago - BBC News", "Scottish council chief says cuts and tax rises inevitable - BBC News", "Boris Johnson to face MPs as leadership threat grows over No 10 parties row - BBC News", "Yorkshire appoint Ottis Gibson as new head coach on three-year deal - BBC Sport", "Jozef Puska, 31, charged with murder of Ashling Murphy - BBC News", "Surging food prices push inflation to 30-year high - BBC News", "US and UK finally sit down on steel tariffs - BBC News", "Sewage regularly dumped illegally in England and Wales rivers - BBC News", "Swansea City youth players steer car off M4 after mum faints - BBC News", "Downing Street party: Is 'pork pie plot' a serious threat to the PM? - BBC News", "Man arrested after Australian child found dead in barrel - BBC News", "Millionaires ask to pay more tax - BBC News", "Sue Gray: The Partygate investigator and civil servant - BBC News", "Covid: WHO warns pandemic not over amid Europe case records - BBC News", "Most-wanted: Appeal for 12 UK suspects thought to be hiding in Spain - BBC News", "Essex lorry deaths: Trafficking gang ringleader jailed in Belgium - BBC News", "Backlash as US billionaire dismisses Uyghur abuse - BBC News", "Mobile firms agree another 5G delay at US airports - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Expert predicts end of face coverings in schools - BBC News", "Downing Street party: How Boris Johnson's future hangs in the balance - BBC News", "Ukraine tension: Blinken says Russia could attack at short notice - BBC News", "Trans man says confusion caused cervical screening delay - BBC News", "PMQs as it happened: Tory MP defects as ex-minister tells Johnson to go - BBC News", "As it happened: President Biden defends his first year record - BBC News", "Double jobbing: Plan to bring back dual mandate withdrawn, PM says - BBC News", "Roeburndale bridge collapse: Partner pays tribute to victim - BBC News", "Covid infections falling across the UK, says ONS - BBC News", "Texas synagogue siege: Teens held in UK released without charge - BBC News", "Bali bombings: Indonesia jails top militant over deadly nightclub attacks - BBC News", "Coercive behaviour: Carwyn Roberts controlled girlfriend - BBC News", "Covid: Face mask rules and Covid passes to end in England - BBC News", "Carlisle man admits modern slavery of victim kept in shed - BBC News", "Afcon 2021: Ghana dumped out by debutants Comoros - BBC Sport", "Ashling Murphy killing: Wales vigil to 'show solidarity' - BBC News", "Andre Leon Talley: Former Vogue creative director dies aged 73 - BBC News", "Hong Kong seizes hamsters from pet store for mass cull - BBC News", "Military veterans commissioner for Wales to be appointed this year - BBC News", "Cancer: Cervical screening in Wales to be every five years - BBC News", "Nobody warned me drinks event was against rules - Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Scotland to lift most remaining Covid restrictions - BBC News", "Gaspard Ulliel: Moon Knight actor dies aged 37 after ski accident - BBC News", "Darlington boy youngest to be convicted of terror offence - BBC News", "Covid: 'It's as cold in the school as it is outside' - BBC News", "Civil servant taped to chair loses £500,000 claim - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: 'Community is needed to overcome such evil' - BBC News", "Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski suspended for one day over bullying - BBC News", "As it happened: Covid rules being eased but this is not the end - Javid - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Further arrest in murder investigation - BBC News", "Brewdog flouted US laws over beer imports - BBC News", "Working-from-home guidance shift 'may not save my shop' - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: 'Only something powerful can come out of this' - BBC News", "Huddersfield's George Hotel: Rugby league museum plans 'axed' - BBC News", "Ernest Shackleton: Antarctic ceremony marks 100 years since explorer's death - BBC News", "Next and Greggs raise prices as costs spiral - BBC News", "Harvey Parker: Police seeking missing student find body in Thames - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Australia cancels top tennis player's visa - BBC News", "Grammy Awards 2022: Omicron postpones music's biggest night - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic will be deported if he hasn't told truth, deputy PM says - BBC News", "Covid-19: Further NI Covid restrictions 'not necessary' - BBC News", "Harvey Parker: Body recovered from Thames is missing student - BBC News", "Cervical cancer: Concern at changes to screening in Wales - BBC News", "UK survey suggests 1.3 million have long Covid - BBC News", "Ben John: Judge encouraged by extremist's progress with classic novels - BBC News", "Jacob Rees-Mogg defends jury system amid criticism of Edward Colston statue verdict - BBC News", "Drivers overcharged by £5m a day for petrol, claims RAC - BBC News", "Covid: Evidence on face masks in schools 'inconclusive' - BBC News", "Ghislaine Maxwell: Lawyers call for retrial over juror comments - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: Drop restrictions to pre-Omicron levels, urges expert - BBC News", "Meghan to receive £1 in damages after privacy case - BBC News", "Peter Bogdanovich: The Last Picture Show director dies aged 82 - BBC News", "Capitol riot: Biden to blame Trump for 'carnage' one year on - BBC News", "Russian submarine hit Royal Navy warship sonar in North Atlantic - BBC News", "Boris Johnson criticised over Downing Street flat refurbishment probe - BBC News", "Ros Atkins On... Novak Djokovic and Australia - BBC News", "Biden accuses Trump of creating a web of lies - BBC News", "Capitol riot: What happened to these rioters? - BBC News", "Vodafone and EE delay EU roaming charges return - BBC News", "All cancer waiting time targets missed in Northern Ireland - BBC News", "As it happened: Lawmakers recall 'terror and tragedy' of Capitol riot - BBC News", "MP Margaret Ferrier to face trial on Covid rule-breach charge - BBC News", "Covid: Deadly Omicron should not be called mild, warns WHO - BBC News", "Scotland in 'worst case scenario' for Omicron cases - BBC News", "Farmers could be paid for post-Brexit 'rewilding' land changes - BBC News", "Kazakhstan unrest: Fresh gunfire as president says order largely restored - BBC News", "Electric car sales soar, but chip shortage hits market - BBC News", "Investors threaten drug maker bonuses over vaccine access - BBC News", "Homer Plessy: Pardon for 'separate but equal' civil rights figure - BBC News", "Extern NI payments suspended over 'irregularities' - BBC News", "Covid: Anti-vaccine campaigns are mumbo jumbo, says PM - BBC News", "Energy bills: £2m fund opens to help families tackle fuel costs - BBC News", "As it happened: Novak Djokovic: Australia keeping him as a prisoner - parents - BBC News", "Human case of bird flu detected in the UK - BBC News", "Thailand balcony fall: Jill Dodds 'overwhelmed' as £30,000 raised - BBC News", "Edward Colston statue: Four cleared of criminal damage - BBC News", "Covid: Pre-departure travel tests have outlived their usefulness - Shapps - BBC News", "Covid-19: Northern Ireland transmission reaching 'extraordinary levels' - BBC News", "Covid: Boris Johnson confirms Plan B rules to continue for three weeks - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Australian Open vaccine exemption ignites backlash - BBC News", "Ex-Scotland footballer Charlie Adam fined for drink-driving - BBC News", "Deborah Turness: ITN boss to be new CEO of BBC News - BBC News", "Alice Clark: Paramedic, 21, killed in Tonbridge ambulance crash - BBC News", "Aidan Mann stabbing: Man in court over Downpatrick murder - BBC News", "Cardiff's 'Mona Lisa': Repainting begins after McDonald's ad scrapped - BBC News", "Auschwitz: Dutch tourist fined over Nazi salute at former death camp - BBC News", "Burkina Faso military says it has seized power - BBC News", "Brewdog chief James Watt accused of inappropriate behaviour - BBC News", "Taliban begin talks with Western officials in Oslo - BBC News", "Ukraine: UK withdrawing some embassy staff from Kyiv - BBC News", "Burkina Faso: Shots heard near presidential palace - BBC News", "Briton killed in attack in Thailand named by police - BBC News", "Heart surgery Wales: Calls for child operations to resume - BBC News", "Ukraine tension: Could conflict escalate to war, and other questions - BBC News", "NI Protocol: EU says 'timely agreement' possible - BBC News", "Bill extending HS2 to Manchester laid in Parliament - BBC News", "Australian Open: Navratilova blasts Peng Shuai T-shirt ban - BBC News", "Stretford stabbing: Five murder arrests after boy, 16, dies - BBC News", "Liverpool bomber lied to stay in UK, documents released to BBC show - BBC News", "Doug Beattie 'deeply ashamed' by past tweets - BBC News", "How anti-social behaviour can devastate lives - BBC News", "Martin McGuinness acted 'with integrity' says former PSNI chief constable - BBC News", "Koshka Duff: Met apology to woman over language in strip search - BBC News", "Hossein Vafaei becomes first Iranian to win a snooker ranking title with victory over Mark Williams - BBC Sport", "West Indies v England: Jason Roy, Moeen Ali and Reece Topley star in second T20 - BBC Sport", "Stowaway found in South Africa plane wheel at Amsterdam airport - BBC News", "Is anti-social behaviour still seen 'as a bit of bother'? - BBC News", "What are whips and are MPs scared of them? - BBC News", "Hundreds of children held by IS in besieged prison in Syria - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine crisis: Why Brussels fears Europe is 'closest to war' in decades - BBC News", "Matthew Willson: US shooting of British scientist 'senseless' - BBC News", "Cleo Smith: Man pleads guilty to kidnapping Australian girl - BBC News", "James Snyder fired from Broadway Harry Potter play over misconduct claim - BBC News", "NI rise must be scrapped to help families - David Davis - BBC News", "Ukraine: Boris Johnson warns Russian invasion would be disastrous - BBC News", "Officer hit by motorbike going wrong way on M25 airlifted to hospital - BBC News", "Nusrat Ghani: Muslimness a reason for my sacking, says ex-minister - BBC News", "Conservative minister resigns in anger over Covid fraud - BBC News", "Tonga volcano: Eruption more powerful than atomic bomb, Nasa says - BBC News", "Ros Atkins On... Ukraine tensions - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Easing of restrictions 'a significant moment' - BBC News", "Burkina Faso 'coup attempt' condemned by Ecowas - BBC News", "John Lewis says it is wrong to cut sick pay for unjabbed staff - BBC News", "Nusrat Ghani: PM orders Cabinet Office to investigate 'Muslimness' claim - BBC News", "Ukraine: US troops on alert as West voices unity - BBC News", "Maida Vale stabbing: Woman stabbed to death and man killed by vehicle - BBC News", "Thierry Mugler: French fashion designer dies aged 73 - BBC News", "Online Safety Bill: Harmful and illegal content could evade new laws, MPs warn - BBC News", "Queen flies to Sandringham after Christmas Covid delay - BBC News", "Emmerdale and Coronation Street rescheduled in ITV shake-up - BBC News", "James Webb telescope parked in observing position - BBC News", "Covid: No tests for fully vaccinated travellers to England from 11 February - BBC News", "George Floyd: Three ex-officers face civil rights trial - BBC News", "Heidelberg shooting: One dead in gun attack on German students - BBC News", "Africa Cup of Nations: At least eight killed in crush at Cameroon stadium - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine tensions: UK warns of plot to install pro-Moscow ally - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Restrictions impact 'worth it', says Sturgeon - BBC News", "Downing Street party: Boris Johnson faces crucial week - BBC News", "Ukraine tension: Minor incursion or invasion? Biden clarifies Russia comments - BBC News", "Julian Assange can ask Supreme Court to consider extradition case - BBC News", "Four sexual assaults on girls in south east London could be linked - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Up to tennis star to explain PCR grey area, says Serbia PM - BBC News", "RSV: Parents should be alert to symptoms of common winter virus - BBC News", "Boris Johnson faces calls to quit after lockdown party apology - BBC News", "Sheffield couple found guilty of imprisoning autistic son - BBC News", "British Gas owner Centrica warns high energy bills to last two years - BBC News", "PM facing growing anger over Downing Street drinks party - BBC News", "As it happened: Prince Andrew's accuser Giuffre 'pleased' she can take him to court - BBC News", "Man damages BBC headquarters statue with hammer - BBC News", "Downing Street party: Johnson apology 'too little, too late' - BBC News", "People devote third of waking time to mobile apps - BBC News", "Covid: Quebec to impose health tax on unvaccinated Canadians - BBC News", "Boris Johnson faces PMQs showdown as Tory mood darkens - BBC News", "Sort it out or step aside, Tory donor tells Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Carabao Cup semi-final second leg: Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Chelsea (0-3 agg) - BBC Sport", "Downing Street party: Tory MPs send angry message to Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Star Hobson murder: Court of Appeal to review Frankie Smith sentence - BBC News", "What next for Boris Johnson after his party apology? - BBC News", "Covid: Matt Hancock contracts virus for second time - BBC News", "About 4.3 million Covid infections estimated in UK - BBC News", "In full: Boris Johnson's apology over lockdown drinks party - BBC News", "Siddharth: Indian actor apologises to Saina Nehwal for sexist tweet - BBC News", "Downing Street party: Has Boris Johnson's apology won over the Conservatives? - BBC News", "NI families 'desperate but cannot access £2m fuel scheme' - BBC News", "Scottish Conservative leader calls for Boris Johnson to quit - BBC News", "Ovo Energy boss blames bad day for ‘ridiculous’ advice - BBC News", "Covid: Welsh word cwtch used in Parliament for first time - BBC News", "England rugby international arrested on suspicion of raping a teenager - BBC Sport", "Alps murders: Man released without charge over 2012 killings - BBC News", "Andrew Gosden: Devices seized from suspects in missing boy case - BBC News", "Pontypool man, 71, in court accused of murdering wife, 74 - BBC News", "Scotland's covid passport scheme could be extended - BBC News", "Lampeter man John Jones dies after being bitten by dogs - BBC News", "Government delays more all-lane smart motorways for five years - BBC News", "Cystic fibrosis: Kaftrio drug 'chance to live a more normal life' - BBC News", "Greek sailing coach in rape trial over MeToo revelations - BBC News", "Downing Street party: Conservative MPs demand answers from Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Armed stand-off forcing Coventry businesses to close doors - BBC News", "Sacked belly-dancing teacher sparks Egypt debate over women's rights - BBC News", "I thought Dad's pig heart transplant was delirium - BBC News", "Boris Johnson: Watch PM apology's over Downing Street party - BBC News", "Prince Charles commissions Holocaust survivor portraits - BBC News", "School starting age: 'Nine in 10' support NI change - BBC News", "Baby found by teenagers in -20C in Siberia doing well - BBC News", "BBC boss says personal error to blame for Alan Dershowitz interview - BBC News", "As it happened: Boris Johnson apologises for lockdown drinks party - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Nightclubs still waiting for funding support - BBC News", "Fans to return to Scottish stadiums next week - BBC News", "Covid: Seth Burke, 13, returns home after weeks in hospital - BBC News", "No 10 staff intervened to stop Downing Street events - BBC News", "Brazil rains: Minas Gerais hit by deadly landslides and floods - BBC News", "Covid-19: Robin Swann asks for assistance from military - BBC News", "Champagne sales drive bumper Christmas at Sainsbury's - BBC News", "Kate Josephs: Sheffield Council boss 'must stand down' - BBC News", "Nino Cerruti: Italian fashion great dies aged 91 - BBC News", "Yorkshire heart attack patient urged to take lift to York hospital - BBC News", "The Ashes: England crushed by Australia in final Test - BBC Sport", "Cost of living: 'I only put heating on when my grandkids visit' - BBC News", "Cladding crisis: Norwegian wealth fund urged to pressure firms and builders - BBC News", "Prince Andrew's lawyers say accuser may have false memories - BBC News", "Starmer accuses PM of breaking law over No 10 parties - BBC News", "Man who had pig heart transplant was guilty of 1988 stabbing - BBC News", "Nadine Dorries: BBC licence fee announcement will be the last - BBC News", "Piel Island: Search for licensee to run 300-year-old pub - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Thousands gather at Ireland and UK vigils - BBC News", "Hostages freed after stand-off at Texas synagogue - BBC News", "Former city minister Lord Myners of Truro dies age 73 - BBC News", "Moment Djokovic learns his Australian Open fate - BBC News", "Thousands without power as US and Canada hit by winter storm - BBC News", "Peter Seabrook: Gardening writer and broadcaster dies aged 86 - BBC News", "Rafael Benitez: Sacked manager did not realise magnitude of Everton task - BBC Sport", "Texas synagogue hostage stand-off not related to Jewish community - FBI - BBC News", "Charity says soaring energy bill almost same as staff bill - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: Is his vaccine saga an unforced error for Australia? - BBC News", "As it happened: Djokovic leaves on flight from Melbourne - BBC News", "Giant Tonga eruption caught on satellite images - BBC News", "Pacific volcano: New Zealand sends flight to assess Tonga damage - BBC News", "Crocodile found under Rhondda school floor on display - BBC News", "Ashes: 'This has to be our rock bottom' - pundits despair at England's capitulation - BBC Sport", "Dual mandates: Most parties oppose return of MPs sitting in Stormont - BBC News", "East Winch salt appeal to treat bitten and injured seal pups - BBC News", "Get away from shore - US and Japan warn on tsunami - BBC News", "Jovenel Moïse murder: Ex-senator arrested in Jamaica - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: The politics behind Australia's decision - BBC News", "Novak Djokovic: What next for 20-time Grand Slam champion after Australia row? - BBC Sport", "Tsunami threat over after huge Pacific volcano eruption - monitor - BBC News", "Covid-19: Booster jab bookings open for ages 16 to 17 in England - BBC News", "Prince Harry in legal fight to pay for UK police protection - BBC News", "Lead or step aside, senior Tory Tobias Ellwood tells Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Man seriously injured in targeted Glasgow shooting - BBC News", "Marmite-owner Unilever makes three bids for GSK consumer goods arm - BBC News", "Masters snooker final 2022: Neil Robertson beats Barry Hawkins - BBC Sport", "Family's shock at boy, 3, found wandering streets in school time - BBC News", "Tearful Adele postpones entire Las Vegas residency - BBC News", "Superdry warns prices to rise as it axes shop discounts - BBC News", "Omicron: Is it too soon to lift the restrictions? - BBC News", "In pictures: Glasgow goes Gotham for Batgirl filming - BBC News", "Christian Wakeford: Ex-Tory MP 'threatened' over Bury high school funding - BBC News", "Covid-19: Minimum self-isolation period to be reduced in NI - BBC News", "Covid in schools: Inquiry launched to find 100,000 pupils absent in England - BBC News", "Boris Johnson: I've seen no evidence of plotters being blackmailed - BBC News", "Tonga volcano: New images reveal scale of damage after tsunami - BBC News", "Christian Wakeford: Bury residents react to Tory MP's defection to Labour - BBC News", "Freda and Ken Walker: Murder arrest after couple in 80s attacked at home - BBC News", "Looks like checkmate for Boris Johnson, says senior Tory Steve Baker - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: Mourners line the streets for the teacher - BBC News", "Former Pope Benedict failed to act over abuse, new report finds - BBC News", "Covid in Wales: More restrictions lifted as case numbers fall - BBC News", "Bone marrow donor found for Rugeley mum with leukaemia - BBC News", "Aquind cross-Channel cable permission refused by government - BBC News", "Lone women drivers are top priority, says AA after tweet backlash - BBC News", "BT to introduce inflation-busting price rises - BBC News", "New transport blueprint unveiled for Scotland - BBC News", "Ben John: Extremist ordered to read books is jailed - BBC News", "Ghislaine Maxwell seeks retrial in sex abuse case - BBC News", "In the name of God go, David Davis tells Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Boris Johnson's future: PM holds on as MPs await Sue Gray's report - BBC News", "Isle of Man cancer survivor's aim to 'share hope' with other patients - BBC News", "Tonga: First foreign aid planes arrive bearing crucial supplies - BBC News", "Millions are dying from drug-resistant infections, global report says - BBC News", "Londonderry: Shop owner receives apology for theft 30 years ago - BBC News", "Tracey Emin requests No 10 take down her neon artwork - BBC News", "Jozef Puska, 31, charged with murder of Ashling Murphy - BBC News", "Dog rescue: Reggie saved after falling down 10ft crevice - BBC News", "Patients benefit from revolutionary cancer treatment - BBC News", "Tommy Robinson pursued by creditors for an estimated £2m - BBC News", "A68: 'Megaberg' dumped huge volume of fresh water - BBC News", "Ukraine tension: Blinken says Russia could attack at short notice - BBC News", "Teenage pilot Zara Rutherford completes solo round-world record - BBC News", "Peloton pushes back at production pause report after shares plunge - BBC News", "Carhartt facing calls for boycott over vaccine mandates - BBC News", "Double jobbing: Plan to bring back dual mandate withdrawn, PM says - BBC News", "Roeburndale bridge collapse: Partner pays tribute to victim - BBC News", "Pastor Mick: Duke and Duchess show support for Burnley charity - BBC News", "Dozens of blocks still have Grenfell-type cladding - BBC News", "Covid: Face mask rules and Covid passes to end in England - BBC News", "Texas synagogue: Brother urged hostage-taker to surrender - BBC News", "As it happened: Millions urged to return to offices as Plan B eased - BBC News", "Criminal prosecution delays hit record 708 days - BBC News", "Carlisle lottery winners nearly denied £2m jackpot by roadworks - BBC News", "Downing Street not in control after day of chaos - BBC News", "US man who faked death re-arrested in Glasgow - BBC News", "Gaspard Ulliel: Moon Knight actor dies aged 37 after ski accident - BBC News", "Public told not to delay cancer check-ups - BBC News", "Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski suspended for one day over bullying - BBC News", "Capitol riot inquiry asks Ivanka Trump to voluntarily testify - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan misused in fake investment endorsement - BBC News", "Australian Open 2022: Emma Raducanu beaten in three sets by Danka Kovinic - BBC Sport", "Ashling Murphy: Further arrest in murder investigation - BBC News", "Brewdog flouted US laws over beer imports - BBC News", "Working-from-home guidance shift 'may not save my shop' - BBC News", "Ashling Murphy: 'Only something powerful can come out of this' - BBC News", "Chelsea 2-2 Liverpool: Mateo Kovacic & Christian Pulisic cancel out Mane & Salah goals in thriller - BBC Sport", "Map drawn from memory helps reunite kidnapped Chinese man with family - BBC News", "Scottish pupils urged to get second jabs before new term - BBC News", "Wales' coal tips: People living nearby 'worry' when it rains - BBC News", "Covid: Doubts that ex-teachers will return by January - BBC News", "South Africa parliament: Man arrested over massive fire - BBC News", "Colorado wildfire: Two people remain missing and presumed dead - BBC News", "Coronavirus pandemic: Antarctic outpost hit by Covid-19 outbreak - BBC News", "Covid: Israel Omicron spike could bring herd immunity but with risks - health boss - BBC News", "NHS Tracker: Find out about hospital waiting times in your area this winter - BBC News", "E-scooter rider, 74, dies in crash with parked cars - BBC News", "French car-burning returns for New Year's Eve - BBC News", "Coronavirus: Nothing in current data to support new curbs in England - ministers - BBC News", "PDC World Darts Championship: Gerwyn Price knocked out - BBC Sport", "BBC Sound of 2022: Colourful rapper Central Cee kicks off the countdown - BBC News", "County Tyrone road deaths 'cast dark cloud' over community - BBC News", "South Africa says Omicron wave may have peaked - BBC News", "Chris Silverwood: England men's head coach tests positive for Covid-19 - BBC Sport", "South Africa holds state funeral for Archbishop Desmond Tutu - BBC News", "Rowley Regis: Driver arrested after girl, 14, dies in crash - BBC News", "Zaian Aimable-Lina: Second murder arrest after boy stabbed to death - BBC News", "Climate change: Living by coal tip leaves family fearing rain - BBC News", "Covid: Pupils to wear masks in class in England's secondary schools to tackle Omicron - BBC News", "Lionel Messi: Paris St-Germain forward isolating after testing positive for Covid-19 - BBC Sport", "Climate change: Coal tips warning system essential, says expert - BBC News", "Lucy Clews: Appeal to trace stab victim's Christmas movements - BBC News", "Gas prices: MPs and peer urge PM to act on energy bills - BBC News", "EU plans to label gas and nuclear energy 'green' prompt row - BBC News", "Dogs trained to sniff out high risk animal imports - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Teaching union calls for delay in schools reopening after Christmas - BBC News", "Covid in Scotland: Three quarters of adults have had booster jabs - BBC News", "Covid: Next few days crucial for the NHS, says health boss - BBC News", "Sudan coup: Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigns after mass protests - BBC News", "Aoife Beary: Berkeley balcony collapse survivor dies, aged 27 - BBC News", "EU flag removed from Arc de Triomphe after right-wing outrage - BBC News", "Wales-Ireland walking route to celebrate Celtic links - BBC News", "US flight cancellations hit new holiday peak amid Covid and bad weather - BBC News", "Thunderstorm alert over for south and east England - BBC News", "Croydon stabbing: Boy, 15, killed in London park named - BBC News", "South Korean crosses DMZ in rare defection to North Korea - BBC News", "Denmark to make domestic flights fossil fuel free by 2030 - BBC News", "Crystal Palace 2-3 West Ham: Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini on target for Hammers - BBC Sport", "New Year Honours: Chief Medical Officer Gregor Smith knighted - BBC News", "North West Ambulance Service defibrillator returned after Twitter appeal - BBC News", "Thunderstorm warning for Cardiff, Newport and Monmouthshire - BBC News", "New Year's Day is warmest on record in the UK, Met Office says - BBC News"], "published_date": ["2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-21", "2022-01-03", "2022-01-03", "2022-01-03", 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message apps leaves everyone at risk, including children.", "President Biden is forced to respond after criticism of his comments about the tension in Ukraine.", "There were a record number of first-time buyers in 2021, figures from lender Halifax suggest.", "Det Insp Neil Corbel covertly recorded women with spy cameras in hotel rooms over several years.", "A Saudi-led coalition denies it struck a detention centre on Friday, killing more than 70 people.", "Illegal dumping of rubbish is on the rise as criminals exploit flaws in the system.", "The cloud of ash and water vapour climbed 55km (35 miles) into the sky, satellite data suggests.", "Lisala Folau says he swam for more than a day, clinging to a log at sea, to survive the tsunami.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 14 and 21 January.", "Its shares fell more than 20% after a report that it planned to temporarily stop production of its machines.", "Rail chiefs are set to get rid of unnecessary on-board announcements to make journeys more peaceful.", "Prince William and Catherine visit a Burnley charity set up during the pandemic to help those in need.", "Local police say Matthew Willson was shot at random while visiting his girlfriend in Brookhaven.", "Britishvolt says the money unlocks huge private investment for a project that will create thousands of jobs.", "Amid growing fears of a Russian invasion, BBC correspondents gauge the public mood in Kyiv and Moscow.", "Collinson, which also runs airport lounges and other travel services, thinks tests are bad for business.", "Our correspondents answer your questions as diplomats scramble to prevent fresh conflict in Europe.", "Anouar Sabbar had sex with his victims and then demanded payment saying he was an escort, court told.", "Ian Black said something in his head told him to stick to his routine on his way home from work.", "The banana-like crop has the potential to feed more than 100 million people, according to research.", "Shelley Parry says she would have died and left a heartbroken family behind without blood donors.", "The RSPCA urges anyone with information about a man filmed kicking a cat to come forward.", "Nicholas Rossi is facing extradition over a charge of rape in Utah in the United States.", "Congressional investigators believe she pressed her father to try to call off the rioters.", "Rescue workers have been pulling bodies from rubble after the site was destroyed in an air strike.", "Police say the number merely acknowledges an allegation - not that a crime has been committed.", "Scotland's Peter Wright overcomes England's Michael Smith 7-5 to win his second PDC World Darts Championship.", "Chelsea come from two goals down to claim a point against Covid-hit Liverpool in a Premier League classic at Stamford Bridge.", "Drop-in appointments will open from Monday for 12 to 15-year-olds as vaccination capacity increases.", "Health officials say the impact of the Omicron variant may become clearer in the coming days.", "The woman slipped and fell walking along the rocks between Rotherslade and Langland.", "West Midlands Police recovered more than 1,000 stolen cars and arrested upwards of 2,000 suspects.", "Retired staff are being asked to go back because more Covid-related absences are expected next term.", "Among those admitted to hospital were eight people aged over 90 who fell from playground equipment.", "Police in Cape Town say a man faces several charges over the fire and will appear in court on Tuesday.", "A local sheriff previously said it had been a miracle no-one was reported missing or dead.", "After recording the John Lewis Christmas song, Lola Young's smouldering songs are aimed at the top.", "Lake District volunteers were called out to help people 680 times in 2021.", "Health boss says Omicron may lead to herd immunity but it would be better achieved via vaccination.", "A temporary timetable is brought in until 28 January, mainly affecting the central belt.", "Health board calls for nurses and health care assistants to work extra shifts to cope with demand.", "Peter Wright and Michael Smith will meet in the final of the PDC World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace in London.", "Police say the man collided with two cars that were parked on the side of the road.", "But a senior doctor urges action to bring case numbers down as hospitals cope with staff absences.", "Three online collections are launched to mark the BBC's celebrations for its 100th birthday.", "Pub groups and retailers warn that sickness and isolation continue to blight their businesses.", "The fatal stabbing in Hillingdon was the 30th killing of a youth in London in 2021.", "\"Sheep farmers will be pleased\" about the move, according to the Ulster Farmers Union.", "A teaching union calls for urgent action from the Stormont Executive amid a surge in Covid-19 cases.", "The pro-democracy news outlet's closure comes after police raided and arrested staff from Stand News.", "The Republic of Ireland opens its coronavirus vaccine portal to its youngest cohort yet.", "Ministers want to keep schools open after \"painful lesson\" of closures, the education secretary says.", "They report the threats as they consider tougher restrictions on unvaccinated people in France.", "A 15-year-old boy is in custody while another boy, also 15, has been bailed until late January.", "BBC newsreader George Alagiah says: \"I don't think I'm going to be able to get rid of this thing.\"", "The move aims to tackle concerns about secondary schools staying open for face-to-face lessons this term.", "The Duke of York's lawyers believe it could free him from liability in a civil case against him.", "The Scottish government says reporting results has been delayed due to the high volume of tests.", "Health bosses in Lincolnshire say there are \"significant pressures\" due to staff absences.", "PM says it would be \"folly\" to think pandemic is over - as hospitals face \"considerable\" pressure.", "Schools in areas of high crime in the West Midlands are taking part in a Home Office-backed scheme.", "Warner Chappell Music say they are \"immensely proud\" to be \"chosen as caretakers\".", "A further 15,849 cases of Covid-19 are reported in Scotland as the Omicron variant spreads.", "The fire first broke out on Sunday and completely destroyed the National Assembly, or lower chamber.", "As cases rise, the Western Trust suspends visiting at its care homes, as well as hospital visits.", "Abdalla Hamdok's resignation comes weeks after he was reinstated by the military following a coup.", "Ariel Henry was targeted by gunmen during an event in Gonaïves on Saturday, his office says.", "The Irishwoman suffered serious injuries in the 2015 collapse that killed six students.", "The French government denies bowing to far-right pressure over the flag at the Arc de Triomphe.", "The move comes as the indebted property developer struggles to raise cash to meet its obligations.", "Manchester United lose for the first time in the Premier League under interim coach Ralf Rangnick as Joao Moutinho scores a late winner for Wolverhampton Wanderers.", "Boris Johnson says the NHS will face real pressure in coming weeks but Omicron is \"plainly milder\".", "It shows Virginia Giuffre agreed not to sue anyone who could be described as a \"potential defendant\".", "The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will appear in court on Tuesday.", "Vandals targeted Eglwys y Grog near the cliffs at Mwnt, breaking windows and damaging furniture.", "Extreme weather and big tides are often the cause of sea life washing up on beaches say experts.", "Plans to block the cards are halted as the two sides continue to try to resolve a dispute over payment fees.", "The tennis star cannot obtain a visa for three years after losing an appeal, but the PM suggests this is flexible.", "Angela Glover's brother says her body was found after she was swept away trying to rescue her dogs.", "Ministers say coping even with low levels could cost the country billions of pounds a year.", "The missile was thrown from a bridge, smashed through a glass sunroof and landed on an empty seat.", "Gracie Spinks, 23, is thought to have been killed by a former colleague who stalked her.", "DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is to run for Stormont, while retaining his Westminster seat.", "Grenfell survivors have asked a huge public fund to have 11 firms \"resolve\" buildings' fire safety defects.", "The Labour leader says Boris Johnson has lied about \"industrial scale partying\" in Downing Street.", "The culture secretary says it is time to discuss new ways to fund and sell \"great British content\".", "The successful applicant will be \"crowned\" monarch of Piel by having alcohol poured over them.", "Four people are freed and an assailant dies as police bring the incident in Colleyville to an end.", "Peers vote against plans to clamp down on noisy protests and in favour of making misogyny a hate crime.", "He led some of the UK's best-known companies and helped shape the response to the 2008 financial crisis.", "Charlie Cytron-Walker was one of four people taken hostage by British citizen Malik Faisal Akram.", "More than half of schools had teachers absent due to Covid-19 during the first full week of term.", "A charity director says the country's coal mining history means it has released a lot of carbon.", "Safety tips for women continue to suggest murderers have an excuse for killing.", "Flights have been cancelled as the dangerous storm brings snow and high winds to much of the country.", "The 31-year-old man was shot in the Baillieston area of Glasgow in the early hours of Saturday.", "Tributes are paid to the author and former BBC Gardeners' World presenter who died on Friday.", "Rafael Benitez says he did not realise the \"magnitude of the task\" at Everton following his sacking on Sunday after less than seven months in charge.", "Friends say on social media that Angela Glover appears to have been swept away in the disaster.", "All four hostages at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, have been freed, the suspect died at the scene.", "The former Scottish Tory leader said she almost did not run for leader over her mental health history.", "One Tory MP calls the plans \"rushed\" and says they will be a distraction for the military.", "Welsh Tories say Labour would \"atone for the damage they have done\" by cutting the isolation period.", "A new investigation identifies a suspect who may have told the Nazis about the Jewish diarist's hideout.", "Rocketing energy costs have hit charities' already tight budgets meaning cuts to vital services.", "Barnaby's owner recognises his distinctive meow while on the phone to her vet.", "Eric Zemmour called unaccompanied migrant children coming to France \"thieves\" and \"murderers\".", "Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker speaks to CBS Mornings about being held hostage at a Texas synagogue.", "Australia's Neil Robertson claims the Masters title for a second time with a comfortable 10-4 win over England's Barry Hawkins at Alexandra Palace.", "A disabled woman calls for a greater understanding of female safety after she \"begged\" a bus driver to let her travel home.", "But No 10 has strongly denied claims by the PM's ex-aide that Boris Johnson ignored concerns.", "Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries outlined the settlement in the House of Commons on Monday.", "Up to 80,000 people could be affected after tsunami waves caused \"significant damage\" to Tonga.", "People can now stop quarantining earlier - as long as they produce negative lateral flow tests.", "The education secretary says the fall in daily Covid cases means England's rules could be eased.", "A limit of 500 people at outdoor events has been removed and full crowds are now allowed at football.", "A footballer was allegedly racially abused at a game which was abandoned after his team left the pitch.", "Briton Malik Faisal Akram died in the standoff with police after taking four hostages.", "Shoppers dived for cover as Raphael Chevelleau ran through Manchester Arndale shopping centre.", "As MPs return to Westminster, the education secretary denies an operation to save the PM is in place.", "The Harry Potter author told police that her Edinburgh address had been revealed in a photo on Twitter.", "A report says the cost fell by 3.1% but the cheapest type of funeral - a direct cremation - rose in price.", "Dr Prit Buttar says he was humbled by the social media response after he comforted a bereaved woman.", "Emma Timmis ran all 1,300 miles (2,100km) in 20 days, 17 hours and 17 minutes.", "Crown Estate Scotland said 17 projects have been chosen in the first leasing round in a decade.", "The defence secretary says he is sending short-range anti-tank missiles amid Russian invasion fears.", "Ashling Murphy's priest reflects on a community's grief ahead of the murdered teacher's funeral.", "Siniva Filise's parents live in Tonga which was hit by tsunami waves following a volcanic eruption.", "There are signs a warning over an alleged Chinese agent infiltrating Parliament will not be the last.", "The Attorney General says the eight-year jail term for Frankie Smith is \"unduly lenient\".", "Hannah Gutierrez-Reed seeks unspecified damages from ammunition supplier Seth Kenney and his company.", "Emily Lewis was fatally injured when a the boat collided with a buoy in the Solent.", "Although police found evidence Christopher Kapessa was pushed, nobody was prosecuted.", "M&S's food business records its best-ever festive sales while Tesco boasted of 'exceptional' demand.", "US-born Hoda Muthana is a citizen and should be allowed to return with her son, the lawsuit argued.", "The PM's departure is far from inevitable - but growing numbers of Conservative MPs want him out.", "Critics say the carriage depicts an image that celebrates the Netherlands' slave-owning past.", "The country's third largest energy provider is making cuts related its acquisition of SSE in 2019.", "Insiders tell the BBC that the lines between working and socialising became blurred.", "The easing of French travel restrictions has led to an immediate increase in holiday bookings, operators say.", "Hospital admissions with the virus in the UK - the key measure - appear to have already plateaued.", "Fighter pilot Matthew Stannard leads a satellite launch mission for Sir Richard Branson.", "With Holyrood back in session for the new year, what are the big issues facing Scottish politics?", "Read Boris Johnsons's statement to MPs over the \"bring your own booze\" event in No 10 in May 2020.", "An eight-year-old boy has been removed and is thought to be unharmed, police say.", "A train pulling 25 wagons of diesel derailed and spilled into the Loughor Estuary in August 2020.", "The National Care Forum says sickness rates due to Omicron are compounding existing staff shortages.", "Novak Djokovic remains in the Australian Open draw as the decision over whether the defending champion can stay in the country drags on.", "Lorna and Craig Hewitt had denied keeping Matthew Langley, 22, confined in a \"disgusting\" room.", "The reaction of Tory MPs to the PM's statement on the Downing Street garden party will be crucial.", "Health minister says councils have also had to redeploy workers because of shortages in social care.", "The trial of Anwar Raslan was the world's first criminal case over state-led torture in Syria.", "Ashling Murphy, 23, was attacked on the banks of a canal in County Offaly on Wednesday afternoon.", "Seven-year-old Samuel Barker had been travelling home from school with his brother when he was hit.", "Virginia Giuffre has accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault - claims he has consistently denied.", "The professor's colourful analogies helped explain coronavirus during Downing Street news briefings.", "A Liverpool disability academic told M&S the word midget has its roots in Victorian freak shows.", "Parkrun cancelled events in Wales after the Welsh government restricted outdoor events to 50 people.", "Mitch McConnell says Mr Biden's likening of Republicans to civil rights-era racists is \"beneath his office\".", "The star is one of three celebrity defendants being sued by investors in the EthereumMax crypto-currency..", "Fresh revelations about staff parties in Downing Street increase pressure on Boris Johnson.", "Almost one in three councils in England say they are having to ration social care because of Omicron.", "It comes as the prince faces a US civil case over claims he sexually assaulted a woman when she was 17.", "Changes to self-isolation rules in England have been set out, and travel firms report surge in ski bookings.", "The BBC Newsnight presenter says details of the 2019 interview are being pored over by both sides.", "Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey is hopeful the money could be in about 280,000 bank accounts next month.", "There has been a campaign to remove the controversial statue which adorns Broadcasting House.", "The rare alert sent to MPs comes after a long-running investigation into Christine Ching Kui Lee.", "Offices in Perth, Edinburgh, Cumbernauld and Dunfermline will close amid UK-wide job cuts.", "The Ministry of Defence is considering a request to send up to 150 personnel to Northern Ireland.", "Boris Johnson is under pressure to go after admitting attending a drinks party during lockdown.", "The force says it will consider investigation if the civil service inquiry points to potential criminal offences.", "Alliance MP Stephen Farry says the prime minister should resign over a lockdown party at Downing Street.", "Muhammad Gohir Khan is accused of agreeing to kill a Pakistani military critic for £100,000.", "Eluned Morgan's comments come as the Welsh government reviews restrictions imposed in December.", "Now Duke Al Durham is supporting calls for a National Poetry Library for Wales.", "Russia is told to decide between de-escalation and diplomacy, or confrontation and consequences.", "The defending champion is in the draw even though authorities are still deciding whether to deport him.", "Antonio Rudiger's header makes sure of Chelsea's place in the EFL Cup final as they beat Tottenham 1-0 on the night to complete a 3-0 aggregate win.", "A judge wants to know if Cinema & Co owner Anna Redfern is contesting her conviction or sentence.", "The supermarket announced on Friday that it will invest £100m in employees' payments and rewards.", "The US-Bahamian star was the first black man to win a best actor Oscar, and also a humanitarian.", "The Serb tennis star faces deportation amid a high-profile Covid-related visa controversy.", "Developers to be told to pay for removal of cladding in lower-height buildings, the BBC understands.", "The NHS faces \"a rocky few weeks\", the health secretary says as staff absences grow and cases rise.", "Rich people are not above the law, Australia's deputy PM says, as the player launches legal appeal.", "However Michelle O'Neill denies Paul Givan comments that a plan to strengthen face covering rules has been completely axed.", "Harvey Parker, 20, was last seen leaving a central London nightclub on 17 December.", "The boss of Jet2 says demand has returned to around the same level seen before the Covid pandemic.", "And advisers say boosters should be offered to some older children due to the risk of Omicron.", "A German court finds a man guilty of murdering a man he met on an online dating site.", "Fully vaccinated people travelling to Wales from abroad will no longer have to take the tests.", "The eventual ruling by the court could have an impact on some 80 million workers.", "Manchester City's Benjamin Mendy is accused of attacking five women over a period of 10 months.", "NHS trusts in England take steps to protect services amid staff shortages due to Covid.", "The New York filmmaker was Oscar-nominated for his coming-of-age drama The Last Picture Show.", "Booster coverage and a \"milder illness\" means restrictions should be eased Wales, says virus expert.", "The predicted rise in cases is largely down to ageing populations with unhealthy lifestyles, experts say.", "A BBC reporter sees the aftermath of protests and deadly violence in Kazakhstan's biggest city Almaty.", "Labour says Boris Johnson has \"serious questions to answer\" over messages about a great exhibition.", "The New York filmmaker was Oscar-nominated for his coming-of-age drama starring Cybill Shepherd.", "The president orders the crackdown on protests, saying \"20,000 bandits\" had attacked the main city.", "Chester FC hosted thousands of fans at two games, despite their ground being in Wales.", "Renewed calls are being made for a new law to \"break the cycle\" of injustice for bereaved families.", "Reactor 4 at Hunterston B in North Ayrshire goes offline for the final time after five decades.", "The incident was captured by a television crew filming a documentary on board HMS Northumberland.", "Security forces in Kazakhstan say they have killed dozens of anti-government rioters in the main city, Almaty.", "The BBC's Abdujalil Abdurasulov reports from Almaty in the aftermath of violent protests.", "Boris Johnson has apologised for not disclosing text messages to the independent standards adviser.", "Tributes have poured in for the veteran politician, deemed \"a champion of working people\" by his peers.", "Mark Drakeford calls the UK government \"politically paralysed\" as Covid rules remain in Wales.", "A major route was shut on the Durham and Cumbria border following overnight snowfalls.", "The US president says Donald Trump has a bruised ego and cannot accept that he lost the election.", "The acquittal of four people is \"causing confusion\" but the referral would not change the verdict.", "The Capitol invaders whose pictures came to define the chaos of that day have all been rounded up.", "Provides an overview of Kazakhstan, including key dates and facts about this central Asian country.", "Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday morning.", "Those caught up in the storming of the Capitol by supporters of former President Trump recall the dramatic day.", "The WHO cautions that just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising and killing people.", "Humza Yousaf says the next two weeks are set to be the most difficult ever faced by the NHS.", "Tensions remain high in the country's main city as the president says order has been largely restored.", "Boris Johnson's ex-adviser says drinks were arranged by a \"senior No 10 official\" in May 2020.", "A Met Office warning for ice expires at midnight but wintry weather is forecast for Saturday.", "Staff absences for Covid reasons have trebled since Omicron took off a month ago, latest figures show.", "Some investment firms want bonuses withheld for bosses of coronavirus vaccine firms if distribution isn't fairer.", "Boris Johnson says it is time for him to call out those spreading false information on Covid jabs.", "The driver is said to have tried to reverse on a narrow mountain road.", "Nathan Saunders wielded a knife at a group of teenagers and told them: \"We cut people's heads off.\"", "The National Beef Association is 'deeply disappointed' that Asda reneged on its 100% British beef promise.", "Sharon Pickles and Clinton Ashmore were both stabbed in central London in August.", "The Ministry of Defence has agreed to help fill staff shortages across the capital this month.", "More than 300 specialist officers will also be drafted in to help local divisions cope with Covid issues.", "This video has been removed for rights reasons", "Dariusz Wolosz, 46, was killed in West Drayton in the early hours of Tuesday morning.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 31 December and 7 January.", "It'll be a rocky few weeks for the NHS as case rates rise in older age groups, the health secretary says.", "The men's tennis star is awaiting a decision on his deportation from Australia over a vaccination row.", "Hospital admissions are rising, says the PM - as figures show one in 15 people had Covid on New Year's Eve.", "The rule change is in line with the rest of the UK, the Welsh health minister says.", "Passengers will still have to take a test on or before day two of their arrival in Northern Ireland.", "Alice Clark was so excited when she qualified and looked forward to every shift, her parents say.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says employers can now look at a \"hybrid\" office return for staff, but older pupils will still have to wear masks in classes.", "The pandemic has already caused several delays in the 74-year-old musician's final world tour.", "Marcus Rashford says he does not condone discrimination \"of any kind\" after being criticised for a photo with controversial rapper Wiley.", "Police are investigating multiple events to see if Covid rules were broken. Here's how we got to this point.", "Middlesex chairman Mike O'Farrell apologises for comments on black and South Asian interest in cricket that were called \"painful\" and \"outdated\" by ex-England player Ebony Rainford-Brent.", "Police are investigating multiple events at Downing Street to see whether breaches of Covid restrictions took place.", "Toxic chemicals used in non-stick saucepans are found in otters across England and Wales.", "A court heard the rapper was subjected to a \"malicious campaign\" by YouTuber Latasha Kebe.", "Principals should ask all pupils in a class where there is an outbreak to take a lateral flow test.", "Former US workers at the brewing giant say James Watt's behaviour made female bartenders feel \"uncomfortable\" and \"powerless\".", "But dozens remain holed up along with hundreds of children after six days of fierce fighting.", "A UK study aims to find out who will benefit most from a pill designed to treat Covid-19.", "Rafael Nadal shows the immense fight which has characterised his career to beat Canada's Denis Shapovalov and reach the Australian Open semi-finals.", "Unilever, which also makes Dove soap and PG Tips, will axe the roles in more than 100 countries.", "The practice is linked to virginity in some cultures and has been described as a form of violence.", "Around 700 management roles will go as the firm struggles to cope with Covid-related absences.", "Earlier Mr Beattie apologised for tweeting a joke about the former DUP leader Edwin Poots and his wife.", "A new US docuseries describes Hugh Hefner as a \"vampire\" who \"sucked the life\" out of young girls.", "The sellers defended their decision to deny the viewing and purchase based on their religious beliefs.", "The IMF says the global economy is entering 2022 in a weaker position than previously expected.", "The government announces Bradford's children's services will be run by an independent trust.", "Wild hippos honk to each other and can recognise their companions' voices, a study has found.", "Police apologise to an academic over the \"sexist, derogatory and unacceptable\" language.", "Kate Wilson met the undercover officer while he was posing as an environmental campaigner in 2003.", "BBC Panorama investigates what can happen when anti-social behaviour escalates.", "Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said his thoughts were with those affected by the \"terrible incident\".", "The two stair gates were placed one above the other, an inquest hears.", "A review finds 16-year-old Louise Smith did not receive enough support after reporting a rape.", "Our ability to understand Britain's history is at risk, warn archaeologists.", "George Linnane feels lucky to be alive, but wants to get back to caving to help others in trouble.", "Jet2 says bookings increased by 30% after it was announced test rules would be relaxed.", "Lord Agnew says the government had made \"schoolboy errors\" when handing Covid loans to business.", "Firms in Scotland can move to a \"hybrid\" system of home and office working next week, Nicola Sturgeon confirms.", "As US troops are placed on high alert, Ros Atkins looks at the causes behind the tension on Ukraine's border.", "The turnaround comes less than 24 hours after organisers banned the shirt for being \"political\".", "Britain is prepared to deploy soldiers to protect allies in Europe should Russia invade, the PM says.", "Western allies agree to sanctions against Russia if it invades, as thousands of troops stand by.", "Tory MP Nusrat Ghani says she was told her faith was given as a reason for her sacking as a minister.", "New slots for Coronation Street and Emmerdale are among the changes announced by the network.", "The lead singer of Blur and Gorillaz made the false claim that Swift does not write her own songs.", "The $10bn successor to Hubble is parked a million miles from Earth after a 30-day journey from Earth.", "Federal prosecutors allege the former officers \"wilfully deprived\" George Floyd of his civil rights.", "Dozens more people are injured in the incident outside a football stadium in Cameroon.", "Boris Johnson faces a decisive 48 hours, with an official inquiry into lockdown events also due.", "The amount of interest paid on government debt was the highest for a December on record.", "The official figures also show a quarter of schools with teachers and leaders' absence rates above 15%.", "Watford appoint former England, Liverpool and Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson as manager.", "It comes as MPs await the findings of an internal inquiry, which could be published as soon as Wednesday.", "Finn Kitson took his own life while self-isolating after a flatmate tested positive, an inquest hears.", "The move was described as \"pretty tasteless\", but the fast food company say it will be reinstated.", "The stand-up comedian appeared in films including Coming to America and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.", "The Bat Out Of Hell singer is remembered by musicians including Cher, Brian May and Bonnie Tyler.", "Kay-Achim Schönbach said the idea that Russia wanted to invade Ukraine was nonsense.", "A hasty trip around the world for talks generated lots of headlines but not much in terms of change.", "The move comes amid warnings that officer numbers could drop by 900 over the next three years.", "A Saudi-led coalition denies it struck a detention centre on Friday, killing more than 70 people.", "Dan Evans is unable to match his best run at the Australian Open as defeat by ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime ends British interest in the singles.", "Erika Thompson says she will not get vaccinated because of heart inflammation conditions.", "Marcus Evans, 49, was killed in western Thailand in the early hours of Saturday, local police said.", "Dave Ryding wins Britain's first alpine skiing World Cup gold medal with victory in the Kitzbuhel slalom.", "The actor-politician was unhurt in the collision, as photos show a large SUV on top of other cars.", "The ex-Olympic champion will encourage more people to cycle and walk as head of Active Travel England.", "Until last week, the remote island nation of Kiribati had recorded just two Covid cases.", "The BBC searches for an Afghan woman removed from her home after protesting against Taliban rule.", "Anoosheh Ashoori from London hopes the strike will bring attention to those being held in Iran.", "The Vauxhall Astra went through a barrier and landed on its roof when it plunged onto the A1 (M).", "William Wragg says he will speak to the Met after alleging MPs wanting to oust the PM had faced threats.", "Reports suggest a deceased pensioner was \"propped up by two men\" who tried to claim his pension.", "A Tory MP's allegations of threats by whips have cast light on the dark arts of party discipline.", "Fears are rising over Russia's plans to shake up the region, writes BBC Europe editor Katya Adler.", "England's second Twenty20 against Australia in the Women's Ashes is abandoned after only 4.1 overs at the Adelaide Oval because of rain.", "Thich Nhat Hanh, who set up meditation centres around the world, died on Saturday in Vietnam.", "Brian Laundrie admitted in a journal to killing Gabby Petito during a cross-country trip, says the FBI.", "They can refer customers to a free online NHS service that runs a programme to get people into shape.", "What Ukrainians think about the conflict threatening their country, as Russia and the West meet.", "A Royal Society report recommends against censoring scientific misinformation online.", "The Royal College of GPs asks for a national conversation on mandating jabs, as protests are held in UK cities.", "Freda Walker died at her home in Derbyshire and her husband Ken is in a critical condition.", "There have never been charges over what many believe to be a racially motivated arson attack.", "The comedy Yesterday has the actress in the trailer, but not the movie itself - to the anger of fans.", "One in 10 staff members are still unvaccinated at one London hospital ahead of new rules, its head says.", "England's batting woes cross formats and continents as they are routed by West Indies in the first T20 international in Barbados.", "Carrie Lam says the priority is to control the rise in cases partly caused by an outbreak in pet hamsters.", "Police are treating Matthew Willson's death as a homicide, following gunfire from a nearby flat.", "The Foreign Office takes the unusual step of naming a former Ukrainian MP as a potential Kremlin candidate.", "A leading consultant says staff are bleeding through their scrubs because they have no access to sanitary products.", "Local police say Matthew Willson was shot at random while visiting his girlfriend in Brookhaven.", "Jean-Jacques Savin, who was 75, had previously made the voyage in a large barrel.", "Dan Johnson's project capturing his father's voice made him consider the importance of preserving memories.", "There were a record number of first-time buyers in 2021, figures from lender Halifax suggest.", "A Connecticut woman alleges her daughter's \"extreme\" addiction to social media led to her death.", "The tech giant is expanding UK staff capacity by 50% and wants to \"reinvigorate\" the work environment.", "The man fell overboard from a migrant boat in what is thought to be the first fatality this year.", "Insiders tell the BBC that the lines between working and socialising became blurred.", "An eight-year-old boy has been removed and is thought to be unharmed, police say.", "The consumer group says people are paying third party firms hundreds of pounds unnecessarily.", "Police picture shows inside the bedroom where a vulnerable 22-year-old was kept for seven months.", "The Commons leader says a future pandemic inquiry should look at whether lockdowns were \"proportionate\".", "Virginia Giuffre has accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault - claims he has consistently denied.", "Across Ireland people have been gathering to remember the murdered teacher.", "Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey is hopeful the money could be in about 280,000 bank accounts next month.", "The BBC Newsnight presenter says details of the 2019 interview are being pored over by both sides.", "The decision to cancel his visa for the second time is largely about saving face in an election year.", "The rare alert sent to MPs comes after a long-running investigation into Christine Ching Kui Lee.", "Nicholas Rossi, using the alias Arthur Knight, was arrested in hospital while being treated for Covid.", "Boris Johnson is under pressure to go after admitting attending a drinks party during lockdown.", "It isn't just the latest Conservative intake who are worried about Boris Johnson's leadership.", "Ron and Joyce Bond, aged 102 and 100, say the key to their long marriage is \"give and take\".", "The Duke of York faces a US civil action over claims he sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre in 2001.", "Critics say the carriage depicts an image that celebrates the Netherlands' slave-owning past.", "Between them, the 10 highest-paid YouTubers raked in $300m last year.", "A further 41 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus, according to latest figures.", "Ashling Murphy's family are said to be \"overwhelmed by the national outpouring of support\".", "Health minister says councils have also had to redeploy workers because of shortages in social care.", "The virus is causing some to develop fevers but not serious illness, experts say.", "Seven-year-old Samuel Barker was hit by a minibus as he returned home from school with his brother.", "Fresh revelations about staff parties in Downing Street increase pressure on Boris Johnson.", "The tennis star will be held but allowed to go to his lawyers' offices for meetings and a court hearing.", "Almost one in three councils in England say they are having to ration social care because of Omicron.", "Two priests who climbed on to a rush-hour train are acquitted, along with a third climate activist.", "Magistrates were due to hear the case concerning the death of motorcyclist Harry Dunn next week.", "Two staff get-togethers took place in April last year, the night before Prince Philip's funeral.", "Police provide an update on the investigation into the killing of a young primary school teacher in County Offaly.", "Muhammad Gohir Khan is accused of agreeing to kill a Pakistani military critic for £100,000.", "The company's current chief executive described John Sainsbury as a \"shopkeeper to his core\".", "Faster than expected growth meant the economy was 0.7% larger than in February 2020, official figures show.", "Australia cancelled the tennis star's visa for a second time on Friday, but he is set to appeal.", "Health advisors say vaccines give them confidence that most people will not become severely ill with Covid.", "No 10 has apologised to the Queen for parties held in Downing Street just before the duke's funeral.", "Folk musicians played and candles were lit at a vigil for Ashling Murphy in Galway on Thursday.", "Ashling Murphy, 23, was attacked on the banks of a canal in County Offaly on Wednesday afternoon.", "Parkrun cancelled events in Wales after the Welsh government restricted outdoor events to 50 people.", "Britain's Andy Murray fights back to beat Reilly Opelka at the Sydney Tennis Classic and reach his first ATP Tour level final since 2019.", "Former Cabinet Office official Kate Josephs confirms the 2020 event was held despite restrictions.", "Here's what we know about what the tennis star did following his positive test.", "It is the second energy supplier in a week to admit to a marketing gaffe as customers face rocketing bills.", "Emily Lewis was fatally injured when a the boat collided with a buoy in the Solent.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 7 and 14 January.", "China says it has no need to \"buy influence\" after MI5 said an agent of the country infiltrated Parliament.", "The Royal Sutton Coldfield Conservative Association has withdrawn its support from Boris Johnson.", "He was arrested in over Ashling Murphy's murder but later released and eliminated as a suspect.", "Zuhir Nassrat was linked to two of the three chemicals used to make the bomb that killed 22 people.", "Hospital patients must isolate for 14 days, which is double the length of time for other people.", "A Democratic senator warns the strategy would worsen the \"disease of division infecting our country\".", "The government should limit public funding for cricket unless there is \"continuous, demonstrable progress\" on eradicating \"deep-seated racism\", a parliamentary report says.", "It comes as the prince faces a US civil case over claims he sexually assaulted a woman when she was 17.", "On the 150th anniversary of his death, we tell the story of Bobby and some other dogs who have inspired statues.", "Pensions minister Guy Opperman says Boris Johnson's behaviour is not acceptable and he needs to change.", "A town's fight to save its theatre is turned into a film with Samantha Morton and Jonathan Pryce.", "Eluned Morgan's comments come as the Welsh government reviews restrictions imposed in December.", "Australia's legal defence collapsed on the evidence of the tennis player's treatment at the airport.", "Professor Jason Leitch says Scotland's Covid rules are reducing the size of the Omicron wave.", "The creature lived more than 90 million years ago and its remains were found poking out of the mud.", "Manchester United book an FA Cup fourth-round meeting with Middlesbrough as Scott McTominay's header knocks out Aston Villa.", "The real estate heir turned fugitive unwittingly confessed to three killings on a TV crime show.", "Ovo Energy, which owns SSE, says it is \"embarrassed\" over advice sent to its customers on how to stay warm.", "Novak Djokovic's vaccine exemption situation before the Australian Open is the latest controversy for one of tennis' greatest but most polarising players.", "Eight men said they were abused by paedophile Barry Bennell while he was a Manchester City scout.", "Police warn motorists they are putting others at risk if they fail to demist their windows properly.", "There were nine children among the fatalities in the fire, which took hold on Sunday in the Bronx.", "Samina was one of thousands trapped in freezing conditions trying to reach the town of Murree.", "Russian officials downplay the threat to neighbouring Ukraine during high-stakes talks in Geneva.", "At least 17 people, including eight children, have died after a fire in the Bronx.", "The men's world number one says he wants to compete in next week's tournament after a court overturned his visa cancellation.", "Analysis shows 2021 was the fifth-warmest with record-breaking temperatures in some regions.", "David Carrick is accused of a total of 29 crimes against eight women between 2009 and 2020.", "Ships travelling to Antarctica could bring invasive species to the ocean’s last pristine ecosystem.", "The club, which straddles the England and Wales border, hosted two games with 2,000-plus crowds.", "See the full list of winners from the 79th annual Golden Globe Awards.", "Most pregnant women admitted to hospital with Covid are unvaccinated, a government campaign says.", "Political pressure had cooled but will the Downing Street garden drinks change that?", "The levelling up secretary misses his slot on the Today programme after half an hour in an elevator.", "Sicily's Scala dei Turchi are visited by thousands of tourists every year.", "The story of the star tennis player being held in Australia sparks ire at every twist and turn.", "The world number one posts a picture of himself on an Australian Open tennis court hours after his visa is reinstated.", "Anthony Kelly quashes the decision to cancel the player's Australian visa on Covid vaccination grounds.", "The retail giant joins a growing list of firms changing their rules as staff absences and costs begin to bite.", "Boris Johnson's ex-adviser says drinks were arranged by a \"senior No 10 official\" in May 2020.", "Chester FC hosted thousands of fans at two games, despite their ground being in Wales.", "A motion calls for action on staffing and better air filtration amid a rise in Covid-19 cases.", "The Full House star was found dead in his hotel room in Orlando, where he was on tour, police say.", "The first phase of the independent inquiry into Sarah Everard's murder will conclude this year.", "Days of violent anti-government protests saw nearly 8,000 people detained, officials say.", "The former Top Gear host hoped to use a converted lambing shed on his Chadlington farm.", "Researchers say immune cells made to defend the body against some colds could help stave off Covid.", "Violent protests have left Kazakhstan stunned and angry, the BBC's Abdujalil Abdurasulov finds.", "Firms making profits through the cladding crisis are warned by the government that we're \"coming for you\".", "But the BBC promises \"plenty of explosive drama\" for his character, landlord Mick Carter, before he goes.", "Boris Johnson is under pressure from all sides to help households with rocketing energy costs.", "One in 10 staff members are still unvaccinated at one London hospital ahead of new rules, its head says.", "The legal duty has been championed by the mother of Martyn Hett, who was killed in the 2017 Manchester attack.", "Puddings, parties and pageantry as well as a four-day bank holiday weekend will mark her 70-year reign.", "Boris Johnson says we have to ensure we \"see off\" the Omicron wave and adds testing remains vital.", "David Bennett, 57, is doing well three days after the experimental surgery, doctors say.", "Gerald Corrigan and his partner were victims of \"a complete sham\", a court hears.", "Virgin Media O2 says it will not reintroduce fees for mobile data use and calls in EU countries.", "The supermarket says a sniff test is a better guide to quality - with 'best before' labels used instead.", "The tennis star is challenging deportation in an Australian court after his visa was cancelled.", "The 24-year-old was bundled into a car in Edinburgh and taken back to his shop after his shift.", "Movie-goers cannot cross the Welsh border to use toilet facilities at the drive-in cinema.", "The duchess thanks people for their birthday wishes and the photographer for the \"special portraits\".", "Leeanne's son Mark died after jumping into a reservoir to cool off on a hot summer day.", "Here's what we know about what the tennis star did following his positive test.", "A look at the Theranos trial and the evidence that led to Elizabeth Holmes being found guilty of fraud.", "Cinema & Co was ordered to close after breaking Covid rules, but showed a film by David Icke's son.", "But Boris Johnson tells a press conference on 4 January 2022 there is a \"good chance\" further restrictions won't be needed.", "More people, living or dead, will be eligible to have historical convictions wiped from their records.", "Scotland's Peter Wright overcomes England's Michael Smith 7-5 to win his second PDC World Darts Championship.", "Japan's Toyota outsold GM, which had held the top spot for nearly a century.", "Novak Djokovic will defend his Australian Open title after receiving a medical exemption from having a Covid-19 vaccination.", "NHS trusts in England take steps to protect services amid staff shortages due to Covid.", "A study finds women with obesity can feel \"deeply stigmatised\" during pregnancy.", "A temporary timetable is brought in until 28 January, mainly affecting the central belt.", "Flu, staff shortages and Covid backlogs are putting the NHS under severe strain, find out what's happening in your area.", "Justice Secretary Dominic Raab says the law will stop women being pestered in public.", "Lake District volunteers were called out to help people 680 times in 2021.", "There are fears of staff shortages and a return to remote learning as pupils head back this week.", "The ex-PM is accused of war crimes, but Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says his honour is deserved.", "The star's fourth album sold more than 500,000 copies, while Ed Sheeran had the top-selling single.", "Spencer Elden, who was pictured as a baby on the album cover, had alleged child pornography.", "Footballer Jordan Davies and his partner set up a fundraising page after their son was \"born sleeping\".", "Northern Ireland's infection rate is 1,619.8 per 100,00 people, according to the latest figures.", "John Swinney warns that Scotland's test system may face \"challenges\" in the coming days.", "The most vulnerable should be prioritised for further doses instead, says Prof Sir Andrew Pollard.", "A teaching union calls for urgent action from the Stormont Executive amid a surge in Covid-19 cases.", "The Silicon Valley ex-CEO faces a lengthy term in prison for defrauding investors.", "Amber Gibson's brother has already been charged with her murder after her body was found in November.", "The council believes driverless vehicles could be commonplace in the town within two years.", "Despite lower hospital admissions than previous waves, record Covid cases are causing disruption.", "NI's chief scientific adviser says in some parts of Northern Ireland one in 10 people has the virus.", "They report the threats as they consider tougher restrictions on unvaccinated people in France.", "Police are investigating an online post mocking Diane and Lord Nigel Dodds' late son, Andrew.", "A Ryanair plane makes an emergency landing after an \"unidentified smoke smell in the cabin\".", "Omicron drives a record-breaking daily tally of new US cases, though deaths remain stable.", "A US court hears arguments about a deal the prince's accuser Virginia Giuffre agreed with Jeffrey Epstein.", "A 28-year-old man has died following an incident in Church Street on Monday morning.", "BBC newsreader George Alagiah says: \"I don't think I'm going to be able to get rid of this thing.\"", "President Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed in 2018, says doctors are evaluating potential surgery.", "The Scottish government says reporting results has been delayed due to the high volume of tests.", "Health bosses in Lincolnshire say there are \"significant pressures\" due to staff absences.", "The SNP MSP had faced a backlash for a tweet she posted about paedophiles last week.", "PM says it would be \"folly\" to think pandemic is over - as hospitals face \"considerable\" pressure.", "As cases rise, the Western Trust suspends visiting at its care homes, as well as hospital visits.", "Warner Chappell Music say they are \"immensely proud\" to be \"chosen as caretakers\".", "The fire first broke out on Sunday and completely destroyed the National Assembly, or lower chamber.", "Europe has reached an agreement over Trump-era taxes but the UK is still facing 25% tariffs.", "The 50,000 cases confirmed in the past seven days represent 10% of NI's total during the pandemic.", "Ariel Henry was targeted by gunmen during an event in Gonaïves on Saturday, his office says.", "\"She just seemed absolutely confident of her own brilliance,\" a Stanford professor remembers of the former student.", "The Labour leader seeks to build on his party's poll lead in a new year speech setting out his vision.", "It shows Virginia Giuffre agreed not to sue anyone who could be described as a \"potential defendant\".", "The Home Office is “reforming” its approach to asylum, following 28,400 people crossing the Channel.", "Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff had hosted a TV science and science-fiction show in the 1980s.", "Witnesses heard the 42-year-old say he wanted to \"kill\" the painting to stop it leaving Port Talbot.", "Liverpool make a formal request to postpone Thursday's Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at Arsenal because of an increase in Covid-19 cases.", "Norfolk's health care system is placed on the highest alert as other health trusts raise the alarm.", "Extreme weather and big tides are often the cause of sea life washing up on beaches say experts.", "Diplomatic ties resume after a 30-year row over jewels stolen by a cleaner and a string of murders.", "The pandemic has already caused several delays in the 74-year-old musician's final world tour.", "Marcus Rashford says he does not condone discrimination \"of any kind\" after being criticised for a photo with controversial rapper Wiley.", "In US court files, the prince, who denies assault claims, also asks for a jury trial in his accuser's lawsuit.", "Sinead Ennis, Jemma Dolan and Emma Sheerin apologise for tweets they posted about 10 years ago.", "Police are investigating multiple events to see if Covid rules were broken. Here's how we got to this point.", "Middlesex chairman Mike O'Farrell apologises for comments on black and South Asian interest in cricket that were called \"painful\" and \"outdated\" by ex-England player Ebony Rainford-Brent.", "People will still need to show proof of Covid status to get into nightclubs and large events.", "The bottle Joanna Buchan dropped in the sea at Peterhead when she was eight has washed up in Norway.", "The latest findings hint at how common reinfections might be and who is more likely to catch Covid again.", "Principals should ask all pupils in a class where there is an outbreak to take a lateral flow test.", "One million masks, described by a government report as counterfeit, were sent for use in the NHS.", "Two suspects are detained in Manchester as part of the investigation into the attack in Texas.", "The government announces Bradford's children's services will be run by an independent trust.", "Boris Johnson rejects Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's calls to quit at a stormy Prime Minister's Questions.", "Kate Wilson met the undercover officer while he was posing as an environmental campaigner in 2003.", "John Lewis, Waitrose and Morrisons will also ask customers to keep wearing masks in their shops when Plan B rules end.", "Rishi Sunak says the government will \"do everything we can\" to recover billions stolen by fraudsters.", "Russia says the response does not address its concerns about Nato, but \"gives hope\" over other issues.", "Yasmin Chkaifi told a friend she feared being murdered by Leon McCaskre, who killed her on Monday.", "Juan Esteban Montoya's younger sister was among dozens lost in the migrant boat tragedy.", "The 31-year-old father-of-two refuses to get the shot, but the hospital says it is following policy.", "England captain Owen Farrell will miss the entire Six Nations with an ankle injury that requires surgery.", "The two stair gates were placed one above the other, an inquest hears.", "It will be a \"hammer blow\" to morale if pay fails to keep up with inflation, the trades union body says.", "The highly anticipated report into Downing Street parties has not yet been delivered to the prime minister.", "The media watchdog's decision comes after the BBC partially upheld complaints about its reporting.", "The food poverty campaigner had complained that official figures failed to reflect price rises for the poorest.", "The White House confirms President Biden would stand by his pledge to nominate a black woman.", "The company behind the driving system would be responsible, rather than the driver says Law Commission.", "Firms in Scotland can move to a \"hybrid\" system of home and office working next week, Nicola Sturgeon confirms.", "Boris Johnson has previously dismissed as \"nonsense\" claims he intervened to help an animal charity.", "Pets at Home says it does not expect people to cut back on pet spending as cost of living rises.", "Ashley John-Baptiste grew up in care, unaware he had siblings. His new documentary is called Split Up in Care: Life Without Siblings.", "Audio of Dr Gary Jenkins begging his attackers to leave him alone is heard by a murder trial jury.", "The \"cold and tired\" walker was rescued in darkness by Coastguard teams from a cliff in Arbroath.", "Boris Johnson faces a decisive 48 hours, with an official inquiry into lockdown events also due.", "Foreign Secretary Liz Truss urges a \"change in culture\" as Boris Johnson faces more questions.", "The Equality and Human Rights Commission says \"more detailed consideration\" of the reforms is needed.", "A woman who won an apology from the Met tells the BBC she felt like she was on trial for eight years.", "Lawyers for Virginia Giuffre call on the royal to submit medical reports to a New York court.", "Watford appoint former England, Liverpool and Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson as manager.", "It comes as MPs await the findings of an internal inquiry, which could be published as soon as Wednesday.", "Mothers like Lisa Rolland, who felt pressured to give up her baby, are being asked to tell their stories.", "Escalating tensions in eastern Europe involving Russia mean further hikes are likely this year.", "It's not just mental health professionals who have to spot self-harm, updated health guidance says.", "The mood among Conservative MPs is critical to deciding the prime minister's fate.", "Tonga's government gives its first statement since a deadly tsunami to hit the island nation.", "Andy Murray marks his return to the Australian Open - where in 2019 he thought he might have to retire - with a tense first-round win.", "The Irish government lifts Covid-19 restrictions in a boost for Ireland ahead of their Six Nations games, as well as for other sports.", "A skier who hit a five-year-old in the French Alps who then died faces a possible charge of manslaughter.", "Insiders tell the BBC that the lines between working and socialising became blurred.", "Four people are freed and an assailant dies as police bring the incident in Colleyville to an end.", "Charlie Cytron-Walker was one of four people taken hostage by British citizen Malik Faisal Akram.", "The government wins a legal challenge over a contract awarded to firm run by friends of PM's ex-adviser.", "Crowds, including schoolchildren holding pictures of Ms Murphy, came out in force to say farewell.", "Fox Goulding died a day after a piece of mango became lodged in his airway at a nursery in Edinburgh.", "The Harry Potter author told police that her Edinburgh address had been revealed in a photo on Twitter.", "The defence secretary says he is sending short-range anti-tank missiles amid Russian invasion fears.", "People are being advised to remain indoors to escape the dangerous ash and gases in the air.", "In a letter to the PM, the six parties say the roles of MP and assembly member are full-time jobs.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says Covid cases are continuing to fall and further restrictions will end on 24 January.", "We share the stories of some of the 12,000 people who have died with coronavirus in Scotland.", "Airlines say the start of 5G mobile phone services on Wednesday will hit aircraft navigation systems.", "The 23-year-old teacher died after being attacked along a County Offaly canal last Wednesday.", "Peers back making hatred of women a factor in sentencing criminals - but MPs will get the final say.", "A former minister says the navy would just be helping Border Force be a \"more efficient taxi service\".", "Barnaby's owner recognises his distinctive meow while on the phone to her vet.", "Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker speaks to CBS Mornings about being held hostage at a Texas synagogue.", "A disabled woman calls for a greater understanding of female safety after she \"begged\" a bus driver to let her travel home.", "A universal basic income pilot in Wales will cover 250 care leavers and run for three years.", "A group of new Tory MPs is said to be considering submitting letters of no confidence in the PM.", "The former senior civil servant is set to take up a job as Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff in September.", "Data shows weekly wage growth fell for the first time since July 2020 but vacancies hit a new record.", "DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is to run for Stormont, while retaining his Westminster seat.", "The UK reported 438 deaths last week - the highest figure since 24 February - but case numbers and hospital admissions fell.", "Chamath Palihapitiya says he and most Americans \"don't care\" about alleged human rights abuse of the Uyghur minority.", "Hospitality bosses and opposition MSPs call for changes ahead of Nicola Sturgeon's weekly Covid update.", "More than half of schools had teachers absent due to Covid-19 during the first full week of term.", "Safety tips for women continue to suggest murderers have an excuse for killing.", "The two-year-old boy was wearing a t-shirt and nappy when he was discovered alone after dark.", "Airlines have pushed for postponement, saying risks from 5G will force them to cancel flights.", "All four hostages at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, have been freed, the suspect died at the scene.", "Eric Zemmour called unaccompanied migrant children coming to France \"thieves\" and \"murderers\".", "Mourners say \"nothing is going to be the same again\" after the killing of Ashling Murphy.", "Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries outlined the settlement in the House of Commons on Monday.", "Phoenix Group says words like \"energetic\" and \"enthusiastic\" may discourage older job applicants.", "Bradford nursery owner Shama Amin will tell competitors the show has been \"physically demanding\".", "But the deputy PM backs Boris Johnson after he is accused of misleading MPs over a No 10 garden party.", "After the tsunami New Zealand promises aid, but ash on Tonga's runway is hindering relief efforts.", "Shoppers dived for cover as Raphael Chevelleau ran through Manchester Arndale shopping centre.", "Greater Manchester Police say the pair, detained in south Manchester, have not been charged.", "Angela Glover's brother says her body was found after she was swept away trying to rescue her dogs.", "He met his girlfriend on Plenty of Fish and also lied about a £300,000 inheritance, court hears.", "Working from home guidance is also ending as England reverts to \"Plan A\", Boris Johnson says.", "Peter Swailes admits a slavery charge after the man had to live in the outbuilding for decades.", "There are signs a warning over an alleged Chinese agent infiltrating Parliament will not be the last.", "Pollution from plastics is a global emergency in need of a robust UN treaty, according to a report.", "Ghana suffer a humiliating group-stage exit at the Nations Cup as the four-time champions are beaten 3-2 by debutants Comoros.", "Dean Verberckmoes disappeared last week, sparking a major search in Belgium and the Netherlands.", "Peers vote against plans to clamp down on noisy protests and in favour of making misogyny a hate crime.", "The new TV licence deal will \"affect our frontline output\", the BBC's director general reveals.", "Patients say they’ve been placed in unsafe environments, often far from home.", "A pet shop outbreak in \"zero Covid\" Hong Kong will result in the euthanasia of 2,000 small mammals.", "Malik Faisal Akram, who took four people hostage, was investigated but deemed no longer a threat.", "Dominic Cummings - who claims PM lied about lockdown parties - is set to speak to Sue Gray's inquiry.", "Nightclubs will reopen and large indoor events can resume from 24 January, Nicola Sturgeon confirms.", "But No 10 has strongly denied claims by the PM's ex-aide that Boris Johnson ignored concerns.", "The Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Justice League director has been accused of bad behaviour on set.", "The slate landscape of north-west Wales became the UK's 33rd World Heritage Site last year.", "Mourners say \"nothing is going to be the same again\" after the killing of Ashling Murphy.", "Britain's Emma Raducanu shows quality and resilience to beat American Sloane Stephens in three sets for a spot in the Australian Open second round.", "Ashling Murphy's priest reflects on a community's grief ahead of the murdered teacher's funeral.", "Another 32 were injured when the cliff fell onto boats in a lake in the south-east of the country.", "The UK is the seventh country to pass this number, after the US, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico and Peru.", "Police are investigating racist abuse that was directed at ex-England defender Ashley Cole at Swindon's FA Cup clash with Manchester City.", "The driver is said to have tried to reverse on a narrow mountain road.", "Novak Djokovic's vaccine exemption situation before the Australian Open is the latest controversy for one of tennis' greatest but most polarising players.", "With the unpacking of its big mirror, the $10bn telescope is on track to begin its historic mission.", "Australia's Usman Khawaja hits another classy century as England are left needing to bat out the final day to save the fourth Ashes Test at the SCG.", "A witness reportedly called police after hearing someone in the trunk of the Texas woman's vehicle.", "Novak Djokovic's lawyers say a positive test on 16 December allows the tennis star entry to Australia.", "The Board of Deputies of British Jews has criticised how an alleged anti-Semitic incident was reported.", "The mother of Ahmaud Arbery delivers an emotional court statement as her son's killers are sentenced.", "Flu, staff shortages and Covid backlogs are putting the NHS under severe strain, find out what's happening in your area.", "The US-Bahamian star was the first black man to win a best actor Oscar, and also a humanitarian.", "Miriam Sebbagh is banned from teaching for life after giving money to people involved in terrorism.", "Winter is always the most difficult time of year. How alarming are the current problems?", "A BBC reporter sees the aftermath of protests and deadly violence in Kazakhstan's biggest city Almaty.", "Health and Science Reporter Laura Foster tries to help us understand the impact Covid-19 has had on the UK.", "The housing secretary will set out measures to force developers to pay for cladding removal.", "Together with her husband, Bergman wrote songs for legends like Barbara Streisand and Fred Astaire.", "Police Scotland said Alice Byrne, 28, was last seen leaving a friend's flat in Portobello a week ago.", "Months after he issued the threat, is Sir Jeffrey Donaldson going pull his ministers out of the executive?", "Developers to be told to pay for removal of cladding in lower-height buildings, the BBC understands.", "Tributes are paid across the West Midlands following the death of the Labour Erdington MP.", "The NHS faces \"a rocky few weeks\", the health secretary says as staff absences grow and cases rise.", "At least 21 people have died during a blizzard in the town of Murree, the interior minister says.", "Mourners lined part of the route of the funeral cortege for Freya Bevan.", "Boris Johnson's ex-adviser says drinks were arranged by a \"senior No 10 official\" in May 2020.", "The protests are against a draft law which would in effect ban the unvaccinated from public areas.", "The men's tennis star is awaiting a decision on his deportation from Australia over a vaccination row.", "Princess Basma bint Saud and her daughter were held without charge for almost three years.", "Six months after opening, the costly Marble Arch Mound will close on Sunday.", "Aid workers in northern Ethiopia say 56 people are killed in a strike on a camp for the displaced.", "The group of fun-loving travellers have been branded \"barbarians\" by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.", "The Conservative Environment Network says removing charges from consumer bills would help cut costs.", "And advisers say boosters should be offered to some older children due to the risk of Omicron.", "Tributes have poured in for the veteran politician, deemed \"a champion of working people\" by his peers.", "Mark Drakeford calls the UK government \"politically paralysed\" as Covid rules remain in Wales.", "A German court finds a man guilty of murdering a man he met on an online dating site.", "Passengers will still have to take a test on or before day two of their arrival in Northern Ireland.", "The duchess thanks people for their birthday wishes and the photographer for the \"special portraits\".", "Secretary of State Antony Blinken says reasons for sending about 2,500 Russian-led troops are unclear.", "Labour's leader misses Prime Minister's Questions, with deputy Angela Rayner filling in for him.", "Flu, staff shortages and Covid backlogs are putting the NHS under severe strain, find out what's happening in your area.", "Student Harvey Parker, 20, was last seen leaving Heaven nightclub in Charing Cross on 17 December.", "The tennis player is in a government detention hotel and a decision on deportation will come on Monday.", "A new date for the music industry celebration in Los Angeles will be announced soon, organisers say.", "Omicron drives a record-breaking daily tally of new US cases, though deaths remain stable.", "Chelsea deservedly beat Tottenham in the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-final, but had so many chances they should have already sealed their place at Wembley.", "A US court hears arguments about a deal the prince's accuser Virginia Giuffre agreed with Jeffrey Epstein.", "Boris Johnson clashes with deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner after Sir Keir Starmer tests positive for Covid.", "Some non-urgent surgery is being halted at 17 Greater Manchester hospitals due to staffing shortages.", "International flights to and from the UK fell to just 400,000 this year, says analytics firm Cirium.", "A juror at the trial said he shared his own experience of sexual abuse to sway other jurors.", "Justice Secretary Dominic Raab says the law will stop women being pestered in public.", "Alice Colombo takes a 13-hour road trip to allow her nine-year-old to be vaccinated in Milan.", "The ex-PM is accused of war crimes, but Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says his honour is deserved.", "The tennis player had been controversially exempted from vaccination rules for the Australian Open.", "Northern Ireland's infection rate is 1,619.8 per 100,00 people, according to the latest figures.", "The Mail on Sunday was found to have invaded her privacy by publishing a letter to her father.", "Police are investigating an online post mocking Diane and Lord Nigel Dodds' late son, Andrew.", "A 28-year-old man has died following an incident in Church Street on Monday morning.", "The first two days of strikes are set to begin on Wednesday and Thursday.", "Another major milestone for the $10bn observatory as its secondary mirror is locked into position.", "The president vows to make life difficult for the unjabbed, but opponents condemn his language.", "The party highlights numerous cancelled contracts and over-budget projects from the past decade.", "It will drop from 10 days to seven, providing people have two negative lateral flow tests.", "Store visits hit their highest level since March 2020 as consumer confidence returned, research suggests.", "Vodafone joins EE in delaying its planned January date for EU roaming charges.", "Japan's Toyota outsold GM, which had held the top spot for nearly a century.", "Five men appear in court charged with murdering the 26-year-old to steal his designer bag.", "Spencer Elden, who was pictured as a baby on the album cover, had alleged child pornography.", "There has been \"consistent failure ever since these targets were set\", according to Cancer Focus NI.", "The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations matches in England because of Covid crowd restrictions in Wales.", "John Swinney warns that Scotland's test system may face \"challenges\" in the coming days.", "The most vulnerable should be prioritised for further doses instead, says Prof Sir Andrew Pollard.", "The number of Covid infections in Scotland has reached record levels in the past week.", "Amber Gibson's brother has already been charged with her murder after her body was found in November.", "It follows a number of tests last year and a vow from Kim Jong-un to bolster the North's defences.", "Police say the teacher is not trained to give vaccines and gave the jab to the boy at her home.", "More than 350,000 people signed a petition raising concerns that cancers could be missed.", "Preet Chandi wanted to inspire other Asian women to \"push boundaries\" and leave their comfort zone.", "The couple had calls from family asking about their trip, which they had taken seven years earlier.", "Witnesses heard the 42-year-old say he wanted to \"kill\" the painting to stop it leaving Port Talbot.", "The 50,000 cases confirmed in the past seven days represent 10% of NI's total during the pandemic.", "Norfolk's health care system is placed on the highest alert as other health trusts raise the alarm.", "Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff had hosted a TV science and science-fiction show in the 1980s.", "Nicola Sturgeon says the isolation period can be cut to seven days, and that current Covid rules will stay in place.", "A man groomed by Barry Bennell while on holiday at Butlin's secures five-figure settlement from ex-owner.", "The changes will come into force on Friday and Sunday, amid wider changes to England's testing rules.", "The monument to the slave trader was toppled in Bristol during a Black Lives Matter protest.", "NI's chief scientific adviser says in some parts of Northern Ireland one in 10 people has the virus.", "The move to cut the isolation period from 10 days brings Scotland into line with the rest of the UK.", "The SNP MSP had faced a backlash for a tweet she posted about paedophiles last week.", "Pandemic pet buying led to an \"explosion\" in irresponsible breeders uninterested in animal welfare.", "Hospital admissions are rising, says the PM - as figures show one in 15 people had Covid on New Year's Eve.", "The rule change is in line with the rest of the UK, the Welsh health minister says.", "It is a \"disgrace\" that Novak Djokovic can enter the country for the Australian Open, locals say.", "Lord Ahmed of Rotherham is convicted of assaulting a young boy and a girl's attempted rape.", "The BBC Newsnight presenter says details of the 2019 interview are being pored over by both sides.", "The Glade of Light feature is a lasting tribute to the 22 people killed in the 2017 atrocity.", "Liverpool make a formal request to postpone Thursday's Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at Arsenal because of an increase in Covid-19 cases.", "Barry Donnelly is accused of stabbing the 28-year-old tattoo artist in Downpatrick on Monday.", "Washington threatens to halt a lucrative gas pipeline between Russia and Western Europe.", "In US court files, the prince, who denies assault claims, also asks for a jury trial in his accuser's lawsuit.", "From Monday, there will be no limit on visits to care homes and self-isolation periods will be cut.", "The legal measures are dropped but some shoppers and commuters will still be asked to wear face coverings.", "Flu, staff shortages and Covid backlogs are putting the NHS under severe strain, find out what's happening in your area.", "One million masks, described by a government report as counterfeit, were sent for use in the NHS.", "Studies confirm cycles quickly return to normal, a leading reproductive expert in the UK says.", "John Lewis, Waitrose and Morrisons will also ask customers to keep wearing masks in their shops when Plan B rules end.", "Russia says the response does not address its concerns about Nato, but \"gives hope\" over other issues.", "Economic activity jumped by 5.7% in 2021, but analysts expect growth to slow this year.", "NHS staff explain why they have chosen not to have a Covid vaccine as the mandatory deadline looms.", "The food poverty campaigner had complained that official figures failed to reflect price rises for the poorest.", "The Equality and Human Rights Commission says \"more detailed consideration\" of the reforms is needed.", "Lawyers for Virginia Giuffre call on the royal to submit medical reports to a New York court.", "Addiction services report highlights an increase in drug-related deaths in NI over the past decade.", "Daisy Hill Hospital managers say it is an \"interim\" measure due to ongoing recruitment challenges.", "The number of students getting a first class degree has risen by about 50% since 2016/17.", "More than 150,000 people use British Sign Language across the UK, with around 87,000 relying on it.", "The fire victims' families call for rugby bosses to ditch insulation firm Kingspan as a sponsor.", "Glasgow City Council had brought the action against First Bus, the former employer of bin lorry driver Harry Clarke.", "The foreign secretary insisted all government decisions - including travel - are \"based on value for money\".", "Dr Gary Jenkins encountered the worst traits of human kind during fatal attack, a court hears.", "England's chief medical officer was accosted by two men in a London park in June 2021.", "The White House confirms President Biden would stand by his pledge to nominate a black woman.", "After another tumultuous week, the PM's supporters remain solid, but there are still assassins lurking.", "Free hot drinks and other perks are on offer as train bosses try to get passenger numbers back on track.", "Boris Johnson has previously dismissed as \"nonsense\" claims he intervened to help an animal charity.", "Robert Packer, who had other Nazi material at his home, admits a minor trespassing charge..", "Ashley John-Baptiste grew up in care, unaware he had siblings. His new documentary is called Split Up in Care: Life Without Siblings.", "The male and female, both in their late teens, were found by officers on Tuesday morning.", "Astronomers say that a rocket in space since 2015 is hurtling towards the Moon where it will explode.", "The Scottish government will give councils an extra £120m in an attempt to avoid big local tax rises.", "But the investment does not commit the government to approving the £20bn power plant in Suffolk.", "Investors want to buy farmland to plant trees to offset their own carbon footprint.", "A woman who won an apology from the Met tells the BBC she felt like she was on trial for eight years.", "But Boris Johnson says he does not know when the findings of Sue Gray's inquiry will come out.", "Earliest known report of rare ball lightning in England discovered by researchers at Durham University.", "Edie Pilkington, 16, says it was a relief to have the condition confirmed by a private consultant.", "Yasmin Chkaifi told a friend she feared being murdered by Leon McCaskre, who killed her on Monday.", "Global warming will alter the areas suitable to grow key crops like coffee, cashews and avocados.", "Audio of Dr Gary Jenkins begging his attackers to leave him alone is heard by a murder trial jury.", "Almost 2,000 businesses have already received a one-off Stormont grant, but hotels were not included.", "Missed chances hurt England as Australia take control of the crucial Ashes Test on day one in Canberra.", "John Cleese, Esther Rantzen and Stephen Fry are among the stars to have paid tribute to the comedian.", "Manfred Goldberg is one of seven survivors to have their portrait put on display in Buckingham Palace.", "A Washington DC federal judge and a California Supreme Court justice are considered top contenders.", "The iPhone giant's revenue jumped to a record over the Christmas quarter, sending shares up.", "Exeter Chiefs are to end their Native American-themed branding this summer after criticism over the use of the imagery.", "Rachel Morgans' daughter Bonnie leaves hospital four months after a complicated delivery.", "Boris Johnson rejects Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's calls to quit at a stormy Prime Minister's Questions.", "As buildings are lit to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, paintings commissioned in tribute are revealed.", "The girl, who cannot be named, was groomed online by a US extremist, the Home Office has decided.", "Boris Johnson says it is \"rhubarb\" animals were prioritised - after emails suggest he intervened.", "Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng says a National Insurance rise to fund the NHS will go ahead.", "The record number of sexual offence reports comes as many other violent crimes fell in lockdown.", "The media watchdog's decision comes after the BBC partially upheld complaints about its reporting.", "Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was speaking in Belfast after a series of meetings to discuss the protocol.", "The man, in his 80s, tells police he has been driving with no licence or insurance since he was 12.", "One year ago, three men died at sea when their fishing boat Nicola Faith sank.", "Train operators and some supermarkets say they will continue to ask people to wear face coverings.", "A critical report on the care sector and maternity services in Moray are raised by opposition leaders at Nicola Sturgeon's weekly Q&A.", "However, unlike England and Scotland, NI did not see a significant rise in such deaths in 2020.", "Carmakers are hit by pandemic-related chip and staff shortages, and the closure of a major plant.", "Manchester United book an FA Cup fourth-round meeting with Middlesbrough as Scott McTominay's header knocks out Aston Villa.", "Ovo Energy, which owns SSE, says it is \"embarrassed\" over advice sent to its customers on how to stay warm.", "The site manager says it has the potential to transform our understanding of the Roman landscape.", "New research shows the huge threat posed by permafrost thaw to millions living in the Arctic.", "Ana Brnabic says it would be a clear breach of rules if the tennis star went out knowing he had Covid.", "David Carrick is accused of a total of 29 crimes against eight women between 2009 and 2020.", "Labour and Tory MPs demand to know whether Boris Johnson attended a get-together held during lockdown.", "Angela Rayner calls on the PM to explain the May 2020 event, which witnesses say he and his wife attended.", "Race organisers confirm that the North West 200 international road races will return to the calendar in May 2022 after a two-year absence.", "A motion calls for action on staffing and better air filtration amid a rise in Covid-19 cases.", "Louise Powell, 31, said she begged for an ambulance before her baby died at HMP Styal in Cheshire.", "Firms making profits through the cladding crisis are warned by the government that we're \"coming for you\".", "The unvaccinated represent 15% of the population, but over half of all hospital admissions.", "In the absence of clarity from Downing Street, is a sense of panic growing in Conservative ranks?", "Telecoms tycoon John Caudwell says revelations about lockdown parties are \"disastrous\" for Boris Johnson.", "The controversy over Novak Djokovic's visa to enter Australia has been \"damaging on all fronts\", says the ATP.", "Australian officials are investigating whether inaccurate information was given, local media say.", "Boris Johnson has failed to give answers to simple questions, Wales' health minister says.", "Professor Jason Leitch says Scotland's Covid rules are reducing the size of the Omicron wave.", "Russian officials downplay the threat to neighbouring Ukraine during high-stakes talks in Geneva.", "The former health secretary says he is self-isolating after the positive test result.", "But Mark Drakeford warns whether he will be ready to relax the rules will be \"a big if\".", "Scots actor Carmen Pieraccini says her most rewarding role is being a clowndoctor for sick children.", "The men's world number one says he wants to compete in next week's tournament after a court overturned his visa cancellation.", "Dr Hans Kluge says a \"west-to-east tidal wave\" of the coronavirus variant is sweeping across the region.", "A shortage of talent is driving up wages worldwide, says professional recruitment firm Robert Walters.", "Political pressure had cooled but will the Downing Street garden drinks change that?", "A positive lateral flow result can now be taken as a first and final confirmation that you have Covid.", "More than 3,200 hospitality firms in Northern Ireland are eligible for the one-off grant.", "Poppy says she was \"over the moon\" when a charity announced it was able to make wigs from her hair.", "Families are in desperate need but cannot access an emergency scheme, MLAs are told.", "Ana Brnabić says it would be a clear rule breach if Novak Djokovic was out after a positive Covid test.", "Comfy clothes were back in fashion after people were advised to work from home.", "The 24-year-old was bundled into a car in Edinburgh and taken back to his shop after his shift.", "The word means hug or cuddle and made its Commons debut in a question to Boris Johnson.", "Britain's busiest airport wants an end to testing for all vaccinated travellers, as passengers hit 50-year low.", "The BBC soap has been criticised for going way over budget and schedule.", "Ships travelling to Antarctica could bring invasive species to the ocean’s last pristine ecosystem.", "Ian Miller was given \"devastating news\" at a probation hearing ahead of his release, a report says.", "The Italian was admitted to hospital last month due to a serious complication with his immune system.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tells parliament that as protective measures are lifted she will consider extending the scheme.", "The sitcom's dramatic remake is inspired by a mock trailer posted by a fan three years ago.", "Boris Johnson's ex-adviser says drinks were arranged by a \"senior No 10 official\" in May 2020.", "The former Top Gear host hoped to use a converted lambing shed on his Chadlington farm.", "The real estate heir turned fugitive unwittingly confessed to three killings on a TV crime show.", "Mike Allen creates a retreat on a Welsh hillside to help others suffering with mental health issues.", "The education secretary says he's making contingency plans as schools struggle with staff absence.", "Aya Yousef was sacked and divorced after she was filmed moving to music at a work social event.", "David Bennett, 57, is the first person in the world to receive a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig.", "Magawa was awarded a gold medal for heroism for clearing landmines in Cambodia.", "Seven survivors of the Holocaust are recorded in paintings to go on show at Buckingham Palace.", "Police investigating the 2007 disappearance of Doncaster teen Andrew Gosden arrest two London men.", "Director general Tim Davie says a lack of \"due diligence\" was to blame when Alan Dershowitz was booked.", "The current limit of 500 people at outdoor events such as football matches and concerts will be lifted on Monday.", "Seth Burke tested positive days after becoming the first wheelchair user sworn into the Welsh Youth Parliament.", "The veteran performer was known for playing Councillor David Horton in Dawn French's TV sitcom.", "David Bennett, 57, is doing well three days after the experimental surgery, doctors say.", "One former insider tells the BBC drinks on 20 May \"lowered the bar\" for later events to take place.", "Ion Onut, 41, is jailed for more than eight years for causing the deaths of three people in July.", "Former government official Kate Josephs is facing calls to stand down from Sheffield Council.", "The celebrated designer and businessman once said: \"I have always dressed the same person, myself.\"", "Australia cancelled the tennis star's visa for a second time on Friday, but he is set to appeal.", "The prime minister is fighting to stay in No 10 - and the next few days could prove decisive.", "Health advisors say vaccines give them confidence that most people will not become severely ill with Covid.", "David Bennett once stabbed a man seven times leaving him paralysed, it has been revealed.", "Court documents say the Duke of York wants to question Virginia Giuffre's psychologist and husband.", "The tennis star will hear on Sunday whether he can stay in the country and compete unvaccinated.", "Here's what we know about what the tennis star did following his positive test.", "Michael Sheen's donated suits raised cash at a time when charities face huge losses due to Covid.", "Up to 500 people are allowed to attend outdoor events from Saturday as Wales' Covid rules ease.", "The Royal Sutton Coldfield Conservative Association has withdrawn its support from Boris Johnson.", "Four people are freed and an assailant dies as police bring the incident in Colleyville to an end.", "People across Ireland and the UK gather in memory of Ashling Murphy who was killed on Wednesday.", "Tottenham Hotspur say they are \"extremely surprised\" at the decision to call off Sunday's Premier League home game against Arsenal.", "The return of the dual mandate will only last until the next Westminster election, due in 2024.", "Between them, the 10 highest-paid YouTubers raked in $300m last year.", "No trains will run on the Bank branch of the Northern line until mid-May.", "Martin Shkreli has also been barred from the US pharmaceutical industry for life.", "Police picture shows inside the bedroom where a vulnerable 22-year-old was kept for seven months.", "The company's current chief executive described John Sainsbury as a \"shopkeeper to his core\".", "Ashling Murphy's family are said to be \"overwhelmed by the national outpouring of support\".", "The Commons leader says a future pandemic inquiry should look at whether lockdowns were \"proportionate\".", "Judges will hear the player's appeal against his visa being revoked on grounds of public interest.", "Andy Murray described Novak Djokovic's visa saga as \"not great for tennis, not great for the Australian Open, not great for Novak\".", "The story of the star tennis player being held in Australia sparks ire at every twist and turn.", "Philippe Coutinho scores on his Aston Villa debut to earn Steven Gerrard's side a point at home to Manchester United.", "The virus is causing some to develop fevers but not serious illness, experts say.", "Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot while filming the movie Rust, starring Mr Baldwin.", "The tennis star earlier lost his bid to remain in Australia for the tennis Open.", "Watch the underwater eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, triggering a tsunami.", "The mum-to-be from Wolverhampton said she was so unwell she did not know her baby was stillborn.", "Both countries advise people on the coast to move away from water after waves cross ocean from South Pacific.", "John Joel Joseph has been arrested in Jamaica in connection with the death of Jovenel Moïse.", "The decision to cancel his visa for the second time is largely about saving face in an election year.", "It is the second energy supplier in a week to admit to a marketing gaffe as customers face rocketing bills.", "Former Cabinet Office official Kate Josephs confirms the 2020 event was held despite restrictions.", "Tobin was transferred from HMP Edinburgh to the city's Royal Infirmary after becoming unwell.", "The government proposals also aim to ensure landscapes play a key role in tackling climate change.", "Nicholas Rossi, using the alias Arthur Knight, was arrested in hospital while being treated for Covid.", "Pensions minister Guy Opperman says Boris Johnson's behaviour is not acceptable and he needs to change.", "It isn't just the latest Conservative intake who are worried about Boris Johnson's leadership.", "A health expert says the slowdown in coronavirus cases gives \"cause for optimism\" but the NHS is not \"out of the woods yet\".", "Andy Murray's bid for his first ATP Tour title since October 2019 ends with defeat by Russian top seed Aslan Karatsev in the Sydney Classic final.", "Two staff get-togethers took place in April last year, the night before Prince Philip's funeral.", "The Duke of Sussex wants to be able to pay for a team of officers when he visits with his family.", "Rescue crews had their busiest year in 2021 but expect more emergency shouts in a landmark year.", "Tobias Ellwood says \"we need leadership\" as MPs are inundated with messages about Downing Street parties.", "Authorities are blaming \"armed extremists\" for the clashes, in which dozens are thought to have been killed.", "GlaxoSmithKline rejected three offers, saying they \"undervalued\" its consumer goods business.", "Sinn Féin, UUP, SDLP and Alliance all come out against move to allow MPs to sit in the NI Assembly.", "An investigation is under way after little Miles was found walking alone after leaving his school.", "The move was described as \"pretty tasteless\", but the fast food company say it will be reinstated.", "Relatives of an amateur photographer stumble on his \"stunning\" archive of images of the royals.", "Kay-Achim Schönbach said the idea that Russia wanted to invade Ukraine was nonsense.", "A 29-year-old woman - who says it was a bad joke - is charged with engaging in Nazi propaganda.", "About half of the staff working in Kyiv will return to the UK amid fears of a Russian invasion.", "Marcus Evans, 49, was killed in western Thailand in the early hours of Saturday, local police said.", "Dave Ryding wins Britain's first alpine skiing World Cup gold medal with victory in the Kitzbuhel slalom.", "The fatal stabbing of a teenager in Stretford is described as a \"callous attack\" by police.", "Lorry traffic between Holyhead and Dublin is down to about one-third of usual capacity.", "A team from HMS Montrose found heroin, methamphetamine, hashish and marijuana", "Anoosheh Ashoori from London hopes the strike will bring attention to those being held in Iran.", "Hossein Vafaei becomes the first Iranian player to win a snooker ranking title, beating Mark Williams in the final of the Snooker Shoot Out.", "England dominate the majority of the second T20 against West Indies but ultimately win by just one run after some astonishing late hitting.", "William Wragg says he will speak to the Met after alleging MPs wanting to oust the PM had faced threats.", "A man is discovered alive in the wheel section of a plane that landed in Amsterdam from South Africa.", "An 18-year-old woman dies and another is taken to hospital following a single-vehicle crash.", "Fears are rising over Russia's plans to shake up the region, writes BBC Europe editor Katya Adler.", "An unseasonal blaze rages in the Monterey County, forcing evacuations and the closure of Highway 1.", "Lorries using routes from Holyhead and Fishguard have fallen by 50% since January.", "What Ukrainians think about the conflict threatening their country, as Russia and the West meet.", "New restrictions are set to be introduced after nine Omicron cases were confirmed in the country.", "Covid vaccines are not compulsory for NHS staff in Wales but are being mandated in England.", "A police officer is airlifted to hospital following the crash, while a 26-year-old man is arrested.", "The Royal College of GPs asks for a national conversation on mandating jabs, as protests are held in UK cities.", "Nusrat Ghani says she was told her faith made colleagues uncomfortable - but the chief whip rejects her claim.", "With Instagrammable cafes, gyms and leisure experiences, some estates are attracting new visitors.", "Sedef Kabas denies using the proverb to insult President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.", "Unlike rivals, the retailer says all staff get full sick pay regardless of vaccination status.", "Stena's UK's boss says Brexit not Covid caused the losses, but his company remains committed.", "The comedy Yesterday has the actress in the trailer, but not the movie itself - to the anger of fans.", "From skincare products to used cars - the items that tell the story of the cost of living crisis.", "England's batting woes cross formats and continents as they are routed by West Indies in the first T20 international in Barbados.", "The 95-year-old is expected to spend a few weeks in Norfolk, after her Christmas visit was postponed.", "Police are treating Matthew Willson's death as a homicide, following gunfire from a nearby flat.", "The Foreign Office takes the unusual step of naming a former Ukrainian MP as a potential Kremlin candidate.", "The First Minister says Covid rules made enough of a difference to justify the financial impact on business and hospitality.", "Jean-Jacques Savin, who was 75, had previously made the voyage in a large barrel.", "Dan Johnson's project capturing his father's voice made him consider the importance of preserving memories.", "The blaze broke out in the early hours in a bar area and spread to parts of a stand.", "The Bluebirds offer to cover the costs after supporters damage toilets at Bristol City's stadium.", "Police release an image of a man officers want to speak to about the assaults on girls aged 13-17.", "Li Jingwei was kidnapped in Yunnan province in 1989 and sold to a family thousands of miles away.", "A local sheriff previously said it had been a miracle no-one was reported missing or dead.", "In line with his eco-friendly beliefs, the water-based process uses a tenth of the energy of cremation.", "Eleven staff members at the station were infected but officials say the situation is not serious.", "Emiratis will need a third dose of a coronavirus vaccine if they want to leave the country.", "Actresses Joanna Lumley and Vanessa Redgrave are among the stars on the New Year Honours list.", "The fierce fires devastating California threaten its ancient forest of giant sequoia trees.", "Flu, staff shortages and Covid backlogs are putting the NHS under severe strain, find out what's happening in your area.", "Sailor Hannah Mills, athlete Aled Sion Davies, boccia player David Smith and boxer Lauren Price are recognised in the Queen's New Year Honours list.", "Items supermarkets can no longer sell are being distributed in the community to help families.", "Car burning has become an annual event in French suburbs since riots hit several cities in 2005.", "Athletes, actresses, campaigners, Tony Blair, a Spice Girl, and an 11-year-old boy are also honoured.", "The health secretary believes the country must look to \"live alongside\" coronavirus in 2022.", "US Open champion Emma Raducanu withdraws from this week's Melbourne Summer Set, a warm-up event for the Australian Open.", "Fully-vaccinated close contacts are advised to take daily lateral flow tests following virus exposure.", "Funerals are held for two of the three young men who died in a crash in County Tyrone.", "Triple Paralympic champion Aled Sion Davies is awarded an OBE in the Queen's New Years Honours list for his services to athletics.", "Temperatures reached 15.8C in Somerset earlier and are expected to continue to rise across England.", "After going missing in the wild for six days, Juno is at home and \"starting to get fan mail\".", "The long-time Hollywood star died on Friday at the age of 99 after an eight-decade film and TV career.", "President Cyril Ramaphosa said the Nobel Peace Prize winner was \"the spiritual father of our new nation\".", "The man is in custody on suspicion of causing death by driving while under the influence of drugs.", "The man who served stoically behind the British crown, a trailblazing female singer from Motown’s biggest group, and the heartbeat of the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band - take a look at some of the well-known faces no longer with us.", "Cardiff was quiet and pubs elsewhere in Wales closed early doors, bar workers say.", "Kim Jong-un says the faltering economy will be the national priority as he marks 10 years in power.", "Two men took photos of the bodies of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman instead of guarding the scene.", "Officials hope the law will prevent a billion items of single use plastics every year.", "Heavily pregnant Dani Harmer says she's fine after leaving Cinderella mid-performance.", "Tony Blair, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Baroness Amos are appointed to the Order of the Garter.", "UK health officials said the latest data reinforces the importance of getting a third dose.", "Covid admissions are rising but what could happen next is unclear, the head of NHS Providers says.", "Public events to see in 2022 were scrapped in London and Edinburgh amid the spread of Omicron.", "More than 2,500 flights have been cancelled, with airlines facing crew shortages and bad weather.", "New Covid restrictions brought in on 26 December have seen many festive gigs cancelled.", "Olympic boxing champion Lauren Price announces she will turn professional in 2022 after being appointed an MBE in the Queens New Years Honours list.", "A murder inquiry is ongoing after teenage killings in the capital hit a record high in 2021.", "Tens of thousands of people in Boulder County were forced to flee their homes on Thursday.", "West Ham United begin the new year by winning a thrilling Premier League game at Crystal Palace.", "Dr Gregor Smith and Olympic swimmer Duncan Scott are among Scots recognised by the Queen.", "Lawyers for Virginia Giuffre call on the royal to submit medical reports to a New York court.", "NHS Covid absentees in England are up 54% and having a \"real-time impact on service\", health leaders say.", "Around 30,000 people have been evacuated as wildfires sweep across the US state of Colorado.", "The Met Office said it hit 16.3C in London - breaking a record set more than 100 years ago.", "A judge overseeing the tennis star's deportation case rejects a request to postpone hearing for two days.", "Another 32 were injured when the cliff fell onto boats in a lake in the south-east of the country.", "The UK is the seventh country to pass this number, after the US, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico and Peru.", "Police are investigating racist abuse that was directed at ex-England defender Ashley Cole at Swindon's FA Cup clash with Manchester City.", "There were nine children among the fatalities in the fire, which took hold on Sunday in the Bronx.", "With the unpacking of its big mirror, the $10bn telescope is on track to begin its historic mission.", "Novak Djokovic's lawyers say a positive test on 16 December allows the tennis star entry to Australia.", "Samina was one of thousands trapped in freezing conditions trying to reach the town of Murree.", "The Board of Deputies of British Jews has criticised how an alleged anti-Semitic incident was reported.", "Flu, staff shortages and Covid backlogs are putting the NHS under severe strain, find out what's happening in your area.", "It came after a UK government minister backed dropping England's quarantine time from seven days to five.", "At least 17 people, including eight children, have died after a fire in the Bronx.", "England cling on for a tense draw on the final day of the fourth Test in Sydney to end Australia's hopes of an Ashes clean sweep.", "The Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations matches in England because of Covid crowd restrictions in Wales.", "Winter is always the most difficult time of year. How alarming are the current problems?", "Health and Science Reporter Laura Foster tries to help us understand the impact Covid-19 has had on the UK.", "The housing secretary will set out measures to force developers to pay for cladding removal.", "Police Scotland said Alice Byrne, 28, was last seen leaving a friend's flat in Portobello a week ago.", "Months after he issued the threat, is Sir Jeffrey Donaldson going pull his ministers out of the executive?", "Sicily's Scala dei Turchi are visited by thousands of tourists every year.", "Hanef Bhamjee was awarded an OBE for his fight against apartheid.", "Laura Trevelyan's piece to camera in Washington DC is interrupted by a sudden white-out.", "The story of the star tennis player being held in Australia sparks ire at every twist and turn.", "The world number one posts a picture of himself on an Australian Open tennis court hours after his visa is reinstated.", "At least 21 people have died during a blizzard in the town of Murree, the interior minister says.", "The cabinet minister says reducing the quarantine period from a week would ease staff pressures.", "Mourners lined part of the route of the funeral cortege for Freya Bevan.", "Mohamud Mohammed Hassan, 24, died hours after being released from police custody without charge.", "Days of violent anti-government protests saw nearly 8,000 people detained, officials say.", "The move to cut the isolation period from 10 days brings Scotland into line with the rest of the UK.", "The protests are against a draft law which would in effect ban the unvaccinated from public areas.", "But the BBC promises \"plenty of explosive drama\" for his character, landlord Mick Carter, before he goes.", "One in 10 staff members are still unvaccinated at one London hospital ahead of new rules, its head says.", "The legal duty has been championed by the mother of Martyn Hett, who was killed in the 2017 Manchester attack.", "Lateral flow tests are now part of UK life, with billions spent on test kits. Has it been worth it?", "Aid workers in northern Ethiopia say 56 people are killed in a strike on a camp for the displaced.", "The new rules in England mean some people could end their self-isolation in time for Christmas.", "The supermarket says a sniff test is a better guide to quality - with 'best before' labels used instead.", "Mark Drakeford calls the UK government \"politically paralysed\" as Covid rules remain in Wales.", "The party says a windfall tax could soften the the impact of surging household costs by £200 a year.", "The tennis star is challenging deportation in an Australian court after his visa was cancelled.", "The duchess thanks people for their birthday wishes and the photographer for the \"special portraits\".", "Police apply for a restricted airspace order over Windsor Castle after Christmas Day security breach.", "The mood among Conservative MPs is critical to deciding the prime minister's fate.", "The former Trump lawyer is among four aides slapped with subpoenas by the congressional inquiry.", "The Irish government lifts Covid-19 restrictions in a boost for Ireland ahead of their Six Nations games, as well as for other sports.", "Insiders tell the BBC that the lines between working and socialising became blurred.", "Consumer goods giant Unilever says it will not sweeten its bid for the healthcare arm of GlaxoSmithKline.", "England's children's commissioner says she will \"go out and find\" absent children.", "The Premier League is looking into changing its guidance around match postponements after criticism over the number of games being called off.", "Trees are torn down and buildings ripped apart following Saturday's tsunami triggered by a volcano.", "Bury residents react after one of their MPs Christian Wakeford defects from the Tories to Labour.", "Hana Horka's son tells the BBC his mother was unvaccinated but wanted to acquire immunity.", "Crowds, including schoolchildren holding pictures of Ms Murphy, came out in force to say farewell.", "The Bury South MP has called on Boris Johnson to quit as prime minister over Downing Street parties.", "Ben John, who was told to read Austen and Shakespeare, has his original suspended sentence quashed.", "Ex-Senator Ingrid Betancourt spent six years as a Farc captive after being kidnapped in 2002.", "Despite no lockdowns, a large survey found anxieties over being infected and long Covid were high.", "The former cabinet minister joins calls for Boris Johnson to stand down, as a Tory MP defects to Labour.", "In a letter to the PM, the six parties say the roles of MP and assembly member are full-time jobs.", "Fourteen people complained about the advert, including one viewer who said a toddler had copied it.", "The 23-year-old teacher died after being attacked along a County Offaly canal last Wednesday.", "Jim Barr receives an anonymous apology for a theft from his shop 30 years ago.", "Cosla chief Alison Evison says councils face having to cut services and hike taxes to balance the books.", "The No 10 party row continues amid reports that more MPs have submitted letters of no confidence in the PM.", "Yorkshire appoint former West Indies all-rounder Ottis Gibson as their new head coach on a three-year deal.", "A man appears at a special court in the Republic of Ireland charged with the murder of Ashling Murphy.", "The UK's cost of living surged by 5.4% in the 12 months to December, hitting its highest level since 1992.", "The US and UK have opened formal discussions on border taxes on UK steel and aluminium.", "Analysis suggests seven water companies illegally dumped sewage thousands of times between 2017 and 2021.", "Hari says he steered the car about a mile down the hard shoulder after his mum fell ill.", "A group of new Tory MPs is said to be considering submitting letters of no confidence in the PM.", "A man has been charged with murder after a five-day search for a girl near Sydney, police say.", "A group of more than 100 of the richest people say current tax systems are \"not fair\".", "The former senior civil servant is set to take up a job as Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff in September.", "France reports nearly half a million new daily cases, with records also broken in Italy and Denmark.", "Men wanted for murder, drug trafficking and supplying guns are among those being sought.", "Vo Van Hong is given 15 years in prison for running a gang that trafficked some of the victims.", "Chamath Palihapitiya says he and most Americans \"don't care\" about alleged human rights abuse of the Uyghur minority.", "Airlines have pushed for postponement, saying risks from 5G will force them to cancel flights.", "Dr Christine Tait-Burkard believes the restrictions in Scotland's secondary schools could end next month.", "Many Tory MPs will be listening closely to the prime minister's answers as he faces Prime Minster's Questions.", "Moscow denies any plan to attack Ukraine and says US support for the country is a threat to Russia.", "Jamie waited three months for an appointment after an abnormal result - it should be two weeks.", "But the prime minister makes clear he will not resign during fiery exchanges over No 10 parties at PMQs.", "The US president also discussed Russia and Covid at a rare White House press conference.", "Peers were expected to debate the plan which had been criticised by most of Stormont's parties.", "Brian Harwood, 73, was among 11 people travelling in a vehicle and trailer that fell into a river.", "It's the most significant drop since the Omicron wave hit the country in December, the figures suggest.", "Greater Manchester Police say the pair, detained in south Manchester, have not been charged.", "An Indonesian court sentences a leader of the Islamist group that carried out the attacks to 15 years.", "He met his girlfriend on Plenty of Fish and also lied about a £300,000 inheritance, court hears.", "Working from home guidance is also ending as England reverts to \"Plan A\", Boris Johnson says.", "Peter Swailes admits a slavery charge after the man had to live in the outbuilding for decades.", "Ghana suffer a humiliating group-stage exit at the Nations Cup as the four-time champions are beaten 3-2 by debutants Comoros.", "The organiser of the vigil says women have a daily fear \"that men don't have to live with\".", "Andre Leon Talley was credited with getting more black models into the fashion industry.", "A pet shop outbreak in \"zero Covid\" Hong Kong will result in the euthanasia of 2,000 small mammals.", "Ex-servicemen have called for a 'single voice' to represent the 140,000 veterans in Wales.", "Women will be screened every five years instead of three due to more effective testing for HPV.", "Dominic Cummings - who claims PM lied about lockdown parties - is set to speak to Sue Gray's inquiry.", "Nightclubs will reopen and large indoor events can resume from 24 January, Nicola Sturgeon confirms.", "Gaspard Ulliel, who features in the upcoming Marvel TV series, died after an accident on the Alps.", "The schoolboy, who was arrested in July when he was 13, will be sentenced in April.", "How one school has adapted to the pandemic 100 years after the Spanish Flu saw similar measures.", "The former Marine Scotland fisheries officer alleged the incident had taken place in retaliation for whistleblowing.", "Mourners say \"nothing is going to be the same again\" after the killing of Ashling Murphy.", "Daniel Kawczynski, Shrewsbury's Conservative MP, is sanctioned for undermining his own apology.", "The health secretary says the scrapping of Plan B in England is a milestone but we now need to learn to live with Covid.", "Irish police are questioning a man about withholding information about the killing.", "The Scottish beer giant shipped hundreds of kegs of beer to America which had not been legally approved.", "End of work-from-home guidance a boost for hospitality, while nightclubs welcome scrapping of Covid passes.", "Ashling Murphy's priest reflects on a community's grief ahead of the murdered teacher's funeral.", "Plans for a national rugby league museum at Huddersfield's George Hotel are dropped over cost.", "Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton died on 5 January on his final mission 100 years ago.", "Both the fashion retailer and bakery chain say they are facing higher wage and manufacturing costs.", "Student Harvey Parker, 20, was last seen leaving Heaven nightclub in Charing Cross on 17 December.", "The tennis player is in a government detention hotel and a decision on deportation will come on Monday.", "A new date for the music industry celebration in Los Angeles will be announced soon, organisers say.", "Rich people are not above the law, Australia's deputy PM says, as the player launches legal appeal.", "However Michelle O'Neill denies Paul Givan comments that a plan to strengthen face covering rules has been completely axed.", "Harvey Parker, 20, was last seen leaving a central London nightclub on 17 December.", "More than 500,000 sign a petition calling for a rethink over changes to frequency of cervical smears.", "Fatigue, loss of smell and shortness of breath are the most frequently reported symptoms.", "Ben John was ordered by a judge to read classic novels after being found with a bomb-making manual.", "Some Conservative MPs have questioned a decision to clear people of damaging the statue of a slave trader.", "The RAC accuses petrol retailers of ripping off motorists by not passing on wholesale price cuts.", "Government admits uncertainty over whether face coverings will truly cut Covid spread.", "A juror at the trial said he shared his own experience of sexual abuse to sway other jurors.", "Booster coverage and a \"milder illness\" means restrictions should be eased Wales, says virus expert.", "The Mail on Sunday was found to have invaded her privacy by publishing a letter to her father.", "The New York filmmaker was Oscar-nominated for his coming-of-age drama starring Cybill Shepherd.", "On the attack's anniversary, Mr Biden will say his predecessor holds \"singular responsibility\".", "The incident was captured by a television crew filming a documentary on board HMS Northumberland.", "Boris Johnson has apologised for not disclosing text messages to the independent standards adviser.", "As Australia cancels the tennis star's visa on his arrival in Melbourne, Ros Atkins looks at how we got here.", "The US president says Donald Trump has a bruised ego and cannot accept that he lost the election.", "The Capitol invaders whose pictures came to define the chaos of that day have all been rounded up.", "Vodafone joins EE in delaying its planned January date for EU roaming charges.", "There has been \"consistent failure ever since these targets were set\", according to Cancer Focus NI.", "Those caught up in the storming of the Capitol by supporters of former President Trump recall the dramatic day.", "She denies travelling between Glasgow and London knowing she had symptoms of coronavirus.", "The WHO cautions that just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising and killing people.", "Humza Yousaf says the next two weeks are set to be the most difficult ever faced by the NHS.", "\"Radical plans\" could see large areas of land in England turned into nature reserves.", "Tensions remain high in the country's main city as the president says order has been largely restored.", "Electric cars sales surged last year, but the SMMT warns that charging infrastructure needs investment.", "Some investment firms want bonuses withheld for bosses of coronavirus vaccine firms if distribution isn't fairer.", "Homer Plessy's arrest 130 years ago led to one of the most criticised Supreme Court decisions in US history.", "The Department of Economy is said to be investigating the charity, the Nolan Show can reveal.", "Boris Johnson says it is time for him to call out those spreading false information on Covid jabs.", "A £2m fund \"in the face of this crisis, is really nothing\", the Fuel Poverty Coalition says.", "The tennis star's mother says his detention after being refused entry to the country is unfair.", "Experts say there is no evidence of onward spread and the risk to the public is very low.", "Jill Dodds was seriously injured when a balcony gave way and she fell 20ft (6m) into a skip.", "The monument to the slave trader was toppled in Bristol during a Black Lives Matter protest.", "Rules for those travelling to England are changing as Omicron is now worldwide, the transport secretary says.", "NI's chief scientific adviser says in some parts of Northern Ireland one in 10 people has the virus.", "Hospital admissions are rising, says the PM - as figures show one in 15 people had Covid on New Year's Eve.", "It is a \"disgrace\" that Novak Djokovic can enter the country for the Australian Open, locals say.", "Dundee captain Charlie Adam was twice the legal limit when he was caught in his damaged car.", "She will replace Fran Unsworth, who announced she was leaving the corporation last year.", "Alice Clark was so excited when she qualified and looked forward to every shift, her parents say.", "Barry Donnelly is accused of stabbing the 28-year-old tattoo artist in Downpatrick on Monday.", "The original artwork, celebrating diversity, was painted over for a McDonald's advert.", "A 29-year-old woman - who says it was a bad joke - is charged with engaging in Nazi propaganda.", "President Kaboré has been overthrown and the government and parliament dissolved, the army says.", "Former US workers at the brewing giant say James Watt's behaviour made female bartenders feel \"uncomfortable\" and \"powerless\".", "The talks, set to last three days, will cover human rights and the humanitarian crisis in the country.", "About half of the staff working in Kyiv will return to the UK amid fears of a Russian invasion.", "The government denies reports of a coup attempt or that the president has been detained.", "Marcus Evans, 49, was killed in western Thailand in the early hours of Saturday, local police said.", "Children have had to travel across the border for heart surgery since 1998.", "Two of the BBC's journalists in the region, Paul Adams and Steve Rosenberg, shed light on the conflict.", "The EU's chief negotiator says \"durable solutions\" can be found after the latest talks with the UK.", "Official approval for the high speed line to Manchester is a \"landmark moment\", says the government.", "Australian Open organisers asked a spectator to remove a T-shirt mentioning the Chinese player.", "The fatal stabbing of a teenager in Stretford is described as a \"callous attack\" by police.", "New papers emerge, raising questions about why Emad Al Swealmeen was not deported before the attack.", "Earlier Mr Beattie apologised for tweeting a joke about the former DUP leader Edwin Poots and his wife.", "BBC Panorama investigates what can happen when anti-social behaviour escalates.", "Sir George Hamilton spoke to a new documentary on 20 years of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.", "Police apologise to an academic over the \"sexist, derogatory and unacceptable\" language.", "Hossein Vafaei becomes the first Iranian player to win a snooker ranking title, beating Mark Williams in the final of the Snooker Shoot Out.", "England dominate the majority of the second T20 against West Indies but ultimately win by just one run after some astonishing late hitting.", "A man is discovered alive in the wheel section of a plane that landed in Amsterdam from South Africa.", "BBC Panorama has found an important tool to help victims of anti-social behaviour is rarely used.", "A Tory MP's allegations of threats by whips have cast light on the dark arts of party discipline.", "Kurdish-led forces say they are being used as human shields in the jail they have surrounded in Syria.", "Fears are rising over Russia's plans to shake up the region, writes BBC Europe editor Katya Adler.", "Matthew Willson was killed by a stray bullet fired through the wall of his Atlanta apartment.", "The four-year-old girl was taken from a campsite and held in a locked house for 18 days.", "James Snyder was first suspended from the show in November following a complaint from a co-star.", "Payments to fund the NHS and social care will too much pressure on households, the veteran Tory MP says.", "Boris Johnson says an invasion would be painful and bloody for Russia - but war is not inevitable.", "A police officer is airlifted to hospital following the crash, while a 26-year-old man is arrested.", "Nusrat Ghani says she was told her faith made colleagues uncomfortable - but the chief whip rejects her claim.", "Lord Agnew says the government had made \"schoolboy errors\" when handing Covid loans to business.", "The eruption earlier this month showered the Pacific nation in ash and triggered a tsunami.", "As US troops are placed on high alert, Ros Atkins looks at the causes behind the tension on Ukraine's border.", "For the first time since Boxing Day nightclubs can reopen and indoor capacity limits are removed.", "After gunfire is heard in the capital, President Roch Kaboré's whereabouts are unclear.", "Unlike rivals, the retailer says all staff get full sick pay regardless of vaccination status.", "Tory MP Nusrat Ghani says she was told her faith was given as a reason for her sacking as a minister.", "Western allies agree to sanctions against Russia if it invades, as thousands of troops stand by.", "Detectives have arrested the driver of the car, a 26-year-old man, on suspicion of murder.", "The French designer's theatrical creations were worn by David Bowie, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.", "The sharing of child abuse images and deepfake pornography need to be addressed further, MPs warn.", "The 95-year-old is expected to spend a few weeks in Norfolk, after her Christmas visit was postponed.", "New slots for Coronation Street and Emmerdale are among the changes announced by the network.", "The $10bn successor to Hubble is parked a million miles from Earth after a 30-day journey from Earth.", "Travel industry bosses have welcomed the change, saying they hope demand for holidays will soar.", "Federal prosecutors allege the former officers \"wilfully deprived\" George Floyd of his civil rights.", "A gunman in the university town of Heidelberg shoots four people, one fatally, before killing himself.", "Dozens more people are injured in the incident outside a football stadium in Cameroon.", "The Foreign Office takes the unusual step of naming a former Ukrainian MP as a potential Kremlin candidate.", "The First Minister says Covid rules made enough of a difference to justify the financial impact on business and hospitality.", "Civil servant Sue Gray is expected to publish her findings this week about alleged lockdown-breaking parties.", "President Biden is forced to respond after criticism of his comments about the tension in Ukraine.", "The Wikileaks founder can petition the UK's highest court for a hearing, stalling his extradition to the US.", "Police release an image of a man officers want to speak to about the assaults on girls aged 13-17.", "Ana Brnabic says it would be a clear breach of rules if the tennis star went out knowing he had Covid.", "As with Covid, most children have mild symptoms but a small number need hospital treatment.", "The prime minister says sorry for attending a gathering held in the Downing St garden during lockdown.", "Lorna and Craig Hewitt had denied keeping Matthew Langley, 22, confined in a \"disgusting\" room.", "The boss of Centrica says there is \"no reason\" to expect gas prices to come down any time soon.", "Labour and Tory MPs demand to know whether Boris Johnson attended a get-together held during lockdown.", "Virginia Giuffre welcomes a judge's ruling that she can sue the Queen's second son for sexual assault in the US.", "There has been a campaign to remove the controversial statue which adorns Broadcasting House.", "Alliance MP Stephen Farry says the prime minister should resign over a lockdown party at Downing Street.", "During 2021, billions were spent on apps, with TikTok, YouTube and Netflix leading the way.", "The unvaccinated represent 15% of the population, but over half of all hospital admissions.", "In the absence of clarity from Downing Street, is a sense of panic growing in Conservative ranks?", "Telecoms tycoon John Caudwell says revelations about lockdown parties are \"disastrous\" for Boris Johnson.", "Antonio Rudiger's header makes sure of Chelsea's place in the EFL Cup final as they beat Tottenham 1-0 on the night to complete a 3-0 aggregate win.", "A new year in Parliament but there's a familiar refrain among Tory MPs, as the row over alleged parties rumbles on.", "The Attorney General says the eight-year jail term for Frankie Smith is \"unduly lenient\".", "The PM's departure is far from inevitable - but growing numbers of Conservative MPs want him out.", "The former health secretary says he is self-isolating after the positive test result.", "Hospital admissions with the virus in the UK - the key measure - appear to have already plateaued.", "Read Boris Johnsons's statement to MPs over the \"bring your own booze\" event in No 10 in May 2020.", "The actor's tweet drew outrage for allegedly using a sexual slur, a charge he denied.", "The reaction of Tory MPs to the PM's statement on the Downing Street garden party will be crucial.", "Families are in desperate need but cannot access an emergency scheme, MLAs are told.", "Douglas Ross says Boris Johnson's position is no longer tenable after the PM admits attending a party during lockdown.", "Ovo Energy chief tells the BBC he expects to be apologising for some time over advice on staying warm.", "The word means hug or cuddle and made its Commons debut in a question to Boris Johnson.", "An England rugby international is arrested on suspicion of raping a teenager.", "A man arrested over the deaths of a British family and a French citizen is ruled out as their killer.", "It will take up to a year to analyse electronics taken in arrests over Andrew Gosden's disappearance.", "Linda Maggs, suffered at least 15 stab wounds to her neck, chest and hands.", "First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tells parliament that as protective measures are lifted she will consider extending the scheme.", "John William Jones died at the scene and a woman has been arrested.", "More data is needed before other hard shoulders are made into traffic lanes, the government says.", "Kaftrio is approved for use for eligible children in Northern Ireland, says the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.", "When an Olympic champion spoke out about abuse, a young woman alleged she was raped by her coach.", "PM will face MPs amid mounting pressure to say if he attended a Downing Street event held in lockdown.", "A school, library and businesses close their doors as police say safety is the main concern.", "Aya Yousef was sacked and divorced after she was filmed moving to music at a work social event.", "David Bennett, 57, is the first person in the world to receive a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig.", "Watch Boris Johnson admit to MPs that he attended the May 2020 drinks in No 10's garden.", "Seven survivors of the Holocaust are recorded in paintings to go on show at Buckingham Palace.", "A consultation on allowing some children to delay starting school for a year shows heavy backing.", "The girl was found by teens whose family now want to adopt her if relatives cannot be found.", "Director general Tim Davie says a lack of \"due diligence\" was to blame when Alan Dershowitz was booked.", "After days of silence, the PM admits he went to a \"bring-your-own-booze\" party at No 10 in May 2020.", "Grants for clubs - closed under Covid rules last year - have still not been paid, the industry says.", "The current limit of 500 people at outdoor events such as football matches and concerts will be lifted on Monday.", "Seth Burke tested positive days after becoming the first wheelchair user sworn into the Welsh Youth Parliament.", "One former insider tells the BBC drinks on 20 May \"lowered the bar\" for later events to take place.", "Landslides and flooding caused by torrential rains have killed at least 15 people in Minas Gerais.", "The Ministry of Defence is considering a request to send up to 150 personnel to Northern Ireland.", "Stronger sales of premium food and champagne will boost profits, Britain's second biggest supermarket says.", "Former government official Kate Josephs is facing calls to stand down from Sheffield Council.", "The celebrated designer and businessman once said: \"I have always dressed the same person, myself.\"", "Graham Reagan says the ambulance service urged him to get a lift to hospital or face a long wait.", "England's miserable Ashes tour ends with one last calamitous batting failure as Australia surge to a 146-run victory in the final Test for a 4-0 series win.", "Money is so tight for Judith, she can only afford to put heating on for an hour when children stay.", "Grenfell survivors have asked a huge public fund to have 11 firms \"resolve\" buildings' fire safety defects.", "Court documents say the Duke of York wants to question Virginia Giuffre's psychologist and husband.", "The Labour leader says Boris Johnson has lied about \"industrial scale partying\" in Downing Street.", "David Bennett once stabbed a man seven times leaving him paralysed, it has been revealed.", "The culture secretary says it is time to discuss new ways to fund and sell \"great British content\".", "The successful applicant will be \"crowned\" monarch of Piel by having alcohol poured over them.", "People across Ireland and the UK gather in memory of Ashling Murphy who was killed on Wednesday.", "Four people are freed and an assailant dies as police bring the incident in Colleyville to an end.", "He led some of the UK's best-known companies and helped shape the response to the 2008 financial crisis.", "Tennis star Novak Djokovic loses his legal challenge and is deported from Australia.", "Flights have been cancelled as the dangerous storm brings snow and high winds to much of the country.", "Tributes are paid to the author and former BBC Gardeners' World presenter who died on Friday.", "Rafael Benitez says he did not realise the \"magnitude of the task\" at Everton following his sacking on Sunday after less than seven months in charge.", "All four hostages at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, have been freed, the suspect died at the scene.", "Rocketing energy costs have hit charities' already tight budgets meaning cuts to vital services.", "The story of the star tennis player being held in Australia sparks ire at every twist and turn.", "The tennis star earlier lost his bid to remain in Australia for the tennis Open.", "Watch the underwater eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, triggering a tsunami.", "Up to 80,000 people could be affected after tsunami waves caused \"significant damage\" to Tonga.", "The head teacher thought the story of the 120-year-old skeleton was a myth - until it turned up.", "Former England cricketers and pundits reacts to the tourists' latest Ashes collapse as the England lose in Hobart and Australia complete a 4-0 series win.", "Sinn Féin, UUP, SDLP and Alliance all come out against move to allow MPs to sit in the NI Assembly.", "A charity is treating dozens of injured baby seals, with some being attacked by dogs on beaches.", "Both countries advise people on the coast to move away from water after waves cross ocean from South Pacific.", "John Joel Joseph has been arrested in Jamaica in connection with the death of Jovenel Moïse.", "The decision to cancel his visa for the second time is largely about saving face in an election year.", "Novak Djokovic has been deported from Australia following the row over a vaccine exemption. What happens next for the Serb?", "While further tsunamis may be unlikely, there are mounting fears over how badly Tonga has been hit.", "Teenagers in England who had their second dose three months ago can book from Monday, the NHS says.", "The Duke of Sussex wants to be able to pay for a team of officers when he visits with his family.", "Tobias Ellwood says \"we need leadership\" as MPs are inundated with messages about Downing Street parties.", "The 31-year-old man was shot in the Baillieston area of Glasgow in the early hours of Saturday.", "GlaxoSmithKline rejected three offers, saying they \"undervalued\" its consumer goods business.", "Australia's Neil Robertson claims the Masters title for a second time with a comfortable 10-4 win over England's Barry Hawkins at Alexandra Palace.", "An investigation is under way after little Miles was found walking alone after leaving his school.", "\"My show ain't ready,\" the star tells fans, one night before her concert series was due to begin.", "The chain says rising costs will mean higher prices, but social media influencers have boosted its sales.", "Masks, Covid passes and working from home are being scrapped in England. Is this the right decision?", "The city has been transformed into the dark DC Comics universe as wintry scenes are filmed around Trongate.", "Christian Wakeford, who defected to Labour, says he was threatened to vote in a certain way.", "Northern Ireland First Minister Paul Givan said the change would take effect from Friday, 21 January.", "England's children's commissioner says she will \"go out and find\" absent children.", "The PM rejects the claims of a Tory MP, who says rebels face intimidation from ministers.", "Trees are torn down and buildings ripped apart following Saturday's tsunami triggered by a volcano.", "Bury residents react after one of their MPs Christian Wakeford defects from the Tories to Labour.", "A man is held on suspicion of murdering Freda Walker, 86, and attempting to murder her husband Ken.", "Steve Baker tells the BBC the row over lockdown parties is \"appalling\" amid threats of a Tory rebellion.", "Crowds, including schoolchildren holding pictures of Ms Murphy, came out in force to say farewell.", "Benedict XVI is incriminated in a report into child sex abuse in Munich in the 70s and 80s.", "Fans will be able to return to sporting events and the 'rule of six' is scrapped outdoors for pubs.", "Kelly Butler discovered she had leukaemia from a routine blood test during her pregnancy.", "Aquind Ltd is denied permission for a £1.2bn electricity link between Portsmouth and Normandy.", "The firm came under fire after it told a customer it did not put calls from lone women drivers first.", "Most broadband and phone bills will rise by more than 9% at the end of March, BT says.", "Recommendations include better public transport in big cities and bridges or tunnels to some islands.", "Ben John, who was told to read Austen and Shakespeare, has his original suspended sentence quashed.", "It comes after one of the jurors convicting her of sex abuse charges said he had influenced others.", "The former cabinet minister joins calls for Boris Johnson to stand down, as a Tory MP defects to Labour.", "Boris Johnson's allies say he has seen off a plot to remove him, but anger persists about lockdown parties.", "An Onchan woman who beat cancer after a seven-month battle says she wants to help other patients.", "It comes after the Pacific nation was left devastated by a volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami.", "The death toll, worst in poorer countries and among the under-fives, needs urgent action, experts say.", "Jim Barr receives an anonymous apology for a theft from his shop 30 years ago.", "The artist gave her neon sign to the government but says the \"current situation is shameful\".", "A man appears at a special court in the Republic of Ireland charged with the murder of Ashling Murphy.", "Reggie \"came out a new dog\" after the 34-hour mountain rescue.", "Claire Evans is one of a select number of leukaemia patients being given a specialised type of therapy.", "People owed money by the English Defence League founder have appointed an independent insolvency expert.", "The melting monster iceberg A68 put 1.5 billion tonnes of fresh water into the ocean every day.", "Moscow denies any plan to attack Ukraine and says US support for the country is a threat to Russia.", "Zara Rutherford endured extreme conditions during a trip that took two months longer than planned.", "Its shares fell more than 20% after a report that it planned to temporarily stop production of its machines.", "The US work wear maker says it is sticking to its Covid jab policy, sparking a conservative outcry.", "Peers were expected to debate the plan which had been criticised by most of Stormont's parties.", "Brian Harwood, 73, was among 11 people travelling in a vehicle and trailer that fell into a river.", "Prince William and Catherine visit a Burnley charity set up during the pandemic to help those in need.", "The flammable panels have been blamed for the rapid spread of the 2017 fire, which led to 72 deaths.", "Working from home guidance is also ending as England reverts to \"Plan A\", Boris Johnson says.", "Two men are arrested in Birmingham and Manchester as part of the investigation into the attack.", "Advice to work from home has been removed in England, as restrictions to tackle Omicron are lifted.", "Figures show the average time to deal with a crime rose by 15%, adding to a massive backlog.", "Ian Black said something in his head told him to stick to his routine on his way home from work.", "The PM's fate rests in the hands of his MPs, many of whom still have to make up their minds.", "Nicholas Rossi is facing extradition over a charge of rape in Utah in the United States.", "Gaspard Ulliel, who features in the upcoming Marvel TV series, died after an accident on the Alps.", "NHS chiefs are worried pressures on the NHS may deter people coming forward with symptoms.", "Daniel Kawczynski, Shrewsbury's Conservative MP, is sanctioned for undermining his own apology.", "Congressional investigators believe she pressed her father to try to call off the rioters.", "Financial watchdog warns of rising worries about investment scams using fake celebrity support.", "Emma Raducanu says she was warned by her team not to play in the Australian Open second round because of a blister that hampered her in the defeat by Danka Kovinic.", "Irish police are questioning a man about withholding information about the killing.", "The Scottish beer giant shipped hundreds of kegs of beer to America which had not been legally approved.", "End of work-from-home guidance a boost for hospitality, while nightclubs welcome scrapping of Covid passes.", "Ashling Murphy's priest reflects on a community's grief ahead of the murdered teacher's funeral.", "Chelsea come from two goals down to claim a point against Covid-hit Liverpool in a Premier League classic at Stamford Bridge.", "Li Jingwei was kidnapped in Yunnan province in 1989 and sold to a family thousands of miles away.", "Drop-in appointments will open from Monday for 12 to 15-year-olds as vaccination capacity increases.", "A resident describes what it is like living near one of Wales' higher-risk coal tips.", "Retired staff are being asked to go back because more Covid-related absences are expected next term.", "Police in Cape Town say a man faces several charges over the fire and will appear in court on Tuesday.", "A local sheriff previously said it had been a miracle no-one was reported missing or dead.", "Eleven staff members at the station were infected but officials say the situation is not serious.", "Health boss says Omicron may lead to herd immunity but it would be better achieved via vaccination.", "Flu, staff shortages and Covid backlogs are putting the NHS under severe strain, find out what's happening in your area.", "Police say the man collided with two cars that were parked on the side of the road.", "Car burning has become an annual event in French suburbs since riots hit several cities in 2005.", "But a senior doctor urges action to bring case numbers down as hospitals cope with staff absences.", "Reigning world champion Gerwyn Price has been knocked out of the PDC World Darts Championship quarter-finals by Michael Smith.", "The west Londoner scored a top 10 album in 2021 and is up for three Brit Awards. Here's why.", "Funerals are held for two of the three young men who died in a crash in County Tyrone.", "Officials relax restrictions noting lower hospital admissions from the Omicron variant than feared.", "England men's head coach Chris Silverwood tests positive for Covid-19, having already been set to miss the fourth Test after a family member's positive test.", "President Cyril Ramaphosa said the Nobel Peace Prize winner was \"the spiritual father of our new nation\".", "The man is in custody on suspicion of causing death by driving while under the influence of drugs.", "A 15-year-old boy is in custody while another boy, also 15, has been bailed until late January.", "Phil Thomas has even thought about which way to run \"if something starts pouring down the hill\".", "The move aims to tackle concerns about secondary schools staying open for face-to-face lessons this term.", "Argentina forward Lionel Messi is one of four Paris St-Germain players to test positive for Covid-19.", "Tsunami-style early-warning systems would detect movement and danger in disused coal tips.", "Lucy Clews was found dead in Cannock, Staffordshire, on 29 December after being repeatedly stabbed.", "Five ex-ministers are among those saying Boris Johnson should cut VAT and green levies to help households.", "A European Commission proposal says the two energy sources are key to a green transition.", "The dogs can detect products that carry a risk of diseases such as African swine fever or foot and mouth.", "A union says staffing issues are likely to get worse due to the spread of the Omicron variant.", "By 30 December, 77% of eligible adults and young people had received Covid-19 booster vaccinations.", "Covid admissions are rising but what could happen next is unclear, the head of NHS Providers says.", "Abdalla Hamdok's resignation comes weeks after he was reinstated by the military following a coup.", "The Irishwoman suffered serious injuries in the 2015 collapse that killed six students.", "The French government denies bowing to far-right pressure over the flag at the Arc de Triomphe.", "The pilgrimage route will be developed in Wales and Ireland and aims to attract thousands each year.", "More than 2,500 flights have been cancelled, with airlines facing crew shortages and bad weather.", "Blustery winds and heavy rain move east, as a Met Office weather warning comes to an end.", "A murder inquiry is ongoing after teenage killings in the capital hit a record high in 2021.", "Seoul said it had asked the North, which has a shoot-on-sight policy, to protect the person.", "The PM wants domestic flights to go green, as part of ambitious national plans to cut emissions.", "West Ham United begin the new year by winning a thrilling Premier League game at Crystal Palace.", "Dr Gregor Smith and Olympic swimmer Duncan Scott are among Scots recognised by the Queen.", "The device was taken from an ambulance as paramedics responded to an emergency on New Year's Day.", "The Met Office said there was a slight chance it could cause power cuts and flooding.", "The Met Office said it hit 16.3C in London - breaking a record set more than 100 years ago."], "section": ["Derby", "Europe", "Sussex", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", "US & Canada", "Manchester", "UK Politics", "Europe", "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "UK Politics", "US & Canada", "Wales", "UK Politics", "Wales politics", "Hampshire & Isle of Wight", "US & Canada", "UK Politics", "Business", "Business", "US & Canada", "Entertainment & Arts", "Entertainment & Arts", "US & Canada", "Business", "Wales", null, "Asia", "Tyne & Wear", "Europe", "Wales", "London", "Technology", "Technology", null, "Business", "London", "Middle East", "Science & Environment", "Science & Environment", "Asia", "Scotland", "Business", "Business", "Lancashire", "Surrey", "Business", "Europe", "Business", "World", "Technology", "Cumbria", "Science & Environment", "Wales", "Wales", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "US & Canada", 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"Lancashire", "Lancashire", "Business", "UK", "UK", "UK", "UK", "Cumbria", "UK Politics", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Entertainment & Arts", "Health", "Shropshire", "US & Canada", "UK", null, "Europe", "Scotland", "Business", "Europe", null, "China", "Scotland", null, "Family & Education", "Africa", "US & Canada", "Europe", "Middle East", "Health", "Manchester", "Europe", "UK", null, "Entertainment & Arts", "Northern Ireland", "Africa", null, "Africa", "Birmingham & Black Country", "London", "Wales", "Family & Education", null, "Wales", "Stoke & Staffordshire", "UK", "Europe", "Scotland", "Scotland", "Scotland", "UK", "Africa", "Europe", "Europe", "Wales", "US & Canada", "UK", "London", "Asia", "Europe", null, "Scotland", "Manchester", "Wales", "UK"], "content": ["Freda Walker died at the scene while Ken Walker remains in hospital\n\nA man has been charged with the murder of an 86-year-old woman and the attempted murder of her 88-year-old husband after they were attacked at their home.\n\nFreda Walker was found dead in Station Road, Langwith Junction, Derbyshire, on 15 January.\n\nKen Walker, a former district councillor, remains in hospital in a critical condition.\n\nVasile Culea is due to appear before magistrates in Nottingham on Saturday.\n\nDerbyshire Police said Mr Culea was arrested at his home in Grove Road, Church Warsop, Nottinghamshire, on Thursday.\n\nThe 33-year-old has been remanded in custody, the force added.\n\nThe couple were attacked at their home in Station Road\n\nThe pair were discovered by a concerned neighbour at about 09:00 GMT.\n\nMrs Walker died at the scene and her husband was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Dave Kirby thanked the public for their support in the investigation.\n\n\"While today's charge is clearly positive news, and one that I hope brings a degree of reassurance, the investigation into the incident continues,\" he said.\n\nHe reiterated an earlier appeal for anyone who was walking or driving in Station Road, between 16:30 on Friday 14 January and 09:00 GMT on Saturday 15 January, to come forward.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein said the mandate was how the country would \"escape the cycle of opening and closing, of lockdowns\"\n\nAustria has moved closer to introducing a compulsory vaccination order after parliament's lower house voted in favour of new government proposals.\n\nThe law, which is due to come into effect on 1 February, would make Austria the first European country to introduce a mandatory jab.\n\nFrom mid-March the law will see adults unvaccinated against Covid-19 subjected to fines of up to €3,600 (£2,994).\n\nSo far, 72% of Austrians have been fully vaccinated against the virus.\n\nThe bill must now pass the upper house and be signed into law by President Alexander Van der Bellen, steps largely expected to be formalities.\n\nThe vaccine order is expected to remain in force until January 2024, with the government investing €1.4bn in measures designed to encourage unvaccinated people to come forward for the jab.\n\nAddressing lawmakers on Thursday afternoon, Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein called the measure a \"big, and, for the first time, also lasting step\" in Austria's fight against the pandemic.\n\nChancellor Karl Nehammer told reporters ahead of the vote that vaccines were \"an opportunity for our society to achieve lasting and continuous freedom, because the virus cannot restrict us any further\".\n\nA majority of MPs, including those from Mr Nehammer's governing centre-right coalition and the three main opposition parties, backed the bill, by 137 votes to 33.\n\nThe far-right Freedom Party, which has courted the votes of Austria's substantial anti-vaccine minority, has taken a stand against the bill.\n\nIts leader, Herbert Kickl, said the mandate \"paves the way to totalitarianism in Austria\" and vowed he would continue to refuse vaccination in defiance of the new law.\n\nSome Austrian MPs have accused Freedom Party leader Herbert Kickl of opportunistically opposing the mandate\n\nSince authorities announced they intended to introduce the mandate in November the capital, Vienna, has seen regular protests, with some numbering over 40,000 people.\n\nThe demonstrations have attracted a coalition of anti-vaccine campaigners and far-right extremists, and authorities have warned that they have been radicalising in recent weeks, with new \"protective zones\" declared around healthcare facilities and vaccination centres to protect workers.\n\nSimilar vaccine mandates are being introduced in several other countries, including in Greece, where jabs are now obligatory for everyone aged 60.\n\nIn neighbouring Germany, the new government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said it will introduce a vaccination bill in the Bundestag in March.\n\nAustria's move comes as some European countries begin to tenuously loosen restrictions introduced to tackle the highly infectious Omicron variant.\n\nIn the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced the end of mandatory face coverings in public places and Covid passports on 26 January.\n\nMr Johnson also suggested that the government intended to end the legal requirement for people who tested positive for Covid to self-isolate - and replace it with advice and guidance at the end of March.\n\nThe Irish government also looks set to end a raft of coronavirus restrictions introduced over the Christmas period, including rules mandating the closure of hospitality settings by 20:00.\n\nAnd in the Netherlands 30 mayors, including Femke Halsema in Amsterdam, have urged Prime Minister Mark Rutte to curb tough restrictions amid a fall in hospitalisations and deaths.", "Russell Bishop was convicted of murdering Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in 2018\n\nJailed Babes in the Wood killer Russell Bishop has died, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed.\n\nBishop, 55, was sentenced to a minimum of 36 years for the murders of nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway in Brighton in 1986.\n\nHe was convicted in December 2018, having been cleared at an earlier trial in 1987.\n\nBishop was jailed in 1990 for the attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl at Devil's Dyke near Brighton.\n\nIn a statement, a Prison Service spokesperson said: \"HMP Frankland prisoner Russell Bishop died in hospital on January 20.\n\n\"The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.\"\n\nIt is understood he had cancer.\n\nNicola's cousin Lorna Heffron said the news had not yet sunk in and while it was something the families \"knew was coming\", it had still been \"quite a shock to the system\".\n\nSpeaking to the PA news agency, she said: \"We're pleased that he's gone and he absolutely won't be able to hurt anybody else in the future. The world is a better place without him.\n\n\"I think the biggest relief is the fact that we got justice for Nicola and Karen before this happened.\n\n\"It's the satisfaction of knowing that we don't have to worry now that he, at any point in the future, might be able to apply for parole.\"\n\nKaren Hadaway (left) and Nicola Fellows had gone out to play after school\n\nShe said the families \"always knew\" he had murdered the two girls and they wish he had not been initially acquitted, leaving him free to attack again, but they hope his death brings closure to his surviving victim.\n\nBishop was aged 20 when he killed the girls in 1986.\n\nIn May 2021 his former girlfriend Jennifer Johnson was jailed for perjury, after lying at his 1987 trial.\n\nPeter Kyle, the Labour MP for Hove, described Bishop as a \"hateful man\" whose \"murders and deceit caused endless pain to so many people\".\n\nIn a post on Twitter, he added: \"I hope his death behind bars starts a new chapter for his victims' families. They deserve it. These events have scarred Brighton and Hove forever.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The star said she had been \"awake for 30 hours\" trying to find a solution\n\nAdele has postponed her entire Las Vegas residency, just 24 hours before the opening night.\n\n\"I'm so sorry, but my show ain't ready,\" the star told fans in a tearful update on Instagram.\n\n\"Half my team have Covid and it's been impossible to finish the show,\" she said, adding that \"delivery delays\" had also played havoc with her plans.\n\nShe was due to play the first of 24 concerts at the Caesars Palace's Colosseum on Friday.\n\nAnnounced late in November, the Weekends With Adele series was scheduled to have the singer performing two shows every weekend until April.\n\nTickets ranged from $85 (£60) to $685 (£500), and Adele was forecast to make more than £500,000 per performance.\n\nThey would have been her first live concerts in five years. Along with two dates in London's Hyde Park this summer, they are the only shows she has announced to promote her blockbuster fourth album, 30.\n\nSpeaking on Instagram, Adele said she had been \"awake for 30 hours\" trying to rescue the production, but had simply \"run out of time\".\n\n\"It's been impossible to finish the show,\" she added. \"I can't give you what I have right now and I'm gutted.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by adele This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAdele also apologised to fans who had already arrived to Las Vegas for the opening weekend.\n\n\"I'm sorry, it's last minute. I'm so upset and I'm really embarrassed and I'm so sorry to everyone that's travelled again.\"\n\nShe added: \"We're going to reschedule all the dates, we're on it right now. And I'm going to finish my show. I want to to get it to where it's supposed to be [but] we've been up against so much and it just ain't ready.\"\n\nMany fans have been supportive on social media - saying it was the right decision and wishing her and her team well.\n\nBut some are facing losing hundreds of dollars from flight and hotel bookings.\n\nGillian Rowland-Kain, 32, was already on her flight to Las Vegas from New York for Friday's opening night show when she found out about the cancellation via social media.\n\n\"I was furious that Adele waited so last minute to make this call,\" she said. \"I recognise it's not a call any artist wants to make but she would've known yesterday that the show wouldn't be ready by tomorrow.\n\n\"Her lack of notice is astounding. I'm angry and frustrated.\"\n\nMs Rowland-Kain, who is from Brooklyn and travelling to Vegas with her twin sister, added that while she recognised the impact of Covid, the last-minute cancellation felt \"like a slap in the face\".\n\nGillian and her twin sister on the plane, minutes before finding out the show was cancelled\n\nJosh Chavis, from Kansas City, says his wife Heather paid almost $1,800 (£1,300) for her hotel and flights to Vegas for a show this weekend.\n\nWhile Heather was on hold with the hotel company, Mr Chavis told the BBC she was disappointed - and even Adele announcing it a few days sooner \"would have made all the difference\" in terms of refunds.\n\n\"We recognise that things are hard for everyone, but this is a huge misstep on the part of both the performer and those responsible for putting the show together,\" he said.\n\nThe star was previously forced to cancel the final two dates of her previous tour, at Wembley Stadium in 2017 after damaging her vocal cords.\n\nWhile Adele has apparently been beset by production problems and illness within her crew, other Vegas shows have been running as normal.\n\nThree weeks ago, Katy Perry smoothly rolled out her own residency on the strip, to largely positive reviews.\n\nHer elaborate and playful production - which she has dubbed \"Perry Playland\"- includes oversized talking furniture, a giant red rocking horse, a dancing alarm clock and a bra that serves beer on tap.\n\nBillboard magazine described the two-hour show as \"part fantasy, part hallucination and thoroughly high-camp\", while the Las Vegas Review-Journal called it a \"glorious example of what an unbridled imagination can achieve\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "UK experts are keeping an eye on a variant of Omicron called BA.2.\n\nThere have been 426 cases confirmed by whole genome sequencing in England so far - many in London or the South East - with the earliest logged on 6 December.\n\nThat's an extremely tiny proportion of all the Omicron cases that have been occurring around the UK this winter though.\n\nThe bulk of this current wave has been \"regular\" BA.1 Omicron.\n\nDespite cropping up in the news today, the BA.2 sub-lineage is not new - it has been around in the world for a while, just like regular Omicron. Experts are not very worried about it, but want to monitor what it is doing.\n\nIn Denmark it appears to be gaining ground over BA.1.\n\nImportantly, all the evidence so far suggests that booster jabs are doing a great job against all variants of Covid in terms of preventing serious illness.", "An American Airlines plane travelling from Miami to London has had to turn back because a passenger refused to wear a face mask, the airline has said.\n\nAmerican Airlines said flight AAL38 with 129 passengers on board returned to Miami where police were waiting.\n\nThey escorted a woman in her 40s off the plane, reports say.\n\nShe has been placed on a list of people barred from flying with American Airlines, pending further investigation, the airline said.\n\nThe Wednesday flight turned around about an hour into its journey, according to tracking service FlightAware.\n\nThe woman was sitting in first class, another passenger Steve Freeman told Miami's Local 10 news.\n\n\"There was a lot of drinking involved and I was nervous. She sat behind us in first class,\" he said.\n\n\"I could see the writing on the wall - they gave her a lot of warnings, so we were kind of ready for it.\"\n\nPassengers on the flight to London's Heathrow Airport were re-booked on to another flight for Thursday.\n\n\"Everyone was shocked,\" one passenger told CBS station WFOR-TV after getting off the Wednesday flight.\n\nAnother passenger said she was disappointed.\n\n\"They wouldn't really say anything, and I don't believe they told the flight attendants anything either, because they said that all they could say was there was an extreme incident with a passenger and they had to turn around,\" she told the station.\n\nAirlines reported nearly 6,000 incidents involving unruly passengers last year and 151 in the first two weeks of this year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Most of them involved passengers who refused to wear masks.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The FAA ✈️ This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The FAA ✈️", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Christian Wakeford says he was threatened to vote in a certain way\n\nAn ex-Tory MP who defected to Labour said he was threatened he would not get a high school in his constituency if he did not vote in a certain way.\n\nBury South MP Christian Wakeford said it made him start to question his place within the Conservative Party.\n\nIt comes after MP William Wragg accused the government of trying to \"blackmail\" its own MPs to stop them plotting against the prime minister.\n\nBut Boris Johnson said he had not seen any evidence to support the claim.\n\nMr Wakeford, who had been a Conservative Party member for nearly 20 years, announced his decision to switch sides moments before Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.\n\nHe took the Bury South seat from Labour at the 2019 general election by just 402 votes but will now sit as a Labour MP.\n\nSpeaking to BBC North West Tonight in Bury earlier, he said: \"I was threatened that I would not get the school for Radcliffe if I did not vote in one particular way.\n\n\"This is a town that's not had a high school for the best part of 10 years.\n\n\"How would you feel when holding back regeneration of a town for a vote, it didn't sit comfortably.\n\n\"That was really starting to question my place where I was and ultimately to where I am now.\"\n\nA Labour source said the vote in question related to free school meals.\n\nMr Wakeford said the country needs a government that \"upholds the highest standards of integrity and probity\"\n\nBury county councillor Mike Smith, who represents Radcliffe West on the local authority, said planning permission was due to be sought for the school early this year and the first intake of pupils should be in September 2024.\n\nHe said it \"would be disappointing\" if the school's funding had been used as a threat.\n\nMr Smith, part of the independent party Radcliffe First, added: \"I have emailed both the councillor at Bury who is in charge of regeneration and the person who is in charge of the school asking for their input as to whether there is any truth to this, and whether there is any threat to the funding.\n\n\"Reading his comments, it would be very surprising if there was. I'm taking it that this is quite historical.\"\n\nMr Wakeford made the comments after introducing Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves for her speech at The Met theatre in the town.\n\nDuring his speech, Mr Wakeford said Labour was \"ready to provide an alternative government that this country can be proud of\" and had become \"the party of economic competence\".\n\nMr Johnson is facing down an attempt from some Tory MPs to oust him as leader over lockdown parties held in Downing Street.\n\nEarlier, Conservative MP Mr Wragg, who is among those calling on the prime minister to resign, said rebels had faced \"pressures and intimidation\" from ministers.\n\nHe said the conduct of the Government Whips' Office threatening to withdraw public funding from MPs' constituencies may have breached the ministerial code.\n\nBut Mr Johnson insisted he had not seen any evidence to support Mr Wragg's claims of intimidatory tactics against Tory critics.\n\nHe said he would \"of course\" look for evidence to support the allegations made by Mr Wragg.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Downing Street says it is not investigating allegations that MPs calling for the PM's resignation have been blackmailed by government whips.\n\nLabour called for an inquiry after senior Tory MP William Wragg said threats that would \"seem to constitute blackmail\" had been made to colleagues.\n\nNo 10 said it had not seen any proof of such behaviour.\n\nA spokesman said they would look \"carefully\" at any evidence presented to them but they were not seeking it.\n\nAsked whether Boris Johnson would condemn any attempt to blackmail MPs, his deputy official spokesman said: \"It's obviously the role of whips to encourage MPs.\"\n\nMr Wragg - who has called for Mr Johnson to resign - raised concerns about blackmail and intimidation on Thursday.\n\nHe said he had been told ministers, advisers and staff at No 10 were \"encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass\" MPs who were calling on Mr Johnson to resign.\n\nSeparately, a group of MPs met on Thursday to discuss going public with their own complaints of intimidation by the whips - the MPs in charge of party discipline.\n\nKnown as the \"pork pie plotters\", the group has been meeting regularly to discuss whether to oust Mr Johnson, over revelations he attended a drinks a party during lockdown.\n\nThe Times reports they are considering releasing text messages and a secret recording of a \"heated\" conversation with the chief whip to support their claims.\n\nThe BBC has also been told an MP had been threatened with losing their seat under changes to constituency boundaries.\n\nOne of the rebel MPs told the BBC that Mr Johnson's team, rather than the party's whips, were now reaching out to try to them get back on-board.\n\nThey added: \"It's clear the whip office machine has completely broken down, and No 10 realises an enormous mistake has been made and are now properly reaching out to those they should have in the first place, rather than making an enemy of backbenchers who were wavering.\"\n\nThe prime minister has been under pressure since he admitted attending a drinks event during the first lockdown, although he says he believed it was a work event.\n\nMr Johnson has faced calls from some of his own MPs to step down, however he appears to have temporarily survived the challenge to his leadership, with many Conservatives saying they will wait for Sue Gray's report before making a judgement.\n\nMPs in Westminster are awaiting Sue Gray's report which could be completed next week\n\nThe senior civil servant is investigating gatherings that took place on government premises while coronavirus restrictions were in place.\n\nAsked about Mr Johnson's future, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - who has been touted as a leadership contender - said she supported him \"100%\" and that she wanted him to \"continue as long as possible in his job\".\n\nMeanwhile, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has questioned claims an MP was threatened with cuts to school funding in his constituency if he did not back the government.\n\nChristian Wakeford - who defected from the Conservatives to Labour in protest at Boris Johnson's leadership - says ministers had previously threatened to withdraw funding for a new secondary school in his Bury South constituency if he voted against the government.\n\nMr Wakeford told BBC North West Tonight: \"This is a town that's not had a high school for the best part of 10 years and how would you feel with holding back the regeneration of a town for a vote?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Christian Wakeford says he was threatened to vote in a certain way\n\nThe funding bid for the school was approved in February 2021, and it is expected to open in 2024.\n\nLabour sources say the vote in question was about extending free school meal provision.\n\nMr Kwarteng said the accusation was \"probably not true\" but would be investigated if evidence emerged.\n\nHe said he had \"never heard of anything like this\" since becoming an MP but if it had happened it would be \"very seriously regarded\" by the government.\n\nHe added that is not \"how parliamentary democracy should be conducted\".\n\nAsked about Mr Wakeford's allegations on Thursday, Boris Johnson said he had \"seen no evidence\" to support them.\n\nFormer Conservative MP Ben Howlett told BBC News he had been threatened by a whip to make sure he supported the government's Brexit policy.\n\n\"One of the tactics used to make sure I fell into line... was to threaten the withholding of money to pay for an investigation into whether this link road was being built.\"\n\nHe said the whips system was \"completely unacceptable\" and needed to be reviewed.", "The incident happened in a post office on Staplestown Road in Carlow town on Friday morning\n\nAn investigation has begun after claims that the body of a dead man was taken into Irish post office in an attempt to claim his pension.\n\nReports suggest a deceased pensioner was \"propped up by two men\" as his body was carried into the building in County Carlow, according to the Irish Times.\n\nIt said the two men \"dropped\" the body and fled when staff questioned them.\n\nGardaí (Irish police) are investigating the circumstances surrounding the \"unexplained death of an elderly male\".\n\nA Garda spokesman would not comment on the specifics of the incident which happened at a post office in Carlow town on Friday morning but released a brief statement.\n\n\"The services of the Garda Technical Bureau and the Office of the State Pathologist have been requested,\" it said.\n\n\"A post mortem will be conducted by the Office of the State Pathologist, the results of which will determine the course of the investigation.\"\n\nGardaí would not comment on the specifics of the incident but have begun an investigation\n\nThe Irish Times said it understood that a concerned staff member \"enquired about the wellbeing of the man being propped up\" when the group approached the post office counter.\n\nThe two men fled, dropping the body at the scene and when staff went to check on the elderly man they were shocked to discover he was dead, the paper said.\n\nIrish broadcaster RTÉ reported that earlier on Friday, a man had called in to the post office on Staplestown Road in Carlow and asked to collect a pension on behalf of an elderly man.\n\nThat request was refused as staff told him the pensioner had to be present in order to release the money.\n\nA short time later, two men arrived back with a man aged in his 60s who \"collapsed\" in the post office.\n\n\"Detectives are now investigating if the man was already dead when he was brought to the post office,\" RTÉ said.\n\nIt reported that a nearby house has been \"sealed off as a crime scene\".", "Hundreds of women in NHS Lothian may have missed breast cancer screening because of an administrative error.\n\nThe health board said 369 women considered to have a higher risk of developing the disease may not have received appointments at the right time.\n\nThey are normally invited for screening at 12, 18 or 24-month intervals.\n\nNHS Lothian has apologised and is now arranging new appointments.\n\nThe Times reported that staff sending out appointment letters noticed that some women had waited too long before being called for their next mammogram.\n\nThey included women with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes which significantly increase the risk of developing the disease. Some of the women would have been regarded as \"very high risk\".\n\nKatie Dee, deputy director of public health at NHS Lothian, said: \"Following an extensive review of participant records within our Increased Risk Breast Screening Programme, it was identified that a number of women may not have been invited for screening as regularly as they should.\n\n\"We are writing to the women who are affected to offer our sincere apologies, provide more information and to invite them for a new screening appointment.\n\n\"This incident is being investigated thoroughly and appropriate steps are being taken to ensure it does not happen again.\"\n\nThe health board has set up a dedicated helpline to provide women with more information on 0800 085 8531.\n\nIt is understood that 242 of the women are still living in the NHS Lothian area while 127 have left the area.\n\nThe problem does not affect the National Breast Screening programme under which women aged 50-70 are routinely invited for mammograms every three years.", "Boris Johnson was asked about the claims on a visit to Somerset\n\nBoris Johnson says he has \"seen no evidence\" of blackmail in his party after claims by one of his own MPs.\n\nWilliam Wragg - who has called on the PM to resign over parties at No 10 - said suspected plotters against the PM have been threatened with bad publicity and cuts to constituency funding.\n\nHe has advised colleagues who feel threatened to go to the police.\n\nAn ex-Tory MP who defected to Labour, Christian Wakeford, also said he was threatened over funding for a school.\n\nMr Johnson told reporters on Thursday he had \"seen no evidence [and] heard no evidence\" of Mr Wragg's claims, but he would look into them.\n\nOn Friday, the Times reported rebels have met to discuss the tactics of government whips, the MPs in charge of party discipline.\n\nThe newspaper reported the plotters discussed whether to make public text messages and other evidence of how they have been treated.\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner called Mr Wragg's claims \"shocking\" and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey accused Mr Johnson of \"acting more like a mafia boss than a prime minister\".\n\nScotland's First Minister, the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon, said: \"If Tories are threatening to withhold public investment from constituencies as a way of keeping MPs in line then, yes, that's blackmail and intimidation - but it is also corruption.\n\n\"The moral decay at the heart of Johnson's government may be even worse than we thought.\"\n\nBut Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries accused Mr Wragg of \"attention-seeking behaviour\", calling his accusations \"nonsense\".\n\nAnd Energy Minister Greg Hands, who used to work as a government whip, said Mr Wakeford was not a \"credible source\" because his defection meant his job was now to \"do down the Conservative Party\".\n\nHe added that Mr Wragg's claims had \"not been borne out by anybody else\", adding: \"This is not something that happens.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Johnson is facing down an attempt from some Tory MPs to oust him as leader over lockdown parties held in Downing Street.\n\nHe has called on potential rebels to wait for the outcome of civil servant Sue Gray's inquiry into parties, expected next week, before passing judgement on him.\n\nBut prominent Tory backbencher, Steve Baker, told the BBC's Political Thinking podcast that it \"looks like checkmate\" for the prime minister.\n\n\"Honestly, at the moment, I'm looking to the cabinet for leadership,\" he told host Nick Robinson.\n\n\"At the moment, I'm afraid it does look like checkmate - but whether he can save himself, we'll see.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. MPs should report intimidation tactics to the police, says William Wragg\n\nMr Wragg launched a stinging attack on the way the government has handled dissent among Tory MPs on Thursday, in another sign of worsening relations between Mr Johnson and his backbenchers.\n\nSpeaking at a Commons committee that he chairs, the MP for Hazel Grove accused government whips of threatening those suspected of plotting with the removal of government investment in their constituencies.\n\nHe also said he had received reports of government ministers, advisers and staff at No 10 \"encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass\" those suspected of lacking confidence in the PM.\n\nMr Wragg claimed the reports \"would seem to constitute blackmail\" - and as well as contacting police, affected MPs should contact the Commons Speaker.\n\nAfter the appearance, Mr Wakeford - who defected to the Labour Party on Thursday - said he had been threatened into supporting the government when sitting as a Tory MP.\n\n\"I was threatened that I would not get the school for Radcliffe if I didn't vote one particular way,\" he told BBC North West Tonight.\n\n\"This is a town that's not had a high school for the best part of 10 years and how would you feel with holding back the regeneration of a town for a vote?\"\n\nHe said the incident \"didn't sit comfortably\" and it led to him \"starting to question my place where I was and ultimately to where I am now\".\n\nBlack books and dark arts, quiet words and not so quiet words.\n\nThe art of persuasion is as old as the stones in Parliament's walls.\n\nBut William Wragg's intervention stands out because it alleges blackmail, potential criminal wrongdoing and breaches of the ministerial code.\n\nOne or two are whispering privately here that Mr Wragg is overcooking his argument and has long been outspoken about the prime minister.\n\nAnd a few are saying similar stuff publicly.\n\nIt's a reminder that while the imminent pressure on Boris Johnson has eased for now, the anger and vitriol provoked by these rows is still very real, very live.\n\nCommons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said \"serious allegations\" had been made, and MPs with concerns should write to him.\n\nHe said government ministers and those who work for them \"are not above the criminal law,\" after Mr Wragg said MPs concerned about potential blackmail should contact the Metropolitan Police.\n\nBut the Speaker added: \"The investigation of allegedly criminal conduct is a matter for the police and decisions about prosecution are for the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service].\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Christian Wakeford says he was threatened to vote in a certain way\n\nOne rebel MP told the BBC that some dissenters had been threatened with funding cuts, whilst an impending shake-up of parliamentary boundaries due next year had also been used to put down rebellion.\n\n\"It's been done to the weakest to make an example,\" they added.\n\nHowever, Tory MP Anthony Mangnall, said he had never been threatened, despite rebelling against the government on \"quite a lot of matters\".\n\nMs Dorries also called Mr Wragg's accusations \"disappointing\" and told BBC West Midlands: \"That is nonsense because that is not how government works, and we are the party of government.\n\n\"The whips have no say over what happens in individual constituencies.\n\n\"And not only is it nonsense, it is just attention seeking behaviour from William Wragg, who has been a constant critic of the prime minister.\"\n\nIt follows a dramatic day in Westminster on Wednesday, when Tory MP Christian Wakeford defected to Labour, describing the PM as incapable of leading.\n\nTory grandee and former ally of Mr Johnson David Davis told the PM: \"In the name of God, go.\"\n\nSo far six Conservative MPs have publicly declared no confidence in the PM, but more are thought to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, who organises Tory leadership contests.\n\nThere are claims that the threshold of 54 letters needed to trigger a no-confidence vote and leadership election could soon be reached, but no official word has been given.\n\nHowever, some Conservatives have told the BBC the mood has changed, following the defection of Mr Wakeford.\n\nNorthern Ireland Minister Conor Burns - a close ally of Mr Johnson - claimed Tory MPs were \"stepping back\" from calling for the PM to go now, and were waiting for Ms Gray's report.", "The boyfriend of killed blogger Gabby Petito \"admitted responsibility\" for her murder in a journal found with his body, according to the FBI.\n\nBrian Laundrie, 23, shot himself after Petito was found in September strangled in a Wyoming campground. The couple had been on a cross-country road trip.\n\nLaundrie's body was found in a Florida nature preserve near his parents' home on 20 October.\n\n\"The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito,\" FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider said in a statement on Friday.\n\n\"The FBI's primary focus throughout the investigation was to bring justice to Gabby and her family.\"\n\nHe said all \"logical investigative steps have been concluded\" in the case.\n\nIn a statement, the Petito family thanked law enforcement for their investigation. They gave particular praise to the FBI's Victim Services Department, which they said helped the \"entire family navigate through the worst moments of their lives\".\n\nThe couple had been documenting their travels on social media before Laundrie returned alone to his family home in North Port, Florida, on 1 September without Petito.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Police stopped Gabby Petito two weeks before she went missing\n\nShe was reported missing by her mother on 11 September after she stopped responding to phone calls. Her body was discovered near Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park on 19 September.\n\nLaundrie's body was found in an area of the nature preserve that had previously been underwater, the FBI said. He was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, along with the journal, a revolver and a backpack.\n\nThe FBI statement said that, on his journey back to Florida, Laundrie sent text messages between his and Petito's phones in an attempt \"to deceive law enforcement by giving the impression Ms Petito was still alive\". He also used her debit card without authorisation.\n\nThe FBI had previously identified him as a \"person of interest\" in the case.\n\nPetito was last seen alive on 27 August.\n\nThe mystery of her disappearance, along with a video from a police traffic stop in Utah showing her crying and describing a fight with Laundrie, led millions of people to closely follow updates in the case.\n\nFBI Agent Schneider praised the public for submitting \"thousands of tips,\" calling their role \"invaluable\".\n\nA lawyer representing Laundrie's family said the case \"has caused enormous emotional pain and suffering to all who loved either or both\" Petito and Laundrie.\n\n\"We can only hope that with today's closure of the case each family can begin to heal and move forward and find peace in and with the memories of their children. May Gabby and Brian both rest in peace.\"", "Daniel Howells-Thomas had previously attacked other men in pubs in Aberdare\n\nA man who killed a father-to-be just weeks before the birth of his baby has been jailed for nine years.\n\nDaniel Howells-Thomas, of Penywaun, Rhondda Cynon Taf, hit Keyron Curtis, 21, so hard he lost consciousness and hit his head on a kerb outside a pub in Aberdare on 17 October.\n\nThe 24-year-old admitted manslaughter and assault on another man.\n\nMerthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard Mr Curtis's daughter Hope was born two weeks later on 1 November.\n\nMr Curtis's father and two sisters all read out impact statements before sentencing was handed down.\n\nHis father Scott said: \"He was beautiful in every way. Our lives stopped that night Daniel Thomas punched and killed my beautiful Keyron.\n\n\"We are totally lost without him, his beautiful smile. The only thing keeping me living are my daughters and grandchildren.\n\n\"Keyron donated his organs, we are proud of the way Keyron saved four people.\"\n\nHis sister Jade added: \"Keyron was the baby of the family. Keyron was the kindest person you will ever see, with a smile you will never forget. He did not deserve to die on a cold pavement.\n\n\"I am so proud of my parents as they acted so selflessly, Keyron saved four people and we are so proud of him.\"\n\nKeyron Curtis was described as a gentle and thoughtful man by his loved ones\n\nA statement was read out on behalf of his partner, who also managed to reach the scene to hold his hand as he lay on the ground.\n\n\"I am devastated that Hope will never know her father\", she said.\n\n\"What hurts me the most is that our daughter will never experience the loving embrace of her daddy.\n\nMr Curtis, who was described as very drunk, was being helped into a car by a friend when Howells-Thomas attacked them both.\n\nHowells-Thomas was described by witnesses as raving and aggressive and looking for a fight.\n\nAfter throwing a punch at his friend, Howells-Thomas turned his attention on Mr Curtis, hitting him with such a force his legs buckled and his head hit the floor.\n\nKeyron Curtis was attacked as he got into a car outside the Colliers Arms\n\nThe court heard Mr Curtis, from Cwmdare, had no chance to defend himself and despite being out cold on the floor, Howells-Thomas stood over him ready to continue attacking him, before running away.\n\nMr Curtis's family were called and arrived at the scene as he was being treated by paramedics. He never regained consciousness and died the following day in hospital.\n\nHowells-Thomas, who has previous convictions for violence, including two similar attacks in pubs in Aberdare when he broke a man's jaw, was described as \"not educated\" and offered his apologies to Mr Curtis's family.\n\nDefending, Lucy Crowther said: \"He knows words are of little use and will not ease the pain. He knows this will have an effect on the rest of their lives.\n\n\"He knows he will not be forgiven by them. He is very deeply ashamed.\"\n\nJudge Walters sentenced Howells-Thomas to nine years for manslaughter with three months for the earlier assault, to be served concurrently.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The public are rightly furious, says Conservative MP\n\nBoris Johnson will probably be forced out of office over the lockdown party row, a senior Tory MP has predicted.\n\nSteve Baker told the BBC's Nick Robinson a growing rebellion from Tory MPs over gatherings in No 10 \"looks like checkmate\" for the prime minister.\n\nThe former Brexit minister - seen as influential backbench figure - said the current situation was \"appalling, and the public are rightly furious\".\n\nAllies of the PM say he has seen off a plot to remove him for the time being.\n\nMr Johnson has urged MPs to wait for a report by civil servant Sue Gray, expected next week, before deciding his fate.\n\nBut the pressure on him is continuing to grow on the backbenches, with one of his MPs quitting the party to defect to Labour.\n\nAnother senior Tory, David Davis, used his Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday to tell the prime minister: \"In the name of God, go\".\n\nAnd new claims over ministers \"blackmailing\" MPs to stop them plotting against Mr Johnson were revealed on Thursday by another leading Tory, William Wragg.\n\nBut Mr Johnson told reporters he had seen \"no evidence\" of blackmailing in the party.\n\nMr Baker said he was not rebelling against the PM - but he would take action if he is found to have broken Covid rules or misled MPs.\n\nThe MP for Wycombe, a ringleader in an ultimately unsuccessful plot to remove Theresa May as Tory leader and PM , said he would not be \"organising\" against Mr Johnson.\n\nHe told the BBC's Political Thinking podcast his \"heart wouldn't be in it\", and he was not \"under a duty\" to lead every Tory rebellion.\n\n\"Honestly, at the moment, I'm looking to the cabinet for leadership,\" he told host Nick Robinson.\n\n\"At the moment, I'm afraid it does look like checkmate - but whether he can save himself, we'll see\".\n• None Downing Street not in control after day of chaos", "Fans will be able to return to watch when Wales kicks-off its Six Nations in February\n\nMore restrictions to people's daily lives have been eased in Wales as Omicron cases continue to decline.\n\nPubs and restaurants in Wales can now operate outdoors without the rule of six or social distancing.\n\nAll limits on sports events have been scrapped meaning thousands of fans are set to return to watch fixtures across the country.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said: \"We have passed the peak and the situation has improved significantly.\"\n\nIt is the second part of a three-week roadmap to scrap restrictions imposed because of the Omicron variant.\n\nFrom a peak of more than 2,300 cases per 100,000 people in Wales, the rate has dipped below 500 on Friday.\n\nThe latest infection survey from the Office for National Statistics also estimates a fall in the number of people in Wales with Covid - affecting one in 25 of the population.\n\nThe number of people in hospital and in intensive care with Covid are also both declining.\n\nThe first minister said: \"Omicron was another unpleasant twist to this long-running pandemic.\"\n\nMr Drakeford said decisions to lift rules in England are being to made to deflect from the \"dire difficulties the Prime Minister has created for himself\"\n\n\"We have weathered this storm together in Wales by following the rules and these measures that have kept us safe for nearly two years,\" added Mr Drakeford.\n\n\"Sadly the pandemic is not over and coronavirus is still with us but we can look forward to the future with renewed hope and with better and brighter days ahead of us.\"\n\nHe previously laid out a roadmap for which restrictions will be eased and when.\n\nBut the Welsh Conservatives said Mr Drakeford should set a date for all Covid-related laws - including mask wearing and self-isolation rules - to be lifted.\n\nPlaid Cymru said the Welsh government needed to set out what else it will do to help the hospitality sector.\n\nAnyone over 18 will still have to show a Covid pass to go to larger outdoor event, so they can show they are either fully vaccinated or have had a negative lateral flow test in the past 24 hours.\n\nThe passes, which are being scrapped in England, will also still be required in cinemas and theatres until at least the next review on 10 February.\n\nThe rule of six will be lifted for pubs and restaurants outdoors from Friday\n\nBefore Mr Drakeford set out his plans to phase out the post-Christmas rules, he had faced growing pressure to ease sporting restrictions, including from the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), which threatened to move Wales' Six Nations home games to England.\n\nHe told Radio Wales Breakfast: \"I don't think anybody watching objectively what is happening in England could imagine that their decisions have been made by a careful attention to public health advice and some long-term plan.\n\n\"Their announcements are entirely down to the astonishing mess they find themselves in and an effort to create headlines that will distract the public's attention from the prime minister's failings.\n\n\"Covid passes encourage people to get out and about, using venues where they know everyone else has taken precautions.\"\n\nThe changes mean sports fans can return to Welsh stadiums from Saturday, with Swansea City's home game against Preston North End among the first to welcome back supporters.\n\nSeason ticket holder Simon Williams said: \"It's been strange when you could do a 500 mile roundtrip to go watch us away but you couldn't go 10 minutes down the road to watch at us at home.\"\n\nWhile Lorraine Dyer said her \"football mad\" grandsons were excited to return to the Swansea.com stadium.\n\nSwansea City season ticket holder Simon Williams said: \"Football's not the same without fans in the stadium\"\n\nCalum Darling, of Club One47 in Llandudno, has said his nightclub has lost up to 95% of its trade since restrictions had come into force.\n\n\"We've always got the most restrictions imposed on us as opposed to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland,\" he said.\n\n\"It just doesn't make sense that we're always five steps behind. There's just no logic to the reasoning behind it.\"\n\nAlert level zero is the lowest level of measures, where all businesses are allowed to reopen without two-metre social distancing rules in place.\n\nIf all goes to plan, the rule of six will not apply in pubs, restaurants, cinemas and theatres from 28 January.\n\nHowever, face masks will still be required in most indoor public places, unlike England where they will not be compulsory from Thursday.\n\nSelf-isolation rules also remain in force, and work from home guidance will remain advice but will not be law.\n\nWales, along with Scotland and Northern Ireland, brought in new Covid restrictions over Christmas because of a rapid rise in cases driven by the Omicron variant.\n\nThe decision to continue easing the rules comes as Wales sees the \"fastest rate of decline\" in case numbers and the lowest rate in the UK, according to Mr Drakeford.\n\nIt is down 61% in a week to 490.8 cases per 100,000, the lowest since 9 December.\n\nThe ONS infection survey estimates numbers infected in Wales have fallen 34% over the week, with 3.69% of the population having Covid in the week ending 15 January.\n\nThe number of patients with Covid in hospital is at an average of 722, an 16% fall on last week, while numbers in critical care are the lowest since 11 August.\n\nHowever, Mr Drakeford added: \"We are not out of the woods yet. There are still more than 1,000 people in hospital with Covid and that is putting additional pressure on the NHS.\"\n\nBut the former head of Public Health Wales' communicable disease surveillance centre said the restrictions had been unnecessary and \"should have been lifted three weeks ago\".\n\nDr Roland Salmon said: \"I've been a long time sceptic of these long-term measures such as lockdown.\n\n\"They've contributed very little while, in contrast, the vaccination programme has contributed a great deal.\"\n\nThe UK government said it intended to end the legal requirement for people who test positive for Covid to self-isolate in England - and replace it with advice and guidance.\n\nThe current regulations around self-isolation expire on 24 March, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggesting he would not renew them - and that the date could be brought forward if the data allows.", "The UK government has refused permission for a £1.2bn electricity link between England and France.\n\nAquind Ltd wanted to lay cables through Portsmouth, Hampshire, to Normandy.\n\nBut a decision notice posted on the government's website said Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng was not satisfied \"more appropriate alternatives to the proposed route\" had been fully considered.\n\nAquind said it was \"disappointed\" and would consider a legal challenge.\n\nThe company - which is part-owned by Russian-born Victor Fedotov - and another of his businesses, have donated £700,000 to 34 Conservative MPs since the Aquind project began, the BBC Panorama programme reported in October.\n\nAnother director, Ukrainian-born Alexander Temerko, has donated a further £700,000 to the party.\n\nAquind has previously said the planned 2GW interconnector could supply up to 5% of the UK's energy needs.\n\nThe decision letter said the project's \"proposed landfall in an urban location\" was of particular concern to Mr Kwarteng.\n\nIt said: \"The Secretary of State considers that in the circumstances of this particular application it is exceptionally necessary to consider whether sufficient consideration has been given to whether there are more appropriate alternatives to the proposed route.\"\n\nBoth Portsmouth MPs, Labour's Stephen Morgan and Conservative Penny Mordaunt, have objected to the scheme.\n\nMs Mordaunt, also a trade minister, celebrated the decision by tweeting \"we did it\".\n\nShe said: \"Thank you to everyone who campaigned against Aquind and this ridiculous proposal that would have damaged our city and it would have damaged the country.\"\n\nFlick Drummond, MP for West Meon, said the decision was \"extremely good news\".\n\n\"It was going to be very disruptive to my constituents so they will be very pleased,\" she said.\n\nMP Stephen Morgan, pictured with a megaphone, has supported local protesters against the project\n\nMr Morgan said: \"The government have finally seen sense and stopped the disastrous Aquind project.\n\n\"This is a victory for the people of Portsmouth over years of uncertainty and Tory cronyism.\"\n\nPortsmouth protest group Let's Stop Aquind also voiced opposition to the project.\n\nIt said: \"The Pandora Papers investigation revealed the hidden wealth of Aquind's owner and cast further doubts on the suitability of this company for a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project.\"\n\nLawyers for Aquind and Mr Temerko previously said their donations were \"entirely lawful, properly declared and have not been made in return for any special treatment\".\n\nMr Fedotov said that he \"has never had any interest in British politics and has operated in an open and transparent manner\".\n\nThe Conservative Party said fundraising was a legitimate activity and did not influence political policy.\n\nIn a statement released following the announcement, an Aquind spokesperson said: \"We disagree with the decision of the secretary of state, and the rationale behind it.\n\n\"We are considering the decision, the grounds for the refusal, and a potential legal challenge (judicial review).\n\n\"We believe our application for a development consent order to be accurate and robust, and it has met all the requirements.\n\n\"We will continue the development of Aquind Interconnector, and we will be engaging with the relevant parties in the coming weeks.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land in Minsk\n\nThe US has charged four Belarusian officials with aircraft piracy over the diversion of a passenger plane to Minsk last May.\n\nProsecutors allege the officials used a false bomb threat to divert a Ryanair flight to the Belarus capital, where opposition journalist Roman Protasevich and his partner were detained.\n\nFBI officials said the incident was a \"reckless violation\".\n\nEarlier this week a UN report concluded the bomb threat was deliberately false.\n\nA spokesperson for the US Justice Department said the four men, Leonid Mikalaevich Churo and Oleg Kazyuchits - the director general and deputy director general of Belarus' state air navigation authority - and state security officers Andrey Anatolievich Lnu [Last Name Unknown] and Fnu [First Name Unknown] Lnu, remain at large in Belarus.\n\nIf they were tried in a US court they would face a life sentence.\n\nAccording to the charges, Mr Churo personally communicated the false bomb threat to Belarusian air traffic officials before the Ryanair flight to Vilnius in Lithuania took off from the Greek capital Athens.\n\nThe air traffic officials waited for the plane to enter Belarusian air space before alerting the pilot to the purported bomb threat in order to force it to land in Minsk.\n\nMr Churo's deputy, Mr Kazyuchits, later attempted to have the incident record falsified to hide the bomb threat and the involvement of state security officials, the indictment alleges.\n\nSpeaking after the charges were filed at a federal court in New York, FBI Assistant Director Michael Driscoll called the hijacking a \"reckless violation of US law\".\n\n\"The next pilot who gets a distress call from a tower may doubt the authenticity of the emergency - which puts lives at risk,\" Mr Driscoll added.\n\nLast year, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary referred to the incident as a \"state-sponsored hijacking\".\n\nThe incident sparked international outrage and punitive sanctions were imposed on Belarus by the US, EU and the UK.\n\nAt the time, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko insisted the bomb threat had been real and he was \"thinking about the country's security\".\n\nMr Protasevich, a 26-year old journalist with the Nexta opposition media, and his partner Sofia Sapega were detained once the flight had landed in Minsk.\n\nMr Protasevich was released from prison in June and has spent the past seven months under house arrest.\n\nHis parents told Belarusian media in November that their contact with him has been intermittent since his release.\n\nMr Lukashenko - who has ruled Belarus since 1994 - claimed victory in a widely discredited presidential election in 2020, sparking months of mass protests.\n\nHe has since launched a brutal crackdown on dissenting voices who challenged his win.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Roman Protasevich's father tells the BBC's Sarah Rainsford he is fearful his son may be tortured", "The AA says the safety of women is \"100% at the top\" of its priorities after claims it no longer prioritised call-outs to lone female drivers.\n\nThe firm faced a backlash after customer Helen Mott was told lone male and female drivers were given the same priority as \"that's equality\".\n\nResponding to her story on Twitter, the AA said it didn't \"prioritise based on gender\" but would consider the location of where someone had broken down.\n\nMs Mott posted about her experience on Tuesday, believing the long standing practice was still in place.\n\nShe wrote: \"I am a lone woman whose car has broken down at night in the dark.\n\n\"Your call handler has told me you treat lone women and lone men as exactly the same priority in such circumstances because 'that's equality'.\"\n\nThe AA replied to her tweet saying she had been \"advised correctly\".\n\nThey added: \"We don't prioritise based on gender, we do consider the location so as an example we would prioritise someone on a motorway over someone in a supermarket car park.\"\n\nThe response attracted a lot of attention on social media, including from Labour MP Rosie Duffield.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Ms Duffield said: \"The AA calls itself the fourth emergency service. We just need to know that at that end of the phone is someone prioritising our safety.\n\n\"We are more at risk physically than men in that situation. It's just a fact, I'm afraid.\"\n\nThe MP wrote to the company's president, Edmund King, saying the reply had \"provoked a huge response from women, and many men, who had understood that a lone woman would always be given priority... due to the reality of gender-based violence and the current huge publicity surrounding violence against women and girls.\"\n\nReplying to her letter, Mr King, said \"the safety of women, and all vulnerable customers, is 100% at the top\" of its priorities.\n\nHe said the AA had \"reminded staff\" of its \"vulnerable customer processes and procedures\", and said if there was a breakdown involving a lone woman, \"where there is any concern raised by the customer, they receive the highest level of care and priority.\"\n\nGreen Flag and the RAC both said they prioritised people in vulnerable situations, including lone women.", "BT has said most customers will see bills rise by more than 9% from the end of March as households are squeezed by cost of living pressures.\n\nThe telecoms giant said broadband and phone bills will jump by 9.3% following a \"dramatic increase\" in data usage over the last few years.\n\nAffected customers will pay an extra £3.50 a month on average from 31 March.\n\nBut households on certain packages, as well as those claiming benefits, will be exempt.\n\nAround two years ago, BT changed how it raised bills, saying it would make one increase a year at the end of March of 3.9% plus inflation as measured by the consumer price index to reflect \"rising costs to the business\".\n\nInflation is running at a 30 year-high of 5.4%.\n\nOn Thursday, Nick Lane, BT's managing director for consumer customer services, wrote in a blog post: \"Price rises are never popular, but are sometimes a necessary part of business, if we're to keep up with the rising costs we face.\"\n\nCustomers' data usage had \"increased dramatically\" with a 90% increase on broadband usage since 2018, and a 79% increase on mobile phones since 2019.\n\nWorking from home, online education and TV streaming has led to more demands on BT's network, he said.\n\n\"Unlike most things we buy, like food, electricity or fuel, you don't pay more for using more as our data plans are unlimited, but we need to keep investing in our networks so they can handle this huge increase in demand,\" he said.\n\nHowever, customers on BT's at-cost social tariff, BT Home Essentials, will not see a rise in prices, and neither will those on BT Basic.\n\nTo qualify for these packages, customers need to be claiming benefits such as Universal Credit.\n\nCustomers with just a landline will also not experience an increase.\n\nBT said it will write to customers to tell them about the increases.\n\nRival Virgin Media said earlier this month that prices will rise for broadband customers from the beginning of March.\n\nPrice comparison website Uswitch said this would add £56 per year to bills for millions of customers.\n\nVulnerable customers, including those on benefits, will not see prices rises, a Virgin Media spokesman said.\n\nVirgin will hike its prices for mobile customers from the beginning of April by 3.9% plus inflation as measured by the retail price index inflation rate for February.\n\nThe price hikes from broadband providers will pile more pressure on household finances, with the cost of other utilities also set to increase. Energy customers are facing the prospect of a 50% increase in their gas bills from April.", "Five business groups have written to Chancellor Rishi Sunak urging support for businesses and consumers as energy costs soar.\n\nThe groups, representing small and large businesses, bosses and manufacturers, said price rises on the horizon could push millions of people into fuel poverty.\n\nThey said businesses had also been hit by steep rises in bills.\n\nThe Treasury said it was helping families with £12bn support.\n\nThe five groups - the British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Institute of Directors and Make UK - said businesses were likely to be faced with further costs as existing fixed tariff contracts come to an end.\n\n\"The scale of the crisis has left companies with little protection while they face dealing with soaring wage, shipping and tax costs,\" the groups said.\n\n\"Small and medium-sized businesses are the most at risk. Many companies will be left with little other choice than to pass costs on to their customers, adding further inflationary pressure.\"\n\nThey said that the government should focus on \"supporting firms across the economy as they strive to manage these costs and protect cashflows\".\n\nEnergy-intensive industries such as steel, ceramics and glass makers also needed support to be competitive internationally, the groups said.\n\nInflation is running at its fastest rate for 30 years, pushed up by surging food costs and the energy bill crisis.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We understand the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and are providing support worth around £12bn over two years to help families.\n\n\"Support is being targeted towards the lowest paid, and we are specifically helping households with their energy bills.\n\n\"In addition, the energy price cap is currently insulating millions of consumers from high global gas prices and we'll continue to listen to consumers and businesses on how to manage the costs of energy.\"", "A Connecticut woman is suing Instagram's parent company Meta and Snap Inc, alleging an addiction to their social media platforms caused the suicide of her young daughter.\n\nSelena Rodriguez, an 11-year-old resident of the town of Enfield, took her own life last year.\n\nThe lawsuit alleges that her death was caused by the potentially dangerous features of the platforms.\n\nThe case comes amid growing fears over the impact of social media on children.\n\nAccording to a statement from the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) - which filed the suit in California on behalf of Selena's mother, Tammy - the young girl suffered from an \"extreme\" addiction to Instagram and Snapchat.\n\nMs Rodriguez confiscated her daughter's devices on multiple occasions, only to have her run away to use social media, according to the SMVLC.\n\n\"On multiple occasions, Selena received mental health treatment for her addiction,\" the statement said. \"One outpatient therapist who evaluated Selena remarked that she had never seen a patient as addicted to social media.\"\n\nBefore her suicide on 21 July 2021, Selena had allegedly suffered from sleep deprivation and depression for months, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic began and she spent more time on social media.\n\nAdditionally, the lawsuit alleges that Selena was repeatedly solicited for sexually exploitative content, which she ultimately shared.\n\nThe images were then leaked and shared by her classmates, leading to a deterioration of her mental state and eventually to her suicide.\n\nThe lawsuit, which was filed in a federal courtroom in California on Friday, alleges that both social media giants \"knowingly and purposefully\" designed and marketed products that were harmful to a \"significant\" number of their underage users.\n\n\"[The] defendants intentionally created an attractive nuisance to young children but failed to provide adequate safeguards from the harmful effects they knew were occurring on their wholly owned and controlled digital premises,\" the lawsuit says.\n\nIn a statement sent to the BBC, a Snap spokesperson said the company was \"devastated\" to hear of Selena's death, although it declined to comment on the lawsuit specifically.\n\n\"Nothing is more important to us than the wellbeing of our community,\" the spokesperson said, adding that it helps people communicate with friends \"without some of the public pressure and social comparison features of traditional social media platforms\".\n\nThe spokesperson added that it \"intentionally makes it hard for strangers to contact young people\" and is working with mental health organisations to provide in-app tools and resources.\n\nMeta - the parent company of Facebook - did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.\n\nThe lawsuit comes as US lawmakers and the public have grown increasingly concerned over the impact of social media on young people.\n\nIn November, former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen told lawmakers the company was harming children, but alleged that it \"won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people\".\n\nAfterward, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent a letter to staff - made public on his Facebook page - that the company cares \"deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health\".", "Louie Anderson won an Emmy in 2016 for his role as Christine Baskets in comedy drama Baskets\n\nUS comedian Louie Anderson, whose film appearances included Coming to America and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, has died following complications from cancer.\n\nHis representatives said in a statement that he \"passed away peacefully\" on 21 January in Las Vegas, aged 68.\n\nThe comic won an Emmy in 2016 for his role as Christine Baskets in comedy drama Baskets, plus two nominations for outstanding supporting actor.\n\nHe also co-created and starred in the cartoon sitcom Life With Louie.\n\nAnderson based the show on his childhood, and also hosted popular US game show Family Feud for a number of years.\n\nAs well as having a role in 1988 romantic comedy film Coming to America, starring Eddie Murphy, the comic also appeared in its sequel last year.\n\nHe starred alongside Zach Galifianakis and Martha Kelly in FX show Baskets, and guest-starred on Big Bang Theory spin-off Young Sheldon, as well as playing a recurring character in the TBS dark comedy Search Party.\n\nThe comic was also a best-selling author, and his books included Dear Dad, which explored his relationship with his alcoholic father, and Goodbye Jumbo...Hello Cruel World, in which he wrote about his struggle with food addiction and self-esteem.\n\nHe paid tribute to the enduring influence of his late mother in his 2018 book Hey Mom.\n\nActor and writer Henry Winkler said: \"Your generosity of spirit will cover the world from above.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Henry Winkler This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe comic, who was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, started his career on the US club circuit.\n\nHe got his break-out moment in 1984 when he performed a set on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, according to Variety.\n\nAnderson went on to have a four-decade stand-up career, including a comedy special on Showtime in 1987, plus regular TV appearances on late-night shows.\n\nThe comedian, who had been receiving treatment for DLBCL (diffuse large B cell lymphoma), is survived by his two sisters, Lisa and Shanna Anderson.", "Stars including Cher, Brian May and Bonnie Tyler have paid tribute to rock singer Meat Loaf, who has died aged 74.\n\nCher, who duetted with him on the 1981 track Dead Ringer for Love, recalled having \"had so much fun\" with him.\n\nQueen guitarist Brian May, who also worked with Meat Loaf, said he was \"completely gutted\".\n\nHe wrote on Instagram: \"Always full of madness, with the innocent sense of naughtiness of a five-year old, Meat was forever young.\"\n\nBrian May joined Meat Loaf on stage in 2004\n\nMeat Loaf's best-known album, the bombastic Bat Out Of Hell, remains one of the best-selling releases of all time.\n\nThe star sold 100 million albums worldwide in total and also appeared in movies like Fight Club, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Wayne's World.\n\nHe was also known for hits like I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) and Dead Ringer For Love.\n\nThe news of his death was confirmed on the star's Facebook page by his family.\n\n\"We know how much he meant to so many of you and we truly appreciate all of the love and support as we move through this time of grief in losing such an inspiring artist and beautiful man,\" their message read.\n\nBonnie Tyler, who released an album with Meat Loaf in 1989, said he was \"a larger than life character with a voice & stage presence to match & is one of those rare people who truly was a one-off talent and personality.\"\n\nQueen's current frontman Adam Lambert remembered him as \"a gentle hearted powerhouse rockstar forever and ever\".\n\nFellow rocker Alice Cooper also paid his respects, saying: \"Meat Loaf was one of the greatest voices in rock 'n' roll, and he was certainly one of my closest friends in the business.\n\n\"There was nobody, and I mean nobody like Meat Loaf,\" he added. \"His shoes can never be filled.\"\n\nTheatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote: \"The vaults of heaven will be ringing with rock. RIP Meatloaf.\"\n\nBritish vocalist Lorraine Crosby, who sang on I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), told BBC News he was \"a great man\" who was \"very generous with everything\".\n\nThe star was \"larger than life\" and \"had a temper\", she said, but added: \"He didn't fall out with you for long. He'd say his bit, and then everything would be fine the next day.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Meat Loaf in 2016: \"I either want to die in my sleep or die on stage\"\n\nThe Dallas-born singer was born Marvin Lee Aday but also known as Michael, and got his nickname when his dad said he looked as red as meat at birth, before a high school football coach added the \"loaf\".\n\nAs well as the Bat Out Of Hell trilogy, he released a string of other albums in the late 1970s and 1980s, most notably Dead Ringer and Midnight at the Lost and Found.\n\nIn the 90s, I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) was the UK's best-selling single of 1993 and earned him a Grammy Award.\n\nOn screen, he played Eddie in 1975 musical film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, was bouncer Tiny in 1992's Wayne's World, and appeared opposite Brad Pitt as bodybuilder Robert Paulsen in 1999's Fight Club.\n\n\"If Bruce Springsteen can take it over the top, Meat Loaf can take it five storeys higher.\"\n\nThat's how Todd Rundgren, the producer of Bat Out Of Hell, described Meat Loaf's bombastic, operatic voice. He was one of a kind, larger than life - living proof that those clichés can be true.\n\nBorn to a family of gospel singers, he got his break in musical theatre, where he teamed up with Jim Steinman. Together, they spent four years making Bat Out Of Hell.\n\nThe session musicians thought it was a joke, and it was rejected by four record labels. But after two explosive TV performances - on the UK's Old Grey Whistle Test and America's Saturday Night Live - it couldn't be stopped. It has now sold more than 43 million copies worldwide.\n\nThe resulting tour was punishing. Meat Loaf ended up with exhaustion and his career stalled. Worse still, contractual problems meant he received no royalties from Bat Out Of Hell for years, eventually declaring bankruptcy. In one interview, he confessed he was so angered by the situation that he would pull copies of the CD off record store shelves and smash them under his feet to make sure no-one else got paid, either.\n\nBut his career rebounded in the 1990s when he teamed up again with Steinman for Bat Out Of Hell II, producing the high-camp I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), which spent seven weeks at number one in the UK.\n\nHis death robs rock of a true original. But we'll always be able to belt out those classics in the way they were intended - at the top of our lungs on a late night car ride. Paradise By The Dashboard Light, indeed.\n\nOther friends and collaborators told stories of their time with Meat Loaf. Irish singer Imelda May recalled a boozy night out with him.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Imelda May This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Imelda May\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Boy George This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMeat Loaf was one of the few big-name American entertainment figures to campaign for US presidential candidate Mitt Romney in his race against Barack Obama in 2012.\n\nRomney ultimately lost, but kept his friendship with the singer, who he described on Friday as \"a man of gentle kindness, generous spirit and exceptional talent\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Mitt Romney This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDonald Trump, who did later make his way into the Oval Office, said the late singer was \"smart, talented, open and warm\". The two appeared together on the celebrity version of the US Apprentice.\n\nIn the UK, former culture secretary Matt Hancock revealed that a Meat Loaf gig in Manchester was his first experience of live music.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Matt Hancock This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Blinken met his opposite number, Sergei Lavrov - but neither expected a breakthrough\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken hopped on a plane to Europe this week to do three things.\n\nHe wanted to assure Ukraine the US would support it in the face of Russian military threats; rally support among US allies for a unified, aggressive response if needed; and sit down with his Russian counterpart to find a diplomatic solution - or at least show the US was not giving up on diplomacy.\n\nIt was clearly a hastily-arranged trip.\n\nUS officials had only two days' notice to prepare a day full of meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Secretary Dmytro Kuleba, as well as with concerned staff at the US embassy.\n\nThroughout, Mr Blinken hammered the same message: the US stood by Ukraine.\n\nRussia had a stark choice between \"diplomacy and dialogue\" on one hand and \"conflict and consequences\" on the other, he said. By the end of that long first day, it seemed like the US was making progress.\n\nThen President Joe Biden did a rhetorical belly-flop in the middle of the diplomatic pool overnight.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joe Biden: \"It is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further invade Ukraine\"\n\nDuring a nearly two-hour press conference, he said the US would surely argue with its allies over how to respond to a \"minor incursion\" by Russia into Ukraine - and that he thought it was probable that Russia would \"go in\" to Ukraine.\n\nThose views left heads nodding in foreign policy circles. But when it comes to diplomacy, some truths are best left unsaid.\n\nThe next day, Mr Blinken was meeting US \"quad\" allies from Germany, the UK and France in Berlin. But he had to spend most of the day clarifying Mr Biden's comments instead of polishing the appearance of allied unity in the face of Russian intransigence.\n\nMeanwhile, back in Ukraine, President Zelensky was firing off snarky tweets, and other government officials fretted that Mr Biden had given a \"green light\" to a Russian invasion.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDuring a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, both diplomats talked up the strength of the yet-to-be-detailed sanctions that loomed if Russia attacked. Neither, however, seemed interested in discussing whether suspending the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany was a possibility.\n\nEnergy sanctions would hit Russia's national pocketbook the hardest, but seem unlikely. Europe relies on Russian natural gas and Mr Biden is politically sensitive to rising petrol prices in the US.\n\nThe rest of \"the quad\" has issues, too.\n\nFrance's Emmanuel Macron seems intent on pursuing a separate diplomatic strategy with Russia's Vladimir Putin. Plane-spotters were quick to note the longer route around France and Germany that British cargo flights had to take to bring short-range anti-tank missiles to Ukraine this week.\n\nThe US and its allies were talking a good game, but the Russians had to be at least somewhat encouraged by the way the week was playing out.\n\nThe bilateral meeting between Mr Blinken and Russia's Sergei Lavrov on Friday was a spectacle.\n\nAt the historic President Wilson hotel on the banks of a wind-swept Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Russian and American reporters jostled for position.\n\nRussian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, in an attempt to evade the media crush, sought refuge behind a coat rack. Press Secretary Maria Zakharova complained that she couldn't have a casual conversation with reporters who kept trying to record her on their mobile phones.\n\nEventually Mr Lavrov and Mr Blinken made opening remarks, seated across from each other at two long sets of tables adorned with pink and green bouquets.\n\nMr Lavrov said he hoped for \"concrete answers to our concrete proposals\" - including demands that Nato will never expand to former Soviet nations like Ukraine. Mr Blinken, for his part, repeated that Russian aggression would prompt a \"united, swift, and severe response\" from the US and its allies.\n\nAfter the meeting, both sides said little progress had been made - but little had been expected.\n\nMr Lavrov said Russia had no plans to invade Ukraine, despite amassing more than 100,000 troops on its borders. Mr Blinken said he stood by Nato's \"open door\" policy of expansion eligibility for all European nations and promised to provide a written response to Russia's \"concerns\" next week.\n\nAsked if the US would consider using its military to defend Ukraine, he said America was committed to protecting its Nato allies.\n\nBut Ukraine is not a member of Nato - something Ukrainian officials are painfully aware of.\n\nBoth sides promised to keep the dialogue going and left open the possibility of a future meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Putin.\n\nBut in a way, the spectacle is already a win for Russia, regardless of how the crisis is resolved. This is a diplomatic conflict of Russia's making.\n\nTheir movements have prompted a week of furious activity on the part of the Americans and their allies at a time when the US would much rather be focusing on what it views as an era-defining competition with an ascendant China.\n\nInstead, the high-stakes negotiations in Geneva hearken back to a time decades past: Russia is, for the moment, again the centre of global attention.\n\nMr Blinken suggested as much in a speech in Berlin on Thursday afternoon.\n\nAfter detailing what he viewed as the long history of Russian deceit and broken promises, he said it sometimes seemed like Russia wanted to return to the days of the Cold War.\n\n\"We hope not,\" he said. \"But if [Vladimir Putin] chooses to do so, he'll be met with the same determination, the same unity that past generations of leaders and citizens brought to bear to advance peace, to advance freedom, to advance human dignity across Europe and around the world.\"\n\nQuestions remain over what Mr Putin's next move might be\n\nAs he heads back to Washington, it's hard to say what, if anything, has changed in three days of crisis diplomacy.\n\nBoth sides are still talking, but talk without results only goes so far.\n\nRussia could use the US's written response next week as pretext for further escalation. In Ukraine, US diplomats don't know what to expect - more cyber-warfare, a \"minor incursion\" or tens of thousands of Russian troops pouring into the country from three sides and paratroopers landing in Kyiv.\n\nAnything, they say, is possible.\n\nThe US seems determined to try to keep the Russians talking until the spring rains make tank invasion impractical. As for what Russia wants, both Mr Blinken and Mr Biden have been consistent in their conclusion: it ultimately depends on what's going on in Mr Putin's head.", "UK retail sales sank 3.7% in December from the month before as the spread of Omicron deterred shoppers from visiting the High Street.\n\nData from the Office for National Statistics also showed a 7.1% fall in clothing and other non-food sales.\n\nHowever, last month's figures followed a strong November amid reports there would be some shortages in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nAnd while food sales fell by 1%, volumes were above pre-pandemic levels.\n\n\"After strong pre-Christmas trading in November, retail sales fell across the board in December, with feedback from retailers suggesting Omicron impacted on footfall,\" said Office for National Statistics (ONS) deputy director for surveys and economic indicators Heather Bovill.\n\n\"As Plan B restrictions in England meant more people working from home, there was a notable fall for fuel sales.\n\n\"However, despite the fall in December, retail sales are still stronger than before the pandemic, with over a quarter of sales now made online.\"\n\nFuel volumes fell by 4.7% in December on the previous month as more people worked from home, and were 6.6% below their pre-pandemic levels in February 2020.\n\nGavin Peck, chief executive of retailer The Works, told the BBC there were definite signs that consumers did their Christmas shopping earlier than usual last year.\n\nMr Peck, whose firm on Friday reported a strong rise in sales, said it was noticeable that some shoppers were starting festive purchases as early as September.\n\nAs the UK economy emerged from lockdown last year retail sales recovered quickly from their 2020 pandemic slump.\n\nBut analysts say that a combination of fast-rising inflation led by surging energy prices, the prospect of higher interest rates, and planned tax rises in April may dent the appetite of consumers to keep on spending in 2022.\n\nThe restaurant chain saw a sharp fall in customers in December.\n\nBethany Beckett, economist at Capital Economics, said December's fall was much bigger than expected and could drag UK growth figures lower.\n\nHowever, she said: \"With encouraging signs that the Omicron outbreak may have turned a corner and the government's Plan B restrictions due to be lifted next week, retail sales may recoup a bit of this fall in January and probably all of it in February and March.\n\n\"That said, with the UK's cost of living crisis looming, we expect a weakening in the consumer recovery to dampen retail sales further ahead.\"\n\nMs Beckett said that, despite weaker economic data, the Bank of England will remain focused on accelerating inflation, and she still expects interest rates to be raised to 0.50% in early February.\n\nOn Friday, The Restaurant Group, whose operations include Wagamama, Frankie & Benny's, and food kiosks, said that despite the lifting of Plan B restrictions \"consumer confidence may take longer to recover\".\n\nThe company's sales figures underlined the impact of December's Covid restrictions on trading.\n\nAt Wagamama, sales in October and November were up 11% and 8% respectively on the same months in 2019, before the pandemic hit, as people returned to eating out in larger numbers.\n\nBut in December, Wagamama sales were just 1% up on 2019, and there were even sharper falls at Restaurant Group's other divisions.", "Thanks for being with us as First Minister Mark Drakeford held a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic in Wales.\n\nThe Omicron wave of infections has peaked and case rates are rapidly declining - faster than anywhere else in the UK, he said.\n\nHe confirmed Wales was on track to follow its roadmap to alert zero by 10 February, meaning nightclubs can reopen from 28 January but Covid passes will still be needed.\n\nThere are currently no plans to charge for lateral flow tests, with Mr Drakeford suggesting such a change would need to be agreed by all UK administrations.\n\nThere will also be no changes to self-isolation rules in Wales, which remains at seven full days compared to five in England.\n\nOn a more political note, he criticised PM Boris Johnson about the UK government's plans to lift all Covid restrictions, accusing it of trying to \"shore up\" the PM's position.\n\nThese comments were swiftly criticised by Welsh Secretary Simon Hart, who said Mr Drakeford's comments were \"uncalled for and opportunistic\".\n\nFollow all our latest updates by clicking here.", "The Ukrainian ambassador to the UK has welcomed the military support the country has received from the UK and US. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken is in Kyiv for talks and promised a relentless push for peace, but said that Russia could attack at very short notice. Russia has repeatedly denied planning to invade Ukraine.\n\nRead more Russia could attack Ukraine at short notice - US", "Tamana Zaryabi Paryani posted a video of herself pleading for help\n\nThe Taliban can threaten with a whisper. After 20 years of violent struggle, and the loss of tens of thousands of civilian lives, they took power here using brutal force.\n\nEven so, Afghan women refuse to be intimidated.\n\nTamana Zaryabi Paryani is one of those women. It takes raw courage to stand up to armed men who want to take away almost everything you have achieved in life.\n\nLast weekend, she joined dozens of others to demand the right to work and the right to an education. The protesters were pepper-sprayed by Taliban fighters, and a number said they had been stunned by electric shocks.\n\nAfter making their voices heard, they returned home. Some feared they had been followed.\n\nOn Wednesday night, at 20:00, armed men entered Tamana Paryani's apartment block in Kabul's Parwan 2 neighbourhood. She was alone at home with her sisters. The men began to kick the door.\n\n\"Please help, the Taliban have come to my house, my sisters are at home,\" Ms Paryani pleaded on a video posted to social media.\n\n\"We don't want you here now,\" she screamed. \"Come back tomorrow, we can speak tomorrow,\" she pleaded.\n\n\"You can't see these girls at this time of night. Help, the Taliban have come to my house,\" she said before the video ended.\n\nSince the Taliban took power on 15 August, women have complained that they are now prisoners in their own homes.\n\nAnd even there they are not safe. It is a violation of Afghan culture to enter a home that contains only women.\n\nBut having dismissed women police officers, the Taliban do not have female personnel available to question women.\n\nTamana Paryani has been missing for two days now. I went to her apartment to try and trace her.\n\nThere was no-one inside the home. A large muddy boot-print was still visible on the front door.\n\nNeighbours said Ms Paryani had been taken away along with two of her sisters, and no-one has been to the apartment since. They would say only that \"an armed group\" had taken the sisters.\n\nOther women protesters were targeted that night. Another, Parawana Ibrahimkhel, is also missing. Still, the Taliban denied taking them.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC on Thursday, Suhai Shaheen, who hopes to become the Taliban's ambassador to the UN, said: \"If [the Taliban] had detained them, they would say they have detained them, and if that is the allegation they will go to court and they will defend themselves... This is something legal, but if they are not detained, and they are making such fake scenes and shooting films in order to seek asylum abroad.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban official Suhail Shaheen told the BBC that Tamana Paryani's video was faked\n\nOne of Miss Paryani's friends told a different story.\n\nFrom a safe location, in an interview with the BBC, she said, \"I told her as soon as possible, leave your home, take this more seriously you are in danger… When I got home, a friend, also a protester - I don't want to mention her name - she was crying that Tamana had been arrested by the Taliban and that she had released a video on social media.\"\n\nIt is not known if the authorities are looking for the women.\n\nMost of the world refuses to recognise the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. More than half the population is going hungry because of Western-imposed sanctions.\n\nUnder Taliban rule Afghanistan has become the only country in the world which publicly limits education on the basis of gender, which is a major sticking point in the Taliban's quest for legitimacy, and in the lifting of sanctions. The regular protests by women highlighting the issue are a source of embarrassment to the group.\n\nRegardless of who has Tamara Paryani, her sisters and her friends, the Taliban are collectively punishing Afghan women.\n\nOver the past 20 years women here have cast off cultural and family prejudice to live more freely - decades of progress the Taliban appear determined to destroy.", "The car went through the safety barrier and landed on the A1 (M) below\n\nA woman is in a critical condition in hospital after a car plunged off a bridge and landed on its roof in the middle of a busy motorway.\n\nIt happened at the Bowburn Interchange of the A1 (M) at 10:35 GMT on Friday.\n\nThe vehicle, which was being driven on the A177 flyover, went through a safety barrier before landing in the central reservation below, Durham police said.\n\nThe driver of the red Vauxhall Astra freed themselves from the wreckage but the passenger had to be cut free.\n\nPolice confirmed that a woman in her mid-40s suffered serious injuries and remains in a critical condition.\n\nA man in his early 30s was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and remains in custody.\n\nThe North East Ambulance Service said it requested help from the Great North Air Ambulance which dispatched its critical care team.\n\nIt said one person was flown to Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary's major trauma centre, and another was taken by ambulance to the University Hospital North Durham.\n\nThe road is expected to be closed until Saturday\n\nThe A1(M), within Junction 61, and the A177 were closed in both directions which caused major delays.\n\nThey are likely to remain shut until Saturday while repairs are carried out to the safety barriers and investigations continue.\n\nDrivers are urged to avoid the area and find an alternative route if possible.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by National Highways: North-East This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDet Con Natalie Horner, of Durham Constabulary's collision investigation unit, has appealed for witnesses.\n\n\"We would also urge anyone who saw this vehicle being driven between 09:00 and 10:30 today, especially in the Sherburn Village area, to contact us,\" she said.\n\nA number of ambulances were despatched to the scene on Friday morning\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Christmas in Kyiv has continued as normal, with little sign of anxiety or alert\n\nSometimes it looks a bit like a diplomatic version of \"does he take sugar?\"\n\nIn Geneva and Brussels, Western diplomats face off against their Russian counterparts, discussing, among other things, Ukraine's ability as a sovereign, independent state, to shape its own destiny.\n\nBut Ukraine is not there.\n\nNo matter how many times senior US officials repeat the mantra \"nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine\" - and they repeat it at every opportunity - it's hard for Ukrainians to avoid wondering just what is being discussed behind their backs.\n\nWith an estimated 100,000 Russian troops massed on the country's northern and eastern borders, you might think this would be cause for serious alarm.\n\nOrthodox Christmas was celebrated here last Friday, and if you stroll through Kyiv's busy Christmas markets you're not exactly assailed by a sense of heightened alert and anxiety.\n\n\"People are used to heavy times,\" says Petro Burkovsky from one of Kyiv's oldest independent think tanks, the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. \"In the 20th Century, we had many occasions when people lived in daily horror. It's part of their historical memory.\"\n\nUkraine's current horror has been going on for almost eight years, since masked Russian troops first appeared on the streets of Crimea.\n\nFighting broke out in the eastern Donbas region in April 2014. Since then, 14,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in what the government in Kyiv calls the \"Russian-Ukrainian War\". Russia insists to this day that it is not a party to the conflict.\n\nEach morning, at a short, sombre ceremony outside the defence ministry in Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers killed on that particular calendar day since independence in 1991 are commemorated. The vast majority have died since 2014.\n\nOn the morning we attend, four names are read out, each killed on 11 January. The last of them, Oleh Andriyenko, died a year ago.\n\nA ceremony takes place in Kyiv every day to commemorate those who have fallen\n\nEach name is met with a volley of gunfire and the toll of a bell.\n\nAcross town, the faces of dead soldiers stare out in serried ranks from the walls of St Michael's Cathedral in a memorial that stretches for almost 100m.\n\nPassers-by stop and reflect, undeterred by the snow and freezing temperatures.\n\nViktor Moroshan, 63, was injured during the ferocious battle for Ilovaisk in August and September 2014. He points to the faces of fallen colleagues from the volunteer Donbas Battalion, which took heavy losses.\n\n\"Everyone had one goal,\" he says finally. \"To liberate our land from those Russians.\"\n\nViktor met his wife, Tetyana, while he was recovering in the hospital in where she was a volunteer.\n\n\"Maybe the war will be big next time,\" she says. \"He [Putin] has a lot of plans to start a new war. It's not a fairy tale.\"\n\nViktor describes himself as ethnically Russian, from one of the areas now under rebel control. But his hatred for Russian leader Vladimir Putin is deep. \"He's a maniac. A killer.\"\n\nRetired now, he says he still keeps an emergency bulletproof vest and helmet ready.\n\n\"My wife says 'Vitya, maybe you shouldn't.' But I say we need to be ready. No-one else can defend our fatherland but us.\"\n\nIt's the kind of defiant talk you might expect in a country facing potentially overwhelming odds and knowing that if it comes to a fight, there will be limits to support from outside.\n\nUkraine's Western allies talk of \"massive\" consequences if Russia mounts an incursion. But while those could well include increased military assistance, it would be Ukrainians alone doing the fighting and the dying.\n\nHence the growing support for Nato membership.\n\n\"Every time Russia starts an escalation in the front line, support for Nato membership grows,\" says Petro Burkovsky, \"and the readiness to make concessions with Russia falls.\"\n\nPublicly, Nato leaders say the door to membership, opened to Ukraine and Georgia in 2008, is still open.\n\nUkraine's deputy prime minister, visiting Nato headquarters in Brussels on Monday, repeated her government's refrain.\n\n\"We have the inherent, sovereign right to choose our own security arrangements,\" Olga Stefanishyna told reporters. \"Including treaties and alliances.\"\n\nBut it's hardly a secret that Nato membership is not on the cards right now. Western officials know it's the very thing most likely to provoke the military confrontation they're so anxious to avoid.\n\nMr Burkovsky says Ukraine has little choice but to wait out a slow-burning, long-term crisis.\n\n\"Right now we have to accept the reality of confrontation and conflict with Russia,\" he says.\n\n\"Maybe in the course of time, the situation in Russia will change. Russia will not be as formidable as it is now, Ukraine will be stronger and the West will be more decisive towards Ukraine and towards Russia.\"\n\nFor the time being, he says, Ukraine should concentrate on avoiding the fate of two of Russia's other neighbours, Belarus and Kazakhstan.\n\n\"They show the fate of people in countries that are Russian satellites,\" he says. \"Most people in Ukraine don't want this destiny for them and of course for their children.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Mandy Murphy stole the victim's bank card and defrauded her of more than £9,000\n\nA woman has been jailed for 16 months for emptying the bank account of a bedridden 93-year-old with Alzheimer's.\n\nMandy Murphy, of Rhosneigr, Anglesey, admitted taking the bank card of Winifred Egerton, of Benllech, and defrauding her of £9,210 while she was in hospital.\n\nCaernarfon Crown Court heard Murphy had repaid the money, which she took from her Post Office account.\n\nJudge Timothy Petts said the 52-year-old was motivated by greed.\n\nMurphy was one of a team of carers who tended to Ms Egerton, who was bedridden.\n\nThe fraud was discovered by Ms Egerton's daughter in February 2021.\n\nThe judge said Murphy had caused untold stress and anxiety to Ms Egerton's daughter, who described the crime as \"cruel and wicked\".\n\nRichard Edwards, defending, said Murphy understood the moral outrage and was remorseful and ashamed, adding she had been in debt and suffered from anxiety and depression.\n\nJudge Petts told Murphy according to a pre-sentence report she was motivated by greed stealing \"twice as much as you need to pay off your debt to buy presents and carpets\".\n\nHe added: \"Sustained offending of this nature, a breach of trust towards vulnerable clients, needs to be punished by immediate custody.\"", "Brian Sengendo had a collection of Tarot cards and was recorded on his mobile phone talking about devils and demons\n\nA \"Devil-obsessed\" murderer has been warned he faces a whole-life prison term for killing a woman and attacking two others in the space of four hours.\n\nBrian Sengendo was convicted at the Old Bailey of seven charges, including the murder of Therasia Gordon, 44, as well as attempted murder, kidnap, and rape.\n\nHe said: \"This is, to use a journalist vernacular, a Ripper case where an offender has been caught.\"\n\nSengendo, 27, will be sentenced on 18 March. Judge Hillen warned him he could \"die in prison\", as it was such an \"extreme case\".\n\nTherasia Gordon's mother said she could not get the thought out of her head of her daughter being in pain at Sengendo's hands\n\nThe delivery driver, from Gilbert Street in Enfield, north London, kidnapped vulnerable women, including sex workers, by \"tricking\" them into his van.\n\nHe beat and stabbed Ms Gordon before dumping her body in woods in Enfield on 3 August 2020.\n\nEarlier that evening, he had kidnapped and raped his first victim at knifepoint, before trying to murder her by stabbing her seven times. His second victim was a woman he kidnapped and threatened to kill.\n\nDuring the trial, the jury head Sengendo, who had a collection of Tarot cards, was recorded on his mobile phone talking about devils and demons, and told one victim \"repeat after me, I'm the Devil's child\" as he forced her into a sex act.\n\nThe delivery driver used his van to kidnap women\n\nSpeaking after the verdict, Ms Gordon's mother Jan said listening to the evidence in court had been \"heart-breaking\" and she could not understand why Sengendo had forced her family to suffer \"day after day\" through the trial, even though \"he knew what he had done\".\n\n\"I am always thinking about what Therasia must have gone through when she died,\" she said. \"One of the things that keeps on going through my head, is the evidence that one of the witnesses could hear her groaning - I can't get the thought of her being in pain at his hands out of my head.\n\n\"As a family, we will never get over the fact that I have lost a daughter and they have lost their sibling. I will never come to terms with what this person done to my child. He has left a big hole in my heart.\"\n\nDet Ch Insp Neil John, who led the investigation, said Ms Gordon's mother had shown \"the utmost dignity\" throughout the trial and he hoped she could take \"some small comfort\" knowing her daughter's killer will spend most of his life behind bars.\n\nHe also commended the bravery of the women attacked by Sengendo who survived, whom he said provided the evidence that was \"crucial\" to securing his conviction.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Users of Amazon's Alexa complained that the voice assistant was not working on Friday morning.\n\nAccording to the website Down Detector, the problem appeared to affect the UK and parts of Europe and lasted about an hour.\n\nSome users posted on social media that they had been unable to get Alexa to respond or help with their morning routine.\n\nAmazon said the problem had been resolved.\n\n\"This morning we had an issue that impacted some Alexa customers' ability to interact with the service. The Alexa service is now operating normally,\" the company said in a statement.\n\nBBC Click presenter Lara Lewington said she had been unable to turn off her morning alarm because the voice assistant was not responding.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by LaraLewington This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by paris never loved cait 🐻 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 2 by paris never loved cait 🐻\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Ògbóntarìgì Ęléro This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Home Office-backed campaign against the rollout of ultra-secure messaging apps by social media firms has been criticised by the UK data watchdog.\n\nThe No Place to Hide campaign says Facebook should abandon plans for end-to-end encryption in its Messenger app, saying it helps to hide child abuse.\n\nBut the Information Commissioner's Office argues the technology strengthens children's online safety.\n\nA delay \"leaves everyone at risk, including children,\" it told the BBC.\n\nStephen Bonner, the ICO's executive director for innovation and technology, said end-to-end encryption helped keep children safe online by not allowing \"criminals and abusers to send them harmful content or access their pictures or location\".\n\n\"The discussion on end-to-end encryption use is too unbalanced to make a wise and informed choice. There is too much focus on the costs without also weighing up the significant benefits,\" he said.\n\nEnd-to-end encryption (E2EE) is already used in the hugely popular WhatsApp, iMessage and Signal apps.\n\nMeta plans to add it to Facebook Messenger and Instagram direct messages in 2023.\n\nThe system scrambles the contents of messages and calls so that only the end users can understand the data. Even the company processing the communications cannot decrypt the content which means that law enforcement are unable to access the information to potentially catch or convict criminal using the technology.\n\nFor years, authorities in the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US, India and Japan, plus law enforcement agencies such as Interpol and the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) have criticised the technology.\n\nLaunching the campaign on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the No Place To Hide initiative said that rolling out E2EE would be \"like turning the lights off on the ability to identify child sex abusers online\".\n\nVideos have been released on social media claiming that the technology will put children at risk from predators.\n\nThe campaign says it is \"not opposed to end-to-encryption in principle\" but wants social media companies to \"find a solution that protects privacy without putting children at even greater risk\".\n\nThe Home Office backed the campaign launch, saying: \"Our view is that online privacy and cyber-security must be protected, but that these are compatible with safety measures that can ensure the detection of child sexual exploitation and abuse.\"\n\nBut it declined to respond to the intervention by the ICO, an independent public body which reports to the government.\n\nThe ICO argues that E2EE serves an important role in safeguarding privacy and online safety and says it looks forward to being a participant in the continuing discussion around the tech.\n\n\"Having access to encrypted content is not the only way to catch abusers,\" Mr Bonner said.\n\n\"Law enforcers have other methods such as listening to reports of those targeted, infiltrating the groups planning these offences, using evidence from convicted abusers and their systems to identify other offenders.\"\n\nThe ICO says the government should continue to maximise law enforcement techniques instead of seeking to weaken encryption.\n\n\"Until we look properly at the consequences, it is hard to see any case for reconsidering the use of E2EE,\" it said.\n\nRob Jones from the National Crime Agency told the BBC any move to roll out of end-to-end encryption needed to \"maintain the ability to protect children and identify images of abuse. A jump to E2EE without this capability risks turning the lights out for law enforcement worldwide\".\n\nHe added: \"The NCA and UK policing currently make over 500 arrests and safeguard more than 650 children every month as a direct result of industry reports of child sexual abuse material.\n\n\"That will become much more challenging under E2EE.\"\n• None New campaign aims to stop more encrypted apps", "US President Joe Biden has been forced to respond after criticism of his comments on the Russia-Ukraine tension.\n\nWatch how his answers differed between Thursday and the day before.\n\nMore on this story: Ukraine hits back at Biden amid Russia tensions", "Jake Olenick, 24, is spending almost two-thirds of his take-home pay renting a London flat but he started to get on the property ladder last year.\n\nA new job, rigorous saving and \"lucky family circumstances\" have enabled him to buy a share of a flat in Kilburn.\n\nJake is not alone in managing to get a foot on the housing ladder in 2021.\n\nFigures from mortgage lender Halifax suggest there were a record number of first-time buyers last year, despite rising house prices and falling affordability.\n\nJake, who is originally from New York, graduated from Oxford University and got a job in Oxford working as a games developer in 2019.\n\nSix months ago, he landed a software development job in London and moved into a West Hampstead flat with his girlfriend.\n\nThat relationship broke down in October and Jake started to pay all of the rent, which worked out at about 60% of his take-home pay.\n\n\"I couldn't keep paying that much in rent and I already knew that it's almost always much better to buy,\" he said.\n\nSo he started the ball rolling on buying 40% of a flat in Kilburn, sharing ownership with a housing association. In total, he'll be paying 35% of his salary on rent, mortgage and service charge when he moves in.\n\nHe said one of the main reasons he was able to do this was \"extremely lucky family circumstances\".\n\nHis parents had been saving for him to go to a US university, which was much more expensive than a UK one, and they were able to cover his fees at Oxford.\n\nSo when he left, he had no student loans, which helped him when viewing properties.\n\nHe also managed to put aside money from his job and has been saving birthday and Christmas money his whole life.\n\nJake is really looking forward to moving into his new flat.\n\n\"I'm very excited!\" he says. \"I'll be able to put up posters, make repairs, the oven door will close, I'll be able to sleep because the windows are insulated, triple-glazed even!\n\n\"I'll be able to afford a weekend away, maybe I'll be able to afford a keyboard so I can play piano again. All sorts of things!\"\n\nThere were more than 400,000 people buying their first home in 2021, up 35% from the previous year, the Halifax said. That rate dropped by 13% in 2020, when the number of Halifax buyers was about 300,000.\n\nA stamp duty holiday that started in 2020 saw house buyers rush to pick up properties - although first-time buyers were not part of this stampede.\n\nHowever, this meant a number of so-called \"first-rung\" homes came on to the market, which first-time buyers took advantage of in 2021, despite hikes in property prices.\n\nEsther Dijkstra, mortgage director at Halifax, said: \"There were a number of factors influencing home-buying decisions in 2021.\n\n\"While working from home and the 'race for space' was key for many, particularly movers, it's clear that the stamp duty holiday increased the availability of first-rung homes as others moved up the ladder.\"\n\nThe average age of first-time buyers rose to 32, up from 29 in 2011. Ms Dijkstra said that this rise in average age was mostly due to \"the need to save a significant deposit to get on the housing ladder\".\n\nThe average buyer used a £53,935 deposit on a first property costing £264,140.\n\nBecause of difficulties raising a deposit, the gap between the purchase price and the deposit widened in every region in the UK, Ms Dijkstra added.\n\nIt's only in three local authority areas in Scotland that homes are either more affordable - in Clackmannanshire and Moray - or as affordable - in East Ayrshire, since 2011.\n\nHouses in the rest of the UK have become less affordable since then, Halifax said.\n\nOn average, properties now cost nearly seven times the annual salary of first-time buyers.\n\nThe limit for affordability is considered to be four times the average income.\n\nIn some areas, affordability has dropped very sharply since 2011.\n\nIn one London borough, Merton, affordability has halved, with similar drops, albeit not as pronounced, in Reigate and Banstead, South Kesteven, Westminster and Ashford.\n\nAnya Martin, director of campaign group PricedOut, which pushes for more affordable housing, said: \"House prices and rents have been pushed out of reach by decades of failure to build enough homes.\n\n\"First-time buyer schemes may help a few, but ultimately they are designed to help people stretch to high prices, rather than dealing with the cause of those high prices.\"\n\nChae Sarjant, her partner, and her son Kayden (pictured) are getting a home with the help of Chae's parents\n\nMany first-time buyers get help from their parents to be able to afford a home, but some use a mortgage firm that was itself set up by frustrated first-time buyers.\n\nRetail worker Chae Sarjant is buying a home with her partner, who works for the NHS, on the same road where she grew up in East Finchley.\n\nThey got a mortgage through a company called Generation Home. Chae says: \"To be honest, we couldn't have done it without them.\"\n\nHer mum \"is only able to give us as much as she is because it's a loan protected by Generation Home, so she can get it back when we move and use it in retirement\" and her stepfather has also taken a stake in the property, Chae says.\n\n\"We're buying about two minutes walk from them in East Finchley,\" she says. \"It's the same road I grew up on and it means my son gets to go to the same schools I went to.\n\n\"We're all thrilled, although we're currently in conveyancing hell,\" she says. \"It's a long and very annoying process.\"\n\nThe family are hoping to move in February and \"we're really looking forward to settling down\".\n\nThey have rented for the past four years, \"which has meant moving a lot, and I know my son is looking forward to that being over!\" she adds.\n\nShe said they \"never really took the idea of buying our own place that seriously, to be honest\".\n\n\"Our salary has been eaten up by rent every month, so we have very little savings of our own and our income means most mortgage companies were giving us way less than we needed to afford anything even remotely close to our families,\" she said.\n\nFlats in East Finchley typically cost between £350,000 and £550,000, she said.\n\n\"Having my mum loan us the money makes us all a lot more comfortable,\" Chae adds. \"She's able to get the money back in the future and I'm a lot less stressed about affecting her retirement.\"", "A Met Police counter-terrorism detective who secretly filmed models during fake photoshoots has been jailed for three years.\n\nDet Insp Neil Corbel committed his crimes in hotel rooms and Airbnbs in London, Brighton and Manchester.\n\nHe used cameras in tissue boxes, phone chargers and glasses to film women. Isleworth Crown Court heard one model's life had been \"completely derailed\".\n\nThe model has been left with bald spots after pulling out her hair through stress, she told the court in a victim impact statement.\n\nWhen sentencing Corbel, Judge Martin Edmunds QC pointed to the impact statements he had heard - two other victims told the court of their distress.\n\nThe policeman - who the court heard was a diagnosed sex addict - claimed to be an airline pilot with an interest in photography. He met many of his victims through an online agency called PurplePort, arranging photoshoots with them.\n\nSixteen women were models booked by Corbel, while three others were escorts or sex workers who consented to sexual activity but did not agree to being filmed, prosecutor Babatunde Alabi said.\n\nJudge Edmunds said: \"It is clear that the revelation to your victims that you were a serving police officer has for many of them seriously undermined their trust in the police - something that those individuals, given their various lines of work, is a particularly serious matter, just as the revelation of your offending must impact on public trust.\"\n\nCorbel booked the Leonardo Royal London Tower Bridge hotel for one of his photoshoots, the court heard\n\nOne victim challenged Corbel in 2019 after finding a pair of glasses which had a charging port while she was giving him a massage.\n\nHe was eventually caught after a woman became suspicious that a digital clock in a hotel room might contain a camera.\n\nThe case was moved to crown court for sentencing due to the severity of the policeman's crimes, which took place between 2017 and 2020.\n\nCorbel has been suspended by the Met\n\nThe model who spoke of how her life had been derailed told the court: \"This experience has affected every aspect of my life.\n\n\"I am used to taking calculated risks, now I turn down opportunities.\n\n\"I have been in therapy ever since. I am paranoid and jumpy and have panic attacks. I'm a model and a large part of this job is built on mutual trust.\n\n\"I have pulled out so much of my own hair through stress that I have bald spots and have had to turn down work as a result.\"\n\nOne of the other women to speak of the impact of Corbel's crimes told the court: \"The fact he is a policeman is a huge deal.\n\n\"These people are meant to protect us. Following the murder of Sarah Everard this feels a very frightening time to be a woman. If the police can't protect us what can we do?\"\n\nIn mitigation, Corbel's barrister Edward Henry QC argued that his client's diagnosed sex addiction was a factor in his crimes.\n\nCorbel's addiction began in his childhood and had ultimately brought an end to a 13-year policing career, Mr Henry told the court.\n\nHe said: \"Its roots are in his prepubertal life that overwhelmed him, destroyed his career, almost destroyed him and hurt his undeserving and loyal wife and family.\n\n\"The fact he was a policeman has nothing to do with the execution of this offending.\n\n\"Not a penny of police money has been abused. Nor was it ever done on police time.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People have been searching for survivors amid the ruins of the prison\n\nThe UN has condemned an air strike on a Yemen detention centre that has killed more than 70 people.\n\nThe facility in Saada, a stronghold of the rebel Houthi movement in north-western Yemen, was hit on Friday.\n\nUN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the \"escalation needs to stop\".\n\nIn a statement on Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in the country denied it had carried out the air strike.\n\nThe coalition also said the site was not on a list of targets to avoid that had been agreed with the UN and had not been reported by the Red Cross.\n\nSaudi-led coalition forces have been fighting Houthi rebels since 2015. Tens of thousands of civilians, including more than 10,000 children, have been killed or wounded as a direct result of the fighting.\n\nMillions have been displaced and much of the population stands on the brink of famine.\n\nHours after the air strike, rescue workers were still pulling bodies out of the rubble, and hopes of finding survivors are fading, says BBC Middle East correspondent Anna Foster.\n\nThe exact death toll is unclear. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said at least 70 people were killed, though the number is expected to rise.\n\nHouthi-run television showed pictures from the scene of men clearing debris with their hands and of wounded at a local hospital. MSF said one hospital had received more than 200 casualties.\n\n\"There are many bodies still at the scene of the air strike, many missing people,\" Ahmed Mahat, MSF chief in Yemen, told AFP news agency. \"It is impossible to know how many people have been killed. It seems to have been a horrific act of violence.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called for de-escalation.\n\nHope of finding survivors in the rubble is said to be fading\n\nFurther south, three children were killed as they were playing football when an air strike hit a telecommunications facility in the rebel-held port city of Hudaydah, Save the Children aid agency said.\n\nThere was a near countrywide internet outage around the same time, which Houthi media blamed on the attack on the telecommunications site.\n\nSaudi Arabia said the coalition had carried out air strikes in Hudaydah.\n\nThe coalition has stepped up air strikes since the Houthis carried out a rare drone and missile attack on the UAE on Monday. Three civilians were killed in what was the first deadly attack of its kind in the emirates.", "The government has announced plans to tackle what the head of the Environment Agency has called the \"new narcotics\" of fly-tipping and waste crime.\n\nThe proposals would see checks on who is able to handle and dispose of waste, as well as a digital tracking system.\n\nFly-tipping is the illegal dumping of rubbish, like mattresses and bags of waste, in parks, or on pavements.\n\nThere were 1.13 million fly-tipping incidents in England in 2020-21, a rise of 16% on the previous 12 months.\n\nThe cost, which includes clear-up and lost taxes, has been estimated to be £1bn a year.\n\nThe government says its reforms will address flaws in part of England's waste disposal system, the Environment Agency's Carrier, Broker and Dealer registration scheme (CBD).\n\nThe consultation on reforms covers England only, but the mandatory digital waste tracking will be UK-wide.\n\nIf you want someone to come to your house and pick up an old sofa or rubbish, they are supposed to be registered on the CBD database, and you should be able to go online to check they are legal.\n\nThe problem with the CBD system is that there appear to be almost no checks made on who can register, as Mike Brown, who runs an environmental consultancy company, discovered. Back in 2017 he successfully registered his dead dog to highlight the many flaws in the system.\n\n\"Oscar, our beloved highland terrier, died in 2006. Frankly we were very surprised at just how easy it was to register him as a waste carrier in just 15 minutes for £154,\" he explained.\n\nTo expose flaw in the system, Mike Brown registered his dead dog Oscar as a waste collector\n\n\"The reason the system is broken is that, over the last decade, the funding for the waste regulator has reduced at exactly the time that these inadequate rules are being tested by criminals, whose proceeds from crime have increased.\"\n\nThe system hasn't changed since then. If you've got the money to spare, you can register yourself or your pets to take away rubbish. A Guardian columnist even registered his goldfish.\n\nIn practice, many people don't even get as far as the website and use unregistered operators. Some research suggests that as many of two-thirds of those advertising waste disposal services are unregistered.\n\nIt's helped created what Environment Agency head Sir James Bevan has called the \"new narcotics\" of waste crime.\n\nDisposing of waste legally costs money, whether in landfill tax or the fees paid for it to be processed or recycled. So fly-tipping criminals make money by undercutting the prices of legal operators, and then simply dumping the load without paying any of the fees.\n\n\"Organised crime has emerged in this sector because it is in essence low-risk and high-reward,\" Sam Corp, head of regulation at the Environmental Services Association, told BBC News.\n\nMartin Montague is what can best be described as an anti-fly tipping vigilante. Fed up with the regular dumping of waste outside his home in Hampshire, he set up the Clearwaste website and app where people can report fly-tipping.\n\n\"We get something new every few minutes,\" he says, as he scrolls through pictures of asbestos, sofas, broken wood and bursting bin bags that have been abandoned across the UK.\n\nMartin Montague set up a website where people can report fly-tipping\n\nMr Montague passes on his information to local councils, but has also developed the appetite for trying to gather evidence to try to catch those responsible.\n\n\"I'd probably put some cameras in here,\" he tells me, as he walks alongside a shallow stream near Romsey. It's full of rubbish, both bin bags and sheets of asbestos, some of it with yellow tape marked \"dangerous\" on it.\n\n\"It's lucrative because the penalties are so little. Are you going to deal drugs and risk doing hard time, or fly-tip on a large-scale basis? It's a good cash generator.\"\n\nThe government consultation on waste crime is looking at two key areas. Firstly it proposes to introduce background checks into the CBD registration system, with those given permits having to demonstrate they were competent.\n\nSecondly it would introduce digital waste tracking - which would means those handling waste would have to record information from the point waste is produced to the stage it is disposed of, or recycled and reused.\n\nWaste and resources minister Jo Churchill told the BBC the reforms were aimed at cracking down on those responsible for waste crimes.\n\n\"People need to be able to see that [they are using] an authorised carrier, and that they have surety that their waste is going to be disposed of properly,\" she said.", "An indicator of the great power of last Saturday's volcanic eruption in Tonga is the height reached by its plume.\n\nUK scientists examining weather satellite data calculate it to be around 55km (35 miles) above the Earth's surface.\n\nThis is at the boundary of the stratosphere and mesosphere layers in the atmosphere.\n\nDr Simon Proud, from RAL Space, said these were \"unheard-of altitudes\" for a volcanic plume.\n\nThe most powerful eruption in the second half of the 20th Century came from Mount Pinatubo in 1991. Its plume is thought to have climbed to roughly 40km.\n\nHowever, it's possible today's more accurate satellites would have given a higher altitude for the Philippines event, cautioned Dr Proud, who is affiliated to the UK National Centre for Earth Observation.\n\nThe spreading ash was visible from the International Space Station\n\nTo work out the position in the sky of the plume from Tonga's Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcano, data from three weather satellites - Himawari-8 (Japan) GOES-17 (USA) and GK2A (Korean) - was used.\n\n\"Because they're all at different longitudes, we can use the parallax between their views of the eruption to determine altitude. This is a pretty well established technique for storm cloud heights, and should actually work better here as the altitude [and hence parallax] is greater,\" Dr Proud told BBC News.\n\nOnly a small part of the cloud is seen to get to 55km. This is most likely water vapour, rather than ash, that was pushed upward at the head of the updraft. The main umbrella of the plume is at 35km. A lower plume feature is evident in the lowest layer of the atmosphere - the troposphere.\n\nThe so-called Kármán line, which is often quoted as the atmospheric boundary with outer space, is at 100km.\n\nUS space agency scientists calculated the explosive force to be equivalent to 10 megatons of TNT, which would have made the Tonga event 500 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at the end of World War Two.\n\nProf Shane Cronin, from Auckland University, New Zealand, believes a special set of conditions came together at the underwater volcano to drive a big explosion.\n\nA key factor, he said, was the depth below the ocean surface at which gas-rich magma came into contact with seawater - at just 150-250m.\n\n\"When the magma came out, there was not much pressure on it [from the water above],\" he told the BBC's Science In Action programme on World Service Radio.\n\n\"The gases expanded and blasted the magma apart. And then, as those little fragments of hot magma at 1,100 degrees encountered the cold seawater at 20 degrees, it flashed the seawater around those particles into steam. And when you do that, when you flash water into steam, you basically expand the volume by 70 times. So you supercharge your eruption.\"\n\nEruptions can cool the climate. The Tonga event is unlikely to do that\n\nEarly data suggests the Tonga event could have measured as high as five on the volcanic explosivity index (VEI). This would certainly make it the most powerful eruption since Pinatubo, which was classified at six on the eight-point scale.\n\nThe Philippines volcano famously dropped Earth's average global temperature by half a degree for a couple of years. It did this by injecting 15 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere. SO2 combines with water to make a haze of tiny droplets, or aerosols, that reflect incoming solar radiation.\n\nHowever, Dr Richard Betts, the head of climate impacts at the UK Met Office, said Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai would not have the same effect.\n\n\"Pinatubo did have a noticeable effect, but the Hunga-Tonga volcano's emissions were more than 30 times smaller at less than half a million tonnes of sulphur dioxide, so we don't expect that to have a cooling effect, even though it made a huge bang when it went off,\" he explained.", "Debris litters the beach in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, after the tsunami - near Atata island where Mr Folau was\n\nThe tale of a man who says he floated in the sea for more than a day to survive the tsunami which hit Tonga has captured global media attention.\n\nThe volcanic eruption and tsunami hit the island nation on Saturday, sweeping Atata local Lisala Folau out to sea.\n\nMr Folau told the BBC that he held on to a floating log during his 27-hour ordeal at sea, before finally reaching the shore again.\n\nTonga has confirmed three deaths though the extent of damage is still unknown.\n\nMr Folau, 57, told the BBC's Newsday programme he was scared when he saw the wave approach, but \"I had my faith in God he would save me\".\n\n\"When I was in the water I remember going under eight times. My legs are disabled and don't function as well,\" he explained. \"The sea kept twirling me and taking me underwater.\"\n\nHe said he then managed to grab hold of a floating log.\n\n\"I could hear my son calling from land and I didn't want to answer because I didn't want him to swim out to find me... I just twirled while holding onto the log,\" Mr Folau said.\n\n\"What came into [my] mind is at sea there is life and death. Until you reach the shore, then you know if you're alive or dead.\"\n\nLisala Folau (second from left) with other Atata survivors at a radio interview on the main island\n\nMeanwhile, aid has now started trickling in with more governments deploying ships and flights to the country.\n\nCommunications have been crippled, with the only undersea cable that connected Tonga to the outside world ruptured in two places.\n\nA New Zealand ship which arrived at Tongatapu, the main island, on Friday was the first foreign major aid ship to land. It was carrying 250,000 litres of water and has a desalination plant on board which can produce up to 70,000 litres of clean water every day.\n\nThe UN says clean water supplies are the top priority for the Pacific nation.\n\nHowever, authorities also revealed on Friday that water testing on the main island showed it is safe for drinking.\n\n\"Some communities on Tongatapu have however lost access to drinking water. Drinking water is being delivered to the outer islands,\" said the New Zealand government.\n\nIt added that despite emerging reports of missing people, the death toll remained at three so far: two Tongan nationals and a British national.\n\nAustralia has deployed its largest ship, the HMAS Adelaide, which set off for Tonga on Friday and is expected to arrive mid-next week. The ship can carry helicopters which can then be deployed to take supplies to Tonga's smaller outer islands.\n\nThe UK announced on Friday that it was also redeploying its vessel, HMS Spey to Tonga, and had already sent aid supplies with the Australian ship.\n\n\"The UK will work closely with Australia and New Zealand to assist the recovery effort in Tonga and stands ready to support our long-standing Commonwealth partner,\" said UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace.\n\nAustralian Defence Forces members have already brought some supplies into Tonga\n\nThe international response was held up in the first few days after the explosion, because a blanket of volcanic ash made the airport's runway on Tongatapu unusable.\n\nHundreds of volunteers spent days manually clearing away the ash so that emergency aid planes could land.\n\nThe first two flights from New Zealand and Australia landed on Thursday, bearing pallets of drinking water, desalination tools, hygiene, shelter and medical kits as well as telecommunications equipment.\n\nEfforts have been made for contact-less delivery, as Tongan authorities have expressed concern about Covid being imported into the virus-free nation - it has only had one confirmed case, which was recorded in October 2021.\n\nOn Thursday, a second Australian plane was turned back mid-flight after a crew member on board tested positive for the virus.\n\nThe naval carriers are expected to bring far bigger quantities of aid.\n\nMeanwhile, communications with Tonga are slowly being restored through basic telecommunications networks.\n\nThe volcano eruption severed the only internet cable connecting the island of 110,000 people to the world. Up until Wednesday, all information about the disaster had come from a few organisations with satellite phones on the island.\n\nCountries like China and Japan are also sending aid.\n\nJapan deployed one of its own military planes on Thursday to deliver supplies.\n\nJapan has prepared a Hercules carrier to bring aid to the island\n\nChina has also pledged $100,000 (£73,000) in relief cash assistance and a batch of emergency supplies.\n\n\"Going forward, China will continue to provide assistance in cash and supplies based on the situation and Tonga's needs,\" said foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian in Beijing on Thursday.\n\nTonga is one of the key Pacific island nations, in an increasingly-contested region which has seen an influx of loans and donations from China.\n\nChina is now the second-largest donor of foreign aid in the region behind Australia, analysts say.\n\nEarlier this week, former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd tweeted: \"Australia must be the first and foremost giving assistance to Tonga. Otherwise China will be there in spades.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How an Australian radio station is bringing together Tongans as they wait for news of loved ones", "Still night: Myles Davison says he was \"not too unhappy\" at being woken up early by his cat Beano to see this scene close to the Queensferry Crossing.", "Peloton has pushed back at a report that it plans to temporarily stop production of its exercise machines.\n\nThe company's shares plunged by more than 20% after the CNBC report, which cited internal documents.\n\nIn a blog, the firm's chief executive said the information was \"incomplete, out of context, and not reflective of Peloton's strategy\".\n\nPeloton saw sales soar during the pandemic as people were forced to stay at home due to lockdowns.\n\nThe firm, which pairs its equipment with streaming and live exercise classes, had struggled to keep up with orders at the start of the pandemic, as gyms shut their doors.\n\nMore recently, however, appetite has dwindled for its bikes and treadmills, which start at nearly $1,500 (£1,100).\n\n\"We worked quickly and diligently to meet the demand head-on at a time when the world really needed us,\" Peloton's co-founder John Foley said on the company's website.\n\n\"We feel good about right-sizing our production, and, as we evolve to more seasonal demand curves, we are resetting our production levels for sustainable growth.\"\n\nIn a separate statement issued with the company's quarterly earnings Mr Foley said: \"As we discussed last quarter, we are taking significant corrective actions to improve our profitability outlook and optimize our costs across the company.\n\n\"This includes gross margin improvements, moving to a more variable cost structure, and identifying reductions in our operating expenses as we build a more focused Peloton moving forward.\"\n\nThe firm was hit last year after the death of a child in a treadmill accident led to a recall and government safety investigation. It also cut prices as people started to return to pre-pandemic exercise habits.\n\nIn November, it told investors it had experienced \"softer than anticipated\" sales and was lowering its expectations for the year.\n\nCNBC reported that Peloton was halting production of its most expensive expensive bike from December until June and its most expensive treadmill for all of its 2022 financial year, which runs through June. It is also pausing production of its standard bike in February and March and its treadmill for six weeks.\n\nCNBC, which also reported that the firm is considering job cuts, said the presentation blamed increased competition and price sensitivity for a \"significant reduction\" in demand.\n\nThe news sent the price of Peloton shares below $29, which is below what they fetched when the loss-making firm floated on the stock market in 2019. The value of the shares are down roughly 80% over the last 12 months.\n\nAt the time, analysts said it was not clear how big the market for Peloton machines was given their cost. The firm also makes money from people who subscribe for classes via its app.", "If you're a commuter returning to the office after a long period of working from home, you may soon notice a subtle difference on your morning train.\n\nIn the next few months, rail chiefs will be getting rid of unnecessary announcements to make journeys quieter.\n\nExamples of so-called \"Tannoy spam\" include telling passengers to have their tickets ready and, ironically, to keep the noise down.\n\nBut the Department for Transport (DfT) said key safety messages would remain.\n\nThat probably means a reprieve for the British Transport Police's \"See it. Say it. Sorted\" announcement, branded \"the most annoying slogan of the century\".\n\nThe DfT said it would be working closely with the Rail Delivery Group and passenger groups such as Transport Focus, as well as train operators, to identify how the \"vast number\" of announcements could be cut or reduced.\n\n\"The review will take place over the course of this year, with redundant messages identified and starting to be removed in the coming months,\" it added.\n\nThe announcement comes as many office workers are preparing to resume regular journeys to their workplace, after the government scrapped its work-from-home guidance for England with immediate effect.\n\n\"As passengers come back to the railways, the DfT will continue to ensure journeys are more comfortable to all users, and that passengers continue to receive the important information that they need about their journey,\" the department said.\n\n\"Officials will work with accessibility groups to ensure that access for all is maintained.\"\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said train passengers were all too often \"plagued by an endless torrent of repeated and unnecessary announcements\".\n\n\"In line with the passenger improvements we are rolling out with our Plan for Rail, we want to see improvements to the railways for those who use them day-in day-out,\" he added.\n\n\"That's why I'm calling for a bonfire of the banalities to bring down the number of announcements passengers are forced to sit through and make their journey that little bit more peaceful.\"\n\nThe move was welcomed by Transport Focus and the Rail Delivery Group.\n\nBut Louise Haigh MP, Labour's shadow transport secretary, accused the government of \"falling silent\" over the cost of living crisis and increasing ticket prices.\n\nRegulated rail fares in England will rise by 3.8% from March, in the biggest increase for nine years. These regulated prices make up about half of fares and include season tickets on most commuter routes.\n\n\"What hard-pressed passengers want to hear more than anything else is a plan to help them,\" Ms Haigh said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince William and Catherine met Pastor Mick Fleming at Church on the Street\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have shown their support for a charity set up during the coronavirus pandemic to help the grief-stricken and homeless.\n\nPrince William and Catherine met Pastor Mick Fleming, who founded Church on the Street in Burnley, Lancashire, to support those in need.\n\nDuring the visit, Pastor Mick explained how \"so many people in Burnley fall through the gaps with poverty\".\n\nHe told the royal couple that the charity aimed to \"make a real impact\".\n\nThe BBC previously spent 12 months filming with Pastor Mick, a former drug dealer who turned his life around after finding his faith.\n\nPrince William told Pastor Mick that he had watched the programme and had been moved by the charity's work.\n\nIn his 20s, Pastor Mick was a well-established underworld fixer and drug dealer in North West of England but he now dedicates his life to helping those in need.\n\nHe told the Duke and Duchess: \"If we hadn't have been here or something like us hadn't have been here then I daren't even think.\"\n\nThe royal couple also met volunteers, staff and people who rely on the charity.\n\nThis included Deacon, 11, whose mother died during the pandemic.\n\nSpeaking to Deacon, Prince William said: \"I lost my mum when I was 15, it's difficult but it gets easier I promise you.\"\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met 11-year-old Deacon whose mum died during the pandemic\n\nFrom feeding the hungry on a car park in the centre of Burnley, to providing free funerals to those in poverty and securing his own church building to provide essential care for people suffering mental health crisis, it's been a relentless 18 months for Pastor Mick Fleming.\n\nToday his frontline work during Covid in the most deprived parts of the town was recognised by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.\n\nThey had seen the BBC's reporting from the town during the pandemic and wanted to visit Pastor Mick to offer support and understand more about the work that takes place in Church on the Street.\n\nThe centre focuses on drug dependency, homelessness, and mental health support, there's also a food bank and free clothes available.\n\nPrince William and Catherine spent more than an hour in Burnley, speaking to volunteers and listening to people who are going through crisis.\n\nPastor Mick said it was a day of hope after witnessing so much suffering during Covid.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge earlier visited Clitheroe Community Hospital where they thanked staff for their work and met 10-week-old cockapoo Alfie.\n\nThe pup will be trained to support patients and colleagues at the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust alongside therapy dog Jasper.\n\nWilliam told staff: \"We're so grateful for all your hard work.\n\n\"I'm not sure there are enough words to say how grateful everyone is for what you have done.\"\n\nThe royals also paid a visit to Clitheroe Community Hospital\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Matthew Willson had been visiting his girlfriend when he was shot, according to US police\n\nAn astrophysicist has been killed in a \"reckless\" shooting while visiting his girlfriend in the US state of Georgia.\n\nAt 02:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Sunday, officers were called to an apartment block in Clairmont Road in Brookhaven, Atlanta.\n\nDr Matthew Willson, 31, from Surrey, UK, was found in bed with a single gunshot wound to the head.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was \"supporting the family of a British man following his death\".\n\nBrookhaven Police said the shooting of Dr Willson, from Chertsey, was \"random\" and involved the \"reckless discharge of firearms\".\n\nDr Willson \"was in town from England visiting loved ones when the incident occurred,\" police said.\n\nPolice told local news station WSB-TV2 in Atlanta that it was \"a senseless act\" and Dr Willson was \"a completely innocent victim\".\n\nInvestigators also said he had just flown in to Atlanta.\n\nDr Willson was staying with his girlfriend at an apartment in this complex on Clairmont Road in Brookhaven when he was killed\n\nOfficers had earlier been called to a neighbouring block of flats after reports of gunshots. They received a second call regarding a \"person being shot\" while they were checking the area.\n\nDr Willson was a former PhD student at the University of Exeter in the south-west of England.\n\nThe university said in a statement that Dr Willson was a \"much-loved member of our astrophysics team\".\n\nIt added: \"Our hearts go out to his family, friends and colleagues. We are offering support to colleagues at the university who will also want to commemorate his life.\"\n\nDr Willson also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia State University between 2017 and 2019, the university said.\n\nNo suspects have been arrested and police are seeking information from the public. Authorities are offering a cash reward for tips that lead to an arrest.\n\nSgt Jake Kissel from Brookhaven Police described the location of the shooting as \"a generally safe area\".\n\nSgt Kissel told BBC Radio Surrey that officers \"immediately responded to the priority call of someone being shot and that's where they met with a female caller who was rendering aid to her boyfriend who had been shot dead\".\n\nHe said: \"We are asking for our public's help in assisting us with this investigation.\n\n\"Our investigators are currently following up on all leads to include potential video, eyewitness accounts as well as the evidence that was left on scene.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Artist impression of the Britishvolt factory, being built in Northumberland\n\nA firm planning mass production of electric car batteries in the UK has secured government funding for its proposed factory in Northumberland.\n\nBritishvolt announced plans for the so-called gigafactory in Cambois two years ago, saying it would create 3,000 jobs.\n\nThe BBC understands the government has committed about £100m through its Automotive Transformation Fund.\n\nBritishvolt also announced backing from investors Tritax and Abrdn, that should unlock about £1.7bn in private funding.\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng described the support as \"reindustrialisation\". He told the BBC's Today programme that the \"huge investment\" would give people the \"opportunity to have highly-paid, well-paid, high-skilled jobs\".\n\n\"We're bringing industry, we're bringing manufacturing to an area that has been under invested in frankly and we're bringing thousands of jobs,\" he said.\n\n\"Well paid jobs, which represent a huge economic opportunity for people in this area. This is exactly what levelling up looks like. \"\n\nThe government wants the UK to become a major force in the fast-growing market for electric cars.\n\nBut if it wants manufacturers to build them here, then having gigafactories in the UK as well is vital.\n\nNot only are battery packs big and heavy, making local production desirable, they also make up a large proportion of the value of an electric car.\n\nAnd under the Brexit deal, cars made in the UK and sold in Europe will soon have to contain a significant amount of UK or European parts.\n\nPut simply: If batteries aren't made here, the chances are carmakers won't set up shop here either.\n\nExperts say the Britishvolt plant will have to be the first of many. The future of the entire UK car industry depends on it.\n\nThe sale in the UK of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned by 2030, with manufacturers switching to making electric vehicles and requiring huge battery production.\n\nThe government has set aside more than £800m to attract battery investment to the UK. Mr Kwarteng said Britishvolt would help put the UK at the front \"in this global race between countries to secure vital battery production\".\n\nAt full capacity, expected to be achieved by the end of the decade, the factory will produce enough battery cells for more than 300,000 electric vehicle battery packs per year.\n\nThe gigafactory is being built on the site of the former Blyth Power Station. In addition to the 3,000 people at the site, Britishvolt estimates at least another 5,000 jobs will be created in the supply chain.\n\nPeter Rolton, Britishvolt's executive chairman, told the BBC's Today programme that he would like all of the new jobs at the plant to go to people living in the area, and said the company was setting up a training centre in nearby Ashington.\n\n\"Our policy is going to be to try and not to say no to anybody,\" he added.\n\nMr Rolton said the first batteries ready for use would roll off the production line in 2024.\n\nHe said: \"This announcement is a major step in putting the UK at the forefront of the global energy transition, unlocking huge private sector investment that will develop the technology and skills required for Britain to play its part in the next industrial revolution.\n\n\"This is a truly historic day and marks the start of a truly exciting move towards a low carbon future.\"\n\nLast year, Nissan's partner, China's Envision AESC, announced it would build an electric battery plant to supply an expansion of electric vehicle production at the Japanese carmaker's plant in Sunderland.", "In recent years, many Ukrainians have grown to live with the constant risk of a further Russian invasion\n\nAs concern grows that Russia will invade Ukraine, BBC correspondents gauge the public mood in Moscow and Kyiv on whether the crisis could lead to a wider war in Europe.\n\n\"You can't interview me I'm kind of famous in Ukraine ha ha!\"\n\nOK, I confess I didn't know who the woman was, but her thoughts didn't exactly seem preoccupied by a possible invasion on her country.\n\nHer mood is matched by many at the snowy Kyiv food market we cross paths in, which wouldn't look out of place on a Christmas card.\n\n\"Russia can do anything thanks to Putin, who is unpredictable,\" says Volodymyr, who's less concerned about his celebrity status.\n\n\"As long as Putin is there, risk will always remain.\"\n\nAnd that's a sentiment echoed across Ukraine. Since Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula and backed militants in the eastern Donbas region in 2014, there's been no real let-up in fighting, cyber-attacks and misinformation.\n\nAnastasia is more optimistic, saying: \"I'm not worried because we have good authorities and our president. I think they can manage it. They protect us, that's why we elected them.\"\n\nViktor isn't worried either, but does get basic military training at his university, which is common in Ukraine.\n\n\"We'd like it not to happen, but if needed, we'll be ready to properly resist the aggressor,\" he says.\n\nSo would he and his friends would be willing to fight?\n\n\"Yes, there are no doubts about it,\" he replies.\n\n\"Because we need to defend our country, our independence, and most importantly, freedom.\"\n\nIn Moscow, many people are still unconvinced that war will happen\n\nIn Russia, state-run newspapers and media outlets blame the West for aggression, mirroring the Kremlin's language.\n\nWhile the defence alliance, Nato, and the US warn of an imminent invasion, many people are still unconvinced that war will happen or that it would be to Russia's advantage.\n\nIn central Moscow, some think that the threat has been exaggerated by the West.\n\n\"Every year, according to them, Russia plans to invade Ukraine,\" said 24-year-old Andrei.\n\n\"Meanwhile, we all sit here and listen to the news with eyes wide open and think: 'Really? Again? Weren't we supposed to invade last year?' I think the West is just using this issue for their own interests.\"\n\nOlga was adamant that America was to blame for the tension and didn't see the need for war.\n\n\"What do we need Ukraine for? Leave them alone. I could understand it, to produce goods, if we had a need for more markets, more fields, but we have so much space here. We have access to the seaside. So what is it all for?\"\n\n\"The rouble (Russia's currency) will fall and people will have it really bad. So this must be avoided. It is not people's fault, but it will be ordinary people who will be hit,\" he said.\n\nAnalysts, journalists and politicians are still arguing about what President Vladimir Putin's long-term intentions really are.\n\nBut many in Russia would be taken by surprise if war was to start soon.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Covid tests for travellers arriving in the UK should be scrapped, one of the big testing firms has said.\n\nSimon Worrell, global medical director of Collinson - which also runs airport lounges - said: \"As soon as we can drop it, we will be delighted.\"\n\nAt present, all those aged five and over arriving in England must take a test within 48 hours of arriving.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday the government was reviewing testing arrangements for travel.\n\nHe said the Health Secretary Sajid Javid would announce the outcome of the review in the coming days.\n\nMr Worrell said Collinson, which has a large travel business that includes running customer services in airports, launched its testing sites early in the pandemic in a bid to prop up the travel industry, which a large part of his business depends on.\n\nBut now, with more people able to return to the skies, the requirement for people to test on arrival has become more of a hindrance to the business, because it may put them off travelling.\n\nThe travel industry has continually voiced its objection to testing. Manchester Airports Group and Airlines UK on Friday renewed their calls for testing rules to become a thing of the past for fully vaccinated travellers.\n\nBut virologists have expressed caution. Dr Stephen Griffin from the University of Leeds said: \"You have a moral responsibility to monitor and to know if you're infectious. It is a good idea to test.\"\n\nCollinson was one of the first operators to run Covid testing stations at airports and also distributes tests through the post. It partners with a number of UK airlines and travel operators.\n\nMr Worrell said: \"Airport testing was only ever supposed to be a band-aid, a temporary solution to get trade and tourism staggering whilst we build up immunity and we are able to fight the virus by ourselves. We are at that point now.\n\n\"The link between getting infected and hospitalisation has been broken. We are in a fantastic place - the envy of the world, I think.\"\n\nCovid testing for travellers has been controversial and the government has faced criticism over its regulation of the sector.\n\nConsumer rights groups said the Department for Health and Social Care had not done enough to protect consumers from what was called a \"predictable Covid rip-off\".\n\nThe government did launch an investigation to remove operators who were selling tests that, in some instances, were too cheap or not available at the price advertised.\n\nBut those in the medical community are alarmed that testing for those arriving back in the UK could be removed.\n\nDr Eleanor Gaunt, who investigates the genetic coding of viruses at the University of Edinburgh, said: \"I fully agree that this needs to happen, but the timing is premature.\n\n\"It is entirely possible that Omicron will be succeeded by a new variant and possibly one that can circumvent immunity provided by vaccination and previous infection.\n\n\"Therefore we need eyes on what viruses are moving where, until the virus becomes more predictable and endemic.\"\n\nYet not everyone in the scientific community believes testing for travellers arriving into the UK should remain.\n\nDr Bharat Pankhania, from the University of Exeter Medical School, believes that it is time for travel tests to end, as long as community testing remains in place to identify variants of concern.\n• None How are travel rules being relaxed?", "We're going to be wrapping up this Q&A shortly but we can't leave you without answering this - Is Russia preparing to invade Ukraine?\n\nThe only honest answer any of us can give right now is that we have absolutely no idea. Russia has certainly assembled enough men and equipment to do something in Ukraine. Not enough (by a mile) for a full scale invasion, but enough, perhaps, to mount a more limited operation - perhaps in the Donbas.\n\nBut Russians are not clamouring for war and Putin knows that \"victory\" in Ukraine could kill an awful lot of his own soldiers.\n\nDoes his visceral distaste for the very idea of Ukraine trump all other rational considerations? Surely not. But he's caught the West's attention and he has a long list of demands which go way beyond the question of Ukraine and Nato (particularly as he knows Ukraine is not about to join).\n\nSo he will continue to hold a gun against Ukraine's head while he pursues his wider agenda. And as any film buff will tell you, when there's a gun on the table, it usually means someone's going to use it later.", "A man has been jailed for five years for robbing and blackmailing nine men he met for sex on dating app Grindr.\n\nAfter having consensual sex with his victims, 28-year-old Anouar Sabbar would claim he was actually an escort and demand payment for his visit.\n\nHe stole £2,360 from his victims between April 2019 and June 2021, the Metropolitan Police said.\n\nSabbar, from south London, had pleaded guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court to robbery, theft, blackmail and fraud.\n\nAt least nine victims were duped by Sabbar, who would edit his Grindr profile after arriving for a hook-up.\n\nAfter having consensual sex, he would show the men his updated profile that then advertised a £180-an-hour rate for escorting services, police said.\n\nHe told one victim who refused to pay: \"They are coming. I didn't want to do this to you, but it looks like we will have to break your face.\"\n\nHe threatened to expose another victim by sending screenshots of their conversations to the man's girlfriend.\n\nIn some cases, Sabbar stole jewellery from the men's homes.\n\nSabbar, of Southwark, south London, was arrested with his girlfriend in a hotel in July 2021.\n\n\"Anouar Sabbar used Grindr to prey on men who he believed would be too embarrassed and ashamed to call him out. His actions were callous, deceitful and greedy,\" said senior crown prosecutor Toyin Akinyemi.\n\n\"He specifically targeted men based on their sexuality.\"\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has encouraged victims of crime on Grindr and similar apps to get in touch, quoting Operation Fardella.\n\n\"We are here to listen to you and will take what you say incredibly seriously. You will be treated with sensitivity and in confidence,\" said Det Insp Arif Sharif.\n• None Why do gay apps struggle to stop fakes and frauds?", "Ian Black said his wife Sandra \"went white\" when she found out they had won £2m\n\nA lottery winner who scooped £2m has revealed he nearly missed out on the life-changing prize because of roadworks outside his regular stop-off.\n\nIan Black, 61, from Carlisle, had just finished a nightshift and thought it would take too long to call in for a paper and a scratchcard.\n\nBut something told him to stick to his routine and he landed the jackpot.\n\nMr Black and his wife Sandra, 55, said top of their shopping list was an operation for their beloved rescue dog.\n\nLabrador-Staffie cross Meg has already had one operation on one of her legs which cost £2,500 and will undergo surgery on the other on Friday.\n\nMr Black, a former tyre factory worker, said that on the fateful day, 13 January, there were roadworks outside the garage where he would usually stop on his way home.\n\nHe almost decided to break his routine - but at the last minute changed his mind.\n\n\"I went out of the shop and sat and scratched it - I just could not believe what I was seeing. I let out a scream and immediately drove home,\" he said.\n\nOnce back at the house, he shouted to his wife to come downstairs, but she thought something had happened to Meg.\n\n\"I said no, we have won £2m.\n\n\"She just thought it was all a joke - but then she looked at the card and almost fainted. Sandra just went white.\"\n\nThe first thing the couple want to do is fund an operation for their rescue dog Meg\n\nMrs Black checked the scratchcard twice before telling her husband to call Camelot, which confirmed the win.\n\nShe said: \"I just couldn't believe it. I thought that doesn't happen to us, there must be something wrong with the card.\n\n\"When I looked at him he was white and shaking and I knew he wasn't having me on.\"\n\nThe couple, who have five children and 10 grandchildren, aim to help their family get on the property ladder and build their own \"dream home\".\n\nMr Black immediately handed in his notice as a production operator at Pirelli Tyres, where he had worked for 42 years.\n\nHe said he and his wife, a retired care worker, are now looking forward to the life they had always dreamed of.\n\n\"I don't think I have even seen that many zeros,\" he said.\n\n\"I kept questioning, is this really £2m? I immediately phoned work and said to them I wouldn't be in that day - adding, actually I don't think I will be in this week, or actually ever again.\n\n\"My boss, understandably, sounded really shocked and just said 'Why, what on earth has happened?'.\n\n\"That feeling when I could just say 'I have won the National Lottery' is a moment I will never forget.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n• None What do lottery winners spend their money on?", "Fruit of the banana (left) and enset (right)\n\nScientists say the plant enset, an Ethiopian staple, could be a new superfood and a lifesaver in the face of climate change.\n\nThe banana-like crop has the potential to feed more than 100 million people in a warming world, according to a new study.\n\nThe plant is almost unknown outside of Ethiopia, where it is used to make porridge and bread.\n\nResearch suggests the crop can be grown over a much larger range in Africa.\n\n\"This is a crop that can play a really important role in addressing food security and sustainable development,\" said Dr Wendawek Abebe of Hawassa University in Awasa, Ethiopia.\n\nEnset or \"false banana\" is a close relative of the banana, but is consumed only in one part of Ethiopia.\n\nThe banana-like fruit of the plant is inedible, but the starchy stems and roots can be fermented and used to make porridge and bread.\n\nThe plant is a close relative of the banana and looks similar to its 'cousin'\n\nEnset is a staple in Ethiopia, where around 20 million people rely on it for food, but elsewhere it has not been cultivated, although wild relatives - which are not considered edible - grow as far south as South Africa, suggesting the plant can tolerate a much wider range.\n\nUsing agricultural surveys and modelling work, scientists predicted the potential range of enset over the next four decades. They found the crop could potentially feed more than 100 million people and boost food security in Ethiopia and other African countries, including Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.\n\nStudy researcher Dr James Borrell, of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said planting enset as a buffer crop for lean times could help boost food security.\n\n\"It's got some really unusual traits that make it absolutely unique as a crop,\" he said. \"You plant it at any time, you harvest it at any time and it's perennial. That's why they call it the tree against hunger.\"\n\nEthiopia is a major centre of crop domestication in Africa, home to coffee and many other crops.\n\nClimate change is predicted to seriously affect yields and distribution of staple food crops across Africa and beyond.\n\nThere is growing interest in seeking new plants to feed the world, given our reliance on a few staple crops. Nearly half of all the calories we eat come from three species - rice, wheat and maize.\n\n\"We need to diversify the plants we use globally as a species because all our eggs are in a very small basket at the moment,\" said Dr Borrell.\n\nThe research is published in Environmental Research Letters.\n\nHave you changed your diet because of climate change? How else are you preparing for rising global temperatures? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shelley Parry and her daughters' lives were saved by blood donors\n\n\"I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for blood donations, and we wouldn't be a family.\"\n\nMother-of-two Shelley Parry needed blood transfusions during both her pregnancies to keep her and her daughters alive.\n\nThe 39-year-old, from Merthyr Tydfil, believed the donation service was \"critical, especially to us\".\n\nThe Welsh Blood Service said blood donations were down because of Covid.\n\nLast month Scotland had fewer registered blood donors than at any other point this century.\n\nShelley Parry needed blood during both her pregnancies\n\nDuring Ms Parry's first pregnancy with Gracie, now 13, she needed a number of transfusions from the Welsh Blood Service.\n\nShe said: \"The importance of blood donation is critical, especially to us, because without it we wouldn't be a family.\n\n\"When my first daughter was born, she had jaundice and needed light therapy, but I needed several blood transfusions because I lost a lot of blood during the birth.\n\n\"[Without] the blood donations, I wouldn't be alive.\"\n\nDuring Ms Parry's second pregnancy she received blood transfusions directly into her womb. These kept her youngest daughter, Georgina, alive.\n\nGeorgina had to be delivered early, at 33 weeks, and needed an intrauterine transfusion, which is when a large needle is inserted in the stomach to get blood to the baby.\n\n\"She needed several top-ups too after being born prematurely so she was well enough to take home,\" Ms Parry said.\n\nThe pandemic meant the use of community donation vehicles in Wales was suspended because of restrictions.\n\nNow, the blood service and Ms Parry want potential donors to come forward, especially those aged 17-30 as its usual school, college and university programmes are on hold.\n\n\"Georgina and Gracie are both leading full, vibrant and active lives, and that is down to the fact when we needed it there were blood donations,\" she said.\n\nGeorgina, 12, agreed: \"I think it's important to give blood because it saved my life and can save so many others as well.\"\n\nGracie needed light thearpy after she was born\n\nWelsh Blood Service interim director, Alan Prosser, said winter was always challenging, without the added pressures of a pandemic.\n\nHe said: \"We were finding in late November and December our cancellation rates were going up because of the contagion rates of Omicron in the communities, and impacting on our service delivery.\n\n\"We've had to find larger venues because of social distancing, so we moved away from smaller community donation centres.\"\n\nMr Prosser said the service wanted more 17-30s to donate because they can help combat blood cancer and join the Welsh Bone Marrow Donor Registry.\n\nGeorgina, right, thought it was important to give blood as it could save lives\n\nOnly 3% of the eligible population donate blood and the blood service said each donation had the potential to save the lives of three adults or six babies.\n\nSwansea University criminology lecturer Dr Gemma Morgan recently gave blood for the first time.\n\nThe 30-year-old said she had been meaning to do so for a while.\n\n\"The pandemic did delay me slightly because I wasn't sure if it was happening, but I think it is about raising awareness about how important it is and how easy it is to do,\" she said.\n\nSwansea University student Freddie Ward, 19, who was at a donor session at a hotel near the main campus, called the donor shortage \"disgusting\".\n\nHe added: \"It's important to support the NHS. They have supported us through Covid.\"\n\nDr Gemma Morgan recently gave blood for the first time\n\nThe Welsh Blood Service collects about 100,000 donations during a typical year to support 20 hospitals across Wales.\n\nClinical skills facilitator, Bethan French, believed giving blood was \"an amazing thing to do\".\n\n\"It'll take 45 minutes out of your day and one donation could save three people's lives,\" she said.", "The man was filmed by a cyclist on his way home from work\n\nAn appeal has been launched to find a man who was filmed kicking a cat which he had on a lead in Newport.\n\nThe man was filmed by a cyclist's head camera on a path off the Southern Distributor Road in the city at about 14:25 GMT on Wednesday 12 January.\n\nIn the footage, the cat, described as a Bengal-type breed with striped markings, was lying on the ground being kicked by the man.\n\nThe RSPCA has urged anyone with information to come forward.\n\nElaine Spence, from the RSPCA, said: \"The man who witnessed this distressing incident also said he heard meowing and the sound of a shoe or boot making contact with the cat.\n\n\"The witness said the man was deliberately kicking the cat and he was shocked at what he saw.\"\n\nThe man is thought to be about 6ft (1.8m) tall, dark skinned and in his 30s. He was wearing a dark hoodie and jeans.", "An American man believed to have faked his own death before fleeing to Scotland has been arrested at a property in Glasgow.\n\nNicholas Rossi, 34, is facing extradition over a charge of rape in Utah in the United States.\n\nHe was first arrested on 13 December after being admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow with Covid-19.\n\nA further hearing in his case was heard at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday.\n\nMr Rossi did not attend the hearing, and he was later re-arrested at an address in West End Park Street in the Woodlands area of Glasgow after a warrant was issued.\n\nA Police Scotland spokesperson said: \"Officers arrested a 34-year-old man in the Woodlands area of Glasgow today, Thursday, 20 January, 2022, in connection with an arrest warrant.\n\n\"He is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday\".\n\nMr Rossi - who is wanted by Interpol - told US media in December 2019 that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. Several outlets reported that he had died in February 2020.\n\nHe used the alias Arthur Knight when he was admitted to the QEU hospital in Glasgow and is believed to have been on a ventilator in the intensive care unit when he was traced.\n\nPolice arrested Mr Rossi in the Woodlands area of Glasgow on Thursday evening\n\nUtah County Attorney David Leavitt said: \"It is confirmed that a warrant was granted this morning at Edinburgh Sheriff Court for the arrest of Nicholas Alahverdian/Rossi.\n\n\"He was apprehended at the Scotland address and is due to appear at court tomorrow.\n\n\"We again express our gratitude to the law enforcement agencies for their diligent efforts in this matter to bring this individual to justice.\n\n\"We do not comment on extradition proceedings or on the details of the work done in the course of this ongoing investigation.\"", "Ivanka Trump speaking at a campaign event in Georgia\n\nUS congressional investigators have asked Ivanka Trump, the daughter of the former president, to testify about the 6 January riot at the US Capitol.\n\nThe move to request testimony from a Trump family member marks an escalation of the committee's probe of the riot.\n\nIn a letter, lead investigator Bennie Thompson said Ms Trump was there when her father allegedly pressed his vice-president to reject election results.\n\nA mob stormed the Capitol as lawmakers met to confirm President Biden's win.\n\nIvanka Trump, Donald Trump's eldest daughter, served as one of his senior advisers during his presidency, alongside her husband Jared Kushner.\n\nThe committee says she participated in efforts to convince Mr Trump to call off his supporters during the violence.\n\n\"The Committee would like to discuss any other conversations you may have witnessed or participated in regarding the President's plan to obstruct or impede the counting of electoral votes,\" says the nine-page letter to Ms Trump from Mr Thompson, a Mississippi congressman.\n\n\"Testimony obtained by the Select Committee indicates that members of the White House staff requested your assistance on multiple occasions to intervene in an attempt to persuade President Trump to address the ongoing lawlessness and violence on Capitol Hill,\" he adds in the letter, which asks her to speak to the committee next month.\n\nA representative for Ms Trump told US media that she had just learned that the 6 January committee had issued a public letter asking her to appear.\n\n\"As the Committee already knows, Ivanka did not speak at the January 6 rally,\" the spokesperson said.\n\n\"As she publicly stated that day at 3:15pm, 'any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable. The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful.' \"\n\nThe representative did not say whether she would comply with the voluntary request.\n\nThe panel is also seeking the phone records of Mr Trump's son Eric Trump, as well as Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Mr Trump's other son, Donald Trump Jr.\n\nAccording to testimony by Keith Kellogg - an adviser to former Vice-President Mike Pence who was also with Mr Trump in the White House during the riot - Mr Trump called Mr Pence that day to say he was \"not tough enough\" to block the congressional certification of the election.\n\n\"Mike, it's not right. You can do this. I'm counting on you to do it. If you don't do it, I picked the wrong man four years ago. You're going to wimp out,\" Mr Trump reportedly said, according to Mr Kellogg's interview transcript.\n\nHe also said that Ms Trump was present during the call, and turned to him afterwards to say \"Mike Pence is a good man\".\n\nIn an interview earlier this month, committee vice-chairwoman Liz Cheney said that the committee heard that Mr Trump denied multiple requests from aides to step in to attempt to halt the violence.\n\n\"We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence,\" the Republican congresswoman told ABC News.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ros Atkins on... the US Capitol riot anniversary", "Hope of finding survivors in the rubble is said to be fading\n\nAt least 100 people have been killed or wounded in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition which hit a detention centre in Yemen.\n\nThe incident happened when a facility was struck in Saada, a stronghold of the rebel Houthi movement, on Friday.\n\nIt followed nights of intensified bombing raids in the wake of a deadly Houthi attack on the UAE, a Saudi ally.\n\nSaudi Arabia has led a coalition of Arab states in a war against the rebels since 2015 which has devastated Yemen.\n\nTens of thousands of civilians, including more than 10,000 children, have been killed or wounded as a direct result of the fighting.\n\nMillions have been displaced and much of the population stands on the brink of famine.\n\nHours after the air strike, rescue workers were still pulling bodies out of the rubble, and hopes of finding survivors are fading, says BBC Middle East correspondent Anna Foster.\n\nThe exact death toll is unclear. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said at least 70 people were killed, though the number is expected to rise.\n\nHouthi-run television showed pictures from the scene of men clearing debris with their hands and of wounded at a local hospital. MSF said one hospital had received more than 200 casualties.\n\n\"There are many bodies still at the scene of the air strike, many missing people,\" Ahmed Mahat, MSF chief in Yemen, told AFP news agency. \"It is impossible to know how many people have been killed. It seems to have been a horrific act of violence.\"\n\nFurther south, three children were killed as they were playing football when an air strike hit a telecommunications facility in the rebel-held port city of Hudaydah, Save the Children aid agency said.\n\nThere was a near countrywide internet outage around the same time, which Houthi media blamed on the attack on the telecommunications site.\n\nSaudi Arabia said the coalition had carried out air strikes in Hudaydah but did not mention the attack in Saada.\n\nThe coalition has stepped up air strikes since the Houthis carried out a rare drone and missile attack on the UAE on Monday. Three civilians were killed in what was the first deadly attack of its kind in the emirates.", "Police asked protesters to leave the vaccination centre in Stockport, warning them they faced arrest for aggravated trespass\n\nAnti-vax campaigners are using a \"crime number\" issued to them by the police to claim vaccination centres are breaking the law.\n\nThey were given the number after making a formal allegation to the Metropolitan Police that vaccines are dangerous.\n\nPolice say it \"merely acknowledges\" an allegation has been received but there is currently no criminal investigation.\n\nOn Thursday, campaigners tried to close a centre in Stockport, falsely claiming police were investigating a crime.\n\nGreater Manchester Police say officers were called by a group saying a crime was being committed at the health centre and it wanted the police to \"seize the evidence\".\n\nIn a video shot by the protesters, one man falsely claims there is a \"live criminal case\", which will be \"fought through the courts\".\n\nOfficers tell them that they will be arrested for aggravated trespass and the group then leaves the centre.\n\nThe campaigners' claims about a police investigation stem from an allegation made to the Metropolitan Police on 20 December last year, accompanied by a large number of documents. They claim these contained evidence, gathered by a doctor and a former police officer, of the health risks of Covid vaccines.\n\nIn a statement the Metropolitan Police said: \"A crime reference number was created and provided to the complainants.\n\n\"This is not an indication that an investigation is under way or that a crime has been committed.\n\n\"It merely acknowledges that an allegation has been received and recorded.\n\n\"While the assessment continues, to date there is nothing to indicate that a crime has been committed and no criminal investigation has been launched.\"\n\nHowever, the concern is that there is a co-ordinated campaign to produce more \"evidence\" against vaccines which could take police forces months to deal with.\n\nThe National Police Chiefs Council said: \"We are also aware of individuals attending police stations to report what they believe to be criminal offences relating to the Covid-19 vaccine.\n\n\"Police have a long history of upholding the right to freedom of expression.\n\n\"This must be balanced with the rights of others, keeping the public safe, preventing crime and disorder, and seeking to minimise disruption.\n\n\"Any efforts to intimidate, harass, or commit assault against emergency service workers, staff and volunteers will not be tolerated and will be treated and investigated as a criminal matter by police forces.\"\n\nThe visits to vaccination centres are being co-ordinated online by groups sharing a \"script\", which refers to a \"crime\" being committed, for members to deliver while talking to vaccination staff.\n\nThe script says campaigners have the \"right to use force as is reasonable, necessary and proportionate in order to prevent that crime from happening\".\n\nThe document also advises protesters: \"Do not become angry or disruptive to the vaccination centre.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Darts\n\nPeter Wright produced a sensational comeback to beat Michael Smith in a thrilling final of the PDC World Darts Championship.\n\nTrailing 5-4 and with Smith two legs up in the 10th set, Wright fought back to win three sets in a row to claim the title.\n\nThe Scot, champion in 2020, is only the sixth player to win the title twice.\n\n\"I'm over the moon, I've got her back,\" said Wright. \"This is my lady and I'm happy to get it back.\"\n\n\"I didn't turn up for eight sets and it was horrible and I was telling myself off so I stopped doing that,\" added Wright, who changed darts twice during the final.\n\n\"I was getting more and more frustrated with myself and I stopped doing that and that's why my darts straightened up.\n\n\"To be part of that elite group, people might have said I was lucky to win to beat Michael van Gerwen [in 2020] who wasn't on form that year but I can prove to everyone I can win it horrible as well.\"\n\nThe 51-year-old wins £500,000 in prize money and is only £15,250 behind world number one Gerwyn Price in the world darts ranking system.\n• None Reaction as Wright wins his second world title\n\nPlaying in his third final, Wright raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to 148 and 124 checkouts but England's Smith won the third with a superb 167 finish in the third leg to break the Scot's throw.\n\nWith the partisan crowd at Alexandra Palace in London firmly behind Smith, Wright missed two darts at the double that would have put him 3-1 up at the first break. Smith, 31, took advantage of Wright's misses to nail double 10 and level the match at 2-2.\n\nWorld Matchplay champion Wright came back from the break with a new set of darts and held his throw to go 3-2 up, despite Smith throwing his 72nd 180 of the tournament to break Gary Anderson's previous record of 71.\n\nNinth seed Smith then won two straight sets to lead the match for the first time at 4-3. Then, after both players held their serve again, a crucial moment came with Smith 5-4 up.\n\nIn the 10th set, Wright was two legs down before winning three in a row to level the match again.\n\nThat gave the Scot the momentum and he reeled off another three legs without a response to win the 11th set then won two more to move within one leg of victory.\n\nSmith stopped the rout winning the third leg in the 12th set but it was not enough and Wright hit double 16 to win the match and become a two-time world champion.\n\nBoth players were in tears at the end, with Smith, who also lost to Van Gerwen in the 2019 showpiece, inconsolable.\n\n\"Michael has done fantastic to get to the final again and will learn from that. He's going to be a future world champion,\" added Wright.\n\nSmith said he would return to the big stage, having lost 7-3 and 7-5 in finals.\n\n\"I got five sets instead of three this time,\" he told Sky Sports.\n\n\"I must have done something terrible in a past life because it's doing my head in now. I'll have a bad night now, but I'll definitely be back on that board and I'll be getting ready for the next one.\"\n• None Tom Holland and Zendaya attempt a Harry Potter quiz and chat about Marvel's latest hit\n• None Running from a past he can't remember: Brand new drama set in the Australian outback starring Jamie Dornan", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nChelsea came from two goals down to earn a draw with Liverpool in a Stamford Bridge classic - a result that only strengthens Manchester City's stranglehold on the Premier League title race.\n\nLiverpool manager Jurgen Klopp missed the game after a suspected positive test for Covid-19 while Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel dropped £97.5m record signing Romelu Lukaku from his squad after a controversial interview in which he expressed discontent with his current situation.\n\nIt looked like Klopp would be the happier of the two bosses when Sadio Mane, fortunate to escape with only a yellow card after flattening Cesar Azpilicueta with a high elbow in the opening seconds, pounced on Trevoh Chalobah's mistake to put Liverpool in front after nine minutes.\n\nMohamed Salah's moment of individual genius, a feint to fool Marcos Alonso then a perfect near-post finish, put Liverpool in command before Chelsea staged their comeback on the stroke of half-time.\n\nMateo Kovacic's spectacular volley flew beyond Liverpool keeper Caoimhin Kelleher, in for Alisson who also had a suspected positive test for Covid, after 42 minutes before Christian Pulisic raced clear to equalise in first-half stoppage time.\n\nIn a hugely entertaining game, both sides had chances to win in the second half with Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy saving superbly from Salah and Mane while Kelleher thwarted Pulisic.\n\nA winner could not be found, which leaves Chelsea, in second, 10 points behind City while Liverpool, in third, are 11 adrift of the leaders with a game in hand.\n• None 'Chelsea and Liverpool dazzle but face steep hill for title'\n• None Reaction to Chelsea v Liverpool, plus the rest of Sunday's Premier League matches\n• None Go straight to all the best Chelsea content\n\nTuchel's decision to drop Lukaku from his squad for such a vital game was always going to be a high-risk strategy given the stakes.\n\nWas Tuchel showing strong leadership and imposing discipline or was he using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, weakening Chelsea in his determination to lay down the law?\n\nIt looked for 42 minutes like Tuchel's ploy would backfire as Liverpool's lethal attack punished Chelsea and Stamford Bridge was in subdued mood with the home team struggling to make an impact.\n\nSuddenly, spectacularly, the game turned around in those decisive moments before half-time and while Tuchel did not get the three points that would have answered all the questions about his decision, there was no doubting Chelsea's spirit and determination because many sides would have gone under with Liverpool in such an imposing position.\n\nChelsea dragged their way back into the game, although three points was really the required result with Manchester City seemingly on such an unstoppable roll.\n\nTuchel will now, presumably, reintegrate Lukaku into his squad and try to get the best out of a striker who was supposed to be Chelsea's missing link when he arrived back at the club from Inter Milan in the summer.\n\nThe title now looks a far-off prospect but there is still plenty to play for - and both Chelsea and Tuchel will hope Lukaku can play a major part in their pursuit of silverware.\n\nLiverpool, with Pep Lijnders in charge, were without three key players with Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino joining Alisson in returning suspected positive Covid tests.\n\nDespite the absences, they looked on course for a vital victory when they raced into that 2-0 lead - and while a draw at Chelsea is hardly a huge setback, the bottom line is they will know they squandered a position of authority in this game.\n\nTheir measure of command was never total in such a frantic, high-quality match, but they will be furious at how they allowed Chelsea back into the game in those closing minutes of the first half.\n\nLiverpool's second-choice goalkeeper Kelleher, 23, can be rightly satisfied with his performance as deputy for Alisson, making two fine saves from Pulisic and exuding an air of calm command that marks him out as someone of huge promise.\n\nKlopp and Lijnders will wonder whether it was wise for Liverpool to leave the game so wide open with that vital advantage and Chelsea chasing the game with an air of desperation. They will question their own game management.\n\nLiverpool still carried real danger until the final whistle but they were unable to beat the excellent Mendy and will now look back on two away games at Leicester City and Chelsea in which they picked up only one point - something which may prove very costly in a title race which would appear to have little or no margin for error.\n• None Attempt missed. Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Mason Mount with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Mateo Kovacic (Chelsea) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Callum Hudson-Odoi.\n• None Attempt saved. Marcos Alonso (Chelsea) left footed shot from long range on the right is saved in the top right corner.\n• None Ibrahima Konaté (Liverpool) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt saved. Mason Mount (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Mason Mount (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Young people in Scotland aged between 12 and 15 are being urged to get their second coronavirus vaccine before returning to school.\n\nDrop-in sessions for the age group are starting from Monday for those who had their first jab at least 12 weeks ago.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said an increase in capacity meant they were being offered earlier than planned.\n\nOne teaching union is calling for air cleaning equipment in classrooms and on-site testing to prevent disruption.\n\nThe NASUWT also said more funding should be available to hire temporary staff to cover for teachers who may have to self-isolate.\n\nThe health secretary said the drop-in appointments offered the chance to increase protection for pupils, and scheduled appointments can also be brought forward.\n\nWhile there is some evidence that fewer people are becoming seriously ill with the Omicron variant, Mr Yousaf urged young people to get vaccinated because of the risk of spreading the illness to vulnerable groups.\n\nHe told BBC Scotland: \"It's not just about protecting those young people - though that is, of course, important.\n\n\"We know that people can then spread the virus on to older people - maybe a grandparent or an older relative - so by getting a young person vaccinated you not only protect them but you also help to protect others, particularly those who may be vulnerable to severe disease from Covid.\"\n\nThe most recent data indicates about two thirds of 12 to 15-year-olds have had a first dose of a vaccine\n\nScotland saw unprecedented numbers of new Covid cases confirmed in the run up to Hogmanay as the more transmissible Omicron strain became dominant.\n\nAlmost 12,000 cases were reported on New Year's Eve, though it likely to be an underestimate due to delays in processing test results. On Thursday a record 16,857 positive tests were announced.\n\nThe Scottish government said there would be no updates about case numbers on 1 and 2 January, but headline figures would be available on Monday.\n\nOfficials said 77% of adults had received their booster vaccinations by 30 December, as part of a drive to get 80% of the eligible population vaccinated by the new year.\n\nHowever, Mr Yousaf said many vaccination clinics had also reported cancellations and a slowdown over the holiday period.\n\n\"I hope as we get through the festive period and back into a more normal routine that those numbers will begin to pick up again,\" he said.\n\nThe NASUWT union warned the rapid rise in Covid cases could cause \"significant disruption in schools\", some of which return later next week.\n\nIt urged ministers to have air cleaning units installed in schools and colleges, and for more on-site testing as well as funding for extra staff to cover absences.\n\nGeneral secretary Patrick Roach said: \"Teachers have been on the frontline throughout the pandemic to support pupils and students and provide them with the best education possible.\n\n\"However, the rising number of cases of the Omicron variant could cause significant disruption in the next academic term with many teachers being forced to self-isolate.\n\n\"The Scottish government must take immediate action to ensure that schools can continue to operate safely and provide high-quality education.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for the Scottish government said teachers had been \"outstanding\" during the pandemic, and guidance was informed by expert advice including the Covid Recovery Group which includes teachers' representatives.\n\n\"Our guidance for return to school includes a number of enhanced protections, including approaches to CO2 monitoring and ensuring good levels of ventilation are maintained, backed by £10mn of additional funding to local authorities to complete initial CO2 assessments of all learning, teaching and play spaces in their schools,\" the spokeswoman added.\n\nDetails of where vaccinations are available can be found on the NHS Inform website and local health board websites.\n\nThose who already have a scheduled appointment can bring these forward by calling the helpline on 0800 030 8013.", "The results of some tests have been delayed over Hogmanay\n\nThe impact of the Omicron Covid variant is expected to become clearer this week as data on cases over Hogmanay emerges.\n\nNo figures have been available since 31 December but headline statistics will be released later on Monday.\n\nNHS Grampian's head of health intelligence Jillian Evans said data from her region suggested cases were still doubling every three days.\n\nShe said it would be a \"crunch week\" for understanding the variant's impact.\n\nThe most recent figures showed there were 11,962 cases reported on New Year's Eve, but that may be an underestimate due to the volume of positive tests leading to delays in reporting results.\n\nThe previous day 16,857 positive tests were announced, the highest daily figure since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.\n\nMs Evans told BBC Scotland's Seven Days: \"It will all change this week because schools will go back and it will become very obvious in terms of case numbers and their impact.\n\n\"I think this is the crunch week for us as we begin to see the impact of those high cases and schools going back, the intergenerational effects of mixing over Christmas - all of that will start to be shown now in the data.\n\n\"It will become very real to people not just in their health but also in possible disruption to their ways of life.\"\n\nHeadline figures for cases, deaths, positivity and hospital numbers will be published on Monday and Tuesday, with fuller data released on Wednesday.\n\nCovid cases were rising sharply in the final days of 2021. Chart shows date of test rather than date reported.\n\nScotland's Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has urged pupils and staff to take a lateral flow test before returning to school, and if it comes back positive to isolate and book a PCR test.\n\n\"It is our absolute priority to keep schools safely open and minimise further disruption to learning,\" she said.\n\n\"To achieve that, we need the help of the whole school community. Taking lateral flow tests before returning to school, and continuing to test regularly will help prevent outbreaks of the virus.\"\n\nDrop-in vaccinations are now available in some areas for 12 to 15-year-olds, and they are being encouraged to get a second dose of the vaccine if at least 12 weeks have elapsed since their first jab.\n\nData released this week should give a clearer picture of the impact of the latest Covid wave on hospital admissions.\n\nWhile there is evidence that fewer people become seriously ill with the new strain, the large numbers of infected people combined with staff absences could still put the NHS under severe pressure.\n\nMs Evans said that of those people in hospital with Covid in her region, \"just over 60%\" had been admitted because of the virus.\n\n\"They were severely ill enough to be in hospital with symptomatic disease,\" she said.\n\nShe added that even those Covid-positive patients who were primarily in hospital for other reasons would still have an impact on services as they would need to be isolated.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said he was in regular contact with health boards and they were working hard to increase capacity.\n\n\"There is no doubt about it that these are going to be some of the most difficult weeks ahead, frankly that our NHS has felt in its 73 years existence,\" he said.\n\nThe impact of the spread of Omicron is being felt throughout the economy.\n\nScotRail has announced a slimmed down timetable for some routes starting on Tuesday, as it struggles to cope with staff absences due to illness or self-isolation.\n\nAnd the Scottish government confirmed how funding for culture and major events would be distributed to the sector.\n\nIt said that the £65m previously announced would include £31.5m for cultural businesses and venues while £19.8m would go to the events sector.\n\nNational performing companies would be allocated £2m for Christmas losses and £10m would be for freelancers\n\nMuseums, galleries and heritage would be allocated £1.7m.\n\nThe Scottish government's Culture Secretary Angus Robertson said the funds would \"help protect the livelihoods of the people working in the sector\".\n• None Pupils urged to get second jabs before new term", "A woman and child have been rescued by helicopter after the adult fell on rocks as the tide came in.\n\nMumbles Coastguard and the RNLI were scrambled at about 15:55 GMT on Sunday to attend the accident between Rotherslade and Langland, near Swansea.\n\nThe coastguard said one adult and two children were walking along the rocks when the woman fell and suffered a head injury.\n\nShe, and one child who stayed with her, were taken to hospital for treatment.\n\nThe helicopter was scrambled on Sunday afternoon\n\nThe other child managed to return to the beach and raise the alarm.\n\nThe coastguard said the woman and child were winched to safety, and taken to Morriston Hospital, Swansea.\n\nThe woman and child were stranded as the tide was coming in\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "West Midlands Police recovered more than 1,000 stolen cars in 2021\n\nMore than 2,000 people were arrested on suspicion of stealing cars in the West Midlands last year.\n\nWest Midlands Police said it recovered 1,004 stolen vehicles in the region between January and November 2021.\n\nAmong the 2,371 people arrested by officers were five teenagers suspected of being involved in 30 car key burglaries, the force said.\n\nWest Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster, said criminal gangs were behind many thefts.\n\n\"There is, sadly, a lot of money to be made by criminals in the stolen car market, especially when it comes to spare parts,\" he said.\n\n\"There is still more work to be done to prevent and tackle vehicle thefts across our region and I will be looking very closely at new ways to bring down these car theft gangs.\"\n\nWest Midlands Police is yet to collate its figures for December but said it anticipates a \"record year\" for arrests and car recoveries.\n\nIn 2020, the force said it arrested 2,465 people suspected of being involved in car theft and recovered 1,035 stolen vehicles.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Retired teachers are being asked to go back to schools in England\n\nRetired teachers offering to ease school staffing issues are unlikely to be in classrooms when schools reopen in England, supply agencies have warned.\n\nThey are being asked to go back because more Covid-related staff absences are expected next term.\n\nAgencies say they already have backlogs of potential supply teachers waiting for criminal record checks.\n\nThe government says ex-teachers who sign up after Christmas would be teaching in schools \"later in January\".\n\nThe Department for Education (DfE) said on Monday that the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) would continue to issue 80% of enhanced checks within 14 days, adding that it would \"be ready to meet any spikes in demand for its service\".\n\nHowever, Clare Othman, managing director of agency Supply Desk, said her agency had a backlog of around 100 candidates who were \"at the final stage waiting for DBS\" before the government's appeal.\n\n\"Some of these are taking a month, or two months plus, to actually come back,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"Each person could teach 30 children. That's 3,000 children who could have a teacher just from us awaiting DBS checks.\"\n\nShe welcomed the government's decision to call on ex-teachers, and said dozens had been in contact this week - but the agency was \"not going to be able to turn them around ready to work in January\".\n\n\"It's been lovely to see the willingness from people,\" she said. \"But it's about the reality - will [getting ex-teachers back] help solve a problem in January, in terms of keeping schools open?\"\n\nMr Church already has a DBS check because he promotes his children's book in schools and libraries\n\nJerry Church, 61, a retired primary school teacher in Essex, said he would be returning to teaching after five years because he missed the job.\n\n\"It's in my blood, you know? I'd always wanted to be a teacher,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"I've been triple-jabbed, so I'm quite happy to go back and help out. You test yourself each day. I'm happy to put my head over the parapet and help out.\"\n\nMr Church already has a DBS check, so does not need to wait.\n\nHowever, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which represents recruitment agencies, said its members had warned of \"a backlog of DBS checks recently, and that they can take longer than 14 days to clear\".\n\n\"This is a concern for us, as any delays to DBS checks mean delays to teachers and other staff being allowed into schools, making the current staffing crisis even worse,\" said the REC's deputy CEO Kate Shoesmith.\n\n\"The Department for Education has reassured us that the backlog has now been cleared - we hope this will mean no further delays, especially given the urgent call to action from the education secretary.\"\n\nSimone Payne said supply agencies cannot fill the staff absences they are being asked to fill\n\nSimone Payne, a board director at the REC and chief executive of agency 4myschools, said it would be \"highly unlikely\" that ex-teachers who register now will be able to teach at the start of January.\n\nShe said her agency had a backlog of around 50 candidates, adding that obtaining references from previous schools also took time: \"If a teacher hasn't been working for 10 years, the school may not have kept that information,\" she said.\n\nMs Payne said six ex-teachers had contacted the agency since the government's appeal, but there was still a \"chronic shortage\" of teachers in the long term, made worse by Covid.\n\n\"One of our schools had 20 staff absent in the last week,\" she said. \"Schools are desperate to stay open… We're all scrabbling around trying to find people, and there just aren't the candidates out there.\"\n\nMr Dawkins said 178 candidates at his agency were waiting for DBS checks\n\nDaniel Dawkins, managing director of the Aspire People agency, said newly registered teachers would probably be placed in schools \"towards the middle and end of January and possibly February\" rather than the first week back.\n\n\"It will still take some time to see the effects of this drive actually hitting schools,\" he said, adding that the agency would have to wait until schools reopened to get the necessary references for ex-teachers.\n\nA spokeswoman for the DfE said: \"Protecting education is our absolute priority, which is why we have asked any teachers no longer in the profession to come forward if they are available, to temporarily fill absences in the new year.\n\n\"We would urge any former teachers considering signing up to do so as soon as possible, but with increased staff absence possible into the spring term, supply staff who sign up after Christmas and are placed in classrooms later in January will be equally valuable in helping make sure young people can continue learning face-to-face.\"\n\nThe government has previously said that 99.9% of England's schools remained open in the autumn term, and that it is committed to ensuring they stay open in January.\n\nHowever, more than 30 local authorities told the BBC last week that some classes had moved online at schools because staff were sick or isolating, and they could not get supply teachers to replace them.\n\nAfter the government asked teachers to go back, many ex-teachers on social media said they thought the risk of catching Covid was too great.\n\nLesley Piearcey, 58, taught maths and ICT in secondary schools in Yorkshire and north-east England for more than 30 years.\n\nShe retired in 2018 and said she would \"certainly not go back\" in response to this appeal, adding that she thought not enough had been done to keep schools safe.\n\n\"It's far too dangerous in schools at present and I am not prepared to risk my health or bringing Covid home to my husband. It really is offensive to expect retired, and hence older and potentially more vulnerable people, to return to teach in schools.\"\n\nLast week, Education Minister Alex Burghart told MPs that testing on return to school, vaccination uptake, ventilation in classrooms and hygiene measures, would ensure in-person teaching could continue - and that the booster vaccination programme would be key.\n\nOlder pupils and staff are also being asked to wear face coverings in communal settings.", "New NHS figures show that thousands of people injured in household accidents were admitted to English hospitals during Covid-19 lockdowns.\n\nThe 2020/21 figures for England were obtained by the PA news agency and found accidents fell in many categories as people spent more time indoors.\n\nBut numerous incidents, including eight people over the age of 90 who needed hospital treatment after falling from playground equipment, were recorded.\n\nData from NHS Digital showed that more than 5,300 people were admitted to hospital after falls from a range of playground attractions such as swings and slides.\n\nWhile the average age of these adventurers was nine-and-a-half years old, dozens of parents and grandparents were also injured.\n\nMeanwhile, as thousands of people turned their attention to household DIY tasks, more than 5,600 amateur builders required hospital attention after coming into contact with an electric hand tool.\n\nAnother 2,700 people sought medical attention after an accident with a non-powered hand tool, such as a hammer or a saw, and 349 were admitted to hospital after tussles with a lawnmower.\n\nWorking from home saw everyday household items pose a fresh hazard, with 2,243 people needing attention after coming into contact with hot drinks, food, fats and cooking oils.\n\nAnd while many people found comfort during lockdowns by adopting pets, 7,386 people were admitted to English hospitals after being bitten or struck by a dog, while 60 others sought assistance after encounters with venomous spiders.\n\nOne 90-year-old woman was admitted to hospital after being bitten or struck by a crocodile or alligator.\n\nDespite spending more time at home, the number of people needing assistance after being struck by lightning rose from three cases in 2019/20 to 18 in 2020/21.\n\nThe figures are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg, representing only those who were admitted to hospital for their injuries. Many more accidents would have been dealt with by A&E doctors and GPs.\n\nA spokesperson for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) said the accidents were a reminder of the breadth of accidents that hospitals deal with on a daily basis.\n\n\"In among the stranger entries in the database are some worrying trends that serve to highlight the accident challenges that we face,\" the spokesperson added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video shows black smoke coming from the roof of the building in Cape Town\n\nA man has been arrested after a large fire severely damaged the Houses of Parliament in the South African city of Cape Town.\n\nThe suspect, who is not a parliamentary employee, will appear in court on Tuesday, facing charges of arson, housebreaking and theft, police said.\n\nFirefighters worked for hours to extinguish the blaze.\n\nPresident Cyril Ramaphosa called it a \"terrible and devastating event\", as he vowed parliament's work would continue.\n\nFootage from the scene on Sunday showed a plume of black smoke filling the sky, with huge flames coming out from the roof of the building.\n\nOfficials say the fire started on the third floor offices and quickly spread to the National Assembly (the parliament's lower house) chamber, reports the BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Cape Town.\n\nThe parliament is not currently in session because of the holidays, and no-one was injured.\n\nHowever the building is home to thousands of treasures including historic books, photographs and important works of art. There is particular concern that the valuable Keiskamma Tapestry, which is 120m (394ft) long and documents South Africa's history, may have been damaged or destroyed.\n\nPolice say the suspect, who reportedly entered the building through a back window, is expected to be charged under the National Key Points Act, which protects sites of strategic importance.\n\nIt appears that private security used by the parliament in addition to police were not being paid overtime and were not on duty, Jean-Pierre Smith, a member of the Cape Town mayoral committee for safety and security, told the BBC World Service.\n\nParliament said some offices had been \"severely gutted\", and confirmed \"significant damage\" to the New Assembly Wing of the building, which includes the National Assembly chamber where lawmakers sit.\n\nThe fire, which began shortly after 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT), came the day after Archbishop Desmond Tutu's state funeral at St George's Cathedral, near parliament.\n\nMr Ramaphosa, who visited the scene, said news of the fire was a \"terrible setback to what we were basking in yesterday\".\n\nHe said the building's sprinkler system had not functioned properly, and praised firefighters for responding to the fire in minutes.\n\nMr Smith told reporters the roof above the old assembly hall was \"completely gone\" and further damage inside the old chamber had not yet been evaluated.\n\n\"It is not possible to see whether it's damaged. We hope it is not because it has so many historical artefacts, but you can't gain access to it without breaking the doors down and we don't want to do that,\" he said.\n\nHe also said that parliament's fire alarm had only sounded when firefighters were already on site.\n\nCity officials released photos of the effort to put out the fire\n\nFire and rescue service officials earlier said it would take hours to put the fire out completely because of the carpets and wooden floors in the building.\n\nThe damage from the fire can be seen in this image made available by the city of Cape Town:\n\nThe Houses of Parliament in Cape Town are made up of three sections, with the oldest dating back to 1884. The newer sections built in the 1920s and 1980s house the National Assembly. Meanwhile, the government is based in Pretoria.\n\nMr Ramaphosa on Sunday spoke of his sadness at \"this destruction of the home of our democracy\".\n\nParliament said \"all efforts\" would be made to limit any disruption to its work.\n\nCape Town's Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the city's Council Chamber would be made available as an alternative place for parliament to meet.\n\nIt was the second fire at the parliament in under a year. In March there was a fire caused by an electrical fault.\n\nLast year, a fire ravaged part of the University of Cape Town's library, which was home to a unique collection of African archives.\n\nThe smoke from the blaze could be seen from several miles away\n\nAre you in the area? If it's safe to do so, please share your experience via email - Haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Two people remain missing after a devastating wildfire hit the central US state of Colorado.\n\nOne of the missing was a 91-year-old woman whose family had been trapped by the incoming flames, local media say.\n\nThe blaze swept through several towns, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing thousands of people to flee.\n\nBoulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle had said it was unlikely any of the missing would be found alive. But one person had now been found safe and well.\n\nThe wildfire burned 6,000 acres across Boulder County, destroying at least 1,000 homes and businesses. It started under unusually dry conditions and came under control in part because of snowfall.\n\nMore than 10 inches (25cm) of snow has fallen on the Boulder area and is now hampering efforts to find those missing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Woman who evacuated from Louisville says families in her neighbourhood have \"lost everything\"\n\nResidents hit by the wildfire are coming to terms with what happened, in some cases returning home to find complete destruction.\n\n\"I feel like I made it out with my life and that's I think the most important thing,\" Jessi Delaplain, who lost her home to the fire, told CBS.\n\n\"I gathered myself and I gathered my cats which was no easy feat to stuff them into the car. And I pulled out of the driveway and there were flames surrounding us.\"\n\nThe cause of the wildfire is being investigated.\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires, and experts say that fires in western North America have grown more intense in recent years.", "The singer-songwriter is managed by the team behind Adele and Amy Winehouse\n\n\"Are you joking? No way! Oh my God. That's amazing. Such good news.\"\n\nSinger-songwriter Lola Young has just learned she's placed fourth in BBC Radio 1's Sound Of 2022 - which aims to predict the biggest new stars of the coming year.\n\nShe's in good company. In previous years, fourth place has gone to artists like Jorja Smith, Khalid, Sampha and Joy Crookes, who've all shaped the sounds of pop and soul in their own mould.\n\nYoung's deep, expressive vocals will be familiar to millions after she covered Together In Electric Dreams for this year's John Lewis Christmas Advert.\n\nBut the 21-year-old has been on the path to stardom since she wrote her first song, an ode to Santa Claus, when she was 11.\n\nBefore long, she'd won the Open Mic UK contest and booked a place at the Brit School, while playing as many gigs as she could around her native south London.\n\n\"I've done so many [awful] open mic pub gigs where I've rocked up and played to three old men drinking beer and talking through my performance,\" she says. \"But I had to do that.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by BBC Music This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nIt was at one such showcase that she caught the attention of Amy Winehouse's ex-manager Nick Shymansky - who loved her husky, soulful sound, but was reluctant to take her on.\n\n\"He said he was too busy and too hurt from his past experiences,\" Young explains. So he introduced her to Nick Huggett, who discovered and signed Adele... before having second thoughts.\n\n\"Nick S decided that he couldn't miss out - so they ended up managing me together. They're like my uncles now!\"\n\nSigned to Island Records, Young released an assured debut album, Intro, at the age of 18. More recently, the attention-grabbing singles Fake and Bad Tattoo have seen her played on BBC Radio 1, and Elton John's Rocket Hour show.\n\nShe ended 2021 with a nomination for the Brits Critics' Choice award; and starts 2022 with the endorsement of the 130 pundits who voted for the BBC Sound Of list (the top three will be announced over the next three days).\n\n\"It feels like things are getting better and better,\" she beams. \"The bubbling under the surface is starting to really, really bubble over!\"\n\nWe caught up with her over Zoom to find out more about her backstory - and what she's got in store for the year ahead.\n\nHave you always wanted to be a musician?\n\nYeah, I think for some people it comes a little bit later on, but I had it in my head that I wanted to be in music since I was maybe 10 or 11.\n\nI've seen interviews where you said you weren't a natural singer. How much work did you have to do?\n\nI think in other interviews, I've maybe been a little bit misunderstood in the sense that people thought I couldn't sing at all. It wasn't that. I had a voice, I was able to hold a note, but I didn't have the technical things like vibrato at all.\n\nSo, it was more the case that I had to work hard to get power and strength. Like with Beyoncé, I can imagine she just popped out singing to the heavens. I didn't have that.\n\nI think she actually cried in perfect pitch when she was born.\n\nWhat did you enjoy singing when you were a kid?\n\nThe first album I remember putting on and really enjoying was Paolo Nutini's These Streets. Then, growing up, I listened to a lot of Eminem and Biggie and old school rap; and then eventually a lot of David Bowie, Prince. So my inspirations are quite different.\n\nDo you remember the first time you recorded yourself singing?\n\nYeah, I was probably about 13, 14 and I went into a studio. Hearing my voice back was pretty mad - but it confirmed that's what I wanted to do.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by Open Mic UK This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nYou entered the Open Mic UK competition around the same time. What was that experience like?\n\nBack when I was a kid, I thought X Factor or Britain's Got Talent was the way that people blew up. I didn't really understand the business side of things. So Open Mic UK was something I thought was going to change my life and, obviously, it helped a little bit - but it wasn't a game changer.\n\nYou won with an original song, right?\n\nYeah, it was called Never Enough and it's a song that's never gonna get released!\n\nHas your writing changed since then?\n\nA hell of a lot! I'm very careful about each lyric now. It can't just be a throwaway. And if it is, then we scrap it.\n\nI guess when you start out, you're almost impersonating your favourite artists. Then as you grow and get more experience, you put more of yourself into the songs?\n\nThat's true - but I think people sometimes underestimate the real power that a young person has. I have one song that I wrote when I was 13, that I still really believe [in] and that's going to be on the album.\n\nIs that I Learned From You?\n\nWhy did that song survive when other ones got cast away?\n\nIt had quite an interesting concept. It was about a close relative and how I was trying to understand our relationship. It's kind of complex and, although I didn't really realise at the time, it's quite a mature song.\n\nThe singer's smoky, guitar-driven songs have seen her nominated for a Brit Award\n\nYou went to the Brit school after that. Was it what you expected?\n\nUm, no, it wasn't. There's a tendency for people to assume the Brit school is the way to the top, but it's still a school. You still do lessons, you still meet bitchy people and there's still bullying. Even the headmaster would say, \"We're not trying to create famous people. That's not why we're here.\"\n\nI'm not saying I expected more than that because it was a really great experience. It helped me understand my style and where I wanted to go with my music.\n\nYou released your first album, Intro, when you were 18.\n\nOne of the tracks, Blind Love, is still your most played song on Spotify. Why do you think people love that song, in particular?\n\nJust because it's a classic, sad love song. It's about the journey of a relationship and how it ends, but also trying to come to peace with that. I think a lot of people can relate to that feeling.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 3 by LolaYoungVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nOn Six Feet Under, you sing about being depressed and thinking about death. What's it like to share dark feelings like those in your music?\n\nIt's very complex suffering from mental health, I think. Especially as a person who has gone through life without really thinking about mental health - and then suddenly it hits you. You suddenly understand the stigma around it, because you start feeling ashamed about saying certain things, or feeling certain things. So I feel really strongly that I have to be super-honest in my lyrics. I'm sharing [those feelings] with the world but also, I'm trying to share it with myself, as well.\n\nWhat do your friends and family think of those songs?\n\nSometimes it can be hard but my family and my friends are super-understanding. They know already what I've gone through. So as scary as it is to talk about the dark side of your mind, the importance of sharing, of honesty, overrides the fear.\n\nThe Intro album was just starting to make waves when you developed cysts on your vocal cords. Were you ever worried you'd lose your voice?\n\nIt was very frightening, for sure, especially because I had a new type of vocal surgery. But I had the best surgeon and it was fine. I mean, I'm still in recovery. My high register still cracks, so I might need to go for a check-up.\n\nJust as you came out of hospital, the world went into lockdown. How did you find that?\n\nFor me. being indoors and being in my own space is quite hard. I hate it. I can't be alone. And I got Covid as well - not badly, but I did have Covid.\n\nBut it was a very tough year for a lot of people. People were very low and lost their jobs, you know? So my year was hard, but it wasn't the worst.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 4 by LolaYoungVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThe other thing you did in 2020 was release Woman, which is one of your best songs. And it's quite political as well...\n\nWoman was a process of me trying to understand how much one could be a feminist without being radical.\n\nI think that people really don't understand what that word [feminist] means. I remember getting cat-called as a teenager going to school by an old man in a van and, as you grow up, you start to question why the world lets you believe this is normal. So in that song, I'm explaining what happens when you feel like you're less [important] than a man. It was something that I felt really strongly about.\n\nThe songs you've released subsequently, like Ruin My Make Up and Fake, have a similar sense of strength and defiance. I'm interested in why that's a theme that you've focused on lyrically in the last two years.\n\nI don't really know why.... I think it's more that I wanted to change my sound up. I was listening a lot to The Cure, and using a lot of vintage sounds and baritone guitars. And I think when the sonic changed, the lyrics changed with it. Like Fake, for example, I think the drama goes well with the sound of the record.\n\nIt sounds like something off a Tarantino soundtrack.\n\nYeah, that was the intention!\n\nYoung says her first song, an ode to Santa Claus, \"wasn't great but it was the start of my development\".\n\nYou ended 2021 by singing the John Lewis Christmas advert. I've always wondered how much input you get in that process? Like, do you get to choose the song?\n\nThe advertising company suggested the song. The only change I made was to sing it in a joyous way, with a tone of hope. That was a bit of a challenge, because the movement of the track is quite melancholic - but obviously it's supposed to be a Christmas song so it's not supposed to be too depressing!\n\nSince then, I've started hearing your music more and more on the radio and in places like H&M. What's that like?\n\nIt's weird - but it's all I've ever wanted, so obviously that's really good.\n\nAnd so, on to 2022. Are you working on a new album?\n\nIt's in the works! I've got a good few songs that I'm happy with but I don't know when exactly it will be released. Hopefully end of next year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team put in 45 hours during the Christmas week\n\nA Lake District mountain rescue co-ordinator is urging people to properly plan their trips after a record number of call outs last year.\n\nVolunteers were called out 680 times in 2021 with an \"absolutely chaotic\" Christmas week, according to Richard Warren, chairman of the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association\n\nHe said teams \"loved helping people\" but many rescues were \"avoidable\".\n\nMr Warren told BBC Radio Cumbria there were 11 rescues during Christmas week.\n\nOne of the largest operations involved 75 members from multiple teams looking for a man and his 11-year-old son who had been reported missing on Scafell Pike.\n\nThe two walkers were later found after \"getting themselves down\", Mr Warren said.\n\nThere were two call outs on Christmas Day itself, Mr Warren said, adding: \"The Christmas period was absolute chaos.\"\n\nMr Warren said there had been a \"massive increase\" in visitors to the Lake District in 2020 and 2021 due to travel restrictions stopping many people holidaying abroad.\n\nThe previous record was 650 call outs in 2018, but Mr Warren said 2021 had eclipsed that despite the first three months of the year being \"relatively quiet\".\n\nHe said there had been a \"very sad end to the year\" when a man died after suffering a medical episode on Skiddaw on New Year's Eve, while the start of 2022 had been \"just as busy\".\n\nMr Warren said he was \"extremely proud\" of the all the volunteers at the 12 rescue teams in Cumbria.\n\n\"We do it unpaid,\" he said, adding: \"Mountain rescuers don't want to be paid.\n\n\"They do it because they love the mountains and love helping people.\"\n\nLake District mountain rescue teams were called out 680 times in 2021\n\nHe also praised all those who make donations to keep the teams running, with about £750,000 a year needed across all the Cumbria teams.\n\nMr Warren urged people to properly plan their walks by using services such as Adventure Smart UK.\n\n\"A lot of rescues are avoidable because people get lost with no map, compass or torch,\" he said.\n\n\"Really we want people to start thinking about what they are doing, when they are doing it and to check the weather.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Israel has approved a fourth vaccine dose for the immunocompromised and the elderly in care homes\n\nIsrael's top health adviser says the surge of Omicron cases could see the country reach Covid herd immunity.\n\nNachmann Ash said the country would pay a price for this and he wanted to see herd immunity achieved via vaccinations instead.\n\nModellers have warned that up to four million people could be infected by the end of January.\n\nPrime Minister Naftali Bennett has admitted his current policy will not prevent a big rise in infections.\n\nOn Sunday, he said a fourth Covid-19 vaccine would be offered to people over 60 as well as medical staff.\n\nThe prime minister has previously insisted the aim is to prevent a spike in serious illness while keeping the economy open, even though he has not ruled out another lockdown.\n\nConfirmed daily infections in Israel have quadrupled to more than 3,500 in 10 days, but the number of deaths has not seen a similar rise.\n\nHerd immunity is a scientific term describing the point at which a population is protected from a disease, either by enough people being vaccinated or by people having developed antibodies by having the disease.\n\nProf Ash said a surge in Omicron cases was inevitable.\n\n\"The price of herd immunity is very many infections, and that may end up happening. The numbers need to be high to reach herd immunity, it's something that is possible,\" he said.\n\n\"But we don't want to reach it by means of infections, we want it to happen as a result of many people vaccinating.\"\n\nSalman Zarka, head of the health ministry's coronavirus taskforce, said herd immunity was not guaranteed.\n\n\"We have to be very cautious with this particularly in light of our experience over the past two years in which we saw people who have recovered be re-infected,\" Mr Zarka told the Ynet news website.\n\nMeanwhile another government adviser, Eran Segal from the Weizmann Institute, warned that cases would soon outstrip Israel's testing capacity, leaving the country unable to identify new infections.\n\nHe predicted that between two and four million people would be infected over the coming three weeks - but that a lower number of people would suffer severe illness than in the previous wave.\n\nHe urged people to get vaccinated.\n\n\"Everyone who walks around, no matter where, will be exposed and should be protected,\" he tweeted.\n\nAbout two-thirds of Israel's population of more than nine million have been fully vaccinated, which the health ministry defines as having either had a third dose or recently had a second dose.\n\nHowever many of those eligible for a third dose have not yet had one.\n\nIsrael has already approved a fourth vaccine dose for immuno-compromised people and the elderly in care homes.\n\nMeanwhile just over a quarter of Palestinians have been fully vaccinated, according to Our World In Data.\n\nThe Palestinians have received vaccine doses from Israel, Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates and the global Covax vaccine-sharing initiative.\n\nUN independent experts had been critical of Israel for not fully extending its vaccination programme to Palestinians under its control, arguing that it was obligated to do so as the occupying power.\n\nHowever, Israel has argued that under the terms of peace accords with the Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority is responsible for managing health matters in the territories.\n• None Is my Covid vaccine wearing off?", "The new timetable has 160 fewer services per day\n\nScotRail has introduced a temporary timetable for January because of Covid staffing shortages.\n\nThe rail operator has hundreds of staff off isolating which resulted in dozens of cancellations.\n\nScotRail's managing director Alex Hynes said the new timetable - with 160 fewer services - would give customers a degree of certainty about which trains were running.\n\nThe new timetable will be in place until 28 January.\n\nIt mainly affects passengers travelling on routes in the central belt.\n\nNine routes in and out of Glasgow's two biggest stations will operate on a revised timetable between Mondays and Fridays, while three routes to and from Edinburgh Waverley also being temporarily cut back.\n\nScotland's busiest service, Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk High, is unaffected by the changes.\n\nAlex Hynes, ScotRail's managing director, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"We've got hundreds of staff across the business absent due to Covid and where that affects drivers and conductors clearly that results in cancellations.\n\n\"So we've decided to proactively introduce a new timetable from today to operate slightly fewer services to give customers greater certainty about their journey.\"\n\nHe said there would be about 160 fewer trains running per day. ScotRail usually runs about 2,000 daily services.\n\nHundreds of ScotRail services have been cancelled because of staff shortages in recent weeks\n\nHe added that there were problems backfilling drivers as the training of new staff had been put on hold because of Covid.\n\n\"Even if we wanted to operate a full timetable now we couldn't,\" he said.\n\n\"Record numbers of Covid cases means that we run out of spare train crew and that leads to cancellations. This reduced timetable means we will be able to resource this properly and give customers the reliable service they deserve.\n\n\"I don't believe there is any specific rail-related or ScotRail-related factor here. We've seen record case numbers - 20,000 in Scotland yesterday. The entire population is being affected by that. Our crews are part of that population.\n\n\"What we are seeing is the impact of the fact that people have got Covid, they've got symptoms, they're waiting for test results, they're self isolating - either for themselves or as part of a household.\"\n\nHe said the new timetable would be kept under daily review.\n\n\"The most important thing for us is to deliver a dependable service for our customers because that's what they tell us they value most,\" he added.\n\nA full list of the changes which have now come into force can be found on the ScotRail website.\n\nOn Monday, ScotRail said hundreds of staff were absent, including more than 120 drivers and about 70 conductors.\n\nIt comes out of a workforce of 5,300 drivers, conductors and engineers.\n\nRobert Samson, of the passenger group Transport Focus, said: \"It's better for some services to be temporarily withdrawn on a planned basis than to have chaotic last-minute cancellations as these are harder for passengers to deal with.\n\n\"These temporary changes to the timetable should deliver an increased level of certainty for passengers.\"\n\nThe reduced timetable comes as rail fares on routes across Scotland will increase by 3.8% this month.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nurses and healthcare workers are being asked for volunteer for shifts on Monday evening\n\nThe A&E department of a major hospital can only provide a \"limited service\" due to ongoing staff shortages, made worse by Covid sickness.\n\nMorriston Hospital in Swansea warned its emergency department can only admit patients with a life-threatening illness or serious injury.\n\nNurses and healthcare workers are being asked to volunteer to work on Monday evening as it is so busy.\n\nThe health board is asking patients to use alternatives where possible.\n\nIn a tweet, Swansea Bay University health board which runs the hospital said: \"URGENT: Calling Swansea Bay nurses and HCSWs [Health Care Support Workers].\n\n\"We are currently extremely busy and looking for volunteers to work extra hours this evening.\"\n\nEarlier another tweet from the health board said: \"A staff shortage worsened by Covid means we can only provide a limited service at Morriston ED over the bank holiday weekend.\n\n\"ED is for life-threatening illness or serious injury only. Please use alternatives whenever possible.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Swansea Bay NHS This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nChair of the Welsh Intensive Care Society, intensive care consultant, Dr Richard Pugh said staffing is \"always the major issue in terms of providing critical care, in particular critical care nurses\".\n\n\"Workforces absences through illness and self-isolation requirements are a worry heading into the coming weeks, if the current community transmission rates continue as they appear to be doing at the moment.\" he added\n\n\"At times, units in the last week have said essentially, look we're close if not at the point of being full at the moment and we need to be transferring patients across between units.\n\n\"The double whammy of staff absence and an anticipated increase in demand for critical care service together are going to be difficult.\"\n\nIn a statement, it said, \"We would appeal to local people to adhere to the national guidelines to help prevent the spread of the virus in our communities.\n\nWe would ask that people only attend our hospitals if absolutely necessary at this time.\"\n\nA group which represents care homes in Wales says many are facing \"significant staff shortages\"\n\nCare homes in Wales are also reporting \"significant staff shortages\" with some \"really struggling\" due to the same issues of sickness and isolation.\n\n\"We're on a war footing, we're going to have a very difficult January at least, it's almost certainly going to get worse before it gets better,\" said chair of Care Forum Wales, Mario Kreft.\n\n\"Some homes have only been able to survive by sharing staff from other homes.\"\n\nHe added that one care home he knew normally had 12 people on shift but this had fallen to three due to sickness and isolation rates.\n\n\"It's very difficult to see how the essential services, like the NHS and social care… are going to be able to put enough people to the front line,\" he added.\n\nMore walk in booster clinics are opening in Port Talbot, Barry and Cowbridge\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"We have taken early and decisive action to keep Wales safe in light of the spread of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant.\n\n\"We continue to work with all sectors including education, health and transport to prepare for a variety of scenarios.\n\n\"Preparations continue across all public sector organisations in Wales to prepare for staff absences so we can keep services running.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Cardiff and Vale University and Swansea Bay University health boards have both begun to offer walk-in clinics for the booster vaccinations.\n\nA new clinic has opened at the Princess Royal Theatre in Port Talbot.\n\nThe Cardiff health board is now running walk-ins in Cowbridge and Barry.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Darts\n\nPeter Wright and Michael Smith will meet in the final of the PDC World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace in London.\n\nIn the first semi-final match of the evening, England's Smith beat compatriot James Wade 6-3 to reach his second world championship final.\n\nScotland's Wright prevailed 6-4 over compatriot Gary Anderson superbly to make his third final appearance.\n\nThe final takes place at London's Alexandra Palace on Monday.\n\nWright set a new record of 24 180s thrown in any world championship match, the former champion beating Gary Anderson's record of 22 back in 2017.\n\nIn what was the second semi-final of the night, the world number two Wright, 51, won the first three sets of the match, despite a wonderful 116 checkout from Anderson to break Wright's throw in the opening leg of the second set.\n\nThe match was closer than the score suggested, with both players playing high-quality darts, averaging just over 100 each for the match.\n\nTwo-time champion Anderson came back from 3-0 down to break Wright's throw in the first leg of the fourth set and held his throw with a double, double finish of 92 to win the set and close the gap to Wright to 3-1.\n\nThe sixth seed Anderson won the fifth set 3-1, taking out a brilliant 105 checkout, finding bullseye on his first dart and hitting double tops to win the set.\n\nThe current World Matchplay champion Wright just missed double 12 for a nine-darter in the second leg of the sixth set, eventually winning the leg with 12 darts, and he broke Anderson's throw to win the set and lead 4-2.\n\nAnderson opened the seventh set with an 11-dart leg and broke Wright's throw to win the set and go within one set of Wright at 4-3.\n\nBoth players broke each other's throw in the eighth set and Wright broke again with only 11 darts to win the set and go 5-3.\n\nIn the ninth set last year's runner-up Anderson broke Wright's throw to win, but it was the 2020 world champion who held his nerve and threw a 116 checkout to win the match and book his place in the final.\n\nWright said: \"Obviously we had to try and live up to Michael Smith's match yesterday with Gerwyn Price. I wanted to be better than that match and hopefully it was great for the crowds and all the viewers.\"\n\n\"I had Gary coming back at me like a train and I had to try and de-rail him and put a stop on him and luckily enough I did,\" he added.\n\n\"Hopefully I become a double-world champion and stop Michael, it will be a great match with loads more 180s, I think.\"\n\nIn the first semi-final of the evening, Smith, 31, won the opening two sets of the match with a huge 105 match average but Wade took the third set in the fifth leg with a 12 dart break of throw, ending on a cool 121 checkout.\n\nThe fourth seed Wade, 38, had the momentum in the fourth set, breaking Smith's throw in the second leg and just missing the bull for a 170 checkout in the third leg to win the set before his opponent broke back.\n\nSmith, the 2019 world championship runner-up, held his throw to level the set and broke back hitting the double 10 under pressure with Wade waiting on 20 to take the set and lead 3-1.\n\nWade broke former world champion runner-up Smith's throw with another 121 checkout in the first leg of the fifth set but Smith broke straight back and it was Hampshire's Wade who missed a handful of darts to hold his throw with Smith taking advantage to win the set and extend his lead to 4-1.\n\nSmith, from St Helens, hit a great 130 bullseye checkout to win the opening leg of the sixth set and went on to win the set, but Wade fought back to win the seventh set 3-1 to make it 5-2.\n\nIt was level on two legs apiece in the eighth set and the current UK Open champion Wade got back into the match as he held his throw to win the set and reduce Smith's lead to 5-3.\n\nIn the ninth and final set a controlled Smith broke Wade's throw in the fourth leg to win the set and match.\n\nSmith is yet to win a major darts title and Monday's final will be in his sixth major final.\n\n\"It feels good. The first set was dodgy but the next five felt great and I was trying to convince myself it was one more set to make the final made it a lot more difficult,\" said Smith.\n\n\"I'm proud of myself the way I held my head together and come out with my darts. I hit the right scores at the right time and my doubles went in again.\"\n\nSmith's 2019 World Championship 7-3 final loss to Michael van Gerwen is top of his mind going into the final.\n\n\"Peter [Wright] and Gary [Anderson] both lost their first final and came back on their second attempt to both win their finals and now I'm thinking that's an omen. I have a chance now to rectify what I did wrong in 2019,\" he added.\n\nFind out how to get into darts with our special guide.", "The man was pronounced dead at the scene in Springfield Road, Tameside\n\nA 74-year-old man who collided with two parked cars while riding an e-scooter has died.\n\nGreater Manchester Police (GMP) said he was travelling down Springfield Road, Tameside, when he crashed at about 13:40 GMT on Saturday.\n\nThe force said he died at the scene and appealed for information.\n\nSgt Marie Eldred, from GMP, said: \"Our thoughts remain with the man's family as they come to terms with this incredibly tragic loss.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "There is nothing in the current Covid data to suggest new curbs are needed in England at this stage, ministers say.\n\nHealth minister Edward Argar appealed for \"cool, calm heads\", while colleague Steve Barclay said there had been \"significant behaviour change\" as a result of Plan B measures.\n\nDaily Covid cases have been above 100,000 for each of the past 12 days.\n\nDr Chaand Nagpaul, council chairman of the British Medical Association, urged ministers to bring case numbers down.\n\nOn Sunday, England and Wales recorded 137, 583 daily cases and 73 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test. Data for Scotland and Northern Ireland is due to be updated after the bank holiday weekend.\n\nThe latest figures for England are down on the 162,572 new cases reported on Saturday, which had been a record number for the fifth day in a row.\n\nNHS bosses have warned of mounting pressure on health workers against a backdrop of staff absences, rising hospital admissions, the implementation of the booster campaign and more planned treatments being carried out.\n\nSpeaking before the latest figures were published, Mr Argar insisted he saw nothing in current data to suggest further Covid measures were required.\n\n\"We need cool, calm heads,\" he told Times Radio, adding that introducing new curbs \"must be the absolute last resort\", echoing the health secretary's words on Saturday.\n\nHe said the data changes \"day by day\" and that ministers were keeping a close eye on it.\n\nAsked whether more measures may be announced this week, Cabinet Office minister Mr Barclay said the government did not think the data supported such a move \"at this stage\", but said that it would be kept under review.\n\nHe said changes in behaviour, brought about by the Plan B measures introduced in December, combined with the booster programme were a key way to \"avoid the need for further measures\".\n\n\"The widespread use of testing is an illustration that the British public are taking sensible steps to keep themselves safe to keep their friends and family safe,\" he said.\n\nThe Plan B measures currently in place in England include mandatory face coverings in most indoor settings, Covid passports for entry to nightclubs and large events and advice to work from home where possible.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have already imposed additional restrictions, with the closure of nightclubs, limits on live events and socialising with others as well as new rules for hospitality.\n\nSecondary pupils returning to schools in England this week have been recommended to wear masks in classrooms - bringing England in line with the rest of the UK.\n\nMinisters have also been tasked with developing \"robust contingency plans\" for Covid-related workplace absences. Public sector leaders have been asked to plan for a worst case scenario of up to 25% of staff absent at any one time.\n\nBut Dr Nagpaul said if 25% of healthcare staff were unable to go to work, this would have an impact on patients, services and care.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News, he urged the government to bring the infection rate down and to give medics better access to Covid testing and higher quality personal protective equipment (PPE).\n\nThe number of hospital admissions in England are at their highest level since January 2021, according to the latest figures, while NHS hospital staff absences due to Covid have nearly doubled in a month.\n\nHis comments come a day after Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, said the next few days would be crucial in understanding the impact of Omicron on the NHS.\n\nHe said staff were working \"flat out\" and the NHS was now under \"different, arguably more\" pressure compared to last January.\n\nThe health secretary warned on Saturday that there would be a big increase in the number of people needing NHS care in the next month, which he said was \"likely to test the limits\" of NHS capacity more than a typical winter.\n\nIn Wales, people have been urged to avoid attending the emergency department at Swansea's Morriston Hospital owing to a \"staff shortage worsened by Covid\".\n\nThe breakdown of Sunday's figures was 123,547 new infections and 59 deaths in England, while Wales reported 14,036 new cases and 14 deaths.\n\nWales' figures cover the 24-hour period to 09:00 GMT on Friday with the next update covering the bank holiday weekend due to be published on Tuesday.\n\nEngland's current restrictions are due to expire on 26 January, although a review is expected in the next few days.", "Colin Firth, as Mr Darcy, famously emerged from a lake in a wet shirt in the 1995 series\n\nA shirt worn by Colin Firth as Mr Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is among 100 objects featured in online collections marking the corporation's 2022 centenary.\n\nThey include Roy Plomley's 1941 Desert Island Discs proposal letter and a 1935 clipping about the corporation's move to appoint its first female announcer.\n\nThe collections on the BBC 100 website highlight its most iconic objects, people and contributors.\n\nIt also has a year-by-year timeline.\n\nThe three collections are:\n\nProps, documents, artwork and buildings make up the 100 Objects collection\n\nThis Desert Island Discs letter was written by its creator Roy Plomley in 1941\n\nRobert Seatter, the BBC's head of history, said the BBC \"has an amazing history which belongs to us all\" and that the digital resources and partner exhibitions \"provide something to intrigue audiences of all ages\".\n\nBBC History has worked with cultural and academic partners for the BBC's centenary, including the British Film Institute. Its list of 100 BBC Gamechangers, announced in the spring, will chronologically list the 100 BBC TV programmes said to have changed the landscape of British TV.\n\nThis news clipping highlights how many women wanted to work in on-air broadcasting\n\nThe Science Museum Group will digitise 1,000 BBC objects for the first time and launch an exhibition and events programme across the UK.\n\nThe centenary will also be marked by other regional museum partners with collections and displays, including the Museum of London; Leicester City Museum; Manchester Museum; Discovery Museum, Newcastle; Sheffield Museum; Liverpool Museum and Showtown Museum, Blackpool.\n\nEastEnders' Peggy Mitchell in the Queen Vic pub will also be commemorated\n\nThere will also be a collaboration with the British Library.\n\nThe Science Museum Group's head, Sir Ian Blatchford, said they are \"delighted\" to be part of the celebrations and \"to be telling the story of a century of broadcasting\", adding the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford will be exploring broadcast technologies in the future in an exhibition called Switched On.\n\nThe BBC News website when it was first published in 1997 is also featured\n\nLast year the corporation announced special content to mark its 100 years, including the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, the Women's Euros, the World Cup and Commonwealth Games, new dramas and comedies plus Frozen Planet II, while BBC Three is set to return as a broadcast channel in February.", "Staff shortages continue to blight retailers and hospitality firms, with one warning of closures if Covid absences worsen.\n\nDavid Josephs, boss of food importer and retailer All Greens, told the BBC he could be forced to temporarily shut outlets and redeploy remaining staff.\n\nThe chief executive of pub group Fullers said things are improving but hundreds of staff are still off work.\n\nOne employers' group said some firms saw a 50% jump in absences.\n\nIt comes as ministers consider how the public sector handles mass absences.\n\nThe government has asked public sector managers to test their contingency plans against a worst-case scenario of 25% staff absence, as part of efforts to minimise disruption from surging infections from the Omicron variant of Covid.\n\nMinisters are due to review Plan B restrictions on Wednesday, although Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said on Monday \"there's nothing in the data\" to suggest further coronavirus measures will be needed later this week.\n\nMr Josephs, which sells fruit and vegetables to businesses such as restaurants, said that before Christmas he had about 15% of his workforce isolating or sick. \"We have had to re-deploy staff from stores into other stores to keep them moving,\" he said.\n\nNo stores have yet had to close, but \"it's possible that we would have to\" if absences rise, he added.\n\nHe said his industry had ramped up testing, but Mr Josephs was \"not convinced it's the answer.\n\n\"A lot of staff in the sector do not get paid sick pay - ours do - and therefore when they receive positive tests they ignore them.\n\n\"Throughout the jobs market - not just in our sector - a large minority or staff on limited contracts or minimum wage cannot afford to be off work and just ignore [positive tests]\".\n\nMeanwhile, Simon Emeny, chief executive of Fullers, told the BBC sickness levels among staff have improved in the past week.\n\nThe company has 420 pubs and hotels across the country, but is focused on London, where rates of Covid infections had been particularly high.\n\nBefore Christmas he had about 450 of his 4,000 staff off ill or isolating. \"That's now down to about 250. So things are improving,\" he said.\n\nAround 20 Fullers sites in the capital have been closed temporarily before Christmas because of falling sales, which he blamed on England's policy of work from home if possible.\n\nSales at the group are \"significantly down\" on what it expected at typically the busiest time of the year for the hospitality sector.\n\nOn working from home, Mr Emeny said: \"I would urge the prime minister to review that this week, as it does appear that London is coming through this Omicron crisis.\"\n\nMathew Fell, chief policy director at the CBI employers' group, said: \"This is clearly set to be one of the issues facing businesses at the start of this New Year. We were hearing just before the Christmas break retailers telling us that Covid-related absences were up about 50% in a week.\"\n\nHe said it was important the government resolves supply problems with Covid testing kits: \"Testing is really key for confidence and making sure we have that as ingrained behaviour.\"\n\nCovid absence could not come at a worse time for firms, he said, because they were already suffering skills and labour shortages.\n\nHowever, Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the TUC, told the BBC some firms were flouting Covid health and safety rules, and it was time for the government to get tough with these employers.\n\nShe added: \"The government still hasn't fixed sick pay to ensure that we don't spread the virus. Those staff who are sick should taking proper time off sick, but [sick pay] is only £96 a week.\"\n\nDespite the high number of absences, Mr Josephs said some staff were still ignoring positive tests because they could not afford time off.\n\nHe said: \"We know that in our sector a lot of staff do not get paid sick pay. Ours do - but staff who are on limited contracts or on minimum wage cannot afford to be off work.\"\n\nMinisters have been tasked with developing \"robust contingency plans\" for workplace absences, as the government warned rising cases could see up to a quarter of staff off work.\n\nPublic sector leaders have been asked to prepare for \"worst case scenarios\" of 10%, 20% and 25% absence rates, the Cabinet Office said.\n\nThe UK has seen record numbers of daily cases over the festive period. Transport, the NHS and schools have already seen the effect of absences.\n\nCorrection 7 February 2022: This article was amended after we mistakenly reported an employers' group as saying that some firms had seen 50% of staff off work, instead of absences being up 50% pre-Christmas.", "Police searched Philpot's Farm Open Space after the boy was found fatally wounded on Thursday\n\nPolice investigating the murder of a 16-year-old boy in west London have made an arrest.\n\nThe boy was found fatally stabbed at Philpot's Farm Open Space, near Heather Lane, Yiewsley, Hillingdon, on Thursday evening and died at the scene.\n\nHe was the 30th teenage victim of a homicide in the capital during 2021.\n\nPolice went to an address in Hillingdon on Sunday and arrested another 16-year-old boy on suspicion of murder. He remains in custody.\n\nThe victim's family, who were being supported by specialist officers, had been informed, police said.\n\nDet Ch Insp James Shirley, who is leading the investigation, said: \"While this arrest is a significant development in our investigation, we continue to fully explore all available lines of inquiry.\n\n\"Our thoughts remain with the family of a young man who has lost his life to senseless violence.\n\n\"We are committed to doing all we can to secure justice for them by finding the person or people responsible.\n\n\"I would urge anyone who has information and who has not yet spoken to the police to come forward. What you know could be the thing that makes the difference in this case.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The US market is expected to be worth about £37m to British exporters in the first five years\n\nNorthern Ireland lamb is back on the menu in the United States of America from Monday.\n\nRestrictions on UK imports, in place for more than 20 years, were lifted last month.\n\nThat came after the US Department of Agriculture amended its Small Ruminant Rule (SRR) to allow trade to recommence.\n\nThe US market is expected to be worth about £37m to British exporters in the first five years.\n\nThere are about 10,000 sheep flocks in Northern Ireland, encompassing about a million ewes.\n\nThey are mainly farmed for their meat, although milk and wool are also produced.\n\nThe Ulster Farmers Union described the US change as \"quite significant\".\n\n\"Sheep farmers will be pleased, every new market is a bonus for them,\" deputy president William Irwin said.\n\n\"Boris Johnson, the prime minister, met with President Biden back in September, and this was one of his asks at that time, that UK sheep meat be allowed into the US.\n\n\"I don't think anybody thought that the response would have been as quick as this, but everybody's pleased to have this opportunity.\"\n\nConall Donnelly, the chief executive of the Northern Ireland Meat Exporters' Association, said it \"won't make an immediate difference\".\n\nConall Donnelly, of the Northern Ireland Meat Exporters' Association, said it was \"another step along the way\"\n\n\"But it is another step along the way, in terms of access,\" he added.\n\n\"It's all about adding another market, and it gives extra opportunities for processors to add value to farmers' produce and provide a better price, hopefully, in the long-run back to the farmer.\n\n\"The USA - it's not a massive market for lamb but it is a high value market.\"\n\nThe lifting of the ban follows the easing of rules on exports of British beef earlier last year.\n\nWhile lamb has historically not been a meat of choice in the US, tastes are changing, thanks to the popularity of UK cooking programmes.\n\n\"The local UK and EU markets is still the closest market and still pivotal,\" Mr Irwin said.\n\n\"But having said that, market research in the US tells us that lamb consumption is growing as consumer trends change, so every market helps make the portfolio viable.\n\n\"The onus now is on DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), DAERA (Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs) and our processors to put everything in place that this can be taken advantage of.\"", "A teaching union has called on the Stormont Executive to take urgent action to reduce any further disruption in schools due to Covid-19.\n\nNASUWT said its members want to be able to provide face-to-face teaching in the new term which begins this week.\n\nJustin McCamphill from the union said the executive must do all it can to prevent schools from experiencing \"significant staffing problems\".\n\nThere has been a surge in cases of the Omicron variant in Northern Ireland.\n\nOn Thursday, Stormont ministers were told that the Omicron variant now accounts for about 90% of cases in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"We are calling on the executive to urgently intervene in schools to make sure they're safe,\" Mr McCamphill said.\n\n\"Over the new year we have seen a big increase in the number of cases with the Omicron variant so we're expecting a big amount of disruption in schools when they return this week.\n\n\"Unfortunately, that will mean many classes and year groups will be sent home.\"\n\nBefore Christmas, some schools had to send individual year groups home for remote learning on specific days due to staff absences and difficulty getting substitute teacher cover.\n\nThe NASUWT is urging the executive to:\n\nA Belfast principal said up to 15% of his teaching staff will not be available for the new term which starts in a couple of days.\n\nCahal O'Doherty of St Clare's Primary School said the Omicron variant has made planning difficult.\n\n\"That's a real issue and I think all schools will be facing that,\" he said.\n\n\"I think this particular strain of coronavirus, because it's so much more contagious, it's given us food for thought in terms of being able to manage this situation on the ground.\"\n\nHe said his preparations for the new term are \"changing by the hour\".\n\nThe principal of St Cecilia's College in Londonderry, whose pupils are due to go back to school on Wednesday, said she feels \"anxious\" and would have preferred a delayed return after Christmas and the new year.\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, Martine Mulhern said she had hoped pupils and staff were going into the new term \"better prepared\".\n\n\"As a principal, I have a duty of care to keep staff and young people safe,\" she said.\n\n\"To have everyone back in school with no additional mitigations, for me, could be a potential recipe for disaster.\"\n\nThe SDLP's Education spokesperson, Daniel McCrossan, told BBC News NI's Evening Extra that Stormont's Education Committee had \"continually raised concerns\" with the education minister in relation to the \"very serious risks posed to schools\".\n\nHe said the committee had met \"five days a week in some instances prior to Christmas\" and that a letter being sent to principals and school staff on a Friday evening \"days before schools return is certainly not appropriate\" and that they had \"flagged this issue time and time again\".\n\nA spokeswoman for the Department of Education said both the minister and Permanent Secretary had written to schools setting out mitigations which were in place.\n\nIn a statement, they said they had a \"shared objective to keep schools safe and open as we all know that the best place for our children and young people is in school\".\"We will continue to do everything in our power to help school leaders during these unprecedented and extremely challenging circumstances,\" the statement continued.The department is encouraging schools to ask all staff and post-primary pupils to take a lateral flow test within 24 hours of their return to school in January.\n\nMeanwhile, the Public Health Agency (PHA) has confirmed at least 120 care homes in Northern Ireland are dealing with Covid-19 outbreaks.\n\nDr Gillian Armstrong from the PHA told BBC Radio Foyle different pressures within the sector are likely to continue for some time.\"\n\nLast week, Northern Ireland's First Minister Paul Givan announced a cut to the Covid-19 self-isolation period for positive cases in Northern Ireland to avoid a \"workforce crisis\".\n\nFrom 31 December, people with Covid have been able to end their self-isolation after seven days instead of 10, by providing negative lateral flow results on day six and day seven.\n\nSome principals told Stormont's education committee recently that closing schools \"must be avoided at all costs\".\n\nThey said being out of school had a detrimental impact on children and young people's mental health, wellbeing and education.\n\nThe executive will next meet on 6 January to discuss its measures and the latest data.", "Citizen News said in a Facebook post that it would cease operations from January 4, 2022\n\nHong Kong independent news website Citizen News has announced it will close on Tuesday, the latest in a series of pro-democracy news outlets which have shuttered in recent months.\n\nIt cited a \"deteriorating media environment\" as the reason.\n\nThe move comes after last week's police raid on Stand News, where several were arrested on sedition charges.\n\nObservers say new laws put in place by China have created a climate of fear stifling free speech.\n\nCitizen News, established in 2017, is one of the last few Chinese-language pro-democracy publications in Hong Kong.\n\nIn its Facebook post late on Sunday, the outlet thanked readers for their support, before announcing \"with a heavy heart\" that it would cease operations from 4 January to \"ensure the safety and well-being of everyone\".\n\n\"Regrettably, what was ahead of us [was] not just pouring rains or blowing winds, but hurricanes and tsunamis,\" the statement said.\n\n\"Sadly, we can no longer strive to turn our beliefs into reality without fear because of the sea change in the society over the past two years and the deteriorating media environment.\"\n\nLast week the pro-democracy website Stand News declared it would shut down after its offices was raided by police and senior staff were arrested on charges of \"conspiracy to publish seditious publications\".\n\nPro-democracy outlet Apple Daily - a publication known for being a vocal critic of the Hong Kong and Chinese leadership - was forced to close in June 2021, following sustained pressure on the paper from authorities. Its owner, prominent media mogul Jimmy Lai, has been jailed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHong Kong was handed back to China from Britain in 1997 under the agreement that rights such as freedom of assembly and freedom of speech would be guaranteed in the territory.\n\nHowever, critics say those rights have been increasingly eroded as Hong Kong authorities crack down on dissent in the city in recent months, following the imposition of a national security law introduced by Beijing in 2020.\n\nThe controversial law criminalises secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces, and carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.\n\nHong Kong authorities reject those claims and the city's government denies targeting the media, insisting instead that the law is critical for preserving national security.", "Children aged five to 11 can now be registered for a Covid-19 vaccine in the Republic of Ireland, the Health Service Executive (HSE) has said.\n\nThe HSE's chief clinical officer told RTÉ that some high-risk children have already received a jab in hospitals.\n\nChildren with underlying conditions and those who live with a vulnerable person will take priority before the programme expands to the wider cohort.\n\nIt follows the opening of the booster vaccine programme to over-16s.\n\nThat was a week earlier than Irish public health officials had planned.\n\nHSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said he hoped that the vaccines would start being administered to children in the five to 11 age group within the next two weeks.\n\nOn Monday, a further 16,986 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the Republic.\n\nThere are 804 patients being treated in hospital with the virus, 93 of whom are in intensive care units.\n\nMeanwhile, the Irish Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, said the government is set to consider reducing the self-isolation period from 10 to five days for some people who test positive for coronavirus.\n\nLast month, the Northern Ireland Executive agreed to reduce the isolation period from 10 to seven days if people could provide a negative lateral flow test.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nadhim Zahawi says masks in classrooms are \"not ideal\" but it's a trade-off to stop the spread of Omicron\n\nSecondary students in England will wear masks in classrooms \"not for a day longer than necessary\", Nadhim Zahawi has said.\n\nThe education secretary defended the requirement to wear masks during lessons, as Omicron cases surge.\n\nHe added ministers are determined to keep schools open after learning a \"painful lesson\" from earlier closures.\n\nMr Zahawi also repeated assurances that nothing in recent Covid data suggests new curbs are needed.\n\nHe confirmed all secondary pupils in England will be tested before returning this week.\n\nAfter days of inconsistent supply of rapid tests, ministers assured schools that testing kits will be provided as needed and urged pupils to test twice weekly.\n\nOn Sunday, Mr Zahawi announced face coverings will be required during lessons in England's secondary schools until 26 January, when Plan B measures are due to expire.\n\nHe explained the move had been recommended by experts after the surge in Omicron cases.\n\nThe minister told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the government had conducted a study in 123 schools, which suggested mask wearing \"made a difference\" to transmission.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, he also said: \"The painful lesson we learnt was when children weren't in school, the impact on their mental health and, of course their education, was quite substantial.\n\n\"Which is why I'm so determined, as is the prime minister, to make sure education remains open and children are in the best place when they're in the classroom, with their friends, learning in front of a teacher.\"\n\nThe new on-site testing rules apply to England, where pupils will begin returning to schools for the new term later this week.\n\nMr Zahawi said the government had set up a \"different supply route\" for tests to give to school children early in early 2021 than those offered to the general public.\n\nHe added the government has been communicating with schools about the testing plans since \"late last year\" to allow them to prepare.\n\nAsked about further restrictions, Mr Zahawi said there is \"nothing in the data that gives me any concern that we need to go beyond where we are at\" - adding existing Plan B curbs would be reviewed on Wednesday.\n\nFears have been raised in recent days that a wave of illness and isolation among staff caused by the Omicron coronavirus variant could make it \"impossible\" for schools to deliver face-to-face teaching to all pupils.\n\nIn Scotland - where older pupils already wear masks in lessons - and in Northern Ireland, students are also being asked to test twice every week.\n\nIn Wales, the government has urged staff and students to test three times per week before the start of the new term.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said \"regular testing is a key way to support schools and protect face-to-face teaching\".\n\nMinisters have also urged pupils to come forward for a Covid vaccine, second dose or booster, depending on their age.\n\nFace coverings will be required in England's secondary schools until 26 January\n\nAs well as testing, Mr Zahawi promised 7,000 more air-cleaning units on top of the 1,000 already announced, as well as 350,000 CO2 monitors for schools.\n\nTeachers who had left the profession or retired have been asked to come back as temporary support and all 12-15 year olds are being urged to get both vaccine doses with older children asked to get their booster jabs.\n\nBut Labour's shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, criticised ministers for the slow rollout of jabs to schoolchildren.\n\nShe said almost two million students aged 12-17 remain completely unvaccinated and the government had missed \"the chance to get ahead of the virus, and is letting down our children\".\n\nMeanwhile, as other industries and sectors see significant disruption due to staffing shortages:\n\nDespite the impact of record infections, government ministers pushed back over the weekend against suggestions that fresh coronavirus restrictions will be necessary in the coming weeks.\n\nCabinet Office minister Steve Barclay said the government believes that significant behaviour changes among members of the public mean further restrictions are not necessary.\n\n\"The widespread use of testing is an illustration that the British public are taking sensible steps to keep themselves safe to keep their friends and family safe,\" Mr Barclay said.\n\nEngland's current Plan B restrictions are due to expire on 26 January, although a review is expected in the next few days.\n\nOn Sunday, England and Wales recorded 137,583 daily cases and 73 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test. Data for Scotland and Northern Ireland is due to be updated after the bank holiday weekend.\n\nThe latest figures for England are down on the 162,572 new cases reported on Saturday, which had been a record number for the fifth day in a row.\n\nAre you a parent, teacher or student? What's happening at your school? Share your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The French government wants to tighten restrictions on unvaccinated people\n\nSeveral French MPs say they have received death threats as they debate a Covid-19 pass that would bar the unvaccinated from much of public life.\n\nThe government is seeking to pass a law that would require people to show proof of vaccination to access public venues and transport with some exceptions.\n\nThe legislation is expected to be approved in a vote this week but has angered vaccine opponents.\n\nFrance has one of the highest Covid vaccination rates in the EU.\n\nAt least 91% of the adult population have been fully jabbed, according to the French government.\n\nOn Sunday Agnès Firmin Le Bodo of the centre-right Agir party tweeted an email she received containing graphic threats to kill her over her support for the vaccination pass.\n\n\"Our democracy is in danger,\" wrote Ms Firmin Le Bodo, who is also a pharmacist and vaccinates people against Covid.\n\nIn an interview with BFM TV, she said she had reported the threats to the police and would not be deterred from supporting the vaccine pass.\n\nAgnès Firmin Le Bodo tweeted out a screen shot of an emailed threat she received\n\nAnother MP, Naïma Moutchou of the Horizons party, shared a similar tweet which included a screenshot of an emailed threat.\n\nIn parliament on Monday, Health Minister Olivier Véran condemned the death threats and the \"selfishness\" of vaccine opponents.\n\nLast week Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said police would strengthen protections for elected officials ahead of the vote on vaccine passes.\n\nBarbara Bessot Ballot of the ruling En Marche! party said MPs had received messages threatening to kill them for \"attacking our freedom\".\n\n\"Those death threats are unacceptable,\" she wrote on Twitter.\n\nThroughout the pandemic, critics have accused French President Emmanuel Macron's government of violating freedoms by imposing Covid rules. Protests against these rules have been held regularly.\n\nFor months France has asked people to show either proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test to access many public venues.\n\nBut the French government has decided to remove the option to show a negative test in response to record increases in infections, driven by the highly contagious Omicron and Delta variants of Covid.\n\nThe government is aiming to bring the vaccine pass into force in mid-January, once it has been approved by parliament.\n\nMost parties back the vaccine pass, which is expected to be passed by the lower house early this week, before being debated in the Senate on Wednesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Experts answer your questions about the Omicron variant", "A second boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death in south London.\n\nZaian Aimable-Lina was found fatally injured after police were called to Ashburton Park in Croydon shortly after 19:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nHe died from a stab wound to the heart, police said.\n\nThe arrested boy, also 15, remains in custody, with another 15-year-old boy bailed until late January.\n\nZaian's death marked the 29th killing of a teenager in London in 2021.\n\nA 16-year-old boy stabbed in west London on Friday took the total number of teenage homicides in the capital in 2021 to 30 - the highest number since 2008.\n\nA post-mortem examination revealed Zaian died from a stab wound to the heart\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "George Alagiah said his life and family \"didn't feel like a failure\"\n\nBBC newsreader George Alagiah has said he thinks the cancer he has had since 2014 will \"probably get me in the end\", but that he still feels \"very lucky\".\n\n\"I don't think I'm going to be able to get rid of this thing. I've got the cancer still. It's growing very slowly,\" he said on the podcast Desperately Seeking Wisdom.\n\nAlagiah was first diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in April 2014.\n\nBut he said he was able to look back at the \"great good fortune\" in his life.\n\nSpeaking on the podcast with ex-Downing Street director of communications Craig Oliver, Alagiah said that when his cancer was first diagnosed, it took a while for him to understand what he \"needed to do\".\n\n\"I had to stop and say, 'Hang on a minute. If the full stop came now, would my life have been a failure?'\n\n\"And actually, when I look back and I looked at my journey... the family I had, the opportunities my family had, the great good fortune to bump into (Frances Robathan), who's now been my wife and lover for all these years, the kids that we brought up... it didn't feel like a failure.\"\n\nHe also spoke about his treatment, saying: \"My doctor's very good at every now and again hitting me with a big red bus full of drugs, because the whole point about cancer is it finds a way through and it gets you in the end.\n\n\"Probably... it will get me in the end. I'm hoping it's a long time from now, but I'm very lucky.\"\n\nAlagiah has also worked as a BBC News foreign correspondent and specialist on Africa and the developing world, covering events including the Rwandan genocide and interviewing Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.\n\nIn October, the journalist said he was taking a break from TV to have treatment after \"a further spread of cancer\" was discovered. He said in June 2020 that the cancer had spread to his lungs, liver and lymph nodes.\n\nWhen asked what piece of wisdom he would give, he spoke about the need for people to think more collectively.\n\n\"I think it would be to constantly ask the question, 'What is it we can do together?'\" he said.\n\n\"I spent a lot of my time in Africa, and in South Africa they have a word: Ubuntu. It's the idea that I'm only human if I recognise the humanity in you.\n\n\"There's this collective notion of life which I think we have lost.\"", "Face masks are to be worn in classrooms in England's secondary schools to reduce the spread of the Omicron variant, the government has announced.\n\nThe temporary reintroduction of face coverings aims to address concerns about schools remaining open for face-to-face learning this coming term.\n\nMeanwhile, six school staff unions have issued a demand for urgent action to limit the spread of the virus.\n\nThey warned national exams would be put at risk without further measures.\n\nThey also called for air-cleaning units, financial support for absence cover, help with on-site testing and a relaxation of the Ofsted inspection regime.\n\nSchools across the UK are re-opening after the Christmas break over the next week, with pupils being asked to take part in onsite Covid testing.\n\nUntil now, England was the only one of the four UK nations where face masks were not recommended for pupils in classrooms. Teachers will not have to wear them under the new guidelines.\n\nSome individual schools and local authorities in England had already required masks in classrooms, and face coverings were recommended in schools in England between 8 March and 17 May last year.\n\nEducation Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said face coverings would be required until 26 January.\n\nThis is when the current national Plan B Covid measures run out, although they will be reviewed on or close to 4 January.\n\nHe said education was the \"number one priority\" for him and the prime minister, and that they would do \"everything in our power\" to minimise disruption.\n\nThe government also said it would be making 7,000 air cleaning units available to early years settings, schools and colleges.\n\nThere are more than 24,400 schools in England, according to the latest government figures, but the Department for Education said the units would only be required in some areas of schools where opening doors and windows was not effective.\n\nStaff absences and rising Covid rates at the end of last term - caused by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant - have led to fears of further disruption to education.\n\nThe four main teaching unions covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland - ASCL, NAHT, NEU and NASUWT - plus the GMB and Unison, have issued a joint statement calling for urgent steps to help schools.\n\nIt said schools needed to avoid exam disruption for a third successive year, and remove uncertainty and additional workloads for students and teachers.\n\nMore specifically, it said:\n\nCabinet Office minister Steve Barclay said schools would be prioritised in terms of testing to ensure they reopened as planned.\n\nMinisters recognised that face masks were \"not something that many children will want to wear\" but said the introduction of them in classrooms was to ensure face-to-face education was available, he said.\n\nWhen someone who has Covid coughs, sneezes or exhales they release droplets of infected fluid.\n\nEvidence certainly shows wearing a face-covering reduces the release of these into the environment.\n\nBut what's not clear is what impact this has on transmission in the real world of schools.\n\nPeople wear different types of masks. Some work better than others. Ill-fitting masks or fidgeting with them will also naturally reduce their effectiveness.\n\nStudies that have been done have been pretty inconclusive at least in terms of proving they have a significant impact when used in school when the virus is spreading quickly in the community.\n\nOne of the problems is it is difficult to disentangle the impact of one measure with others steps that are being taken to reduce spread of the virus.\n\nWhat's more, any benefit has to be weighed against the costs in terms of harm to education.\n\nIt's the nature of a pandemic that decisions have to be taken without perfect evidence.\n\nBut this far in, plenty of experts are wondering why better research has not been done to work out what measures like this achieve.\n\nThis seems to be a policy which is being introduced more in the hope it will help significantly, rather than based on strong evidence it actually will.\n\nLabour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said that while he did not think anyone would be \"over the moon\" about masks being worn in schools, it was better than children missing out on learning.\n\nMr Streeting said the supply issues around lateral flow tests was causing challenges and called for the government to \"get a grip\" on testing.\n\nBut Conservative MP Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons education select committee, said he had worries about the mask policy, telling the BBC that the children's minister had told his committee \"there was no evidence of the efficacy of mask wearing\".\n\nHe said he wanted the education secretary to set out the evidence behind the policy and what the government was doing to assess the impact of it on children's mental health, wellbeing, anxiety and education.\n\nSir Daniel Moynihan, who runs the Harris Federation which educates 36,000 children, said his schools would probably return to pupil bubbles and that he disagreed with Mr Halfon on face masks.\n\n\"If we've got a thousand kids in a school all breathing all over each other, it is more likely they and their staff will be off sick and that will affect their mental health,\" he said.\n\nBeth Collins, assistant head teacher at Laurels Primary in Worthing, said she felt that \"once again primaries have been forgotten\", saying that as primary pupils were unvaccinated \"it has left us open to every danger going\".\n\nThe process by which schools can obtain the new air cleaning units is due to be set out by the DfE shortly.\n\nMr Streeting said that the government's announcement did not go far enough - suggesting that 7,000 was enough for about one in four schools in England to get one - and looked \"very much like appearing to be busy days before the start of school term\".\n\nFreelance piano and voice teacher Megan Skinner, who is based in East Sussex, said she was \"frankly terrified about returning to school\" as she had nearly died from blood clots in her lungs six years ago and her GP had told her she could develop them again if she caught Covid.\n\nShe said she was worried about the lack of adequate ventilation for some of her classes, adding: \"I am exposed to five times the number of pupils that most teachers will be, and apart from the risk to me, were I to contract Covid, I could certainly be a super spreader.\"\n\nHave you been affected by any of the issues raised in this article? You can share your experience via email - Haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001\n\nAn agreement between Virginia Giuffre and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which could be key to a civil case involving the Duke of York, is to be made public ahead of a critical hearing on Tuesday.\n\nThe 2009 settlement between Epstein and Ms Giuffre is due to be released after an order by judges in the US.\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers believe it could release him from liability in the case brought by Ms Giuffre, who accuses him of sexual assault when she was 17.\n\nHe has consistently denied the claims.\n\nAndrew B Brettler, who represents the duke, had argued at a previous hearing that the \"settlement agreement\" would end Ms Giuffre's lawsuit against Andrew.\n\nThe settlement was reached between Ms Giuffre, also known as Virginia Roberts, and the prince's former friend and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.\n\nMr Brettler had previously told a New York hearing the agreement \"releases Prince Andrew and others from any purported liability arising from the claims Ms Giuffre asserted against Prince Andrew here\".\n\nUS District Judge Lewis A Kaplan, who is presiding over the civil case, is due to hold a video teleconference on Tuesday when a request by the duke's legal team to dismiss the case will be heard.\n\nMs Giuffre is suing the Queen's son for allegedly sexually assaulting her in London, New York and the Virgin Islands when she was a teenager.\n\nShe is seeking unspecified damages, but there is speculation the sum could be in the millions of dollars.\n\nShe claims she was trafficked by disgraced financier Epstein to have sex with Andrew when she was 17 and a minor under US law.\n\nAndrew, 61, has denied all the allegations, telling BBC Newsnight in 2019: \"It didn't happen. I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened. I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever.\"\n\nJudge Kaplan last week denied a motion from Andrew's lawyers to halt the civil proceedings while the issue of where Ms Giuffre, now 38 and thought to be residing in Australia, lives is dealt with.\n\nLast week, Ms Giuffre's lawyers said they were seeking proof of Andrew's claim he had an inability to sweat, which he said showed a \"problem\" with her account of an evening with the duke.\n\n\"I didn't sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenalin in the Falklands War when I was shot at and it was almost impossible for me to sweat,\" he told Newsnight.\n\nGhislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend and Andrew's friend, faces the rest of her life in jail after she was convicted last week of helping to procure teenage girls for the disgraced financier to sexually abuse.", "A further 20,217 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Scotland, the highest daily figure since the pandemic began.\n\nThe official figures are the first to be published in 2022, and overtake the previous high of 16,857 positive results reported on 30 December.\n\nThe Scottish government said there had been delays in results being reported due to the high volume of tests.\n\nIt said turnaround times had also been impacted by the holiday weekend.\n\nNo figures have been available since 31 December but headline statistics were released on Monday.\n\nThe figures showed that of the 65,860 tests that reported results on Monday, 34.9% were positive.\n\nThe daily data for 1 and 2 January was also published on Monday - it showed 17,065 new cases were reported on 1 January and 14,080 were reported for 2 January.\n\nThe Public Health Scotland statistics also showed 1,031 people were in hospital - the highest since September last year.\n\nWhile there is evidence that fewer people become seriously ill with the new strain, the large numbers of infected people combined with staff absences could still put the NHS under severe pressure.\n\nIn terms of vaccinations, figures showed 4,383,212 people have received their first dose, 4,017,051 have received their second dose and 2,992,583 had received a booster.\n\nMore detailed data will be released on Wednesday.\n\nThe Scottish Parliament will hold a virtual meeting of MSPs that day at 14:00 for an update from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on the Covid situation in Scotland.\n\nNHS Grampian's head of health intelligence Jillian Evans previously said data from her region suggested cases were still doubling every three days.\n\nShe said it would be a \"crunch week\" for understanding the variant's impact.\n\nMeanwhile the Scottish government's Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said officials were paying \"close attention\" to the figures, and that all restrictions were kept under constant review.\n\nMs Somerville added everyone should continue to limit their contacts and follow the recommended safety precautions.\n\n\"Although the numbers are high today, and obviously that's a concern, we're not powerless in this and there are things that everyone can do to play their part in ensuring that we keep the numbers as low as possible,\" she said.\n\nAhead of the return to school, Ms Somerville urged pupils and staff to take a lateral flow test twice a week.\n\nShe also encouraged young people to get vaccinated when they are eligible. Drop-in vaccinations are now available in some areas for 12 to 15-year-olds, and they are being encouraged to get a second dose of the vaccine if at least 12 weeks have elapsed since their first jab.\n\nNHS Tayside said it had had to draft in extra vaccinators for Monday and Tuesday due to increasing demand across all its drop-in vaccination sites.\n\nThe board said it was \"really encouraging\" to see so many people coming along to be vaccinated, but asked people to be prepared to wait if necessary.", "General visiting has been banned at hospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham\n\nA critical incident has been declared at four Lincolnshire hospitals because of staff shortages due to Covid-19.\n\nUnited Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said it was taking \"additional steps to maintain services\" at all its hospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham.\n\nThe trust's medical director, Dr Colin Farquharson, said there were \"significant staffing pressures due to absence related to Covid-19\".\n\nBut he said essential services \"remain fully open\".\n\nLast month, visiting restrictions were brought in at Lincoln County, Grantham and District, Pilgrim Hospital Boston and County Hospital Louth to slow the spread of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus.\n\nIn a statement, Dr Farquharson said: \"As a result of significant staffing pressures due to absence related to Covid-19, we are having to take additional steps to maintain services.\n\n\"Our staff continue to work exceptionally hard and we would like to reassure our patients and the public that in spite of the challenges faced, essential services remain fully open for anyone who needs them, so people should continue to come forward for care.\"\n\nHe added people could \"reduce pressure on health services\" by getting a booster vaccine.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Shaun Lintern This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAccording to a leaked email seen by The Sunday Times, the trust declared a critical incident on Saturday night \"due to extreme and unprecedented workforce shortages\".\n\nIt issued an \"urgent appeal\" for clinical and non-clinical staff to offer extra time supporting colleagues \"over the next 72 hours\".\n\nIt also asked staff to \"consider limiting social contacts with people outside of work\".\n\nChris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said a critical incident was \"an indication of very serious pressure\" at a trust which may \"not be able to provide\" a range of priority services.\n\nHelen Monday, a nurse at the trust, said hospitals were busy but were \"not being inundated with Covid-positive patients\".\n\nShe said colleagues were \"helping out as much as they can\" as a result of absences caused by staff self-isolating due being in contact with someone who tested positive.\n\n\"People are now getting to the point where they're burnt out.\"\n\nBoris Johnson has warned \"considerable\" pressure on the NHS is likely to last for weeks to come and said it would be \"folly\" to think the pandemic was almost over.\n\nHe pledged to \"make sure that we look after our NHS any way that we can\".\n\nThe situation in Lincolnshire is not unique.\n\nIt is understood at least half a dozen NHS trusts have declared critical incidents over the past week.\n\nThat is not that unusual in the depths of winter - the NHS is entering what is traditionally its busiest time of year.\n\nBut the scale and nature of the challenges are, of course, unprecedented, with growing rates of staff absences due to Covid.\n\nAt this time of year the NHS can see around 1,000 admissions a day for all types of respiratory illness - and it is getting more than that just for Covid, and the number is rising.\n\nA critical incident does not mean emergency care stops being provided, rather it is an alert to the wider system that the trust is under acute pressure and needs help, such as getting staff redeployed from elsewhere.\n\nMany of these incidents will be over in a few days.\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: It would be folly to think Covid is almost over\n\nEngland will continue with its Plan B Covid measures amid growing pressures on the NHS, Boris Johnson has said.\n\nThe prime minister said it would be \"folly\" to think the pandemic was over and pressure on hospitals would be \"considerable\" over the coming weeks.\n\nHowever, he added the country was in a \"much better position\" than this time last year thanks to vaccinations.\n\nThe PM stressed Omicron looks less severe than other variants, despite it being \"incredibly transmissible\".\n\nSpeaking during a visit to a vaccination centre in Aylesbury, he said the \"mixture of things we're doing at the moment\" were the correct measures.\n\nHe said this included continuing with Plan B, which includes mask wearing in certain indoor settings and guidance to work from home where possible, ensuring it is taken \"seriously\" by people.\n\nThese measures are due to expire on 26 January, although they are expected to be reviewed on Wednesday.\n\nBBC political correspondent Chris Mason said to expect the status quo to rumble on until the end of the month, when the picture should be clearer as to what impact Christmas and New Year mixing had.\n\nOn Monday, 157,758 new coronavirus cases were reported across England and Scotland, with data from Wales and Northern Ireland to be reported after the holiday weekend.\n\nA further 42 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in England.\n\nMr Johnson added people should be \"sensible\" and take a rapid test before going to see people they do not usually meet, as well as getting their first, second and booster jabs.\n\n\"We've got to make sure we look after our NHS in any way that we can\" he said, adding: \"I appreciate the pressures that our hospitals are under.\"\n\nAs NHS trusts warn of staffing pressures, Mr Johnson said the government was looking at what it could do to \"move people into those areas that are particularly badly affected\".\n\nHe said: \"Looking at the pressures on the NHS in the next couple of weeks and maybe longer... looking at the numbers of people who are going to be going into hospital, it would be absolute folly to say that this thing is all over now bar the shouting.\n\n\"We've got to remain cautious, we've got to stick with plan B, we've got to get boosted.\"\n\nChris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said on Twitter it was \"very clear\" the NHS in the rest of the country was \"now coming under the significant pressure London has been encountering\".\n\nMany trusts said the biggest challenge was rising staff absence, he said, so some were declaring critical incidents to manage those.\n\nParts of the health service are in crisis, Matthew Taylor, NHS Confederation chief executive, warned.\n\n\"Some hospitals are making urgent calls to exhausted staff to give up rest days and leave to enable them to sustain core services. Many more hospitals are having to ban visitors to try to reduce the spread of infection,\" he said.\n\nThe devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have the power to set their own Covid restrictions.\n\nIt comes as secondary school children are due to head back to school this week, with testing and mask wearing in classrooms part of their return.\n\nOn a new requirement for masks, Mr Johnson agreed with Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi and said the government \"won't keep them on a day more than is necessary\".\n\nMr Johnson said he did not \"like the idea of having face masks in classrooms any more than anybody else does\", but said there is an \"increasing body of scientific support\" for the idea that face masks contain transmission.\n\nEarlier on Monday, Mr Zahawi defended plans to require secondary pupils to wear masks during lessons until 26 January, adding ministers were determined to keep schools open after learning a \"painful lesson\" from earlier closures.\n\nHe confirmed all secondary pupils in England would be tested before returning this week.", "Head girl Areeba Ahsan said pupils should feel safe going to school\n\nChildren are being helped by adult chaperones on their way to and from school in high-crime inner city areas.\n\nThe £1.2m project is being piloted in the West Midlands with support from the Home Office and the Police and Crime Commissioner.\n\nParticipating schools were selected on police intelligence about criminal activity in their neighbourhoods.\n\nIt is based on a successful scheme which helped reduce crime in the US city of Chicago.\n\nAmong the schools taking part in the scheme - called Step Together - is The Ark Boulton Academy, a secondary school in the inner-city Sparkhill area of Birmingham.\n\nAt the beginning and end of the day a small group of adults gather at the school gates to act as chaperones for the children as they walk between home and school. Others are stationed in nearby parks.\n\nThe school was chosen, along with more than a dozen others in the West Midlands police force area, because there have been problems with anti-social behaviour and gang crime nearby.\n\nDanny Richards, the school's head teacher, hopes the scheme will provide pupils with added reassurance about their safety.\n\nHe said: \"The chaperones are in the prominent places if you like, so they are easily identifiable by the students. They are on key routes home and also in areas that are known hot spots.\"\n\nThe idea is to offer children a point of safety, and to act as a deterrent to anyone intent on wrongdoing.\n\nThe West Midlands has been blighted by attacks on teenagers in the hours after school in recent years.\n\nKeon Lincoln, 15, was murdered outside his home in Handsworth 12 months ago, and in December, 18-year-old Yahya Sharif was stabbed to death in Small Heath.\n\nMuhammad Al-Muzamil is aware that the streets can be dangerous\n\nMuhammad Al-Muzamil, the head boy at Ark Boulton Academy, said he believed the presence of the chaperones has made students feel safer.\n\n\"Thankfully, none of us ever been involved in such violence across the streets,\" he said.\n\n\"But we do know... well the dangers of the world are out there, and you want to be protected in such situations.\"\n\nAreeba Ahsan, the head girl, said that if there was a problem it would be easier for teenagers to to speak to an adult that they know.\n\n\"Every student should get the chance to go home safely. It's more scary to go to a stranger to ask for help.\"\n\nThe chaperones come from groups who already have a presence in the areas they operate in, as well as a relationship with the schools.\n\nIn Sparkhill, they come from the youth development programme, Make A Difference. They do an hour pre-school and several post-school, as well as a day's work in-between.\n\nCallam Dunne, one of the chaperones, took me to one of the parks they patrol. It is where locals gather to play impromptu games of football and cricket, but there have been problems here too.\n\nWeapons are regularly found stashed in the undergrowth, including a machete which was retrieved recently.\n\nHe said: \"When bad things happen, it's not often in the eyesight of the public. That's why green areas and big parks like this are often places where a lot of things will happen.\"\n\nCallam believes that because the chaperones spend so much time with the children, they get a sixth sense if something is wrong and can immediately detect if there's likely to be trouble.\n\nThe scheme is being assessed and new schools will join the pilot this term.\n\nIf it is a success, it is hoped chaperones could become a more common sight elsewhere in England and Wales.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "David Bowie, pictured in 1992, released 26 studio albums during his lifetime\n\nDavid Bowie's estate has sold the publishing rights to his \"entire body of work\" to Warner Chappell Music, including hundreds of songs such as Space Oddity, Changes and Let's Dance.\n\nWCM now has global music publishing rights to his song catalogue, the singer's estate told the BBC.\n\nVariety suggested the deal was worth \"upwards of $250m (£185m)\", but the terms of the agreement were not given.\n\nWCM head Guy Moot said they were \"proud\" to be \"chosen as caretakers\".\n\nBowie died of cancer in 2016. He was hailed as an extraordinary artist and genius in a huge global outpouring of tributes from fellow music stars, including Sir Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Brian Eno and Madonna among others.\n\nBowie [L] performed Starman on Top of the Pops in 1972\n\nThe agreement with WCM includes the 26 studio albums released during Bowie's lifetime and the posthumous studio album release, Toy, plus the two studio albums from Tin Machine - the rock supergroup fronted by Bowie.\n\nTracks released as singles from soundtracks and other projects are also included.\n\nGiven the ups and downs of the music industry over the last 20 years, the appeal of a big cheque is, perhaps, unsurprising - especially for 'heritage' acts.\n\nStreaming may not quite have replaced the billions lost by the decline of the CD, but it is, for many established artists, proving to be a regular, and largely recession-proof, income stream; and for record labels and a number of new firms who have entered the market, this is, they think, a lucrative asset.\n\nWith the music industry becoming ever more complicated, with licensing deals over streaming, adverts, films, video games and online video to negotiate, the artists - or their estates and families - have a large and hassle-free deposit in the bank, and the complicated job of turning music into money is left to the experts.\n\nWith Spotify adding 60,000 songs to its catalogue every day, the chance of a new act making a splash seems tougher than ever - legacy artists with 50 years of fame and proven sales look like a relatively safe bet.\n\nBowie released a total of 111 singles, averaging two per year during his career, and 51 music videos.\n\nThis deal follows huge names, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, recently selling the rights to their music catalogues.\n\nMoot, who is WCM's co-chairman and chief executive, said Bowie's was \"one of the most ground-breaking, influential, and enduring catalogues in music history\", adding he had \"inspired millions of fans and countless innovators, not only in music, but across all the arts, fashion, and media\".\n\n\"These are not only extraordinary songs, but milestones that have changed the course of modern music forever,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe described Bowie's \"vision and creative genius\" driving him to \"push the envelope, lyrically and musically - writing songs that challenged convention, changed the conversation, and have become part of the canon of global culture\".\n\nThe executive added they were looking forward to \"tending his unparalleled body of songs with passion and care\".\n\nWCM said the agreement followed last year's announcement of a deal between Bowie's estate and Warner Music Group [WMG], for it to oversee his full back catalogue of albums between 1968 and 1999.\n\n\"Warner Music has licensed worldwide rights to Bowie's recorded music catalogue from 1968. With this new deal with Warner Chappell, WMG is now home to Bowie's body of work as both a songwriter and recording artist,\" WCM added.\n\nWarner Chappell Music is the global music publishing company of Warner Music Group. WCM co-chair and COO Carianne Marshall said they were \"pleased\" the estate felt they had the \" knowledge, experience, and resources to take the reins and continue to promote a collection of this stature\".\n\nShe called Bowie's music a \"living, breathing collection of timeless songs that are as powerful and resonant today as they were when they were first written\".\n\nAllen Grubman , speaking on behalf of Bowie's estate, said: \"We are truly gratified that David Bowie's body of music will now be in the capable hands of Warner Chappell Music Publishing. We are sure they will cherish it and take care of it with the greatest level of dignity.\"\n\nBowie's innovation was not just in the recording studio and in front of the camera - he was also involved in the world of finance. In the mid-90s, Bowie, his financial manager Bill Zysblat, and banker David Pullman came up with a new scheme to generate cash from the singer's extensive back catalogue.\n\nBowie introduced the bonds in the late 1990s\n\nIn 1997, Bowie sold asset-backed securities, dubbed \"Bowie bonds\", which awarded investors a share in his future royalties for 10 years. The securities, which were bought by US insurance giant Prudential Financial for $55m, committed him to repay his new creditors out of future income, and gave a fixed annual return of 7.9%.\n\nHe struck a deal with record label EMI which allowed him to package up and sell bonds on royalties for 25 albums released between 1969 and 1990 - which included classics such as The Man Who Sold The World, Ziggy Stardust, and Heroes, according to the Financial Times.\n\nBut in 2004, rating agency Moody's Investors Services downgraded Bowie bonds to only one level above \"junk\", the lowest rating, after a downturn in the music industry.\n\nBowie had already predicted the decline in traditional music sales, telling the New York Times in 2002 that music would become \"like running water or electricity\".", "A further 15,849 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Scotland, by far the highest daily case number of the pandemic so far.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Omicron variant was spreading \"rapidly\" and now accounts for 80% of all cases.\n\nShe said further \"steep increases\" in infections are expected in the coming days and weeks.\n\nHowever, no changes are to be made to restrictions in Scotland, with curbs expected to remain until 17 January.\n\nMs Sturgeon also said a decision about whether to reduce the 10-day self-isolation period would be made in the coming week.\n\nThe daily infections record has been repeatedly broken in recent days as the faster-spreading Omicron variant takes hold in Scotland.\n\nMs Sturgeon said 28.9% of all tests carried out on Tuesday were positive, adding up to 15,849 cases - \"by some margin the highest overall daily case number reported in the pandemic to date\".\n\nThe number of people in hospital with the virus increased by 80 to 679 - the highest since the start of December - with 36 in intensive care.\n\nThe first minister said hospital figures were \"broadly stable\", but said the government must \"exercise caution\" given the time lag between rising case numbers and hospital admissions.\n\nShe said the coming weeks would produce a \"clearer picture\" about the impact of Omicron, and that it was \"essential that we slow transmission as much as possible\" in the meantime.\n\nScots have been asked to stay at home as much as possible in the coming weeks, and to socialise in groups of no more than three households.\n\nLarge events have been cancelled and fresh restrictions placed on hospitality venues, with nightclubs closed entirely.\n\nMs Sturgeon said these curbs were expected to continue until 17 January, and announced details of how £375m of financial support for businesses will be allocated.\n\nThis includes £32m for hospitality and leisure firms, a further £10m for businesses \"most severely impacted by the requirement for table services\", £5m for nightclubs, and £17m for the events sector.\n\nTalks are also being held with the sports sector about the impact of the restrictions on large events like football matches.\n\nMs Sturgeon said: \"There simply isn't an easy trade-off between protecting health and protecting the economy.\n\n\"If Covid continues to spread rapidly, the economic impact in the form of staff absences and diminished consumer confidence will be severe. We're already seeing those impacts. So doing nothing won't help business.\"\n\nThe data is jumping around a bit just now - in part because of reporting delays over Christmas but also strains in the system as more people come forward for tests.\n\nAlmost 16,000 daily positive cases is probably in tune with the central estimates of modellers but we could still see a sharp rise over the next few days as the data starts to catch up. It may be that the worst-case scenario has been avoided because people have adapted their behaviour even before restrictions were brought in.\n\nFor the first time in five days there is information on the numbers of people in hospital with Covid. It shows a small rise, but not a huge spike. Good news, but remember the early Omicron cases would largely be in young people who are less likely to become severely ill. We are still to see the impact of mixing across generations over Christmas.\n\nEarly data from London, which is a little ahead of the rest of UK, show hospital admissions with Omicron are lower - even in older age groups - and that the number of people needing intensive care is even less. It also appears that many cases are incidental, with patients admitted for something else and then testing positive.\n\nBut the experts continue to warn that even if Omicron is milder, a small proportion of a large number has the potential to cause major disruption for the NHS. Health and social care staff are exempt from 10-day isolation if they have a negative PCR test, but staff absences remain high, and it only takes a small increase in Covid patients for other care to be put on hold.\n\nWe still don't know when the peak of this wave will hit, and how good boosters will be at protecting the most vulnerable. Scientists will say it is still too early to draw any firm conclusions from the data.\n\nMs Sturgeon also said ministers were \"weighing the risks and benefits\" of shortening the isolation period for Covid patients.\n\nPeople who test positive in Scotland have to isolate for 10 days, while those in England can leave quarantine after seven days if they record two negative tests.\n\nThe first minister said consideration was being given to matching this, and to potentially easing the requirement for household contacts to isolate - something which is not required in England for double-vaccinated household contacts.\n\nShe said any decision would be made in the coming week, and come into effect from 5 January.\n\nNicola Sturgeon gave the Covid update to a virtual session of the Scottish Parliament\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives have repeatedly called for the rules to be changed, saying they are causing staff shortages for key services.\n\nA total of 3,316 NHS staff were absent in the week to 28 December for Covid-related reasons, the highest level of absences since March and close to double the 1,771 recorded at the end of November.\n\nAt Holyrood, Tory leader Douglas Ross called for immediate action, saying that \"the first minister's message on these essential changes is yet again to tune in next week\".\n\nScottish Labour's Anas Sarwar meanwhile called for the government to set out the scientific rationale for maintaining 10-day isolation when some countries are cutting the requirement in half.\n\nHe said: \"Staff absences are spiking now, and that is having knock on effects on our services and industries.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said the decision was \"finely balanced\", saying that easing quarantine rules prematurely could actually increase pressure on the economy by spreading the virus faster.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Fire crews had to call reinforcements to fight the blaze at the parliament building on Monday\n\nA fire that devastated South Africa's parliament in Cape Town has been contained after it reignited on Monday, city officials say.\n\nThe fire first broke out on Sunday and completely destroyed the National Assembly, or lower chamber.\n\nStrong winds caused smouldering wood in the roof to catch fire again on Monday, before firefighters doused the blaze.\n\nPolice have arrested a suspect who is due to appear in court later on charges of arson, housebreaking and theft.\n\nNo casualties have been reported in the fire, but the damage to the parliament has shocked the nation.\n\nAuthorities had warned that flare-ups would be possible because of carpets and wooden floors in the building.\n\nBut just 12 firefighters were on site when the wind reignited wood above the National Assembly on Monday, according to news agency AFP.\n\nDespite reinforcements being sent, flames could still be seen emerging from the building as night fell.\n\n\"The fire was fanned by a strong south-easterly wind but firefighters managed to contain the fire just before 12:00 last night,\" firefighters spokesman Jermaine Carelse told AFP.\n\nOn Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa - who admitted the building's sprinkler system had not functioned properly - praised firefighters for responding to the \"terrible and devastating event\" in minutes.\n\nGovernment minister Patricia de Lille separately admitted that CCTV cameras had not been monitored at the time the initial fire started.\n\nThe chairperson of the upper chamber, Amos Masondo, said Sunday's fire had led to the \"complete burning down\" of the National Assembly chamber. Other areas of the parliamentary complex - parts of which date back to 1884 - were also badly damaged.\n\nThe parliament is not currently in session because of the holidays, and no-one was injured.\n\nThe building is home to thousands of treasures including historic books, photographs and important works of art, which officials said had been saved.\n\nThere had been particular concern that the valuable Keiskamma Tapestry, which is 120m (394ft) long and documents South Africa's history, may have been damaged or destroyed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video shows black smoke coming from the roof of the building in Cape Town on Sunday\n\nIt is expected to be many months before the building can be used again.\n\nCape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the city's council chamber would be made available as an alternative place for parliament to meet.", "As cases rise, the Western Trust has suspended visiting at its care homes\n\nAt least 120 care homes in Northern Ireland were dealing with Covid-19 outbreaks over the weekend, NI's Public Health Agency (PHA) has said.\n\nAs Omicron cases rise, the Western Trust has suspended visits to its care homes and hospitals.\n\nIndependent care homes are following advice from the Department of Health.\n\nDr Gillian Armstrong, from the PHA, told BBC Radio Foyle different pressures within the sector are likely to continue for some time.\n\n\"We are getting a huge amount of calls and inquiries related to cases linked to that and also staffing shortages as well,\" she said.\n\nThere has been a surge in cases of the Omicron variant in Northern Ireland.\n\nLast Thursday, Stormont ministers were told that it now accounts for about 90% of cases in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"It's spreading really very fast in Northern Ireland, like it is in the rest of the UK and Ireland - the rate of spread is phenomenal,\" Dr Armstrong told The Breakfast Show.\n\n\"We're seeing a very high number of cases - the highest that we've ever seen - and Omicron has become dominant,\" she added.\n\n\"We will expect that to continue to go up over the next number of weeks just with the sheer numbers of cases in the community.\"\n\nShe said people should not be lulled into a \"false sense of security by data that it looks like it's milder\".\n\n\"With the sheer volume of cases and the acceleration of the cases, it could mean that we could have a very high number of people needing admission in a short space of time, which would further put pressure on our hospitals and health care services,\" she said.\n\n\"We are working closely to support staff as quickly as we can, in terms of risk assessment managing, trying to prevent any onward spread of transmission and support in relation to staffing.\"\n\nSome private care homes are also taking the decision to restrict visitors\n\n\"People need to see their loved ones as well but, at the moment, there is an unprecedented level of community transmission.\n\n\"Each care home will make their own risk assessment according to the vulnerability of their patients and what their staffing levels are like as well.\"\n\nShe encouraged members of the public to see what they could do virtually or over the phone.\n\nDr Armstrong urged those visiting to do lateral flow tests before going, get vaccinated or get their booster and to wear a good quality face mask.\n\nShe said some private care homes were taking the decision to restrict visitors.\n\nBut the Independent Health and Care Providers (IHCP) chief said staffing issues are its biggest problem at the minute.\n\n\"Like everywhere else, lots of people have tested positive, they're maybe not extremely ill - it may only be minor symptoms like a cold - but they can't go to work,\" said Pauline Shepherd.\n\nAccording to Dr Armstrong, data around Omicron-related hospital admissions will take two or three weeks to translate into hospitalisations.\n\n\"All I can say at this early stage is we have we are aware of a number of residents that have had to go into hospital for further treatment,\" she said.\n\n\"That picture will become clearer over the next number of weeks.\"\n\nThe spike in cases comes as a teaching union called on the Stormont Executive to take urgent action to reduce any further disruption in schools due to Covid-19.\n\nLast week, Northern Ireland's First Minister Paul Givan announced a cut to the Covid-19 self-isolation period for positive cases in Northern Ireland to avoid a \"workforce crisis\".\n\nFrom 31 December, people with Covid have been able to end their self-isolation after seven days instead of 10, by providing negative lateral flow results on day six and day seven.", "Pro-democracy protesters faced another violent crackdown from the military\n\nSudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has resigned after another day of mass protests rocked the capital Khartoum.\n\nThousands marched against a recent deal he had done to share power with the army, who staged a coup in October.\n\nChanting \"power to the people\", protesters called for a return to full civilian rule. But military forces again responded with force, leaving two people dead.\n\nMr Hamdok's decision to quit leaves the army in full control.\n\nIt is another blow to Sudan's fragile attempts at a transition to democratic rule after a popular uprising led to the overthrow of Sudan's long-term authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.\n\nIn a televised address, Mr Hamdok said the country was at a \"dangerous turning point that threatens its whole survival\".\n\nHe said he had tried his best to stop the country from \"sliding towards disaster\", but that \"despite everything that has been done to reach a consensus... it has not happened\".\n\nCivilian and military leaders had made an uneasy power-sharing agreement after the army staged a coup on 25 October and initially placed Prime Minister Hamdok under house arrest.\n\nThe country was just one month away from transition to a civilian head of state when the army seized power.\n\nMr Hamdok, an economist by training, is widely respected in the international community having previously worked as an official with the United Nations. He helped negotiate a deal to forgive some of Sudan's debts but this involved removing fuel subsidies, leading the prices of many basic goods to rise, and to anti-government protests.\n\nUnder the agreement reached with Mr Hamdok in November, the reinstated prime minister was supposed to lead a cabinet of technocrats until elections were held. But it was unclear how much power the new civilian government would have, and protests against the military resumed, which were often violently suppressed.\n\nProtests continued even after Mr Hamdok had returned to office, with some demonstrators saying that his reinstatement was helping to legitimatise the military takeover.\n\nThe United Nations' special representative in Sudan has expressed regret over Mr Hamdok's resignation. It puts at risk progress made since the December revolution when Mr Bashir was toppled, Volker Perthes warned.\n\nThe resignation of Mr Hamdok showed the military was losing their leverage to get international recognition and popular support, according to a spokesman for the opposition Sudanese Congress Party.\n\nFurther protests against the military are planned for Tuesday. Activists have told people to march to the presidential palace in the capital city, \"until victory is achieved\", according to the AFP news agency.\n\nThousands of people were on the streets of the capital Khartoum and the city of Omdurman on Sunday, chanting and calling on the military to leave politics.\n\nMore than 50 people have been killed during protests since the coup, including at least two on Sunday, according to the pro-democracy Sudan Central Doctors' Committee.\n\nCoup leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has defended last October's coup, saying the army had acted to prevent a civil war. He says Sudan is still committed to the transition to civilian rule, with elections planned for July 2023.\n\nJanuary 1 marked Sudan's Independence Day but there's little to celebrate in the country at the moment.\n\nThe resignation of PM Abdalla Hamdok is a big blow to the military leaders who had thought an agreement with Mr Hamdok would appease protesters and legitimize their stay in power.\n\nClearly those calculations were wrong. But it means the army are now firmly in power, reversing gains made as the country attempted to return to civilian rule.\n\nThe current political crisis now threatens to return Sudan to the authoritarian years of former ousted leader Omar al-Bashir.\n\nAnd there's also the risk that the country could go back to being a pariah state with the likes of the US already indicating that they would sanction those impeding a return to civilian rule.\n\nGiven Sudan's economic struggles, that could have an even worse effect on the lives of Sudanese people.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why are protesters back on the streets in Sudan?", "Ariel Henry, seen here during an event last July, was targeted by \"bandits and terrorists\", his office said\n\nGunmen tried to kill Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry during an event on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the country's independence, officials say.\n\nThe incident happened as Mr Henry took part in the ceremony at a church in the northern city of Gonaïves.\n\nVideo posted online showed the prime minister and his entourage scrambling toward their cars amid intense gunfire.\n\nThe security situation has deteriorated significantly since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last July.\n\nMr Henry has pledged to crack down on powerful gangs that are blamed for a wave of kidnappings and for seizing control of much of the gas distribution around the country, causing severe fuel shortages.\n\nThe prime minister's office said \"bandits and terrorists\" were behind the assassination attempt, and that arrest warrants had been issued for the suspects.\n\nThe office accused the group of hiding behind walls to attack the convoy and of threatening the bishop by surrounding the church, according to the Associated Press.\n\nOne person was killed and two others were injured in the gunfight between the armed men and security forces, local media reported.\n\nThe attack is another blow to the fragile administration led by Mr Henry, who became Haiti's acting head of state two weeks after Moïse was killed. The circumstances of the assassination, believed to have been carried out by a group of mercenaries, are still unclear.\n\nNo date has been announced for a vote to elect a new president.\n\nThe rise in violence and a dire economic situation, made worse by several natural disasters in recent years, have led to a growing number of Haitians seeking opportunities in other countries.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Aoife Beary, a survivor of the 2015 Berkeley balcony collapse that killed six students, has died, aged 27.\n\nShe died after suffering a stroke in the Irish capital, Dublin.\n\nMs Beary had experienced life-changing injuries after a fourth-floor balcony collapsed in June 2015 while she was celebrating her 21st birthday.\n\nA later investigation found that joists supporting the deck were suffering from dry rot and had been constructed by a company with a history of complaints.\n\nIn recent years she became an advocate for construction reform in California.\n\nMs Beary and her friends had been visiting the US under the popular J-1 summer working visa programme when the tragedy struck.\n\nThe balcony had been constructed by a company that had a history of legal claims against it and which it had not disclosed to the Californian state licensing board that regulates the building industry.\n\nA section of the collapsed balcony in 2015\n\nFive Irish students and one Irish-American friend were killed in the collapse, while seven others suffered a range of serious injuries.\n\nIn 2017 the families of those killed reached a confidential settlement with the companies involved in the building's construction.\n\nAoife Beary was left with a traumatic brain injury, broken arms, hands, pelvis and jaw, as well as lacerations to her liver, kidneys and spleen, a collapsed lung and broken ribs. She later underwent open heart surgery.\n\nIn 2016, she testified before the California state legislature during a hearing on legislation to force building contractors to be more transparent about past legal claims against them.\n\nDuring emotional testimony, she told legislators how she had lost much of her independence after the accident and that her career goals had been ended.\n\n\"My life has been changed forever,\" she said.\n\nShe also recalled how she and her friends, who she had known since the age of four, had travelled the world together. She said that her birthday would now \"always be their anniversary\".", "The giant European Union flag flew from the Arc de Triomphe over New Year\n\nA giant European Union flag displayed at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to mark France taking on the bloc's presidency has been removed after it was criticised by right-wing politicians.\n\nFar-right leader Marine Le Pen said \"replacing\" the French flag at the monument was an attack on the country's identity.\n\nA government minister said the move was only ever meant to be temporary.\n\nFrance has taken over the EU's rotating presidency for the next six months.\n\nMs Le Pen, who is a candidate in the presidential election in April, had vowed to file a complaint with the State Council, France's highest court for administrative matters. She described the EU flag's removal as a victory resulting from pressure on the government.\n\nFar-right independent candidate Eric Zemmour, who is also running against President Emmanuel Macron, called it \"an outrage\".\n\nConservative candidate Valérie Pécresse also objected to the position of the EU flag: \"Preside over Europe yes, erase French identity no!\", she tweeted:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Valérie Pécresse This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut European Affairs Minister Clément Beaune denied the government had bowed to pressure from the far right and said the flag had been taken down as planned.\n\n\"It was scheduled that the flag was to be taken down this Sunday, we hadn't established an exact time,\" he told France Inter radio.\n\nMr Beaune also pointed out that the French flag which is sometimes displayed at the Arc de Triomphe is not a permanent fixture there.\n\nOn Saturday, Mr Macron, who has not yet said whether he will run for re-election in April, outlined the priorities of France's EU presidency based on three principles: strengthening European sovereignty, developing a new model of growth, and creating a Europe closer to its citizens.\n\nSpecific goals included better border protection and management of migration, improved security, technological innovation, and defending the rule of law, he added.\n\nOther landmarks in the capital and other French cities will be lit up in blue for the rest of the week to highlight France's EU presidency, including:\n\nThe Museum of Fine Arts in Lille, northern France", "Crisis-hit Chinese real estate giant Evergrande has suspended trade in its shares in Hong Kong as investors await news on its restructuring plan.\n\nThe statement to the stock exchange did not give a reason for the trading halt.\n\nEvergrande has more than $300bn (£222bn) of debt and is scrambling to raise cash by selling assets and shares to repay suppliers and creditors.\n\nLast week, the company dialled back plans to repay investors in its wealth management products.\n\nLate on Monday, Evergrande confirmed that it had received an order from authorities in Danzhou city, Hainan province on 30 December telling it to demolish 39 buildings that were under construction at its Ocean Flower Island project.\n\nIt did not disclose the reason for the demolition order, but local media reported at the weekend that the buildings were built illegally.\n\nEvergrande said on Friday that each investor in its wealth management product could expect to receive $1,257 each month as principal payment for three months irrespective of when the investment matures.\n\nThe company had earlier not mentioned any amount and had agreed to repay 10% of the investment by the end of the month when the product matures.\n\nEvergrande said in a statement posted on the wealth unit's website that the situation was not \"ideal\" and that it would \"actively raise funds\", and update the repayment plan in late March, without giving further details.\n\nThe announcement was seen as highlighting the deepening cash squeeze at the struggling property developer.\n\nLast week, Evergrande did not make some interest payments on its offshore bonds.\n\nThe company's $19bn in international bonds were deemed to be in default by rating agencies after it missed a payment deadline last month.\n\nEvergrande suspended its shares in early October, saying the move was ahead of \"an announcement containing inside information about a major transaction\".\n\nThere were reports at the time that rival real estate firm Hopson Development was set to buy a 51% stake in its property services unit.\n\nHowever, later that month Evergrande said the $2.6bn (£1.9bn) deal had fallen through as they were unable to agree on the terms of a deal.\n\nEvergrande's shares lost almost 90% of their value last year as investors became increasingly concerned about its future.\n\nFor months, many of the details of Evergrande's debt crisis have been clouded in uncertainty.\n\nBut some experts believe that this is no accident - it is exactly how Beijing wants it to be.\n\nWhen the Chinese Communist Party changed its rules to limit how much money the country's property developers could borrow, they knew that it would cause major problems for Evergrande and other heavily indebted real estate firms.\n\nChina watchers say the government wanted to send a clear message that what they consider to be the reckless expansion of the sector could not continue.\n\nAuthorities have also signalled that they have no intention of bailing out Evergrande, and its billionaire founder, because it would go against President Xi Jinping's \"Common Prosperity\" policies, which aim to distribute wealth more fairly throughout society.\n\nHowever, Beijing is also, understandably, keen to ensure that Evergrande's troubles do not become China's Lehman moment, which could affect the rest of the world's second largest economy and beyond.\n\nSo, the slow restructuring of Evergrande continues quietly behind closed doors. And, just like today's trading halt announcement, no reasons are given.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What China's Evergrande crisis means for the world", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nMoutinho scored the winner with eight minutes to go Joao Moutinho struck the only goal eight minutes from time to give Wolves a deserved victory at Old Trafford and end Ralf Rangnick's unbeaten start as interim Manchester United manager. It also needed a Jose Sa save in the fifth minute of stoppage time to earn Wolves their first Old Trafford win since 1980. Sa turned away a curling free-kick from substitute Bruno Fernandes, who had earlier fired against the bar when he should have done better. The visitors controlled the opening half hour and were back on top by the time Moutinho struck, although the goal was unfortunate for central defender Phil Jones, who was one of United's better performers on his senior return after a near two-year absence because of injuries. His clearing header fell to the 35-year-old midfielder on the edge of the area and although Moutinho had not scored since February 2021, he kept his nerve to drive a shot through a packed penalty area and into the bottom corner. The Wolves fans celebrated noisily at the final whistle but it was a crushing blow for Rangnick, with his side remaining seventh in the Premier League, a staggering 22 points behind leaders Manchester City - although they have played two games fewer. Wolves, meanwhile, are now three points and one place behind Manchester United in eighth.\n• None 'I didn't think we were all together' - Shaw questions Man Utd attitude\n• None Go straight to the best United content It had been more than two weeks since Wolves last played, the home draw with Chelsea on 19 December, and it was 6 November since they had last been involved in a game that contained more than one goal. As the opening period inched towards its conclusion, and Jones stretched to intercept a Nelson Semedo pass intended for Ruben Neves, who was in a shooting position, Wolves boss Bruno Lage offered an animated shrug of the shoulders. Evidently, Lage believed his team should have had something tangible to show for an opening period in which they had an incredible 15 shots, the most by a visiting team at Old Trafford in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League game since records started being kept in the 2004-05 season. David de Gea was forced into a string of saves, denying Semedo and Daniel Podence twice. Arguably the pick was a fingertip effort to touch over a volley from Neves, who had controlled a headed Jones clearance on the edge of the penalty area. Wolves were forced onto the defensive more often after half-time but even though they weathered the storm, it seemed they would have to settle for a point when Romain Saiss clipped the bar with a free-kick in his final game before heading off on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Morocco. Moutinho had other ideas. And while Wolves' run of games involving no more than a single goal now extends to eight, few in the visitors' camp were worried about that. The return of Phil Jones, who last played for Manchester United in a 6-0 defeat of Tranmere in the FA Cup on 26 January, 2020, was one of the few positives for the hosts It is becoming evident the issues that arose during the final weeks of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's reign will not disappear through a change of manager. Ronaldo was a muted force and the United fans did not think Mason Greenwood deserved to be substituted for Fernandes given the boos that accompanied his exit. United were overrun in midfield during those opening stages and, as so often under Solskjaer, were left hoping for a moment of inspiration that did not come. As it turned out, any fears about Jones playing instead of the injured Harry Maguire had long since been dispelled by the time Wolves scored. If anything, the defender was a galvanising presence. It was a first United defeat since Solskjaer's final game in charge, at Watford, on 20 November. For Rangnick, there is no quick fix to the mess United find themselves in.\n• None Attempt saved. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top left corner.\n• None Fábio Silva (Wolverhampton Wanderers) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Fábio Silva (Wolverhampton Wanderers) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! Manchester United 0, Wolverhampton Wanderers 1. João Moutinho (Wolverhampton Wanderers) right footed shot from outside the box to the bottom left corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "A little earlier, we heard about a critical incident being declared at four Lincolnshire hospitals because of Covid-related staff shortages.\n\nThe situation in Lincolnshire is not unique.\n\nIt is understood at least half a dozen NHS trusts have declared critical incidents over the past week.\n\nThat is not that unusual in the depths of winter – the NHS is entering what is traditionally its busiest time of year.\n\nBut the scale and nature of the challenges are, of course, unprecedented - with growing rates of staff absences and the sheer volume of admissions for Covid.\n\nAt this time of year, the NHS can see around 1,000 admissions a day for all types of respiratory illness - it is receiving more than that just for Covid admissions - and the number is rising.\n\nOn top of that, hospitals are having to deal with high rates of staff absence because of Covid.\n\nA critical incident does not mean emergency care stops being provided, rather it is an alert to the wider system that the trust is under acute pressure and needs help, such as getting staff redeployed from elsewhere.\n\nMany of these incidents will be over in a few days.", "Virginia Giuffre agreed not to sue anyone connected to Jeffrey Epstein who could be described as a \"potential defendant\", a 2009 damages settlement against the sex offender shows.\n\nThe document, disclosed by a New York court, reveals the financier paid her $500,000 (£371,000) to end her claim.\n\nMs Giuffre is suing the Duke of York in a civil case for allegedly sexually assaulting her 20 years ago, when she was a teenager.\n\nHe has consistently denied the claims.\n\nThe document was released ahead of a critical hearing on Tuesday in the civil case involving Prince Andrew - and the interpretation of the settlement will form a central plank of the argument between the two sides.\n\nMs Giuffre alleges she was trafficked to the prince by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nAlthough the settlement does not mention the prince by name, his lawyers say this 2009 deal means she cannot sue him - because she agreed to end all legal action against anyone connected to the offender who could be described as a \"potential defendant\".\n\nEpstein died in prison in 2019, while Maxwell was last week convicted of recruiting and trafficking young girls to be abused by the late financier.\n\nMs Giuffre's legal team say the terms of the Florida settlement are irrelevant to her case against the prince - which alleges sexual abuse by the royal in New York, London and the US Virgin Islands.\n\nIn her 2009 claim against Epstein, lawyers for Ms Giuffre said she was lured into a world of sexual abuse at his Florida home when she was a teenager.\n\nThey added: \"In addition to being continually exploited to satisfy defendant's [Epstein] every sexual whim, [Ms Giuffre] was also required to be sexually exploited by defendant's adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and or other professional and personal acquaintances.\"\n\nThat case never went to trial because on 17 November 2009 Jeffrey Epstein agreed to pay her $500,000 to stop it in its tracks. That deal was confidential until now - but has been made public because of its potential importance to the Prince Andrew case.\n\nIn the document, Ms Giuffre, also referred to by her unmarried name Roberts, agreed to \"release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge\" Epstein and \"any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant\".\n\nThe settlement's wording says she discharges \"potential defendants\" from any US legal action, including damages claims dating \"from the beginning of the world\".\n\nThe precise meaning of that wording is expected to be the subject of intense legal arguments in New York on Tuesday.\n\nEpstein and Maxwell have been pictured at the Queen's private Scottish estate, Balmoral\n\nIn filings to the New York court last month, Andrew B. Brettler, the duke's lead lawyer, said the Epstein settlement's plain language would be clear once it was released to the public.\n\n\"Epstein negotiated for this broad release, insisting that it cover any and all persons who Giuffre identified as potential targets of future lawsuits, regardless of the merit— or lack thereof —to any such claims,\" he said.\n\n\"Giuffre's baseless claims against Prince Andrew... must be dismissed at this stage.\"\n\nIn a statement, one of Ms Giuffre's lawyers, David Boies, said the settlement was not relevant to her claim and \"does not mention Prince Andrew\".\n\n\"He did not even know about it,\" he said.\n\nIn a previous court filing her lawyers said that the Epstein deal was \"outside the four corners\" of her action against Prince Andrew because it does not cover her claims against him.\n\nLisa Bloom, a lawyer for alleged victims of Jeffrey Epstein, described the settlement as \"one of the most bizarre\" she had ever seen, telling BBC News she thought it was \"incomprehensibly vague\".\n\n\"We want contracts to clearly specify who is released from a lawsuit and who is not,\" she said, adding that she could not see a judge releasing Prince Andrew from a lawsuit because he was not named specifically.", "A teenager has been charged with the murder of a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed to death in south London.\n\nZaian Aimable-Lina was found fatally injured after police were called to Ashburton Park in Croydon shortly after 19:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nHe died from a stab wound to the heart, police said.\n\nThe boy, also aged 15 and who cannot be named for legal reasons, is due to appear at Bromley Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, 4 January.\n\nThe family of Zaian have been informed.\n\nZaian's death marked the 29th killing of a teenager in London in 2021.\n\nA post-mortem examination revealed Zaian died from a stab wound to the heart\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The windows were smashed in with rocks\n\nA fundraising appeal to repair a vandalised church has reached its £20,000 goal in just three days.\n\nEglwys y Grog, near the cliffs at Mwnt in Ceredigion, is a well known landmark and is popular with photographers.\n\nCeredigion county councillor Clive Davies said he was \"totally blown away\" by the donations received.\n\nHe said the church had been targeted overnight on 2 December and again on 20 December in \"a pointless, saddening act.\"\n\nMr Davies said there was nothing of value in the church\n\n\"There was nothing of value in the church and it was a senseless act. There was no money there, just a small little church,\" added Mr Davies.\n\n\"The church members were getting a lot of requests to donate money and they contacted me to do something co-ordinated online so I set up a JustGiving page for them.\"\n\n\"It's been a global response really, three thousand pounds came in overnight. There were messages of support from America, and there was a couple from Australia as well,\" he added.\n\n\"There are a lot of good people out there and it is an amazing start to 2022 for us.\"\n\nThe leaded church windows and gated entrance were damaged along with the inside of the church.\n\nPart of the stone exterior was knocked and broken\n\nAs well as being the local councillor, Mr Davies said he had long-standing family connections to the church, with plaques to his great-grandparents on either side of the altar.\n\n\"The local community has been amazing, supporting it and the power of social media made in tenfold,\" he said.\n\n\"It was like a snowball effect really, local businesses have offered not only financial support but will be part of the restoration work needed now.\"\n\nThe gated entrance was smashed in\n\nHe said it was important for the church to remain open, but safe.\n\n\"I'll be meeting with the church members and the vicar and we'll start discussing what needs doing, but also we're going to have to look at safety for the future and what could we do in terms of security,\" he added.\n\nThe target of £20,000 was set when the appeal opened on 1 January.\n\nEgwlys y Grog is located close to the cliffs at Mwnt, Ceredigion\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Giles Davies of Cosheston, Pembrokeshire, photographed the thousands of stranded starfish\n\n\"Tens of thousands\" of stranded starfish have been washed up on the Welsh coast.\n\n\"I have never seen something like this before,\" said Giles Davies, an amateur nature photographer.\n\nMr Davies photographed thousands of the stranded sea creatures on Coppet Hall Beach in Pembrokeshire.\n\n\"It's really sad to just see that in nature, because you're looking at deaths in the thousands of one species,\" he said.\n\nA beach in Scotland saw a similar stranding of sea life last November following bad weather from Storm Arwen.\n\nExtreme weather is the likely cause of such incidents, said the Marine Conservation Society.\n\nStormy weather and strong tides are usually the case of such incidents\n\nMr Davies said there had been reports of starfish stranded on beaches from Coppett Hall all the way up the coastline to Tenby, Pembrokeshire.\n\n\"That would kind of make sense because Tenby is the first place where the tide turns in Wales, so when you get strandings they come to shore generally in that area,\" said Mr Davies.\n\n\"But it's the sheer volume, you're always going to get winter tides where stuff will come ashore.\n\n\"For that volume to come ashore, no, something seriously has gone wrong with nature,\" he said.\n\nJake Davies, a marine biologist who works for the Angel Shark Project Wales, said large storms are often the cause of such events.\n\n\"This type of event of stranding does occur following a big storm along with big tides,\" he said.\n\n\"Every year there are images of large strandings of starfish coming ashore.\n\n\"A similar event was seen on the Gower beach [last] year where rock pools were full of starfish.\"\n\nMr Davies added: \"It's an incredible thing to see, it's very, very sad but it's an incredible thing to see.\"", "Amazon has dropped plans to block UK Visa credit card payments this week, as the two sides continue to try to resolve a dispute over payment fees.\n\n\"The expected change regarding the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk will no longer take place on January 19,\" Amazon said.\n\nVisa said it was \"working closely to reach an agreement\".\n\nAmazon said last year that Visa payment costs were \"an obstacle\" to providing the best prices for customers.\n\nBut Visa accused Amazon of threatening to restrict consumer choice. \"When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins,\" Visa said.\n\nNeither company has indicated when the talks might conclude. In an email to customers on Monday, Amazon said it was working closely with Visa on \"a potential solution that will enable customers to continue using their Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk\".\n\nAn EU-enforced cap on fees charged by card issuers is no longer in place in the UK following Brexit.\n\nBoth Visa and its rival Mastercard have raised the so-called interchange fee on cross-border transactions between businesses in the UK and the European Union following Brexit.\n\nHowever, Amazon and Visa said last year that their dispute had nothing to do with the UK leaving the EU.\n\nThey have been slugging it out in public and in private, now these two corporate heavyweights are going in for an extra round.\n\nAmazon is ahead on points in this bout. Given this announcement has come so close to the deadline, many customers would have already switched their primary Amazon payment method away from Visa. But the online retailer would also have been hurt financially if it had followed through on its threat.\n\nThe cancelling of the deadline, and the fact a new end date has not been set, suggests a deal is near. Neither Amazon nor Visa are saying much to be able to judge quite how close they are to a compromise.\n\nThis dispute is about more than just fees. It is also about control. Don't forget that Amazon has taken a different course with Mastercard, which is behind Amazon's reward card.\n\nAmazon has previously declined to say how much Visa charges the retailer to process transactions made on credit cards.\n\nVisa also declined to comment, though it claimed that on average it takes less than 0.1% of the value of a purchase.\n\nThe Payment Systems Regulator has raised concerns about competition in this sector, which is dominated by Visa and Mastercard.\n\nIn a strategy published last week, it said one of its priorities was to promote competition between UK payment systems.\n\n\"We will focus more on improving competition between payment systems, not just competition within payment systems,\" its managing director Chris Hemsley said.\n\n\"This is important because we know that the future of retail payments is becoming increasingly about digital payments, most of which are currently made using card payment systems.\"", "Novak Djokovic landed in Dubai early on Monday. His final destination was not immediately known\n\nTennis star Novak Djokovic could return to Australia sooner than anticipated following his deportation, the country's prime minister says.\n\nThe top men's player was deported on Sunday after losing a visa battle that centred on the fact he is unvaccinated.\n\nUnder Australia's immigration laws, Djokovic, 34, cannot be granted another visa for three years.\n\nBut Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he could be allowed entry sooner under the \"right circumstances\".\n\n\"[The ban] does go over a three-year period, but there is the opportunity for them to return in the right circumstances and that would be considered at the time,\" he said in an interview with the Australian radio station 2GB on Monday.\n\nAustralian law does provide for compelling or compassionate reasons for the three-year visa ban to be waived.\n\nThis would potentially allow Djokovic to take part in the Australian Open tournament next year.\n\nThis year's tournament, which has been overshadowed by the unvaccinated player's visa troubles, began in Melbourne on Monday.\n\nDjokovic had been scheduled to play later in the day - but his dramatic deportation just hours earlier ended his hopes of winning a record 21st Grand Slam title at the event.\n\nThe Serbian player boarded an Emirates flight to Dubai from Melbourne late on Sunday, arriving just before dawn local time on Monday.\n\nHe was seen stepping off the flight wearing a mask and carrying two bags. He is expected in Belgrade later.\n\nDjokovic was forced to leave Australia after judges upheld a decision by Immigration Minister Alex Hawke to cancel his visa on public health grounds.\n\nThe decision marked the end of a tumultuous 10-day saga where the Serb fought to stay and defend his title.\n\nHe was originally granted a medical exemption to enter Australia by two different independent health panels - one commissioned by Tennis Australia, the other by the state government of Victoria - after testing positive for coronavirus in mid-December.\n\nBut the player's attempt to enter the country without being vaccinated stoked public anger.\n\nThe Australian Border Force then detained him on 5 January for not meeting coronavirus requirements and his visa was revoked.\n\nA judge overturned that decision last Monday, but the government stepped in several days later to revoke the visa yet again.\n\nThe legal battle reached its conclusion on Sunday when judges upheld the government's decision, leaving Djokovic with no other option but to leave the country.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The body of a British woman swept away by the tsunami in Tonga has been found, her brother says.\n\nNick Eleini told broadcasters the family was \"devastated\" after Angela Glover died trying to rescue her dogs.\n\nIt is the first known death in the disaster, caused when an underwater volcano erupted, sending a tsunami towards the Pacific island nation.\n\nBut communications have been badly damaged, making it hard to establish the scale of the destruction.\n\nThe Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano, which erupted on Saturday, was about 40 miles (65km) north of Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa, where Angela and her husband James had made their home.\n\nSpeaking outside their mother's home in Hove, Mr Eleini said he understood Angela's body was found by her husband.\n\nBrighton-born Angela, 50, had been living in Tonga since marrying James, he said, and they became \"well-loved by locals and expats alike\".\n\n\"Angela and James loved their life in Tonga and adored the Tongan people. In particular, they loved the Tongan love of family and Tongan culture,\" he said.\n\nMr Eleini said his sister was \"a beautiful woman\" who \"would walk into a room and just light it up with her presence\".\n\n\"Angela was the heart of our family, she was the emotional heart of our family,\" he said. \"I will miss her and I will think of her every day until the day I die. My mother is just broken at the moment, she is just absolutely shattered.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Angela Glover's brother Nick Eleini: \"I don't think we'll ever get over this\"\n\nAfter they married in 2015 and moved to Tonga, James began running a tattoo parlour called the Happy Sailor, employing and training Tongans, while Angela founded the Tongan Animal Welfare Society, Mr Eleini said.\n\nShe had \"a deep love of dogs\" and her organisation sheltered and rehabilitated stray animals before trying to find homes for them, he added.\n\n\"The uglier the dog, the more she loved it. She just loved them all, she was totally dedicated to it.\"\n\nShe had worked in London in the advertising industry before starting a new life in the south Pacific.\n\nAngela is known in Tonga for her work on animal welfare\n\nMr Eleini said she loved the ocean and had been drawn to live in Tonga by a childhood dream of swimming with whales.\n\n\"It was Tonga that allowed her to fulfil these dreams.\"\n\nHe brother said that despite the image of idyllic island life, it could be \"pretty tough\" there, with cyclones common at this time of year.\n\n\"But it's also a beautiful life. She was living her dream. She always wanted to live in a place like Tonga. We are so proud she was able to fulfil that.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Tongans overseas have been left for two days unable to reach family and friends back home following the disaster.\n\nSurveillance flights sent by New Zealand revealed \"significant damage\" along the western coast of Tongatapu, the country's main island.\n\nTelevision New Zealand's Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver said it was expected to take at least two weeks before international phones and internet links were restored, due to damage inflicted on a crucial undersea cable.\n\nThe Red Cross estimates 80,000 people may have been affected by the tsunami, and dust from the volcano could contaminate water supplies.\n\nSome officials have also voiced concern that relief efforts could spread Covid in the country, which only recorded its first coronavirus cases in October.", "The government has admitted that its efforts to insulate the UK from climate change impacts have been inadequate.\n\nThe costs of climate change to Britain are \"high and increasing\", it says, and could reach many billions of pounds a year.\n\nMinisters say they'll have to go much further and faster to curb the worst impacts.\n\nIt means climate change must be built into all long-term decisions, such as new housing or infrastructure.\n\nThe aim should be to avoid costly remedial actions in the future.\n\nThe government has also accepted that it must consider low-probability but high-impact events arising from a heating climate.\n\nThe report is a response to an analysis of the UK’s vulnerability to climate change by the official advisers, the Climate Change Committee.\n\n\"Climate change is happening now. It is one of the biggest challenges of our generation and has already begun to cause irreversible damage to our planet and way of life,\" the report begins.\n\nIt earmarks 61 climate risks cutting across multiple sectors of society.\n\nHealth and productivity could be affected, it says, with impacts on many households, businesses and public services.\n\nThe report warns of worsening soil health and farm productivity, reduced water availability, and impacts on alternative energy supply.\n\nFor example, it notes, unless the UK takes further action, the cost of flood-related damages for non-residential properties is expected to increase by 27% by 2050 and 40% by 2080.\n\nThat's with a temperature rise of just 2C - and even that relatively low figure is looking very hard to achieve.\n\nIf temperature rises to 4C – which the government’s science advisers say is possible - this increases to 44% and 75% respectively.\n\nThe government says it’s already investing to adapt to climate change.\n\nBut critics say efforts so far have been diluted by inadequate finance from the Treasury for long-term schemes. Indeed the chancellor didn’t mention climate change once in his Budget.\n\nGreen MP Caroline Lucas MP said: \"It's crystal clear that we are moving nothing like fast enough to net zero emissions and the longer we delay, the more it will cost. The government acknowledges the risks. We have yet to see the action plan that will deal with them.\"\n\nMinisters admit they must do much more.\n\nClimate Adaptation Minister Jo Churchill said: “The scale and severity of the challenge posed by climate change means we can’t tackle it overnight, and although we’ve made good progress in recent year, there is clearly much more that we need to do.\"\n\nLabour's shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon said: \"After more than a decade in power, the Conservatives have failed to build the efficient homes, strengthened flood defences, and resilient natural habitats necessary to tackle the climate crisis.\n\n\"Their lack of action and empty promises are putting people, nature, and our economy at risk.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We just heard and almighty bang and a crack\"\n\nCardiff City Ladies team escaped injuries after a brick was thrown at their bus from a motorway bridge, scattering glass inside the vehicle.\n\nIt smashed through a glass sunroof and landed on an empty seat as the team were returning to Cardiff on the M4 after an away game at Oxford on Sunday.\n\nHead coach James Fishlock said \"luckily\" no one was hurt.\n\n\"What goes through people heads? It's crazy and so dangerous,\" he tweeted.\n\nGwent Police said it was investigating reports of items being thrown at six vehicles on the M4 between junctions 23A and 24 near Magor, Monmouthshire.\n\nFishlock told BBC Wales that he and others were covered by shattered glass, but the stone landed on a row of empty seats.\n\n\"If that had hit anybody on any part of their body, it would have caused severe injury,\" he said.\n\n\"As luck would have it yesterday, because of the new Covid restrictions, we've had to increase the size of our coach so we had a 49-seater coach and the players were well spaced out.\"\n\nSome players and staff were sprayed by broken glass but were not injured\n\nHe said the incident happened between 18:00 and 19:00 GMT.\n\n\"We just heard an almighty bang and a crack which has drawn all our attention to the ceiling of the bus, and there was just glass everywhere,\" he said.\n\nFishlock paid tribute to the driver whom he described as \"really calm\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ben Thomas This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"He pulled over to hard shoulder straight away, contacted the police,\" he said.\n\n\"At that point we noticed there was another vehicle behind us on the hard shoulder which we think had also suffered damage.\"\n\nHe said some people on the bus later said they had witnessed people on a bridge throwing objects.\n\n\"Not wanting to be melodramatic, but it was a 49-seater coach travelling at 60mph.\n\nHead coach James Fishlock said some players were \"quite upset about it\"\n\n\"If that had hit the front of the bus or come through the windscreen, the worry is what could have happened.\"\n\nGwent Police said no-one was injured but three cars, a coach, lorry and van were damaged by bricks, rocks and stones after a group of young people on bikes were reportedly seen on the Waltwood Road bridge.", "Gracie Spinks was found fatally injured in a field where she had gone to look after her horse\n\nThe parents of a woman thought to have been killed by a former colleague who stalked her are to present a petition to Parliament in the coming weeks.\n\nGracie Spinks, 23, was found fatally injured in a field, in Duckmanton, Derbyshire, on 18 June 2021.\n\nIt is thought Michael Sellers, 35, who was found dead nearby shortly afterwards, stabbed her to death.\n\nA petition calling for Gracie's Law, to give more support to stalking victims, has more than 104,000 signatures.\n\nMs Spinks's father Richard said getting more than 100,000 signatures was \"one hurdle over\".\n\n\"It is the next bit that we have to get organised and get the debate read in Parliament and get changes implemented,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\nMs Spinks's parents say permanent changes need to be made to help protect stalking victims\n\nMr Spinks said the petition called for funding for police forces to provide advocates to support victims of stalking, and help officers investigate cases more thoroughly.\n\n\"We'd like more funding for individual constabularies, it's a bit of a postcode lottery really. The training that the officers get in each constabulary needs to be consistent across the board.\n\n\"Gracie was let down by certain individuals because procedures weren't followed and boxes ticked.\n\n\"We want training for officers, funding for the advocates to deal with stalking reports at source, maybe prior to a crime being committed,\" he said.\n\nMs Spinks's mother Alison Heaton said current measures to tackle stalking were not working.\n\n\"We just didn't realise how big a problem stalking was until this happened to Gracie. It's huge, it's absolutely massive.\n\n\"We're going to personally present the petition to Parliament, hopefully in the next couple of weeks,\" she added.\n\nJackie Barnett-Wheatcroft has also set up the Stalking Victims UK charity\n\nNurse Jackie Barnett-Wheatcroft, who set the petition up after being stalked herself as a teenager, said she wanted police forces to allocate specific funding to help victims.\n\nMs Spinks had told Derbyshire Police last February Sellers, from Sheffield, was stalking her.\n\nTwo officers from the force have been served with misconduct notices over their handling of a stalking complaint made by Ms Spinks.\n\nThree other officers are being investigated over a bag of weapons found near the field where she died in May.\n\nIn response to the petition, the government has previously said in a statement: \"To help ensure victims and survivors are supported, the Home Office part-funds the National Stalking Helpline... and has recently tripled its funding.\n\n\"We have also made a commitment... to work with police in order to make sure they are making proper use of Stalking Protection Orders.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was in London last week with Lord Dodds who spoke in support of the proposal in the House of Lords\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has denied his party did a deal with the UK government to bring back double jobbing.\n\nThe plan would allow MPs to be elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly but keep their seat in Westminster.\n\nSir Jeffrey told BBC News NI he put his name forward to stand in the May poll in Lagan Valley last autumn.\n\nBut he declined to name the second DUP MP understood to have expressed interest in contesting the election.\n\nDetails of the plan were outlined in a letter from peer Lord Caine to fellow lords on Friday.\n\nIt is proposed to last until the next Westminster election, due in 2024.\n\nDouble jobbing, also known as a dual mandate, was banned in Northern Ireland in 2016, when a number of MPs were forced to give up their seats in the assembly.\n\nFour of the five Stormont Executive parties are strongly against the move, with the DUP responding that the other parties should \"stop faking outrage\" over the issue.\n\nAlliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood have come out strongly against the plan\n\nSome had accused the UK government of pushing a plan that helps the DUP ahead of the Stormont election.\n\nHowever, Sir Jeffrey told the Good Morning Ulster programme the move was \"categorically not\" the result of a deal with Westminster.\n\n\"There is no agreement on this between the DUP and the government, we are very clear where we stand on a range of issues.\n\n\"I have made those views absolutely crystal clear. This doesn't alter our stance on any particular issue.\"\n\nHe also said most of the DUP's eight MPs would not run for Stormont but when asked about reports of a second DUP MP standing in the election, Sir Jeffrey said the party had not finalised candidates.\n\nSir Jeffrey added he believed it was possible to \"do both jobs\" and denied he was trying to avoid a by-election in Lagan Valley.\n\n\"I think there is a case to be made at this particular time in the current circumstances of Northern Ireland that it's important for unionism to have a strong voice in the parliament of the union.\"\n\nShadow Northern Ireland secretary Peter Kyle said the government should withdraw the amendment and if not Labour would oppose the measure.\n\nHe said forcing it through would \"risk further destabilising an already fragile political landscape in the approach to elections\".\n\nThe SDLP and Alliance Party have said their three MPs would vote against the move when it comes to the House of Commons.\n\nSDLP MP Claire Hanna said the plan was a \"cynical use of musical chairs\" that would underserve the electorate.\n\n\"The two parliaments run at the same time so you are by definition having worse government and you can't do justice to both roles,\" she told Good Morning Ulster.\n\n\"This feels very much like a stroke and it's a stroke to benefit Jeffrey Donaldson.\n\n\"The reason Jeffrey Donaldson wants this safety net is because he is dangling the future of the institutions by a thread.\"\n\nClaire Hanna says it's not possible to do justice to both roles\n\nUlster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Doug Beattie said somebody had \"moved the goalposts\" ahead of the assembly election by giving a \"leg up to one political party and not to any other political party\".\n\nMr Beattie said he had been told by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) there was no consensus for a change to the rules.\n\n\"Yet here we are, an amendment that has been put forward which has not got party consensus and will only benefit the DUP and the NIO are allowing it to go through,\" he explained.\n\n\"I think that's a scam, I think it's a subversion of our democracy.\"\n\nAlliance MP Stephen Farry said it would be impossible for Sir Jeffrey to do both jobs well.\n\n\"He can't be in two places at the one time, especially as we're now going back to full sittings at the assembly and Westminster.\n\n\"There will be crucial votes to be cast in both of these places and in both regards, you are seeking to present and cast votes on behalf of the people you represent.\n\n\"There's no practical reason why this gives any advantage to any elected representative.\"\n\nOn Sunday, the DUP said the move would \"encourage stability at a time when devolution is deeply unstable because of a one-sided and undemocratic (Northern Ireland) Protocol\".\n\nThe text of government amendment provides more details.\n\nThe amendment will bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK on the principle of allowing dual mandates, but the mechanics and time line differ between regions.\n\nThe amendment is time limited to run for the duration of the Parliament session at the time of the assembly election - in this case two years.\n\nThe option will be open for future MPs to avail of the same route but will be time limited to the next parliamentary election.\n\nThe plan was proposed by former Alliance Party leader Lord Alderdice during a committee stage reading of the NI (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Bill on Wednesday.\n\nLord Alderdice, who is now a Liberal Democrat peer, argued dual mandates would encourage easier transitions between serving in London and Belfast, and benefit the Northern Ireland Assembly.\n\nFormer UUP leader Lord Trimble and former DUP deputy leader Lord Dodds spoke in favour of the move in the House of Lords.\n\nHowever, former SDLP leader Baroness Ritchie said while there was a case to be made for the amendment, she was strongly opposed to double jobbing.\n\nThe Lords are due to consider the amended proposal this week.", "Cladding being removed from a tower block in Manchester\n\nCampaigners have urged Norway's giant state investment fund to pressure cladding firms and builders to fix fire safety issues.\n\nGrenfell survivors and leaseholders affected by the cladding crisis called on Norges Bank to pull £5.7bn of funds from companies if they fail to do so.\n\nLucy Brown-Cortes of the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign said pressure from shareholders was \"overdue\".\n\nNorges said it had raised product safety with several of the companies.\n\nThe cladding crisis has left many people with huge bills to fix unsafe homes.\n\nAfter the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in hundreds of blocks of flats across the UK.\n\nRemoving cladding can cost millions of pounds per block. The cost has often been passed on to flat owners under the leasehold system in England and Wales.\n\nMany leaseholders have also seen sharply increasing service charges, and some have had to pay for so-called \"waking watch\" fire wardens.\n\nA letter was sent to the boss of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) demanding action on Friday, as first reported by the Sunday Times.\n\nIts signatories include End Our Cladding Scandal, UK Cladding Action Group, Grenfell United, Action for Fire Safety Justice, the National Leasehold Campaign, Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley.\n\n\"This crisis has meant that at least 3,000,000 leaseholders are trapped in flammable flats they cannot sell, they are financing interim fire safety costs that they cannot afford to pay, and facing repossession/forfeiture over life-changing bills to make homes safe,\" the letter says.\n\nNicolai Tangen, the chief executive of NBIM, should \"leverage its position as major shareholder\", it says, to push 11 firms to fix safety issues and provide compensation to victims of the Grenfell fire.\n\nNBIM should \"divest its holdings in these firms if they fail to do so\", the letter adds.\n\nThe fund is an investor in three companies that were involved in producing materials used on Grenfell Tower: Kingspan, Arconic and Saint-Gobain.\n\nNBIM also has stakes in different housebuilders, as pointed out by the campaigners, such as Barratt, Bellway, Berkeley, Crest Nicholson, LendLease, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry.\n\nMs Brown-Cortes told the BBC that campaigners wanted to see NBIM \"live up to their environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials and leverage their position\" as a major shareholder in some property developers.\n\nThe biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world promotes itself as a \"responsible\" investor in more than 9,000 companies globally. It has previously cut tobacco companies from its portfolio, for example.\n\nIn its response to the campaigners, NBIM said it had \"raised product safety with several of the companies mentioned in your letter\" and it was a topic it would continue to monitor.\n\nNBIM added: \"In accordance with the Fund's Ethical Guidelines, companies may be put under observation or be excluded if there is an unacceptable risk that the company contributes to or is responsible for serious or systemic violations of human rights.\n\n\"The independent Council on Ethics is responsible for assessing whether our investments are inconsistent with these guidelines. In line with our procedures, we have shared the information you have provided us with the Council of Ethics.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We are coming for you\" - Michael Gove's warning to firms that cut corners, sought to profiteer and mis-sold dangerous products\n\nHousing Secretary Michael Gove backed the campaigners' \"call to action\" on Sunday.\n\n\"Developers and cladding companies who caused these problems must pay to fix them. We want these companies to do the right thing and help end this scandal,\" he said.\n\nIt was confirmed last week that firms would be given until March to agree how to help leaseholders trapped in \"unsellable homes\".\n\nMr Gove warned those who had mis-sold unsafe cladding or cut corners on homes that the government was \"coming for you\".\n\nResidents in blocks 11-18m high had been ineligible for government support to remove unsafe cladding, but the Housing Secretary said earlier this week that the government was scrapping \"the proposal for loans and long-term debt for medium rise leaseholders\".\n\nMr Gove said some building companies had shown leadership and covered the costs but others \"had not shouldered their responsibilities.\"", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has said the next announcement about the BBC licence fee will be the last - and it was time to discuss new ways to fund and sell \"great British content\".\n\nShe said \"the days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors\" were over.\n\nHer comments come as unconfirmed reports say the government is expected to freeze the £159 fee for two years.\n\nA BBC source said there had been similar speculation before.\n\nThe licence fee's existence is guaranteed until at least 31 December 2027 by the BBC's royal charter, which sets out the broadcaster's funding and purpose.\n\nThe annual fee is then set by the government, which announced in 2016 that it would rise in line with inflation for five years from April 2017.\n\nMoney raised from the licence fee pays for BBC shows and services - including TV, radio, the BBC website, podcasts, iPlayer and apps.\n\nLengthy negotiations have already taken place between BBC bosses and the government over a future funding settlement, with the idea of freezing the licence fee discussed back in October.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nadine Dorries This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA government source confirmed the BBC discussions over the licence fee were ongoing.\n\nBut they said the culture secretary recognised pressure on people's wallets - and the licence fee was an \"important bill\" for people on low incomes and pensioners, which ministers could control.\n\nA BBC source said of the fee freeze: \"Anything less than inflation would put unacceptable pressure on the BBC finances after years of cuts.\"\n\nThey added there were \"very good reasons for investing in what the BBC can do for the British public, and the creative industries and the UK around the world\".\n\nPreviously, Ms Dorries, who was appointed culture secretary last September, said she thought the BBC should exist, but it needed to be able to take on competitors such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.\n\nAt the Conservative party conference in October, Ms Dorries said the broadcaster needed \"real change\" in order to represent the entire UK and accused it of \"groupthink\".\n\nThe BBC was \"a beacon for the world\", she said, but she thought people who had worked their way up had a similar background, a certain political bias and thought and talked the same.\n\nLabour's shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell accused the prime minister and Ms Dorries of seeming \"hell-bent on attacking this great British institution because they don't like its journalism\".\n\n\"British broadcasting and our creative industries are renowned around the world and should be at the heart of global Britain,\" she said.\n\nLiberal Democrat culture spokesperson Jamie Stone said freezing the licence fee would be a \"stealth cut of almost £2bn\" that would put services at risk.\n\n\"The government must stop this reckless ideological crusade and back off our BBC,\" he added.\n\nIn 2020, people over 75 began paying for their TV licence, which had previously been free.\n\nFunding for this had come from the government, but responsibility for this policy was handed to the BBC after the last funding settlement.\n\nIn 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the BBC should \"cough up\" and pay for TV licences for all over-75s but the BBC said doing so would force \"unprecedented closures\" of services. Now, only over-75s on pension credit are eligible for a free licence, paid for by the BBC.\n\nTV licence evasion itself is not an imprisonable offence. However, the government says non-payment of the fine, following a criminal conviction, could lead to a risk of imprisonment - \"a last resort\" after other methods of enforcement have failed.\n\nLast year, the government decided not to move ahead with plans to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee, but said it would \"remain under active consideration\".\n\nAnd so as the BBC turns 100, a British government officially turns against the licence fee as the best way to fund it.\n\nNadine Dorries is not arguing against the existence of the BBC, but is now formally opposed to a compulsory levy on households that watch TV. She argues that it potentially criminalises the vulnerable, including the elderly.\n\nDefenders of the licence fee argue it is the least bad mechanism, and moving to a Netflix-style subscription model would force the BBC to serve subscribers rather than be universal.\n\nIt comes after lengthy negotiations between the government and the BBC over the future funding settlement.\n\nThe actual negotiation over how the BBC is funded after 2027 is still several years away.\n\nDorries tweeted a link to a Mail on Sunday article suggesting that, amid a cost of living crisis, the fee would be held at £159 for two years - amounting to a real terms cut of hundreds of millions.\n\nThe BBC is also under relentless financial and creative pressure from streaming giants such as Apple and Amazon.\n\nIts future depends above all on whether it can persuade young people to pay for it.", "As part of a tradition of \"uncertain origin\" the new licensee will sit on a \"throne\" and have alcohol poured over their head\n\nA search has begun to find a \"monarch\" to run a remote island and 300-year-old pub off the coast of Cumbria.\n\nA partnership organisation stepped in to run the Ship Inn on Piel Island in July after the previous publicans left.\n\nApplicants can now apply for a 10-year lease to run the pub and manage the island, which features a ruined 14th Century castle and a campsite.\n\nBarrow Borough Council said the person would be \"crowned\" by having alcohol poured over their head.\n\nThe council is the custodian of the island - accessible only by ferry - and wants a new operator in place for the summer season.\n\nIt described Piel Island as \"a great asset to Cumbria\", but warned it was \"a unique place and any operator needs to appreciate the constraints offered by power and weather\".\n\nIt stated the successful applicant's duties will include \"maintenance of the Ship Inn, grounds maintenance of the surrounding area and management of camping and the toilet and shower block\".\n\nHowever, the new operator would not be responsible for external urgent repairs to the buildings and jetty.\n\nBy the time the successful applicant takes over there would be new toilet block and possibly a green energy supply to the pub, the council said.\n\nPiel Island only covers about 50 acres (20 hectares) and the only other buildings are three houses and the ruins of a 14th-Century castle\n\nSupporters started a petition to save the island, off the southern tip of the Furness Peninsula, after the previous leaseholders quit.\n\nThe campaigners called it \"the jewel in the crown\" of the area and a \"vital part of our heritage\".\n\nOn its tourism website Barrow Council said: \"One of the most enduring aspects of the Ship Inn is the tradition of the king and knights of Piel.\n\n\"The tradition holds that each new landlord is crowned King of Piel in a ceremony of uncertain origin, in which they sit in an ancient chair, wearing a helmet and holding a sword while alcohol is poured over their head.\n\n\"By the 19th Century it had become an important aspect of the island's history to such an extent that responsibility for looking after the helmet and chair fell within the tenancy agreement.\"\n\nPiel Island lies half a mile (just under 1km) off the coast of Cumbria\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch a briefing by an FBI agent after the stand-off in Colleyville, Texas\n\nFour people who were held hostage at a synagogue in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, have been freed unharmed after a 10-hour stand-off with police.\n\nThey were taken hostage during a morning service in Colleyville on Saturday.\n\nPolice deployed special weapons teams, while FBI negotiators spent hours talking to the assailant.\n\nExplosions and gunfire could be heard before the incident ended. The hostage-taker has since died, police say.\n\nThe four people taken hostage included the synagogue's rabbi, according to US media reports.\n\nThe service was being streamed online when the incident began. One of the hostages was released unharmed six hours later, with the other three being led to safety by police several hours after that.\n\nThe rescue team breached the synagogue but it is not yet clear how the hostage-taker died or who he was.\n\nPresident Joe Biden was briefed about the developing situation.\n\nThe incident began at around 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) when police were called to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue. People were evacuated from the area shortly after.\n\nA live stream of the Shabbat morning service on Facebook captured audio of a man talking loudly. He could be heard saying: \"You get my sister on the phone\" and \"I am gonna die\".\n\nHe was also heard saying: \"There's something wrong with America.\" The feed has since been taken down.\n\nThe hostage-taker was also heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is currently serving an 86-year prison term in the US, law enforcement officials told local media.\n\nSiddiqui was convicted of trying to kill US military officers while in custody in Afghanistan.\n\nBarry Klompus, a member of the congregation since it opened in 1999, said he had been told about the incident by another member and had quickly turned to the live feed until it was taken down.\n\n\"It was horrible listening and watching, and it's that much more horrible not knowing,\" he told Reuters news agency.\n\nVictoria Francis told the Associated Press that she heard the man rant against America and claim he had a bomb during the live stream. \"He was pretty irritated and the more irritated he got, he'd make more threats,\" she said.", "A demonstration against the bill was held outside Parliament as peers debated the proposed law\n\nThe government has suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords over its plans to clamp down on disruptive and noisy protesters.\n\nOpposition peers voted against a range of measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, with Labour calling some of the plans \"outrageous\".\n\nPeers also voted to make misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales.\n\nNo 10 said it was disappointed peers voted against measures to combat the \"guerilla tactics\" of some protesters.\n\nThe bill now faces going back and forth between the Commons and Lords. The government is likely to continue fighting for its proposals.\n\nThe bill is a huge piece of legislation that covers major proposed changes on crime and justice in England and Wales.\n\nThe most controversial part of it is on the planned changes to protests - which the government proposed in response to environmental activists who have blocked roads, glued themselves to trains and stopped printing presses in recent years.\n\nThe government was hoping to get the Lords to support its proposals, but in a series of votes lasting until the early hours of Tuesday morning, peers repeatedly voted against the government.\n\nMinisters were defeated, by 261 votes to 166, over plans to give the police new powers to stop protests in England and Wales if they are deemed to be too noisy and disruptive.\n\nAnd the Lords also backed, by 238 votes to 171, a Liberal Democrat amendment to strip out the power to impose conditions on protests on noise grounds.\n\nAsked if measures against noisy protests would be reintroduced in the Commons, Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"We'll look very carefully at all of that, but, yes, absolutely.\n\n\"In relation to noise, of course we support the right of peaceful and rambunctious protest, but it cannot be allowed to interfere with the lives of the law-abiding majority.\"\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said it would \"reflect\" on the votes before the bill returned to the Commons.\n\nHe added: \"It is disappointing the Lords did not back the public order measures that will ensure the everyday lives of the overwhelming majority are not disrupted by a selfish minority of protesters whose actions endanger lives and cost the public millions of pounds.\"\n\nThe government lost 14 votes in the House of Lords on the detail of the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill on Monday night, to add to the five previous defeats in earlier debates.\n\nMost of these are reversible in the Commons because they represent changes to the bill, but the government was also trying to add in some changes of its own, introducing a series of new public order offences aimed at preventing a recurrence of last year's Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion protests.\n\nBecause the Lords blocked these from becoming part of the bill, they won't be sent back to the Commons.\n\nLabour had approached this issue warily, conscious that they could be accused of allowing the rights of protesters to trump the rights of ordinary people to go about their lives, so they proposed what they regarded as a more focused alternative - but ended up helping vote down the government's new clauses as unacceptable on civil liberties grounds.\n\nMy best guess is that the government's proposals will resurface as a free standing public order bill, when the new Parliamentary year begins in April.\n\nOther amendments on subjects like misogyny, noise at demonstrations, drink-spiking, the Police duty of candour, the repeal of the Vagrancy Act and many more, will have to be agreed by MPs.\n\nThis is what's known as \"Parliamentary ping pong\", in which a bill bounces between the Commons and the Lords until both have agreed on its final form, and it can run on for quite a while.\n\nIt will have to be completed before the end of the current parliamentary session, expected in late March or April.\n\nPeers also voted against measures which would make it illegal for protesters to lock themselves to things and to give police officers powers to stop and search people in an attempt to prevent them taking part in illegal protests.\n\nGreen peer Baroness Jones described the government's plans as \"oppressive\" and \"plain nasty\".\n\n\"How do you seriously think a protest is going to happen without noise?\" she asked.\n\nThe drumming outside Parliament of protesters opposed to the bill could be heard inside the chamber\n\nLabour's Lord Hain called the move \"the biggest threat to the right to dissent and the right to protest in my lifetime\" adding that it would have \"throttled\" protests by the suffragettes.\n\nBut the government's Home Office minister in the Lords, Baroness Williams, defended the plans, telling peers that the police would only use the powers where \"necessary\" and \"appropriate\".\n\nShe urged peers to consider the different contexts in which a noisy protest could take place.\n\nThroughout the debate, drum noises from a demonstration outside Parliament against the bill could be heard in the Lords' chamber, but the minister said no-one would try to stop that.\n\nHowever, she said noisy anti-vaccination protests outside a school or nursing home were a different matter - and that police should have the powers to intervene if necessary.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Several hundred people marched in London chanting \"kill the Bill\"\n\nThe government also suffered a defeat over a separate issue when peers voted to make misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales - a move that would enable judges to impose stronger penalties if prejudice against women is proved to be the motivation.\n\nThe proposal was added to the bill as an amendment against the government's wishes and led by Conservative peer Baroness Newlove - a former victims' commissioner.\n\nBaroness Newlove said: \"As a society we have rightly taken steps to acknowledge the severity of racist or homophobic crimes, but have not yet acted on crimes driven by hatred of women.\"\n\nCrossbench peer Baroness Fox, the former Brexit Party MEP, argued against the proposal, saying the data collected would be \"almost entirely based on subjective perceptions\" of what constituted misogyny.\n\nShe warned that police resources would be wasted if they got \"tangled up in the reporting and monitoring of stats and data which I do not think is reliable\".\n\nHome Office Minister Baroness Williams pointed to a report by the Law Commission last year which concluded that making misogyny a hate crime would not solve the problem of hostility towards women.\n\nThe amendment had support from Labour and the Liberal Democrats and it was backed by 242 votes to 185.\n\nPeers voted against the government's plans to:\n\nPeers voted for new amendments to the bill that would:", "Lord Myners has died at the age of 73\n\nFormer city minister and business leader Lord Myners has died at the age of 73.\n\nHe \"passed away peacefully\" at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in the early hours of Sunday, a statement from his five children said.\n\nLord Myners was born in 1948 and was brought up by his adoptive parents, a butcher and a hairdresser, in Cornwall.\n\nIn December he stepped down as Chancellor of the University of Exeter after five years in the role.\n\nHis extensive financial career included stints with investment bank NM Rothschild and fund manager Gartmore.\n\nHe later held prominent chairing positions, including at Marks & Spencer, the Guardian Media Group, Land Securities and Tate art galleries.\n\nHe also held directorships of companies including NatWest, Coutts & Co, Lloyds of London, the Bank of New York and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, as well as a membership of the Court of the Bank of England.\n\nFormer prime minister Gordon Brown appointed him financial services secretary in 2008, with the task of managing the national response to the global banking crisis.\n\nIn a tribute, Mr Brown tweeted: \"I worked with Paul Myners during the global financial crisis while in government back in 2008 and he was a real tower of strength throughout that time.\n\n\"My thoughts are with his family at this sad time.\"\n\nAlso in 2008, he was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Myners of Truro and later became a crossbench peer.\n\nThe statement from his family said: \"With great sadness we announce the loss of our beloved father Lord Paul Myners.\n\n\"He passed away peacefully in the early hours of this morning at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital.\n\n\"He will be deeply missed and in our hearts forever.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker tells CBS Mornings about being held hostage - and how he escaped\n\nThe rabbi of a Texas synagogue who was taken hostage on Saturday has described how he threw a chair at the gunman in order to escape.\n\nHe and two other hostages were then able to get out \"without a shot being fired\", following a 10-hour siege.\n\nThe hostage-taker, named as British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, was shot dead after a stand-off with police.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has described the hostage-taking incident as \"an act of terror\".\n\nIt began at around 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nRabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker told BBC partner CBS News the group had been praying when he heard a click that turned out to be the hostage-taker's gun, and he and three others were held captive.\n\n\"We were threatened the entire time but fortunately none of us were physically injured,\" he said.\n\nOne hostage was released after six hours, while the other three escaped several hours later.\n\n\"When I saw an opportunity, when he wasn't in a good position, I made sure the gentlemen were still with me, they were ready to go,\" Rabbi Cytron-Walker recalled. \"The exit wasn't too far away, I told them to go.\"\n\nHe then threw a chair at the gunman and headed for the door.\n\n\"It was terrifying. It was overwhelming and we're still processing. It's been a lot,\" Rabbi Cytron-Walker said.\n\nHe added getting back to the synagogue following the incident \"won't be easy but it's an important thing\".\n\nPolice are continuing their investigation at the scene of hostage incident in Colleyville, Texas\n\nThe service was live-streamed and captured the audio of the man demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is currently serving an 86-year prison term in the US, law enforcement officials told local media.\n\nSiddiqui was convicted of trying to kill US military officers while in custody in Afghanistan. Thousands took to the streets in Pakistan to protest against her conviction in 2010.\n\nA brother of Malik Faisal Akram issued a statement apologising to the victims and saying he had been suffering from \"mental health issues\".\n\nFriends of Akram in his home town of Blackburn told the BBC his mental health had been getting worse and said they were surprised that he had been able to travel to the US.\n\nCBS News reported that Akram arrived in the US two weeks before the siege, landing in New York.\n\nMr Biden said on Sunday that the assumption was that \"he got the weapons on the street\" and \"apparently spent the first night in a homeless shelter\".\n\nTwo teenagers have been arrested in England as part of the investigation into the incident. Their ages and genders have not been revealed.\n\nBritish Foreign Secretary Liz Truss described the incident as an \"act of terrorism and anti-Semitism\".\n\n\"We stand with US in defending the rights and freedoms of our citizens against those who spread hate,\" she said.\n\nWhen the FBI said this investigation would have \"a global reach\" they weren't exaggerating.\n\nThe FBI, who are leading it, have deployed their Joint Terrorism Taskforce with teams following up leads in the US, Britain and possibly also in Pakistan.\n\nThe immediate priority is to establish whether or not the hostage-taker had help from anyone else, either here in Britain or during the two weeks he was in the US prior to entering the synagogue.\n\nBritain's Counter Terrorism Police and MI5 will be crucial in uncovering Malik Faisal Akram's so-called \"digital trail\" - the clues left behind on his phone, computer or credit card purchases.", "There are just over 1,000 primary, post-primary and special schools in Northern Ireland\n\nMore than half of schools in Northern Ireland had teachers absent due to Covid-19 or self-isolation during the first full week of term.\n\nBut the impact on schools was uneven with about one in 20 teachers off for Covid-related reasons in post-primaries.\n\nThe absence rates were higher across primary and special schools.\n\nThe figures for the week from 10-14 January have been compiled by the Department of Education (DE).\n\nThey are based on information provided by hundreds of schools across Northern Ireland.\n\nSome schools have reported difficulty getting substitute teachers when staff are off.\n\nSome post-primaries have also reported problems in getting \"subject-specific\" cover for pupils taking GCSEs, AS and A-Levels.\n\nThe education minister, seen here visiting a school in September, said more that 150 retired teachers have registered as subs\n\nBut the Department of Education workforce survey of schools shows that about two-thirds of teacher absences in schools during the week were covered by a substitute.\n\nThe rates of cover were highest in special schools where about eight in ten absences were covered by a substitute on Thursday and Friday.\n\nThe department's figures also do not indicate when staff absences were covered by a teacher already employed in the school.\n\nEducation Minister Michelle McIlveen wrote to schools on Thursday and said that more than 150 retired teachers had registered as substitutes following an appeal by the department just before Christmas.\n\nSome student teachers may also be allowed to teach classes unsupervised during school placements this term.\n\nA minority of schools have, however, had to send some classes home for remote learning on specific days due to staff absences.\n\nThe department's data shows that about one in every 13 teachers in primary and special schools was absent for Covid-related reasons during the week from 10-14 January.\n\nThe rate of absence for classroom assistants was slightly higher, but had fallen by the end of the week.\n\nHowever, more than half of primary schools said they had no teachers absent for Covid-related reasons during the first full week of term.\n\nBut just under one in 10 primaries said that more than a quarter of their teachers had been absent at some point during the week.\n\nMost post-primary schools said they had been affected by teacher absences.\n\nAbout one in eight said they had no Covid-related teacher absences during the week.\n\nBut just under half of post-primaries said that the number of staff off was relatively minor - with fewer than 5% of teachers absent for Covid-related reasons.\n\nBy Friday, only about one in 25 post-primaries reported more than 15% of teachers off because of Covid.\n\nHowever, the department's figures do not show how many teachers or staff are off for other reasons, which are not to do with Covid.\n\nThat will have increased the rates of staff absence in some schools.\n\nThere are just over 1,000 primary, post-primary and special schools in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe department's workforce data is based on information from about 550 schools across all sectors.", "Carbon Link has planted almost four million trees in the past decade in Kenya's Boré community\n\nWales has a \"particular responsibility\" to help fight climate change because of its coal mining past, a leading conservationist has claimed.\n\nDirector of Carbon Link Ru Hartwell said the country \"invented\" a model of industrial development based on exploiting fossil fuels.\n\nHis charity runs one of the tree-planting programmes the Welsh government funds in Africa.\n\nIt has planted about four million trees in Kenya's Boré community since 2012.\n\nThe project has expanded significantly over the course of the past decade, from getting 1,000 cashew trees in the ground initially to ambitions to plant one million trees this year.\n\nThey will include 19 varieties, some of which provide food and timber to the community and others to create wildlife habitats and improve biodiversity.\n\nCarbon Links wants to plant another million trees this year\n\nThe funding comes via Welsh government, the charity Size of Wales and takings from two innovative climate change charity shops in Lampeter and Aberystwyth.\n\n\"It's all about helping the local people protect their existing forest and plant new trees to suck down carbon from the atmosphere and improve the climate for everyone,\" Mr Hartwell explained in a video call from the Boré Community Forest Project.\n\nOne of the \"tragic ironies of climate change,\" he said was poorer nations that had contributed least to the carbon emissions problem were being worst hit by the impacts of rising temperatures and extreme weather.\n\nRu Hartwell said Wales had \"invented\" a model of industrial development based on exploiting fossil fuels\n\n\"Wales has a very long history of releasing carbon,\" he said.\n\n\"We've got one of the longest legacy footprints of any country in the world because of the industrialisation that came with the south Wales coalfield.\n\n\"The model of industrial development based on the exploitation of fossil fuels was invented in south Wales and every other country in the world has gone on to kind of emulate that.\n\n\"So, because we were the first industrialised nation, we have a particular responsibility to draw back some of that ancient, historical carbon.\"\n\nThe project has led to the establishment of the largest tree nursery in Coast Province, Kenya, working with more than 3,000 farmers and 200 schools.\n\nIt is here that trees will be grown for the Arsenal Forest - a new woodland being created by the Premier League club to make up for some of the carbon released in printing the Arsenal matchday programme.\n\nAnna Douglas has been volunteering at the project since it started\n\n\"The people here have got very small carbon footprints, they don't drive or fly around all the time like we do in the West,\" explained Mr Hartwell's daughter Anna Douglas - an ecologist based in Denmark who has been volunteering at the project since it started.\n\n\"But for them climate change is happening right now,\" she said, with crop failures driven by changing weather patterns.\n\nWelsh funding has also led to the planting of 15 million trees in Uganda over the past decade, with the Welsh government aiming to reach 25 million by 2025.\n\nThe project is situated in the Mbale region, where a combination of climate change and excessive logging has led to flooding and fatal landslides.\n\nFor every child born or adopted in Wales a tree is planted in the region, as well as in Wales.\n\nThe trees provide food and timber to the local community, create wildlife habitats and improve biodiversity\n\nHowever, ministers have repeatedly faced questions over the failure to meet domestic tree-planting targets with Wales lagging significantly behind the rest of the UK.\n\nDeputy climate change minister Lee Waters recently announced plans to plant 86 million trees by 2030, with every household to be offered a free sapling to plant in their garden as part of this drive.", "The safety of women as they go about their daily business has once again been thrust into the spotlight. And once again it's because a woman has been killed in apparently \"safe\" conditions.\n\nSabina Nessa, a 28-year-old primary school teacher, was on her way to meet a friend for a Friday evening drink. She set out on what should have been a five-minute walk through a well-used public park at about 20:30 BST and never reached her destination. She was discovered by a member of the public the following evening.\n\nSpeaking at a news conference in relation to Ms Nessa's death, Det Ch Supt Trevor Lawry from the Met Police said: \"The streets are safe for women - people should be free to walk around free from fear\".\n\nLater, a community group handed out information sheets printed from the Met's website, giving \"tips for staying safe on the street\". Women are told not to wear headphones. We are told to stick to busy places, to hide our valuables. We must walk where there is good lighting and pre-book our taxi home.\n\nSix months ago, Sarah Everard was abducted, raped and murdered by a stranger. She followed a number of the protocols with which women are often issued: she walked along a main road, at the relatively early hour of 21:00, wearing sensible clothes.\n\nAnd she trusted a police officer. One of the people we are told to seek out if we feel we are in danger.\n\nNine months before that, sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were murdered by a stranger. The theory of \"safety in numbers\" did not save the sisters, who were together when they were stabbed multiple times in a public park. Staying in contact with partners via text and organising a cab to pick them up did not stop a man deciding to kill them in a so-called deal with a so-called devil.\n\nTheir friends found them in undergrowth two days later.\n\nAs Det Ch Supt Lawry says, of course women \"should\" be able to walk around free from fear. And of course the problem is with the men who murder them rather than the women wearing headphones. And of course women should not have to modify their behaviour in order to not be attacked or abducted or raped or killed.\n\nBut \"worrying about our safety is an integral part of our existence as women,\" said Kelly Grehan, a director of 50:50 Parliament, a cross-party campaign group promoting gender equality.\n\n\"It is drummed into us from a young age that our actions determine our safety: when we were only allowed to go in public toilets in pairs, given rape alarms at secondary school and told we were 'asking for it' or 'jailbait' when we tried to dress like the pop stars we idolised before some of us had even started menstruating.\"\n\nThe killings of Ms Nessa, Ms Everard, Ms Henry and Ms Smallman create an extra frisson of fear because their randomness indicates all women are at risk. If Ms Nessa arranged to meet her friend at a different bar or at a different time; if Ms Everard had left her friend's house 10 minutes earlier or later; if Ms Henry and Ms Smallman had chosen a different part of the park to have their picnic, it could have been different women facing the final few hours of their lives. It could be any woman - even if she had followed the rules.\n\nAcademic studies have examined the ways in which women and girls trade their freedom to feel safer. One of the largest studies conducted on sexual harassment in Europe found that almost half of the 42,000 women surveyed had restricted their freedom of movement based on the fear of gender-based violence.\n\nProf Liz Kelly, the director of the child and woman abuse studies unit at London Metropolitan University, coined the term \"safety work\", to describe the strategies women develop in response to their experiences in public. Often done without thinking, these precautions become ingrained as habit, or \"common sense\".\n\nAnd we all do it. We all make sure we have a fully-charged phone and do that spikey weapon-grip with our door keys at the same time as checking nobody is following us inside. We text when we are \"home safe\" and wait up until we hear the same from our companions. This is normal. This is accepted. This is part of being a woman.\n\nThe tips offered by police and other organisations perpetuate the idea of safety work: take a longer route if it's busier and better lit; search for a Tube carriage with other women in; wear flat shoes for the walk home (in case you have to run).\n\nSarah Everard had been walking to her home in Brixton when she disappeared\n\nAs Prof Kelly says, the \"necessity of safety work steals our time and our energy - being vigilant means it is seldom possible to just be in public space, to feel joy in exercise or notice the changing seasons\".\n\nAfter Sarah Everard went missing, Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick tried to reassure women that incidences of abduction and murder were \"incredibly rare\".\n\nAnd it's true - women account for about a third of all murders and of those, only 13% are killed by a stranger. Most are victims of a partner or ex-partner. It is far more likely that we will be killed at home than in a park.\n\nSo it's a balancing act - women have to take the precautions society deems reasonable while also trying not to overreact to dangers we're told are uncommon enough to be negligible.\n\nDr Fiona Vera-Gray, an assistant professor at Durham University, uses the term \"the right amount of panic\".\n\n\"This won't ever happen to you. Except if it does, because for some of us it will, it will be your fault for not being scared enough. Don't panic enough and it's your fault, but panic too much and you're hysterical.\"\n\nBibaa Henry, 46, and 27-year-old Nicole Smallman were stabbed to death in a Wembley park\n\nAnna Birley, a co-founder of campaign group Reclaim These Streets, said: \"We often get told when the worst happens that the murder of a woman by a stranger in a public place is very rare and we are very safe.\n\n\"But the thing is, our lived experience of street harassment - cat-calling, a man exposing himself to us - tells us we're not safe, and murder is rarely the first crime someone commits.\n\n\"We shouldn't be looking to solutions that require women to change their behaviour.\n\n\"Women should be able to walk five minutes across a park at any time of day or night without fear of violence.\"\n\nIn an ideal world, everyone would live their lives unmolested. It would be safe to amble down dark alleys or across parks, whether sporting a diamond-encrusted miniskirt and platinum noise-cancelling headphones or a sackcloth boiler suit and an air of high alert.\n\nBut until we get to that utopia, if it is even achievable, is the advice offered by police and various safety charities actually something that protects women? If we disregard the hugely problematic narrative of victim-blaming, are they pragmatic - if unpalatable - tips that would keep us safe from stranger danger?\n\nThe deaths of Ms Nessa, Ms Everard, Ms Henry and Ms Smallman would suggest not.\n\nThey followed the \"rules\" and still got murdered. Ms Everard's killer wasn't put off by a brightly-lit busy road and plenty of CCTV cameras. The man who murdered Ms Henry and Ms Smallman was untroubled by the women not being alone and defenceless.\n\nThe cases above are the high-profile ones. There will have been a strata of incidents in which women were attacked but not fatally. In which someone tried to pull or persuade them into a car but were shaken off. In which a man said something sexually aggressive that didn't lead to a physical assault but did leave the woman upset and frightened and angry.\n\nThe women affected would have stuck to the guidelines, would have done their safety work. Very few women actively decide to put themselves in situations they are repeatedly told are dangerous.\n\nA report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) was commissioned by Home Secretary Priti Patel after the murder of Ms Everard.\n\nIt was published the day Ms Nessa was killed.\n\nMayor of London Sadiq Khan said there should be a \"fully joined-up policy to address this issue, from school with boys being taught to respect girls; and proper healthy relationship education\". He urged the government to \"outlaw misogyny\" and \"make the harassment of women in a public place a criminal offence\".\n\nEven if all those policies were put into place tomorrow, how long would it take to see real change? Until we get to the point that the concept of a \"healthy relationship\" is the norm, not something to be taught squeezed in between double maths and lunch?\n\nWomen are not attacked because of our route home; we are not attacked because our walk was not \"purposeful\" enough, or because of what we were wearing. If a woman is murdered by a man she doesn't know, it is because he wanted to murder her. There is no other reason.\n\nSociety as a whole - and women as individuals - owes him no excuse. No matter how well-meant, perhaps safety hints for women run the risk of offering one.\n\nAnd in the words of Prof Kelly - what will it take to move the conversation from protecting women's safety to protecting their freedom?\n\nHave you been affected by this story? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The powerful storm uprooted trees, making some roads impassable in Charlotte, North Carolina\n\nA major winter storm has brought heavy snow and ice to parts of the US and Canada, putting more than 80 million people under weather warnings.\n\nMore than 145,000 people are without power in some south-eastern states, and thousands of flights are cancelled.\n\nVirginia, Georgia, and North and South Carolina have all declared states of emergency.\n\nThe US National Weather Service (NWS) says more than 1ft (30cm) of snow is expected in some areas.\n\nSnow and ice could result in \"dangerous travel, power outages, and tree damage\", the NWS warned.\n\nHighway patrols reported hundreds of vehicle accidents, according to the Associated Press news agency.\n\nThere were also forecasts of possible coastal flooding in some areas, including in New York City and parts of Connecticut, with warnings that roads and infrastructure could be affected.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. More disruption possible from US Storm\n\nIn Canada's Ontario province, which shares a border with New York state, officials issued storm warnings on Sunday morning for much of the south. Toronto, the capital of the province and Canada's largest city, is forecast to get seven inches (20cm) of snow.\n\nMore than 3,000 flights into and out of the US were cancelled on Sunday, according to the FlightAware data tracking website.\n\nCharlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina was among the worst hit, with almost 90% of flights scrapped, and a message on its website urged passengers to check with their airlines before travelling to the airport.\n\nIn South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster called on residents to stay off the roads.\n\n\"This is going to be a pretty bad storm in the upper part of the state,\" he said, adding that it was \"good news\" that the storm was forecast to hit on a weekend and on a public holiday on Monday, when fewer people would need to travel.\n\n\"Hopefully, the storm will underdeliver, but it could overdeliver. We just don't know,\" Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said as he announced preparations for his state.", "The shooting happened on Barony Drive in Baillieston\n\nA 31-year-old man has been seriously injured after being shot in a targeted attack in Glasgow.\n\nPolice were called to Barony Drive in the Baillieston area at about 00:10 on Saturday after the man was found with serious injuries.\n\nThe man was taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, before being transferred to Glasgow Royal Infirmary.\n\nDet Insp Andy Wright said the man was shot shortly before he was found.\n\nHe said: \"This was a targeted attack and the 31-year-old man would appear to be the intended victim, however we realise that such incidents do cause alarm.\n\n\"The roads in the area will be opened today, however we will have increased patrols thereafter and I would like to reassure the local community that everything is being done to trace whoever is responsible.\n\n\"We would ask anyone with any information to get in touch with us, if you were in the area at the time and have not already spoken to police, we would urge you to come forward. You may have information that can help us.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Peter Seabrook, pictured here in 1997, died on Friday at his home in Essex\n\nTributes have been paid to influential gardening writer and broadcaster Peter Seabrook, who has died aged 86.\n\nMr Seabrook, who lived in Chelmsford, Essex, was still working as a gardening columnist when he died of a suspected heart attack on Friday.\n\nA former BBC Gardeners' World presenter, he also authored numerous gardening books and wrote regularly for horticultural trade titles.\n\nHis daughter Alison Seabrook Moore described him as \"an inspiration\".\n\nShe said: \"He was working at full throttle until the end.\"\n\nHe had worked as the Sun newspaper's gardening editor since 1977.\n\nThe Sun's royal photographer Arthur Edwards, who worked alongside Mr Seabrook for decades, said: \"Peter was never happier than when the garden soil was between his fingers.\n\nPeter Seabrook (back) with fellow Gardeners' World presenters Kathy Taylor, Toby Buckland, and David Stevens (front) in 1997\n\nCassie King, who worked with him on the creation of gardens for the Chelsea Flower Show, tweeted that she was \"absolutely devastated\".\n\nShe wrote: \"I've worked with Peter Seabrook many times, the highlight being asked to project manage four industry gardens at Chelsea in 2016.\n\n\"He was an inspiration to me and gave me many opportunities for which I will be forever grateful for.\"\n\nHorticulture Week editor Matthew Appleby, who first reported his death, said: \"The whole of horticulture will be shocked and saddened by this news.\n\n\"Peter was the most respected and the greatest gardening writer of his time and will be much missed.\"\n\nThe Royal Horticultural Society described Mr Seabrook as \"one of the greatest champions of horticulture\".\n\nThroughout his career, Mr Seabrook touched the lives of many people including David Turner, who revealed the horticulturalist's kindness in his tribute.\n\nHe tweeted: \"A true gentleman who I had the pleasure of meeting many times since I started in horticulture over 30 years ago.\n\n\"In 2020, despite having just lost his wife, he hand wrote me a letter when I lost mine. He will be greatly missed.\"\n\nMr Seabrook had been married to Margaret and the couple's children, Alison and Roger, issued a joint statement in which they said he \"spent many years caring for our mother through Alzheimer's\".\n\nThey added: \"He leaves a big gap in our lives. We are grateful that he was able to live a long and active life, pursuing what he loved right up to the end.\n\n\"The messages of appreciation that have come from people who worked with him - some going back many years and some very recent - are overwhelming.\"\n\nPeter Seabrook last summer at Hyde Hall in Essex where he was involved in a trial of calendula sown from seed\n\nBorn in 1935, he nurtured a passion for horticulture from a young age.\n\nHe began working in the industry even before studying the subject at Writtle College in Essex and embarked on his broadcasting career with the BBC in 1965.\n\nHe was appointed an MBE for his services in 2005.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Rafael Benitez says he did not realise the \"magnitude of the task\" at Everton following his sacking on Sunday after less than seven months in charge.\n\nThe Toffees appointed the former Liverpool manager, 61, as Carlo Ancelotti's successor in June.\n\nEverton have won only one of their past 13 Premier League games and are 16th in the table, six points above the relegation places.\n\n\"We knew it wouldn't be easy,\" Benitez said following his departure.\n\n\"It was a big challenge, both emotionally and in terms of sport. My love for this city, for Merseyside and its people, made me accept this challenge, but it is only when you are inside that you realise the magnitude of the task.\n\n\"From the very first day, my staff and myself worked as we always do, with commitment and full dedication. We didn't only have to get results, but we also had to win over people's hearts.\n\n\"However, the financial situation and then the injuries that followed made things even harder.\"\n\nEverton, who say an update on a permanent replacement will be made in due course, held an emergency board meeting on Saturday to discuss Benitez's future following Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Norwich, which was a ninth loss in the club's past 12 league games.\n\nEverton's travelling contingent demanded Benitez \"get out of our club\", while a supporter invaded the pitch in an attempt to confront the Spaniard.\n\nBenitez has been denied the services of several key players throughout the season, with key forwards Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and defender Yerry Mina having been out with injuries.\n\nThe Toffees have brought in three players this month - Vitalii Mykolenko from Dynamo Kyiv, Nathan Patterson from Rangers, and winger Anwar El-Ghazi on loan from Aston Villa, with Lucas Digne making a permanent move in the other direction.\n\n\"I am convinced that we would have been better once the injured players were back and with the arrival of the new signings,\" added Benitez.\n\n\"The road to success isn't easy and, sadly, nowadays in football there is a search for immediate results and there is always less and less patience; unfortunately circumstances have determined the results and it won't be possible to continue this project.\n\n\"In any case, thank you to the board, to the staff, to the players, and to those fans who have supported us during this time.\"\n\nBenitez, whose last job in the Premier League before Everton was at Newcastle United, leaves the Toffees with an overall win percentage of 31.8% - his lowest record in charge of an English club.\n\nEverton have 19 points after 19 games and only twice previously have they had fewer points at this stage of a Premier League campaign (17 in 1997-98 and 2005-06).\n\nFormer Toffees striker Wayne Rooney, now manager at Derby County, has already been linked with the job.\n\nAnother potential candidate is Belgium coach Roberto Martinez. He was the first Everton manager sacked by owner Farhad Moshiri in 2016 but BBC Sport understands he still has admirers among the club's hierarchy.\n\nEverton are now searching for their seventh permanent manager since the departure of David Moyes in 2013.\n\nFormer England captain Alan Shearer said on Match of the Day the night before Benitez was sacked: \"He has been in the game long enough to know you have to get results, and if you don't you will probably lose your job.\n\n\"Yes the results have been dreadful but the problems lie deeper than the manager. If you look at the amount of managers they have been through and money that has been spent of players... absolute madness.\"\n\nFormer Premier League defender Stephen Warnock believes former Toffees striker Rooney could be considered - but Brighton's Graham Potter should be top of Everton's list.\n\n\"Wayne Rooney will get a mention and it is up to Wayne where he feels he is at if he was offered the job,\" Warnock told BBC Radio 5 Live.\n\n\"It would be very difficult to turn down, from a club and fans point of view. Is he experienced enough? He would get the respect of the fans and the players.\n\n\"The choice I look at, and Brighton fans won't want me to say this, is Graham Potter. Everton fans want open and expansive football, and you would get that with him.\n\n\"This appointment has to be the right one. I don't think [assistant manager] Duncan Ferguson is the right choice - they need to look elsewhere.\"\n\nEverton won four of their first six league games under Benitez, taking 13 points from a possible 18, but their form has collapsed since October.\n\nThey finished 10th with 59 points last season with current Real Madrid boss Ancelotti as manager.\n\nDirector of football Marcel Brands departed in December as owner Farhad Moshiri attempted to tackle the crisis surrounding the club.\n\nFormer Premier League striker Clinton Morrison added: \"There has not been a plan at Everton for years. They have not spent well and that is why the director of football had to go.\n\n\"I knew it would be a big struggle for Rafa going there. He started ever so well but once you have been a legend at Liverpool, it's always going to be difficult when you start losing games. It wasn't good enough against Norwich. Top six? No chance. They could be in a relegation battle.\"\n\nLeft-back Lucas Digne also left the club, for Aston Villa in a £25m deal earlier this week after falling out of favour and said he did not expect his time at Everton \"to end this way\".\n\n\"Benitez was always climbing a mountain,\" Danny Murphy told BBC Radio 5 Live. \"It looked like they were backing him, they let him sell Lucas Digne and sign players so to disregard that, well, it is an absolute shambles and there is no real candidate for someone to come in and guarantee success.\n\n\"They are a massive club but with obvious massive problems.\"\n• None Our coverage of Everton is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Everton - go straight to all the best content", "Friends and family of a British woman living in Tonga have said she is missing after she was caught in Saturday's tsunami.\n\nIn social media posts, they said Angela and James Glover were hit by the 1.2m (4ft) waves, but only her husband was able to cling on to a tree.\n\nSearches continue for Angela, 50, who was swept away along with her dogs.\n\nSignificant damage has been reported on the western coast of main island Tongatapu, which remains covered in a thick layer of ash.\n\nBut full information about the extent of the damage from the tsunami on the Pacific island nation remains scarce, with internet and telephone communications extremely limited.\n\nMrs Glover's brother, Nick Eleini, confirmed to the BBC that she still had not been been located. He is leaving his home in Sydney, Australia, to go to the UK to be with their mother in Hove, East Sussex.\n\nOne person commenting on social media said the couple were his aunt and uncle. He said Angela and James had gone home to get their dogs when the wave hit.\n\nAngela is known in Tonga for her work on animal welfare\n\nAnother person said she had spent Sunday morning with Angela's mother, who had received a phone call in the early hours from James to say her daughter was missing.\n\nShe said: \"We are hoping and praying that amongst the devastation she is found.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTonga is a group of more than 170 islands spread over an area of the South Pacific roughly the size of Japan.\n\nThe tsunami which hit Tongatapu was triggered by the eruption of a huge underwater volcano on Saturday. The eruption could be heard more than 1,000 miles away in New Zealand.\n\nIts capital Nuku'alofa is just 65km (40 miles) south of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano.\n\nAid organisations say up to 80,000 people on the islands could be affected by the disaster, but so far no deaths have been confirmed.\n\nA source at the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it was assisting British nationals and their families following the resulting tsunami in Tonga.\n\nAngela previously worked in the advertising industry in London. Her social media profiles suggest she grew up in Brighton before beginning a new life in the Pacific island nation around 2015.\n\nPast media reports identify her as the vice-president of Tonga Animal Welfare Society, which was founded in 2020 to offer basic animal care in a nation that has no qualified vets.", "A hostage situation at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, was \"not related\" to the Jewish community, according to the FBI's Matt DeSarno.\n\nFour people were taken hostage by a man at the synagogue on Saturday, and were released safely after an 11 hour stand-off. The suspect died at the scene.\n\nUpdate: The FBI's director, Christopher Wray, later said on 20 January that the FBI \"is, and has been, treating the event as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.\"", "Ruth Davidson was Scottish Tory leader until she stepped down in 2019\n\nFormer Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has revealed that she almost did not run for leader in case her mental health history became known.\n\nThe Tory peer was diagnosed with clinical depression in her first year of university.\n\nShe also told a podcast she was \"really annoyed\" to be described as a lesbian kickboxer during the leadership contest in 2011.\n\nLady Davidson became leader in November that year and became a peer last year.\n\nShe said that when she was diagnosed with depression about 20 years ago, people did not talk about mental health issues as much. \"It was very shameful. I didn't want anyone to know,\" she said.\n\nShe told the Desperately Seeking Wisdom with Craig Oliver podcast she wanted to be able to talk about her mental health \"on my own terms\" so she could \"own the way in which it was presented\".\n\nBaroness Davidson of Lundin Links, who served as an MSP from 2011 to 2021, said: \"I considered not throwing my hat in the ring for leader in case my medical history came out.\n\n\"I'm trying to remember dates, but I became leader in 2011, so it would be after the press got hold of Gordon Brown's children's medical records, which felt like a really egregious breach.\n\n\"But the idea that the papers had the power to find out and open up people's medical records, why wouldn't somebody want to find that out about the new leader of the Tories in Scotland?\"\n\nLady Davidson has worked with mental health charity the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) during her time in politics and said she was pleased she had the opportunity to open up about mental health issues, saying it would have helped her at the time of her own diagnosis to see someone speaking out.\n\nShe said: \"I think at that time, I was just starting at uni, I had big dreams, everyone does - but the idea that you could go on and have a big job, that you could be in the public eye, you could be in politics at all, and have this big, shameful secret... it didn't occur to me.\n\n\"I thought that that was my ambition over. I hope that somebody out there was helped by the fact that they could see, you know, a politician or Prince Harry talking about it.\n\n\"When you see people in a space that you're interested in, I hope it helps.\"\n\nLady Davidson is now a peer in the House of Lords\n\nSpeaking about being described as a lesbian kickboxer during the Scottish Conservative leadership contest in 2011, she told the podcast: \"I'll tell you why it annoyed me. One, because I'd stopped kickboxing years before, so it wasn't even true. And two because it was so reductive, and it was reductive to try and make a point.\n\n\"There were four people in that leadership election and every single other one of them was referred to in the papers by their job apart from me.\n\n\"So it was deputy leader Margot Fraser, transport spokesman, Jackson Carlaw, justice convener Margaret Mitchell and lesbian kickboxer Ruth Davidson. And it was so reductive and it was so dismissive.\"\n\nLady Davidson had her son Finn with partner Jen Wilson in 2018\n\nLady Davidson became the first UK party leader to give birth in office when she had baby Finn in October 2018 with her partner, Jen Wilson.\n\nShe cited both \"professional and personal\" reasons for her decision to step down as Tory leader in August 2019.\n\nThe Tory peer told the podcast she promised she would not take on any big jobs until her son was at school, and added: \"This is one of the promises I want to stick to.\"\n\nLady Davidson previously said her mental heath suffered after a boy from her village took his own life when she was 17 and she started to self-harm. She was diagnosed with clinical depression a year later.\n\nIf you are struggling with mental health issues you can call Samaritans free on 116 123 (UK and Ireland) or visit the BBC Action Line website.", "The armed forces are set to take charge of operations looking to limit migrant crossings in the English Channel.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said the MoD had been commissioned as a \"crucial operational partner to protect our Channel against illegal migration\".\n\nBut Defence Select Committee chairman Tobias Ellwood criticised the plans as \"rushed\" and a \"massive distraction\" for the military.\n\nThe move could begin within weeks, the BBC understands.\n\nRear Admiral Mike Utley, the commander of the UK strike force, has been appointed to co-ordinate the plans.\n\nThe number of people who crossed last year was treble that of 2020. On Saturday alone, 197 people were intercepted or rescued attempting to cross the English Channel, the Home Office said. French authorities stopped 95 people on five vessels from making the journey.\n\nMinistry of Defence (MoD) sources told the BBC discussions about the armed forces working with the Home Office and UK Border Force had been taking place for several weeks.\n\nThey said no decisions had been made over how the Royal Navy or other services would be involved, and there was no indication it would involve pushing migrant boats back to France.\n\nThat is despite Ms Patel suggesting in the House of Commons that the armed forces could be involved in the controversial policy, saying this was \"absolutely the policy of this government\".\n\nA source added the details of how the military could co-ordinate operations were still to be worked out, while another said there was \"trepidation\" within the MoD about getting involved in such a complex issue.\n\nIt is understood overall policy on migration and migrant management would still be led by the Home Office.\n\nBut the plans, first reported in the Times, could see Prime Minister Boris Johnson give the navy authority over government vessels in the channel.\n\nFigures compiled by the BBC show at least 28,431 migrants made the journey in small boats in 2021 - up from 8,417 people the year before - despite huge UK investment in France to prevent crossings.\n\nOn 24 November at least 27 people died after their boat sank, in the largest single loss of life in the Channel since records began in 2014.\n\nMs Patel told MPs crossings were \"unfair, unacceptable and lethally dangerous\" as well as \"totally unnecessary\". She said France, and other EU member states, were \"safe countries with long-established asylum systems\".\n\nShe added she had asked for \"naval MoD assets and support back in 2020\". \"No one department can resolve the complex issue of Channel crossings on their own,\" she added.\n\nAsked about the move on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said it would help to avoid a situation where \"Border Force or other vessels in the Channel are being co-ordinated separately\".\n\nBut Mr Ellwood, who is also a former veterans minister, described the proposals as being \"rushed out\".\n\nSpeaking to Sky News, the Conservative MP said the plans were a \"massive distraction\" for the military amid growing threats from Russia and China, adding: \"This isn't what our navy should be doing.\"\n\nFor a prime minister who promised his Brexit deal would see the UK take back control of its borders, the failure to stop record numbers of asylum seekers arriving on the Kent coast in small boats is a political embarrassment.\n\nHowever, putting a rear admiral in charge of operations in the Channel is unlikely to make much difference.\n\nThe Royal Navy may be able to provide better intelligence on where inflatables and dinghies are expected to make landfall, but the great majority of those coming to seek sanctuary in Britain are already intercepted before they reach the coast.\n\nPlans to push small boats back into French waters appear to have been deemed too dangerous and the often-trailed idea of processing migrants \"offshore\" in another country has so far failed to materialise. Migrant arrival facilities in Kent are currently being expanded.\n\nThe reason for the increase in asylum seekers risking the perilous journey across the Channel is that Covid and improved security at Calais has effectively closed traditional points of entry.\n\nThe government and refugee organisations agree the long-term solution is the creation of official safe routes for migrants fleeing conflict zones.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the government had failed to do the serious and practical work with France needed to stop lives being lost and criminal gangs profiting from crossings.\n\nThe Labour MP said the government had brought the navy in to patrol the Channel in 2019 but the two vessels used had intercepted no boats and had cost the government £780,000.\n\n\"They need to explain what is different in these latest plans,\" she said.\n\nA government spokesperson said the public had had enough of people smugglers disregarding immigration laws and ministers were bringing in long-term changes.\n\nA Ministry of Defence spokesman said unacceptable numbers continued to cross and the government was exploring every avenue to stop them.\n\nResponding to the plans, CEO of the Refugee Council Enver Solomon described them as \"cruel and inhumane\".\n\n\"It's a desperate move by a government that isn't able to find solutions that will ensure an orderly, manageable and fair asylum system,\" he added.\n\nBut Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said the news sent \"a clear message\" over how serious the government was about putting a stop to small boat crossings which were incredibly unsafe.\n\nIn March last year, Ms Patel set out plans to overhaul the way people applying for asylum in the UK are treated.\n\nUnder the proposals, people who arrive in the UK by what the government calls illegal means to claim asylum will no longer have the same entitlements as those who arrive through proper channels.\n\nThe Labour Party has criticised the plans for lacking compassion and being ineffective at discouraging crossings. Human rights lawyers warned they would be unlawful because they ignored Britain's international obligations.\n\nIn December, four Iranian men who crossed in small boats had their convictions for immigration offences quashed by the Court of Appeal, which concluded it had not been proven they intended to enter the UK illegally.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"The earlier you release people from isolation, the more risk there is that they'll pass it on\"\n\nCutting Wales' Covid self-isolation period to five days would help Labour ministers \"atone for the damage\" they have done to business, opposition Tories have said.\n\nThe party has joined calls for Wales to adopt England's new rules.\n\nA charity boss said cutting the isolation period would help people return to work more quickly.\n\nWales' chief medical officer (CMO) said nations that took a more precautionary approach have seen better Covid rates.\n\nDr Sir Frank Atherton said ministers would look at whether they should change the self-isolation rules this week.\n\nWales case rate has fallen to the lowest level since 18 December - 650.02 cases per 100,000 people.\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives have been critical of Mr Drakeford's handling of the Omicron wave, and argued against new restrictions imposed during the winter.\n\nHealth spokesman Russell George said: \"With the booster jab rollout so advanced, the need to keep public services staffed, and the increasing desire to move to a point where we live with the virus, the time for cutting the self-isolation has come.\n\n\"We've already seen Labour's botched over-reaction to Omicron and how that has impacted businesses. By cutting the self-isolation period, they can start atoning for the damage they have done.\"\n\nLakshmy Pengelly said any reduction in the isolation period would be a help\n\nCare home owner Lakshmy Pengelly backed cutting the isolation period from seven to five days.\n\nMs Pengelly, owner of Ashley Court Care, in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, said the home was dealing with three to four staff testing positive every week.\n\n\"You're losing batches of staff each week and then having to scramble around changing roles,\" Ms Pengelly said.\n\nShe described it as \"a struggle\", but said the care home had managed to continue providing the basic service levels required to keep people safe.\n\nShe would \"definitely\" welcome a reduction in isolation, adding: \"Anything less than what it is now would be a help.\n\nRhun ap Iorwerth, health spokesman for Plaid Cymru, said his party wanted to see the self-isolation time reduced, but it \"must be led by the evidence that it is safe to do so, rather than pressure from political opportunists\".\n\nA charity that gives care and support to people with learning difficulties, Perthyn, is also asking for changes.\n\nIt employs about 850 staff, providing support for more than 250 people across Wales and the east Midlands, according to its website.\n\n\"Getting staff back has been an absolute priority\", says Perthyn chief executive Steve Cox\n\nBoss Steve Cox said January had been the most challenging period in the pandemic and said \"it would be really helpful if we were able to get staff back as quickly as possible and we want to do that in a way that is safe for them and safe for the people they support\".\n\n\"Given there's a criteria of having two negative tests to come back, we feel that is enough of a safeguard,\" he added.\n\nAnnouncing the changes in England, UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said UK Health Security Agency data showed that two-thirds of positive cases were no longer infectious by day five.\n\nJane Dodds, Welsh Liberal Democrat leader, said her party would also cautiously welcome the isolation period being cut, but sought a guarantee from ministers that it would change it back \"if case rates dramatically increase and the evidence warrants it\".\n\nDr Sir Frank Atherton, Wales' CMO, said there was a \"trade-off\" between the economic benefits of reducing the isolation time and the risk you face by reducing it.\n\n\"If everyone was to be released on day five after they tested positive or developed symptoms or coronavirus, then about 30% of people would still be infectious,\" he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.\n\n\"That can be reduced if we if we use lateral flow test sequentially on the two days before release.\n\n\"But whatever you choose to do, the risk of infectious people in the community does increase if you reduce the number of days, so that's advice that we'll be putting up to ministers this week.\"\n\nVirologist Richard Stanton warned Omicron could stay in the body longer than other forms of the virus\n\nCardiff University virology reader Richard Stanton said Omicron could stay in the body longer than previous variants.\n\nWith the Alpha and Delta variants, he said infected people continued producing the virus for two to three days after showing symptoms.\n\n\"We are getting data through which suggests that Omicron maybe in your nose and mouth for longer,\" explained Dr Stanton.\n\n\"If we look at day six, after you start having symptoms, about half of people will still have infectious virus in their mouth and nose at that time.\"\n\n\"It's risky if we just say you can come out of your self-isolation after five days. The important point is that it's being combined with lateral flow tests.\"\n\nResponding to Conservative criticism, the CMO said UK nations that took a more precautionary approach to Omicron have seen lower rates than England.\n\n\"If we look at our rates of hospitalisation, they'll be lower,\" he said.\n\n\"There's good evidence to suggest that the measures we put in place were appropriate and have actually helped to save people from harm and save lives.\"\n\nFrom Monday, people in England will be able to leave isolation after negative lateral flow tests on days five and six.\n\nMinisters touted the move as a way to reduce staffing pressures in some sectors.\n\nThe self-isolation period was previously cut from 10 to seven days, and that is still the case in Wales.\n\nOn Friday, Mr Drakeford said: \"We will study whatever evidence is now available and if we think it is safe, if our chief medical officer and scientific adviser say to us that we can now move down the days in a way that doesn't cause risk to others, of course that's what we will do.\n\n\"But we are yet to see that evidence or to get that advice.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Anne Frank's diary, written in hiding from the Nazis, is widely read more than 70 years after her death\n\nA new investigation has identified a suspect who may have betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis.\n\nThe Jewish diarist died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945, aged 15, after two years in hiding.\n\nHer diary, published after her death, is the most famous first-hand account of Jewish life during the war.\n\nA team including an ex-FBI agent said Arnold van den Bergh, a Jewish figure in Amsterdam, probably \"gave up\" the Franks to save his own family.\n\nThe team, made up of historians and other experts, spent six years using modern investigative techniques to crack the \"cold case\". That included using computer algorithms to search for connections between many different people, something that would have taken humans thousands of hours.\n\nVan den Bergh had been a member of Amsterdam's Jewish Council, a body forced to implement Nazi policy in Jewish areas. It was disbanded in 1943, and its members were dispatched to concentration camps.\n\nBut the team found that van den Bergh was not sent to a camp, and was instead living in Amsterdam as normal at the time. There was also a suggestion that a member of the Jewish Council had been feeding the Nazis information.\n\n\"When van den Bergh lost all his series of protections exempting him from having to go to the camps, he had to provide something valuable to the Nazis that he's had contact with to let him and his wife at that time stay safe,\" former FBI agent Vince Pankoke told CBS 60 Minutes.\n\nThe team said it had struggled with the revelation that another Jewish person was probably the betrayer. But it also found evidence suggesting Otto Frank, Anne's father, may himself have known that and kept it secret.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn the files of a previous investigator, they found a copy of an anonymous note sent to Otto Frank identifying Arnold van den Bergh as his betrayer.\n\nMr Pankoke told 60 Minutes that anti-Semitism may have been the reason it was never made public.\n\n\"Perhaps he just felt that if I bring this up again… it'll only stoke the fires further,\" he said.\n\n\"But we have to keep in mind that the fact that [van den Bergh] was Jewish just meant that he was placed into an untenable position by the Nazis to do something to save his life.\"\n\nIn a statement, the Anne Frank House museum said it was \"impressed\" with the investigation team's work.\n\nIts executive director, Ronald Leopold, added that the new research had \"generated important new information and a fascinating hypothesis that merits further research\".\n\nThe museum said it was not directly involved in the investigation but had shared its archives and museum with the team.\n\nAs one of the bleakest periods in Dutch living memory, these claims linked to one of its most painful, pivotal moments, have unsurprisingly ignited some consternation.\n\n\"Defamatory nonsense,\" concluded Bart van der Boom from the university of Leiden.\n\nEmeritus professor of Holocaust and Genocide studies at Amsterdam University Johannes Houwink ten Cate said if there were lists of Jews in hiding, they would have surfaced before now. He told investigators: \"With big accusations you also need big evidence.\"\n\nEarlier I visited the Anne Frank House - with special permission to film as cultural institutions are temporarily closed under Covid rules.\n\nClambering up the steep staircase, behind the original bookcase which disguised the entrance to the secret annex, I was struck by the silence.\n\nThe Netherlands is currently a polarised country, witnessing an emboldened far-right. Here, Anne Frank remains a reminder of the oppression and prejudice inflicted on sections of Dutch society in the not so distant past, and a warning of what can become of a nation overrun by fascists.\n\nWhile there is still a degree of scepticism, and acknowledgement that we may never know the true identity of the betrayer, this tale serves as a warning - a lesson of what humanity may be capable of in its darkest time.", "A community trust in Glasgow is having to choose between paying energy bills and paying staff, its manager said.\n\nDramatic increases in the price of electricity have blown apart the budgets at Govanhill Baths Community Trust.\n\nTrust Manager Fatima Uygun said price increases meant it now costs the same to provide power to some areas as it did to pay for a staff member.\n\nWithout help, she fears the charity will be forced to make more cuts.\n\nThe community trust provides a range of mental health support as well as food and other services to people who need them.\n\nLike every household, it is affected by recent soaring energy costs.\n\nMs Uygan told BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Show: \"Almost overnight, it has dramatically affected our work.\"\n\n\"Our budgets are usually set at the start of the financial year and very quickly we have had to adjust to prioritising our energy bills over delivering services, sometimes quite vital services around mental health which has come as a bit of a shock to us.\"\n\nLike many charities in the same position, the trust has been forced to make urgent adjustments.\n\nMs Uygun said: \"In one venue our prices went up by 50% overnight because our energy provider went bankrupt. We were put on a different provider and where we had been paying £200 a month it went to £400 a month.\n\n\"That is the equivalent to someone doing sessional work or part-time work to deliver mental health services.\"\n\nHaving to pay more in bills means the trust has had to cut back on fresh fruit and vegetables for its People's Pantry food bank.\n\nMrs Uygun said the trust has had to cut back on fresh fruit and vegetables for its food bank\n\nLast week, British Gas owner Centrica warned that high energy bills could affect household bills for the next two years.\n\nChief executive Chris O'Shea said there was \"no reason\" to expect gas prices would come down \"any time soon\".\n\nHouseholds and businesses are not the only ones feeling the pinch. Charities and volunteer groups are also struggling.\n\nThose working out of old buildings which are not energy efficient are finding that heating them with increased prices puts a dent in the running costs.\n\nAnd volunteer and community services are already stretched due to Covid.\n\nThe Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations told BBC Scotland that rising costs were already having a significant impact on the services its members could provide.\n\nIt is likely to mean an increase in demand for things like money advice services and mental health support.\n\nMs Uygun said: \"We'll have to make cuts if things don't change and that usually affects projects which are already a bit under-funded and are difficult to find funding for.\n\n\"So mental health support groups such as the local knitting club, or the lunch club, or cutting back on the variety of fresh fruit and vegetables for the People's Pantry, people will notice the difference unfortunately.\"\n\nMental health support groups such as the local knitting club are likely to be affected, Mrs Uygun said\n\nSo far, Govanhill Baths Trust has had no support from the local council or the Scottish government.\n\nThe charity feels it is something which will have to be addressed at a government level.\n\n\"The idea that energy companies are out of the goodness of their heart will cut profit - which is where this is all going - is not going to happen, Ms Uygun said.\n\n\"We are hoping the voluntary sector is putting enough pressure on the Scottish government to at least offer a price freeze or a reduction through some kind of exemption or subsidy.\n\n\"Without it, organisations like us at the coal face who provide these services are going to have to make difficult decisions and that is going to mean quite a lot more people are going to fall through the cracks.\"\n\nKirsten Hogg, Head of Policy at the SCVO said: \"It can be difficult for organisations to secure funding to cover overhead costs. Funding is often available for the direct costs of providing a project, but not the core costs of running the organisation, which could include heating and lighting of buildings.\n\n\"And it is common for voluntary sector contracts and grants not to be uplifted for inflation. We are aware of organisations that have received the same amount of money for up to six years, and have been expected to deliver the same service with no increase to cover rising costs.\n\n\"A dramatic increase in costs, such as we are currently seeing in relation to energy prices, is therefore unlikely to be covered by existing funders and will have a significant impact.\"\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"The third sector is a valued partner and we recognise the impact of rising fuel costs on our charities and voluntary organisations.\n\n\"Pricing in the gas and electricity markets is reserved, meaning the Scottish government's options to mitigate these costs are limited. Ministers have written to the UK government to call for urgent action to tackle rising energy costs.\"", "Barnaby the cat had been missing for eight months\n\nA cat missing for eight months has been reunited with its owner after she recognised his familiar meow on the other end of the telephone while on a call to her vet.\n\nRachael Lawrence, from Braintree, Essex, was talking to the vet about her other cat when she heard Barnaby's distinctive cry in the background.\n\nShe was told it was a stray but phoned back later and asked for details of the cat as \"it was bugging me\", she said.\n\nBarnaby is now back with his family.\n\nMs Lawrence said she was so sure she could recognise her cat's meow that she called the vet again asking if the \"stray\" she had heard over the phone was black, with a white patch on one of his back feet.\n\nWhen the surgery confirmed the description she took in photographs of Barnaby to show to staff.\n\nShe said she \"knew it was him\" as soon as he was brought into the room.\n\n\"I cried,\" she said. \"We hadn't seen him for eight months.\"\n\nHer three children had nicknamed Barnaby \"Fatman\", but when he was brought in he had \"loads of scabs\" and was \"all skinny and missing fur\", Ms Lawrence said.\n\nHowever, the family's wayward pet was \"more than happy to be picked up and cuddled\".\n\nShe added: \"We just need to fatten him up to get him back to Fatman.\"\n\nMs Lawrence said she had paid to have Barnaby chipped before he went missing but questioned whether the procedure had been \"done properly\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion please email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Far-right French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has been fined €10,000 (£8,350) by a Paris court for hate speech.\n\nThe case was launched over a TV appearance, where he described unaccompanied migrant children as \"thieves\", \"rapists\" and \"murderers\".\n\nFormer broadcaster Zemmour is known for his anti-Islam and anti-immigration views.\n\nHis lawyer said he would appeal against the court's decision.\n\nReacting to the verdict on social media, Zemmour complained that his freedom of speech was being restricted, and said there was an \"urgent need to drive ideology out of the courts\".\n\nHe made the comments in September 2020 on the CNews television channel, where he used to work as a pundit.\n\nAnswering a question about a recent knife attack by a young radicalised Pakistani immigrant, he said: \"They have nothing to do here. They are thieves, they are murderers, they are rapists, that's all they are. They must be sent back and they must not even come.\"\n\nAt his trial in November last year, which Zemmour did not attend, prosecutors argued that his comments were \"contemptuous\" and \"outrageous\", and that \"the limits of freedom of expression have been crossed\".\n\nZemmour has two previous convictions for hate speech.\n\nFor several weeks last year, polls suggested that he could come second in April's presidential election in France, facing a run-off with current President Emmanuel Macron. However, his support has since slipped.\n\nPolls now suggest he could get around 11% of the first-round vote.\n\nAlthough Zemmour has announced his intention to run for president, it is not yet clear if his name will be on the ballot paper.\n\nLike all candidates, he needs to gather 500 endorsements from elected officials around France by the middle of March. He has admitted that he could struggle to get enough backing, complaining that the system is biased against political outsiders.\n\nThis conviction changes nothing for Zemmour. Over the years he's had a dozen run-ins with the law - some of which he's won, some lost - and his argument about being persecuted by a left-wing justice system is by now well oiled.\n\nEssentially he says that publicly funded anti-racist groups help to frame \"hate speech\" laws, and then trigger criminal investigations against people they believe to have breached them. In other words, that pressure groups have become both legislator and prosecutor.\n\nSo for Zemmour, being convicted is merely more proof of his original point, that people who speak inconvenient truths about crime are silenced.\n\nDo voters agree? Presumably the 11% who say they'll vote for him do.\n\nBut in the last few weeks, Zemmour's star, which shone so brightly in the autumn, has shown distinct signs of fading. This verdict will entrench some in their support for the man. But it may also convince others that he is indeed beyond the pale.\n\nEric Zemmour was grabbed round the neck at his first campaign rally last month. Security officers intervened.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Eric Zemmour was grabbed at his first political rally", "Watch as Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker speaks to CBS Mornings about being held hostage at a Texas synagogue on Saturday.\n\nHe and three other hostages escaped unharmed.\n\nBritish citizen Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from Blackburn, was shot dead after a stand-off with police in Colleyville.\n\nMore on this story: Two teens held in UK over Texas synagogue siege", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nAustralia's Neil Robertson claimed the Masters title for the second time by coasting past England's Barry Hawkins 10-4 at London's Alexandra Palace.\n\nRobertson's success comes 10 years after he won the prestigious invitational event for the first time.\n\nHe opened up a 5-3 lead in the first session and converted the advantage with little trouble in the evening, aided by numerous errors from Hawkins.\n\nRobertson becomes the 10th player to lift the trophy more than once.\n\nHe also collects a hefty £250,000 in prize money, while runner-up Hawkins takes home £100,000.\n\nRobertson said on BBC Two: \"With the players I have had to beat, it has to be right up there. Every match has thrown up a lot of challenges.\n\n\"Coming here, when it was announced we were having the crowds back I was so excited. It was fantastic to hear the crowds cheer again.\"\n• None World champion Selby 'needs help' with mental health\n\nRobertson further solidified his status as snooker's most successful non-British player by claiming his sixth Triple Crown event title - his two victories in this event going alongside his 2010 World Championship and three UK Championships.\n\nThe 39-year-old has been the form player this season, picking up his second trophy after the English Open in November as well as finishing runner-up to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the World Grand Prix.\n\nRobertson gained revenge by ousting record seven-time champion O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals at Alexandra Palace and followed it up with a remarkable semi-final victory over Mark Williams on the final black, having needed two snookers in the deciding frame.\n\nHe was visibly emotional after that match, saying spectators would \"probably never see\" a finish like that again and urging any kids watching to \"never give up\".\n\nRobertson was not fully firing in the final yet still compiled two centuries and six breaks of 50 or more to punish Hawkins.\n\nRobertson added: \"I got about 300 text messages tell me I have never seen anything like it [the semi-final] and coming in everyone was saying 'what about yesterday?'\n\n\"I think Barry was a little bit unlucky being in the second semi-final where he wins 6-5. Roles reversed, he could have won today.\"\n• None Comebacks, 147s and streakers: Try our Masters quiz\n\nHawkins is a consistent performer who regularly reaches the latter stages of events, but the world number 10 is becoming a major event 'nearly man'.\n\nHe reached the semi-finals of the UK Championship in York last month and this was his third loss in a Triple Crown final after defeats by O'Sullivan at the Crucible in 2013 and again - a 10-1 crushing - at this event three years later.\n\nHawkins seemed full of confidence when he too reached the final by winning a decider against world number two Judd Trump, but was out of sorts in the showpiece.\n\nAlthough he took the opening frame of the contest, missing straightforward pots against an opponent of Robertson's calibre was always going to prove costly and just two half-centuries with a top break of 69 highlighted his struggles.\n\nHawkins said: \"I am not too disappointed because I've had a great week - one of the best of my life. There's been an unbelievable atmosphere and I've played some unbelievable matches.\n\n\"I made too many mistakes today and you can't do that against someone like Neil because he's a wonderful player.\"\n\nThe story of the match\n\nLast year's Masters took place behind closed doors in Milton Keynes because of the coronavirus pandemic and the return to Alexandra Palace was a roaring success with the crowd creating a boisterous atmosphere throughout the tournament.\n\nBoth players were given another tremendous reception in the final and although neither were at their best in the opening session, Robertson opened up a 5-3 advantage with breaks of 50, 105 and two runs of 54.\n\nTied at 2-2, the fifth frame was pivotal with Hawkins making 60 but fouling the green with his sleeve, leaving Robertson a free ball and allowing him to pinch it with a clearance from the final red.\n\nRobertson found his groove in the evening session with runs of 50 and 68 extending his advantage to 8-4 and he finished it off with further breaks of 114 and 47 to clinch a dominant win.", "A disabled woman is calling for greater understanding of female safety after she \"begged\" a bus driver to let her travel home when her pass did not work.\n\nRachel Davies's pass was declined when she tried to take the first of two buses home, in Northampton. The Stagecoach driver let her travel to her first stop but could not help further.\n\nShe said a \"transition plan\" was needed to ensure journeys were completed.\n\nStagecoach said the driver had been \"following the rules\".\n\nMs Davies, 27, has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that causes dislocations in her hands and knees.\n\nShe also has nerve damage in her left leg and uses a stick to make walking easier.\n\nAnd at 4ft 6in, she feels \"anxious\" travelling alone.\n\n\"I'm very aware that I can easily be attacked and I can't do anything about it,\" Ms Davies says.\n\nOn the evening she was travelling, Ms Davies had only her phone and bus pass with her.\n\nPasses are provided by the council and after the driver tried scanning it three times, it came up as \"hot-listed\", meaning no longer valid for travel, and he had to confiscate it.\n\nAt the time, Ms Davies did not understand why it was not working.\n\nShe tried to explain that without it she could not travel on her second bus, operated by Britannia Bus, as it did not have contactless payment technology and she had no other way to pay.\n\nThe driver looked \"really conflicted\", Ms Davies says, but said he could not return her pass - because it would be caught on CCTV.\n\n\"That overrode my safety,\" she says.\n\nThe Stagecoach driver let her travel free to her first stop - the city centre - and advised her to call the council about the situation, even though it was after office hours.\n\n\"I kept begging and pleading, 'I don't want to walk home alone,'\" Ms Davies says.\n\n\"I would have been happy with him taking it [the pass] if he made sure I got home.\"\n\nFortunately, Ms Davies, who volunteers with young people at The Yard: Community Courtyard, was able to contact her boss, who arranged and paid for a taxi to take her home, but she was left feeling vulnerable.\n\n\"Women are scared of walking home at night,\" she says.\n\n\"No-one should be less important than procedure policies.\"\n\nMs Davies says she felt \"frustrated\" by the \"lack of duty of care\", especially following the murder of Sarah Everard, when the police urged women to \"wave a bus down if they feel vulnerable and distressed\".\n\n\"The best approach would have been for him to say, 'We are not going to leave you in this situation, we will take you to the next bus service and explain and then they will get you home,'\" she says.\n\n\"There needs to be a transition plan, instead of being left to fend for yourself.\"\n\nMs Davies later discovered her pass had been rejected because she had used an old card.\n\n\"I am human, people make mistakes,\" she says.\n\n\"But it doesn't mean that in a time when someone is close to tears and begging to get home, they should be sent away.\"\n\nStagecoach said: \"Our driver was following these rules.\n\n\"He carried the passenger free of charge to the town centre arriving at 17:00.\"\n\nBritannia Bus has also been contacted.\n• None I would have got into Couzens' car - Jess Phillips\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Boris Johnson was warned about No 10 holding a drinks party in the garden during lockdown, the prime minister's former top aide Dominic Cummings says.\n\nMr Cummings - who has been strongly critical of Mr Johnson since he left No 10 - says the PM \"waved aside\" concerns about the gathering.\n\nMr Johnson has admitted he attended the event on 20 May 2020, but says he believed it was work-related.\n\nNo 10 said it was \"untrue\" to say Mr Johnson was \"warned about the event\".\n\nA Downing Street spokesman added: \"As he said earlier this week, he believed implicitly that this was a work event. He has apologised to the House and is committed to making a further statement once the investigation concludes.\"\n\nLast week, Mr Johnson told the Commons he went to the gathering in the Downing Street garden and stayed at the drinks for 25 minutes to thank staff for their hard work.\n\nHowever, Mr Cummings, who worked in No 10 at the time of the party, has insisted Mr Johnson \"knew he was at a drinks party cos he was told it was a drinks party and it was actually a drinks party\".\n\nWriting in his blog, Mr Cummings added further detail about his account of the discussions leading up to the party on 20 May and said it showed \"the PM lied to Parliament about parties\".\n\nDominic Cummings and Boris Johnson worked together during the EU referendum\n\nThe former adviser wrote that the day in 2020 was a \"particularly intense shambles\" of a day.\n\nHe alleged that Mr Johnson's principal private secretary (PPS), Martin Reynolds, had sent out the email inviting 100 staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\", but \"a very senior official replied by email saying the invite broke the rules\".\n\n\"The PPS went to the official's office where they discussed it. The PPS declined to withdraw the invite. I told the PPS the invite broke the rules.\"\n\nAfter discussing it, Mr Cummings claimed the PPS said he would \"check with the PM if he's happy for it to go ahead\", adding: \"I am sure he did check with the PM.\"\n\nMr Cummings said he then challenged Mr Johnson himself. \"I said to the PM something like, 'Martin's invited the building to a drinks party, this is what I'm talking about, you've got to grip this madhouse.'\"\n\nBut he added: \"The PM waved it aside.\"\n\n\"Not only me but other eyewitnesses who discussed this at the time would swear under oath this is what happened,\" he wrote.\n\nTwo other former Downing Street officials told the BBC they remember Mr Cummings telling them that day he had warned the prime minister not to go ahead, before the drinks gathering took place in the garden.\n\nBut Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told BBC Breakfast the PM had been clear Mr Cummings' account was \"not true\", adding that he had acted in \"good faith\" and previously expressed \"contrition and has apologised in front of the House of Commons for some of the practices that went on at Downing Street\".\n\nMr Raab conceded that the accounts from Mr Cummings and the PM \"cannot be reconciled\" but refused to speculate further while Sue Gray's investigation was still ongoing.\n\nWhen questioned on Mr Johnson's stability as leader, Mr Raab said he was confident the PM would \"carry on for many years and into the next election\".\n\nHowever, Labour's shadow policing minister Sarah Jones said the claims were \"extraordinary\", and accused the government of being in chaos.\n\nSNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said Mr Cummings was \"a key witness\" and should be interviewed by Ms Gray, the senior civil servant investigating gatherings on government premises during Covid restrictions.\n\nMr Cummings' intervention comes after Conservative MPs spent the weekend canvassing public opinion on the prime minister.\n\nOn Monday, Conservative MP Steve Baker told reporters: \"My constituents at the moment are about 60 to one against the prime minister.\n\n\"I've listened very carefully to members of my [Conservative Party] association, too. There are some very strident voices in my constituency demanding that I support the prime minister.\n\n\"What I would say is I made my view very clear at the beginning of December: that there must be one rule for all.\"\n\nHe later added \"it was impossible to say\" if Mr Johnson would lead his party into the next general election.\n\nThe former minister is an influential voice among Conservative MPs, having previously led a powerful pro-Brexit group within the parliamentary party.\n\nHe supported Mr Johnson to become leader of the party in 2019, but has recently been critical over some of his decisions on coronavirus.\n\nTory MP Andrew Bridgen - who has publicly said he has no confidence in the PM - told BBC Newsnight he had received more than 1,000 emails in one day from voters, and \"the overwhelming majority said that the prime minister should consider his position\".\n\nHe said Ms Gray must question all witnesses including Mr Cummings and \"get to the truth\". \"If it does transpire that she judges that the prime minister has misled parliament then clearly that's a very, very serious matter and I think it's probably career ending,\" he said.\n\nAnother Conservative MP, Damian Collins, said he had received hundreds of letters from constituents, adding: \"A lot of people are very angry.\"\n\nHe told BBC Hardtalk that \"by far the clear view\" from party members in his constituency of Folkestone and Hythe was that \"we should give the PM the benefit of the doubt until we see what's in Sue Gray's report\".\n\nBut Tory MP Peter Bone said he had encountered a different reaction when canvassing constituents. \"They were wholly supportive of the prime minister,\" he said. \"Many of them were saying, 'well hang on a minute, look he's delivered Brexit, he's got us the vaccination, he's got us through Covid... Why on earth would we want to change the prime minister?'\"\n\nFor a Conservative Party leadership contest to be triggered, 54 Conservative MPs must write to the chairman of the 1922 committee - a group made up of all backbench Tory MPs - to say they no longer have confidence in the prime minister.\n\nOn Sunday, former minister Tim Loughton became the sixth Tory MP to call on Mr Johnson to resign, saying his position was \"untenable\".\n\nIt is reported that those around Mr Johnson have started \"Operation Save Big Dog\", which could include an overhaul of his top team, following criticisms of the culture within Downing Street.\n\nBut Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told BBC Breakfast: \"Honestly, I don't recognise that at all.\"\n\nMr Johnson's official spokesman also dismissed reports of \"Operation Red Meat\" - rushing out policies popular within the party to bolster the PM - saying: \"None of these issues are things that we have not been seeking to address for some time.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer told LBC radio Mr Johnson was \"too weak to lead... he has lost all authority and that matters, whatever party you are in,\" he added.\n\nSir Keir has said a picture of him drinking beer in an office last spring did not show a breach of Covid rules in place at the time.\n\nThe Labour leader said the photograph, which first emerged last year, was of him in a constituency office in the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election.\n\n\"There is simply no comparison\" to the culture within Downing Street, Sir Keir said, adding that Conservatives bringing it up were trying \"to take everyone into the gutter with them\".\n\nBut Mr Zahawi said he hoped Sir Keir \"finds [it] within himself to apologise\" over the image.\n\nThe government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street. Boris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries: \"This government is committed to supporting families as much as possible\"\n\nCulture Secretary Nadine Dorries has confirmed the BBC licence fee is to be frozen at £159 for two years.\n\nSpeaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Ms Dorries said the government could \"not justify extra pressure on the wallets of hardworking households\".\n\nFollowing the two-year freeze, she said the fee will rise in line with inflation for the following four years.\n\nDirector general Tim Davie said the freeze would mean \"tougher choices which will impact licence fee payers\".\n\nThe licence fee pays for BBC services including TV, radio, the BBC website, podcasts, iPlayer and apps.\n\nIts existence is guaranteed until at least 31 December 2027 by the BBC's royal charter, which sets out its funding and purpose.\n\nMs Dorries said: \"The BBC must support people at a time when their finances are strained, make savings and efficiencies, and use the billions in public funding it receives to deliver for viewers, listeners and users.\"\n\nBBC director general Tim Davie: \"We will do everything to ensure the BBC continues to punch above its weight for Britain\"\n\nIn a joint statement, Mr Davie and BBC chairman Richard Sharp said the settlement would mean the BBC \"will now have to absorb inflation\".\n\n\"That is disappointing,\" they said, \"not just for licence fee payers, but also for the cultural industries who rely on the BBC for the important work they do across the UK.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Press Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThey noted the corporation's income for UK services is already 30% lower in real terms than it was 10 years ago.\n\n\"We will continue to drive an ambitious programme of reform moving more of our output across the UK, transitioning the organisation to a digital future and delivering distinctive and impartial content,\" they added.\n\nThe Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said the BBC is expected to receive about £3.7bn in licence fee funding in 2022 and £23bn over the duration of the settlement period.\n\nIt added the BBC also receives more than £90m per year from the government to support the BBC World Service.\n\nMs Dorries also announced that Welsh language broadcaster S4C will also be allocated an extra £7.5m a year to develop its digital offering, to help it reach more Welsh language speakers including younger audiences.\n\nThe culture secretary tweeted over the weekend that this announcement about the BBC licence fee will be the last - and it was time to discuss new ways to fund and sell \"great British content\".\n\nShe said \"the days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors\" were over.\n\nFollowing the announcement of the freeze, Ms Dorries said attention would in due course turn to the BBC's funding model in the longer term.\n\nThe culture secretary has effectively kickstarted a public debate on the future of the BBC, pitting those who say she wants to destroy a national treasure against those who argue, in a world of Netflix and Disney Plus, the licence fee model is outdated.\n\nShe was reprimanded by the House of Commons Speaker for indicating her decision to freeze the licence fee on Twitter a day before she brought it to Parliament. And her measured tone today felt very different to yesterday's tweet in which she dramatically claimed this announcement on the licence fee would be \"the last\".\n\nShe says this is about helping struggling families who are feeling the pinch of rising prices - but her critics says it's ideological.\n\nToday, Nadine Dorries wouldn't commit to offering up any alternatives to the way the BBC is funded right now - and many, even BBC detractors, say the technology may not be in place to allow a change by the end of 2027 when the BBC charter is up for renewal.\n\nThe BBC Board met last night, highly unusual on a Sunday, in response to the culture secretary's unexpected tweet. What will be axed is still unknown. What is certain is that more cuts are on the way and audiences will see a difference in the years ahead.\n\nOn Monday, Ms Dorries referred to the changing broadcasting landscape, which has been heavily impacted by the huge popularity of streaming services.\n\nShe told parliament: \"We need a BBC that is ready to meet the challenges of modern broadcasting.\n\n\"We have five or six years, that is plenty of time to decide what a future funding model will look like.\n\n\"In 2027/2028, when it starts, many of us [MPs] many not even be here. We're talking six years away.\"\n\nBefore she spoke on Monday, the speaker of the House of Commons, Linsday Hoyle, reprimanded her for tweeting about the licence fee announcement before first addressing parliament.\n\n\"Any substantial policy developments should have been made to this house before they were made to the media,\" he said.\n\nShe responded by saying: \"I give you my apologies,\" adding she had \"refused every invitation for media yesterday and today\".\n\nWhen asked in Parliament about her comments on Twitter, she replied: \"I cannot see a world in 2028 where individual households are paying an outdated fee established in 1922 to fund an organisation.\n\n\"I don't think anyone would have foreseen what the digital landscape would be like today… or the digital habits of young people today.\"\n\nShe also spoke about the importance of discussing a future funding model, asking: \"How do we have a BBC that is funded for the future in order to protect it?\"\n\nJulian Knight MP, the chair of the DCMS committee, welcomed Ms Dorries' statement, and said the BBC \"plays a fundamental role in our culture and demonstrates the richness of this country's broadcasting landscape\".\n\nHe said that in order to preserve the BBC for audiences, it was \"critical that the government provides clarity on how future funding will be provided, given the current levels of broadband coverage which cast doubt on the success of a subscription model\".\n\n\"An alternative source of funding must deliver the stability necessary to enable the corporation to compete effectively on a global stage,\" he added.\n\nLengthy negotiations have already taken place between BBC bosses and the government over a future funding settlement, with the idea of freezing the licence fee discussed back in October.\n\nThe annual fee is set by the government, which announced in 2016 that it would rise in line with inflation for five years from April 2017.\n\nDr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a presenter on long-running astronomy show The Sky at Night\n\nLabour's shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell has accused the prime minister and Ms Dorries of seeming \"hell-bent on attacking this great British institution because they don't like its journalism\".\n\nLiberal Democrat culture spokesperson Jamie Stone has said freezing the licence fee would be a \"stealth cut of almost £2bn\" that would put services at risk.\n\n\"The government must stop this reckless ideological crusade and back off our BBC,\" he added.\n\nPreviously, Ms Dorries, who was appointed culture secretary last September, said she thought the BBC should exist, but it needed to be able to take on competitors such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.\n\nAt the Conservative party conference in October, Ms Dorries said the broadcaster needed \"real change\" in order to represent the entire UK and accused it of \"groupthink\".\n\nIn 2020, people over 75 began paying for their TV licences, which they previously received for free.\n\nThe BBC newsroom is a familiar sight during the TV News bulletins\n\nFunding for this had come from the government, but responsibility for this policy was handed to the BBC after the last funding settlement.\n\nIn 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the BBC should \"cough up\" and pay for TV licences for all over-75s but the BBC said doing so would force \"unprecedented closures\" of services. Now, only over-75s on pension credit are eligible for a free licence, paid for by the BBC.\n\nTV licence evasion itself is not an imprisonable offence. However, the government says non-payment of the fine, following a criminal conviction, could lead to a risk of imprisonment - \"a last resort\" after other methods of enforcement have failed.\n\nLast year, the government decided not to move ahead with plans to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee, but said it would \"remain under active consideration\".", "The volcano erupted for several days. This photo was taken a day before the eruption that caused the tsunami\n\nNew Zealand has sent a plane to Tonga to assess the damage after a huge volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami.\n\nThe eruption has covered the Pacific islands in ash, cut power and severed communications.\n\nUp to 80,000 people there could be affected, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) told the BBC.\n\nNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the tsunami had wreaked \"significant damage\".\n\nNo deaths have been reported so far.\n\nInformation remains scarce, however, and New Zealand and Australia are sending surveillance flights to assess the extent of the damage.\n\nThe New Zealand Defence Force tweeted that an aircraft had left to \"assist in an initial impact assessment of the area and low-lying islands\".\n\nKatie Greenwood of the IFRC in Fiji said that help was urgently needed.\n\n\"We suspect there could be up to 80,000 people throughout Tonga affected by either the eruption itself or from the tsunami wave and inundation as a result of the eruption,\" she said.\n\n\"That was a shock to people, so we do hold some concern for those outer islands and we're very keen to hear from people.\"\n\nThe underwater volcano erupted on Saturday, sending a plume of ash into the sky and triggering warnings of 1.2m (4ft) waves reaching Tonga. The eruption was so loud it could be heard in New Zealand, some 2,383km (1,481 miles) from Tonga.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNew Zealand's Acting High Commissioner in Tonga Peter Lund has said the island nation looks \"like a moonscape\" after it was coated in a layer of volcanic ash.\n\nThe dust was reportedly contaminating water supplies and making fresh water a vital need, Ms Ardern said on Sunday.\n\nAid charities said the ash had prompted authorities to tell people to drink bottled water and wear face masks to protect their lungs.\n\nAs the sky darkened with ash, videos showed traffic jams as people fled low-lying areas by car. Hours later, Tonga's internet and phone lines went down, making the island's 105,000 residents almost entirely unreachable.\n\nConsulate of the Kingdom of Tonga Images on social media showed flooding as the tsunami waves began\n\nPrior to the largest eruption, the volcano had been erupting for several days. The Tonga Meteorological Agency had warned that the smell of sulphur and ammonia was being reported in some areas.\n\nMs Ardern said power was being restored to some parts of the island and mobile phones were slowly starting to work again. But the situation in some coastal areas remained unknown.\n\nUnable to speak to their friends and family, many Tongans in Australia and New Zealand have grown concerned for their safety.\n\nFatima said she had not heard anything from her colleague who runs a seafront restaurant in Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa.\n\n\"It's all very sad, we are hoping for the best,\" she told the BBC. \"This will hit them so hard as they have been in lockdown a long time with no tourists visiting and now this.\"\n\nSatellite images suggest some outlying islands have been completely submerged by seawater.\n\nExperts say the eruption of the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcano is one of the most violent in the region in decades.\n\nIt triggered tsunami warnings in several countries, including Japan and the US, where flooding hit some coastal parts of California and Alaska.\n\nUK Foreign Office minister Zac Goldsmith called the situation in Tonga \"shocking\" and said Britain stood \"ready to help and support our Commonwealth friend and partner in any way we can\".\n\nScientists got their first look at Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai post-eruption on Saturday when the EU's Sentinel-1A satellite flew overhead.\n\nThis spacecraft is a radar platform and can see through obscuring cloud and ash to the surface below.\n\nIt showed clearly that much of the crater rim that stood above the ocean waters had been destroyed - a testament to the ferocity of the blast.\n\nResearchers will be keen to understand the cause of a tsunami that produced waves not just on nearby islands but at beaches right around the Pacific.\n\nTo what extent was the explosion itself responsible? Pressure waves can make what are termed \"meteotsunami\". Or perhaps the displacement of water was the result of an unseen collapse of part of the volcano below the ocean surface.\n\nMore data in the coming days and weeks will establish the facts.\n\nHave you been affected by the tsunami? Are you in Tonga, or concerned for relatives in the area? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The minimum self-isolation period for people testing positive for Covid-19 in England has been cut to five full days.\n\nThe quarantine period has been reduced after a review of the medical evidence, to help ease staff shortages across the economy.\n\nBut people will need to produce negative lateral flow tests on days five and six of their isolation.\n\nMeanwhile, 16 and 17-year-olds are now able to book a booster jab or attend a walk-in vaccination centre in England.\n\nInvitations will initially be sent to the 40,000 teens who had a second vaccine dose at least three months ago. Eventually more than 600,000 people aged 16 and 17 who have had two doses will be eligible for the booster.\n\nAnd about 500 clinically vulnerable 12 to 15-years-olds who are most at risk from coronavirus will also be able to get a booster.\n\nOn Sunday, 70,924 positive Covid cases were reported across the UK, the lowest daily figure since 14 December. A further 88 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were also recorded.\n\nThe isolation period in England was last month cut from 10 to seven days - subject to negative tests on days six and seven last month.\n\nUnder isolation rules, the day symptoms begin or people test positive is day zero. The next day is day one of the isolation period.\n\nPeople in England can now take a lateral flow test on day five. If it is negative, they can take another test 24 hours later on day six. Assuming this is also negative - and they do not have a temperature - they can immediately leave isolation.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said reducing isolation to five days would \"restore extra freedoms and reduce the pressure on essential public services over the winter\".\n\nHe stressed the lateral flow tests on day five and six were a \"crucial\" part of the \"balanced and proportionate\" plans.\n\nPeople who still test positive on these days must stay in isolation until they have had two negative tests taken on consecutive days, or after 10 days.\n\nThe rules apply whether someone is vaccinated or not.\n\nUK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data showed two-thirds of positive cases were no longer infectious by day five, the health secretary said previously.\n\nThose who leave self-isolation on or after day six following negative tests - and do not have a temperature - are strongly advised to wear face coverings, limit close contact with other people in crowded or poorly ventilated spaces, and work from home if they can do so.\n\nIn Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland people must still self-isolate for at least seven days as soon as symptoms develop, or - if they have no symptoms - when they test positive.\n\nThe government is continuing to urge people to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible as the best defence against the virus.\n\nIt added it would also be considering the guidance on isolation for close contacts of people with Covid, including that for fully vaccinated contacts to take daily rapid lateral flow tests for seven days.\n\nAccording to the Department of Health and Social Care, under the previous testing rules, about 6% of people leaving self-isolation on day seven following two consecutive negative rapid lateral flow tests would be infectious.\n\nIt said modelling from the UKHSA suggested this figure would rise to about 7% for people leaving isolation on day six under the new system.", "No 10 staff risked being ostracised for not drinking - former adviser\n\nDrinking alcohol during the working day has been \"very routine\" at Downing Street for years, a former government special adviser says. Sonia Khan, who was a special adviser before the pandemic in the first months of Boris Johnson's time as prime minister, says the drinking doesn't feel like a party because \"drinks is part of your work day\" and \"usually sandwiched between pieces of work\". She tells BBC Radio 4's World at One programme drinks were used as a way to say thank you and keep people motivated when they were working very long hours. Khan, who also worked as a civil servant in No 10 under David Cameron and Thersea May, adds \"there was a very strong sense\" people should take part, especially for junior staff members who could get access to senior people through such events, and there was a risk of being \"ostracised\" if you didn't drink. She recalls a few instances when people would wake up in Downing Street the next day in the same clothes after sleeping on sofas overnight following a heavy evening of drinking. Khan was sacked from her role as special adviser to then Chancellor Sajid Javid in August 2019, after a confrontation with Dominic Cummings.", "Large outdoor public events such as football matches can take place again after some of Scotland's Covid restrictions were relaxed.\n\nThe Celtic vs Hibs match in Glasgow was the first test of revised rules which require the vaccine certification of at least 50% of attendees to be checked.\n\nRestrictions on indoor sports, events and venues remain in place.\n\nBut Holyrood will be updated on Tuesday as to when these will be removed.\n\nNicola Sturgeon has previously said she is hopeful that the restrictions on indoor events can be lifted on 24 January.\n\nAs well as the changes to outdoor events, the definition of \"fully vaccinated\" for the purpose of vaccine passports has changed and now includes having a booster if the second dose was more than four months ago.\n\nScotland's chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith said the latest data indicates \"encouraging signs of progress\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that the full effect of schools returning and the increased socialising that brings remains to be seen.\n\nBut Sir Gregor added: \"At this moment in time I am feeling quite optimistic.\"\n\nOn the return of football he urged fans to be wary of shared transport and going somewhere before the game.\n\nThe chief medical officer highlighted the importance of taking a lateral flow beforehand, avoiding \"choke points\" in the stadium and wearing a face covering.\n\nHe also warned it was too early to \"big bold steps\" such as reported plans to scrap self isolation.\n\nFans have become used to vaccine passports checks. It was the inconvenience most were willing to accept to get back through the turnstiles after a year of being locked out during lockdown.\n\nNow, after a three week winter break, they're being asked once again to provide proof, not only of double vaccination but also of a booster jag.\n\nSpot checks will increase and that could potentially lead to longer queues but it was the trade off between sport and government to get things moving again.\n\nWith Covid figures looking more positive, the hope is that we've seen the last of fans being locked out. If nothing else, the restrictions have served as a stark reminder of the importance of spectators to the sporting experience.\n\nThe clicking sound of the turnstiles, for thousands across the country, will be the welcome sound of normality.\n\nSPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster told BBC Scotland that bringing the winter break forward for top-flight clubs to coincide with the three-week crowd restrictions was a gamble that had paid off.\n\nAbout 60,000 fans were expected at Monday's game.\n\nHe said: \"Football really is nothing without the fans as we have seen with some games effectively played behind closed doors.\n\n\"It doesn't work for anyone; financially for the clubs and from a fan point of view.\n\n\"I sincerely hope we have seen the back of these restrictions and look forward to the fans returning.\"\n\nThe hospitality trade has been required to introduce a raft of changes as part of the latest Covid restrictions which are in force until at least 24 January\n\nAll outdoor events have been limited to just 500 people for the last three weeks as part of a raft of measures to help slow the spread of Omicron variant.\n\nIn recent days, a slowdown in infection rates has given experts \"cause for optimism\" that the country might be over the worse of the infection surge.\n\nBut the number of Covid patients in hospital remains high and staff shortages as a result of the pandemic are putting pressure on the NHS and social care services.\n\nProf Helen Colquhoun told Good Morning Scotland that it was \"entirely appropriate\" that the restrictions were lifted.\n\nThe University of Edinburgh public health expert said the translation of cases to hospital numbers was not as bad as feared last month and described the current wave as \"mild\".\n\nShe believes the Scottish government should now focus on protecting the vulnerable and promoting the booster campaign while considering the \"end game\".\n\nProf Colquhoun said: \"At the moment there is still very much an emphasis on keeping transmissions down because there remains concern about pressure on the NHS.\n\n\"But it's time to consider where we are really trying to get to at this stage as we move towards endemicity of the virus.\"\n\nThe hospitality trade will be closely watching the first minister's update to Holyrood on Tuesday.\n\nMs Sturgeon is expected to given an indication on when nightclubs will be able to reopen and when restrictions on hospitality venues - such as the need for table service and social distancing - will be relaxed.\n\nThe first minister may also give more detail on whether the vaccine passport scheme will be extended to more venues.", "The game at Llanberis FC's ground was abandoned on Saturday\n\nA football team has said it fully backs one of its players following claims he was racially abused during a match.\n\nIfan Mansoor said he was abused towards the end of the game while playing for the Gwynedd side CPD Llanberis against Meliden FC on Saturday.\n\nOpponents Meliden denied any racial abuse took place towards the 21-year-old and said it was fully cooperating with the inquiry.\n\nNorth Wales Police has confirmed it is investigating the incident.\n\nNorth Wales Coast Football Association said it was awaiting further details.\n\nThe game was abandoned after Llanberis' players walked off the pitch, following the alleged comments.\n\nFollowing a meeting on Sunday evening, the club said the allegations had been referred to North Wales Police, North Wales Coast FA and Football Association of Wales.\n\nA statement added: \"As a club, we stand resolutely behind our player and fully support him. At this point in time, CPD Llanberis will not be issuing any further comment.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch a briefing by an FBI agent after the stand-off in Colleyville, Texas\n\nTwo teenagers have been arrested in England as part of the investigation into a hostage-taking incident at a synagogue in Texas on Saturday.\n\nBritish citizen Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from Blackburn, was shot dead after a standoff with police in Colleyville.\n\nDetails of the ages and genders of the pair arrested in south Manchester on Sunday evening were not released.\n\nGreater Manchester Police said it was liaising with local communities and continuing to assist in the US inquiry.\n\nThe force said the two teenagers were arrested \"as part of the ongoing investigation into the attack\" and were being held in custody for questioning.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said she had offered \"the full support\" of the UK police and security services to her US counterpart, Alejandro Mayorkas, when they spoke on Monday.\n\nShe told MPs there were a range of measures being undertaken in the UK in response, \"including protective security for the Jewish community\".\n\nThe four people held hostage at the synagogue in Colleyville near Dallas were eventually freed unharmed, after a 10-hour siege.\n\nAccording to US police sources, Akram arrived in the country via New York's JFK International Airport two weeks ago and he is believed to have bought a handgun used in the incident after his arrival.\n\nAkram's brother Gulbar confirmed his death in a statement carried on the Blackburn Muslim Community's Facebook page. He apologised to the victims and said his brother had been suffering from mental health issues.\n\nFriends of Akram in Blackburn said his mental health had been getting worse and expressed surprise that he had been able to travel to the US.\n\nTariq Hussain, who knew Akram and his family, said his death by shooting \"shouldn't have happened\". \"There's questions that are not being answered,\" he added.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police earlier confirmed counter-terrorism officers were in contact with US authorities and the FBI.\n\nThe FBI was expected to arrive in the UK today to continue its investigation, Akram's family said, while there may also be investigations in Pakistan - where it is understood Akram had been recently.\n\nThe siege began at around 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT) on Saturday, when police were called to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in the suburb of Dallas.\n\nNeighbours told the BBC they heard a commotion as armed police sealed off the area, followed later by a loud bang which shook their house.\n\nSuzanne Hughes said she was at home celebrating a birthday with her family when they saw police with guns drawn rushing towards the synagogue.\n\n\"I was expecting the synagogue to have exploded - it had not, but it was very unnerving. We heard gunfire when we got to the backyard.\n\n\"It's sad. This is America. You're supposed to be able to be safe everywhere you go,\" she added.\n\nPolice continued their investigation at the scene of hostage incident in Colleyville, Texas, on 16 January 2022\n\nAkram gained initial access to the synagogue during the service by claiming to be a homeless man, according to a police source quoted by CBS.\n\nOne hostage was released after six hours, while the other three - including the synagogue's rabbi - escaped several hours later.\n\nRabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker told CBS the hostages were \"terrified\" and described how he threw a chair at the gunman as they made their escape \"without even a shot being fired\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker tells CBS Mornings about being held hostage - and how he escaped\n\nUS President Joe Biden called the hostage-taking an \"act of terror\", and UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss described it as an \"act of terrorism and anti-Semitism\".\n\nThe hostage-taker was heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist jailed over attempts to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan, law enforcement officials told local media.\n\nOfficials added Akram also asked to speak to Siddiqui, who is in a prison in Forth Worth, Texas. Siddiqui has distanced herself from his actions, issuing a statement through a lawyer.\n\nPresident Biden appeared to confirm the attacker had been seeking her release, saying the Texas attack was related to \"someone who was arrested 15 years ago and has been in jail for 10 years\".\n\nWhen the FBI said this investigation would have \"a global reach\" they weren't exaggerating.\n\nThe FBI, who are leading it, have deployed their Joint Terrorism Taskforce with teams following up leads in the US, Britain and possibly also in Pakistan.\n\nThe immediate priority is to establish whether or not the hostage-taker had help from anyone else, either here in Britain or during the two weeks he was in the US prior to entering the synagogue.\n\nBritain's Counter Terrorism Police and MI5 will be crucial in uncovering Malik Faisal Akram's so-called 'digital trail' - the clues left behind on his phone, computer or credit card purchases.\n\nHis demand for the release of the convicted Pakistani scientist Aafiya Siddiqui, being held in a US jail just 20 miles from the Texan synagogue, has given this a further international dimension.\n\nShe was sentenced to 86 years in prison in 2010 after being found with a kilo of sodium cyanide and plans to attack targets in New York, as well as trying to shoot US soldiers in Afghanistan.\n\nShe has denied any connection to the synagogue siege but she remains a popular cause among militant jihadists, and this case has renewed calls by some for her release.\n\nPresident Biden said that while he did not have all the details, it was believed Akram had \"got the weapons on the street\", having \"purchased them when he landed\".\n\nBut he added there were \"no bombs that we know of\".\n\nHe also said Akram was thought to have spent his first night in a homeless shelter.\n\nPolice sources said US federal courts did not show he had any criminal history.\n\nAkram's brother said he had liaised \"with Faisal, the negotiators, FBI\" during the siege but \"there was nothing we could have said to him or done that would have convinced him to surrender\".\n\nIn a statement on Facebook, which was later deleted, Gulbar added: \"We would like to say that we as a family do not condone any of his actions and would like to sincerely apologise wholeheartedly to all the victims involved in the unfortunate incident.\n\n\"We would also like to add that any attack on any human being be it a Jew, Christian or Muslim etc is wrong and should always be condemned.\"\n\nThe Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has expressed solidarity with the Jewish community following the hostage-taking, describing it as \"completely unacceptable\".\n\nZara Mohammed, secretary general of the MCB, said: \"The act is all the more reprehensible since it was instigated at a place of worship where Jews were targeted.\n\n\"This was, quite simply, is a hate crime and an act of anti-Semitism.\"\n\nDo you have any information? Get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA knifeman who stabbed five people at random in a shopping centre has been detained under the Mental Health Act.\n\nShoppers ran for their lives and dived for cover when Raphael Chevelleau caused \"widespread panic\" in Manchester Arndale in October 2019.\n\nA court heard he injured three people and attempted to hurt two more as he dashed through the shopping centre.\n\nChevelleau, 43, previously pleaded guilty to three counts of wounding with intent and two of attempted wounding.\n\nHe was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court to an indeterminate hospital order, meaning he will be detained in a secure hospital and will only be released with Home Office approval.\n\nChevelleau suffers from a schizophrenic illness which has been resistant to treatment, the court heard.\n\nHe was admitted to hospital in 2006 for psychiatric reasons, while his mother said he was diagnosed in prison with schizophrenia when he was 21.\n\nThe court heard Chevelleau caught a bus to the Arndale after buying a kitchen knife for £1.50 from a shop near his flat in Rochdale Road, Blackley, on the morning of 11 October 2019.\n\n\"With no warning he broke into a run, wielding the knife and randomly stabbed five members of the public,\" prosecutor Andrew Ford said.\n\n\"He caused widespread fear and panic among the general public visiting the Arndale centre that day and a sense of pandemonium as people fled.\"\n\nRaphael Chevelleau admitted charges of wounding with intent and attempted wounding\n\nThe court heard Chevelleau dumped the knife in a bin on the street after his spree, which lasted one minute and 27 seconds.\n\nHis first victim was a 61-year-old engineer who was stabbed in the back, before he then attacked a 35-year-old woman walking with her husband who was grazed.\n\nThe woman later recalled how Chevelleau had a \"wide cheesy smile\" as he attacked her.\n\nHe next targeted a 45-year-old woman pushing her baby in a pram, who had a lucky escape as the knife came close to her ribs.\n\nChevelleau also stabbed a 21-year-old woman, who was visiting the city from Ireland with friends for an 18th birthday celebration, in her right shoulder and right bicep.\n\nIn a statement, she said: \"The man was looking right through me and looking as if he really wanted to hurt me.\"\n\nChevelleau attacked his final victim, a 52-year-old female department store worker, as he ran out of the Arndale.\n\nMr Ford said only the layers of her clothing, including a bubble coat, meant she was not more seriously wounded.\n\nPolice said none of the injuries were life-threatening but the man has since had the use of his right-hand severely affected and all the victims have been offered support for psychological harm caused as a result of the attacks.\n\nThe attacks happened at the Arndale Centre on a busy Friday morning\n\nChevelleau was initially held under the Terrorism Act but counter-terrorism detectives found no ideological motive for the attacks.\n\nHe was deemed by medical specialists to be initially unfit for interview and has been in a secure hospital ever since.\n\nConsultant forensic psychiatrist Martin Lock told the court he thought it was \"highly unlikely\" Chevelleau would have committed the offences if he had not been suffering from schizophrenia.\n\nHe said there was \"a wealth of evidence\" that - unknown to medical practitioners and family members - his mental state deteriorated ahead of the stabbings.\n\nThe judge said that if Chevelleau did not suffer from mental health problems, he would have received a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years.\n\nDet Ch Insp Clare Devlin said: \"The shock, fright, and pain - both mentally and physically - that Raphael Chevelleau inflicted on the five victims that day cannot be understated, and I'm sure the majority of those who were in the city centre that day vividly remember how they felt when these attacks were taking place.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "JK Rowling told police her Edinburgh address had been revealed in a photo on Twitter\n\nNo action will be taken against transgender activists who targeted author JK Rowling, police have said.\n\nThe Harry Potter author complained to police after campaigners posted a photo of her Edinburgh home on Twitter.\n\nMs Rowling, who has been criticised for her views on transgender issues, described it as \"doxxing\" - the malicious act of publishing personal information.\n\nPolice Scotland have confirmed that no criminality was established.\n\nMs Rowling claimed her home address was exposed when a photo of the three people outside her home was put online in November.\n\nShe wrote on Twitter that the image depicted the activists in front of her home, \"carefully positioning themselves to ensure\" the address was visible.\n\nShe believed the activists had attempted to \"intimidate\" her out of \"speaking up for women's sex-based rights\".\n\nThe campaigners deleted the photo the day after it was posted.\n\nMs Rowling sparked controversy in June 2020 for posting tweets which took issue with the phrase \"people who menstruate\" - she objected to the avoidance of the use of the word \"women\".\n\nIn a lengthy blog post, the writer said her interest in trans issues stemmed from being a survivor of abuse and having concerns around single-sex spaces.\n\nCritics said her views \"diminished the identity\" of trans people, while stars from the Harry Potter films, including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, distanced themselves from her comments.\n\nA Police Scotland spokeswoman said: \"Inquiries were carried out and no criminality has been established.\"", "The average cost of a basic funeral has dropped for the first time in 18 years, but is predicted to rise again in the future, a report has found.\n\nFuneral costs fell 3.1% to an average of £4,056 last year, the Cost of Dying report by insurer SunLife found.\n\nCosts are varied across the UK, and the cheapest type of ceremony - a cremation without a service - rose in price.\n\nLast year, funeral firms were ordered to display clearer price lists for bereaved customers.\n\nAt a time when prices in general have been rising at their fastest rate for years, some families have found the cost of funerals difficult to cover.\n\n\"Funerals are still relatively expensive, and half of people arranging a funeral in the last year looked for ways to keep funeral costs down - including choosing a cheaper coffin, spending less on flowers and having the wake at home,\" said Mark Screeton, chief executive of SunLife.\n\nSome were also limited in the kind of commemorations they were able to organise owing to the Covid pandemic. There was a notable increase in digital streaming of funeral services to loved ones unable to attend.\n\nThe insurer's review into funeral costs has been running for nearly two decades and this was the first year-on-year fall in the average cost of a funeral that it has recorded.\n\nHowever, it has predicted a return to year-on-year increases in prices in the next five years.\n\nThe cost of professional fees was another driver of falling prices last year. Since September, funeral directors and crematoria operators have been required to display a standardised price list on their premises and their websites.\n\nUnder orders from UK competition authorities, the list must include the headline price of a funeral, the cost of individual items that go to make up the funeral, and prices of extra products and services.\n\nThe average cost of a funeral varies significantly across the country, ranging from more than £5,000 in London - where prices rose by 2.3% last year - to just over £3,000 in Northern Ireland, which was 5.2% cheaper than the previous year.\n\nThe report also recorded a steep increase in the number of direct cremations, when the body is cremated without a service and the ashes are returned to the family.\n\nSome of this was driven by Covid restrictions, but it is also the cheapest type of send-off, at an average cost of £1,647. This rose in cost by 6% last year compared with the previous year.\n\nFuneral directors also reported that celebration of life services were rising in popularity, although Abide With Me remained the most common song or hymn to be played.", "Dr Prit Buttar's post has generated hundreds of responses from people with their own stories\n\nA retired GP says he has been \"humbled\" by the response to a social media post on why he broke Covid rules to hug a bereaved woman at a vaccine clinic.\n\nDr Prit Buttar's Twitter thread has generated hundreds of responses and thousands of likes and retweets.\n\nHe said he had been prompted to post by the political row surrounding gatherings at 10 Downing Street.\n\nDr Buttar said that showed a \"huge disconnection\" from the lives of ordinary people.\n\nHe retired to near Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway in 2016 but worked part-time in practices across the region until 2019.\n\nHowever, he volunteered to assist - helping to set up local Covid hubs - when the coronavirus pandemic began a year later.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Prit Buttar This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme why he decided to breach social distancing regulations.\n\n\"This was just under a year ago,\" he said.\n\n\"I was working in one of the vaccine clinics and one of the reception staff came through and asked if we could fit in somebody who should have come a few days before but had missed her appointment.\n\n\"Of course, we said that's fine and when she came in - this was a lady in her late 60s or early 70s, I can't remember the details now - she was so apologetic that she had wasted an appointment and apologised again and again and we reassured her.\"\n\nHe said they had told the woman someone else would have used the slot she had missed and then she had explained why she had not attended.\n\nDr Buttar was working at a vaccination clinic when he decided to hug the woman\n\n\"She and her husband had moved to Scotland just immediately before the pandemic broke and as soon as they arrived in Scotland, her husband discovered that he had cancer,\" said Dr Buttar.\n\n\"She had cared for him through the first lockdown and through the summer that followed and he had died shortly before her appointment to come to see us.\n\n\"Because her son lived in England and his wife had Covid, he was unable to come up to be with her.\"\n\nHe said that meant she had had to deal with the death of her husband having had little chance to establish a friend network in the area.\n\n\"This poor woman was very, very much alone,\" he said.\n\n\"And I just took the decision that this was an occasion where I was going to break the rules, and I leaned forward and embraced her.\n\n\"This poor person just dissolved into tears and as she sobbed, she told me that I was the first person who had embraced her since her husband had died.\"\n\nHe explained why he had taken to social media to share his experience.\n\n\"I posted on Twitter about this just to make the point that, you know, ordinary people dealt with their loss and their loneliness with tremendous fortitude and resignation and stoicism and what a contrast to the behaviour of the prime minister and his entourage,\" he said.\n\nDr Buttar said many people had responded to the story.\n\n\"Everyone in the thread who said they'd broken the rules had done so in order to help somebody else, not because they wanted to have a party,\" he said.\n\n\"The other thread of it was the people who hadn't broken the rules who had watched loved ones die over an iPad and now bitterly regretted that they hadn't taken that moment just to say goodbye to their loved one.\n\n\"One of the universal comments that I have seen when I've looked at the thread from people is that the gulf between everyday experiences and the behaviour of the prime minister is so vast.\n\n\"This is not something for which an apology - a promise to do better - will ever suffice.\"\n\nBoris Johnson admitted at Prime Minister's Questions last week that he had joined colleagues for drinks in the Downing Street garden on 20 May 2020 for around 25 minutes, to thank them for their hard work during the pandemic, but had \"believed implicitly\" it was a work event.\n\nHe apologised for his handling of the event, saying he understood people's \"rage\".\n\nCivil servant Sue Gray has been appointed to investigate allegations of parties held at Downing Street while the UK was in lockdown due to Covid.", "Emma Timmis completed the run in 20 days, 17 hours and 17 minutes\n\nA woman who ran the length of New Zealand said she was enjoying a well-earned rest after covering 1,300 miles (2,100km) in just under three weeks.\n\nEmma Timmis, originally from Oakwood in Derby, left Cape Reinga on 18 December and finished in Bluff on 7 January.\n\nThe 37-year-old - who is raising money for mental health charities in New Zealand and the UK - thanked supporters for backing her effort.\n\nShe said she hopes to turn her adventure into a children's book.\n\nEmma Timmis said people across New Zealand came out to show their support\n\nMs Timmis, who moved to the country six years ago and lives in Kaiapoi in Canterbury, was assisted in her efforts by a three-strong support squad and a campervan.\n\nShe said she had received strong backing from friends and family in the UK, as well as from New Zealanders as she crossed the country.\n\n\"The whole of New Zealand has been supportive,\" she said.\n\n\"People have been honking their horns and coming out of their homes.\n\n\"It's been amazing to see so much support and love.\"\n\nAn experienced athlete, Ms Timmis ran 1,500 miles across South Africa in 2011 and crossed the whole of the continent three years later.\n\nThis time she faced an added hurdle in the form of unseasonably warm weather, with temperatures at one point topping out at 43C (109.4F).\n\n\"It was ridiculously hot, way hotter than expected,\" she said.\n\n\"I was pouring a lot of water on myself to keep cool.\"\n\nA week on from completing her mission Ms Timmis is still recuperating, though serious injuries from the arduous run appear to have been avoided.\n\n\"There's been a lot of resting and eating - I haven't been able to do much else,\" she said.\n\nMs Timmis will need to get her time verified before it can become a new world record\n\nWith the current Guinness World Record for the fastest crossing of New Zealand on foot standing at 35 days and 27 minutes in 2020, Ms Timmis hopes her new time, once verified, will set a new mark and be \"the icing on the cake\".\n\nIt would be the second record she holds, the first set in 2017 when she made the longest journey on an elliptical bicycle in one country.\n\nShe also aims to add to the thousands raised for mental health charities YoungMinds and Youthline.\n\nAs for any attempt to run for home, Covid has delayed what could be an emotional return to Derby.\n\n\"I would absolutely love to come home to visit - it's been a while - but unfortunately the pandemic's put an end to that for now,\" she said.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.", "An auction of seabed plots for major offshore wind projects around the Scottish coast has netted £700m.\n\nSeventeen projects covering a total of 7,000km2 have been chosen in the first such leasing round in a decade.\n\nThey have a combined potential generating capacity of 25GW - well above the expected auction outcome of 10GW.\n\nScotland has 1.9GW of operational offshore wind, and another 8.4GW in construction or advanced development.\n\nThe ScotWind leasing auction attracted more than 70 bids from major oil companies, utility firms and investment funds from around the world.\n\nMost of the sites are on the east, north east or northern coast, with just one on the western side of Scotland.\n\nSuccessful bidders include Scottish Power, which won the seabed rights to develop three new offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 7GW.\n\nThey include two new floating projects in conjunction with Shell and one fixed project.\n\nShell New Energies is the lead applicant on the most expensive development, off the coast of Aberdeen, estimated to cost £86m in option fees.\n\nBP Alternative Energy Investments and SSE Renewables will each pay £85.9m in fees for two sites.\n\nThe auction process was overseen by Crown Estate Scotland, with funds raised from the process going to the Scottish government.\n\nThe winners have now been offered option agreements which reserve the rights to specific areas of seabed.\n\nThey include parts of the North Sea to the east of Angus, the outer Moray Firth, west of Orkney and north-west of both Lewis and Islay.\n\nAlthough there was a sea area east of Shetland offered for the auction, this was not allocated to any bidder.\n\nScotWind represents a major sea-change in how we generate our electricity in Scotland.\n\nBy the time they're all built, an estimated six million tonnes of carbon dioxide will be prevented from entering our atmosphere each year. That's about an eighth of all Scotland's emissions for 2019.\n\nBut we've already largely decarbonised our electricity sector. So, why build more offshore wind farms?\n\nThe inherent unpredictability of the wind means we need masses of overcapacity to allow us to keep the lights on when some of the turbines are not turning. But those looking after the grid need to be more clever than just building more turbines.\n\nThat means a growing use of smart technology and increased storage - through batteries or green hydrogen - will become critical in the coming years.\n\nCrown Estate Scotland chief executive Simon Hodge said: \"Today's results are a fantastic vote of confidence in Scotland's ability to transform our energy sector.\n\n\"In addition to the environmental benefits, this also represents a major investment in the Scottish economy, with around £700m being delivered straight into the public finances and billions of pounds worth of supply chain commitments.\"\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon described the ScotWind auction as a \"truly historic opportunity for Scotland's net zero economy\".\n\nShe added: \"The scale of opportunity represented in today's announcement exceeds our current planning assumption of 10GW of offshore wind - which is a massive vote of confidence in Scotland.\"\n\nScottish Renewables said the announcement was \"an exciting and significant moment in Scotland's renewable energy story\".\n\nChief executive Claire Mack added: \"The potential for 17 new projects creates huge ambition for our sector to deliver on, and will require strong collaboration to deliver maximum impact for our economy and environment.\"\n\nWWF Scotland said the outcome was a \"big vote of confidence in renewable power and Scotland's green economy\".\n\nThe environmental group's climate and energy lead, Fabrice Leveque, said: \"Offshore wind has a vital role to play in helping to cut our climate emissions, and is already powering hundreds of thousands of Scottish homes.\n\n\"Each of these projects could create hundreds of jobs and will have a role in helping put Scotland on a path to a green recovery.\"\n\nHowever, RSPB Scotland criticised the announcement, claiming it could \"accelerate some seabird species towards extinction in Scotland\".\n\nAedan Smith, the charity's head of policy and advocacy said: \"Offshore wind has an important role to play in helping halt climate change.\n\n\"However, the offshore wind projects already consented in Scotland are predicted to kill hundreds of seabirds like kittiwakes, gannets and puffins every year.\n\n\"The potential projects announced today would be many times bigger than those existing projects and would greatly increase those impacts.\"\n\nRSPB Scotland is concerned about the impact of the new wind farm projects on seabirds such as puffins\n\nMeanwhile, the Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF) raised concerns about what the projects would mean for their industry.\n\nChief executive Elspeth Macdonald said: \"In the rush to energy transition, it is vital that our industry's voice is properly heard and that the fleet's access to Scotland's productive fishing grounds is protected.\n\n\"In particular, proper scrutiny must be given to developers' claims that offshore windfarms and fishing activity can co-exist with little change to existing patterns of activity, since our experience to date shows very strongly that the opposite is the case.\"\n\nThe auction was originally meant to close at the end of March last year, but was delayed after a parallel English and Welsh auction resulted in far higher prices than expected.\n\nAt risk of losing out on hundreds of millions of pounds if it stuck to its original auction price guidelines, CES raised the cap for the auction bids from £10,000 to £100,000 per square kilometre.\n\nThe Scottish government has set a target of reaching net-zero emissions by 2045.", "Ukrainian army reservists took part in exercises in December as tensions with Russia mounted\n\nBritain is supplying Ukraine with short-range anti-tank missiles for self-defence after Russia amassed about 100,000 troops on its border, the defence secretary said.\n\nBen Wallace told MPs a small team of British troops would also be sent to Ukraine to provide training.\n\nHe said there was \"legitimate and real cause for concern\" the Russian troops could be used for an invasion.\n\nRussia denies any invasion plans and accuses the West of aggression.\n\nDozens of British troops have been in Ukraine since 2015 to help train their armed forces, and the UK has also made a commitment to help rebuild Ukraine's navy following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014.\n\nBut Mr Wallace said the UK would be providing extra help with security in the light of Russia's \"increasingly threatening behaviour\".\n\nThe first batch of light anti-armour weapons was sent on Monday, although the defence secretary did not specify the type.\n\n\"Ukraine has every right to defend its borders and this new package of aid further enhances its ability to do so,\" he told MPs.\n\n\"Let me be clear: this support is for short-range and clearly defensive weapon capabilities; they are not strategic weapons and pose no threat to Russia; they are to use in self-defence.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe said there is \"a package of international sanctions ready to go\" if Russia should take any \"destabilising action\" in Ukraine.\n\nAny invasion would be viewed as an \"occupation\" which \"could lead to a huge loss of life on all sides\", the defence secretary said.\n\nHe said: \"We wish to be friends with the Russian people as we have been for hundreds of years. And there is a world in which we can establish a mutually beneficial relationship with Russia.\n\n\"I still remain hopeful that diplomacy will prevail. It is President Putin's choice whether to choose diplomacy and dialogue, or conflict and the consequences.\"\n\nThe Ukrainian ambassador to the UK welcomed Britain's decision to send weapons and extra troops, but told the BBC the biggest problem was that as they were not a member of Nato.\n\n\"We wanted to be in Nato... we are facing the biggest army in Europe by ourselves,\" said Vadym Prystaiko.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ukraine ambassador Vadym Prystaiko says they are \"facing the biggest army in Europe by ourselves\"\n\nConflict between Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and the Ukrainian military has continued since 2014, although a shaky ceasefire is in place.\n\nWestern and Ukrainian intelligence services have suggested an invasion or incursion could happen some time in early 2022, after Russian forces amassed on the border.\n\nMeanwhile, Russia has accused Nato countries of \"pumping\" Ukraine with weapons and said the US is stoking tensions in the region.\n\nIts main demand is to stop any expansion of Nato to the east, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov saying after recent talks that it is \"absolutely mandatory to ensure that Ukraine never, ever becomes a member of Nato\".", "Fr Michael Meade pauses after being asked what his message will be to mourners at the funeral of young teacher Ashling Murphy, who was murdered in County Offaly five days ago.\n\n\"Be courageous,\" he replies, after a brief moment.\n\n\"Don't be afraid to speak up, and do not be afraid to continue living as we are called to live, showing respect for all people.\"\n\nThe parish priest of Kilcormac, in rural County Offaly in the Republic of Ireland, will be the celebrant at Ms Murphy's funeral Mass on Tuesday, at St Brigid's Church, Mountbolus.\n\n\"Everybody [in the local community] speaks about it with shock and horror, but they are coping very well together,\" he tells BBC News NI.\n\n\"There is a great community spirit here and it is a real example of how we are called to live, to care for each other as best we can and that has been given physical evidence.\"\n\nThe murder of the 23-year-old primary school teacher and musician, along the banks of the Grand Canal just outside Tullamore last Wednesday, has sparked shock, revulsion and anger, not just on the island of Ireland but further afield.\n\nThousands have attended vigils in Ms Murphy's memory across Ireland but also in London, New York and Dubai.\n\nThe nature, timing and setting of the killing - late afternoon in a quiet, rural area - has sparked calls for more to be done to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence towards women.\n\nAshling Murphy's mother Kathleen, father Raymond and sister Amy comforted each other at a candle-lit vigil near the scene of her murder\n\nIreland's National Women's Council has said this must be a \"watershed moment in ending men's violence against women\".\n\nThe country's justice minister, Helen McEntee, said she intended to publish a new national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence at the start of March.\n\nLocally, though, for a community reeling from such horror, the focus at this stage is not so much on that wider discussion, although vitally important, but more on rallying around and caring for Ms Murphy's family and friends as they grieve, says Fr Meade.\n\nMs Murphy was murdered just outside Tullamore, County Offaly\n\nHe adds there is awareness in the locality of the global attention but in their own minds, \"they haven't got that far yet\".\n\n\"It's personal. It's local, it will evolve into what all the politicians are talking about,\" he adds.\n\n\"It will evolve into something and hopefully it will only be for the good.\"\n\nMs Murphy was at the heart of her community.\n\nA former pupil of Sacred Heart School in Tullamore, she taught First Class (age six to seven) in nearby Durrow National School.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Scoil Cholmcille This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSacred Heart School principal Pauline McKenna says the community has always been proud of her.\n\n\"This is a terrible tragedy for her family, our community and our school.\n\n\"She will be greatly missed.\"\n\nMs Murphy was involved with the local GAA club, and she was also a talented musician, having played the fiddle and concertina.\n\nHer father, Raymond, is a well-known banjo player and her sister, Amy, also plays the concertina and button accordion.\n\nMourners have attended vigils in a number of cities, including at the Irish Centre in London\n\nBoth Ashling and Amy taught music to many young students in their local branch of traditional music group Comhaltas, and Ashling also played in the Comhaltas National Folk Orchestra at many national events, including the visit to Ireland of Pope Francis in 2018.\n\n\"There is a sense of numbness here, and a sense of disbelief that this could happen,\" says family friend Paddy Burke, chairman of the local Comhaltas branch.\n\n\"Worldwide, it's violence against women that is the big issue, but here it's a local person that has been murdered.\n\n\"It's the loss of her from her family and her music and GAA friends. She was an intricate part of the whole area.\"\n\nTeachers' unions in the Irish Republic are urging all schools and colleges to join in a tribute to Ms Murphy at 11:00 local time on Tuesday.\n\nStormont assembly members gathered outside parliament buildings to pay tribute to Ashling Murphy\n\nOn Monday, Northern Ireland's First Minister Paul Givan and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill joined other assembly members and party leaders on the steps of Stormont in a vigil to pay their respects.\n\nMs O'Neill said the murder was a \"watershed moment\" and called for anger to be turned into action.\n\nBut what next? Will this, as the National Women's Council has said, be a watershed moment for ending violence against women?\n\n\"In the wake of the senseless killing of Ashling Murphy, women across Ireland have been sharing their stories of abuse and harassment, and how they curtail their lives so that they feel safer,\" said National Women's Council director Orla O'Connor.\n\n\"Ultimately, we know there is no behaviour change women can make that will keep them safe from men's violence.\n\n\"So we need to talk about what we can do.\"\n\nChief executive of Safe Ireland Mary McDermott has called for an all-of-government response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.\n\nBack in County Offaly, Fr Meade says \"everybody is praying and they are united throughout the whole world, all these vigils\".\n\n\"Only something powerful can come out of this.\"\n• None 'What happened to her could have happened to me'", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA woman unable to contact her parents after a volcano erupted near Tonga has called it \"one of the toughest moments\" of her life.\n\nSiniva Filise, 42, from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, has been struggling to call parents Fakahau and Lioneti Valu.\n\nAn undersea volcano erupted on Saturday, sending tsunami waves crashing across Tonga's shores.\n\nFormer Tongan rugby international Maama Molitika said he is also trying to get in touch with family in his homeland.\n\nMs Filise has since received word her parents are \"safe and well\" from a former colleague in the country.\n\nThe eruption has prevented international communications to the islands, leaving friends and family members around the world anxiously trying to get in touch with loved ones.\n\nMs Filise told the PA news agency: \"I woke up on Saturday morning and saw what was happening in Tonga on social media. I tried to call my mum but I couldn't get through.\n\n\"It would have been the middle of the night [in Tonga] and I was just thinking about my parents in the dark, just the two of them… It was the worst feeling ever.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAfter failing to contact them, Ms Filise decided to \"chance it\" and messaged a former colleague on Facebook who is a member of the armed forces in Tonga assisting on the emergency response.\n\n\"International calls still can't get through but the Armed Forces have satellite connectivity,\" she said.\n\n\"I begged her to try and give them a call and I cried last night when she messaged me and said she had managed to speak to them and they were both fine.\n\nSiniva Filise has yet to make contact with her parents, Fakahau Valu and Lioneti Valu\n\n\"That's the only the message I've had but it gives me a glimmer of hope, even though I haven't been able to speak to them directly.\"\n\nMs Filise grew up on the mainland of Tonga with her five siblings and has remained close with her family despite moving to the UK 16 years ago.\n\n\"The Tonga people are very family orientated people and even though me and my siblings are overseas, my mum will call us every morning before we go to work,\" she said.\n\n\"We are so close and we're so used to having my mum call us that when something like [the volcanic eruption] happens… I just feel helpless.\"\n\nFormer Tongan rugby international Maama Molitika has been unable to get in touch with family since the tsunami\n\nMr Molitika, who played for Cardiff Blues, Bridgend and the Celtic Warriors, said what was happening in Tonga was \"heartbreaking\" and like something from a disaster movie.\n\n\"When it happens in real life it's devastating to see,\" he said.\n\n\"I've got my two sisters and my brother who still live there.\n\n\"Also I've got a lot of cousins and aunties that live on Tonga, the main island.\"\n\nTonga is an archipelago with 36 inhabited islands.\n\nMr Molitika is trying to reach his sisters Mafivea (left) and Hu'uvai, and brother Tupou\n\n\"Obviously I've tried to get hold of them by telephone and internet, by Facebook Messenger, I haven't heard anything back from them.\n\n\"Also I've tried to contact my sisters and my brother - still nothing back.\n\n\"It's worrying and devastating not to hear anything back from them, at the same time I'm praying that they're OK and safe.\"", "MI5 issued an alert about Christine Lee on Thursday\n\nThe shockwaves are still being felt from MI5's interference alert to Parliament last week but the signs are it will not be the last.\n\nMI5 said Christine Lee, a well known lawyer in the UK Chinese community, was working covertly on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party to further its interests.\n\nMs Lee is not accused of being engaged in espionage - stealing secrets - but interference.\n\nMinisters and officials say that there will be more alerts in the future as the security services seek to disrupt those covertly influencing public life.\n\nBut there are questions about whether enough has been done to counter foreign interference and why new laws have yet to be passed.\n\nWhitehall sources say the decision to issue the alert was taken months ago and after a long running investigation. The view was that the only way to disrupt the threat was to effectively go public, issuing a warning to Parliament that everyone knew would immediately gain huge publicity - only the second time this has been done.\n\nAnd future alerts may be issued even beyond Parliament to reflect the fact this is not the only area of public life believed to be at risk.\n\nChristine Lee is not being prosecuted and has not yet responded to the allegations.\n\nThe alert alleged that she had facilitated donations designed to look as if they came from within the UK but actually came from China and Hong Kong.\n\nLabour MP Barry Gardiner received more than £400,000 of funding for his office over five years and looks to have been the largest recipient of money - although the effort to gain influence is alleged to have crossed party lines.\n\nHe told Parliament the issuing of the alert was not based on the donations to his office, which stopped in 2020, raising the question of whether it was new funding to others that generated the concern. It is notable the warning refers to aspiring as well as existing parliamentarians, and the accusation seems to be that the Chinese Communist Party may have been trying to cultivate a new set of politicians.\n\nSpeaking in Parliament on Monday, Home Secretary Priti Patel denied the government had been complacent about the threat of foreign influence. But there have been questions about whether enough has been done on the issue.\n\nThe Russia Report of July 2020 highlighted concerns over Moscow's interference in public life. It criticised the security services and politicians for not doing enough to counter the issue.\n\nOne problem is that the security services are nervous of getting too involved in politics. Even though Parliament has long been a target for espionage (and some past MPs have even been spies themselves), MI5 has been cautious about being drawn into being used as a tool to target political opponents. Some inside feared this was happening in the 1980s when the Conservative government pushed it to investigate alleged foreign backing for striking miners and peace campaigners.\n\nBut events such as Russian trolls intervening in the US 2016 election forced the issue of interference back up the national security agenda. And in recent years, China has also risen up that agenda with concerns it is using its economic power - often with the offer of business deals or money - to secure influence.\n\nThe worry is that states like Russia and China are not just openly lobbying in the way many other states operate, but using covert techniques to influence politics in their favour. This might mean deploying undercover agents, providing funding or creating dependency through business deals to do things like soften foreign policy, approve business takeovers or investments decisions, or prevent criticism on human rights.\n\nBut a challenge has been that even when foreign interference is uncovered, it is not always breaking existing laws. That is why there has been growing pressure to close down loopholes and introduce new powers. One that has been looked at is a foreign agent registration act - the US has a law which allows individuals to be prosecuted if they have failed to register that they are working on behalf of another country.\n\nThe British government consulted on new powers to \"counter hostile state activity\" last year which are designed to offer new tools. But they have still not yet come before Parliament.\n\nThere are also calls to do more to clamp down on political donations - for instance those through shell companies which might be used to mask foreign cash.\n\nThe government is now promising action on many of these areas but there is still no timetable for those new powers and in the meantime, the security services may well feel the only option they have to disrupt foreign interference is to issue more alerts.", "Frankie Smith was sentenced to eight years in jail for causing or allowing the death of her 16-month old daughter, Star Hobson\n\nThe jail sentence handed to the mother of murdered toddler Star Hobson was \"too low\", the attorney general says.\n\nStar died in 2020 after months of \"neglect, cruelty and injury\".\n\nHer mother Frankie Smith, 20, was sentenced to eight years for causing or allowing her death. Smith's partner, Savannah Brockhill, 28, was jailed for a minimum of 25 years for murder.\n\nSuella Braverman said she had referred Smith's sentence to the Court of Appeal as she thought it was \"unduly lenient\".\n\nMs Braverman MP said: \"This is a tragic and extremely upsetting case and my thoughts are with all those who loved Star Hobson.\n\n\"This vulnerable and innocent child was subjected to continued physical abuse, and her mother, Frankie Smith, allowed it to happen.\"\n\nSuella Braverman said she had referred Smith's sentence to the Court of Appeal as she thought it was \"unduly lenient\"\n\nHowever, she said she would not be referring Brockhill's sentence to the Court of Appeal.\n\nShe said: \"I can only challenge a sentence if it is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.\n\n\"The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case.\"\n\nA date for the Court of Appeal hearing is yet to be announced.\n\nSavannah Brockhill (left) and Frankie Smith had both denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child\n\nA seven-week trial at Bradford Crown Court heard the toddler endured a campaign of physical and psychological abuse.\n\nShe bled to death on 22 September 2020 after suffering \"catastrophic\" injuries at the hands of Brockhill, her mother's \"violent-tempered\" girlfriend.\n\nPrior to her death the couple had managed to fend off police and social workers despite five referrals from concerned family members and friends.\n\nSmith's friend Hollie Jones, who regularly babysat for Star and made the first referral in January 2020, welcomed the decision, adding: \"I just hope that she gets a longer sentence, that's what Star deserves really.\"\n\nStar's great-grandfather, David Fawcett, said despite family members feeling Smith's sentence was \"too lenient\", his grand-daughter would have to live with the death of her child \"for the rest of her life\".\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.", "Gutierrez-Reed's claim states she remembers loading the gun with rounds labelled as dummy ammunition (stock image)\n\nThe armourer in charge of weapons used during the filming of Rust has sued the prop supplier, alleging his company distributed \"a mix of dummy and live ammunition\" on set.\n\nCinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot last year when Alec Baldwin fired a gun during a rehearsal, after being told the firearm was safe.\n\nArmourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is seeking unspecified damages from Seth Kenney and PDQ Arm and Prop LLC.\n\nKenney has not yet commented.\n\nBut in December, he told Good Morning America: \"It's not possible that they [the live rounds] came from PDQ or myself personally.\"\n\nActor and producer Baldwin has insisted he \"didn't pull the trigger\" and told ABC News in December: \"I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them, never.\"\n\nAlec Baldwin says he did not fire the gun that killed Halyna Hutchins\n\nGutierrez-Reed has filed her legal claim for an unspecified amount in New Mexico state court, the same state where the filming and fatal shooting in October took place. The film's director, Joel Souza, was also injured by the shooting.\n\nCourt documents state Ms Gutierrez-Reed said police had discovered seven bullets suspected of being live after the shooting, according to AFP.\n\nIt added that they were distributed among a box of cartridges with other ammunition and cartridge belts intended for the actors to use as accessories.\n\nKenney and his company \"created a dangerous condition on the movie set, unbeknownst to Hannah Gutierrez Reed\", according to the armourer and her lawyer.\n\nHer claim states: \"The ammunition was misrepresented as only dummy ammunition when it contained both dummy and live ammunition.\n\n\"Defendants distributed boxes of ammunition purporting to contain dummy rounds but which contained a mix of dummy and live ammunition to the Rust production.\"\n\nPolice investigating the shooting have been attempting to get hold of Baldwin's phone, but despite getting a search warrant several weeks ago, they have been unable to obtain it.\n\nHalyna Hutchins was described by colleagues as \"an incredible artist\"\n\nThe actor has hit back at suggestions that he is not complying, saying specifying exactly what is needed from the phone takes time.\n\nGutierrez-Reed's claim states she remembers loading the gun with rounds labelled as dummy ammunition, and that she shook the box to create the jingling sound that the inert rounds should make.\n\n\"To the best of Hannah's knowledge, the gun was now loaded with six dummy rounds,\" the documents said.\n\nShe said that Covid protocols kept her from entering the church where filming was taking place, so she had to give up control of the gun 15 minutes before the shooting.\n\nIt was not captured on film as Baldwin was practising camera angles for a scene which would be filmed later.", "Emily Lewis, 15, was among 12 people onboard the boat when it struck a buoy\n\nTwo men have been charged in connection with the death of a girl after a boat crashed during a sightseeing trip.\n\nEmily Lewis, 15, was fatally injured in the excursion, off Southampton, on 22 August 2020.\n\nMichael Lawrence, 54, who was driving the speedboat, has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter.\n\nCompany owner Michael Howley, 51, has been charged with failing to take all reasonable steps to secure that the boat was operated in a safe manner.\n\nThey will appear at Southampton Magistrates' Court on 2 February.\n\nThe crash happened during an excursion on speedboat Seadogz on 22 August 2020\n\nTwo other passengers were thrown overboard when the rigid inflatable boat collided with a buoy in Southampton Water.\n\nThey and the remaining nine passengers and the skipper suffered \"varying degrees of injuries\", a Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report found.\n\nEmily was taken to Southampton General Hospital where she later died.\n\nShe was a pre-booked passenger on the scheduled one-hour trip, which was run by Seadogz Rib Charter Ltd, and departed from Ocean Village marina.\n\nAn inquest heard she died of an upper abdominal injury, and that her father, Simon Lewis, mother Nikki, and sister Amy, who was 19 at the time, were also on the boat.\n\nFollowing Emily's death her family said in a statement: \"We are all in shock that our beautiful daughter and sister is no longer with us, and words just don't seem available to express our deep sense of loss.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The family of Christopher Kapessa hope the high courts will find in their favour.\n\nA judicial review is challenging prosecutors for failing to charge a 14-year-old who allegedly caused another teenager's river death.\n\nChristopher Kapessa, 13, was reportedly pushed into the River Cynon in Rhondda Cynon Taf in 2019.\n\nAlthough police found evidence he was pushed, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to prosecute.\n\nMrs Justice Cheema-Grubb allowed an application by Christopher's mother Alina Joseph for a judicial review.\n\nThe hearing has now finished, with a judgement set to be delivered on another date.\n\nRepresenting the CPS, Duncan Penny QC defended the decision not to prosecute, saying \"the guidance was applied\".\n\nHe said guidelines work on the basis \"it was likely\" a homicide took place, adding: \"A prosecutor has to have the power and ability to reach the decision that it is not in the public interest to prosecute.\n\n\"There has to be a margin of discretion awarded to the decision maker.\"\n\nHe said the lawyer who came to the conclusion was a very experienced prosecutor.\n\nLawyers representing her challenged the CPS's decision at a hearing in London on Thursday, with Michael Mansfield QC telling two judges it was \"unreasonable or irrational\".\n\n\"The defendant's decision fails to properly value human life, specifically the child victim's life,\" he told Lord Justice Popplewell and Mr Justice Dove in a written case outline.\n\n\"The defendant fails to give proper regard to the seriousness of harm from the offence.\n\n\"Undue and improper weight has been given to the impact of a prosecution upon the future of the offender.\"\n\nMr Mansfield said the message the decision sent out did not inspire confidence in the justice system and evidence existed to provide a \"realistic prospect\" of conviction for manslaughter.\n\nThe judges were told 16 people were at the scene of Christopher's death.\n\nMr Mansfield said Christopher had expressed concerns about his lack of swimming ability and had been \"unwilling to enter the water freely\".\n\nHe added: \"The suspect pushed him deliberately into the water. Christopher drowned and was killed as a result.\"\n\nHe said Christopher and his family were \"relatively new\" to the area and were a black family living in a predominantly white community.\n\nMr Mansfield argued that the decision not to prosecute was \"unlawful\" and \"ought to be quashed\".\n\nHe also told judges that \"too much weight\" was given to the youth of the alleged offender. Judges have previoulsy ruled that he cannot be named due to his age.\n\n\"The suspect in this matter is aged 17 presently, but that does not preclude the public interest in accountability for causing a death by unlawful act manslaughter.\n\n\"It would not be 'disproportionate' to prosecute a child or young person for the manslaughter he has committed.\"\n\nMr Mansfield said Ms Joseph had given detail of the information she had received, in a witness statement.\n\nHe told judges, in a written case outline: \"This sets out the history of misinformation to her from the investigating prosecutorial authorities since her son's death and concerning the events, the original source of being told her son had jumped, or had slipped, rather than being pushed appearing to have emanated from the suspect and the untruths spread by him and his immediate friends, including the lies told to the police.\"\n\nMr Mansfield said she wanted to \"understand fully what had happened to her son\" and to \"see justice done according to that truth\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by JusticeForChristopherKapessa This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTwo High Court judges will look at the decision, and a dozen campaigners and friends gathered at the Royal Courts of Justice ahead of the hearing.\n\nThey lit candles outside the courts to remember Christopher, who would have turned 16 last week.\n\nChristopher's uncle Mak King, who was in London ahead of the hearing, said: \"Today is a day of memory, the family are so anxious for justice.\n\n\"It has been a very long time - two-and-a-half years - a very long time, the family is waiting for answers and fighting for justice.\n\n\"It's very, very hard to be honest with you, every time the name Christopher Kapessa comes up, everything gets back again, so hopefully today we'll get answers for our questions so we can tell the family - family here, family back home - and they'll know the reason why and how Christopher died.\"\n\nCynon Valley MP Beth Winter said: \"It's a very difficult day and it's unimaginable what the family has had to endure.\n\n\"Today is about finding out the truth, about justice and hopefully reconciliation.\"\n\nChristopher Kapessa's uncle Mak King has attended the judicial review taking place in London\n\nA judicial review is a procedure that allows anyone who has been affected by a decision or a failure to act by a public authority to apply to the courts to rule whether those actions were lawful or not.\n\nThe judge allowed the application on five grounds, including that the CPS's decision failed to \"properly value human life\" and that \"undue and improper weight\" was given to the impact of the prosecution on the teenage suspect.\n\nThe CPS had said it was not in the public interest to prosecute the boy, who was 14 at the time, and strongly denied race played any part in its decision, which was claimed by Christopher's mother.", "M&S's Percy Pig character fronted its Christmas campaign this year\n\nMarks & Spencer and Tesco saw sales soar over Christmas as both retailers forecast strong full-year profits.\n\nM&S said its food business reported its highest-ever revenue for Christmas, while Tesco said it was an \"exceptional\" festive period for sales.\n\nTesco now expects annual income to hit the top end of forecasts at £2.6bn.\n\nMeanwhile, M&S said it was \"now more confident\" of reaching previous expectations of at least £500m in profits for the full-year.\n\nTesco's chief executive Ken Murphy said that \"once again, Covid-19 led to a greater focus on celebrating at home\". As a result, Tesco's Christmas sales in the UK rose by 0.3% compared to the previous year and were 9.2% higher than the pre-pandemic festive period in 2019.\n\nEarlier this week, Sainsbury's also reported strong Christmas sales with more people choosing to eat at home rather than venture out amid the emergence of the Omicron variant.\n\nM&S - whose Christmas campaign was fronted by its Percy Pig confectionary character - said sales within its food division rose to £1.9bn in the three months to 1 January - a 10% increase on 2020 and up 12.4% on pre-Covid levels.\n\nTesco and M&S have had a cracking Christmas. Other big retailers have also reported bumper sales. Despite all the supply chain problems, labour shortages and the arrival of the Omicron variant, the all-important festive trading was pretty decent for the industry overall.\n\nSupermarkets were up against some tough comparisons after last year's record-breaking performance, when Covid restrictions caused a boom in food sales. But they've been buoyant this time round, too. People wanted to treat themselves and there was more eating and drinking at home. And after all the fears of empty shelves and shortages, there was plenty of food.\n\nConsumers were in the mood to spend on non-food as well. They were also prepared to pay full price to make sure they got what they wanted, boosting retailers' profit margins. There may have been a little less choice but the demand, at least, was there.\n\nRetailers are now wondering what will happen to consumer spending given the looming squeeze on living standards from rising bills and the increase in national insurance contributions. They're also having to deal with their own soaring costs and continuing supply chain issues. So having had much to celebrate this Christmas, there are lots of uncertainties ahead.\n\nThe retailer said that customers were already using M&S for more of their everyday shopping items and it said \"the larger basket sizes we saw in the first half continued through the Christmas period\".\n\nM&S said total sales for the three month period rose by 18.6% to £2,9bn compared to the previous quarter. They were also 8.9% ahead of 2019.\n\nRevenue from its clothing and home division also rose but this was driven by online sales. In-store clothing and home demand fell by 10.8% compared to pre-Covid levels which M&S said reflected a trend already evident before the pandemic that more people were shopping online.\n\nIt also said shops at retail parks continued to outperform stores in city centres.\n\nM&S's chief executive Steve Rowe said: \"The market continues to be impacted by the headwinds and tailwinds that we reported in the first half.\"\n\nAt the time, Mr Rowe said: \"Well-publicised supply chain pressure, combined with pandemic supply interruptions, rising labour costs, EU border challenges and tax increases means the cost incline becomes steeper in the second half and steeper again in the 2022-23 year.\"\n\nBut on Thursday Mr Rowe said: \"I remain encouraged that our transformation plan is now driving improved performance.\"\n\nAt Tesco, Mr Murphy said: \"Despite growing cost pressures and supply chain challenges in the industry, we continued to invest to protect availability.\"\n\nIn terms of staff shortages and a dearth of lorry drivers which has affected all areas of the retail sector, Mr Murphy said there had been improvements since summer. While he said it would be wrong to say there are no issues, \"we're managing\".", "The US Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of an American woman who joined the Islamic State (IS) and is seeking re-entry to the US.\n\nHoda Muthana grew up in Alabama and travelled to Syria to join IS in 2014.\n\nWhile she was abroad, authorities determined Ms Muthana, now 27, was not a US citizen and revoked her passport.\n\nIn 2019, Ms Muthana's father appealed against a federal court that barred her entry. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court declined the case without comment.\n\nMs Muthana, the daughter of a Yemeni diplomat, was born in the US. But under federal law, the children of diplomats born in the US are not automatically bestowed citizenship.\n\nIn his lawsuit, Ahmed Ali Muthana argued his family had given up diplomatic status before his daughter was born, making her a citizen. They maintained Ms Muthana was previously recognised as a citizen by the US State Department and given a US passport in 2004.\n\nMs Muthana's case has been compared to that of UK-born teenager Shamima Begum, who has been stripped of her British citizenship.\n\nIn a statement to CNN in 2019, Ms Muthana said she was a \"naive, angry and arrogant young woman\" when she left the US for Syria.\n\nTo fund her trip, she withdrew from college and used her tuition money to purchase a flight to Turkey without her family's knowledge, she has told US media.\n\nSocial media posts during her time with the extremist group show Ms Muthana applauding terrorist attacks and encouraging other Americans to join IS.\n\n\"There are soooo many Aussies and Brits here but where are the Americans, wake up u cowards,\" she wrote on Twitter in a post obtained by the New York Times.\n\nMs Muthana has since said she deeply regrets joining IS and apologised for the posts promoting the group. She now has a toddler son, with a man she met while living with the group. The father has since died.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shamima Begum: \"I got tricked and I was hoping someone would have sympathy with me\"", "The prime minister's admission and apology in the Commons likely bought him a little time.\n\nA pause until the official inquiry into what parties did or didn't take place in Downing Street is published, in perhaps a week or so.\n\nBut for many on his own side, Boris Johnson has already lost the benefit of the doubt.\n\nGrowing numbers of his own MPs want him out, discussing frantically how and when his exit could take place.\n\nOne minister told me, \"it's over\".\n\nAnother long-term backer of the prime minister, and former cabinet minister, said they can't see a way out.\n\nAnd another former cabinet minister predicted a vote of confidence this month.\n\nMPs are also suggesting that Sue Gray's report, or a further vote on Covid restrictions when they expire at the end of this month in England, could provoke a flurry of demands for him to quit.\n\nIn truth, there is no fixed plan among Boris Johnson's opponents.\n\nThere is a long list of MPs who may put themselves forward for the leadership, many more than the commonly-cited two frontrunners, the chancellor and foreign secretary.\n\nThere is no certainty that there will be enough letters to Tory party grandees to trigger a contest this year.\n\nThere is no central coordination between the different Tory tribes.\n\nBut many conversations in the Commons are about the manner and timing of Boris Johnson's departure, not really the question about whether or not he can survive.\n\nAnd the fiasco over Downing Street events during lockdown has become a proxy for a years' long Tory argument: does Boris Johnson really have the character and integrity to lead the country from No 10?\n\nMore and more Conservatives are saying the answer to that must be no.\n\nMr Johnson has survived intense storms before, and his departure is far from inevitable.\n\nSome of his allies suggest the Sue Gray report could end up providing ballast to his public explanations to the country today.\n\nPolitics in this era is deeply unpredictable. But it's no longer impossible to imagine that Boris Johnson will be gone before too long.", "Dutch monarchs, including King Willem-Alexander, have traditionally travelled in the carriage to the state opening of parliament\n\nThe Netherlands' King Willem-Alexander has announced that Dutch royals will cease using a historic golden carriage amid a debate over slavery links.\n\nCritics say that one side of the horse-drawn carriage, called De Gouden Koets, is decorated with an image that glorifies the country's colonial past.\n\nOut of use since 2015, the carriage has traditionally been used to carry Dutch monarchs to the opening of parliament.\n\nThe move comes amid an ongoing debate in the country over its history.\n\nThe controversial image featured on the vehicle is called Tribute from the Colonies, and depicts black and Asian people - one of whom is kneeling - offering goods including cocoa and sugarcane to a seated young white woman who symbolises the Netherlands.\n\nSeated next to her is a man offering a book to a young boy, which the work's painter, Nicolaas van der Waay, said in 1896 was intended to portray the Netherlands' gift of \"civilisation\" to its colonies.\n\nIn an official video announcing the move, King Willem-Alexander accepted that the carriage was offensive to a large number of people and called on the country to face the legacy of its colonial history together.\n\n\"There is no point in condemning and disqualifying what has happened through the lens of our time,\" he said.\n\n\"Simply banning historical objects and symbols is certainly not a solution either. Instead, a concerted effort is needed that goes deeper and takes longer. An effort that unites us instead of divides us.\n\n\"As long as there are people living in the Netherlands who feel the pain of discrimination on a daily basis, the past will still cast its shadow over our time,\" he added.\n\nThe carriage has been out of use for several years and has resided at the Amsterdam Museum since a lengthy restoration project concluded last year.\n\nAnti-racism campaigners in the Netherlands have welcomed the move, but have called on the king to take further action to face up to the legacy of colonialism.\n\n\"He says the past should not be looked at from the perspective and values of the present,\" said Mitchell Esajas, co-founder of The Black Archives in Amsterdam.\n\n\"I think that's a fallacy because also in the historical context slavery can be seen as a crime against humanity and a violent system.\"\n\nIn recent years, many Dutch people have been urging the country to have a reckoning with its colonial past.\n\nDuring the 17th Century the Netherlands conquered large swathes of territory in regions now known as Indonesia, South Africa, Curaçao and West Papua, and became a key player in the transatlantic slave trade.\n\nLast year, the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, formally apologised for the city's role in the slave trade.\n\nThe move put her at odds with Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who has rejected calls for a formal state apology.", "Ovo Energy, the UK gas and electricity provider, has told staff it plans to cut a quarter of its workforce.\n\nThe firm confirmed in a letter to its employees that it will axe 1,700 roles from a total 6,200 workers.\n\nThe reorganisation is linked to its acquisition of SSE three years ago and the integration of the firm into Ovo.\n\nIt is understood the cuts will be made through voluntary redundancy. Ovo has also told staff it will raise minimum pay across the firm to £12 an hour.\n\nIn the letter, Adrian Letts, the boss of Ovo's retail business, told staff: \"Whilst it is regrettable to be reducing roles across the business and we understand this will be an uncertain time for many, we will fully support all our employees as this process develops over the coming months.\n\n\"We are engaging with our recognised trade unions to ensure all receive the right information and support.\"\n\nUnite, the union, said it had warned back in 2020 about the possible impact Ovo's takeover of SSE's retail business and the possible impact on jobs.\n\nOn Thursday, Unite's general secretary Sharon Graham said: \"We will do everything in our power to defend our members' jobs.\n\n\"We will not sit by and watch our members being made to pay the price of the pandemic.\"\n\nOvo said that it will reduce the number of its offices from 10 to three in Bristol, Glasgow and London. It also said that \"more employees will also be supported to work flexibly from home should they wish\".\n\nThe company added that it intends to \"reverse the policy of off-shoring from the previous owner and create more high-skilled jobs here in the UK\".\n\nOvo took over SSE's household energy business in 2019. A spokesperson for Ovo declined to say how many roles the shift away from off-shoring would affect.\n\nMr Letts said the changes \"will enable us to better serve our customers\".\n\nBut Gary Carter, national officer at the GMB union, said: \"At a time when more than 20 energy companies have gone to the wall and customers are looking to other providers for their energy needs, this looks like the wrong time to cut jobs.\"\n\nThe energy sector has been struggling with higher wholesale gas prices since last September and the UK's price cap for households means firms have been unable to pass on the rising costs to retail customers.\n\nIt has led to large numbers of smaller energy businesses going bust. Larger energy companies have taken on the customers from firms that have collapsed.\n\nIt is the second time Ovo has announced major job cuts since the pandemic began. In May 2020, it reduced its headcount by 2,600 workers and closed offices, stating that Covid had led to more people paying their bills online.\n\nMost of the cuts came from the SSE business which Ovo bought for £500m, which added 3.5 million customers to its existing base of 1.5 million households.\n\nMr Letts said that Ovo is shifting around 120,000 SSE customers a week onto its own operating platform which it said will \"significantly drive down costs and improve the customer experience\".\n\nRegardless of the price cap, households are set to see a significant rise in energy costs this year when the regulator Ofgem reviews the ceiling on gas and electricity bills.\n\nWhen a company cuts costs it is usually bad news for staff, but possibly of benefit to its customers.\n\nReducing costs can lead to lower prices. Not this time. Household energy bills will rise, sharply, in April.\n\nAnyone on a variable or default tariff - or whose fixed deal is coming to an end - is highly likely to see their annual bill go up by hundreds of pounds owing to sky-high wholesale gas prices.\n\nThe company has just apologised for suggesting customers do star jumps to keep warm. There certainly won't be any leaping for joy among staff and customers today.\n\nOvo boss Stephen Fitzpatrick has been lobbying the government to help reduce a rise in bills which would come into force in April. He has said that the rise in wholesale gas prices and its impact on people will be \"an enormous crisis for 2022\".\n\nOn Wednesday, he told the BBC: \"Unless the government comprehends how significant this is in the coming weeks, we're going to face a tragic situation where UK households cannot afford to heat their homes.\"\n\nHowever, his company Ovo offered slightly more controversial guidance this week on how to cut bills to SSE Energy customers - suggesting they do \"a few star jumps\" or hug a pet \"to stay cosy\".\n\nCats can double as a heating device, according to Ovo's - now deleted - advice for SSE customers\n\nOvo was forced to apologise and Mr Fitzpatrick blamed a \"bad day\" for \"ridiculous\" advice to customers on how to stay warm amid soaring energy bills.\n\nHe said he was \"really embarrassed\" by the \"ridiculous\" advice emailed to customers on \"simple and cost-effective ways to keep warm this winter\".\n\n\"We're a large company and somebody had a bad day,\" he said.\n\nThe guidance has since been removed from the website.", "At Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson told MPs that he was technically within the rules when he attended a drinks party in his own back garden on May 20, 2020, during lockdown.\n\nHe set out part of the defence he has put forward to the senior civil servant, Sue Gray, who is investigating the allegations of parties taking place on government property.\n\nOn Wednesday, the prime minister told MPs: \"Number 10 is a big department with the garden as an extension of the office - which has been in constant use because of the role of fresh air in stopping the virus.\n\n\"I believed implicitly that this was a work event.\"\n\nA Downing Street spokesman later provided more of the case for the defence - that the prime minister had not seen the email invite to No 10 staff from civil servant Martin Reynolds, encouraging them to bring their own booze to the event.\n\nBut the building - or buildings - in Downing Street also form part of the defence case.\n\nNo 10 acts as both a home and an office for the prime minister, although the flat where he lives is actually above No 11 Downing Street.\n\nThe higgeldy-piggeldy property is variously a conference centre, a venue for ministerial meetings, a workplace for civil servants and advisers, and - in 2020 - also where press briefings were conducted.\n\nSo it's possible the prime minister may be able to claim that if members of his household happened to \"mix\" with staff when restrictions were in place, that was because they were simply using their own back garden.\n\nAnd when he was \"mixing\" with officials that was because the garden was also an office, and those key employees did not need to work from home.\n\nBut this explanation is rejected by former members of Mr Johnson's own staff.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I offer my heartfelt apologies\": Watch Boris Johnson admit to attending the No 10 party in May 2020\n\nIn a tweet on Wednesday, Dominic Cummings argued that 20 May - given the formal e-mail invitation - was \"no way within the rules\" and was \"obviously social, not work\", which would not have been allowed.\n\nAnother former staffer - who has not, unlike Mr Cummings, been openly critical of the prime minister - told the BBC there were \"no legal grounds\" for the 20 May gathering.\n\nAnd they noted that while there was a reference to good weather in the emailed invitation, there was no mention of work - and the only nod to the pandemic was that the drinks would be \"socially distanced\".\n\nSue Gray will no doubt form her own view - but with more Conservative MPs becoming openly critical of Mr Johnson even before she completes her report, there is little doubt that he is in a tight spot.\n\nFormer government insiders are suggesting the culture that was allowed to flourish at Downing Street from the first lockdown onwards contributed to the prime minister's current predicament.\n\nA regular visitor to Downing Street from another department said that drinks were available on some evenings at post-press conference meetings in the garden.\n\nA former No 10 insider has already said drinks were available regularly on Fridays when people were working late.\n\nDominic Cummings was no stranger to the Downing Street garden\n\nDominic Cummings has insisted that the photograph, published by the Guardian, in the Downing Street garden from 15 May 2020 - showing wine on a table - depicted a work meeting, not a social event.\n\nAnd he added in his blog \"No 10 staff were ENCOURAGED\" [his caps] to have meetings in the garden April-August for the obvious reason that we were in a pandemic with an airborne disease and being outside was safer!'\n\nThis account has been corroborated by others in government at the time who said evidence was emerging of the lower risk of transmission outdoors.\n\nBut a former government adviser told the BBC that because people were getting used to meeting outside, the lines between work and socialising had got blurred.\n\nHe suggested that this may have \"normalised\" the drinking and chatting in the garden that took place on 20 May.\n\nBut he nonetheless agrees with Mr Cummings that this event - with that email invite from Mr Johnson's Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds - was \"blatantly against the rules\".\n\nAnd he said several people who worked in No 10 at the time felt Mr Reynolds' email invitation was \"nutty\".\n\n\"Anyone with political nous would know this was wrong,\" said the former insider.\n\nAs we reported, the event went ahead despite opposition from key political staff, leading some to believe it must therefore have been sanctioned by the prime minister himself.\n\nBut the former government source believes Downing Street's denial of this is credible - again, because of the unusual culture at No 10.\n\nHe said that civil servants who are Principal Private Secretaries, like Mr Reynolds, would normally work closely with their ministers,\n\nAnd it would be assumed that they were speaking with the authority of their political masters.\n\nBut in Boris Johnson's case, added our source, \"he just isn't across the detail\".\n\nSo, he claimed, it was left to others in No 10 to undertake functions usually associated with the prime minister himself.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Sir Keir Starmer asks if the PM will do the decent thing and resign\n\nLabour sources say they haven't asked for Martin Reynolds's resignation as the \"culture inside No 10 was set by the man at the top\".\n\nSo bit by bit, a picture of working life inside No10 during the coronavirus crisis is emerging.\n\nThe prime minister would prefer to talk of the government's achievements in the face of the challenge of Covid - such as the mass vaccination programme.\n\nBut as one of Boris Johnson's MPs put it after Prime Minister's Questions, \"it is just drip, drip, drip. It will continue to be drip, drip, drip\" - and \"partygate\" could continue to be politically corrosive.\n\nThe key question now will be whether the No 10 defence - that while mistakes were made, rules were not technically broken - will wash with Sue Gray, and with the wider public.", "French holiday bookings have jumped after Paris said it would ease restrictions on UK travellers, travel firms have said.\n\nAirline Jet2 said it had seen a \"sharp\" rise in bookings and searches for flights to French skiing destinations.\n\nAnd Tour operator Tui said ski bookings doubled on Wednesday following reports the rules would change.\n\nMany UK holidaymakers had to cancel holidays when France banned all but essential travel last month.\n\nBut from Friday, vaccinated Britons will no longer need a compelling reason to enter France or self-isolate when they arrive.\n\nThey will only need to present a negative Covid-19 test taken 24 hours before leaving the UK.\n\nABTA, which represents British travel agents, said the rule change was a relief for both holidaymakers and travel firms.\n\n\"Thousands of people head [to France] for ski breaks at this time of year, so this will be a huge relief for customers with holidays booked there for the next few weeks, who have been waiting anxiously for news,\" it said.\n\nIt added that the French government still had to give more details on entry requirements including the rules for children.\n\nJet2 boss Steve Heapy said the rule change was good news for the thousands of Britons who go on skiing trips to France during winter.\n\n\"This is the positive news that skiers and snowboarders have been looking forward to, and the spike in bookings for ski flights has been both sharp and immediate,\" he said.\n\nTui, which owns tour operator Crystal Ski Holidays, said bookings had been increasing in anticipation that the rules would be relaxed.\n\n\"Bookings to France doubled yesterday even before the announcement and we would expect to see another very positive uptick now it's official,\" said Chris Logan, managing director of Crystal Ski Holidays.\n\nDiane Palumbo, sales director at independent tour operator Skiworld, said the announcement had come too late for bookings for this weekend, which had been cancelled - although many customers were keen to rebook.\n\nShe said interest in the rest of the season was \"enormous\", with many people ready for a break after two years of Covid restrictions.\n\nBrittany Ferries chief executive Christophe Mathieu said the rules relaxation \"comes as a great relief\", adding that \"businesses in the travel sector have struggled to survive\".\n\n\"Thousands of Brittany Ferries passengers have been disrupted and millions of pounds in income has been lost as a consequence of draconian measures like border closures,\" he said.\n\nRail operator Eurostar said it would \"continue to increase the frequency of our services in the coming weeks\" and that it was \"ready to welcome more passengers on board\".\n• None France to relax travel rules from the UK", "About 4.3 million people in the UK had a Covid infection in the week up to 7 January - up from 3.7 million the previous week, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates.\n\nThat is 6.7% of the population, but the rise in people testing positive is slowing down in all four UK nations.\n\nIn London, the ONS says the percentage of people testing positive fell from 9 to 8%.\n\nHowever, across the north of England, infections overtook the capital's.\n\nThese are interim figures based on tests on thousands of people in households whether or not they had symptoms. Further data with more detail will be published by the ONS on Friday.\n\nIt estimates that the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus in the first week of January was:\n\nThis comes after the daily data released by the government shows a 19% fall in infections over the past week - just over 129,500 cases have been reported over the past 24 hours.\n\nBut these are only people who get a lateral flow test or a PCR and report the result - and they do not count reinfections, apart from in Wales.\n\nHospital admissions with Covid in the UK - the key measure - appear to have already plateaued at about 2,200 a day.\n\nIf this is the peak for hospital admissions, it is in line with the best-case scenario models produced for the government ahead of Christmas.\n\nThe fact that appears to have happened in the face of rising infection levels is another illustration of just how different the Omicron surge is, and how much vaccines have helped.\n\nExperts, however, have warned that there is a risk the increase in mixing with the return of schools and people going to work following the festive period could cause another rise or create a long, flat peak.", "Flt Lt Stannard released the LauncherOne rocket high over the Pacific\n\nSir Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit company launched another rocket to space on Thursday.\n\nThe booster, carrying seven satellites, was sent skyward from a Jumbo Jet flying out over the Pacific Ocean.\n\nPlaying a key role in the 747's cockpit was RAF fighter pilot Mathew Stannard, who is on secondment to the British entrepreneur's California firm.\n\nThe UK Ministry of Defence anticipates using Virgin Orbit to launch military satellites in the future.\n\nThe Flt Lt is gaining experience for when rocket missions start operating from British soil. This should happen later this year.\n\nRAF pilot Mathew Stannard is on a three-year secondment with Virgin Orbit\n\nThursday's ascent was Virgin Orbit's third straight success following an inaugural demonstration launch in May 2020 that didn't reach orbit.\n\nPrior to this mission, 19 satellites had been lofted.\n\nThe seven on the latest manifest included one manufactured in Glasgow by Spire Global, which tracks weather conditions from orbit, along with ship and plane movements.\n\nThe flight profile followed the familiar pattern.\n\nThe jumbo, known as Cosmic Girl, left California's Mojave airport at 13:39 US West Coast time (21:39 GMT).\n\nThe jet flew out over the Pacific with the rocket tucked neatly under its left wing.\n\nJust over an hour after take-off (14:52 PST), at an altitude of roughly 35,000ft (10km), Flt Lt Stannard unhooked the liquid-fuelled booster and let it go into a freefall.\n\nFour seconds later, as the 747 banked hard to the right, LauncherOne ignited its first-stage engine to begin the climb to orbit.\n\nAll seven satellites were safely delivered to an orbit inclined 45 degrees to the equator.\n\nVirgin Orbit wants to run a total of six space missions this year, with two of these planned to operate out of Newquay Airport in Cornwall.\n\nThe British government has made it a plank of its new space strategy to foster a launch industry from the UK.\n\nCongratulating Virgin Orbit on another successful mission, UK Space Agency Deputy CEO Ian Annett said: \"The UK is home to some of the world's leading satellite manufacturers, which currently ship their products overseas for launch.\n\n\"We are supporting them by fostering a new domestic launch market, with spaceports and launch operators providing services across the UK and catalysing investment from all over the world.\"\n\nThe flight of the LauncherOne vehicle lasted just under the hour\n\nThe first UK launch by Virgin Orbit could happen as early as June or July, although much will depend on how quickly licensing paperwork goes through the UK's Civil Aviation Authority. The CAA's paramount concern is safety and it won't let any launch proceed until it's satisfied all contingencies are covered.\n\nThe CAA has 35 staff to assess the technical details of applications. A licence to operate a spaceport is expected to take six to 12 months to process; a licence to operate a rocket system will take longer at nine to 18 months.\n\nThe CAA told the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on Wednesday that so far it was dealing with four formally submitted licensing applications (others from a range of potential spaceport/rocket operators are at a pre-application stage).\n\nHowever, when asked whether this meant a UK launch was likely this year, the authority's policy director Tim Johnson refused to be drawn.\n\n\"We absolutely share the government's enthusiasm, and industry's enthusiasm, and commitment to this task. We're open for business, we're processing applications; the key driver of the timetable will be the quality of the applications (and) the evidence presented,\" he told MPs.\n\n\"We will exercise our duties in the most timely way possible.\"\n\nSir Richard's Virgin Orbit company was recently listed on the Nasdaq exchange in New York", "Holyrood is back in session for the 2022 term, with Nicola Sturgeon set to take questions at the inaugural first minister's questions of the year. As Scotland emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, what big issues will dominate politics in the coming months?\n\nEveryone will hope that 2022 is a year where coronavirus doesn't hang over politics, and indeed daily life.\n\nHowever, even with politicians dropping more and more hints about ending restrictions and finding ways of \"living with Covid\", the pandemic and its legacies will still play a massive role in the immediate future.\n\nTo start with, there will be judge-led inquiries, both at a Scottish and UK-wide level, to pick over how ministers in Edinburgh and London handled the unfolding crisis.\n\nAnd then there is the recovery from the pandemic itself, in sectors from physical and mental health services to the economy and education.\n\nWill testing remain free and readily available? Will people need a fourth dose of vaccine? Will school pupils sit traditional exams this summer? Will workers be heading back to offices on a more regular basis? Will hospitality businesses manage to get back on their feet?\n\nThe unanswered questions still feel endless, but the hope will be that this is the year where we can begin to move on from them.\n\nThis is set to be a big year for local government, not least because there are elections to all 32 of Scotland's councils in May.\n\nThere are a host of political questions for every party involved, with Labour fighting desperately to recapture second place from the Conservatives, the Alba Party challenging the SNP for pro-independence votes, the Lib Dems battling for relevance after slipping to four Holyrood seats last year and the Scottish Greens hoping to capitalise on joining the government.\n\nHowever, there are also some rather more immediate questions facing councillors, as they attempt to set their budgets for the year ahead.\n\nThe Scottish government's budget plans are sure to sail through Holyrood thanks to the SNP-Green partnership agreement, but they will not do so without howls of protest from local government.\n\nCouncil leaders from across the political spectrum are deeply unhappy with the level of funding on offer, and unanimously backed an \"urgent\" demand for talks with Nicola Sturgeon about the \"totally unacceptable\" settlement.\n\nAnd while Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has given them free reign over local tax rates for the first time since the SNP came to power in 2007, many see this as a poisoned chalice. Councillors will hardly be thankful for the \"opportunity\" to hike council tax on the eve of an election, particularly if they feel forced to do so.\n\nSomehow this still isn't the end of the conflicts between Holyrood and town halls, with proposals for a National Care Service also raising hackles about the idea of more local services being centralised.\n\nMSPs start the year with plenty in their in-trays, with a fresh batch of election pledges to be delivered and indeed a few hanging over from last term too.\n\nAttempts to reform the Gender Recognition Act repeatedly stalled in the previous parliamentary session as the government commissioned a series of consultations before being consumed by Covid-19. The SNP has committed to pushing through changes this term, and a bill is anticipated in the near future.\n\nMSPs can at least be trusted to discuss the matter in a reasonably measured fashion, in contrast to some of the culture wars commentators who fan the flames of debate online.\n\nControversy is more or less guaranteed, though - those who responded to the aforementioned consultations were in broad agreement about one thing, which was how \"toxic\" the \"highly polarised\" issue has become.\n\nAssisted dying is also back on the political agenda with Lib Dem Liam McArthur's legislative proposal gaining support from corners including former SNP Health Secretary Jeane Freeman.\n\nA consultation which closed before Christmas apparently elicited an enormous volume of responses, and a draft bill is likely to be published in the coming months.\n\nThere will be more opposition bills on contentious matters to come too, with the Conservatives pushing a \"right to recovery\" in response to record levels of drug-related deaths.\n\nThe difficulties the government has faced in getting to grips with this issue were underlined at the turn of the year when the heads of its drugs death taskforce resigned in frustration.\n\nTrans rights campaigners have rallied outside Holyrood to call for reforms\n\nTo start at Westminster, Boris Johnson still sits atop a comfortable parliamentary majority - but has started the new year as he ended the last, embroiled in questions about his future as prime minister.\n\nHe has faced backbench rebellion over Covid rules and a damaging by-election defeat, but the ongoing row over parties held at Downing Street during lockdown is the most potentially damaging of all.\n\nOpposition parties have been baying for blood for weeks to little avail, but the fact fellow Conservatives are also lining up to give him a kicking means there are real questions about Mr Johnson's longevity in office.\n\nThere are particular questions for the Scottish Conservatives, who had already been distancing themselves from Mr Johnson - he played literally no part in their 2021 election campaign, while featuring on every other SNP leaflet.\n\nAnd now that Douglas Ross has broken cover to call for his resignation as prime minister and Tory leader, there are serious questions for the Scottish party.\n\nIf Mr Johnson is not ousted, relations with Downing Street will have been seriously damaged - to the extent that longstanding calls for the Scottish Tories to separate themselves entirely from the UK-wide operation may need to be considered afresh.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I offer my heartfelt apologies\": Watch Boris Johnson admit to attending the No 10 party in May 2020\n\nCircumstances are decidedly different at Holyrood, but speculation about Nicola Sturgeon's future has been rife for some time too - despite the prospect of five years of stability under an SNP-Green majority government.\n\nSome of this is undoubtedly opposition mischief-making - she notes that other parties may as well fantasise about her walking away, having failed to lay a glove on her at the ballot box.\n\nHowever, while dismissing the idea of leaving Holyrood when questioned about it directly, Ms Sturgeon also fuelled the rumour mill by flying a kite about life after politics in a Vogue magazine article shortly before spending a fortnight at COP26.\n\nAnd in May, she will become Scotland's longest-serving first minister, as well as marking 23 years as an MSP - milestones which are sure to spark further talk of her legacy.\n\nShe is already the first minister who led Scotland through a pandemic, won back-to-back elections and who recently completed an overhaul of childcare trailed in her very first speech as SNP leader. The question is whether she feels she needs to deliver another independence referendum before considering her work is done.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sturgeon: I'm going to be around a lot longer\n\nAny effort to ramp up the rhetoric about a fresh push for indyref2 at the SNP conference in November was hastily shunted to the back burner by breaking news of a mutated variant of Covid-19 spreading rapidly across the globe.\n\nBut in a speech ultimately dominated by Omicron, Ms Sturgeon did pledge that in the spring the campaign for independence would \"resume in earnest\".\n\nWe have of course been here before. Most SNP conferences conclude with a similar rallying cry from the first minister - so are we really any closer to a referendum this year?\n\nMs Sturgeon's own phrasing is that she will do \"everything that is within my power\" to hold a referendum in 2023 - perhaps accepting that the issue is not entirely in her own hands - and that this timetable may require \"an ideal set of circumstances\".\n\nShe has been clear that she still wants to secure an agreement of some kind with the UK government, to ensure any vote has the legitimacy and international recognition to actually deliver independence.\n\nSo it is probable that at some point Ms Sturgeon will make a fresh approach to the prime minister asking for a Section 30 order, a transfer of powers in the style of 2014. Mr Johnson has thus far looked unlikely to agree, and the uncertainty about his future is unlikely to change this.\n\nThe Scottish government has drawn up a draft bill for an independence referendum, and could introduce this at Holyrood at some point - although it did not feature in the Programme for Government for the term running up to the summer recess.\n\nThese are the only certainties, before you plunge into a bottomless rabbit hole of hypotheticals about what might happen if the bill were introduced and if it were to be challenged at the Supreme Court.\n\nThese questions give devotees of the constitutional debate something to chew over, and Ms Sturgeon will doubtless come up with some kind of campaigning work to focus the energies of the Yes movement.\n\nHowever, it seems unlikely that anything more concrete is on the immediate horizon. Look forward to this topic featuring again in the 2023 edition of this article.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Boris Johnson admit to attending the No 10 party in May 2020\n\nBoris Johnson has apologised for attending a \"bring your own booze\" party in Downing Street during the first Covid lockdown.\n\nAhead of Prime Minister's Questions, he told MPs he had attended the gathering, held in the No 10 garden on 20 May 2020, for 25 minutes.\n\nHe asked for senior official Sue Gray, who is investigating that and other events in government buildings, to be allowed to complete her inquiry.\n\nHere is his full statement to MPs, made on Wednesday 12 January 2021.\n\nMr Speaker, I want to apologise. I know that millions of people across this country have made extraordinary sacrifices over the last 18 months.\n\nI know the anguish that they have been through - unable to mourn their relatives, unable to live their lives as they want, or do the things they love.\n\nAnd I know the rage they feel with me and with the government I lead, when they think that in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules.\n\nAnd though I cannot anticipate the conclusions of the current inquiry, I have learned enough to know there were things we simply did not get right and I must take responsibility.\n\nNo 10 is a big department with the garden as an extension of the office - which has been in constant use because of the role of fresh air in stopping the virus.\n\nAnd when I went into that garden just after six on the 20th of May 2020, to thank groups of staff before going back into my office 25 minutes later to continue working, I believed implicitly that this was a work event.\n\nBut, Mr Speaker, with hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside, I should have found some other way to thank them, and I should have recognised that even if it could be said technically to fall within the guidance, there would be millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way.\n\nPeople who suffered terribly, people who were forbidden from meeting loved ones at all, inside or outside.\n\nAnd to them and to this House [of Commons], I offer my heartfelt apologies.\n\nAnd all I ask is that Sue Gray be allowed to complete her inquiry into that day and several others, so that the full facts can be established. And I will of course come back to this House and make a statement.\n• None No 10 parties: How many wine bottles fit in a suitcase?", "Armed police forced their way into the flat to end the stand-off on Thursday\n\nArmed police have forced their way into a flat to end a stand-off which lasted five days.\n\nA 41-year-old man had barricaded himself in the building in Coventry with an eight-year-old boy and refused to leave since Sunday.\n\nFirearms officers moved into the flat at about 20:30 GMT and detained the man, police said.\n\nThe boy is believed to be physically unharmed and is being cared for by family members, they added.\n\nAn eyewitness told the BBC they heard \"a lot of bangs\" and ran outside to \"see the armed police going through the window\".\n\nThe woman, who did not want to be identified, added: \"A lot of the neighbours started coughing because there was tear gas which had been released as well.\"\n\nThe man has been taken into custody and will be assessed by mental health professionals.\n\nOfficers have been at the scene since Sunday\n\nSupt Ronan Tyrer said the situation \"became untenable\" and they decided to act for the boy's safety.\n\n\"At all times, we had to balance the risk to the boy being kept in the house, with the risk that he could be harmed if we did enter the house,\" he added.\n\nWest Midlands Police had cordoned off the area since the weekend after being called there for a welfare check and the force said it believed there were weapons in the ground-floor property.\n\nRoads, businesses and a school have been closed all week. Some residents living near the scene in Earlsdon Avenue North said they could not leave their homes without police escort.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Diesel spilled into the nearby Loughor Estuary, a part of the Carmarthen Bay and Estuaries Special Area of Conservation\n\nA train derailment which led to a diesel spill was caused by wheels locking probably due to a braking defect, a report has found.\n\nA freight train pulling 25 wagons, each containing up to 100,000 litres of diesel, derailed and spilled into the Loughor Estuary at Llangennech, near Llanelli, in August 2020.\n\nNatural Resources Wales compared it to the Sea Empress disaster in 1996.\n\nThe Rail Accident Investigation Branch wants changes to wagon maintenance.\n\nChief inspector of rail accidents Simon French said the industry's approach to the safe maintenance of freight wagons \"needs to improve\".\n\nHe described \"inadequate maintenance practices\" found in the investigation and \"a failure to appreciate\" the importance of the correct fastenings in the braking system.\n\nMr French said similar \"serious issues\" have been found to be a factor in 10 investigations over the past decade.\n\nThe blaze could be seen from several miles away\n\nIn its report, the RAIB made nine recommendations which include a review of the design of braking systems and for organisations that carry out surveillance and certification to review their processes.\n\nIt also wants owners of wagons to overhaul maintenance procedures.\n\nOther recommendations include a review of the technology and systems used to alert traincrew, signallers and railway control offices to wagon defects that may lead to derailments.\n\n\"Trains carrying dangerous goods play an important role in the UK economy, but the risks which their operation presents must be adequately controlled,\" Mr French added.\n\n\"The consequences when things go wrong can be disastrous, as we saw at Llangennech in August 2020.\n\n\"Thankfully no one was hurt, but people were evacuated from their homes and the damage, both to the environment and to people's livelihoods, will take years to put right.\"\n\nTen of the trains 25 wagons derailed, each carrying about 100,000 litres of diesel\n\nThe locomotive was pulling the wagons from Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, to Theale, near Reading, on 26 August.\n\nA derailment occurred because one set of wheels on the third wagon stopped rotating during the journey, the report says.\n\nBecause of a defect in the braking system, this meant it became locked, with the wheels unable to safely negotiate Morlais Junction, near Llangennech, damaging the pointwork.\n\nThe third wagon then derailed, with others following it off the track, and some rupturing, spilling ignited fuel.\n\nAbout 300 people had to leave homes nearby amid the blaze which followed and a major clear-up has seen contaminated soil removed from the site.\n\nThe soil has been replaced with clean material from quarries in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.\n\nEfforts were made to stop diesel spreading in the river following the crash\n\nMonitoring has shown the safety and quality of shellfish harvested from the area, such as cockles and mussels, is \"well within regulatory limits\".\n\nThe crash site and surrounding area, which includes four sites of special scientific interest and a special area of conservation, will continue to be monitored for about five years.\n\nThe accident also closed the railway line for more than six months whilst the railway was being rebuilt and engineers worked to minimise the damage to the local environment.\n\nMr French added: \"I have been struck by the extent to which the safe condition of freight wagons is critically dependent on people being given the tools and training they need to do a difficult job, very often in dark, wet and cold working conditions.\n\n\"So, I urge freight operators and maintainers to think carefully about the people who do the hands-on work, and the things that could be done to develop the capability of the work force.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Care providers say they are struggling to cope with so many staff off work with Omicron\n\nThe care system faces grim and relentless pressure compounded by Omicron, an organisation representing not-for-profit providers says.\n\nThe National Care Forum says existing staff shortages, absences caused by the Covid variant and delayed PCR results have left many services struggling.\n\nThe government says it has put significant additional money into social care.\n\nBut the National Care Forum says this amounts to \"crumbs from the table\".\n\n\"The continual drip-feed approach to funding, which, as a result of bureaucracy, fails to reach providers in a timely manner, is indicative of an approach that does not properly value the people who receive or deliver care,\" NCF chief executive Vic Rayner says.\n\nManagers running more than 5,000 care services, with nearly 100,000 staff caring for 130,000 people across the UK, responded to the organisation's January questionnaire.\n\nOf these, two-thirds of those providing home care are no longer able to take new clients and nearly half of care homes have closed to new residents.\n\nIn Norfolk, Sarah Wyatt says her company, I Care Service, which provides homecare in the Dereham area, has closed its books to new clients and is using overtime and office staff to cover existing patients.\n\nThe pressure means many staff are burned out, she says.\n\nSarah Wyatt says staff shortages have caused her care company to close its books to new clients\n\nThis week, of 42 staff, four are isolating with Covid and another six are signed off for other reasons.\n\n\"Most of them are just tired,\" Ms Wyatt says.\n\n\"They've inputted so many hours, they're trying to juggle family lives as well as working - and that added pressure means they need to take a breather for a little bit.\"\n\nShe is looking at raising pay and has taken to social media to try to encourage local people to join the company as carers.\n\n\"We're constantly recruiting,\" she says.\n\n\"Our philosophy is the more staff that we've got, the more clients we can help.\"\n\nNorfolk County Council executive director of adult social services James Bullion says the Omicron variant, first identified in South Africa, has put the system under critical pressure for more than three weeks.\n\n\"Slowly but surely, care provision is silting up as a result of either higher levels of demand or higher levels of sickness,\" he says.\n\nAnd this means the council has been unable to fully meet the care needs of 870 people.\n\nOf these, about 200 are waiting for the council to put care in place before they can be discharged from local hospitals.\n\nSometimes families are able to step in and do some of the caring but this is far from ideal, Mr Bullion says.\n\n\"I'm enormously worried about those people in the community that have got their needs poorly met,\" he says.\n\n\"I've never seen pressure this big,\" Norfolk's director of adult social services, James Bullion, says\n\nWith the peak of Omicron in the area estimated to be two weeks away, Mr Bullion fears levels of staff sickness and unmet needs are likely to rise.\n\n\"I've never seen pressure this big,\" he says.\n\n\"We've never had a position where we've got 800 people whose needs we can't properly meet.\n\n\"The maximum in my career that's got to in the past has been about 100 - and that we thought was hugely bad.\n\n\"It's a really critical and risky moment for us.\"\n\nAcross the UK, those who responded to the survey said staff vacancies were running at just under 20% before Omicron.\n\nNow, in addition, about 14% of the staff they do have are off sick or self-isolating.\n\nStaff and managers are working extra-long shifts to fill the gaps but the NCF wants more government support to help providers run safe, high-quality services.\n\nMs Rayner says: \"It is unacceptable that, yet again, nearly two years on from the start of the pandemic, we continue to see enormous pressures in the care and support sector, this time compounded by the impact of Omicron.\"\n\nIn a statement, a Department for Health and Social Care official said: \"Care staff are working incredibly hard, and to strengthen the workforce we have provided £462.5m for recruitment and retention, expanded the Health and Care Visa scheme, and are running our Made with Care recruitment campaign.\n\n\"Throughout the pandemic, we have made almost £2.4bn in specific funding available for adult social care as well as an extra £60m to keep people in care homes safe over January.''", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nNovak Djokovic practised again at Melbourne Park on Thursday, shortly before the draws were made Novak Djokovic remains in the Australian Open draw as the decision over whether the defending champion can stay in the country drags on. The nine-time champion has been drawn against fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic. Britain's US Open champion Emma Raducanu, seeded 17th, faces American world number 68 Sloane Stephens, the 2017 champion at the New York major. The Australian Open is the first Grand Slam of the 2022 season and starts at Melbourne Park on Monday. The draw was originally supposed to take place at 3pm local time (04:00 GMT) on Thursday but was delayed by one hour and 15 minutes. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison held a news conference to update the country about the coronavirus pandemic at 3:45pm, although he declined to say when a decision about Djokovic might be made. Top seed Djokovic, 34, practised again at Melbourne Park earlier on Thursday, with Australia's immigration minister Alex Hawke still considering whether to revoke his visa again and throw him out of the country. The world number one is hoping to win a record-extending 10th Australian Open men's title which would be his 21st Grand Slam triumph, moving him clear of Switzerland's Roger Federer and Spain's Rafael Nadal. Djokovic has not been vaccinated against Covid-19 and had his visa revoked when he arrived in Australia last week, following questions over the vaccine exemption that would have permitted him to enter. However, on Monday a judge dramatically overturned the decision and ordered his release from an immigration detention hotel after finding that border officials had not followed proper procedure. On Wednesday, Djokovic admitted to meeting a L'Equipe journalist on 18 December despite knowing he had tested positive for Covid, as well as there being mistakes on his immigration forms.\n• None What's next for Djokovic after visa row? What happened in the rest of the draws? Britain's former world number one Andy Murray was drawn against 21st seed Nikoloz Basilashvili - a day after beating the Georgian in the Sydney Tennis Classic. Heather Watson, who is the only other British woman to have directly qualified for the main draw, takes on Egypt's Mayar Sherif. Harriet Dart and Liam Broady could increase the British contingent in the singles if they win matches in the final qualifying round on Friday. Australian world number one Ashleigh Barty starts her quest for a first home Grand Slam title against a qualifier, while defending champion Naomi Osaka opens against Colombia's Camila Osorio. Top seed Barty could face Japan's Osaka, seeded 13th as she returns after a four-month break from the sport, in the fourth round. In the men's draw, Spanish sixth seed Nadal starts against unseeded American Marcos Giron. Russian second seed Daniil Medvedev, who lost to Djokovic in last year's final but beat the Serb to win the US Open title, will play Swiss Henri Laaksonen. Last year's finals were limited to 50% capacity, meaning about 7,500 fans were allowed to watch Crowds on two of the Australian Open show courts have been capped at 50% capacity in response to rising coronavirus rates in Melbourne, the Victorian government announced earlier on Thursday. However, those sessions on the main Rod Laver Arena and Margaret Court Arena which have already sold more than that will not be affected. All tickets already bought will remain valid and there will be no changes to ground pass access. More than 37,000 people tested positive for Covid in Victoria on Wednesday. The state, which has an estimated population of 6.7 million, recorded 25 more deaths and a further 953 people were hospitalised. \"We are confident in the Covid-safe measures we have in place and there are still plenty of tickets available,\" said Tennis Australia chief revenue and experiential officer Ben Slack. What a horrible draw for Emma Raducanu in her first Grand Slam match since becoming a Grand Slam champion. Her preparations for the Australian Open were seriously disrupted by Covid, although Sloane Stephens has had an unusual build-up, too, having got married on New Year's Day. Andy Murray faces probably the hardest hitter on tour right now in Nikoloz Basilashvili, but has the confidence of having beaten him at last year's Wimbledon and again in Sydney on Wednesday. Dan Evans faces the former top 10 player David Goffin, who was forced to retire from his Sydney quarter-final against Murray on Thursday. The Belgian has had a succession of wrist, elbow, ankle and knee problems in recent years. And Cameron Norrie, who is yet to win a match this season, has what looks a very tough draw against Sebastian Korda, who reached the fourth round of Wimbledon and the French Open last year. But the American tested positive for Covid on arrival in Adelaide last week, and has been hitting tennis balls against the wall of his hotel bedroom ever since.\n• None Is cutting carbs really a healthy diet to follow? Breaking down one of the most searched diet regimes\n• None A brand new thriller exploring the dangers of workplace culture", "Lorna and Craig Hewitt denied locking her vulnerable son for seven months in a vomit and faeces-covered attic bedroom\n\nA mother and stepfather who kept their starving autistic son locked in a \"disgusting\" attic bedroom have been found guilty of false imprisonment.\n\nMatthew Langley, 22, was \"close to death\" inside the vomit and faeces-covered room, weighing just six stone (39kg) and severely dehydrated.\n\nLorna Hewitt, 43, and husband Craig Hewitt denied keeping him captive at their Sheffield home for seven months.\n\nBut both were found guilty following a trial at the city's crown court.\n\nThe pair, of Walkley Road, were also convicted of causing or allowing a vulnerable adult to suffer serious physical harm.\n\nThe couple are due to be sentenced on 18 February\n\nFollowing the verdicts, Judge Michael Slater told the defendants to expect a prison term \"of some length\" when they are sentenced on 18 February.\n\nJurors heard Mr Langley, who also had learning difficulties and suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, double incontinence and arthritis, had become so extremely malnourished and dehydrated that his \"life was in the balance\" by the time he was found on 2 June 2020.\n\nParamedics called out to reports Mr Langley had collapsed alerted police, who found faeces and vomit over the floor, bedding, and dormer window of the attic room, prosecutors said.\n\nProsecutor Nicholas Campbell QC said officers had described \"the smell, the overflowing bin and the presence of buzzing flies\", and noticed a lock on the bedroom door with a key on the outside.\n\nMr Langley was in a \"pitiable state\" - unable to walk, with bruises and abrasions suggesting he had been \"crawling on all fours\" in his room.\n\nHe had suffered an acute injury to his kidney and his sodium levels were \"dangerously\" elevated due to being deprived of water and other fluids for some time, the court heard.\n\nHis sodium levels were \"so high that they could shut his brain down and kill him\", the prosecutor added.\n\nWhen he was found by ambulance staff, Mr Langley weighed 6st 2lbs (39kg). But seven months earlier on 7 November 2019, he had weighed 8st 6lbs (53.6kg).\n\nHe was taken to hospital and a nurse found he was \"all skin and bone, lacking muscle and fat. His skin was dry and appeared dehydrated. He was soaked in urine and was covered in faeces, both dry and fresh\", jurors were told.\n\n\"The room was in a disgusting state, markedly worse than the rest of the house,\" Mr Campbell said.\n\nThe attic room at the Walkley Road house was in a disgusting state markedly worse than the rest of the house, prosecutors told jurors\n\nThe court heard Mr Langley had not been seen by anyone outside of the household during those seven months and, in February 2019, his mum and stepdad had also stopped him from attending college. They had also cancelled medical appointments scheduled for later in the year.\n\nMr Hewitt, 42, told paramedics his stepson had \"an eating disorder\", while Mrs Hewitt claimed her son had not been well for a few days, that she had found him collapsed in his room and her husband had brought him downstairs, the court heard.\n\nGiving evidence Mrs Hewitt told jurors she was aware her son was unwell but \"had not realised how ill he was\".\n\nMr Hewitt claimed there were locks on all the doors of the house when he moved in because it had previously been student accommodation. He told police his stepson was \"only locked in at night\" to stop him from going downstairs and setting off the burglar alarms, as was the case a few years ago, the jury heard.\n\nThe court was told Matthew was a \"drain on their resources\".\n\nMr Campbell said: \"As the pressures grew, it may be that they were prepared to gamble with his health, in order to have him taken off their hands.\"\n\nDet Sgt Susannah Taylor, from South Yorkshire Police, said: \"This was an horrific case in which the victim could well have lost his life as his organs were shutting down.\n\n\"He had to be placed into intensive care in a life-threatening condition. Thankfully he has since made a full recovery and is now getting the support and care he needs.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I offer my heartfelt apologies\" - watch Boris Johnson admit to attending the No 10 party in May 2020\n\nBoris Johnson offered a \"heartfelt\" apology for attending drinks in the Downing Street gardens during lockdown in 2020 - something he said he thought was a work event.\n\nBut will that apology and explanation wash with Conservative MPs?\n\nMany of his cabinet colleagues rallied in support of the PM in the hours following the statement.\n\nCulture Secretary Nadine Dorries and Health Secretary Sajid Javid praised him on Twitter for offering an apology, while Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove faced the 1922 committee of backbench MPs to remind them of Mr Johnson's plus points.\n\nBut earlier in the day, some others in the party who chose to speak publicly offered conditional support for their leader in his hour of need.\n\nMinister Rachel Maclean said the PM's statement showed he \"recognised the anger and sense of injustice\" of the public, which were feelings she shared.\n\n\"I also feel the same, as anybody would,\" she told BBC Two's Politics Live programme. \"I was following the rules. I couldn't see my own children. My own mother was in a nursing home [and] I couldn't see her.\"\n\nBut Ms Maclean said the PM shouldn't resign, and that any conclusions - or punishments - needed to be decided by the inquiry into Westminster lockdown parties, led by senior civil servant Sue Gray.\n\nSenior Tory Christopher Chope told the same programme he had \"never heard such an abject apology\" during his long years in Parliament, and he believed it was \"genuinely sincere\".\n\nHe said: \"I think the prime minister showed contrition and had realised he had done the wrong thing in not intervening at the time.\n\n\"So, I think when someone makes an apology like that, then reasonable people accept the apology.\"\n\nSir Christopher also added the \"caveat\" implied by Ms Maclean, saying the party could revisit the issue of the prime minister's future depending on the outcome of Ms Gray's inquiry.\n\nBut, he said, \"in the short-term\", the statement was \"a monumental relief... because we didn't think he'd be able to carry on if he didn't answer the basic question of if he was there\".\n\nThat caveat seemed to be a running theme for those Tories speaking after Mr Johnson's Commons appearance.\n\nStephen Hammond told BBC Radio 4's World at One that he was pleased to hear \"an apology and some transparency\" from the prime minister, saying it was \"important he cleared up some of the speculation about his attendance\".\n\nHe said he would \"take his word\" that the PM thought the gathering was a work event.\n\nBut he said others would find it \"surprising\", adding: \"Many of my constituents quite rightly will be sitting here today feeling they've had a bit of an apology, but still feeling very let down.\n\n\"And like a number of people, I am still very very concerned that people in Downing Street thought it was acceptable to break the rules.\n\n\"But I think the prime minister has at least earned the right for us to wait and see what Sue Gray says.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Politics This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOthers in the Tory ranks were less kind about the PM's performance.\n\nIn fact, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross went as far as calling for his resignation - actually phoning Mr Johnson to tell him his position was untenable.\n\nThe chair of the Public Affairs and Constitutional Affairs Committee, William Wragg, echoed his call, telling BBC Radio 4's PM that Tory MPs were \"frankly worn out of defending what is invariably indefensible\", and that \"for their sakes\" he should resign.\n\nAnd Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi - a long standing critic of Mr Johnson - said any minister, MP or member of staff at any Downing Street party must resign, \"no ifs no buts\".\n\nShe added: \"The rule of law is a fundamental value - the glue that hold us together as a nation. Once that is trashed by those in power the very essence of our democracy is at stake.\"\n\nWhile welcoming the apology, Tory MP Dan Poulter - who also works as a doctor - said it was \"not much consolation to those of us who cared for patients on the frontline of the NHS and saw them die of Covid\".\n\nHe said if the PM was \"found to have actively misled Parliament, or if he faces criminal sanction (or both), then his position would be untenable\".\n\nSir Roger Gale, who has already written a letter to the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers - the method for MPs to call for a leadership challenge - said that, politically speaking, \"the prime minister is a dead man walking\".\n\nHe told World at One that Mr Johnson had \"misled the House\" in December when claiming allegations of Covid rule-breaking parties were unfounded - breaking the ministerial code - and that he had left his MPs in \"an impossible situation\".\n\nAnd there were MPs happy to make their critical views known to the BBC privately, with a senior Tory source saying the PM \"had lost what made him so successful with his party\".\n\nOthers said his performance at PMQs was \"weak\" and \"terrible\", while another said: \"It's growing and growing. He'll have to go.\"\n\nOne Conservative MP told Nick Watt, the political editor at Newsnight, that: \"The PM's statement isn't enough. It won't do the trick.\n\n\"He can usually find a small piece of Teflon to help him slip away from trouble. But I think he has finally run out of Teflon.\"\n\nActions also sometimes speak louder then words too.\n\nDuring the PM's stint at the dispatch box, the Conservative MPs sat behind his were subdued, avoiding the traditional cheers of support.\n\nAnd they stuck firmly to questions about local projects, like bus routes, and even washing machines.\n\nBut remember, between the calls for Mr Johnson to quit and others offering tentative support, the majority of the 360 Tory MPs in Parliament are keeping quiet and could fall into either camp.\n\nThe response to Mr Johnson from the opposition was perhaps unsurprising, with no fewer than eight MPs using PMQs to call for his resignation.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the prime minister \"a pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road\", the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford said he had \"betrayed the nation's trust\", and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called it a \"shameful attempt\" at an apology.\n\nOther MPs joined the vocal outcry, with Green MP Caroline Lucas accusing Mr Johnson of only saying sorry to \"save his skin\", while Labour's Jess Philips said: \"He's not sorry, he's sorry he got caught.\"\n\nBut it is the Conservative Party that will decide Mr Johnson's future, and the conclusions of those MPs which will seal his fate.", "Staff absences are putting even more pressure on the healthcare system, Eluned Morgan said\n\nThere are currently 10,000 Welsh NHS staff off work either sick or self-isolating, the highest since April 2020, according to the health minister.\n\nEluned Morgan said some councils have also had to redeploy workers because of shortages in social care.\n\nFive local authorities in south east Wales have put out a plea to relatives to help with care.\n\nThey warned that provision is likely to be limited and \"may not be ideal\" but \"will be all that is available\".\n\nIt comes as the number of people in hospital with Covid have increased 48% on the previous week.\n\nThe official statistics do not make clear whether patients were admitted for something other than Covid but tested positive on arrival - the so-called \"incidental\" cases.\n\nSpeaking at a news conference, Ms Morgan said: \"Just over 8% of staff are currently off work sick or self-isolating - that's around 10,000 people.\n\n\"These levels of staff sickness are putting even more pressure on our healthcare system at a time when it's already seeing incredibly high demand for emergency and medical care.\n\n\"The number of NHS staff off with coronavirus is at its highest level since April 2020.\"\n\nThe minister said there are now \"more than a thousand Covid-19 patients in our hospitals across Wales, and that's the highest level since last March\".\n\nShe added that from April carers in Wales will be paid the \"real living wage\" in an effort to address staff shortages.\n\nStaff shortages have also meant \"all maternity services are increasingly finding it difficult\", according to the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).\n\nLast week Cardiff and Vale and Aneurin Bevan health boards both warned expectant mums that, to provide safe staffing levels, the number of sites where expectant mums can be cared for may be reduced.\n\nRCM national officer for Wales Vicky Richards said: \"Staff are burnt out. And the staff absence rate is quite high, so they are having to work extra hard.\n\n\"They are trying extremely hard to provide a service 24/7 and keep that service going, but of course with the absences being quite high that sometimes is difficult.\n\n\"Usually where services are reduced, they are only reduced for a short period of time and then recommenced as soon as safe to do so, but that decision is not taken lightly.\n\n\"I think it's important that we reassure women that services are available for them, it's just sometimes they are tweaked a little bit depending on the situation.\n\n\"But that's done with their best interests and to ensure a safe service is provided for all involved.\"\n\nMaternity services are also being affected by more staff being off work\n\nShe added that going forward, the recovery phase from the pandemic would need adequate resourcing.\n\n\"We do need to invest in the conditions and the right environments to support the service and to ensure that maternity is a place that staff want to work and not get burnt out and leave the service - which is always a worry.\"\n\nLater, First Minister Mark Drakeford told Senedd members it was unclear whether recent figures that appear to show a decline in the number of Covid cases were \"genuine falls\" or a result of fewer people going for PCR tests because of recent changes which no longer require those receiving a positive lateral flow test to follow up with a PCR test.\n\nMr Drakeford said that even though they were showing a decline the figures were still \"astronomically high\" and that it would take \"a few days yet\" before it is clear whether they represent a genuine downturn.\n\n\"I just caution members on the most recent figures, they do show the start of a decline in the number of people falling ill they are still astronomically high compared to what we would have seen in earlier parts of the pandemic.\n\n\"And it is not clear as to whether or not these are genuine falls or whether they are a result of fewer people presenting for PCR tests because of the substitution of lateral flow tests in a number of contexts where previously, PCR tests would have been used.\"\n\nArmed forces personnel have been helping the Welsh Ambulance Service since October\n\nTuesday is the first anniversary of the worst day of the pandemic in Wales - on 11 January 2021 there were 83 deaths involving Covid.\n\nLatest figures from the Office for National Statistics show there were 24 deaths in Wales involving Covid in the last week of 2021, the lowest weekly figure since the end of August.\n\nThis compared to 49 deaths registered in the previous week, according to the ONS, which gives details of death certificates where Covid is a contributory factor.\n\nThere were no deaths involving Covid in 10 counties in the week ending 31 December: Anglesey, Blaenau Gwent, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Ceredigion, Merthyr, Monmouthshire, Newport, Powys and Rhondda Cynon Taf.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Wassim Mukdad on his time in the Syrian prison known as 'Hell on Earth'\n\nA German court has sentenced a Syrian colonel to life in prison for crimes against humanity in a historic trial.\n\nAnwar Raslan, 58, was linked to the torture of over 4,000 people in Syria's civil war in a jail known as \"Hell on Earth\".\n\nThe trial in Koblenz is the world's first criminal case brought over state-led torture in Syria.\n\nUN rights chief Michelle Bachelet praised the conviction as a \"landmark leap forward\" in the pursuit of truth.\n\nIt's hard to imagine what the men and women incarcerated in Syria's notorious Al-Khatib prison had to endure.\n\nAt the heart of it, Raslan was accused of being a high-ranking security service officer under President Bashar al-Assad as mass anti-government protests were violently crushed in 2011.\n\nSyrians stood outside the court in Koblenz clutching photos of victims of the civil war\n\nMany protesters and others suspected of opposing the regime were rounded up and detained in the Al-Khatib facility in Damascus where, prosecutors say, Mr Raslan directed operations.\n\nHe was charged with 58 murders as well as rape and sexual assault, and the torture of at least 4,000 people held there between 2011 and 2012.\n\nThe ruling is significant, especially for those who survived Al-Khatib and gave evidence during the trial. A criminal court has now formally acknowledged that crimes against humanity were perpetrated by the Assad regime against its own citizens.\n\nRaslan was arrested in Germany in 2019 having successfully sought asylum there. He denied all the charges against him, saying he had nothing to do with the mistreatment of prisoners and that he actually tried to help some detainees.\n\nThe court in Koblenz ruled that Anwar Raslan's face should not be recognisable in media coverage\n\nHis trial was extraordinary for several reasons. It was unprecedented in taking on Syria's state-led torture and it was prompted by the arrival in Germany of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who'd fled their own country.\n\nMany of the almost 800,000 Syrians who now live in Germany brought with them terrible stories of what happened to those who opposed the Assad regime, and German human rights lawyers took up their cause, using the principle of universal jurisdiction to bring the case to court. This allows serious crimes committed in one country to be tried elsewhere.\n\nWolfgang Kaleck, head of the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights which has led the case, says it's hard to talk about justice given that hundreds of thousands of people have been tortured and tens of thousands have died as a result.\n\nInternational criminal justice, universal jurisdiction always comes too late and it's never enough but… I would say it's an important step forward\n\nBut perhaps most importantly the trial gave a voice to those whom the Assad regime tried to silence. Fifty survivors have given evidence to the court in Koblenz; 24 are co-plaintiffs in the case.\n\nTheir stories are horrifying. The court heard how detainees were beaten and doused in cold water. Others were raped or hung from the ceiling for hours on end. Torturers tore out their fingernails and administered electric shocks.\n\nOne survivor told me that he could hear the screams of people being tortured all day, every day. Another that his attackers had used special \"tools' and that they had appeared to enjoy what they were doing.\n\nRaslan now faces life in prison and prosecutors sought to bar any possibility of probation after 15 years.\n\nProsecutors were encouraged by the conviction last year of another Syrian official as part of the same trial. Eyad-al-Gharib, who helped to arrest protesters who were later tortured and killed, was jailed for four and a half years for complicity in crimes against humanity.\n\nLawyers are preparing cases against a number of other suspects but, ultimately, they'd like to bring to justice those right at the top of the chain of command.\n\nBashar al-Assad has indicated that he's following the trial, but he and his government have repeatedly denied accusations of torturing or forcibly \"disappearing\" hundreds of thousands of his own citizens.\n\nThis trial serves another purpose too: to build a body of evidence for use in future proceedings. In addition to witness testimonies, prosecutors in Koblenz have relied on the \"Caesar files\" - gruesome photographs smuggled out of Syria by a regime whistleblower which show the dead bodies of thousands of people who are believed to have died in detention facilities - many of whom appear to have been tortured.\n\nAnd it's a reminder of the ongoing plight of many Syrians.\n\nTwenty-four survivors were co-plaintiffs in the case including Wassim Mukdad (L) and Hussein Ghrer (R)\n\nWassim Mukdad, who was first detained in 2011 and now lives in Germany, gave evidence to the trial and returned to the court for the verdict.\n\n\"For me, this is the first step in a very long way towards justice,\" he has told the BBC.\n\nThere are many stories that have not been heard, he says: \"Either because they are still detained now - while we're talking, they're suffering torture and horrible situations in the detention centres. Or because they were murdered.\"\n\nAnd then, he adds, there were those who died as they tried to reach Europe, drowning at sea or freezing on Europe's borders.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Artist Sami told the BBC's Lina Sinjab of the horror of prison in Syria (video from 2015)", "A man arrested over the murder of a young teacher in Tullamore, County Offaly, has been released \"and is no longer a suspect\", gardaí (Irish police) have said.\n\nThey said the 40-year-old had been eliminated from their enquiries.\n\nAshling Murphy, 23, was attacked on the banks of the Grand Canal outside the town on Wednesday afternoon and died at the scene.\n\nEarlier, gardaí said they believed she was killed by one man who acted alone.\n\nA team of more than 50 gardaí have been assigned to the murder investigation and an incident room has been set up in Tullamore.\n\n\"No stone will be left unturned in bringing the perpetrator of this crime to justice,\" said Supt Eamonn Curley.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Eamonn Curley: \"The injuries are consistent with an assault.\"\n\nIn a press conference from the scene, he said Ms Murphy sustained serious injuries \"consistent with an assault\".\n\nA post mortem examination has been carried out to determine the exact cause of her death, but gardaí said on Thursday evening that the results were not being released \"for operational reasons\".\n\nDetectives have appealed for information about a Falcon Storm mountain bike.\n\nThey released a photo of the bike, which they said had \"straight handlebars and distinctive yellow/green front forks\".\n\nDetectives issued a photo of a mountain bike in their appeal for witnesses\n\nThey said they also still wanted to hear from anyone who was near the scene of the murder at Cappincur, Tullamore, on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nGardaí responded to the incident following a call from a member of the public at about 16:00 local time and found Ms Murphy with serious injuries.\n\nShe was given medical attention but could not be saved.\n\nMs Murphy worked at Durrow National School and she was also a talented musician and member of the National Folk Orchestra of Ireland.\n\nShe taught 28 pupils in the 1st class (age six to seven) at the school and had joined the staff team in March 2021.\n\nHer principal James Hogan told Virgin Media News that the school community was \"devastated and numb\".\n\nGardaí have cordoned off Grand Canal Way as they examine the murder scene\n\nHe paid tribute to her as a \"fantastic, beautiful, an extraordinary sportsperson, Irish musician, choral conductor and an inspiration\".\n\nHe said she was referred to as the \"shining light\" whose face lit up the room when she came into it and said the school was working to support staff and students.\n\nMs Murphy's death has also shocked the world of Irish traditional music, according to Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (Gathering of Musicians of Ireland).\n\n\"Ashling was among the finest exponents of the concertina and fiddle and was also learning the uilleann pipes,\" the group said in a statement.\n\n\"She was an exceptionally talented young lady who made an unforgettable impression on all who had the good fortune to know her.\"\n\nIt said she had been a member of the Comhaltas National Folk Orchestra of Ireland since 2017 and performed with them during visit of Pope Francis to Ireland in 2018.\n\nPeople have been visiting the scene to lay flowers\n\nTributes have also been paid by her former teachers in her home town of Tullamore and by staff at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in Limerick, from where she graduated very recently.\n\n\"The entire MIC community is heartbroken and shocked to the core to hear of the tragic and senseless killing of Ashling Murphy who graduated from MIC only three months ago,\" said its president Eugene Wall.\n\n\"Our heartfelt sympathy go out to her family, friends, colleagues and pupils. RIP Ashling.\n\nMs Murphy was attacked between Boland Lough and Digby's bridge on the canal bank.\n\nAccording to RTÉ News she was exercising in the area when she was assaulted and the suspect fled when two women came across the attack.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said the \"entire country is devastated and shocked by the violent and barbaric killing\".\n\n\"There is no place in our society for violence, particularly violence against women. It cannot and will not be tolerated,\" he added.\n\nJustice Minister Helen McEntee described Ms Murphy's murder as a \"truly shocking crime\".\n\nMs McEntee urged anyone with information about the incident to come forward.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Helen McEntee TD This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) said the attack was an \"appalling tragedy\" and it offered its condolences to Ms Murphy's family and friends.\n\n\"For such an appalling tragedy to befall a young woman, who only recently began her teaching career, adds to the profound sense of loss and grief felt,\" it said.", "Samuel Barker was travelling home from school with his brother\n\nA seven-year-old boy suffered \"catastrophic injuries to his head\" after being hit by a school minibus near Monmouth.\n\nSamuel Barker had been travelling home from school on the bus with his brother and one other passenger on 13 January 2020, an inquest jury was told.\n\nThe minibus was operated by CDS travel on behalf of Monmouthshire Council.\n\nIt was driven by its regular driver, John Jason Bevan, who was well known to Samuel Barker and his family.\n\nThe bus was running ahead of schedule and reached Samuel's home earlier than usual, meaning his mother was not there to meet it, the inquest heard.\n\nAssistant coroner for Gwent Sarah Le Fervre said Samuel and his brother \"opened and closed the minibus doors themselves\" before Mr Bevan drove away.\n\nMr Bevan drove away, and did not realise he had hit Samuel.\n\nThe coroner said Samuel's mother, Catherine Barker, was \"scrambling to get her shoes on\" to meet her sons off the bus, and when she got outside she initially only saw Samuel's brother before seeing Samuel lying on his side.\n\nMrs Barker \"knew instantly\" that Samuel had suffered \"catastrophic injuries\" and he died shortly afterwards, the inquest heard.", "Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001\n\nA lawyer for the woman accusing the Duke of York of sexually assaulting her at 17 says a money settlement alone will not be enough for his client.\n\nPrince Andrew faces a civil case in the US after Virginia Giuffre sued him, claiming he abused her in 2001. He has consistently denied the claims.\n\nA judge has ruled the case can continue after Prince Andrew tried to have it dismissed.\n\nDavid Boies, Ms Giuffre's lawyer, told the BBC she wants to be vindicated.\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers had cited a 2009 deal Ms Giuffre signed with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as grounds for the dismissal of the case, arguing she had waived her right to pursue a claim against the royal.\n\nBut Judge Lewis A Kaplan said the case could continue, adding that this ruling did not determine the \"truth or falsity\" of Ms Giuffre's complaint. The case against Prince Andrew, 61, could now be heard in court later this year.\n\nMr Boies told BBC's Newsnight the ruling was \"an important step\" in moving towards a trial.\n\nHe said: \"I think it's very important to Virginia Giuffre that this matter be resolved in a way that vindicates her and vindicates the other victims. I don't think she has a firm view as to exactly what a solution should be.\n\n\"But I think what's going to be important is that this resolution vindicates her and vindicates the claim she has made.\"\n\nIn court documents, Ms Giuffre said she was the victim of sex trafficking and abuse by late billionaire financier Epstein.\n\nPart of her abuse involved being lent out to other powerful men, she alleges.\n\nPrince Andrew, the Queen's second son, said in an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he had no recollection of ever meeting Virginia Giuffre, and her account of them having sex in the US and UK \"didn't happen\".\n\nAsked if Ms Giuffre would be open to an out-of-court money settlement, her lawyer said he did not want to \"pre-judge that\", adding there had been \"no suggestion of settlement discussions at this point\".\n\n\"A purely financial settlement is not anything I think she is interested in,\" he said.\n\nMs Giuffre filed a civil case in New York in August 2021 under the state's Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of childhood sexual abuse to pursue a case which otherwise would have been barred because too much time had passed.\n\nNow 38, she says the three alleged instances of abuse by Prince Andrew continue to cause her \"significant emotional and psychological distress and harm\".\n\nOn Thursday, a letter was released signed by more than 150 Royal Navy, RAF and Army veterans asking the Queen to strip Prince Andrew of his ranks and titles in the British armed forces.\n\nIn the joint letter, released by anti-monarchy pressure group Republic, they wrote: \"Were this any other senior military officer it is inconceivable that he would still be in post.\"\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers could potentially launch an appeal against Judge Kaplan's decision\n\nPrince Andrew withdrew from public duties soon after his 2019 appearance on Newsnight.\n\nHe used the interview to reiterate his denials of Ms Giuffre's claims and explain his one-time friendship with Epstein and the late financier's girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nOne of Ms Giuffre's allegations is that Prince Andrew abused her at the London home of Maxwell, who in December was convicted by a jury in New York of procuring teenage girls for Epstein.\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers could potentially launch an appeal against Judge Kaplan's decision - although they would need his permission to do so, and legal commentators say the wording of his decision suggests it would not be granted.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nProf Sir Jonathan Van-Tam is leaving his role as England's deputy chief medical officer.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson thanked him for his \"extraordinary contribution to our country\".\n\nThe professor said it had been the \"greatest privilege\" of his career to have served the UK during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nHe will continue to work for the government until the end of March before taking up a new academic role.\n\nProf Van-Tam became well-known for his colourful analogies during Downing Street coronavirus briefings, using football metaphors to explain complex science.\n\nThe professor said his time in the role had been \"the most challenging of my professional career, especially the Covid response,\" adding: \"We all wish Covid had never happened.\"\n\nHe thanked all those he had worked with during the pandemic, including the \"countless numbers who work behind the scenes - all of whom have an unrelenting commitment to help and support the British public\".\n\nHe especially praised chief medical officer Prof Sir Chris Whitty, who in turn applauded Prof Van-Tam's \"steadfast support, advice, leadership and commitment\". The pair were knighted in the New Year Honours.\n\nProf Van-Tam had been on secondment to the Department of Health from the University of Nottingham.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid paid tribute to Prof Van-Tam for his \"one-of-a-kind approach to communicating science over the past two years\" that \"has no doubt played a vital role in protecting and reassuring the nation\".\n\nAnd in the House of Commons, he told MPs Prof Van-Tam had become a \"national hero\".\n\nUsing the football metaphors so beloved of the scientist, he said he was \"grateful we've had him on loan for so many years\" and that he had been a \"top signing\" who had now \"blown the whistle on time\".\n\nMr Javid made the comments before announcing self-isolation in England is being cut to five full days, as long as people have two negative lateral flow tests.\n\nThe prime minister thanked Prof Van-Tam for his \"invaluable advice throughout the pandemic\".\n\nLabour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting paid tribute to the professor's \"outstanding public service\" during the pandemic before calling him a \"national treasure\".\n\nProfessor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam is widely seen as one of the effective communicators of this pandemic.\n\nMinisters relied on him to answer complex scientific questions in simple terms - whether at the podium alongside Boris Johnson or directly from young listeners on stations like BBC Radio 1.\n\nHis plain-speaking delivery along with his love of sometimes tortured metaphors have made him into something of a cult figure over the last two years.\n\nHe often compares the pandemic to a football match - with vaccines like a \"70th-minute equaliser\" or a new variant like \"two yellow cards to key players\".\n\nThat kind of easy connection with the public will be missed by government when he returns to the University of Nottingham.\n\nBut it may give Professor Van-Tam more time to get to the Jakeman Community stadium and reignite his 50-year love affair with local team Boston United.\n\nProf Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England since 2017, often appeared alongside Mr Johnson at news briefings, where he caught the public's attention by the way he described coronavirus.\n\nIn late 2020 - while describing the early stages of the pandemic - he said \"it's clear the away team gave us an absolute battering\".\n\nA year later, in November 2021, he warned \"the final whistle hasn't blown\" in the pandemic, but instead predicted we were in \"half time of extra time\".\n\n\"I love metaphors,\" he told the BBC in 2020. \"I think they bring complex stories to life for people.\"\n\nHe gave the recent Royal Institution Christmas lectures on viruses - beginning by standing at a podium before ripping off his tie in a puff of smoke, then pointing at the camera and declaring: \"Tonight, we're going viral!\"\n\nIn his new role, he will be pro-vice chancellor at the University of Nottingham's faculty of medicine and health sciences.\n\nUniversity of Nottingham Vice-Chancellor Professor Shearer West said Prof Van-Tam had \"played a major role in steering the nation through the Covid-19 pandemic\" and that she was \"delighted\" to welcome him back to the university.\n\nThe 57-year-old lives with his wife and two teenage sons near Boston, Lincolnshire. He also has an older daughter.\n\nHe has previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry and for the UK Health Protection Agency.\n\nThe professor volunteered as a vaccinator to help distribute Covid-19 jabs - which included giving then-health secretary Matt Hancock his first dose last year.", "Dr Erin Pritchard says using the word midget in packaging is a form of hate speech\n\nMarks & Spencer has changed the name of its Midget Gems sweets to avoid offending people with dwarfism after a campaign by a Liverpool academic.\n\nDr Erin Pritchard, a lecturer in disability studies at Liverpool Hope University, argued the word midget was a form of hate speech.\n\nM&S has now rebranded the popular treats as Mini Gems.\n\nA spokeswoman said the store was \"committed to being an inclusive retailer\".\n\nDr Pritchard, who has achondroplasia, a condition which stunts growth, approached supermarkets and confectionery makers about changing the name of the sweet, raising her concerns that the use of the word \"midget\" had its roots in Victorian freak shows.\n\nThe supermarket chain has rebranded the popular sweets as Mini Gems\n\nShe wrote in Big Issue North: \"Often referred to by people with dwarfism as the m-word, it is a term derived from the word midge, meaning gnat or sandfly.\n\n\"Its origin automatically dehumanises people like me. It was a term popularised during the Victorian freak show, where many disabled people, including people with dwarfism, were oppressed and exploited.\"\n\nM&S is the first retailer to react to Dr Pritchard's campaign and has changed the labelling on its packaging.\n\nAn M&S spokeswoman said: \"Following suggestions from our colleagues and the insights shared by Dr Erin Pritchard, we introduced new Mini Gem packaging last year, which has since been rolled out to all of our stores.\"\n\nTesco has also said it will be reviewing the name of its product.\n\nA spokesman for the supermarket said: \"We are a diverse and inclusive retailer and we would not want any of our products to cause offence.\n\n\"We are grateful to Dr Pritchard for bringing this to our attention.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "First Minister Mark Drakeford was the starter for Trelai Parkrun in Cardiff in October 2021\n\nThe decision to ban mass outdoor group exercise events in Wales is unjustified and disproportionate, a UK minister has said.\n\nPopular 5km (3.1 mile) run event Parkrun decided to cancel events in Wales after the Welsh government restricted outdoor events to 50 people.\n\nUK government Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the event had \"helped so many people improve their health\".\n\nThe Welsh government said the country was facing \"a serious situation\".\n\nParkrun events take place every Saturday morning at 2,000 locations in 23 countries around the world.\n\nMr Javid was commenting following a Parkrun blog post about the situation in the different UK nations, which stated: \"The evidence remains clear that the infection risks presented by outdoor events like ours are exceptionally low and the public health benefits of remaining open are incredibly high.\n\n\"It is our intention therefore that wherever Parkrun events are legally permitted to operate they should do so.\"\n\nParkrun events bring together people of all ages and abilities to exercise\n\nThe blog listed the situation in each of the four nations - with no restrictions in England or Northern Ireland.\n\nIn Scotland, coronavirus rules mean there are limits of 500 people at social gatherings - but with Parkrun events attracting fewer people than this limit, each is still scheduled to go ahead.\n\nIn Wales, because of the limit on social gatherings, all events have been cancelled from 1 January.\n\nHowever, because children are exempt, junior parkrun for youngsters aged four to 14 will continue to take place.\n\nMr Javid tweeted in response: \"Parkrun has helped so many people improve their health across the UK. I can't see how restricting outdoor exercise in this way is justified or proportionate.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sajid Javid This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWelsh athletics boss James Williams raised concerns about the move last week, saying: \"We all know January is when people make New Year's resolutions to get physically active.\n\n\"Parkrun is the perfect place for people to go to start that journey and if they don't do it on the first of January, the likelihood is they won't do it at all over the next 12 months.\"\n\nResponding to the concerns of both Welsh Athletics and Parkrun last week, a Welsh Government spokesperson said: \"We are facing a very serious situation in Wales. A wave of infections caused by the new, fast-moving and very infectious omicron variant is headed our way.\n\n\"We understand the importance of exercise for people's health and wellbeing - and encourage people to keep active during this difficult time. For the time being, there is a limit of 50 people for outdoor events and activities.\"\n\nNo end date has been set for the new restrictions but First Minister Mark Drakeford has said he wants them in place for the shortest possible time.\n\nParkruns have faced a difficult time during the pandemic - they restarted in England in July after a pause of 16 months because of the pandemic, and then later in the other nations.", "Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell has denounced US President Joe Biden's voting rights speech as \"incoherent\" and \"profoundly unpresidential\".\n\n\"I have known, liked, and personally respected Joe Biden for many years,\" Mr McConnell said on the Senate floor.\n\n\"I did not recognise the man at the podium yesterday.\"\n\nThe remarks come one day after Mr Biden delivered a fiery speech in Atlanta calling for an overhaul of the US election system.\n\nThe president said he supported changes that would allow his party's proposed overhaul of the election system to be passed without the support of opposition Republicans.\n\nCurrently, a majority of 60% is needed to pass certain legislation in the Senate.\n\nMr Biden said the push to pass the legislation was a \"battle for the soul of America\", adding that the 60-vote rule - known as the filibuster - had rendered the Senate \"a shell of its former self\".\n\nThe upper chamber of Congress is currently split 50-50 between the two parties, therefore Mr Biden's sweeping election bills are almost certain not to pass unless there is a change to that rule.\n\nBut misgivings from two senators in his party are hampering his plans, and no Republicans have backed them.\n\nIn his speech, Mr Biden compared those that oppose election reform to believers in racial segregation and rebels in the US Civil War. He cast his supporters as civil rights leaders and abolitionists.\n\nAddressing his colleagues in Washington on Wednesday, the Kentucky Republican senator slammed Mr Biden's comments as a \"rant\" that was \"incoherent, incorrect, and beneath his office\".\n\n\"Unfortunately, President Biden has rejected the better angels of our nature. So it is the Senate's responsibility to protect the country,\" Mr McConnell said.\n\nHe described Mr Biden's speech as evidence the filibuster must be preserved.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"You could not invent a better advertisement for the legislative filibuster than what we've just seen; a president abandoning rational persuasion for pure, pure, demagoguery,\" Mr McConnell said.\n\n\"A president shouting that 52 senators and millions of Americans are racist unless he gets whatever he wants is proving exactly why the framers built the Senate to check his power.\"\n\nEven Biden ally and Democratic Illinois Senator Dick Durbin conceded that the president's tone may have been overheated.\n\nThe Senate majority whip told CNN: \"Perhaps the president went a little too far in his rhetoric.\"\n\nMeanwhile, former President Barack Obama threw his weight behind Mr Biden's calls to scrap the filibuster.\n\n\"And every American who cares about the survival of our most cherished institutions should support the president's call as well,\" he said in an op-ed for USA Today.\n\nSenate Democrats plan to vote on the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act by Monday.\n\nIf they fail to pass, as expected, the Senate will begin to consider changing filibuster rules.", "Kim Kardashian is among three celebrities being sued by investors in the EthereumMax crypto-currency.\n\nOther defendants include boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr, basketball player Paul Pierce, and the currency's creators.\n\nThe legal action alleges the celebrities collaborated with EthereumMax to \"misleadingly promote and sell\" the crypto-currency.\n\nEthereumMax said it disputed the allegations and looked forward to the truth coming out.\n\nIn spite of its name, EthereumMax has no legal or business connection with the Ethereum crypto-currency.\n\nThe class action claims EthereumMax operated a \"pump and dump\" scheme - where misleading marketing is used to inflate the price of an asset then sold to unwitting investors at a profit.\n\nThe complaint filed with the Central District Court of California alleges the \"company's executives, collaborating with several celebrity promotors\" made \"false or misleading statements to investors about EthereumMax, through social-media advertisements and other promotional activities\".\n\nThe defendants \"touted\" the ability of \"investors to make significant returns\", it alleges, resulting in an artificial increase in the price of the crypto-currency, \"causing investors to purchase these losing investments at inflated prices\" and, in turn, enabling the executive staff of EthereumMax named in the legal action to \"sell their EMax tokens to investors for a profit\".\n\n\"In plain terms, EthereumMax's entire business model relies on using constant marketing and promotional activities, often from 'trusted' celebrities, to dupe potential investors into trusting the financial opportunities,\" the court filing alleges.\n\nIt alleges former National Basketball Association (NBA) player Mr Pierce promoted EthereumMax in a \"widely discussed\" post on Twitter, in May 2021, \"praising EthereumMax's ability to make money for him\".\n\nAt the same time, EthereumMax started to use former world champion Mr Mayweather's boxing match with YouTuber Logan Paul to promote the crypto-currency.\n\nMr Mayweather is said to have also promoted EthereumMax at a crypto-currency conference.\n\nFinally, reality-TV personality Kim Kardashian, the complaint alleges, published an Instagram post, saying: \"This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends tell me about the EthereumMax token.\"\n\nThe head of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, Charles Randell, later said Ms Kardashian had \"asked her 250 million followers to speculate on crypto tokens\", suggesting the post - marked as a an advert - may have been the \"financial promotion with the single biggest audience reach in history\".\n\nAt the time, EthereumMax told BBC News its marketing and public-relations efforts \"are always from an awareness perspective and not encouraging to purchase - as the Kim K post was simply intended to raise awareness of the project and its utility\".\n\n\"It is our intention that our marketing and PR efforts encourage people to research our project... before making a decision,\" it said.\n\n\"This approach takes a lot of time, energy, and resources and is in stark contrast to the quick pump-and-dump schemes out there.\"\n\nHowever, such promotion caused the currency to increase in value to over 1,300% more than its initial price before plummeting to \"an all-time low\" just over a month after Ms Kardashian's post, the court filing alleges, enabling defendants to \"offload\" EthereumMax tokens \"for substantial profits\" while many of those who purchased currency during this period lost out.\n\nThe claim names as plaintiffs in the case those who invested between 14 May and 27 June 2021 and were \"damaged thereby\".\n\nSteve Gentile, identified in the filing as the \"co-founder/creator of EthereumMax\", told BBC News: \"The deceptive narrative associated with the recent allegations is riddled with misinformation about the EthereumMax project.\n\n\"We dispute the allegations and look forward to the truth coming out.\"\n\nBBC News has sought comment from Ms Kardashian, Mr Mayweather and Mr Pierce.", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Care providers say they are struggling to maintain services\n\nAlmost one in three councils in England say they are having to ration care for older and disabled people, as staff sickness soars because of Omicron.\n\nDirectors who run council care services say at least 49 local authorities are having to take \"drastic measures\".\n\nThis can mean people losing help to get out of bed, or people with dementia being left alone for longer than usual.\n\nThe government says protecting care staff and their clients continues to be a priority.\n\n\"We are now in the midst of a national crisis for adult social care,\" says the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass).\n\nA questionnaire sent by Adass to its members in all of England's 152 local authorities received 94 replies.\n\nOf these, 49 councils said they were having to take measures to prioritise care in at least some of their area for some of the time, including:\n\n\"We warned before Christmas that we were heading into a national emergency for social care. The sobering reality of that is now becoming starkly clear.\" says Adass president Stephen Chandler.\n\n\"Every council is taking extraordinary steps. These are decisions no-one wants to take, and many are unacceptable.\n\n\"They are drastic measures and must not become the norm.\"\n\n\"I've never seen pressure this big,\" Norfolk's director of adult social services, James Bullion, says\n\nNorfolk County Council executive director of adult social services, James Bullion, says staff sickness, because of Omicron, has put the system under critical pressure for more than three weeks.\n\nIt means the council has been unable to fully meet the care needs of 870 people. However, with the peak of Omicron in the area estimated to be two weeks away, Mr Bullion fears levels of staff sickness and unmet needs are likely to rise.\n\n\"I've never seen pressure this big,\" he says. \"It's a really critical and risky moment for us.\"\n\nIn King's Lynn, Chris Evans has struggled with mobility and balance since a brain bleed in 2017 and receives three council-funded care visits a day.\n\nHis wife Jane fears any suggestion of care rationing in Norfolk, saying the impact of fewer care visits on her family's health and stability would be massive.\n\nShe would have to stop work, she says, when \"the only income we have is mine\".\n\n\"I think it would put greater pressure on our wider family, on our children. It's like you drop a pebble in a pond and the ripples fan out... with caring for somebody, if you're left alone, it can become a really big problem.\"\n\nJane Evans, whose husband struggles with his mobility and balance, fears any reduction in his care package\n\nEarlier, the National Care Forum (NCF), which represents not-for-profit providers of social care said high sickness rates because of Omicron are compounding existing staff shortages.\n\nOf NCF members who took part in research this month, two-thirds of those providing home care said they were unable to take new clients, and nearly half of those running care homes have closed to new residents.\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care official said: \"Care staff are working incredibly hard, and to strengthen the workforce we have provided £462.5m for recruitment and retention, expanded the Health and Care visa scheme, and are running our Made with Care recruitment campaign.\n\n\"Over the course of the pandemic, we have made available more than £2.9bn in specific funding for adult social care.\n\n\"More than 50 million PCR and 142 million lateral flow kits have been delivered to care homes, and we have invested a further £478m to support safe and timely hospital discharges to get patients into the best place for their care and support to continue.\"", "One of the duke's military appointments was Colonel of the Grenadier Guards\n\nThe Duke of York's military titles and royal patronages have been returned to the Queen, Buckingham Palace has said.\n\nPrince Andrew, 61, will also stop using the style His Royal Highness in an official capacity, a royal source said.\n\nIt comes as he faces a US civil action over sexual assault allegations - claims he has consistently denied.\n\nA source close to the duke said he would \"continue to defend himself\" against the case brought in New York by Virginia Giuffre.\n\nBut the source insisted a judge's ruling on Wednesday that the civil action could proceed was \"not a judgement on the merits of Ms Giuffre's allegations\".\n\nBuckingham Palace said in a statement: \"With the Queen's approval and agreement, the Duke of York's military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to the Queen.\n\n\"The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.\"\n\nAll Prince Andrew's roles have been returned to the Queen with immediate effect, and will be redistributed to other members of the Royal Family, a source said.\n\nThe issue had been widely discussed with the Royal Family, the source said.\n\nLike Harry and Meghan, Prince Andrew retains his title HRH but will not use it in any official capacity.\n\nAll of Prince Andrew's roles have been immediately returned to his mother, the Queen\n\nA spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said it had no comment about the duke's military titles being handed back to the Queen, and that it was a matter for the Palace.\n\nOn Thursday, a letter - released by anti-monarchy pressure group Republic - was signed by more than 150 Royal Navy, RAF and Army veterans asking the Queen to strip Prince Andrew of his eight British military titles.\n\nLt Stuart Hunt, who served in The 1st Royal Tank Regiment and signed the letter, welcomed the prince losing his military titles but suggested the matter should have been resolved sooner.\n\nThe 52-year-old told the PA News Agency: \"It's an unsavoury business... I'm just glad he's not associated with the military now.\n\n\"Whether he's guilty or not, he has brought things into disrepute... He's not fit to serve in an honorary rank. He has forgone that right by getting into this sort of situation.\"\n\nThe response from Buckingham Palace has been swift and almost brutal.\n\nThe Royal Family is being firmly distanced from the toxic fall-out from the allegations against Prince Andrew.\n\nHe will have to defend himself against Virginia Giuffre as a private citizen, there will be no more His Royal Highness in this court case.\n\nThis is claimed to have been by mutual agreement, a stepping back rather than something imposed.\n\nBut the military titles and royal roles will go to other members of the family, which means they won't be coming back to Prince Andrew whatever the outcome.\n\nThe door is being closed on a return to public life.\n\nAlthough he does seem to be keeping his constitutional role as \"counsellor of state\", one of four royals who can undertake the Queen's official duties, should she be unwell.\n\nThe court case will still make headlines, and there will be concerns it could cloud a jubilee year, but this unambiguous decision will have already answered the inevitable calls for his removal from his remaining public roles.\n\nPrince Andrew has strongly denied any wrongdoing - and his representatives say that fighting the case is a \"marathon and not a sprint\".\n\nAlthough this must feel like a huge and rapid retreat.\n\nThe duke had a 22-year career in the Royal Navy, and served as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War.\n\nThe latest Palace announcement means he has lost military titles including Colonel of the Grenadier Guards - one of the most senior infantry regiments in the British army.\n\nThe other UK military titles he no longer has include:\n\nThe duke will also lose several overseas honorary roles including colonel-in-chief of The Royal Highland Fusiliers Of Canada, colonel-in-chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment, colonel-in-chief of the Princess Louise Fusiliers of Canada and colonel-in-chief of the Queen's York Rangers (1st American Regiment).\n\nBut he will retain his service rank of Vice-Admiral, the Palace has confirmed.\n\nAs an ex-member of the armed forces, he was promoted in line with his still-serving peers and made Vice-Admiral by the Navy on his 55th birthday in 2015.\n\nThe duke was due to be promoted to Admiral on his 60th birthday in 2020, but asked to defer this after stepping back from public duties in 2019.\n\nAt the time, the Palace said his other military appointments had been suspended.\n\nSeveral other charities and organisations had cut their ties with the duke, but he continued to hold dozens of royal patronages - including being a patron or member of prestigious golf clubs, schools and cultural trusts.\n\nThe chair of the Commons Defence Select Committee, Tobias Ellwood, welcomed the returning of the Duke of York's military titles and royal patronages.\n\nHe told the BBC's Newscast podcast that the duke's change in status ahead of the US civil case was \"necessary\" to protect the reputation of the military.\n\n\"Prince Andrew already had stepped back from many of his public duties - I think all of them, as well - so I think this was anticipated, indeed it was expected, from this perspective, so I'm actually not surprised.\n\n\"It's important that the problems that Prince Andrew has incurred aren't bled over into the regiments that he was representing,\" Mr Ellwood said.\n\nPrince Andrew is seen leaving his Windsor home for the first time since a US judge ruled he should face the civil charges brought against him by Virginia Giuffre.\n\nEarlier, Ms Giuffre's lawyer David Boies said a money settlement alone will not be enough for his client - telling the BBC she wants to be vindicated.\n\nThe prince's lawyers had argued her case should be dismissed, citing a 2009 deal she signed with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nBut in a 46-page decision, Judge Lewis A Kaplan dismissed Prince Andrew's contention that the case against him was \"legally insufficient\" and could not go on to be heard at a future trial.\n\nMs Giuffre, now 38, filed a civil case in New York in August 2021 under the state's Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of childhood sexual abuse to pursue a case which otherwise would have been barred because too much time had passed.\n\nIn court documents filed as part of her civil case against Prince Andrew, Ms Giuffre said she was the victim of sex trafficking and abuse by the late billionaire financier, Epstein.\n\nShe alleged that part of her abuse involved being loaned out to other powerful men.\n\nMs Giuffre claims the late billionaire financier trafficked her to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17.\n\nMs Giuffre claims Epstein trafficked her to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17.\n\nShe alleges the duke abused her on three occasions - both in the UK and the US - when she was a minor under US law.\n\nIn an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, the Queen's second son said that he had no recollection of ever meeting Ms Giuffre, and her account of them having sex in the US and UK \"didn't happen\".\n\nThe duke withdrew from public life shortly after the interview, which he used to repeat his denials of Ms Giuffre's claims and explain his one-time friendship with Epstein and the late financier's girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nLast month, Ms Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting and trafficking underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.\n• None What do charities get from having a royal patron?", "Cases are falling – down nearly a quarter over the past week compared to the week before.\n\nBut how much should we read into this? These, after all, are only the people who come forward for testing.\n\nWe know there has been huge demand on the testing system as cases have hit record levels with some complaining they have not been able to get tests.\n\nWith the exception of Wales, none of the other UK nations count reinfections, which are becoming increasingly common with the Omicron variant.\n\nBut despite all that the scale of the fall in detected cases clearly suggests infection levels have turned a corner.\n\nData from the Office for National Statistics, which uses a random survey to estimate the true infection levels in the population, suggests the rises were slowing up to last weekend.\n\nWe will have to wait until next Wednesday to get figures for this week.\n\nBut regardless of that, admissions have already plateaued at just over 2,200 a day on average.\n\nThe fact this has happened so quickly – normally it takes 10 days for changes in infections to filter through to hospital cases – is another illustration of just how different this Omicron wave is.", "Prince Andrew was interviewed by BBC Newsnight's Emily Maitlis in 2019\n\nIt is more than two years since I sat down with Prince Andrew in a Buckingham Palace ballroom and posed questions that seemed almost too surreal to ask.\n\nIt is two years since the world heard his defence - about a birthday party in Woking, a trip to Pizza Express, and his inability to sweat - and shook a collective head, trying to work out what any of it meant. At the time, the specifics seemed almost comical. They spawned memes and riffs, quiz-show questions and stand-up routines. But now, suddenly, they feel deadly serious.\n\nRight now a New York judge is deciding whether to allow Virginia Giuffre, the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking victim, to pursue her civil case against the prince. The answers the duke gave Newsnight in 2019, and the rest of his testimony to me that day, form a critical part of this landmark legal case. Ms Giuffre is suing the prince, claiming he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 - and a minor under US law. The duke denies the allegations.\n\nIn a hearing by teleconference on Tuesday, Prince Andrew's lawyer argued a 2009 settlement - between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein - made it impossible for Ms Giuffre to take the case against the duke any further. Her lawyers argued the allegations against the prince were not covered by the 2009 deal. The judge, who said he appreciated the \"arguments and passion\" over the settlement - whatever that means - did not deliver his decision on whether the case should be thrown out or proceed, promising only to give that \"pretty soon\".\n\nPrince Andrew came to Newsnight that day because he wanted to clear his name. He believed things had been said about him that he could disprove. And he had his defence ready.\n\nThe answers he gave me on camera may have seemed astonishing, jaw-dropping, even, in places. But bizarrely, I had been expecting them. We had talked through the things he wanted to say earlier, so part of my job that day was just to let him speak. To let him explain to the world his own version of events.\n\nWe went into that interview knowing that we would have one chance to get it right. One chance to provide a record of testimony, one chance to offer up a first-person account\n\nWe met the duke in the days before the interview took place. We were invited right into the heart of Buckingham Palace - his office rooms in what felt like the eaves of the palace. It was there - under a sloping roof, around a mahogany table - that we were treated to tea in dainty bone-china cups with the royal crest on them.\n\nIt was there the duke shook my hand, sat down, and explained he was going to tell us why he believed the photograph of him and Ms Giuffre - showing Prince Andrew with his arm around her - was likely a doctored fake.\n\nIt was Prince Andrew who volunteered the information to me in that early meeting that he was \"unable to sweat\". His Falkland Islands wartime experiences, he claimed, had produced a glut of adrenalin that meant he hadn't been able to sweat properly since being shot at.\n\nI remember him asking me very directly if we thought that would be interesting to hear. And I said yes - I was fascinated by adrenalin - and that we wanted to hear as much detail of his account as we could.\n\nThere were phone calls between the palace and several of my producers. We had asked him to explain his whereabouts on the night Ms Giuffre alleged he had danced with her in Tramp nightclub, in London. His office had checked the date, and told us he couldn't have been with her because he had been at a children's birthday party that same evening.\n\nI'm not sure we knew about Woking, but we did know about Pizza Express. The prince, in other words, had his alibi ready. He wanted to get that across in the interview. Of course, a children's birthday tea party and a late night in a club are not chronologically incompatible: it would have been more than possible to do both.\n\nBut the point of the interview was not to catch him out - I can't stress this enough. The point of the interview was just to have a record of Prince Andrew's own version of events. He wanted to set his own record straight. He offered minutiae and anecdote, detail and description, and we were ready to hear it all.\n\nPrince Andrew, Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001\n\nWe went into that interview knowing that we would have one chance to get it right. One chance to provide a record of testimony, one chance to offer up a first-person account if the case ever went to court. One chance to let a senior royal face questions of the utmost seriousness and give us what he assured us were straight answers.\n\nWhen I listen back to the questions I posed that day there is a directness to them that even now makes me catch my breath. I can't quite believe that the words came out in the order I intended. But they had to. Because we had just one chance.\n\nAnd we had to be very, very sure - not of the answers - but of the things we needed to find out. Virginia Giuffre alleged she had dined and danced with a sweating Prince Andrew in that London club. And that afterwards she was made to have sex with him in Ghislaine Maxwell's house.\n\nI was already prepared for much of what he was going to say - although never the exact manner in which he said it. But I had to ask those questions in the way I did - to hear and to capture those answers on tape - for wherever the story would take us next.", "Those eligible for a one-off payment will have to have been in receipt of one or more types of means-tested benefits in December 2021\n\nStormont ministers have approved a plan to provide one-off payments of £200 to people needing support with energy costs.\n\nCommunities Minister Deirdre Hargey proposed the scheme to help about 280,000 people in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe executive backed the proposal at its meeting on Thursday.\n\nThose who are eligible for the payment will have to have been paid one or more of five qualifying benefits during the week beginning 13 December 2021.\n\nThe Department for Communities said the qualifying benefits were:\n\nNo application process will be needed, and payments will be issued automatically to individuals rather than households.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey: \"You don't have to apply.\"\n\nMs Hargey said she hoped the first payments would be made next month, but there were a number of steps in the process.\n\nThe scheme needs new legislation to be drafted and passed in the assembly, and it also requires input from the Department of Work and Pensions.\n\nMs Hargey said her department wanted to get through these steps \"as quickly as possible\".\n\n\"I now have to lay draft affirmative legislation that gives me the power to do that\", she said\n\n\"As soon as I can get that done, we are engaging with the Department of Work and Pensions who will manually make these payments on their computer systems.\n\n\"I'm looking at over the next period of weeks and going into February for those payments to start to reach bank accounts\", she added.\n\nAge NI says it is worried some older people will be excluded because they are not in receipt of a qualifying benefit\n\nThe scheme has been welcomed by Age NI.\n\nBut the charity said it was concerned some older people in need would be excluded because they were not on a qualifying benefit.\n\nIn a statement the charity said: \"We worry for those older people who have just about been managing up until now.\n\n\"Pensioners who have been getting by on a modest pension income have little or no leeway to absorb the impact of up to 50% fuel cost increases\".\n\n\"Northern Ireland needs a longer term strategy on energy and a task force dedicated to tackling this issue all year round. It's time to stop responding to a crisis every winter and leaving vulnerable older people stuck in the cold\".\n\nFirst Minister Paul Givan said energy payments could begin in March \"at the latest\" but he hoped they would start sooner.\n\n\"People have faced the very real choice of heating or eating and this is our contribution to that,\" he said.\n\nThe scheme is expected to cost about £55m, with some of the funding expected to come from a reallocation exercise known as a monitoring round.\n\nThe remainder is set to come from what is known as a Barnett consequential - additional money issued to the devolved administrations when a spending decision is made for England.\n\nThe move by the Department for Communities to draw up another scheme to tackle rising energy costs comes amid concerns about a smaller support fund already in place.\n\nA smaller fuel poverty scheme worth £2m opened last week but has been capped at a daily limit with some people struggling to access the online application portal.\n\nOn Wednesday, Ms Hargey said the cap was to ensure the funding lasted until March, when the scheme is due to close.\n\nBut Alliance assembly member Kellie Amstrong said the \"extraordinarily tight\" criteria for the scheme, administered by Bryson Charitable Group, had not been properly promoted, meaning some people were potentially applying when they may not be eligible.\n\nIt is understood that people who have applied for the smaller fuel scheme can still access this new scheme, providing they meet its criteria.", "The man was seen hitting the statue on Wednesday afternoon\n\nA man has taken a hammer to a statue on the BBC's Broadcasting House in central London.\n\nThe Prospero and Ariel statue was carved by Eric Gill and has been on display at the BBC since 1933.\n\nThere has been a campaign to have the statue removed for several years, because the sculptor recorded sexually abusing his daughters in his diaries.\n\nPolice were called to the scene at about 16:15 GMT and the man was brought down about four hours later.\n\nBBC staff reported hearing the man shout \"paedophile\" as he struck the statue at Broadcasting House, which is connected to New Broadcasting House, the BBC's main headquarters.\n\nA cherry picker was used to bring the man down\n\nA spokesman for the Met said the man was brought down with the help of a fire crew.\n\nHe was checked over by ambulance workers before being arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and taken into custody, he added.\n\nHe said the property owners were examining any damage to the statue and building.\n\nEarlier the force said another man had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage.\n\nA spokeswoman for the BBC declined to comment.\n\nIn recent years, groups such as QAnon have campaigned against the statue carved by Gill, who died in 1940.\n\nThe statue, carved by Eric Gill, has adorned Broadcasting House since 1933\n\nThe attack on the statue comes a week after four people accused of illegally removing a statue of 17th Century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol were cleared of criminal damage.\n\nIt happened during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city in 2020, during a widespread debate about the place of certain historical statues in modern society.\n\nWhat defines an artist - their work or their life? Ever since Eric Gill's crimes have come to light, it's been something to ponder as you walk into the BBC's Old Broadcasting House, entering the building under his looming Prospero and Ariel.\n\nBut when I arrived at work on Wednesday afternoon, a ladder was leaning up against the building and a man stood on the plinth above the doorway, shouting \"paedophile\" and attacking the statue with a hammer, feet first.\n\nHe was also trying to detach the 10ft (3m) sculpture from whatever anchors it to the BBC offices. On the pavement, another man livestreamed it.\n\nWith every loud smash, there'd be a moan or a shout of \"stop\" from someone in the gathering crowd below. It felt brutal; an assault on beauty.\n\nEric Gill was a monster, a depraved paedophile who abused his daughters and others. But as a sculptor he made wondrous creations.\n\nAt a time when statues across the country are being reassessed, there'll be those who believe that if it's legal to tear down a monument to a prominent slaver, as happened in Bristol, it is also time to do the same to an artwork by a man who committed horrific sexual crimes. If that's the case though, where does it end?", "Christine Lee runs a law firm, with offices in London and Birmingham\n\nMI5 has issued a rare warning that an alleged Chinese agent has infiltrated Parliament to interfere in UK politics.\n\nAn alert from the security service said Christine Ching Kui Lee \"established links\" for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with current and aspiring MPs.\n\nShe then gave donations to politicians, with funding coming from foreign nationals in China and Hong Kong.\n\nIt comes after a \"significant, long-running\" investigation by MI5, Whitehall sources told the BBC.\n\nOne of the MPs funded by Ms Lee was Labour's Barry Gardiner, who received over £420,000 from her in five years - but he said he had always made the security services aware of the donations.\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also received a £5,000 donation when he was energy secretary - but he said the money was accepted by his local association and it was \"the first time he has been given cause to be concerned\".\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said it was \"deeply concerning\" that someone \"who has knowingly engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party has targeted parliamentarians\".\n\nBut she said the UK has measures in place \"to identify foreign interference\".\n\nThe security service said anyone contacted by Ms Lee should be \"mindful of her affiliation\" and its \"remit to advance the CCP's agenda\".\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"We condemn in the strongest terms the attempts by China to interfere in Britain's democratic processes.\"\n\nShe said Labour was seeking further information from the Home Office and MI5 on the \"extent of the deception and interference and the ongoing risks of malign activity from foreign states\".\n\nAll MPs and peers must be given an update from MI5 on security risks and how to guard against interference, she added.\n\nIssuing an alert about an individual is an unusual move for MI5.\n\nIt signals that their long-running investigation had led them to become sufficiently concerned that they felt they had to act now.\n\nWe have heard about concerns over Russian influence in the past but China, British intelligence officials say, has now become their top priority.\n\nThe allegation here is interference - covertly gaining influence - and not espionage (stealing secrets).\n\nAnd one concern from security officials is that there are not the laws in place to be able to tackle interference.\n\nAs a result, they sometimes believe that going public - as they have done in this case - is the best way of disrupting any ongoing risk.\n\nConservative MP and former party leader, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, brought up the alert in the Commons, confirming it had been emailed out to MPs by the Speaker.\n\nHe said it was \"a matter of grave concern\", calling for Ms Lee to be deported and demanding the government make a statement to the House.\n\nFormer defence minister Tobias Ellwood also called for a statement in the Commons, adding: \"This is the sort grey-zone interference we now anticipate and expect from China.\n\n\"But the fact that it's happened to this Parliament, there must be a sense of urgency from this government.\"\n\nAccording to the alert, Ms Lee claimed her involvement with Parliament had been to \"represent the UK Chinese and increase diversity\".\n\nBut MI5 said that activity \"had been undertaken in covert coordination with the United Front Work Department [of the CCP], with funding provided by foreign nationals located in China and Hong Kong\".\n\nThe UFWD is alleged to be seeking to \"cultivate relations\" with \"influential figures\" to ensure the UK political landscape is favourable to the CCP and to challenge those that raise concerns about the party, including over human rights.\n\nThe security service said Ms Lee had \"extensive engagement with individuals across the UK political spectrum\", including the now disbanded All Party Parliamentary Group, called Chinese in Britain.\n\nBut they warned Ms Lee \"may aspire to establish APPGs [parliamentary groups] to further the CCP's agenda\".\n\nMr Gardiner began getting donations from Ms Lee's law firm, Christine Lee & Co, at the end of 2014.\n\nAccording to the register of MPs' interests, between then and 2020, he received over £420,000 in donations, mostly covering the costs of employing parliamentary researchers.\n\nMs Lee's son was also understood to have volunteered for the Labour MP and was later employed as his diary manager.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Gardiner, who was a member of the shadow cabinet when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, confirmed he had received the donations and that Ms Lee's son had worked for him.\n\nBut he said he had been \"liaising with our security services for a number of years\" about her and they had \"always known, and been made fully aware by me, of her engagement with my office and the donations she made to fund researchers in my office in the past\".\n\nThe Brent North MP said she had \"no role\" in who was appointed as his researchers and all donations were \"properly reported\", adding: \"I have been assured by the security services that whilst they have definitively identified improper funding channelled through Christine Lee, this does not relate to any funding received by my office.\"\n\nHe also confirmed her son resigned from his post on Thursday, and that MI5 had no intelligence that showed he was aware of, or complicit in, his mother's actions.\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed also received £5,000 from Ms Lee when he was a minister in the coalition government.\n\nA spokesman for the party said Sir Ed was \"shocked by these revelations\", adding: \"The email from the Speaker of the House of Commons today was the first time he has been given cause to be concerned about a donation to his local party association received in 2013.\n\n\"The government must make it a national security priority to protect the UK's democracy from threats and interference by foreign actors.\n\n\"This donation was reported properly and all rules and guidance was followed - as Ed expects is the case with donations made to colleagues across the House.\"", "Ovo Energy's Perth office is set to close after the energy provider told UK staff it planned to cut a quarter of its workforce.\n\nStaff have been told that 1,700 employees across the UK will lose their jobs through voluntary redundancy.\n\nIt is understood that about 700 people work in the Perth office.\n\nTwo bases in Edinburgh, one in Cumbernauld and another in Dunfermline will also close as it reduces its UK offices from 10 to three.\n\nOnly offices in Glasgow, Bristol and London will remain, while more employees will be supported to work from home.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney, who is also the local MSP, said he was seeking urgent talks with Ovo Energy to understand their decision.\n\nPerth and North Perthshire MP Pete Wishart said he would also be \"seeking answers\" over the scale of job losses at the site.\n\nHe added: \"This is bad news after all the commitments that were given to the workforce when they took over from SSE.\"\n\nMid Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser said the closure would be a \"substantial blow to the Perthshire economy.\"\n\nElaine Dougall, of the Unite union, told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme, they had not been told how many jobs were at risk in Scotland.\n\nShe said the union was in discussions with Ovo Energy but employees were \"in a state of shock\".\n\n\"The way in which it was delivered via social media and the news was not the best way to learn that your job was potentially at threat.\"\n\nThe job cuts are understood to be linked to the company's acquisition of SSE's household energy business three years ago and the integration of the firm into Ovo.\n\nIn a letter to staff, Adrian Letts, the boss of Ovo's retail business, said: \"Whilst it is regrettable to be reducing roles across the business and we understand this will be an uncertain time for many, we will fully support all our employees as this process develops over the coming months.\n\n\"We are engaging with our recognised trade unions to ensure all receive the right information and support.\"\n\nThe firm also said it would also create a new \"Ovo Academy\" in Glasgow which would create \"new opportunities in the city that hosted COP26 for those who want to be at the forefront of the UK's green revolution.\"\n\nAbout 1,000 call centre staff will be trained to become zero-carbon living advisers, with specialist knowledge of green home products and technologies from tariffs, to making homes more energy efficient.\n\nIt said it would also increase its basic wage to £12 an hour, a 15% rise on its previous pay rate.\n\nIn 2020 the company announced plans to close its operations in Glasgow's Waterloo Street and Selkirk.\n\nThe company had to apologise earlier this week after an email sent to customers advised them to keep their heating bills low by \"having a cuddle with your pets\" or eating bowls of porridge.", "The request for military medics' assistance was made by Stormont's Department of Health\n\nThe Ministry of Defence (MoD) is considering a new request for military support to help the health service deal with Covid-19 pressures.\n\nIt is understood that upwards of 100 military personnel have been requested by Health Minister Robin Swann.\n\nThe MoD has agreed to several appeals for assistance during the pandemic.\n\nThe Department of Health has confirmed it has requested assistance and is now awaiting a final decision by the MoD in London.\n\nA spokesperson for the Health Department said: \"Our health and social care system is under severe pressure.\n\n\"The current pressures involve a number of factors including Covid and wider winter pressures on services and Covid-related staff absences\".\n\n\"The minister and department are liaising very closely with trust and board colleagues in relation to the current situation\".\n\nThe BBC understands Robin Swann has requested between 100 and 150 personnel\n\nThe BBC understands the number of personnel being requested is between 100 and 150 and would be a mix or medical and non-medical staff for deployment in Northern Ireland hospitals.\n\nMilitary personnel have been used in earlier stages of Northern Ireland's response to the health emergency.\n\nIn total, more than 500 armed forces personnel have been deployed in Northern Ireland during the pandemic.\n\nOne request involved 100 medics being sent to the mass vaccination centre at the SSE Arena in Belfast.\n\nFor two months at the beginning of 2021, armed forces personnel also worked alongside nurses at three local hospitals - the Ulster, Belfast City and Antrim Area.", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "The Met Police will wait for the result of the civil service probe looking into the No 10 party in May 2020, attended by Boris Johnson, before deciding whether to investigate.\n\nThey said they would give it \"further consideration\" if civil servant Sue Gray's inquiry into parties unearthed potential criminal offences.\n\nThe force said they rarely investigated breaches of Covid law retrospectively.\n\nBut Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said the police \"mustn't turn a blind eye\".\n\nThe PM is facing fury from his own party over the drinks on 20 May 2020.\n\nHe admitted at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday that he had joined colleagues in the Downing Street garden for around 25 minutes to thank them for their hard work during the pandemic.\n\nBut Mr Johnson claimed he had \"believed implicitly that this was a work event\".\n\nFour senior Tories have publicly called for his resignation since the statement, including the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross.\n\nBut his cabinet has rallied around him, with Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries the latest to offer support to her boss.\n\nMinisters have appealed to angry MPs to wait for the outcome of an inquiry into all the allegations of lockdown parties across government - led by senior civil servant Sue Gray - before making any firm conclusions on the PM.\n\nIn a statement released on Thursday, the Met said it was \"aware of widespread reporting relating to alleged breaches of the Health Protection Regulations\" in Downing Street.\n\nThe force said its \"four Es\" approach - mirrored by officers across the country - saw them try to \"engage\", \"explain\", and \"encourage\" people regarding the law, before having to resort to \"enforcement\".\n\nAnd it said officers \"do not normally investigate breaches of Coronavirus regulations when they are reported long after they are said to have taken place\".\n\nBut the Met added: \"If significant evidence suggesting a breach of the regulations becomes available, officers may review and consider it.\"\n\nThe force said it had \"ongoing contact with the Cabinet Office\" over Ms Gray's inquiry, adding: \"If the inquiry identifies evidence of behaviour that is potentially a criminal offence it will be passed to the Met for further consideration.\"\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed said the evidence that the prime minister broke the law was clear.\n\n\"Cressida Dick [the Met chief] mustn't let him off the hook through a shady establishment stitch-up. The police don't need the government's permission to investigate a crime, and they mustn't turn a blind eye to criminality just because it is committed by Boris Johnson.\"It is ludicrous to pretend that we can leave it to a civil servant appointed by Boris Johnson to get to the bottom of this.\"", "Alliance MP Stephen Farry said the prime minister should resign\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson's apology over a lockdown drinks party is \"too little, too late\", North Down MP Stephen Farry has said.\n\nMr Johnson admitted he attended a drinks party at No 10 during the first lockdown, saying he was there for 25 minutes.\n\nSpeaking at Prime Minister's Questions, he offered a \"heartfelt apology\" but said he believed it was a work event.\n\nMr Farry said the PM should do the \"honourable thing\" and resign.\n\n\"My constituents in North Down and people across the UK feel betrayed by the prime minister,\" the Alliance deputy leader said.\n\n\"We have seen standards in public life trashed.\n\n\"So for once, can the prime minister do the honourable thing and resign, for the sake of the public health message and for standards in our democracy?\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson faced anger in the House of Commons on Wednesday\n\nDuring the weekly questions session in the House of Commons, Mr Johnson asked those MPs who called on him to resign to await the results of an inquiry into the matter, carried out by senior civil servant Sue Gray.\n\nMs Gray is a former permanent secretary at Stormont's Department of Finance.\n\nThe prime minister had previously declined to say whether he attended, but witnesses had told the BBC both he and his wife Carrie were there.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I couldn't hug my dying mum - but they partied at Downing Street'\n\nMr Johnson was also urged to resign by SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, who said the prime minister's statement in the Commons was \"pathetic\".\n\nHe said: \"His behaviour has demeaned his office and his arrogance has shredded his authority.\n\n\"Remaining in office is about his ego rather than doing what's right. If he won't leave then he needs to be forced out by his party.\"\n\nThe latest pressure on the prime minister over alleged parties at Downing Street began on Monday, when ITV published a leaked email from Mr Johnson's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds.\n\nIn it, Mr Reynolds invited staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\" on 20 May 2020 - when lockdown rules in England banned large outdoor gatherings.\n\nThe invitation encouraged people to \"bring your own booze\" and \"make the most of the lovely weather\".\n\nThe prime minister's handling of the criticism around the drinks party was defended by Northern Ireland Office Minister Conor Burns.\n\nHe said Mr Johnson had \"done the right thing today\" by apologising in the Commons.\n\n\"He accepts with the benefit of hindsight that the event shouldn't have happened,\" Mr Burns said.\n\n\"Crucially he has asked for space for Sue Gray to complete her report...it is better to wait for the totality of that investigation to be complete.\"\n\nHe added the prime minister could \"rebuild trust\" with the public.\n\nThe PM is set to face questions from MPs\n\nBefore Mr Johnson spoke in the Commons, DUP MP Sammy Wilson told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that if the prime minister did not answer questions over his attendance it would be \"disastrous for himself and for public confidence\".\n\n\"As one senior MP said to me yesterday, look the prime minister, as it's not the first allegations of parties, he must know the full extent of what happened in Downing Street over the lockdown period,\" he said.\n\n\"Rather than to allow this drip-feed of information to come out that something happened on the 20th May and another one happened some other time - he should come clean.\n\n\"People will then make a judgement on the basis of that situation and his honesty about this what his future should be.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Wilson's DUP colleague Jim Shannon broke down in tears in Parliament while questioning the government about fresh revelations that it broke lockdown rules.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jim Shannon MP cried while questioning the government over claims it broke lockdown rules\n\nMr Shannon, MP for Strangford, cried as he said his mother-in-law had died alone with Covid during the pandemic.\n\nThe DUP MP said that the issue of alleged Downing Street parties was \"distracting from all the good work the government is doing and are not getting credit for\".\n\nMr Shannon's effort to struggle through tears to ask his question in the Commons was commended by many other politicians.\n\nOn Wednesday, Mr Shannon tweeted that he had \"received so many good wishes and kind words for which I am deeply grateful, from so many and those who are among the thousands who have experienced loss both during this pandemic, as well as before and after\".\n\n\"I extend my thanks and best wishes to you all,\" he added.\n\nUlster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie has called on the prime minister to resign\n\nThe leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Doug Beattie, has also called on Mr Johnson to resign.\n\n\"Whether the prime minister comes clean or doesn't, his credibility is destroyed,\" Doug Beattie told the BBC's Nolan Show on Wednesday.\n\n\"If it's proven that he attended in that investigation or he comes clean to say he did [attend] then there is no way out and he has to resign.\n\n\"There is no way back from this, he needs to step down and he has to do this quickly to keep continuity in government and start dealing with the issues we still face today.\"\n\nSue Gray is the former permanent secretary at Stormont's Department of Finance\n\nIn December, the prime minister asked for an independent inquiry to investigate a series of allegations about events taking place in government buildings in 2020 despite Covid-19 restrictions being in force.\n\nMs Gray's probe is investigating specific events including a leaving drinks for a No 10 aide on 27 November, a Department of Education gathering on 10 December and a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff on 15 December.\n\nIt is also examining the Downing Street Christmas party on 18 December, and on Tuesday, Ellis said drinks events held in the Downing Street garden on 20 and 15 May 2020 would also be added to the inquiry.", "Waqass Goraya left Pakistan for the Netherlands where he became a prominent critic of the Pakistani military\n\nA man has gone on trial in London, accused of plotting to kill a Pakistani blogger living in the Netherlands.\n\nA court heard that 31-year-old Muhammad Gohir Khan was hired as a \"hitman\" by figures said to be based in Pakistan.\n\nHe was arrested last June and pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to murder.\n\nLawyers said the intended victim, Ahmad Waqass Goraya, had set up a blog on Facebook making fun of the Pakistani military and detailing alleged human rights violations.\n\nKingston Crown Court heard that Mr Goraya, who was living in Rotterdam at the time, \"was known for speaking out against the activities of the Pakistani government and appears to have been targeted for that reason\".\n\nThe jury was told that Mr Khan, a supermarket worker from East London, was heavily in debt - with the prosecution alleging he reacted \"enthusiastically\" to a proposal by a man named only as \"MudZ\" to kill the Pakistani political activist in exchange for £100,000.\n\nLeading the prosecution, Alison Morgan QC, said in December 2018 Mr Goraya had received information from the FBI that he was on a \"kill list\" and that he had received threats online and in person, some of which he believed \"were being orchestrated by ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence)\", Pakistan's intelligence agency.\n\nThe court was shown alleged Whatsapp messages between the defendant Mr Khan and a middle-man named as \"MudZ\" appearing to discuss the murder allegedly using a code referencing fishing, with the target on one occasion described as \"a little fish\" as opposed to a \"shark\" and that a \"little knife… hook\" would suffice for the job.\n\nAnother figure mentioned in the messages in relation to the alleged plot was referred to as \"Big Boss\".\n\nThe prosecution said the defendant had been sent Mr Goraya's home address and photograph, and had travelled to Rotterdam where he purchased a knife, but that he had been unable to locate Mr Goraya and so returned to the UK where he was arrested.\n\nProsecuting lawyer, Ms Morgan QC, told the court Mr Khan accepts sending and receiving all the messages in question and travelling to Rotterdam, but maintains he intended to keep the money and not carry out the murder.\n\nThe prosecution alleges he did intend on killing Mr Goraya.\n\nThe trial is set to last around two weeks.\n• None London man in court over plot to kill activist", "There are \"very positive signs\" that Wales is \"coming to the peak\" and \"possibly turning the corner\" on the coronavirus wave, a minister has said.\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan spoke ahead of Friday's announcement of the latest review of Covid restrictions.\n\n\"It would be a huge, huge relief\" if Wales was reaching that stage, she said.\n\nWales' rules were last tightened on 26 December, meaning no more than 50 people can attend a sporting event.\n\nThe rules have forced many teams to play behind closed doors.\n\nSocial distancing restrictions are also in place in businesses and a rule of six applies in hospitality venues such as pubs and restaurants.\n\nWelsh Tory Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies called for the rule of six and sport restrictions to be scrapped.\n\nHe said it was \"time to move forward as we learn to live with the virus\".\n\nPlaid Cymru called for a \"roadmap\" for lifting restrictions, something Conservatives have also been calling for.\n\nIn Scotland restrictions on large outdoor events, including football matches and concerts, will be lifted from next Monday.\n\nGiving evidence to the Senedd Health and Social Care Committee on Thursday, Ms Morgan said: \"I know that in London about 10% of the population are ill with Covid and in Wales it's about 6%.\n\n\"So that's a significant difference and, obviously, we're hoping that we're coming to the peak now.\n\n\"And if we arrive at a peak of 6% and they're at 10% then, actually, there is real cause to celebrate, that is a snapshot that you can look at.\n\n\"We are clearly keeping a very close eye on the data at the moment but there are some very positive signs, I'm pleased to say, in terms of us possibly turning the corner, which would be a huge, huge relief.\"\n\nHer comments contrast with those of First Minister Mark Drakeford two days ago, when he said modelling suggested rates getting worse over the next week.\n\nHe indicated that ministers could ease restrictions in a week's time, but cautioned that it was a \"big if\" whether Wales would be in a position for that to happen.\n\nEluned Morgan said she is hoping Wales is coming to a peak in the latest wave of Covid\n\nThe Wales case rate has fallen to the lowest level since 27 December - 1,492.4 per 100,000 people over seven days.\n\nWhile that includes a change in policy where people who are not showing symptoms but test positive on lateral flow devices no longer need PCR tests, cases were falling three days before that happened.\n\nThe number of people with Covid in critical care beds stands at 20% of the number at this point last year.\n\nOn 12 January 2021 there were 150 patients with the virus in critical care. On Wednesday that figure stood at 30.\n\nThere is a daily average of 850 patients with confirmed Covid in hospital beds - a 36% rise on the week.\n\nBut that is 54% of the figure seen at this point in 2021.\n\nNeath Port Talbot has the highest case rate of Welsh counties, with 1,893 cases per 100,000, while the positivity rate has fallen to 44.6% - the lowest since 27 December 2021, with Anglesey having the highest rate at 48.3%.\n\nAll age groups are showing a decline in cases, especially those younger age groups which were driving the spike over the Christmas period.\n\nAll but four local council areas in Wales also showing a drop in case rates among the under 25s.\n\nAndrew RT Davies urged Labour ministers to \"scrap their economically cruel and clinically unnecessary rules on businesses so they can recover from the restrictions they imposed on Wales in recent weeks, whilst increasing compensation for those firms hit\".\n\n\"The nonsensical and bizarre rules on watching and participating in sports must be scrapped, given the negative effects on physical and mental health, let alone their perverse consequences, which is evident in pushing people indoors to watch games instead.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru's spokesman for health and care, Rhun ap Iorwerth, called for ministers to explain how restrictions will could be lifted in the days or weeks ahead.\n\n\"Realistically, we know when we are past that peak that we're likely to be seeing things getting better better, and hopefully quickly,\" he told BBC Radio Wales\n\n\"So, whilst not everything can be done at the same time, I think it could be realistic to expect a roadmap - if you want to use that term - of what might happen when over the next few days, [or] maybe a couple of weeks.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Andrew RT Davies This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMeanwhile, Welsh ministers said they have no plans to cut the self-isolation period for people who test positive for Covid-19, something Welsh Conservatives are also asking for.\n\nIn England, the self-isolation period is being cut from seven to five full days.\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"We will be guided by the evidence and look forward to seeing the clinical evidence that has informed this decision.\"\n\nFrom Monday, people in England will be able to leave isolation after negative lateral flow tests on days five and six.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The national children's poet laureate is backing calls for a national poetry library.\n\nA rapper-poet who began writing to escape intrusive thoughts has said the process \"saved my life\".\n\nDuke Al Durham kept his poems secret for years, but now hopes they will help others.\n\nThe 27-year-old, from Sully, Vale of Glamorgan, has called for a National Poetry Library for Wales.\n\nThe Welsh government said the National Library of Wales was already home to the country's literature and poetry collections.\n\nMr Durham, who has obsessive compulsive disorder and whose stage name is Duke Al, wants to make poetry more accessible.\n\nHe began writing aged 11 after listening to US rappers Eminem and 50 Cent.\n\n\"I use it as an escapism, as a therapy,\" he said.\n\n\"Without writing I don't know where I'd be, to be honest with you.\"\n\nHe kept his work to himself for years, because he \"didn't want to tell anybody how I was feeling, because I thought I'd be labelled as crazy or people wouldn't understand, so the pen to the page was my outlet\".\n\nHe added: \"I feel like if I didn't have that I don't know what I would have done to cope. I didn't show my poetry to anybody until years later so I feel that creativity was there for me and potentially saved my life.\"\n\nDuke Al Durham was inspired to write by rappers such as Eminem\n\nChildren's laureate Wales Connor Allen, only realised as he got older that poetry was not just for the posh.\n\nHis love of poetry came from listening to grime and rap.\n\nThe 29-year-old from Newport said: \"I thought it was really elitist and classist so I thought it was only posh people or really intellectual people who could do poetry really eloquently.\"\n\nHe did not feel verse was for \"a working class kid from a council estate\".\n\n\"If you look at the likes of Tennessee Williams and all the other poets who are amazing, you have that stereotype that it's beyond our reach as every day working class people.\n\n\"So that was a barrier in itself. This is why I think a National Poetry Library in Wales is key.\n\n\"It's about having a place that links poets, and shows music is part of poetry too, and shows it's for everyone.\"\n\nHe added: \"I hadn't heard of the National Library for Wales and if I hadn't, then other people my age won't have.\n\n\"I've got great respect for Welsh poets like Dylan Thomas, for example, but my kind of poetry and lots of modern poetry is totally different and we need to recognise and celebrate how poetry is evolving - whilst remembering and learning from great poets of course.\"\n\nPoet Gwyneth Lewis dubbed the lack of such a library a \"national scandal\"\n\nThe bilingual work of poet Gwyneth Lewis appears on the front of Wales Millennium Centre.\n\nShe said: \"It's a national scandal that we don't have a National Poetry Library because we like to think of ourselves as a nation of poets and so forth.\n\n\"Well, it's rubbish if we don't have a centre for that and a focus for it to grow.\"\n\nMs Lewis said Scotland and England already had poetry libraries and so Wales was \"behind the game\".\n\nShe added: \"Poetry isn't something that is just in the pages of books - it's a thing that's active, it's a performance, it's a way of imagining the future, the past. It's at the centre of the health of our national life.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said any proposal for this would be \"for the National Library, Literature Wales, the Arts Council of Wales and the Books Council of Wales to consider\".\n\nPedr ap Llwyd, chief executive and librarian at the National Library of Wales, said its poetry collection was \"unrivalled and extensive\" and accessible to anyone.\n\nHe added: \"I would welcome the opportunity to explore with our poets ways that we can work together to increase awareness of our national poetry collection and realise its potential to inspire creativity and enrich lives across Wales and beyond.\"", "The Nato-Russia Council met for the first time since 2019\n\nUS Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman has warned Russia that it must choose either diplomacy or confrontation with the West.\n\nShe was speaking after talks between Nato and Russia, one of three diplomatic events this week aimed at reducing tension over Ukraine.\n\nRussian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Nato could not cherry-pick Moscow's demands.\n\nThe list of demands includes Ukraine never joining Nato.\n\nSome 100,000 Russian troops have reportedly amassed near the Ukrainian border, prompting fears of an invasion.\n\nMs Sherman reiterated that the US and other Nato members would never agree to veto Ukrainian admission, pointing out that the military alliance had an open-door policy. The goal of joining Nato is part of Ukraine's constitution.\n\nBut she said there were areas where progress could be made, and that Russia must decide what it wanted to happen next.\n\n\"Russia, most of all, will have to decide whether they really are about security, in which case they should engage, or whether this was all a pretext. And they may not even know yet.\"\n\nShe said that the US and Nato were preparing for every eventuality.\n\nWendy Sherman forcefully declared the meeting a \"remarkable expression of the power of diplomacy\".\n\nThere was \"complete unity\" amongst Nato members in support of core principles that Russia is challenging, she said.\n\nThe state department has left no one in doubt about US efforts to cement a strong common position.\n\nOfficials regularly read out a list of high-level contacts. More than 100 engagements since November was the \"preliminary tally\", according to spokesperson Ned Price.\n\nAlongside that has been the relentless mantra, \"Nothing about you, without you\", meant to reassure the Europeans and Ukrainians that the US would not strike a separate deal in bilateral talks with Moscow.\n\nSherman brought considerable experience to that encounter on Monday. She knows her counterpart Sergei Ryabkov very well, having worked together before on issues related to Syrian and Iranian arms control.\n\nWhile there was no agreement from the eight-hour meeting, Mr Ryabkov acknowledged the Americans had studied the Russian proposals deeply.\n\nThe US-European unity will be tested if Moscow rejects the offer of security talks with Nato hammered out this week. But the assessment of some in Washington is that so far US diplomacy on this has been effective.\n\nRussia has issued a series of demands which aim to prevent Nato from expanding any further east and also to reduce the alliance's presence near Russia's borders.\n\nNato has flatly rejected those demands but says it is willing to talk about other issues including arms control and limits to military exercises.\n\nNato, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, is a defence alliance made up of 30 countries, first established in 1949.\n\nSpeaking for Russia after Wednesday's talks in Brussels, Mr Grushko warned that a further deterioration in ties could lead to unpredictable consequences for European security.\n\nHis warning echoed the words of Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said that there was a \"real risk for new armed conflict in Europe\".\n\nRussia's troop build-up near its border with Ukraine has sparked fears that it is preparing for an invasion. In 2014 Russia seized, then annexed, Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, after Ukrainians overthrew their pro-Russian president.\n\nLater that year, Russian-backed separatists captured large parts of the east of Ukraine.\n\nRussia insists that the latest build-up of troops is nothing to fear. But Russian President Vladimir Putin has talked of \"military-technical measures\" if the West's \"aggressive\" approach continues.\n\nOn Thursday, talks will take place at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna, the first time this week Ukraine will have a seat at the table.", "Novak Djokovic has been drawn to play in the Australian Open despite ongoing uncertainty over whether his visa will be cancelled again by the government.\n\nThe world number one men's player will defend his title against fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round.\n\nHowever Australia's Immigration Minister Alex Hawke is still considering using his powers to revoke Djokovic's visa, a spokesman said.\n\nDjokovic was temporarily barred entry last week because he is not vaccinated.\n\nHe said his Covid infection in mid-December met the conditions for foreigners entering Australia, but authorities cancelled his visa on the basis that it was not a valid exemption.\n\nDjokovic, 34, was held in immigration detention in Melbourne for five days while he challenged the deportation order. On Monday, a court overturned the government's visa cancellation after finding that immigration officials had not followed proper procedure.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by #AusOpen This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut Mr Hawke said that he was still considering cancelling the Serbian tennis star's visa for other reasons, which could include \"character grounds\" on the basis that he misled the Australian Border Force.\n\nDjokovic admitted on Wednesday that he had also broken Covid isolation rules in Serbia after meeting up with people when he knew he was positive with the virus.\n\nHe also admitted he had made errors on his travel form into Australia, by ticking a box declaring he had not travelled anywhere 14 days prior to entering the country, when in fact he had been to Spain.\n\nDjokovic said this was a \"human error\" made by his agent. However a false declaration on a travel form - accidental or not - is grounds for a visa cancellation.\n\nSpanish media have also raised questions, as Serbs are banned from entering Spain unless they are vaccinated or receive special permission to enter. But the Spanish interior ministry denied reports Djokovic was being investigated, Politico reported.\n\nAustralian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has delegated the decision over Novak Djokovic's visa to his immigration minister, Alex Hawke\n\nOn Thursday, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison declined to say when a decision might come from his government, quashing press gallery reports that it would be made imminently.\n\n\"These are personal ministerial powers able to be exercised by Minister Hawke and I don't propose to make any further comment at this time,\" he said at a press briefing.\n\nGovernment sources told the Sydney Morning Herald that Mr Hawke was likely to delay delivering his decision until Friday. But in an ominous sign for Djokovic, a figure in the governing Liberal Party warned that the minister was \"strongly leaning towards cancelling\" his visa.\n\nSources close to Djokovic told the newspaper that he would immediately appeal any such order.\n\nHis legal team are hoping to expedite the appeal process that would see proceedings concluded over the weekend in a bid to allow the Serbian to compete in next week's first round.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"If he plays, I will not watch him\": Watch strong reactions on the Novak Djokovic case in Australia\n\nIntense criticism has been aimed at both Djokovic and Australian authorities over the visa row. Australians, and in particular those living in the city of Melbourne where the Australian Open will take place, have had to endure some of the world's strictest and longest lockdowns during the pandemic.\n\nMany have pointed out that the rich and famous have been allowed greater freedoms to travel to and from the country than ordinary Australians.\n\nThe comments under an Australian Open tweet about Djokovic playing Kecmanovic has attracted hundreds of comments showing how divided tennis fans are over the ordeal.\n\n\"Please send him home! I'll be boycotting his match if he is scheduled to play for the session I have a ticket for,\" one Twitter user wrote.\n\nBut a supporter tweeted: \"Now it's time to show everyone who is the best tennis player in the world. Come on Champ, go Novak!\"\n\nDjokovic has won 20 Grand Slam titles, a record he shares with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. If he were to add to his tally of nine Australian Open wins, he would become the most successful male player in history.\n\nIt was a dramatic day here in Melbourne - more for what didn't happen than what did.\n\nYou could feel the tension and the anticipation in Melbourne Park - especially around the press room - as the time for the Australian Open draw approached - the chatter just before it was \"will he be in it?\".\n\nIt's quite clear the government has been struggling to deal with this controversy. The closer we get to the tournament - which starts on Monday - without a decision on his visa status, the more indecisive the Australian government looks.\n\nDjokovic was training on the court Wednesday and Thursday. On any other occasion that would've sounded normal in the lead up to a Grand Slam, but it's extraordinary that this is happening in Melbourne Park while the immigration ministers mulls over whether to deport him or not.\n\nCould it be that for the past two days Djokovic has been preparing for a tournament that he might not get to play in?", "Last updated on .From the section League Cup\n\nAntonio Rudiger also scored in Chelsea's 3-0 Premier League victory at Tottenham in September Chelsea eased into the Carabao Cup final as they closed out a comfortable semi-final win over Tottenham. Spurs never seriously threatened to overturn Chelsea's two-goal first-leg advantage and Antonio Rudiger's bundled finish from Mason Mount's corner after 18 minutes effectively confirmed a Wembley date with either Arsenal or Liverpool. It was a night of frustration for Spurs and their former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte as they saw two penalties, awarded by referee Andre Marriner for fouls on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Lucas Moura, correctly overturned by VAR. Harry Kane also saw a goal ruled out for offside in an improved second-half performance from Spurs but Chelsea always looked in control - and once they had extended their aggregate lead early on, they were able to control affairs without hitting their best form. The game was paused late on following a medical emergency in the crowd and on resumption Chelsea completed the formalities of their victory.\n• None Go straight to all the best Spurs content\n• None Get the best Blues content here Spurs manager Conte has made no secret of the size of his job in rejuvenating this club after their recent decline - and any doubts over that diagnosis were removed by Chelsea's obvious superiority here. It was still a mystery, however, as to why Conte felt the need to rest experienced keeper and captain Hugo Lloris with the tie still on the line and play deputy Pierluigi Gollini instead. Gollini distinguished himself when he saved with his legs from Romelu Lukaku early on but was at fault when he made an unconvincing dash to claim Mount's corner, a move that ended badly when the ball was diverted into net via Rudiger's back. This was surely a job that required the presence of Lloris when Spurs' margin of error was virtually non-existent. Spurs did mount a challenge of sorts after the break but it was too little, too late - and this was a mediocre display that only illustrated how much work Conte needs to do. Kane battled but remains short of his best form while there was a lack of creativity in midfield that allowed Chelsea to contain Spurs with relative comfort. Conte will be expecting serious backing from Spurs chairman Daniel Levy if his drive and fierce ambition is to be satisfied. At present, he has a squad that requires serious investment before there can be thoughts of getting anywhere near the Premier League elite. Chelsea are now in their third successive final under Thomas Tuchel since he arrived to succeed the sacked Frank Lampard almost a year ago. He guided them to the FA Cup final last season, which Chelsea lost to Leicester City, before claiming the biggest European club prize of all by winning the Champions League against Manchester City in Porto. The job of reaching the EFL Cup final was largely done in the first game at Stamford Bridge but Chelsea came out here with the sort of determination and attacking intent that made it clear they were determined to snuff out Spurs' hopes as quickly as possible. Lukaku wasted one chance to do that but the early goal they desired came from Rudiger, which gave Spurs a task they never looked like accomplishing. Tuchel, standards as high as ever, cut a dissatisfied figure at times in the second half when Chelsea's intensity dropped and a little complacency appeared to creep into their game, giving Spurs opportunities they never had in the first 45 minutes. Chelsea's players responded to their manager's demands and this tie was played out in a testimonial atmosphere in the closing minutes as Spurs fans deserted the stadium in droves, leaving one corner packed with joyous, celebrating visiting supporters. The strength of Chelsea's squad was shown once more as Tuchel was able to bring on Thiago Silva, Marcos Alonso, Hakim Ziyech, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and N'Golo Kante in the second half to ensure the door was never left ajar for Spurs. Indeed, it was slammed firmly in their faces. It shows the scale of the job Tuchel has done that in the 350 days since his first game at Chelsea, he has become the first manager in their history to guide them to a Champions League, FA Cup and EFL Cup final. And, on this evidence, Chelsea will take some stopping, whoever they face at Wembley at the end of February.\n• None Attempt saved. Ryan Sessegnon (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is saved in the centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt blocked. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Japhet Tanganga. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Anna Redfern was served with a council closure notice on 18 November\n\nA cinema owner who admitted breaching Covid rules has been asked to clarify the grounds of an appeal.\n\nCinema & Co owner Anna Redfern, 45, was given a suspended prison sentence and fined £15,000 in December at Swansea Magistrates' Court.\n\nShe has now lodged an appeal at the city's crown court.\n\nAt a hearing on Thursday, Judge Paul Thomas QC said it was \"ambiguous\" whether the appeal was against the conviction or just the sentence.\n\nIn November, Covid passes became a legal requirement in cinemas in Wales, but Redfern refused to enforce them, saying they were \"an infringement on our human rights\".\n\nBoth Swansea council and the Welsh government ordered her to close the premises, with a district judge warning Redfern she would be in contempt of court if she reopened.\n\nSanta Claus: The Movie was shown on 1 December, with the owner admitting contempt of court and four breaches of coronavirus regulations later that month.\n\nShe was given a 28-day prison sentence, suspended for nine months.\n\nThe cinema opened a day after a judge ordered it to close\n\nAt Thursday's hearing, the judge also said she needed to clarify whether she was appealing purely against her personal conviction, or her cinema's corporate conviction.\n\nThe court heard she had called to say she was unable to attend as her mother was \"extremely ill\".\n\nShe was \"living off\" about £30,000 in savings, with the judge asking about any evidence Redfern was receiving funds from an \"outside source\".\n\nSwansea council's prosecutor Lee Reynolds said Redfern had said she received about £55,000 from an online \"crowdfunder\".\n\nHe added the \"aims\" were to pay for legal costs, challenge fines and loss of business, as well five other \"charitable\" aims, including \"taking her kids on holiday to celebrate getting her freedom back\".\n\nThe court heard Redfern had been unable to secure legal representation, with Mr Reynolds saying the local authority has had \"no correspondence\" from her.\n\nThe court heard one of Redfern's reasons for appealing for the fine to be reduced was that she had two children.\n\nBut Judge Thomas warned the court had the power to increase the fine if the appeal was unsuccessful.\n\nHe added Redfern's suspended sentence could also be increased, though he added that this is \"far less likely than an increase in the fine\".\n\nAdjourning the case for a week, he said: \"Nothing I have said is an indication of the way this case is going to go but she needs to be aware of the potential consequences.\"", "Sainsbury's is set to become the latest UK supermarket to pay shop workers at least £10 an hour.\n\nIt will increase its basic rate from £9.50 to £10 an hour for staff across its supermarkets and Argos stores from 6 March.\n\nSainsbury's boss Simon Roberts said the pay boost reflected the progress it was making against its savings plan.\n\nIt follows the likes of Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi who announced similar moves last year.\n\nSainsbury's will also increase its minimum hourly rate from £9.75 to £10.50 for workers in outer London and from £10.10 to £11.05 in inner London.\n\nBy comparison, the UK's minimum wage for workers over 23 - the National Living Wage - is set to rise from its current level of £8.91 an hour to £9.50 from April.\n\nMeanwhile, the real living wage, paid voluntarily by almost 9,000 employers throughout the country, has gone up from £9.50 to £9.90 an hour.\n\nThe higher rates paid by Sainsbury's will apply to about 150,000 employees across the company - including shop workers and lorry drivers.\n\nThe supermarket chain said it was investing £100m in total in improving pay and rewards for its frontline staff.\n\n\"We are making this significant investment to show our colleagues how much we value the brilliant job they do for our customers every day,\" Mr Roberts said.\n\nIt will also bump up pay for drivers amid an ongoing recruitment struggle which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and Brexit.\n\nGroceries delivery drivers will now get £11.50 per hour, while Argos Fast Track Delivery drivers will receive £11 per hour based on a base rate of £10 per hour plus an extra £1, up from 75p.\n\n\"While demand for online deliveries remains high, this enhanced pay will help the retailer recruit and retain the best talent,\" Sainsbury's said.\n\nStaff will also receive a 10% discount on their shopping from Sainsbury's, Argos and Habitat, which will be increased to 15% each pay day for five days after.\n\nDespite the increase, the higher rate will still fall shy of the £10.10 per hour Aldi and Lidl have offered to pay staff from February and March respectively.\n\nLidl has set out new rates where more experienced workers will earn up to £11.40 an hour, while Aldi will pay £11.55 an hour to employees working within the M25.\n\nThe latest available data suggests that Tesco currently pay £9.55 an hour, while Waitrose and the Co-op pay £9.50 and Asda pays £9.18.\n• None Where are all the job vacancies?", "Sidney Poitier was a trailblazing actor who broke through Hollywood's racial barriers\n\nSidney Poitier, the first black man to win a best actor Oscar, has died at 94.\n\nThe Hollywood star's death was confirmed to the BBC by the office of Fred Mitchell, the Bahamas' minister of foreign affairs.\n\nPoitier was a trailblazing actor and a respected humanitarian and diplomat. He won the Academy Award for best actor for Lilies of the Field in 1963.\n\nFormer US President Barack Obama said Poitier \"epitomised dignity and grace\" and had \"singular talent\".\n\nHe added that the actor revealed \"the power of movies to bring us closer together\" and \"opened doors for a generation of actors\".\n\nUS broadcaster and journalist Oprah Winfrey also paid tribute, saying: \"For me the greatest of the 'Great Trees' has fallen,\" adding the actor \"had an enormous soul I will forever cherish\".\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd the actor and Academy Award winner, Denzel Washington, said: \"It was a privilege to call Sidney Poitier my friend. He was a gentle man and opened doors for all of us that had been closed for years. God bless him and his family.\"\n\nBorn in Miami, Poitier grew up on a tomato farm in the Bahamas and moved to New York aged 16.\n\nHe signed up for a short stint in the army and did several odd jobs while taking acting lessons, en route to becoming a star of the stage and screen in the 1950s and 60s.\n\nPoitier broke racial barriers in Hollywood. His appearance in The Defiant Ones in 1958 earned him his first Oscar nomination - in itself a historic achievement for a black man in a lead category at the time.\n\nFive years later he went one better, taking the glory for Lilies of the Field, in which he played a handyman who helps German nuns to build a chapel in the desert.\n\nSpeaking on a live Facebook stream on Friday, The Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis said: \"Our whole Bahamas grieves. But even as we mourn, we celebrate the life of a great Bahamian.\"\n\nHe added: \"His strength of character, his willingness to stand up and be counted and the way he plotted and navigated his life's journey.\n\n\"The boy who moved from the tomato farm to become a waiter in the United States, a young man who not only taught himself to read and write, but who made the expression of words and thoughts and feelings central to his career.\"\n\nOne of his most powerful roles was Virgil Tibbs in the film In the Heat of the Night\n\nThe actor was a regular on the big screen at a time of racial segregation in the US, appearing in a Patch of Blue in 1965, and then Heat of the Night the year after, followed by Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, playing a black man with a white fiancée.\n\nIn Heat of the Night he portrayed Virgil Tibbs, a black police officer confronting racism during a murder investigation.\n\nHis other classic films included The Blackboard Jungle and A Raisin in the Sun, which he also performed on Broadway.\n\nHe went on to direct a raft of films, and a Broadway play about life and career was announced last month.\n\nEmpire magazine's Amon Warmann told the BBC: \"He was a pioneer, he's so influential and paved the way for so many in the industry to make their own mark, not least Denzel Washington, who paid tribute to him when he won an Oscar.\"\n\nWashington, who won an Oscar in 2002 on the same night Poitier won an honorary Oscar, joked as he said: \"Forty years I've been chasing Sidney and what do they do - they go and give it to him in the same night.\"\n\nWarmann added that Poitier \"tackled racism head on\" in his work but was also \"so versatile\".\n\n\"He really helped change the game for how black actors were viewed at that time [of his Oscar win]. He was one of the biggest stars during that period.\"\n\nViola Davis, the first black American to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony Award, said: \"No words can describe how your work radically shifted my life.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by violadavis This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Oscar winning director Spike Lee took to Instagram to celebrate Poitier's legacy, calling him \"A Proud, Dignified, Handsome And Strong Black Man That We See In Our Communities All The Time But Now Burst And Burnt Through The Silver Screens Of Hollywood\".\n\nStar Trek actor George Takei paid tribute, calling the actor \"a trailblazer who will be mourned by so many for whom he opened the very doors of Hollywood\".\n\nJames Bond and Westworld actor Jeffrey Wright added that Poitier was a \"landmark actor\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jeffrey Wright This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd the director, Sir Steve McQueen, called Poitier \"an icon to the Black diaspora\".\n\nActress Whoopi Goldberg quoted the lyrics to the song To Sir With Love, which soundtracked Poitier's 1967 film. \"He showed us how to reach for the stars,\" she noted, while actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt called him an \"an absolute legend\".\n\nIn an interview in 2000, Winfrey put it to Poitier that, as producer Quincy Jones had noted, he had \"created and defined the African-American in film\".\n\n\"It's been an enormous responsibility,\" Poitier replied. \"And I accepted it, and I lived in a way that showed how I respected that responsibility.\n\n\"I had to. In order for others to come behind me, there were certain things I had to do.\"\n\nAuthor and historian Donald Bogle spoke in a Turner Classic Movies YouTube film about the heights the actor reached during his career.\n\n\"Poitier in the 60s is this big star and he's the only dramatic black actor who works continually in these leading roles and he has big films,\" he said.\n\nScreenwriter Richard Wesley added: \"At that time, there was a social need for a character like Sidney Poitier. The social changes that were being wrought by the civil rights movement were demanding a different kind of conversation, interaction and introspection on the part of black and white people in America at that time.\n\n\"Sidney Poitier's characterisations on screen were part of that conversation - and they were a necessary part of that conversation.\"\n\nUS filmmaker Ava DuVernay also paid her respects online.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Ava DuVernay This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMeanwhile, the former Disney CEO, Bob Iger, paid tribute to Poitier as \"the most dignified man I've ever met\". Poitier served on Disney's board of directors from 1995 to 2003.\n\nPoitier became the first black actor to receive a life achievement award from the American Film Institute in 1992.\n\nFive years later, he was appointed the Bahamas' ambassador to Japan and he received a knighthood from the Queen in 1974.\n\nAs a Bahamian citizen he was eligible for a substantive knighthood, but given he was a US resident and Bahamian by descent the Bahamian authorities preferred it to be an honorary award.\n\nHe was married twice and had six children.\n• None The trailblazer who broke down Hollywood's racial barriers", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil reports from outside hotel where Djokovic is being detained\n\nNovak Djokovic is not being held captive in Australia, a top official says, as the men's world number one tennis player faces deportation over Covid vaccination rules.\n\nThe Serb star remains in immigration detention in Melbourne after being denied entry on Wednesday.\n\nIn a message on Instagram on Friday, he thanked \"people around the world\" for their support.\n\nA court challenge is due on Monday, a week before the Australian Open begins.\n\nCzech player Renata Voracova has also had her Australian visa cancelled, local media reported on Friday.\n\nNow more uncertainty surrounds the schedule of the tournament that Djokovic has won nine times. A 10th win would see him become the men's most successful player, with 21 Grand Slams.\n\nDjokovic, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted a medical exemption to play in the tournament for unspecified reasons, in a decision that infuriated many Australians. More than 90% of the country's adult population are fully vaccinated, but they still face restrictions as cases of infection rise.\n\nDjokovic's exemption was given by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia, the body that runs the event, and Victoria state.\n\nBut on Wednesday, Australian Border Force (ABF) officials said the 34-year-old player had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" at Melbourne Airport.\n\nThe federal government has criticised Tennis Australia for ignoring ABF advice about the requirements for entry. On Friday, Victoria said Tennis Australia had also failed to pass on this advice.\n\nPrime Minister Scott Morrison is also being accused of politicising the issue. The prime minister himself is under pressure amid the surge of Covid-19 infections in the country, and a federal election is likely to be held in May. Mr Morrison has denied the visa cancellation was because of \"any particular position in relation to Serbia\".\n\nBut Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said Djokovic is a victim of \"harassment\". As Serbs celebrated Orthodox Christmas on Friday, Serbia's Patriarch Porfirije sent a message of support to Djokovic, saying that millions of Orthodox Serbs were praying for him.\n\nIt is not yet clear how long Djokovic will remain in the immigration detention hotel that has often been criticised by refugees for its poor conditions. Serbia has demanded Australia move him to a nicer hotel.\n\nIn his Instagram message, Djokovic said he could \"feel\" the support of fans, which \"is greatly appreciated\".\n\nIn an interview with Channel 9 on Friday, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said Djokovic \"is free to leave at anytime that he chooses to do so and Border Force will actually facilitate that\".\n\nMs Andrews said there was intelligence to \"indicate there are some individuals here now that have not met the entry requirements and we have to investigate that\".\n\nHowever, she did not say how many other players were under investigation or who they were.\n\nTensions and emotions have been high outside the hotel where Novak Djokovic is being kept. His supporters were there well after midnight.\n\nSome wrote \"stay strong\" in big yellow letters on the pavement. Others lit candles.\n\n\"It's [the Orthodox] Christmas,\" a woman told me, visibly emotional. \"He'll be alone up there. It's a farce.\"\n\nThere are many strands to this story. The anger. The politics. The visa. And of course, the tennis - which is what the world number one is here for.\n\nDjokovic fans are furious that he's been allowed to come all the way to Australia only to be told he had to leave on a visa technicality.\n\nBut other Australians are outraged that a world-class athlete who's been vocal about his vaccine opposition was granted an exemption, while their own politicians have urged them for nearly a year now to get both jabs and now the booster.\n\nBoth shades of anger are understandable and they have at least one thing in common: fury about how the authorities have handled this.\n\nThere has been a continuous tussle - and lots of blame-shifting - between the state and federal governments and Tennis Australia.\n\nPoliticians have wanted to prove that they can control who comes in and out of the country but in doing so they have lost control of the narrative.\n\nIt's an embarrassing situation for Australia whichever way you look at it.\n\nDjokovic's wife, Jelena, thanked people \"all around the world for using your voice to send love to my husband\".\n\nThe player's father, Srdjan, said his son had been held in a room guarded by police at the airport, adding that it was \"not just a fight for Novak, but a fight for the whole world\".\n\nDjokovic drew qualified backing from Australian player Nick Kyrgios, who tweeted his support for vaccinations but said \"how we are handling Novak's situation is bad, really bad\".\n\nBut others such as Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal, currently in Melbourne to prepare for the tournament, said it was \"normal\" for Australians to get \"very frustrated with the case\".\n\n\"The only, for me, clear thing is if you are vaccinated, you can play in the Australian Open,\" he said, adding: \"Of course after a lot of people had been dying for two years, my feeling is [that] the vaccine is the only way to stop this pandemic.\"", "Flat owners will not have to pay to remove dangerous cladding from lower-height buildings under new government plans, BBC Newsnight understands.\n\nIt means leaseholders in buildings of between 11 and 18.5m will no longer be expected to take out personal loans to cover the cost of the work.\n\nInstead, the government will try to secure up to £4bn from developers towards the costs.\n\nIt had already promised to pay to remove cladding in taller buildings.\n\nIf ministers are unable to secure the funding from developers it may come out of the housing department's budget.\n\nIn the wake of the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in hundreds of blocks of flats across the UK.\n\nRemoving cladding can cost millions of pounds per block, with the cost often being borne by individual flat owners, under the leasehold system in England and Wales.\n\nHundreds of thousands of people are still living in dangerous blocks more than four years on from Grenfell - while many flat owners have been left with spiralling insurance costs, service charges, and requirements for expensive 24-hour \"waking watch\" patrols in case of fire.\n\nIn a new package of measures to be announced next week, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, will tell the Commons that if developers choose not to pay for cladding removals voluntarily the government will threaten them with legal compulsion.\n\nThe BBC understands Mr Gove will warn them next week that he is putting them \"on notice\".\n\nPreviously, the government had committed up to £5bn for the removal of dangerous cladding for buildings taller than 18.5m.\n\nCladding campaigners have long asked that the government accept both the principle that buildings under 18.5m ought to be covered and that leaseholders should not have to pay.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I didn't choose any cladding and now I'm going to be skint forever\"\n\nNewsnight has seen documents from Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke to Mr Gove where he says:\n\nExperts question whether £4bn will be sufficient to cover cladding in buildings under 18.5m.\n\nAnd cladding is not the only or even main problem in thousands of buildings across the country.\n\nNeighbours Darren Matthews and Mandy Sandhu are two of those who could be helped by the changes, as their building is 13.5m tall.\n\nMr Matthews told BBC Breakfast they faced bills of £101,500 per apartment and described the move as a \"step forward\", saying he was \"cautiously optimistic\" but that there was \"no absolute clarity about how developers are going to pay\".\n\n\"With the best will in the world this issue isn't going to be on a voluntary basis, it has to be enshrined in law with a legal obligation with proper stipulations to the building industry,\" he said. \"Leaseholders are the only innocent parties in this.\"\n\nMs Sandhu said she did not eat or sleep because of the stress and said despite the news they still needed clarification of what would be done.\n\n\"I won't believe it until I see it\", she added.\n\nIt is unclear how those leaseholders will pay their bills, and how quickly any money that does come from developers will appear.\n\nDevelopers have largely insisted that their developments were built to regulations and that they are therefore not liable.\n\nWithout immediate compulsion this process threatens to continue to be drawn out with leaseholders stuck in properties they cannot sell.\n\nStewart Baseley, chairman of the Home Builders Federation - which represents developers, said the largest house builders had already spent or committed to spending £1bn to remediate affected buildings and said the most urgent action was for the government to define guidance on what work actually needed to be done to resolve issues for residents.\n\nHe said while house builders were \"committed to playing their part\" there were other organisations involved in the construction of affected buildings which should also be involved in remediation costs, \"not least material manufacturers who designed, tested and sold materials that developers purchased in good faith that were later proved to not be fit for purpose\".\n\nHundreds of thousands of leaseholders have already received bills for fire remediation works or will in the coming months.\n\nIt is also not clear whether these measures will be enough to restore market and lender confidence in new-build properties.\n\nCampaigner Steve Day told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he and his neighbours were facing a £31,000 per flat bill for cladding costs, as well as about £5,000 per flat in non-cladding costs and an extra £3,000 a year service charge, which he said was huge for south-east London.\n\n\"People are facing arrears, and high levels of stress,\" he said.\n\nHe said he was concerned voluntary contributions will \"just not be deliverable\", and called for a scheme where the government made developers pay if they breached regulations.\n\nFollowing the Grenfell fire flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in flat blocks across the UK\n\nConservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley, chairman of the all party parliamentary group on leasehold and commonhold reform, said the government needed to tell the insurance companies to \"come to the table\" with £8bn - \"then innocent leaseholders will live in homes which are safe and saleable\".\n\nMatthew Pennycook, Labour's shadow housing minister, tweeted the new measures \"appear far less significant than they sound\", with \"nothing on non-cladding defects, no new developer levy and the position on leaseholder liability unchanged\".\n\nMany leaseholders have found their properties effectively worthless and unmortgageable.\n\nIn November, Mr Gove questioned why flat owners should have to pay anything for dangerous cladding to be removed from their buildings.\n\nHe said the government had a responsibility to help leaseholders - who were \"innocent parties\" - with the huge costs.\n\nThe Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities declined to comment.", "Health Secretary Sajid Javid says he is concerned by rising Covid hospital admissions, particularly in older age groups.\n\nOne in 15 people in the UK had Covid in the last week of 2021, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates, with numbers rising in the over-70s.\n\nThe data suggests London's Omicron wave may be slowing but infections are rising quickly in the north of England.\n\nStaff absences in the NHS are growing and causing mounting pressure.\n\nOn a visit to King's College Hospital London, the health secretary said the UK was in a better position than it was at the same time last year, pointing to vaccinations, antiviral treatments and testing.\n\nBut he added: \"Despite all of that we are still seeing rising hospitalisations, particularly with the case rate rising with older age groups - that is of concern.\n\n\"And I think we have to be honest when we look at the NHS and say it will be a rocky few weeks ahead.\"\n\nHe once again called on people to get vaccinated, adding that staff at the hospital estimated about 70% of Covid patients in the ICU critical care unit were unvaccinated.\n\nGetting boosted, he said, meant your chance of ending up in hospital was \"almost 90% less than it was with Delta\".\n\nA further 178,250 new confirmed coronavirus infections have been recorded in the UK on Friday, according to the government's daily figures - a similar figure to a week ago.\n\nMore than 2,000 people a day are being admitted to hospital with Covid, although about a third are being treated for something else. The total number of patients in UK hospitals has now gone over 18,000.\n\nOn Friday, there were 229 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result, the data shows.\n\nBut these figures mask the numbers infected with Covid but not showing symptoms or those not testing or reporting positive tests. The ONS estimates that a total of 3.7 million people in the UK had Covid in the week ending 31 December by the ONS.\n\nAccording to their survey, which tests thousands of people in households with and without symptoms, in that same week:\n\nIn London, where one in 10 had Covid, \"there were early signs in the last few days of 2021 that infections may no longer be increasing\", the ONS said, but it added it was too early to work out if this trend would continue.\n\nIn northern England, it found infections were rising at a faster rate than in other regions, at least doubling in the North East, North West and Yorkshire and The Humber to between one in 15 and one in 20 affected.\n\nAll age groups are seeing increases in infections, but they could be flattening in children aged 11 to 16.\n\nThe ONS says this can only be confirmed after seeing the effects of children returning to school after the Christmas holidays.\n\nIt estimates that about 2% of the over-70s and 4% of 50 to 69-year-olds tested positive in the last week of December, rising from a low level. The virus spilling into these age groups, who are the most vulnerable to Covid illness, is expected but the impact is yet to be seen.\n\nThe ZOE Covid symptom app also found cases were rising in the over-75s. It estimates that half of people with cold-like symptoms are likely to have Covid.\n\nSir David Spiegelhalter, from the University of Cambridge, told the BBC that in London, the numbers entering hospital seem to be stable and may even be declining, but admissions are rising in other parts of the country.\n\n\"There's still no sign of a serious increase in intensive care ventilation and deaths, and we would have expected to see that by now,\" he said.\n\nHe said the priority was now managing the disruption to the NHS caused by Covid-19.\n\nStaff absences due to Covid at hospital trusts in England have trebled since the beginning of December.\n\nAbout 4% of staff, or nearly 35,600 workers, at hospital trusts in England were absent due to Covid every day last week - a 41% rise on the week before. In total, 9% of staff were off sick for any reason, or isolating.\n\nProf Stephen Powis, NHS England national medical director, said rising Covid-19 cases were \"piling even more pressure\" on hospital trust workers.\n\n\"Omicron means more patients to treat and fewer staff to treat them.\"\n\nCorrection 9 February 2022: This article was amended to make clear that the 70% of Covid patients who were unvaccinated referred to those in the ICU critical care unit, not the hospital as a whole.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Fans of tennis legend Novak Djokovic have gathered outside the player's hotel to voice their support\n\nWorld number one men's tennis player Novak Djokovic should be deported from Australia if he has not told the truth about his exemption from vaccination rules, the deputy prime minister says.\n\nBarnaby Joyce told the BBC that rich people \"can't wander around the world thinking... they are above the laws\".\n\nDjokovic, who had travelled to play in the Australian Open, is in immigration detention after his entry was denied.\n\nA court will decide on whether he should be deported on Monday.\n\nThe 34-year-old Serbian player, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted a medical exemption to play in the tournament in Melbourne for unspecified reasons, a decision that infuriated many Australians.\n\nThe exemption was given by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia, the body that runs the event, and Victoria state, tournament organisers said.\n\nBut on Wednesday, Australian Border Force (ABF) officials said Djokovic had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" for entry after arriving from Dubai. He is being held at a hotel used for immigration detention in a Melbourne suburb.\n\n\"If he hasn't filled out the forms appropriately then he's taking the sovereign capacity of another nation for a joke,\" Mr Joyce told the BBC's Newshour programme. \"100% someone's made a mistake and if he hasn't told the truth then the person who's made the mistake is Mr Djokovic.\"\n\nHe added: \"You can't just wander around the world thinking that because you're really rich you're really above the laws of other nations.\"\n\nDjokovic's team challenged ABF's decision, and a hearing at the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia has been scheduled for Monday. It is not yet clear whether Djokovic will remain in the same hotel until then.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEarlier, Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied Djokovic was being singled out and said no-one was above the country's rules. Though Djokovic's reason for an exemption has not been disclosed, Mr Morrison said contracting Covid-19 in the past six months was not among federal criteria for one.\n\nMr Morrison had initially said he accepted the Victorian government's decision to grant Djokovic and other tennis players medical exemptions.\n\nHe is now being accused of politicising the issue amid the huge public backlash. The prime minister himself is under pressure amid the surge of Covid-19 infections in the country, and a federal election is likely to be held in May.\n\nThe row prompted Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to say Djokovic was a victim of \"harassment\" and that \"the whole of Serbia\" supported him. Mr Morrison denied the visa cancellation was because of \"any particular position in relation to Serbia\".\n\nThe player's father, Srdjan, said his son had been held in a room guarded by police at the airport. \"This is not just a fight for Novak, but a fight for the whole world,\" he said in a statement.\n\nFor hours, Novak Djokovic's supporters made their way outside the Melbourne quarantine hotel where he's believed to be staying, many from the Serbian community here. The strength of feeling was palpable as songs about freedom played and some danced. \"This is a disgrace,\" Kristina told me, draped in the Serbian flag. \"I'm ashamed to be an Australian today. If he's not playing - I'm not going.\"\n\nJelena wore a white cap with Djokovic's signature that she got two years ago when he was here for the tournament. She carries a sign that says \"Thank you\". \"He represents a connection to my home country. The Australian government needs to fix this mess. It's an international scandal and the world is watching,\" Jelena said, her disappointment that he may not be competing evident.\n\nDjokovic has landed in the middle of a controversy that's gone beyond tennis and is now at the heart of a political tussle - between the state and the federal authorities.\n\nAnd while the player and his legal team wait for the court hearing to resume on Monday, anger and confusion are the overarching sentiments here - whether from those who say he shouldn't have been allowed in or those furious at the thought of him being deported.\n\nThe world number one has dominated the Australian Open, winning it nine times. But his attempt to defend his title and go for a 10th may be over before the tournament begins.\n\nSpanish tennis start Rafael Nadal, who is in Melbourne to prepare for the tournament, said it was \"normal\" for Australians to get \"very frustrated with the case\".\n\n\"The only for me clear thing is if you are vaccinated, you can play in the Australian Open,\" he said, adding: \"Of course after a lot of people had been dying for two years, my feeling is [that] the vaccine is the only way to stop this pandemic.\"\n\nBut former Australian Open tournament director Paul McNamee told local media the visa U-turn was unprecedented, saying it \"smells\" of politics.\n\nTwo other players were now having their medical exemptions reviewed, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. Mr Morrison said the ABF had previously advised Tennis Australia on visa expectations.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January. Djokovic has previously won the tournament nine times.", "A plan to tighten controls around the wearing of face coverings has been scrapped\n\nNo further Covid restrictions are currently necessary in Northern Ireland despite a surge in Omicron cases, First Minister Paul Givan has said.\n\nMr Givan said a plan to tighten controls around the wearing of face coverings has also been scrapped.\n\nBut Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill denied the plan had been completely axed.\n\n\"We haven't decided it is not going to happen but we have found it very difficult to make it work,\" she said.\n\nShe added that ministers will continue to explore ways to encourage more people to wear face coverings\n\nThe executive was briefed by Health Minister Robin Swann and his officials on the spread of Omicron.\n\nOn Thursday, the Department of Health reported four more coronavirus-related deaths and 6,877 positive cases.\n\nIt brings the total number of Covid-19 deaths it has recorded in Northern Ireland to 3,002.\n\nThe executive had planned to remove some exemptions on face coverings and place the onus on the individual to provide medical proof on why they cannot wear one.\n\nBut Mr Givan said ministers had agreed to suspend the planned policy \"indefinitely\" and that \"no business should be asking anyone to provide proof\".\n\nPaul Givan said Northern Ireland was not seeing the same increase in people requiring critical care as in previous Covid waves\n\nHe added ministers had been advised previously that GPs would provide the \"certification\" needed for exemptions but they are now reluctant to do so because of the \"huge pressures\" they are currently under.\n\n\"I think it is right, having recognised the problems this policy was creating, we have acted very quickly in terms of suspending this policy and I would urge the public to stop contacting their GPs seeking these exemptions,\" he said.\n\n\"Yes, businesses should be encouraging people to wear face coverings but they should not be asking for proof as that is a policy which this executive has suspended.\"\n\nMr Givan also said schools would not be closed \"in terms of a universal approach\".\n\nHowever, Ms O'Neill criticised his DUP colleague, Education Minister Michelle McIlveen, for failing to bring forward more measures to support schools to stay open during the current crisis.\n\nShe said Ms McIlveen needs to do more to meeting the challenges facing schools with so many staff self-isolating.\n\nBBC News NI understands the assembly will be recalled early on Monday, with MLAs able to question the education minister on what action she is taking in schools.\n\nIt comes after a Sinn Féin petition backed by the SDLP and Alliance and approved by assembly Speaker Alex Maskey.\n\nSome teaching unions have expressed concerns about staff absences from classrooms and securing substitute cover, due to the surge in Omicron cases.\n\nSpeaking to Stormont's health committee on Thursday, Northern Ireland's chief scientific adviser said it would be a \"major surprise\" if there were not substantial numbers of Covid cases among schoolchildren after term resumes.\n\nProf Ian Young said that before Christmas the largest number of cases were in under-18s.\n\nOnce schools broke-up, the rise in cases has been substantial in all age bands, with the exception of under-18s.\n\n\"Generally it will be a relatively mild illness with a small number of exceptions but the rate of household transmission is very high with Omicron and once a child becomes infected and is at home, there is a high risk of transmission to parents, grandparents or wider members of the family,\" Prof Young added.\n\nThe committee also heard that the number of active Covid-19 outbreaks in care homes is 179.\n\nNorthern Ireland's chief medical officer, Sir Michael McBride, said it was important to put this into context and while there was no cause for complacency, he would not wish people to become alarmed by the numbers.\n\nSir Michael said something in the region of three quarters of the outbreaks \"involve staff members or care partners as opposed to residents\".\n\nA £40m support package for hosptiality has been announced but other sectors say they also need help\n\nLast week, ministers agreed to cut self-isolation rules in a bid to manage workforce pressures due to the Omicron variant.\n\nFinance Minister Conor Murphy previously announced a £40m scheme for hospitality businesses, which are already operating under some tighter restrictions.\n\nOther sectors such as tourism and travel have called for extra resources from Stormont.\n\nThe executive is limited in what support it can provide, without further interventions from the Treasury in Westminster.\n\nMr Givan has said he hopes extra money can be reallocated from Stormont departments for Covid support through January's monitoring round.\n\nThursday's meeting comes as a new emergency winter fuel payment scheme opens for applications.\n\nLast month, the Department for Communities said £2m in funding would be available for extra emergency payments to help those most effected by rising costs.\n\nAbout 20,000 households are expected to benefit from the scheme, which will run until 31 March.\n\nFull eligibility criteria, along with the application process, has been published by the Bryson Charitable Group, which is helping oversee the operation of the scheme.\n\nSome travel rules were introduced to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant\n\nMeanwhile, the Department of Health has confirmed that a number of travel rules previously introduced to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant will now be removed.\n\nFully vaccinated passengers and under-18s will not be required to take a pre-departure test or self-isolate on arrival from 04:00 on Friday.\n\nPassengers who are fully vaccinated will still be required to complete a passenger locator form and take either a lateral flow test or PCR test on or before day two of their arrival from Sunday 9 January.\n\nAnyone with a positive lateral flow test will be required to book a free confirmatory PCR test and isolate. If the subsequent mandatory confirmatory PCR is negative, then the isolation period can end.", "Harvey Parker was last seen leaving Heaven nightclub in Charing Cross on 17 December\n\nA body found in the River Thames has been confirmed as that of missing student Harvey Parker.\n\nMr Parker, 20, from Lambeth, south London, was last seen leaving Heaven nightclub by Charing Cross station in Westminster at about 02:15 GMT on 17 December.\n\nThe Met's Marine Support Unit recovered the body and detectives have informed his family.\n\nThe death is being treated as unexplained, police said.\n\nOfficers recovered the body near to Embankment, Westminster, after being alerted by the RNLI at 11:51 on Tuesday.\n\nHarvey Parker was last seen near Embankment in Westminster\n\nInner West London Coroner's Court confirmed the body was Mr Parker on Thursday.\n\nDet Chf Insp Lucy O'Connor, of the Central South Command Unit, said: \"We are providing Harvey's family with all the available information. We are also asking for media to please respect the family's privacy at this challenging and difficult time.\"\n\nThe day before the University of York student went missing he had spent the afternoon at an escape room with his family, before heading off to see a music concert in Brixton. He then went to the nightclub at about midnight.\n\nImages released on Tuesday showed him on Craven Street, before he walked south towards the Embankment.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Holiday bookings have surged and demand has increased after the testing rules for international travel were relaxed.\n\nJet2 said demand had returned to \"around pre-Covid levels\".\n\nThe holiday company saw a \"huge spike\" in bookings, boss Steve Heapy told the BBC, after the government said pre-departure tests for fully vaccinated people would be scrapped.\n\nEasyJet said its bookings rose almost 200% compared to last week, while Tui said it experienced a \"strong uptick\".\n\nEasyJet said flights to Spanish destinations Tenerife, Alicante, Malaga and Lanzarote were the most in demand, with bookings for the latter up 427% week on week.\n\nThe airline has put about 1.1 million more seats on sale from London Gatwick for summer 2022.\n\nJet2's Mr Heapy told the BBC's Today programme that before the rule changes on Wednesday, bookings were \"well below\" usual levels, but added the relaxation of measures gave people \"the confidence that perhaps they won't be caught in resorts quarantining\", with bookings up 150% on Thursday.\n\nHe said Jet2 has a larger summer holiday package for 2022 than 2019.\n\n\"People are desperate to get away, that's been demonstrated over the past couple of days,\" he added.\n\nMr Heapy said the Omicron Covid variant had showed that governments should perhaps \"bide your time and look at the science a bit before jumping into lockdown\".\n\n\"We can't just jump into lockdowns and further restrictions every time there is a new variant. We have to learn to live with it and hopefully this is the beginning and the end and we can get back to some normality,\" he added.\n\n\"It's been very tough for the travel industry. The biggest thing this industry needs is not lots of bailouts from the government, we just need to fly.\n\n\"We just need to take people away and we will be profitable, we will be paying tax, contributing to the economy and to do that we need stability.\"\n\nEasyJet said Brits were planning more holidays than usual in 2022 and will spend more money on them, according to its own survey.\n\nThe airline said a third 2,000 people surveyed plan to spend around £1,000 more than usual as a result of having had travel plans disrupted by travel restrictions.\n\nSophie Dekkers, chief commercial officer at easyJet, said the summer should see the company \"return to 2019 levels of capacity and beyond\".\n\nThe shake-up in the travel rules was announced by Boris Johnson on Wednesday, following calls from travel firms who said the measures were not effective now that Omicron was spreading widely.\n\nAlistair Rowland, chief executive of long-haul tour operator Blue Bay Travel, said the day of the rule change announcement was the company's busiest day for website traffic and booking enquiries in over a year.\n\n\"The volume of enquiries received yesterday matched that of January 2020 daily levels, which is something we couldn't have imagined a month ago, when these testing rules came in and consumer confidence plummeted,\" he said.\n\n\"Our most popular destination for bookings right now is the Maldives.\"\n\nTour operator Tui said customers had been given the \"reassurance\" that travel \"will once again be easier and more affordable\", but added it had not seen demand return to levels seen before the pandemic.\n\nTui said Mexico and the Dominican Republic were proving the most popular destinations currently, with the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and Egypt also seeing increased demand.\n\nBritish Airways searches for holidays on its website increased by nearly 40% compared to last week.", "Vulnerable primary school children should be offered a low-dose Covid vaccine, government vaccine advisers have said.\n\nSome older children should also be offered a booster in response to the Omicron variant, they have said.\n\nA low-dose version of a Covid vaccine for five to 11-year-olds has just been approved for use in the UK after being deemed safe and effective.\n\nBut a decision on vaccinating all five to 11-year-olds has not yet been made.\n\nThe recommendations by the scientific experts have to be officially approved by ministers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - but this is normally a formality.\n\nIt is not clear when children will actually get these vaccine doses. The priority for the NHS is expected to remain on giving adults their third or booster dose in the face of the Omicron wave.\n\nThe low-dose vaccine by Pfizer-BioNTech contains one-third of the adult dose and immunisations should be given eight weeks apart. It is widely used in other countries and more than five million children have been given it in the US alone.\n\nThe drugs regulator - the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) - has licensed the vaccine for use.\n\nDr June Raine, chief executive of the MHRA, said: \"Parents and carers can be reassured that no new vaccine for children would have been approved unless the expected standards of safety, quality and effectiveness have been met.\"\n\nShe said the overwhelming majority of side effects were mild, such as a sore arm or a flu-like illness.\n\nThe government's vaccine experts, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, then decided who would get it.\n\nIt said the vaccine should be limited, for now, to those who are clinically vulnerable due to conditions such as severe neuro-disability, heart and lung diseases and cancer. About 330,000 children would be eligible. Children who live with clinically vulnerable adults will also be offered it.\n\nIt is thought that 113 visits to paediatric intensive care would be prevented for every million vulnerable young children immunised.\n\nHowever, only two admissions to intensive care would be prevented for every million healthy children given the same vaccine.\n\nA decision on a wider roll out will be made in the New Year. Children are less severely affected by the virus and the UK only decided to immunise healthy children aged over 12 to help keep schools open.\n\nThe JCVI also recommended the normal booster dose should be offered to:\n\nProf Wei Shen Lim, from the JCVI said: \"Some five to 11 year olds have underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk, and we advise these children to be vaccinated in the first instance.\n\n\"For children and young people who have completed a primary course of vaccination, a booster dose will provide added protection against the Omicron variant.\"\n\nIn other developments on Wednesday:", "The victim lived in a residential block of flats in the Lichtenberg district of Berlin\n\nA German court has sentenced an ex-teacher to life in prison for murdering a man he met on an online dating site and desecrating his body.\n\nThe judge in Berlin said Stefan R, 42, had killed the electrical engineer to \"act out his fantasies of cannibalism\".\n\nThe former teacher was detained in November 2020 when some of the victim's bones were found by people strolling in a park in northern Berlin.\n\nThe 43-year-old victim's mother had reported him missing weeks earlier.\n\nThe two men had arranged to meet up for sex at Stefan R's apartment in the Pankow district, where the killer taught maths at a private school. Berlin media said he had called himself CanOpener79 on the dating forum.\n\nThe killer had previously visited online chatrooms where people discussed cannibalism. Investigators said his victim had died hours after they met and they found a bone saw and a butcher's knife in their search of his flat.\n\nDuring the trial Stefan R told the court he had found the man dead in his living room the morning after they had sex and in a panic decided to dispose of his body.\n\nBody parts were found by walkers in a park in November 2020\n\nHe used a rental car to scatter the body in several places around the northern part of Pankow. Only the victim's sexual organs were missing.\n\n\"Sexual fantasies or butchery fantasies aren't a crime,\" his defence lawyers told the trial, calling for his acquittal. They argued the engineer could have been killed by the cocktail of drugs he had taken.\n\nBut prosecutors said the criteria for murder had been met, in that the victim had been lured into a trap and the killer had acted to satisfy his sexual urges and enable a further crime.\n\nThe case is reminiscent of a notorious German cannibal, Armin Meiwes, who was jailed for life in 2006.\n\nHowever, there was a significant difference in that Meiwes's victim was himself interested in cannibalism.", "The Welsh government continues to advise against all but essential overseas travel\n\nFully vaccinated people travelling to Wales from abroad will soon no longer have to take a Covid test before their departure or a PCR test after their arrival.\n\nInstead they will be required to take a lateral flow test on day two after arriving in Wales.\n\nThere will no longer be an obligation to quarantine before getting a negative result.\n\nBut if the test is positive, travellers must get a PCR test and isolate.\n\nThe Welsh government said the changes to the rules would come into effect from 04:00 GMT on Friday 7 January, with lateral flow tests accepted as post-arrival tests from Sunday 9 January.\n\nIn a statement, Health Minister Eluned Morgan said she was making the changes \"reluctantly\" and stressed the Welsh government was still advising against all but essential international travel.\n\nThe UK government announced the same rules changes for travellers to England and they apply to double vaccinated travellers and under 18s.\n\nDespite relaxing the restrictions Ms Morgan said: \"We are concerned at the speed at which the UK government is re-opening international travel, given on-going concerns of importing new variants and adding additional pressure to our health services.\n\n\"Day two PCR testing acts as something of a surveillance system for international travel - if we had retained the requirement for a day two PCR test we may have been alerted to the presence and introduction of omicron earlier.\n\n\"Given the UK government's decision to remove PCR testing, it is vital we work across the four nations to ensure a system of bio-surveillance is maintained to provide a way of guarding against the importation of future variants.\"\n\nUK border control is the responsibility of the UK government and the Welsh government has tended to follow decisions taken by UK government ministers in relation to Covid rules on international travel.\n\nUnvaccinated travellers coming to Wales are still required to complete a pre-departure form and have proof of a negative Covid test, taken within 48 hours of departure.\n\nThey must also isolate for up to ten days and take PCR tests on day two and day eight.\n\nIn addition the Welsh government has extended the list of countries and territories whose vaccination programmes it recognises.\n\nBhutan, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Fiji, Iraq and Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, North of Cyprus, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Solomon Islands, The Gambia and Uzbekistan will have their vaccination programmes formally recognised from Monday 10 January.", "The US Supreme Court appears doubtful as to whether the Biden administration can enforce a vaccine-or-testing mandate for large private employers.\n\nThe rules apply to companies with more than 100 employees, requiring workers to get fully vaccinated against Covid or be tested weekly.\n\nThe court held a special session on Friday to consider the mandate.\n\nThe nine justices' decision could have an impact on as many as 80 million US workers.\n\nSome justices on the conservative-dominated court signalled support for the mandate on Friday, including Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal, who suggested the rule was not a vaccine mandate but a mandate for the unvaccinated to mask and get tested.\n\nBut conservative-leaning Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch questioned whether the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) had the broad authority to implement the mandate without instructions from Congress.\n\n\"This is something the federal government has never done before,\" said Republican-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts, who is often viewed as a swing vote on the court.\n\nThe case pits a number of Republican-led states and a coalition of business groups against the US Department of Labor.\n\nCritics of the vaccine mandate from the department's Osha argued in court on Friday that the federal government had overstepped its authority by issuing the sweeping mandate, which covers more than two-thirds of all US private sector employees.\n\nAdditionally, lawyers for the coalition argued that it would be expensive for businesses, particularly the cost to test workers who refuse the vaccine.\n\nThey have also warned that many workers may quit rather than comply - an argument that the government has contested.\n\nThe federal government says the mandate is needed to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and to protect workers, arguing the policies could prevent 250,000 hospitalisations and over 6,000 deaths in six months. The government plans to begin enforcing the mandate 10 January.\n\nThe rules were blocked by a federal appeals court in November, only to be reinstated by another court in mid-December.\n\nA second case, also being heard by the Supreme Court, concerns a vaccine policy announced in November for healthcare facilities receiving Medicaid and Medicare funding. The legal challenges come as the country struggles with a spike in infections driven by the Omicron variant.\n\nA November survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, for example, found that 52% of Americans supported a federal vaccine-or-testing mandate, and 45% who were opposed.\n\nAccording to Johns Hopkins University, the US is now averaging more than 600,000 new Covid-19 cases and over 1,250 deaths from the virus each day.\n\nCurrently, about 207 million Americans - some 62% of the population - are fully vaccinated.\n\nAlthough much of the public debate on vaccine mandates in recent months has been one of individual rights versus public health, for this conservative-dominated Supreme Court the legality of Joe Biden's policies will probably turn on questions about the power of the federal bureaucracy.\n\nThis court has proven time and again to be sceptical of any attempts to broadly interpret the powers of the federal bureaucracy - an attitude again on display in this case.\n\nAt one point, Justice Neil Gorsuch - a Donald Trump appointee - noted that Congress has had a year to legislate a vaccine mandate if it wanted. \"Now the federal government is going agency-to-agency as a workaround to its inability to get Congress to act,\" he said.\n\nBiden is trying to enforce his employer vaccinate-or-test mandate under a 1970 workplace safety law. He's justifying his healthcare worker mandate through the role the government plays in insuring the poor and the elderly.\n\nThe court's conservative justices appeared highly doubtful about the former and only slightly more open to the latter. In just a few days, they could tell Biden to go back to the drawing board to find ways to get more Americans vaccinated.", "Benjamin Mendy is accused of seven counts of rape\n\nManchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy, who has been charged with rape and sexual assault, has been released from prison on bail.\n\nThe 27-year-old is accused of attacking five women between October 2020 and August 2021.\n\nMr Mendy, who attended a hearing at Chester Crown Court, had been held in custody since his arrest in August.\n\nThe France international faces seven counts of rape and one of sex assault.\n\nHe had been due to go on trial this month but it has now been put back to June at the earliest.\n\nJudge Patrick Thompson told Mr Mendy he must live at his home address, not contact complainants and surrender his passport.\n\nHe agreed to the conditions and replied \"OK\" to the judge.\n\nMr Mendy attended the bail application hearing at Chester Crown Court in person\n\nThe alleged offences include three counts of rape said to have happened on 11 October 2020, sexual touching on 2 January last year, two counts of rape on 24 July and two counts of rape on 23 August.\n\nMr Mendy, from Prestbury in Cheshire, was granted bail until 24 January for a further pre-trial hearing.\n\nThe left-back joined the incumbent Premier League champions from Monaco in 2017 for a reported £52m.\n\nHe was first arrested and charged with offences on 26 August and had been denied bail on three occasions since.\n\nHe was suspended by Manchester City following the charges.\n\nMr Mendy was joined at the hearing by co-accused Louis Saha Matturie, who has been charged with six counts of rape and one of sexual assault.\n\nProsecutor Ian Unsworth QC said that another count of rape and another count of sexual assault were authorised for Matturie, from Eccles in Greater Manchester, on Thursday.\n\nThe 40-year-old will appear in court next week on the additional charges and a decision on his application for bail is yet to be made.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Several hospital trusts have declared critical incidents amid staff shortages and rising pressures due to Covid-19.\n\nUniversity Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals and Great Western Hospitals in Wiltshire have all been hit hard.\n\nDerriford hospital in Plymouth has problems offloading ambulances, and has recorded nearly 500 staff absences.\n\nCritical incidents are declared when health bosses are concerned they cannot provide priority services.\n\nThis includes treatment for cancer or heart disease patients.\n\nSpeaking in a Downing Street press conference earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the NHS was facing \"huge pressures\".\n\nHe said some services would be disrupted by staff absences but pledged to \"fortify\" the health service to withstand the pressures and protect supply chains.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty also acknowledged some hospitals would come under \"very substantial pressure over the next couple of weeks\" with high numbers of staff absences compounding typical winter pressures.\n\nHospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham are among those where general visiting has been suspended\n\nMeanwhile the highest number of people have tested positive or Covid in the UK with a total of 218,724, the latest figures show.\n\nHowever, that does include tests recorded on some previous days, with not all cases being reported over Christmas.\n\nThere were 15,044 patients with Covid in hospital on Tuesday morning including 797 requiring mechanical ventilation.\n\nThe University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust's chief executive confirmed the declaration of a critical incident.\n\nAaron Cummins, whose trust serves patients in Lancashire and south Cumbria, wrote in an internal message to staff: \"Sadly, despite everyone's best efforts, many of our patients are still receiving a level of care and experience that falls below the level of standards we would like.\"\n\nHe also said some non-urgent operations and procedures would be suspended.\n\nMr Cummins said the escalation \"allows us to be able to take additional steps to maintain safe services for our patients and help us cope with the growing pressures\".\n\nNatalie Hudson, chief operating officer at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said there was \"very high demand\" for services and \"long waits\" in emergency and urgency care departments.\n\nShe said there were continued challenges to discharge patients who no longer medically need to be in hospital but have nowhere else to go, or who have no care packages in place.\n\nThere were very high levels of bed occupancy, she added, while visiting had been suspended.\n\nMs Hudson said these factors were being \"exacerbated by rapidly rising rates of Covid-19 in the community and rising rates of admissions and staff absences\".\n\nHospital trusts declare a critical incident when they are worried they are on the brink of not being able to provide critical services, such as emergency care.\n\nIt is warning to the wider system they need help to pave the way for measures to be taken, such as redeployment of staff.\n\nMany will only last a couple of days.\n\nIt is not unusual for a small number of trusts to declare this at this point of the year - the start of January is the busiest for the NHS.\n\nBut the NHS is, of course, facing an unprecedented set of pressures.\n\nFirstly, admissions for Covid are already above what would normally be seen for all types of respiratory illness at this time of year.\n\nAnd they are continuing to rise.\n\nSecondly, the NHS is having to cope with a higher number of staff absences because of the Covid isolation rules.\n\nIn winter the absence rate can be around 5%, but in the last week before Christmas it hit 8%.\n\nThe higher admissions and absences rise the more common these critical incidents are likely to become.\n\nIn Wiltshire, the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Great Western Hospital in Swindon, declared a critical incident after experiencing \"sustained high levels of demand\" and concerns over the \"availability of beds\".\n\nIt said Covid inpatient numbers had risen 81% since 24 December.\n\nUnited Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said on Monday it had taken similar measures at its hospitals across the county.\n\nMedical director Dr Colin Farquharson said there were \"significant staffing pressures\" due to Covid-related absences.\n\nBut he said essential services \"remain fully open\".\n\nA critical incident was also declared at Plymouth's Derriford hospital with 99 positive cases there and at its three community hospitals.\n\nMeanwhile the number of hospital staff off sick across North East and north Cumbria has increased 135% due to Covid since 24 December.\n\nNeil Halford, medical director for the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System, said: \"Hospital trusts are continually reviewing their planned operations and procedures alongside caring for the sickest patients and ensuring infection prevention control measures can be adhered to.\n\n\"This a difficult balancing act and regrettably some planned operations and procedures may need to be postponed.\"\n\nConcerns have been raised about NHS staff being left exhausted\n\nDr Sakthi Karunanithi, the public health director for Lancashire, warned that his county was braced \"for a tsunami of Omicron cases\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there was a noticeable shift from infections in people under 50 \"to a more 60-plus age group being affected\".\n\nChris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said a critical incident was \"an indication of very serious pressure\" at a trust which may \"not be able to provide\" a range of priority services.\n\nThe chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, said that \"in many parts of the health service, we are currently in a state of crisis\".\n\nHe wrote in a blog, published on Monday: \"Some hospitals are making urgent calls to exhausted staff to give up rest days and leave to enable them to sustain core services.\"\n\nAmbulance services are struggling to cope with the growing pressure due to rising Covid cases.\n\nDr Mathew Beattie, medical director for North East Ambulance Service, said: \"We have seen an 80% increase in Covid-related absences over the last six days, with more than 260 staff absent due to Covid [on Monday].\"\n\nIt has prompted an appeal by West Midlands Ambulance Service for recently retired staff to aid operations in \"challenging times\".\n\nMany hospitals have been forced to ban visiting on wards in a bid to reduce the spread of the Omicron variant by visitors.\n\nBoris Johnson has warned \"considerable\" pressure on the NHS is likely to last for weeks to come and said it would be \"folly\" to think the pandemic was almost over.\n\nA further 157,758 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases were recorded in England and Scotland on Monday, the government said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Barbra Streisand with Peter Bogdanovich during the filming of What's Up, Doc? in 1972\n\nStars including Barbra Streisand, Cher and Laura Dern have led the tributes to their \"friend and teacher\" Peter Bogdanovich, who has died aged 82.\n\nThe New York film director was known for movies such as The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon.\n\nHis family confirmed on Thursday in a statement that he died \"from complications of Parkinson's disease\".\n\nBogdanovich, who originally hailed from New York, became synonymous with the New Hollywood of the 1970s.\n\nHis coming-of-age drama, 1971's The Last Picture Show, which he also co-wrote, earned him eight Oscar nominations including best director.\n\nStreisand, who starred in his 1972 comedy What's Up, Doc? wrote: \"Peter always made me laugh!\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Barbra Streisand This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"Another hero lost,\" added Dern, posting a picture of them together on the set of his 1985 film Mask.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by lauradern This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nActress and singer Cher, who appeared in the same film, said Bogdanovich had made some \"very memorable films\" and discovered \"amazingly talented artists\".\n\nBorn in 1939, Bogdanovich became interested in cinema from an early age.\n\nBetween the ages of 12 and 30, he kept a record of every film he watched along with a small review on an index card.\n\nAs a teenager, he attended acting school and upon leaving took up small roles in theatre and on television, the New York Times reports.\n\nIn 1966, inspired by New Wave directors like Jean Luc-Godard making their own films, Bogdanovich decided to become a director and moved to Los Angeles with his first wife Polly Platt.\n\nThe same year, Roger Corman enlisted Bogdanovich to work as his assistant director on the 1966 film Wild Angels.\n\nHis own breakthrough feature, The Last Picture Show, an adaptation of Larry McMurty's semi-autobiographical novel, arrived five years later and proved to be a hit with the critics, with some comparing it to Orson Wells' classic - and one of Bogdanovich's own favourites - Citizen Kane.\n\nThe film, set in a bleak Texas town and had an ensemble cast of rising stars including Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges.\n\nFollowing Bogdanovich's death, Bridges tweeted: \"My heart is broken.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jeff Bridges This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe film also saw Bogdanovich become romantically involved with Shepherd, contributing to the break-up of his marriage.\n\n1973 saw the release of his road comedy drama, Paper Moon, which saw Tatum O'Neal become the youngest competitive winner in the history of the Oscars, winning the best supporting actress award.\n\nSpeaking in a video posted to Instagram, actor and producer Alec Baldwin praised the film, while calling its director \"larger than life\" and a \"wonderful raconteur\".\n\nThe director's 1981 romantic comedy They All Laughed featured another ensemble that included Audrey Hepburn, and the debut of Playboy playmate of the year Dorothy Stratten, with whom Bogdanovich would have an affair. She was murdered by her husband/manager before the film was released.\n\nBogdanovich wrote about it in a 1984 book called The Killing of a Unicorn, before going on to marry Stratten's younger sister, Louise.\n\nAs well as making many films throughout his career, Bogdanovich also starred on the small screen, appearing in The Simpsons and The Sopranos - where he played the role of a psychotherapist. He also played a DJ in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2.\n\nThe New York filmmaker was Oscar-nominated for his coming-of-age drama The Last Picture Show\n\nIn 2014, he returned with his first movie in 13 years. She's Funny that Way, starring Owen Wilson and Imogen Poots, was \"a celebration of old Hollywood\", wrote BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber at the time.\n\nFrancis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather, released a statement to Deadline to say he was \"devastated\" by the news.\n\n\"May he sleep in bliss for eternity, enjoying the thrill of our applause forever\", he said.\n\nGuillermo del Toro, the director of Pan's Labyrinth, tweeted: \"He was a dear friend and a champion of Cinema... He single-handedly interviewed and enshrined the lives and work of more classic filmmakers than almost anyone else in his generation.\"\n\nBogdanovich is survived by his two children.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "A university professor has argued the Welsh government should ease Covid restrictions\n\nCovid restrictions should return to pre-Omicron levels, according to a senior epidemiologist.\n\nCardiff University's Prof John Watkins said booster jabs meant the threat was no worse than that posed by Delta.\n\nThe expert said Omicron cases were more transmissible but less severe and patients were less likely to die.\n\nBut the British Medical Association opposed changes and the Welsh government said its current measures were proportionate.\n\nWales' case rate has hit a new high of 2228.5 cases per 100,000, having more than doubled in a week.\n\nFor the last seven days Wales recorded an average of 10,037 positive cases a day, although daily reported cases have fallen slightly since the high mark of 14,327, recorded on 29 December.\n\nThat factor is currently mitigated by \"80 to 90%\" of over 70s having had a booster jab.\n\n\"We have moved ourselves back to that position where we were in the autumn,\" Prof Watkins said.\n\nThe Welsh government, he said, should think about moving back to its position in November and perhaps \"realign\" with England.\n\n\"We're now in the same position as we were in the pre-Christmas period, when let's be honest, we saw the autumn internationals,\" he said.\n\n\"We had four weekends where you had 80,000 people in a stadium and many, many more and we didn't see a rise in cases, hospitalizations or death.\n\n\"I think we're moving more into that situation so my view would be that it is time to review it and, probably, we should certainly be realigning ourselves with the English.\"\n\nCardiff University's Prof John Watkins said the current threat was no worse than that posed by Delta last Autumn\n\nProf Watkins, who has advised the UK and Welsh governments, admitted Omicron infections were stretching the NHS, particularly by causing high staff absence levels.\n\nHowever, Professor Philip Banfield from the British Medical Association (BMA) said restrictions should remain in place for the next two to four weeks, \"while this wave of Covid plays out\".\n\n\"We went into the pandemic with too few staff and too few beds, and a social care system that was disintegrating, it takes very little to tip us over the edge and I'm afraid the NHS is being tipped over the edge.\n\n\"We're getting feedback for the first time of doctors getting very distressed about their inability to assess patients in the emergency department, I'm getting feedback from GP colleagues saying patients don't want to go into hospital because they fear they will die in the waiting room of the emergency department.\n\nHe added that efforts to tackle the backlog of non-urgent care in Wales have been \"abandoned\".\n\n\"There's very little elective work taking place, cancer work is taking place, if you are genuinely ill with something serious we are desperately trying to get people into hospital still - and to do that safely.\n\n\"The sheer numbers of people getting this variant at this point in time mean a small number admitted to hospital [could] really stretch the service and threaten to tip the NHS in Wales over the edge.\"\n\nVice President of the Royal College of Physicians in Wales, Olwen Williams agreed with the BMA and that the Welsh Government's Covid restrictions should remain in place \"for the next couple of weeks\".\n\nShe said: \"We are aware some people are saying that Omicron is quite a mild disease, but what we're saying is we don't know what that impact is on us, on our elderly, our frail and our unvaccinated and we cannot risk putting people at more harm than is necessary.\"\n\nOn Thursday, Public Health Wales reported six more deaths with Covid, although there were 36 deaths a day at this point in 2021, compared to just over three deaths a day on average now.\n\nThere is a daily average of 625 patients with confirmed Covid in hospital beds - an 82% increase on a week ago, although there were two and a half times as many Covid patients in hospital this time last year.\n\nProf Watkins argues that restrictions alone would not help the health service cope.\n\nInstead, he believes isolation rules should be less strict for the triple vaccinated.\n\n\"The triple vaccinated should be able to be more free to go into work, et cetera,\" he said.\n\n\"I think what we can say within the UK and in Wales is that our vaccine uptake of boosters is around 80-90%, so there's high levels of vaccination in this country,\" said Prof Watkins.\n\n\"My personal view is that we probably should move to mandatory vaccinations.\n\n\"This is all about being proportionate. Symptomatic disease is one thing, but asymptomatic people who test positive are probably quite a low risk of transmission and are unlikely to place any demand on the healthcare system.\"\n\nThe decline of traditional winter illnesses, Prof Watkins argued, could also help the NHS.\n\nCold-like illnesses, such as the respiratory virus RSV, and flu had plummeted.\n\n\"We saw some RSV in children before Christmas, but that peak has declined and we've seen virtually no influenza,\" the professor said.\n\n\"So actually the demand we would expect at this time of year is a demand that we've seen, and it is nowhere in comparison to some of the worst influenza epidemics of the past.\"\n\nProf Watkins did not think Omicron would vanish totally, and said there would have to be a point where life would go \"back to normal\".\n\n\"I suspect that's going to be in 2022 and my hope would be that it was in early 2022, not late,\n\n\"We're getting millions of cases a week in this country, so it's going to naturally have spread to most sectors of the population where people are susceptible, and so therefore it's going to naturally, if you like, burn out,\" he said.\n\nWelsh ministers review Covid restrictions weekly. An announcement is due on Friday.\n\nIn response to Prof Watkins' comments, the Welsh government said its responses had always been science and evidence-based.\n\n\"Omicron is a fast-moving, highly-infectious form of coronavirus,\" a spokesman said.\n\nThey said studies provided hope about the variant's severity, but large infection numbers had caused knock-on effects to public services and the economy.\n\nRising numbers were being admitted to hospitals when the NHS was at its busiest, the Welsh government said.\n\n\"The measures and strengthened guidance, which were introduced from Boxing Day, are a proportionate response to the public health threat from Omicron,\" the spokesman said.\n\n\"The cabinet keeps all measures introduced in response to Omicron under close review.\"\n\nNightclubs closed their doors on 26 December under current rules\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives called on ministers to release support for businesses affected by Covid restrictions \"urgently\" and for a rethink about the restrictions on outdoor sporting events.\n\nIn a statement ahead of Friday's review, Andrew RT Davies, Welsh Tory leader in the Senedd, said: \"Business must not wait until the 17 January to apply for support - that funding needs to be released now.\"\n\nHe also called for Welsh ministers to scrap \"ridiculous\" fines for workers who go into the workplace when they could work at home.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford has previously defended the fines saying they were in place the last time there was a work from home obligation, that \"no fines were issued at all\" during that period and \"they are designed to protect workers, not to penalise them\".\n\nMr Davies has also demanded a rethink of the rules restricting numbers for outdoor sporting events.\n\nHe said: \"We also need the Labour government to seriously examine the logic behind its decisions to limit participation in and attending sports events like Parkrun, not only for the sake of mental health but, so that Wales can play its Six Nations games here and fans can spend their money here.\"", "By 2050, more than 153 million people could have dementia, up from 57 million in 2019, experts are warning.\n\nThe predicted rise is largely down to ageing and growing populations.\n\nBut unhealthy lifestyles contribute too, the researchers say in The Lancet Public Health journal.\n\nRisk factors that urgently need addressing and account for more than six million of the projected increase include high rates of smoking, obesity and diabetes, they say.\n\nThe study, which looks at 195 countries, aims to give governments an idea of what resources and support may be needed and what action might help.\n\nDementia is already the seventh leading cause of death worldwide and one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people.\n\nBut it is not an inevitability. The researchers point to the importance of improvements in access to education in countries around the world and say that their projected figure for 2050 has already been adjusted downwards by 6.2 million based on what is expected to happen in this area.\n\nThey are less optimistic about the effects of obesity, high blood sugar and smoking and have already factored in an extra seven million cases in 2050 linked to those causes.\n\nLead author Emma Nichols, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, at the University of Washington, in the US, said: \"We need to focus more on prevention and control of risk factors before they result in dementia.\n\n\"Even modest advances in preventing dementia or delaying its progression would pay remarkable dividends.\n\n\"To have the greatest impact, we need to reduce exposure to the leading risk factors in each country.\n\n\"For most, this means scaling up locally appropriate, low-cost programmes that support healthier diets, more exercise, quitting smoking and better access to education.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The authorities appear to be back in control but the city is reeling from the violence\n\nKazakhstan's biggest city Almaty looks like something from an apocalypse film.\n\nDriving around early on Friday morning, the smell of burnt vehicles was still in the air. Few people were about, many too afraid to come out into the streets.\n\nThe army and police are blocking key sites in the city, which has been the focal point of nationwide protests against the government.\n\nWhen we approached soldiers at the main square they shouted at us and fired warning shots in the air, warning us not to come close.\n\nI've been coming to Almaty for years. It's normally a bustling city, with lots of greenery and places to eat out and drink.\n\nNow though shops and banks have been looted or destroyed. It will take some time for them to recover.\n\nMuch of the damage is around the big main square that protesters first went to when the demonstrations began.\n\nMedia buildings nearby were attacked and the mayor's office burnt down. It is pitch black now, having been engulfed by black smoke.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Abdujalil Abdurasulov hears gunfire as he visits the scene of clashes in Almaty\n\nWe saw no signs of protests on Friday, just a small group of people gathering near the destroyed buildings to take photos on their phones. But we could still hear shooting and explosions, which may have been be stun grenades. When I first arrived I thought there was fog then realised it was more likely to be smoke from the grenades and fireworks.\n\nSeveral residents I spoke to were shocked and angry. These protests are unprecedented in Kazakhstan, and many here are surprised that they spread and turned violent so quickly.\n\nSome of those I spoke to are glad to see forces arrive from Russia and other neighbouring countries, hopeful they will restore order.\n\nOne woman told me the government should have been firmer from the start.\n\n\"If they had used force in the very beginning, this unrest wouldn't have happened,\" she said. \"Maybe they were worried about condemnation, that they used weapons but you see now what this approach led to.\"\n\nBut amid the anger at the violence, there was sympathy for the protesters too. Many of the demonstrators come from rural areas, where pay is low and life is tough.\n\n\"I understand the demands of the protesters,\" said one man, a 22-year-old cook. \"We can see that our salaries are not growing and most of the population is struggling. But this is now looting and hooliganism, ordinary people are suffering now. It must be stopped.\"\n\nAlmaty residents now face food shortages, with the big supermarkets closed. Shops that are open only take cash, but it is difficult to find somewhere to withdraw money. There's no internet and even getting a taxi seems too risky.\n\nOne of the looted shops in Almaty\n\nWith the internet hit and phones not working properly, it is hard to find out what's happening outside the city. There are all sorts of rumours being shared that are impossible to check out.\n\nKazakhstan has never seen protests of this scale. There's been unrest before, but largely localised. None of them resulted in the main airport being attacked.\n\nPlans to raise fuel prices triggered these demonstrations, but there is also widespread discontent about the government.\n\nAfter the resignation of Kazakhstan's first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who held office from independence up to 2019, people hoped the new leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev would bring change.\n\nThese expectations were thwarted. In particular, the renaming of the capital Astana to Nur-Sultan, in honour of the former leader, was proof for many the old is elite is still in charge.\n\nFor now, things are calming down and the authorities appear to be in control.\n\nBut even if these protests have ended for now, the discontent will remain. Perhaps there will be another spark that fuels new ones.\n\nWhere is it? Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia to the north and China to the east. It is a huge country the size of Western Europe.\n\nWhy does it matter? A former Soviet republic which is mainly Muslim with a large Russian minority, it has vast mineral resources, with 3% of global oil reserves and important coal and gas sectors.\n\nWhy is it making the news? Fuel riots, which have escalated to become broader protests against the government, have resulted in resignations at the top and a bloody crackdown on protesters.", "Boris Johnson faces fresh questions over his apparent support for a \"great exhibition\" plan backed by a Tory donor who helped pay for the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat.\n\nText messages released on Thursday showed the prime minister discussed the proposal with Lord Brownlow - as the PM requested help with funding the revamp.\n\nLabour said Mr Johnson has \"serious questions to answer\" over the texts.\n\nNo 10 said all prime ministers have ideas put to them from time to time.\n\nIt comes after Mr Johnson was criticised by his own standards adviser for not disclosing the messages during an official inquiry into the Downing Street flat renovations.\n\nThe texts were revealed during a separate investigation by the elections watchdog into the funding of the refurbishment, estimated to have cost £112,000.\n\nIn the exchanges from November 2020, Mr Johnson describes part of the flat above 11 Downing Street where he lives with wife Carrie and their children as \"still a bit of a tip\".\n\nHe asks whether interior designer Lulu Lytle can contact Lord Brownlow \"for approvals\".\n\nThe prime minister adds: \"Ps am on the great exhibition plan Will revert.\"\n\nThis refers to a proposal for an exposition, inspired by the first Great Exhibition held in London's Hyde Park in 1851, in the UK - a plan backed by Lord Brownlow.\n\nIn response, the peer thanks Mr Johnson - and records show that six weeks later he met the then-culture secretary Oliver Dowden to discuss the idea.\n\nInitially, Mr Johnson had asked Lord Brownlow to oversee a charitable trust to fund the work - but that idea was later abandoned and payments ended up being made to suppliers both directly and indirectly by the peer.\n\nThe Conservative Party was fined £17,800 last month after the Electoral Commission found it had failed to accurately declare all of Lord Brownlow's donations towards the renovation.\n\nMr Johnson now says he has covered all the costs out of his own pocket.\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said it appeared Lord Brownlow had privileged access to both Mr Johnson and Mr Dowden \"because he was paying for his luxury flat renovations\".\n\nShe added: \"If so, that is corruption plain and simple. No-one should be able to buy access or exchange wallpaper for festivals. Boris Johnson has serious questions to answer.\"\n\nA Downing Street spokesman said: \"All prime ministers and ministers have proposals put to them at various points and ministers also meet stakeholders regularly as part of their engagement on an array of issues.\"\n\nDesigner Lulu Lytle was commissioned to help decorate the prime minister's Downing Street flat\n\nHe added: \"In line with normal practice, this idea was referred to the relevant department, considered and ultimately not taken forward by the government.\n\n\"The government is taking forward Festival UK this year, which was confirmed in 2018, reaffirmed in the 2019 manifesto and is a cultural programme of events, called 'Unboxed', on arts, design and technology which will span the whole of the UK.\"\n\nThese WhatsApp messages have raised new questions about a project being backed by Lord Brownlow.\n\nBoris Johnson says he is \"on the great exhibition plan\" - a reference to the idea of major exposition in the UK.\n\nLord Brownlow is a backer and the peer thanks the PM for thinking about it.\n\nBut some might question why the prime minister brought up a project backed by Lord Brownlow in a message where he was also asking for more money to be made available from a trust the peer controlled.\n\nIn the end, the government did back another idea - Festival UK or Unboxed - a UK-wide \"celebration of creativity\" due to take place later this year.\n\nThere was a commitment in the 2019 Conservative manifesto for a major Festival of Great Britain in Northern Ireland in 2022. Lord Brownlow, it is understood, is not involved.", "Peter Bogdanovich, the US film director known for films such The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon has died aged 82, his agent confirmed on Thursday.\n\nThe New Yorker's work became synonymous with the New Hollywood of the 1970s.\n\nHis coming-of-age drama, 1971's The Last Picture Show, which he also co-wrote, earned him eight Oscar nominations including best director.\n\nThe film, set in a Texas town, had an ensemble cast of rising stars including Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepherd.\n\nIn 2014, he returned with his first movie in 13 years. She's Funny that Way, starring Owen Wilson and Imogen Poots, was \"a celebration of old Hollywood\", wrote BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber at the time.\n\nBogdanovich also starred on the small screen, appearing on HBO's The Sopranos where he played the role of a psychotherapist.\n\nBorn in 1939, Bogdanovich became interested in cinema from an early age.\n\nBetween the ages of 12 and 30, he kept a record of every film he watched along with a small review on an index card.\n\nAs a teenager, he attended acting school and upon leaving took up small roles in theatre and on television, the New York Times reports.\n\nBogdanovich is survived by his two children.\n\nFrancis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather, released a statement to Deadline to say he was \"devastated\" by the news.\n\n\"May he sleep in bliss for eternity, enjoying the thrill of our applause forever\", he said.\n\nGuillermo del Toro, the director of Pan's Labyrinth, tweeted: \"He was a dear friend and a champion of Cinema... He single-handedly interviewed and enshrined the lives and work of more classic filmmakers than almost anyone else in his generation.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Abdujalil Abdurasulov hears gunfire as he visits the scene of clashes in Almaty\n\nKazakhstan's authoritarian leader says he has ordered security forces to \"fire without warning\", amid a violent crackdown on anti-government protests.\n\nPresident Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also said \"20,000 bandits\" had attacked the main city of Almaty, the epicentre of protests sparked by a fuel price hike.\n\nThe interior ministry says 26 \"armed criminals\" and 18 security officers have been killed so far in the unrest.\n\nIn a televised address, Mr Tokayev dismissed calls to hold talks with protesters as \"nonsense\", saying: \"What kind of talks can we hold with criminals and murderers?\"\n\n\"We had to deal with armed and well-prepared bandits, local as well as foreign. More precisely, with terrorists. So we have to destroy them, this will be done soon,\" he said.\n\nOpposition groups have rejected the authorities' accusations of terrorism.\n\nEarlier, the president said constitutional order had been largely restored. A BBC correspondent in Almaty said the situation was much quieter after days of violence, although there had been some sounds of gunfire and explosions.\n\nWhere is it? Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia to the north and China to the east. It is a huge country the size of Western Europe.\n\nWhy does it matter? A former Soviet republic which is mainly Muslim with a large Russian minority, it has vast mineral resources, with 3% of global oil reserves and important coal and gas sectors.\n\nWhy is it making the news? Fuel riots, which have escalated to become broader protests against the government, have resulted in resignations at the top and a bloody crackdown on protesters.\n\nPresident Tokayev said peacekeeping forces sent from Russia and neighbouring states had arrived on his request and were in the country on a temporary basis to ensure security.\n\nThe force from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) reportedly has about 2,500 soldiers. Mr Tokayev gave \"special thanks\" to Russian President Vladimir Putin for sending troops to the former Soviet nation.\n\nInternet connection seems to have been restored in some areas, and Kazakh officials and CSTO troops were controlling Almaty's main airport, a day after it was recaptured from protesters.\n\nThe European Commission, which is the EU executive, offered \"assistance where we can\" to help Kazakhstan resolve the crisis. It also called for an end to the violence, echoing earlier statements from the UN, US, UK and France.\n\nThe unrest began on Sunday when the cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - which many people in Kazakhstan use to fuel their cars - doubled.\n\nThe government has said that fuel price caps will be restored for six months. But the announcement has failed to end the protests, which have broadened to include other political grievances.\n\nKazakhstan is often described as authoritarian, and most elections are won by the ruling party with nearly 100% of the vote. There is no effective political opposition.", "Chester FC fans celebrate - but will they be stopped from watching matches at the Deva Stadium?\n\nAn investigation is looking into whether an English football team broke Covid rules - because their ground is in Wales.\n\nIn Wales, restrictions mean most matches are being played behind closed doors.\n\nHowever, since rules came into force on 26 December, Chester FC has held two games with each attracting more than 2,000 fans.\n\nThe Welsh government said the club was in Wales and must follow Welsh rules.\n\nClub officials say they have been informed of potential breaches of Welsh Coronavirus Regulations for fixtures held on 28 December 2021 and 2 January 2022.\n\nIn a statement the club said they have been told they \"may commit further potential breaches if it continues to play home fixtures with crowds while the current restrictions in Wales remain in place\".\n\n\"It was agreed that all parties would seek further legal advice given the complex issues and future implications of any outcome,\" they added.\n\n\"Chester Football Club's stadium is in Wales therefore Welsh regulations apply,\" a Welsh government spokesperson said.\n\n\"As the enforcing authorities Flintshire County Council and North Wales Police are dealing with the matter.\"\n\nChester's Deva Stadium is in Flintshire, with the border between Wales and England running through the car park to the east of the stands.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chester FC This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWales has been in Level Two Coronavirus restrictions since 26 December, which means all sporting events effectively have to be played behind closed doors.\n\nThe number of spectators is limited to 50, in addition to those taking part.\n\nStewarding and policing costs mean that it can be impractical for clubs to allow a handful of fans through turnstiles.\n\nHowever, there are no crowd limits in England.\n\nSince the rule changes in Wales, Chester FC's home ground has hosted two games in National League North (the sixth tier of English football).\n\nThe match attendance for Chester FC's home game against AFC Fylde on 28 December was reported to be 2,075 and against Telford on 2 January was 2,116.\n\nChester may be an English club, but their ground is in Wales\n\nChester's 1-1 draw against Telford saw the biggest attendance in the National League North.\n\nDespite the geographic conundrum, matchday policing at the Deva Stadium is carried out by Cheshire Constabulary.\n\nChester fans have argued on social media that the border runs through the clubhouse and that the stadium has a Chester postcode.\n\nThe club's next home game is against Brackley Town on the 15 January.\n\nLarge crowds that usually attend the festive rugby derbies in Wales were locked out because of the ruling.\n\nHowever, the majority of matches fell victim to Covid, with only the Scarlets versus Ospreys going ahead on New Year's Day.\n\nThe ruling also affects Wales' top football sides such as Cardiff City, Swansea City, Newport County and Wrexham AFC.\n\nAlmost 250,000 fans attended Wales' Autumn matches - will they be allowed back for the Six Nations\n\nWales are due to host three games in this year's Six Nations rugby championship - with 72,000 fans expected in Cardiff for the first against Scotland on 12 February.\n\nHowever, the Welsh Rugby Union has said it is exploring the option of moving games over the border to England - where there are no limits on fans.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford has confirmed there will be no change to the rules for the next week at least.\n\nHe said the government would review the situation \"every week\" to see if it is possible to play games \"at home safely\", adding \"of course that's what we want to do\".\n\nHowever, he said \"it's not so much what happens in the stadium itself\" where the stadium \"is properly regulated\".\n\n\"It's the way people get to the stadium, it's the way they leave the stadium and the way people behave around the stadium,\" he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.", "The two mayors are hosting the Hillsborough Law Now event with bereaved families and other politicians\n\nRenewed calls have been made for a Hillsborough Law to ensure fairer treatment for bereaved families.\n\nLiverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the government needed to \"level the scales of justice\".\n\nIt comes after a TV drama telling the story of Anne Williams, whose son died in the disaster, aired this week.\n\nThe government said it would engage with bereaved families and \"carefully consider the points of learning\".\n\nNinety-seven Liverpool fans died as a result of the crush at the FA Cup semi-final match at Sheffield Wednesday's ground on 15 April 1989.\n\nThe two mayors are hosting the Hillsborough Law Now event later, together with bereaved families and other politicians.\n\nThey are calling for changes to be made to the justice system to prevent others going through what the Hillsborough families experienced.\n\nIt will focus on Bishop James Jones's findings about the experiences of the families, which were detailed in his 2017 report.\n\nThe study contained 25 \"essential\" learning points, including the creation of a charter for families bereaved through public tragedy, a statutory duty of candour on all police officers and \"proper participation\" of bereaved families at inquests.\n\nAnne Williams (left) was played by Maxine Peake in an ITV drama about her life\n\nNew inquests, which concluded in 2016, found the victims were unlawfully killed.\n\nBut match commander David Duckenfield was cleared of gross negligence manslaughter in 2019 and a trial of two retired police officers and a former force solicitor, who were accused of perverting the course of justice, collapsed last year after a judge ruled there was no case to answer.\n\nThe four-part ITV docu-drama Anne starred Maxine Peake as Mrs Williams, whose 15-year-old son Kevin died in the disaster.\n\nMrs Williams dedicated her life to uncovering what happened to the teenager but died in 2013, before the start of the new inquests.\n\nMr Burnham, then a Labour MP, pushed for the new inquests after he was heckled as he made a speech at Anfield on the 20th anniversary of the disaster in 2009.\n\n\"The appalling treatment of the Hillsborough families at the hands of the legal system shames our nation,\" he said.\n\n\"We need to level up the scales of justice in favour of bereaved families so that the truth is established at the first time of asking.\n\n\"We must spare families the secondary trauma that is often inflicted by cruel treatment at the hands of the system.\"\n\nNinety-seven Liverpool fans died as a result of the disaster on 15 April 1989\n\nMr Rotheram, who was at Hillsborough, said what happened at and in the aftermath of the disaster was a \"national disgrace\" that \"cannot be allowed to happen again\".\n\n\"Levelling up cannot only be about big spending announcements and shiny infrastructure projects,\" he said.\n\n\"It should also about righting long-term, structural injustices. And there are few bigger than this. Levelling the scales of justice is the very essence of levelling up.\n\n\"We need a Hillsborough Law now to ensure that ordinary people have a fair chance at getting the justice they deserve.\"\n\nIn June, the government said it would \"always consider opportunities to review the law\" after MP Maria Eagle told parliament the collapse of Hillsborough trials was a \"catastrophic failure\" of the legal system.\n\nA government spokeswoman said the Home Office had been working with \"the relevant government departments and organisations to carefully consider the points of learning made by Bishop James Jones\".\n\n\"Our focus now is engaging with the Hillsborough families and publishing the government's overarching response to the Bishop's report in due course,\" she said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Steam which would have been used to turn the turbines is released from the reactor at Hunterston B\n\nThe Hunterston B nuclear power plant in North Ayrshire has been shut down for the final time after generating electricity for 46 years.\n\nThe plant's original 25-year lifespan was extended by more than two decades.\n\nBut the final closure was brought forward after cracks were found in the graphite bricks which make up the reactor cores.\n\nA small group of former workers gathered at the power station at midday to see the final shut down.\n\nThe site, owned by EDF Energy, will now begin a three-year process of defueling with the spent nuclear fuel sent to Sellafield for reprocessing.\n\nAfter that, the site will be handed over to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.\n\nThe 480-strong workforce at Hunterston will be cut by a quarter during defueling but the company said those 125 employees would either retire or be redeployed to other sites.\n\nStation director Paul Forrest said: \"It was originally thought Hunterston B would run for 25 years but investment in the plant and the people who work here mean we've been able to safely extend that to 46 years.\n\n\"This is an incredible achievement and everyone here is proud of what the station has accomplished.\"\n\nPlans had been made to operate Hunterston until 2023 but the hairline cracks in the graphite bricks have shortened the life of the power station.\n\nHunterston B soon after it began generating power in 1976\n\nThe cracks were first spotted in two graphite bricks in the reactor in 2014.\n\nBy 2018, a total of 350 bricks had been affected although the Office for Nuclear Regulation subsequently gave permission to operate at much greater numbers.\n\nEach of the two reactor cores is made up of 3,000 bricks which form vertical channels for nuclear fuel and control rods to slide in and out.\n\nThe concern was that too many cracks, combined with a rare seismic event, could affect the structural integrity of the core and prevent it being shut down in an emergency.\n\nThe Hunterston A plant, which is already closed, comprised two 180MWe Magnox reactors.\n\nIt began operation in 1964. Reactor 2 shut down in December 1989 and Reactor 1 in March 1990.\n\nConstruction of Hunterston B began in 1968 and reactors 3 and 4 began operating in February 1976 and March 1977.\n\nWhen operational, the two reactors at Hunterston B provided a base-load of electricity which was enough to power 1.8 million homes.\n\nReactor 3, a 490MWe advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR), was permanently closed down on 26 November.\n\nHunterston Reactor 4 - also a 490MWe AGR - has now shut down.\n\nThe closure will likely mean an increased reliance in the short-term on fossil fuel or imported energy sources but a bidding round is under way to significantly increase Scotland's offshore wind capacity.\n\nThe Scottish government has long been opposed to building new nuclear power stations.\n\nNuclear energy will still be generated in Scotland at the newer Torness power station in East Lothian.\n\nSimilar cracks are expected to develop there and at several other similar sites in England.\n\nOnlookers took pictures as the plant was shut down\n\nIn December, EDF Energy announced that Torness would close two years earlier than planned in 2028 because of the issue.\n\nLouise Gilmour, of the GMB union, said it should not be the beginning of the end for Scotland's nuclear story.\n\nShe said: \"This is a viable low-carbon industry that can help create and sustain the domestic energy production and employment opportunities we need to play our part in confronting the climate crisis.\"\n\nTom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said: \"As the current energy crisis demonstrates, without nuclear the cost of the electricity we rely on is higher, causes pollution and leaves us reliant on burning imported fossil fuels.\n\n\"That's why we need new nuclear - to get to net zero and provide the reliable, secure and clean power to live our lives.\"\n\nLang Banks, from WWF Scotland, said: \"Thankfully Scotland has massively grown its renewable power generating capacity which means we'll no longer need the electricity from this increasingly unreliable nuclear power plant.\n\n\"As the expensive and hazardous job of cleaning up the radioactive legacy Hunterston leaves in its wake now begins, Scotland must press on with plans to harness more clean, renewable energy.\"\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"Hunterston B, its operators and in particular the workforces who have staffed the plant for more than 40 years, have played an important role in supporting Scotland's energy requirements.\n\n\"We do however remain clear in our opposition to the building of new nuclear power plants in Scotland under current technologies.\n\n\"Significant growth in renewables, storage, hydrogen and carbon capture provide the best pathway to net zero by 2045, and will deliver the decarbonisation we need to see across industry, heat and transport.\n\n\"We recognise that planning will be crucial to ensure that economic and social opportunities from the transition are not missed.\"", "A Russian submarine collided with a Royal Navy warship's sonar on patrol in the North Atlantic, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.\n\nHMS Northumberland had been tracking the submarine when it hit the ship's sonar equipment being trailed hundreds of metres behind it.\n\nThe incident, in late 2020, was captured by a television crew filming a documentary.\n\nA UK defence source said it was unlikely the collision was deliberate.\n\nHMS Northumberland was searching for the submarine in the Arctic Circle after it disappeared from the ship's radar, according to Channel 5, which was filming for its Warship: Life at Sea series.\n\nThe MoD said the frigate had located the hunter-killer submarine using the towed array sonar - a long tube fitted with sensitive hydrophones to listen under the water.\n\nA periscope was spotted on the surface by the ship's Merlin helicopter before the Russian submarine dived again, hitting HMS Northumberland's sonar.\n\nThe film cameras captured the crew shouting: \"What the hell was that?\".\n\nIt is not clear what, if any, damage was suffered by the Russian vessel but the warship had to return to port in Scotland to replace the damaged equipment.\n\nThere has been an increase in Russian submarine activity in recent years, and Royal Navy frigates regularly patrol the North Atlantic.\n\nThe MoD would not usually comment on operations but it has done so because the incident was caught on camera.\n\nA spokesman said: \"In late 2020 a Russian submarine being tracked by HMS Northumberland came into contact with her towed array sonar.\n\n\"The Royal Navy regularly tracks foreign ships and submarines in order to ensure the defence of the United Kingdom.\"", "Security forces in Kazakhstan say they have killed dozens of anti-government rioters in the main city, Almaty.\n\nOfficials say 18 members of the security forces have been killed in unrest sparked after a fuel price cap was lifted on Sunday, causing costs to double.\n\nWith the internet cut and little independent media, it is difficult to get a clear picture of the situation, but video footage shows street battles and extensive damage to buildings, including to a presidential residence in Almaty.", "Kazakhstan's authoritarian leader says he has ordered security forces to \"fire without warning\", amid a violent crackdown on anti-government protests.\n\nPresident Kassym-Jomart Tokayev also said \"20,000 bandits\" had attacked the main city of Almaty, the epicentre of protests sparked by a fuel price hike.\n\nThe BBC's Abdujalil Abdurasulov reports from Almaty, where the sounds of gunfire can still be heard, despite no fresh protests.", "Boris Johnson has been criticised by his standards adviser over an official inquiry into the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat.\n\nMr Johnson said he was sorry that messages he had exchanged with a Tory peer who initially paid for the revamp had not been disclosed to Lord Geidt.\n\nThe messages were revealed during a separate inquiry by the elections watchdog on how the works were funded.\n\nLord Geidt said it demonstrated \"insufficient\" respect for his role.\n\nHe added they would not have changed the verdict of his own investigation last year that Mr Johnson had not breached the ministerial rulebook.\n\nBut, in an exchange of letters with Mr Johnson, he said they would have led him to question some of the conclusions of the report, published in May.\n\nReplying to Lord Geidt, Mr Johnson offered a \"humble and sincere apology\", and said the messages were sent from a previous mobile phone, which he did not have access to, and he \"did not recall the message exchange\".\n\nMr Johnson's text exchange with Lord Brownlow, published on Thursday, shows on 29 November the PM asked the Tory peer whether he could ask an interior designer contracted for the work to make contact with him to approve fresh redecorations.\n\nLord Brownlow had been asked by Mr Johnson to oversee a charitable trust to fund the work - an idea that was later abandoned.\n\nMr Johnson told Lord Brownlow that parts of his official residence, where refurbishment work began in April 2020, were \"still a bit of a tip\" and he was keen to allow the designer, Lulu Lytle, to continue with the renovations.\n\nA couple of hours later, Lord Brownlow replied, and then in a subsequent message, he added that the trust had not yet been set up but \"approval is a doddle as it's only me and I know where the £ will come from\".\n\nIn his original report, Lord Geidt cleared the PM of a conflict of interest, after it emerged that Lord Brownlow had donated £52,000 to help cover costs.\n\nHe said the prime minister appeared not to be aware that Lord Brownlow had initially paid for the redecorations from his own pocket.\n\nBut he revisited the original probe after it was revealed the PM had sent WhatsApp messages to the Tory peer in November.\n\nThe messages were revealed as part of an investigation by the Electoral Commission, which fined the Conservatives £17,800 last month for failing to accurately declare Lord Brownlow's donations.\n\nAfter the exchange came to light, Downing Street said Mr Johnson had thought Lord Brownlow was overseeing the money, but did not realise the peer was providing the funds himself.\n\nIn his letters to the PM, Lord Geidt said he had been told Mr Johnson lost the ability to search for the messages in April 2020, after security changes following news his personal mobile phone number was available online.\n\nHowever, he said it was \"plainly unsatisfactory\" he had not been made aware of their existence during his original investigation.\n\nHe also expressed \"grave concern\" that officials in Mr Johnson's team had not alerted him to them when the phone was later accessed in June 2020, or before the Electoral Commission disclosed their existence in December.\n\n\"I believe this episode demonstrated insufficient regard or respect for the role of independent adviser,\" he added.\n\nHe added that the lack of disclosure \"shook my confidence\" and \"real failures of process\" had taken place in several parts of the government.\n\nLabour deputy leader Angela Rayner argued it meant the prime minister had broken rules on ministerial conduct, and \"has little regard for the rules or the truth\".\n\n\"Once again, by attempting to hide the truth, Boris Johnson undermines his own office,\" she added.\n\n\"The prime minister's pathetic excuses will fool no one, and this is just the latest in a long line of sorry episodes.\"\n\nLiberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said the episode meant there were \"serious question marks\" over Lord Geidt's original investigation.\n\nShe also poured scorn on the PM's reason for not disclosing the messages - that he had changed his phone - as \"akin to the dog eating your homework\".\n\nThe WhatsApp messages between the prime minister and Lord Brownlow are uncomfortable for No 10. The PM describes the Downing Street flat as a tip - and asks for more money for renovations. The fact they weren't disclosed earlier has clearly made Lord Geidt very unhappy.\n\nBut the messages have also raised a new question about a project being backed by Lord Brownlow.\n\nBoris Johnson says he is \"on the great exhibition plan\", a reference to the idea of major exposition in the UK.\n\nLord Brownlow is a backer - he thanks the PM for thinking about it.\n\nBut some might question why the prime minister brought up a project backed by Lord Brownlow - in a message where he was also asking for more money to be made available from a trust he controlled.\n\nNo 10 says the Great Exhibition idea was dropped - but records show Lord Brownlow did meet the culture secretary to discuss it a few weeks after his exchange with the PM.\n\nAnd the government did back another idea - Festival UK or Unboxed - a UK-wide \"celebration of creativity\" due to take place later this year.\n\nLabour said nobody should be able to \"buy access\" and that the PM had serious questions to answer.\n\nThere was a commitment in the 2019 Conservative manifesto for major Festival of Great Britain in Northern Ireland in 2022. Lord Brownlow, it's understood, is not involved.\n\nDowning Street said: \"All prime ministers and ministers have proposals put to them at various points and ministers also meet stakeholders regularly as part of their engagement on an array of issues.\n\n\"In line with normal practice this idea was referred to the relevant department, considered and ultimately not taken forward by the government.\"", "Jack Dromey had been an MP since 2010, but was already a leading figure in the trade union movement\n\nVeteran Labour politician Jack Dromey has died aged 73, his family has confirmed.\n\nThe shadow minister, who had held the seat of Birmingham Erdington since 2010, is understood to have passed away in his constituency on Friday morning.\n\nHe is survived by his wife, fellow Labour MP Harriet Harman, and his three children.\n\nHis family said he was a \"much loved husband, father and grandfather\" who would be \"greatly missed\".\n\nAnd his son Joe also paid tribute on Twitter, confirming Mr Dromey had died suddenly and adding: \"We loved him so, so much. Rest in peace big man.\"\n\nCurrent and former prime ministers were among those paying their respects, with Boris Johnson saying he was \"deeply saddened\" by the news.\n\nTony Blair called Mr Dromey a \"stalwart of the Labour and trade union movement, while Gordon Brown said he had lost \"a friend, colleague and great humanitarian who never stopped fighting for social justice\".\n\nThe flags of Parliament were lowered to half-mast, with House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle saying MPs were \"all in disbelief that the life-force that was Jack Dromey has died\", adding that it was \"another sad day for the House and a bad start to the year\".\n\nBorn in London in 1948, Mr Dromey made his name in politics through the union movement, as a leading figure in the Transport and General Workers' Union, which later became Unite.\n\nHe married Ms Harman in 1982, fathering two sons and a daughter, and held senior roles in the Labour Party before winning his seat in Parliament nearly 12 years ago.\n\nHe was quickly promoted to the front bench, serving under several leaders, most recently as Sir Keir Starmer's shadow immigration minister.\n\nHe spoke in a Commons debate on Afghan refugees just 24 hours ago, as well as attending a speech by Sir Keir on Tuesday.\n\nJack Dromey married Harriet Harman in 1982 and had three children, including their son Harry\n\nSir Keir said Mr Dromey had \"dedicated his life to standing up for working people through the Labour movement\".\n\nThe Labour leader added: \"Jack was recognised for his determination to stand up for his constituents and he was highly respected and warmly regarded across Parliament.\n\n\"My thoughts and those of the whole Labour movement are with Harriet, their children and all those who knew and loved Jack.\"\n\nThe party's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, also described him as a \"great mentor and supporter to me, but above all a friend for many years\".\n\nJack Dromey and Harriet Harman - pictured here at a Labour conference - worked side-by-side\n\nShadow foreign secretary David Lammy, who said he sat next to him in the Commons on Thursday, said Mr Dromey was a \"Labour man to his bones and proud champion for his constituents and for working people.\"\n\nAnother frontbench colleague, shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell, said she was \"floored\" by the news, calling him \"one of the best\", while shadow business secretary John Reynolds called him \"a man of such integrity and kindness\".\n\nConservative politicians also spoke about the loss to Parliament, with Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries calling him \"a kind gentleman\" whose politics \"never stood in the way of his gentle nature, kind words and good manners with his always, always happy smile\".\n\nJack Dromey was a regular speaker in the Commons chamber\n\nTrade Minister Penny Mordaunt said, \"Parliament has lost a giant\", while fellow MP Tracey Crouch said she \"felt sick\" hearing the news, adding: \"He was one of the kindest colleagues who didn't define people by party.\"\n\nTributes also came from the trade union movement, with the TUC's general secretary Frances O'Grady saying it was \"devastating to lose such a champion of working people.\"\n\nAnd Unite's general secretary, Sharon Graham, called Mr Dromey \"our dear friend and comrade\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Wales' first minister said England was a “global outlier” when it came to coronavirus\n\nMark Drakeford has accused Boris Johnson of failing to take the necessary action to protect people in England from Covid.\n\n\"The one country that stands up as not taking action to protect its population is England,\" said the first minister.\n\nThe comments come as Mr Drakeford announced Covid restrictions would not be relaxed in Wales.\n\nHe added that England was the \"outlier\" in the UK when it came to Covid. The UK government has been asked to comment.\n\nEarlier this week, the prime minister said he hoped England could \"ride out\" the Omicron wave without further restrictions.\n\nHowever, defending keeping tighter restrictions in Wales, Mr Drakeford criticised Mr Johnson's approach, saying: \"Wales is taking action as is Scotland, as is Northern Ireland and are countries right across Europe and right across the globe.\n\n\"In England, we have a government that is politically paralysed with a prime minister is unable to secure an agreement through his cabinet to take the actions that his advisors have been telling him ought to be taken.\"\n\nMr Drakeford said the peak of the Omicron wave was likely to be \"about 10 to 14 days away\", and insisted those calling for Covid restrictions to be eased were \"factually wrong\".\n\nThe comments came after a senior epidemiologist, who has advised the Welsh and UK governments, called for restrictions to be dropped to pre-Omicron levels.\n\nHowever, the first minister said the idea that Omicron is an illness we can afford to \"take lightly\" does not \"bear any connection to the actual position we are facing\".\n\nThe first minister warned \"the storm of Omicron\" had arrived as Wales sees \"astronomically high\" positivity rates.\n\n\"We have a tough few weeks ahead and we are not in a position to withdraw any of the protections,\" he added.\n\nWelsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies said: \"This is a first minister who isn't prepared to have an independent public inquiry into his handling of the Covid crisis here in Wales.\n\n\"And it is a Labour first minister here in Wales who has presided over the highest death rate, unfortunately, of any part of the United Kingdom, so it's a little bit rich of him to be offering criticism of the prime minister.\"\n\nIn Wales nightclubs are closed, with limits on hospitality businesses, sporting events and who people can meet indoors and outdoors.\n\nThe decision to limit outdoor gatherings, including organised exercise groups, has previously been criticised by the UK health minister, and there have been concerns that hospitality rules could see people head across the border to England to socialise.\n\nPublic Health Wales has reported 7,915 new Covid cases and 21 further deaths.\n\nThe seven day rolling case rate per 100,000 has continued to climb to 2,324, compared to 2,228 reported on Thursday.\n\nThe testing positivity rate - the percentage of Covid test returning a positive result - has fallen very slightly to 51.2%.\n\nThere was a daily average of 662 patients with confirmed Covid in hospital beds - a 77% increase on a week ago - although there were two and a half times as many people in hospital at the same point in 2021.\n\nHowever, NHS bosses have said this includes \"a lot\" of \"incidental\" Covid patients, who are in hospital for non-Covid reasons but test positive for Covid.\n\nBut Mr Drakeford said this \"doesn't make any difference to the hospitals\" as they must still \"treat every one of those patients as a coronavirus patient\".\n\nSpeaking at Friday's Welsh government Covid press conference the first minister said it would not be right to say the Welsh NHS is \"being overwhelmed\" but it is \"certainly facing very challenging circumstances\".\n\nHe said Omicron was \"driving more people to fall ill and then to need hospital treatment\" and also making more health staff ill.\n\n\"The latest figures suggest staff absences from illness and isolation across the NHS is 8.3% but it is as high as 16.5% in some NHS organisations.\"\n\nHe urged people to limit the number of people they meet, take lateral flow tests before going out, and make getting a booster vaccine a priority.\n\nOn those eligible for a vaccine that have chosen not to receive one, Mr Drakeford said they are \"expecting someone else to put themselves in harms way to look after them, and it simply isn't fair.\"\n\nOne senior doctor says restrictions are needed as hospitals are at \"bursting point\"\n\nDr Rowena Christmas, head of the Royal College of GPs in Wales, told BBC Radio Wales that while the rules were difficult hospitals were at \"bursting point\".\n\n\"The numbers are absolutely huge, so I think we have to continue as we are at least for the time being,\" she said.\n\nUK Hospitality Cymru warned this week that without extra money and lighter restrictions businesses would be left in \"peril\", with ministers responding that a emergency financial support package will be available from 10 January.\n\nA government spokesman said they would continue to consider whether additional emergency business support funding was needed.\n\nGary Lulham, boss of Sin City nightclub in Swansea, said while he did not expect any changes the news was \"devastating\" for an industry that was already at a \"critical breaking point\".\n\nHe added that without significant financial support there would be \"hundreds of thousands\" of people at the end of the month who \"won't be able to pay their rent, or be able to put food on the table for themselves or their kids\".\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives urged ministers to provide urgent support for businesses, and said restrictions on outdoor sporting events should be relaxed.\n\nAndrew RT Davies, Welsh Tory leader in the Senedd, called for \"greater flexibility\" on restrictions for hospitality settings.\n\n\"I think all people have done is move that socialising indoors into house party environments which are unregulated environments,\" he said.\n\n\"I do think there is scope to lift some of the restrictions in that particular area.\"\n\nHe also called for Welsh ministers to scrap \"ridiculous\" fines for workers who go into the workplace when they could work at home.\n\nMr Drakeford had previously defended the fines saying they were in place the last time there was a work from home obligation, that \"no fines were issued at all\" during that period and \"they are designed to protect workers, not to penalise them\".", "Snow hit Cumbria and Durham causing traffic disruption at the A66\n\nSnow caused travel disruption in parts of northern England and forced the closure of part of a major trans-Pennine route.\n\nThe A66 was closed for several hours due to compacted snow between the A1(M) at Scotch Corner and the A685 at Brough.\n\nDurham Police said a snowplough team had been deployed and the road was later reopened.\n\nRoutes at Stainmore on the Durham and Cumbria border were also affected.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by National Highways: North-East This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe A590 at the High Low Newton bypass in Cumbria was also blocked due to several vehicle collisions.\n\nPennine routes were also affected on the A689 at Lanehead in Durham.\n\nThe Met Office has issued a weather warning of snow and ice for the Midlands and the north-west of England, from Stoke-on-Trent up to the Scottish border.", "The US President Joe Biden has said that Donald Trump has a bruised ego and cannot accept that he lost the election.\n\nHe was speaking a year after rioters stormed the US Capitol building.", "(Left to right) Sage Willoughby, Jake Skuse, Milo Ponsford and Rhian Graham were cleared of criminal damage\n\nThe Attorney General is \"carefully considering\" whether to refer the Bristol Edward Colston statue case to the Court of Appeal.\n\nFour people were cleared of criminal damage at Bristol Crown Court for toppling the monument in June 2020 during a Black Lives Matter protest.\n\nSuella Braverman said trial by jury was \"an important guardian of liberty\" but the result was \"causing confusion\".\n\nThe referral would not affect the acquittal, she added.\n\nThe verdict cannot be overturned and the defendants cannot be retried without fresh evidence.\n\nMs Braverman said she would decide whether to use powers that, as Attorney General, allow her to seek a Court of Appeal hearing so senior judges \"have the opportunity to clarify the law for future cases\".\n\nMilo Ponsford, 26, Rhian Graham, 30, Jake Skuse, 33, and Sage Willoughby, 22, were charged after the memorial to the slave trader was toppled on 7 June 2020. The statue was thrown into Bristol's harbour shortly after.\n\nThe defendants are all from Bristol apart from Mr Ponsford, who is from Hampshire, and were cleared of criminal damage after a trial.\n\nThe verdict has prompted a debate about the criminal justice system after the defendants opted to stand trial in front of a jury and did not deny involvement in the incident.\n\nThe defendants claimed in court that the presence of the statue was a hate crime and it was therefore not an offence to remove it.\n\nColston was a member of the Royal African Company, which transported about 80,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Americas.\n\nOn his death in 1721, he bequeathed his wealth to charities and his legacy can still be seen on Bristol's streets, memorials and buildings.\n\nBut the prosecution argued it was \"irrelevant\" who Colston was and the case was one of straightforward criminal damage.\n\nThe defendants claimed the presence of the statue amounted to a hate crime, and it was therefore no offence to remove it\n\nSeveral MPs expressed concern after Thursday's verdict, including former communities secretary Robert Jenrick.\n\n\"If you've broken the law and committed criminal damage you should be punished,\" he tweeted.\n\n\"If the jury is a barrier to ensuring they are punished then that needs to be addressed.\"\n\nBut, Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said juries were the \"great sublime protector of liberties\".\n\nRaj Chada, who represented Mr Skuse, said the \"defendants should never have been prosecuted\".\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "On 6 January, 2021, people around the United States were shocked by images coming from the US Capitol.\n\nThe pictures - many of which were captured by news agency photojournalists on hand to document the vote certifying Joe Biden's electoral win - depicted rioters trespassing in government offices, or roaming the Senate chamber, or assaulting police officers.\n\nThis week, a House of Representatives select committee set up to investigate the events will begin public hearings aimed at piecing together what happened and who can be held accountable.\n\nWhile the committee can refer cases for prosecution, it is up to the Justice Department to determine if charges are actually filed.\n\nBut for many of the rioters, the snaps taken that day have already come back to haunt them.\n\nTo date, more than 810 have been arrested in nearly every US state and Washington DC. More than 60 so far have been sentenced to incarceration, with US officials vowing that more prosecutions are likely in the future.\n\nInvestigators are seeking public help in identifying over 350 rioters, including 250 suspected of attacking police officers.\n\nHere are five of the most iconic pictures of rioters and what's happened to them since 6 January.\n\nAmong the most widely shared images was that of Jacob Anthony Chansley, a 34-year old who referred to himself as the \"QAnon Shaman\". An ardent Trump supporter, Chansley was pictured wearing horns and a bearskin headdress during the riot, quickly becoming one of the most recognisable figures from the siege.\n\nChansley was arrested just days after the riot. In November, he was sentenced to 41 months in prison for his involvement, in addition to 36 months of supervised release. In court, Chansley said he now believes it was \"wrong\" to enter the Capitol and that he hopes to \"evolve\".\n\nHis sentence is one of the longest so far doled out to 6 January rioters. He is currently being held in a low-security federal prison in Arizona.\n\nAnother rioter, 36-year-old Florida resident Adam Johnson, was famously pictured walking - wearing a Trump beanie - between guide ropes meant for tours at the Capitol. He was carrying a podium bearing the seal of the Speaker of the House and posed in front of a painting depicting the surrender of British General John Burgoyne in the American Revolutionary War.\n\nJohnson, who was dubbed \"Podium Guy\" by social media users in the wake of the riot, was charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and theft of government property just days later.\n\nIn November, Johnson pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building. The other charges were dropped by prosecutors in exchange for a guilty plea.\n\nAdditionally, Johnson - who has expressed interest in writing a book - agreed to hand over any publishing profits to the government for a five-year period.\n\nEarly this year, he was sentenced to 75 days in prison and was also fined $5,000 (£3,996).\n\nAhead of his prison sentence, Johnson reportedly planned to host an \"Adam is going to prison\" party at a Florida restaurant. The event was eventually cancelled by the venue.\n\n\"Come help me celebrate my last Friday of freedom before I go to prison for the lamest charge in history,\" a Facebook page for the event read.\n\nAnother Trump supporter, Richard Barnett, was pictured sitting with one boot on a desk in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.\n\nThe image of Mr Barnett - dressed in a baseball cap and chequered shirt - went viral, as did pictures of the notes he and others left on Mrs Pelosi's desk.\n\nMr Barnett now faces multiple charges in connection with the riot, including obstruction of an official proceeding, entering a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct.\n\nHe has pleaded not guilty to the charges and in April rejected the government's offer of a plea deal. He is currently not in jail.\n\nMr Barnett's trial is scheduled to begin on 6 September.\n\nA fourth rioter, Kevin Seefried, was photographed holding a Confederate battle flag while walking through the halls near the entrance to the Senate, encountering little resistance.\n\nMr Seefried and his son, Hunter, were arrested a week after the riot and hit with multiple charges, including violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds.\n\nThe father-son duo is scheduled to begin a bench trial - in which their culpability will be determined by a judge, rather than a jury - on 13 June.\n\nAaron Mostofsky, a Trump supporter, in the US Capitol on 6 January 2021\n\nThe son of a prominent and politically connected New York City judge, Aaron Mostofsky was famously pictured wearing a fur pelt as a \"caveman\" and holding a police riot shield and wooden stick inside the US Capitol during the 6 January riot.\n\nHe told the New York Post he felt that supporters of President Trump \"were cheated\" in the election.\n\n\"I don't think 75 million people voted for Trump - I think it was close to 85 million,\" he told the newspaper. \"I think certain states that have been red for a long time turned blue and were stolen, like New York.\"\n\nMostofsky was arrested in New York six days after the riot and charged with multiple offences, including theft of government property, assaulting or impeding officers and disorderly conduct.\n\nIn February, he pleaded guilty to one felony charge of civil disorder, as well as several misdemeanor charges.\n\nThree months later, he was sentenced to eight months in prison followed by 12 months of supervised release, including 200 hours of community service and $2,000 (£1,600) restitution.", "A huge country the size of Western Europe, Kazakhstan has vast mineral resources and enormous economic potential.\n\nThe varied landscape stretches from the mountainous, heavily populated regions of the east to the sparsely populated, energy-rich lowlands in the west, and from the industrialised north, with its Siberian climate and terrain, through the arid, empty steppes of the centre, to the fertile south.\n\nEthnically the former Soviet republic is as diverse, with a large Russian minority in the north and smaller minorities in the south and east. Suppressed under Soviet rule, the main religion, Islam, is undergoing a revival.\n\nSince independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, major investment in the oil sector has brought rapid economic growth, and eased some of the stark disparities in wealth of the 1990s.\n\nMr Tokayev has been a senior official since independence\n\nA long-standing colleague of independent Kazakhstan's founder, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev took over as president when his mentor suddenly stepped down in March 2019.\n\nMr Tokayev was chairman of the Senate at the time, having served earlier as prime minister and foreign minister.\n\nHe said he would continue the policies of his predecessor and rely on his opinion in key policy matters, going on to win a snap presidential election in June 2019 to consolidate his position.\n\nHowever, President Tokayev then used a wave of public protest in January 2022 to oust Mr Nazarbayev and his supporters from their remaining positions of power.\n\nThe media market is dominated by state-owned and pro-government outlets.\n\nTV is the most popular medium. The government operates national networks.\n\nThe authorities regularly block websites and access to social media and messaging apps has been cut several times.\n\nOil money is driving the development of Astana, which became Kazakhstan's new capital in 1997\n\n1st-8th Centuries - Turkic-speaking and Mongol tribes invade and settle in what is now Kazakhstan and Central Asia.\n\n1219-24 - Mongol tribes led by Genghis Khan invade Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Later they become assimilated by Turkic tribes that make up the majority in their empire.\n\nLate 15th Century - With the formation of the Kazakh khanate, the Kazakhs emerge as a distinct ethnic group.\n\nEarly 17th Century - Kazakhs split into three tribal unions, the Elder, Middle and Lesser Zhuzes, or Hordes, which were led by Khans.\n\n1731-42 - The Khans of the three Zhuzes formally join Russia in pursuit of protection from invasions from the east by the Mongols.\n\n1822-68 - Despite many uprisings, Tsarist Russia retains control over the Kazakh tribes, deposing the Khans.\n\n1868-1916 - Thousands of Russian and Ukrainian peasants are brought in to settle Kazakh lands; first industrial enterprises set up.\n\n1916 - A major anti-Russian rebellion is repressed, with about 150,000 people killed and more than 300,000 fleeing abroad.\n\n1917 - Civil war breaks out following the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.\n\n1920 - Kazakhstan becomes an autonomous republic of the USSR. Until 1925 it is called the Kyrgyz Autonomous Province to distinguish its people from the Cossacks.\n\nLate 1920s-1930s - Intensive industrialisation and forced collectivisation under Soviet rule leads to the death of more than one million people from starvation.\n\n1940s - Hundreds of thousands of Koreans, Crimean Tatars, Germans and others forcibly moved to Kazakhstan.\n\n1949 - The USSR's first nuclear test explosion is carried out at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test ground in eastern Kazakhstan.\n\n1954-62 - About two million people, mainly Russians, move to Kazakhstan during Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's campaign to develop virgin lands.\n\n1961 - Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person in space and the first to orbit the earth when Vostok 1 launches from the Baikonur space launch site in central Kazakhstan.\n\n1986 - About 3,000 people take part in protests in Almaty after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev appoints Gennadiy Kolbin, an ethnic Russian, as head of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, replacing Dinmukhamed Kunayev, an ethnic Kazakh.\n\n1989 - Nursultan Nazarbayev, an ethnic Kazakh, becomes head of the Kazakhstan's communist party.\n\n1991 - Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan declares itself an independent state. Nursultan Nazarbayev wins uncontested presidential elections.\n\n1997 - The Kazakh capital is moved from Almaty in the south to Akmola (formerly Tselinograd) in the north, a year later this is renamed Astana.\n\n2001 - First major pipeline for transporting oil from Caspian to world markets opens, running from huge Tengiz oil field in western Kazakhstan to Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.\n\nKazakhstan joins China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in launching the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).\n\n2010 - A customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan comes into force after Belarus ratifies a key customs code.\n\n2014 Russia, Kazahkstan and Belarus sign an agreement creating the Eurasian Economic Union, which aims to create a shared market and integrate economic policy across the three former Soviet countries.\n\n2019 - President Nazarbayev steps down from the presidency, but retains a powerful role as chairman of the National Security Council.\n\nA Soyuz spacecraft blasts off from Baikonur in 2022. The cosmodrome in Kazakhstan has been at the centre of Soviet space missions since the 1950s\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday morning. We'll have another update for you this evening.\n\nThe Armed Forces are sending 200 personnel - 40 defence medics and 160 general duty staff - into hospitals across London to plug staff shortages. Thousands of NHS staff are off sick or isolating, while 4,000 patients are in the capital's hospitals with coronavirus. As of Thursday afternoon, 17 hospital trusts in England were experiencing critical incidents - meaning they might not be able to provide core priority services, such as emergency care.\n\nSome older pupils in England are refusing to take lateral flow tests and wear face coverings in classrooms as they head back to school, parents and other pupils say. Although wearing a mask isn't mandatory, charities are worried about the effects on vulnerable students. Some parents say masks impact on their children's learning. The government says schools \"can decide how best to encourage\" pupils to follow the recommendations on tests and masks.\n\nAfter being featured undergoing hospital treatment for Covid in a BBC News report, 29-year-old Henry Dyne was flooded with online abuse. Anti-vaxxers were accusing him of being a \"crisis actor\" - a term used by conspiracy theorists suggesting people are hired by authorities or media to act out a tragedy. It was nonsense but, as Henry explains, trying to make light of the claims only served to worsen the onslaught.\n\nBookmaker Ladbrokes claimed £102m from the furlough scheme, despite rapid growth in online betting making up for all losses from the closure of stores. Since the pandemic began parent company Entain has actually increased revenues, driven by strong online growth. The company said the money protected 14,000 jobs, and is \"under review\".\n\nMany of us have taken up new hobbies as a way of helping to relieve the strain of the pandemic. Feargal Lynn's was writing letters. And one he got in response not only lifted his spirits but gave his local postal workers a laugh too. Here's the story of how a letter missing an address but marked with a 57-word biography, referring to Feargal as \"friends with the fella who runs the butchers\", found its way to the right home.\n\nThe letter arrived at Feargal's home on Thursday morning\n\n... if you're struggling to remember the rules on self-isolation, you can check our explainer.\n\nYou can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.\n\nWhat questions do you have about coronavirus?\n\nIn some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "The BBC has asked ordinary Americans from around the country how they see the 6 January attack today.\n\nJames is a lifelong Republican who refused to vote for Donald Trump. His vote for Joe Biden in 2020 was the first time he ever cast his presidential ballot for a Democrat.\n\nAfter watching the siege at the Capitol unfold on national television, he wrote to his local Republican Party, begging them to condemn what had happened.\n\n\"Your committee is in part responsible for the violence,\" his letter said.\n\n\"If you still believe the Trump disinformation, then you should go join a proper cult instead of continuing to destroy the Republican Party from within.\"\n\nFor James, the shock from a year ago has not dissipated and he fears that more violence may come.\n\n\"There's a shift in the country with all the misinformation that is promulgated on the internet,\" he tells the BBC.\n\nHe hopes his party will stop listening to Trump and \"the madness will end at some point\".\n\n\"These things go in cycles. The current situation is just so crazy it can't maintain itself.\"", "The WHO says Omicron is putting pressure on healthcare facilities around the world\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against describing the Omicron variant as mild, saying it is killing people across the world.\n\nRecent studies suggest that Omicron is less likely to make people seriously ill than previous Covid variants.\n\nBut the record number of people catching it has left health systems under severe pressure, said WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.\n\nOn Monday, the US recorded more than one million Covid cases in 24 hours.\n\nThe WHO - the UN's health agency - said the number of global cases has increased by 71% in the last week, and in the Americas by 100%. It said that among severe cases worldwide, 90% were unvaccinated.\n\n\"While Omicron does appear to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorised as mild,\" Dr Tedros told a press conference on Thursday.\n\n\"Just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising people and it is killing people.\n\n\"In fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick, that it is overwhelming health systems around the world.\"\n\nOmicron is highly contagious and can infect people even if they are fully vaccinated. However, vaccines are still pivotal as they help protect against severe disease that could put you in hospital.\n\nOn Thursday, the UK reported 179,756 cases and 231 Covid-related deaths. A number of hospitals have declared \"critical\" incidents due to staff absence and rising pressures due to Covid.\n\nElsewhere, hospital numbers are also rising. France's health minister Olivier Veran warned this week that January would be tough for hospitals.\n\nHe added that Omicron patients were taking up \"conventional\" beds in hospitals while Delta was putting a strain on ICU departments. France on Thursday reported 261,000 cases.\n\nFrance has seen a record rise in Covid cases in recent weeks\n\nSerbia's President, Aleksandar Vucic, said the country's healthcare system is currently under great pressure. The country recorded more than 9,000 cases on Thursday, according to local media.\n\nIn his latest comments, Dr Tedros repeated his calls for greater vaccine distribution to help poorer countries jab their populations.\n\nHe said that based on the current vaccine rollout, 109 countries will miss the WHO's target for 70% of the world to be fully vaccinated by July.\n\nLast year, the WHO chief said the world will have enough doses of the vaccine in 2022 to jab the entire global adult population - if Western countries do not hoard vaccines to use in booster programmes.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: It would be folly to think Covid is almost over", "Cars line up for PCR tests at a drive-through site at Edinburgh Airport\n\nScotland's current Covid case rates are in line with the worst case scenario, according to the health secretary.\n\nHumza Yousaf has confirmed infections are at the highest level predicted in an evidence paper published in early December.\n\nHe said the next two weeks were set to be the \"most difficult\" faced by the NHS in its 73-year existence.\n\nBut he said new data was looking more positive on hospitalisations due to the virus.\n\nScotland registered 11,360 new positive cases on Thursday - bringing the total number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began to more than a million at 1,010,660.\n\nAbout one in 20 people in Scotland had Covid last week, according to the Office for National Statistics - up from one in 40 the previous week.\n\nMr Yousaf warned BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme the peak was yet to come and health chiefs were already making \"exceptionally difficult\" decisions on prioritising care.\n\n\"Certainly we are heading into the peak and expect that in the next few weeks,\" he said.\n\n\"If you remember the paper we published in early December, we are clearly into the worse case scenario in terms of levels of infection.\"\n\nOmicron modelling from the Scottish Government's December evidence paper put daily infections at an average of 16,000 daily cases by the end of December, increasing into January\n\nHe said that evidence that Omicron was less severe than other variants suggests there may be a \"more optimistic picture in terms of hospitalisations\".\n\nHowever he added: \"Our concern continues to be that even a small percentage of a big number at a time when the NHS doesn't have much headroom at all, is putting real pressure, along with staff absences, on the NHS and social care system.\n\n\"I don't think there's any way of sugar-coating the fact these next two weeks will probably be amongst the most difficult our NHS has faced in its 73 year existence.\"\n\nThe MSP said the health service was dealing with the backlog from the pandemic, high levels of staff absences, and more than 1,200 people in hospitals with Covid.\n\n\"All of those pressures coming during the winter months when we tend to see busier hospitals means this is a perfect storm,\" he said.\n\nLatest figures for the week until 4 January showed NHS Scotland staff absences due to Covid to be at 5,482 - the highest since June 2020.\n\nThe situation in emergency departments across the country is \"the worst it has ever been\", according to Dr John-Paul Loughrey of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, who said medical colleagues were \"filled with dread\" about the next four to six weeks.\n\nNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has told the public to stay away from A&E departments unless their condition is \"very urgent or life-threatening\" due to the \"unprecedented and unsustainable\" pressures they are facing.\n\nThe board said anyone else should first call NHS24 on 111, which it said would \"ensure they are directed to the most appropriate urgent service for their needs and A&Es are safeguarded for those who need them\".\n\nDr Scott Davidson, deputy medical director for acute services at NHSGGC, said A&E units were seeing a large number of people with symptoms that could be managed by speaking to a GP or a local pharmacy.\n\nHe added: \"There are other services geared up and ready to see and treat you.\n\n\"If you've had a slip, trip or fall, we have numerous minor injuries units (MIUs) across NHSGGC which can look after you, including if you've broken a limb.\"\n\nOpposition parties said the plea from the health board showed that the Scottish government had failed to adequately prepare the NHS for the pressures it was now facing.\n\nScottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: \"My colleagues on the frontline are beyond breaking point and have suffered due to Humza Yousaf's inaction and lack of planning ahead of the winter period.\n\n\"A&E services have been overwhelmed for months on end and now patients are being told to try and access treatment elsewhere\".\n\nHis Labour counterpart, Jackie Baillie, said there were also reports of people waiting for more than an hour to get through to NHS24, and called for action from Mr Yousaf \"to bring this situation under control immediately\".\n\nIn the Borders, routine operations and all but essential visiting has been cancelled by the local health board.\n\nNew self isolation rules aimed at improving staff shortages in the NHS and key worker roles were announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Wednesday.\n\nPeople who test positive for Covid in Scotland are now allowed to exit self-isolation after seven days if they have no fever and record two negative lateral flow tests.\n\nAnd household contacts of people with the virus are now allowed to take tests rather than going into quarantine, so long as they have had a booster shot.\n\nProf James Chalmers from the University of Dundee's School of Medicine, said it was important people were honest about their lateral flow test results.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"This isn't that the self-isolation period has been cut from 10 to seven days, it's still 10 days unless you are able to post two negative lateral flow tests, and it's very important that people are scrupulously honest with those negative lateral flow tests.\n\n\"If you don't take a lateral flow test, if you just exit self-isolation at day seven, the modelling suggests a 15% risk that you are still infections, so anybody who cheats these rules is putting others at risk because there is still a risk if you don't have those negative lateral flow tests.\"\n\nProf Chalmers said that, despite the high number of cases in Scotland, the peak was not expected until later this month.\n\nHumza Yousaf confirms Scotland is experiencing the \"worst case scenario\" of Omicron cases\n\nMr Yousaf also told Good Morning Scotland of his \"frustration\" about changes to the coronavirus testing regime for international travel being announced for England only - despite UK-wide discussions on what the rules should be.\n\nWhile talks had taken place between the four nations, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced changes on Wednesday for England only - scrapping pre-departure tests and isolation for travellers.\n\nInstead people will be required to take a lateral flow test no later than the end of day two after their arrival.\n\nMr Yousaf promised a written update for MSPs in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday afternoon.\n\nBut he said: \"Although we engaged in a conversation with the UK government, it is a source of frustration that if the UK government unilaterally decides to move in a certain direction we end up with potentially a double whammy if we don't align.\"\n\nMr Yousaf said that if Scottish ministers opt to follow a different course, this would cause further damage to the travel industry north of the border, without any public health benefit, as travellers could instead opt to fly to and from English airports.", "Security forces on the streets of Almaty, Kazakhstan's biggest city\n\nFresh gunshots have been heard in Kazakhstan's largest city, as the president claims order has been largely restored after a violent crackdown to days of anti-government demonstrations.\n\nReports said gunfire was heard near the main square of Almaty, the epicentre of protests sparked by a fuel price hike.\n\nThe interior ministry said 26 \"armed criminals\" and 18 security officers had been killed so far in the unrest.\n\nRussian-led forces have arrived in the country at the president's request.\n\nInternet access in the country is down and little independent information is coming out. Armoured personal carriers and troops were seen in the main square of Almaty on Friday, the Reuters news agency said.\n\nMore than 3,000 people have been arrested, according to the interior ministry, and local media said 70 checkpoints had been set up across the country.\n\nIn a statement on Friday, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said \"constitutional order [had] largely been restored in all regions of the country\" and that \"local authorities [were] in control of the situation\".\n\nThe president. who has blamed foreign-trained \"terrorists\" for the unrest without giving evidence, said the operations would continue until \"the militants are completely eliminated\".\n\nAs the protests escalated, President Tokayev appealed to the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) for support. The bloc includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Armenia.\n\nThe overseas force reportedly sent about 2,500 soldiers to Kazakhstan. The CSTO says the troops are a peacekeeping force and will protect state and military installations. They will stay in the country for several days or weeks, the Russian RIA news agency reports.\n\nWhere is it? Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia to the north and China to the east. It is a huge country the size of Western Europe.\n\nWhy does it matter? A former Soviet republic which is mainly Muslim republic with a large Russian minority, it has vast mineral resources, with 3% of global oil reserves and important coal and gas sectors.\n\nWhy is it making the news? Fuel riots, which have escalated to become broader protests against the government, have resulted in resignations at the top and a bloody crackdown on protesters.\n\nThe US state department said it was closely monitoring the deployment of Russian troops. \"The United States and, frankly, the world will be watching for any violation of human rights,\" a spokesman said.\n\n\"We will also be watching for any actions that may lay the predicate for the seizure of Kazakh institutions.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe unrest began on Sunday when the cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - which many people in Kazakhstan use to fuel their cars - doubled, drawing protesters onto the streets.\n\nThe government has said that fuel price caps will be restored for six months. But the announcement has failed to end the protests, which have broadened to include other political grievances.\n\nKazakhstan is often described as authoritarian, and most elections are won by the ruling party with nearly 100% of the vote. There is no effective political opposition.\n\nThe bloodshed comes after President Tokayev sacked his cabinet on Wednesday in a bid to head off the demonstrations. He also fired his powerful predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had held a national security role since stepping down as president.\n\nThe bustling square of Almaty has turned into a conflict zone, complete with burnt down buildings and vehicles.\n\nMany people are scared to go outside, especially at night because clashes are continuing. The sounds of shooting and explosions remind people how dangerous it can be to leave their homes.\n\nLocal vigilante groups block the entrances to their villages near Almaty to prevent looting. Checkpoints and makeshift barriers block the entrance to the city, so people use narrow streets to get in and out of Almaty.\n\nThere are big queues at petrol stations. Residents struggle to buy food because shopping malls, supermarkets, cafes and restaurants are all closed, only small shops are still open. The internet blockade continues, so people cannot withdraw money, or top up their phones.", "Former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings has alleged a social event which took place in No 10 on 20 May 2020 may have broken Covid rules.\n\nIn his blog, he said a \"senior No 10 official\" invited people to \"socially distanced drinks\" in the garden.\n\nMr Cummings said he and another adviser had warned that this could be against the rules but were told the event had gone ahead.\n\nDowning Street has been approached for comment.\n\nBut the BBC understands the alleged event will be investigated by a senior civil servant.\n\nThe first coronavirus lockdown was introduced in England in late March and were slowly relaxed in May 2020, but it was not until 1 June that people were allowed to meet outside in groups of up to six people.\n\nIn December, Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked Simon Case, the UK's top civil servant, to investigate after a series of allegations about events taking place in government buildings despite coronavirus restrictions.\n\nMr Case later stepped down after suggestions one of the parties took place in his own office and the investigation was passed to Sue Gray, another senior civil servant.\n\nMr Cummings has now urged Ms Gray to \"dig up\" the email invitations to the event on 20 May - and his email to colleagues warning against it.\n\nHe also said the senior civil servant should look in to his claim that a party took place in Mr Johnson's Downing Street flat on 13 November - something No 10 has previously denied.\n\nIt is understood Ms Gray will examine the alleged event in May 2020, as well as another gathering five days earlier, which was revealed last month.\n\nThe Guardian published a photo of the prime minister with his wife and 17 other staff members - including Mr Cummings - in the Downing Street garden on 15 May 2020, with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard.\n\nHowever, Mr Cummings argued that event did not break any rules.\n\nWriting on his blog, the former chief advisor, who was forced out of Downing Street at the end of 2020 after an internal power struggle, said \"the scene on the terrace was in no sense a 'party' or 'organised drinks'\".\n\n\"Many meetings had been taking place in the garden all day... those on the terrace nearest me in the photo had been having a meeting.\n\n\"No 10 staff were encouraged to have meetings in the garden April-August for the obvious reason that we were in a pandemic with an airborne disease and being outside was safer!\"", "Snowfall in Livingston was heavy on Friday morning\n\nIcy patches are expected across the country after temperatures were set to drop below zero overnight.\n\nA Met Office warning for ice expires at midnight, however the forecaster warned there was a chance of snow in the north east on Saturday.\n\nNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has urged people to go to minor injuries clinics rather than A&E if they fall on ice, as emergency teams are under pressure.\n\nIt comes after snow and ice caused widespread disruption on Friday.\n\nDrivers faced treacherous conditions and several vehicles were stuck on the the M8 eastbound off-slip at J16 Craighall in Glasgow.\n\nCars fell foul of the conditions on Gartloch Road in the east end of Glasgow\n\nThe centre of Lanark was an early-morning whiteout\n\nTraffic Scotland reported that heavy snow was also affecting many routes including the M77 and M74 on Thursday morning.\n\nBear North West Trunk Roads said there was snow on routes including the A82 in the Glencoe and Tyndrum area, the A9 and the A83.\n\nMeanwhile, police in East Dunbartonshire tweeted that a number of vehicles had been abandoned throughout the area due to the weather.\n\nIn the Highlands, Grantown Grammar School and Kingussie High School were closed due to severe road conditions, while in South Lanarkshire several schools delayed opening until 10:00.\n\nIn Glasgow, some pupils at St Margaret Mary's secondary school were sent home early because staff could not get into work.\n\nCars were covered in snow in Glasgow\n\nDrivers woke up to snowy conditions in South Lanarkshire\n\nTraffic Scotland said the snow gates on the B974 were closed between Banchory to Fettercairn at Cairn o'Mount due to adverse weather conditions.\n\nSouth Lanarkshire reported heavy snowfall and the council said that due to the weather conditions, the asymptomatic test site at Larkhall Leisure Centre would delay its opening.\n\nMany areas saw bin collections cancelled or postponed until the start of next week.\n\nA railway worker clears snow from the platform at Rannoch Station on the West Highland Line\n\nVehicles struggled to get up hills in East Kilbride\n\nThe most recent yellow warning for ice affected the central belt, Tayside, Fife, south of Scotland and much of the west coast.\n\nPeople in Glasgow who fall on ice have been urged to attend minor injuries clinics at the New Victoria Hospital, the New Stobhill Hospital or at the Vale of Leven.\n\nRain is expected for most of the country on Saturday - though the Met Office said \"heavy bursts\" in the south of Scotland could make for difficult driving conditions.\n\nThere is a chance of sunny spells in the west, the forecaster said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Met Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHave you been affected by heavy snow in Scotland? Get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:\n\nOr use this form to get in touch:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your comment or send it via email to HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any comment you send in.", "Covid-related staff absences at hospitals in England have risen sharply since Omicron took hold last month, latest figures show.\n\nThe number of workers off sick for Covid reasons trebled from the beginning of December.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing said growing absences meant the situation was \"simply not safe.\"\n\nNHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said staff were under pressure but were \"stepping up\".\n\nDowning Street said Boris Johnson saw no need for further restrictions despite the staff absences, as England's current measures were \"balanced and proportionate\".\n\nEarlier this week, the prime minister said he hoped England could \"ride out\" the Omicron wave without more restrictions.\n\nApproximately 4% of hospital staff in England - nearly 36,000 - were off for Covid reasons each day during the week ending 2 January.\n\nThat was a rise of 41% on the previous week, and treble the 11,957 absences seen at the beginning of the Omicron wave in the week ending 5 December.\n\nWhen other sickness absence is added it brings the total off to 9% - nearly double what would normally be seen at this time of year.\n\nHowever, the national figures - released by NHS England - mask stark regional differences.\n\nSome of the hardest-hit hospitals in the country are in northern England, with Mid Yorkshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust currently seeing about 6% of staff off due to Covid.\n\nBut in London, where data suggests a slowdown in the Omicron wave after Christmas, staff absences fell slightly.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid acknowledged the NHS was facing a \"rocky few weeks ahead\" and called on people to continue to get vaccinated to help the relieve pressure on the health service.\n\nDuring a visit to a hospital in south London, he said the decision from a number of English health trusts to declare critical incidents in recent days was \"understandable\" in the context of mounting pressure on them.\n\nMr Javid added: \"It is all part of trying to work together providing the NHS every support that it needs to get through this difficult time.\"\n\nProf David Spiegelhalter, a statistician from the University of Cambridge, said Covid cases in younger people were coming down \"fairly fast\" in the capital.\n\nHe said hospital admissions in London - which has been at the leading edge of the Omicron wave - seemed to be stable, but elsewhere in the UK admissions were still rising.\n\nProf Spiegelhalter said there was still no sign of a \"serious increase\" in patients in intensive care, those needing ventilation and deaths.\n\n\"We would have expected to see that by now in London and elsewhere, so that is the really reassuring thing,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"I think we can guarantee that over this wave... what we're not going to see is a big surge in very severe outcomes.\"\n\nHe said the \"crucial\" thing was the disruption to the NHS and other services.\n\nPatricia Marquis, from the Royal College of Nursing said: \"Outside of healthcare, staffing shortages are closing shops and cancelling trains but nurses can't stop helping their patients.\n\n\"Instead, they find themselves spread thinner and thinner, but they can't keep spinning plates indefinitely either - this situation is simply not safe.\"\n\nLatest estimates suggest more than one in 15 people in the UK would have tested positive for Covid in the last week of 2021.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How is the NHS in your area coping this winter? This trust does not currently supply A&E waiting time figures. When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data. Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted. This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available. If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed. In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data. Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board. Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.\n\nAs of Friday morning, it is understood there were 16 hospital trusts in England that were in critical incident status - about one in eight of the total.\n\nA critical incident is declared when a trust is worried it might not be able to provide core priority services, such as emergency care. It means it can get extra help and draft staff in from other duties.\n\nOn Wednesday night the number exceeded 20, but since then several have declared their critical incident over, NHS sources told the BBC.\n\nNHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said Omicron meant \"more patients to treat and fewer staff to treat them\".\n\n\"While we don't know the full scale of the potential impact this new strain will have, Covid cases in hospitals are the highest they've been since February last year - piling even more pressure on hard working staff.\n\n\"Those staff are stepping up as they always do,\" he said.\n\nEarlier, the armed forces sent 200 personnel into NHS hospitals across London to plug staff shortages.\n\nAcross the UK, about 1,800 armed forces personnel are supporting the NHS response to the pandemic.\n\nBut it has not been enough to stop performance deteriorating with latest figures showing long delays for ambulance crews outside hospitals.\n\nAmbulances should be able to hand over their patients to A&E staff within 15 minutes of arriving.\n\nBut in the week to 2 January 23% waited more than 30 minutes.\n\nThat is a similar level to what was being seen before Christmas, but above the numbers seen before the pandemic began, when 18% of ambulances were facing delays at this point of winter.\n\nMeanwhile, travel rules are changing in the UK. Fully-vaccinated travellers arriving in the UK no longer need to take a pre-departure test and do not need to isolate while waiting for their post-arrival PCR result.\n\nHave you been affected by NHS staff absences? Do you work for the NHS? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Investors want four of the biggest coronavirus vaccine manufacturers to make access fairer\n\nA large coalition of investment firms want the bosses of coronavirus vaccine makers to have their bonuses withheld if they fail to improve product distribution.\n\nThis could guarantee a \"more equitable\" global circulation of the vaccine, said Rogier Krens chief investment officer of Achmea Investment Management.\n\nDrug makers said they are making sure lower income countries have access.\n\nOver nine billion doses have been administered worldwide.\n\nMr Krens said that the group of 65 companies, which collectively control almost $3.5tn (£2.59tn) in assets, believes that vaccines are \"not distributed fairly at the moment\".\n\nOverall, China and India have administered the highest number of doses, with nearly three billion and 1.5 billion respectively.\n\nThe US is third, with more than 500 million. Many poorer countries are relying on deliveries from Covax, a scheme led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, together with the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which is trying to ensure everyone in the world has access to a Covid vaccine. So far the scheme has distributed more than 900 million vaccines.\n\n\"What we're asking the companies to do is to tie their remuneration policy and strategy to a more equitable distribution of the vaccine,\" Mr Krens explained.\n\nIf they don't commit to a fairer distribution, he said the groups first step will be to vote against any remuneration proposals that don't take this into consideration.\n\nAsked if that means trying to withhold bonuses if the concerns aren't addressed, Mr Krens, replied \"effectively yes\".\n\nExecutive pay at vaccine makers should be linked to distribution, says Rogier Krens of Achmea Investment Management\n\nFigures collated by Our World in Data - a collaboration between Oxford University and an educational charity, show that many of the countries with the lowest vaccination rates are lower income African nations such as Burundi, DR Congo and Chad. Meanwhile, those at the top of the list are wealthier countries such as the UAE, Portugal and Brunei.\n\nLast week the head of the World Health Organisation reiterated the importance of vaccines in ending the pandemic. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu warned against \"narrow nationalism and vaccine hoarding\", and added that if \"we end inequity, we end the pandemic\".\n\nPlease upgrade your browser to see the full interactive\n\nA fairer distribution of vaccines makes sense from both a humanitarian and financial perspective, according to Mr Krens.\n\n\"We definitely feel it's our responsibility to invest in companies that act in a socially responsible way,\" he said.\n\nWhen it comes to the money that the group manages for pension funds and other clients Mr Krens explained that a continuation of the pandemic as it's going now, would be a \"threat\" to the economy and eventually, a threat to their investment returns.\n\nThe massive gap in vaccination rates between advanced economies and poorer nations could cost the global economy $5.3tn over five years according to the International Monetary Fund.\n\nMany people are keen to get coronavirus vaccines, such as these who are queuing up in Malta\n\nThe group of investors have voiced their concerns in a letter to the boards of Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.\n\nIn their statement, they highlight the World Health Organisation's roadmap which calls for 70% of the population of every country to be vaccinated by the middle of this year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What went wrong with vaccinating the world? Three experts explain\n\nThe roadmap calls on vaccine manufacturers to be more transparent about production schedules and to prioritise contracts with Covax and Avat which aim to improve the distribution of vaccines in poorer countries.\n\nVaccines makers said they are doing what they can to ensure that doses are spread out fairly.\n\nAstraZeneca, which has worked with Oxford University on its vaccine, said it is \"producing its COVID-19 vaccine for no profit to low income countries and has distributed most of its supply to low and middle income countries.\"\n\nJohnson & Johnson said that approximately 60% its COVID-19 vaccines have been shipped to low and middle income countries and that fair access to them has been \"at the forefront\" of its response to the pandemic. It added that its executive pay strategy \"is designed to promote long-term, sustainable value creation\".\n\nModerna and Pfizer haven't responded to requests for comment. However last year, in an open letter Pfizer's chief executive Albert Bourla wrote that the biggest restriction on expanding manufacturing was \"scarcity of highly specialised raw materials\".\n\nInternational political efforts to improve vaccine production and distribution through a wavier of intellectual property rights have stalled. Hopes for an agreement at the World Trade Organisation were dented when it's in person Ministerial Conference was abruptly cancelled in late November.\n\nAchmea's Rogier Krens believes that such a sharing of the vaccine manufacturing know-how has an important role to play in improving vaccine distribution.\n\nAlthough they have largely resisted so far he said: \"We're actually calling actively for the pharmaceutical companies to contribute in that area\".\n\nHe argued that increasing vaccine supply is crucial to getting more people protected from coronavirus.\n\nMr Krens said that the coalition of investors can bring about change from the drug makers, even if it doesn't happen overnight, because it's size equates to \"quite a strong voice\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson has accused anti-vaccine campaigners of speaking \"mumbo jumbo\" when it comes to coronavirus jabs.\n\nThe prime minister said those spreading false information on social media were \"totally wrong\" and it was time for him \"to call them out\".\n\nSome European countries are making vaccination mandatory, but Mr Johnson stressed it was important for the UK to maintain its voluntary approach.\n\nIn the UK, 90% of over-12s have now had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.\n\nAnd nearly 83% have had a second dose, while 60% have had their booster or third primary dose.\n\nThursday's coronavirus figures showed 179,756 new cases had been reported in the UK and 231 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nMr Johnson, who was speaking while on a visit to a vaccination centre in Northampton, said: \"I want to say to the anti-vax campaigners, the people who are putting this mumbo jumbo on social media: they are completely wrong.\n\n\"You haven't heard me say that before, because I think it's important we have a voluntary approach in this country and we're going to keep a voluntary approach.\"\n\nMr Johnson said some other European nations were going for \"coercion\".\n\nItaly is the latest country to make vaccination compulsory for some, with all over-50s now being told to have a jab. Austria was the first to make it a legal requirement.\n\nThe prime minister said: \"What a tragedy that we've got all this pressure on the NHS, all the difficulties that our doctors and nurses are experiencing, and we've got people out there spouting complete nonsense about vaccination.\n\n\"They are totally wrong, and I think it's time that I, the government, call them out on what they're doing. It's absolutely wrong, it's totally counterproductive, and the stuff they're putting out on social media is complete mumbo jumbo.\"\n\nHe said some 30-40% of the 17,000 patients in hospital with Covid \"haven't actually been vaccinated at all\". This is \"increasingly true\" of those in intensive care, added Mr Johnson, as the \"overwhelming majority of them have not been boosted\".\n\nPeople should \"behave sensibly\" as well as recognising \"the vital importance of vaccination\", he added.\n\nThe vast majority of adults in the UK have had Covid-19 vaccines - but that hasn't stopped anti-vaccine activists from continuing their crusade against jabs.\n\nTheir tactics change and evolve according to social media policies and what's in the news. They generally promote unfounded claims about the jabs relating to emotive topics. Some brandish scientific titles in a bid to play on trust in experts.\n\nThe reasons behind vaccine hesitancy vary. Some can't get a jab because of medical reasons. Others are on the fence, or don't see the personal benefit. It's only a tiny minority of the unjabbed who are ardent anti-vaxxers.\n\nBut that group is extremely active on social media, sharing posts and videos that exploit doubt and fear in order to advance their agenda.\n\nA select few do it for money or clicks, but others are simply true believers being pulled deeper into an online movement.\n\nIn recent months, it's become clear that anti-vax activists are losing their battle. Some are trying to create their own small communities.\n\nBut a few are turning to increasingly aggressive tactics - threatening doctors, journalists and politicians online and even turning up to their houses.\n\nMr Johnson said while Omicron is milder than previous variants, \"the pressures on hospitals are clear\".\n\nThe number of hospital trusts in England to be in critical incident status amid staffing shortages and rising numbers of coronavirus cases is currently thought to be 17. A critical incident is declared when a trust is worried it might not be able to provide core priority services like emergency care.\n\nBut the prime minister said it was not true that the NHS does not have enough staff to cope with the increasing pressure - with staff numbers increasing, retired staff being called back and volunteers being used.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK vaccination programme would continue to be voluntary\n\n\"What we've got to do is give the NHS all the help we can through the next period, with all the simplifications of systems, moving staff from one hospital to another, all the ways we can back staff up, but also make sure that the people who are likely to get ill get vaccinated first,\" he said.\n\n\"The saddest words in the English language are 'too late'. When you're in ICU and you haven't been vaccinated, sadly it's too late to get vaccinated, so get boosted now.\"\n\nAsked about Australia's detention of men's tennis world number one Novak Djokovic, amid a row over his vaccination status, Mr Johnson said he shares the view that it is a \"very good idea to get vaccinated\".\n\nBut he said the decision to detain the tennis player was a \"matter for Australia\".\n\nFigures released by NHS England on Thursday suggest fewer than half of all adults in some of England's biggest cities have had a booster or third dose of a Covid vaccine.\n\nIn Nottingham, the take-up of the extra jab among over-18s is estimated to be 42.8%, while it is 45.7% in Manchester, 49.9% in Birmingham and 49.1% in Liverpool.\n\nThe figures, for vaccinations given up to 2 January, suggest Newham in London has the lowest rate of take-up for boosters and third doses out of all English local authorities, with 38.5% of all adults having had the extra jab. The Gloucestershire Cotswolds area is estimated to have the highest rate, at 83%.", "Watch this incredible video showing a truck that was left dangling over a cliff edge in China for three days.\n\nThe driver and passenger managed to escape, and the vehicle was eventually hauled to safety.", "Nathan Saunders shouted \"Allahu akbar\" - which means God is greatest - at a group of teenagers\n\nA convicted terror offender has been jailed for 16 months after threatening teenagers with a knife and telling them: \"We cut people's heads off.\"\n\nNathan Saunders, 28, shouted \"Allahu akbar\" and made Islamic State salutes at the youths on 15 September 2021.\n\nSaunders, of Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent, who was convicted of downloading terror documents in 2017, is believed to have radicalised himself online.\n\nHe admitted possession of an offensive weapon at Cardiff Crown Court.\n\nThe court heard Saunders was attacked on Sycamore Avenue in Tredegar by a group of young men who punched him twice and called him a \"terrorist\".\n\nAfter a neighbour intervened he got away, but returned with a bread knife.\n\nWitnesses said he began waving it and making slashing gestures towards the group.\n\nSome of the young men armed themselves with house bricks and one began filming Saunders while others yelled at him to \"put the knife down\".\n\nJudge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said Saunders had been motivated by \"some kind of revenge\".\n\nWhen he was arrested, he denied having a knife and said he was trying to reason with the youths.\n\nJudge Lloyd-Clarke told him he should have reported the initial hostility and violence from the group to police.\n\n\"You chose to arm yourself with a large knife and you went out into the street to confront your former assailants when members of the public and young children were present,\" she said.\n\n\"Your offending, in my view, is seriously aggravated by your previous conviction. You seemed to be referring to that type of behaviour and interest when in possession of the knife.\n\n\"More than once you say 'we chop heads off,' and you point your finger up to the sky and repeatedly say 'Allahu akbar'.\"\n\nStephen Donoghue, prosecuting, applied for a criminal behaviour order, allowing police to monitor Saunders closely upon release.\n\nHe is already subject to a 10-year counter-terrorism order following his 2017 conviction, which related to downloading manuals on making bombs and carrying out \"lone-wolf\" attacks.\n\nMr Donoghue argued it did not go far enough to address concerns about any future offending.\n\nAlex Greenwood, defending, said the order should be more specific to not interfere with Saunders' rights to privacy and his religious rights to freedom of expression.\n\nA hearing to determine if the order will be granted will be held on 18 February.", "Asda has backed out of a commitment it made in October to stock exclusively British beef, angering farmers.\n\nNational Beef Association (NBA) chief executive Neil Shand said he was \"deeply disappointed\" by Asda's choice.\n\nAsda said their policy had changed because of the rise in British beef prices.\n\n\"Whilst we continue to work hard to keep prices as low as possible for our customers, these increases are significant\", a spokesperson said.\n\nFarmers are struggling with feed, fertilizer and energy costs escalating at rates \"never seen before\", according to the NBA.\n\n\"Our supermarkets need to support domestic producers as much as possible - now more than ever,\" Mr Shand said.\n\nMorrisons and Co-op both told the BBC they would continue to only sell British beef, despite the rise in prices.\n\n\"We're proud to support British beef farmers and Co-op was the first national supermarket to commit to only selling 100% own brand British meat and poultry. We also only use British meat ingredients in our frozen products and sandwiches and ready meals,\" Co-op said in a statement.\n\nAn Aldi spokesman said the grocer had \"no plans to change\".\n\nAsda said all fresh beef in its premium Extra Special tier would remain 100% British, while all of the rest of its fresh beef would be sourced from farms in the UK and Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe country's largest supermarket, Tesco, also sources the fresh beef it sells in the UK from either the UK or the Republic of Ireland.\n\nAsda declined to comment on the decisions of other grocers.\n\nIn a statement, the supermarket said: \"We know that it is important to our customers that the beef on our shelves has been produced to high welfare standards and is affordable.\"\n\nRepublic of Ireland beef is currently around 20% less expensive than British, according to the Irish Examiner. Ireland accounted for almost 80% of UK beef imports in 2020, according to Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board.\n\nBeef makes up nearly half of all meat imports to the UK according to the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA).\n\nIn response to Asda's shift, Deborah Deymond, a beef farmer who has a herd of 80 cattle in Rattery, said: \"Farmers believe in long term commitments and so should supermarkets\".\n\n\"I was so pleased to hear they had made the pledge in October but think it's disgraceful they're not supporting British farmers more\".\n\n\"You cannot have a good product for next to nothing prices and supermarkets should value domestic farmers properly,\" she added.\n\nNational Farmers Union (NFU) livestock board chairman Richard Findlay, was also disappointed and said that, given the \"significant\" changes to trade and agricultural policy, it was \"more important than ever\" for retailers to \"champion\" British farmers.\n\nMr Findley said that any sourcing commitments made by supermarkets need to be honoured.\n\n\"Our beef is renowned for its quality and high production standards, and retail support plays a big part in enabling farmers to make further investments in climate and environmentally-friendly food production,\" he added.\n\nAsda made the initial announcement after it was bought by the Issa brothers, two entrepreneurs from Blackburn who made billion-pound fortunes running petrol stations. It is Britain's third-largest supermarket chain.", "Clinton Ashmore and Sharon Pickles were fatally stabbed just hours apart\n\nA man has denied murdering two people who were stabbed within hours of each other in Westminster, central London.\n\nSharon Pickles, 45, and Clinton Ashmore, 59, were found fatally wounded at two different properties near Marylebone on 19 and 20 August.\n\nLee Peacock, of Harrow Road, appeared via videolink at the Old Bailey having been charged with both murders.\n\nThe 49-year-old entered not guilty pleas to both counts and will next appear at the same court on 21 April.\n\nMs Pickles was pronounced dead at a property in Ashbridge Street at 21:30 BST on 19 August.\n\nFive hours later police found Mr Ashmore with fatal knife wounds at a building in nearby Jerome Crescent.\n\nMs Pickles's body was found in a property in Ashbridge Street\n\nJudge Mark Lucraft QC set a trial lasting up to three weeks for 16 January 2023, but said the case could be brought forward if a slot becomes available.\n\nThe trial will be heard by High Court judge Mr Justice Murray.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Armed Forces have sent 200 personnel into NHS hospitals across London to plug staff shortages.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence will provide 40 defence medics and 160 general duty personnel for the next three weeks.\n\nHospitals in London have been hit hard by staff absences, with thousands off sick or isolating as the Omicron variant surged through the capital.\n\nEarlier this week, the PM said he hoped England could \"ride out\" the latest wave without further restrictions.\n\nPressure on London hospitals has increased over the past month, with 4,000 patients currently in hospital with Covid compared with 1,100 in early December.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing's director for England, Patricia Marquis, said the deployment showed the government could not deny there was a \"staffing crisis\" in the NHS.\n\n\"The prime minister and others can no longer be dismissive of questions about the ability of NHS staff to deliver safe care,\" she said.\n\nAcross the UK, about 1,800 armed forces personnel are supporting the NHS response to the pandemic.\n\nAs of Friday morning, 16 hospital trusts in England were experiencing critical incidents - about one in eight of the total.\n\nA critical incident is declared when a trust is worried it might not be able to provide core priority services, such as emergency care. It means they can get extra help and draft staff in from other duties.\n\nApproximately 4% of staff at acute NHS trusts in England were off because of Covid each day during the week ending 2 January, latest figures show.\n\nThat equates to 35,596 staff each day on average, up by 41% on the previous week.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How is the NHS in your area coping this winter? This trust does not currently supply A&E waiting time figures. When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data. Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted. This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available. If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed. In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data. Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board. Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.\n\nBut the overall figures mask stark regional differences. Some of the hardest-hit hospitals in the country are in the north of England - Sheffield's teaching hospitals were missing 11% of staff due to Covid.\n\nBut in London, where data suggests a slowdown in the Omicron wave after Christmas, staff absences actually fell very slightly.\n\nThere are 236 patients on ventilators in the capital - compared with 190 last month - and daily admissions are about four times higher than the beginning of December.\n\nVaccination rates in London are also running behind the UK as a whole, with 69% having had a first dose, 63% a second and 40% a booster jab.\n\nAcross the UK, 90% have had their first jab, 83% have had a second, and 61% a booster.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid urged people to get their vaccinations to help cut the pressure on the NHS, as he welcomed support from the military.\n\nHe said: \"Once again they are stepping up to assist NHS workers who are working round the clock across the capital, helping the health service through this difficult winter period where the need is greatest.\"\n\nThe NHS is in crisis every winter - so is this any different?\n\nThe Army has been brought in before to lend a hand in extreme circumstances and has already been used in the pandemic.\n\nThis tends to be the busiest week for the health service so it's not surprising given the pressure it is under that steps like this are being taken or that we are hearing so much about critical incidents.\n\nAs of yesterday, one in eight hospital trusts in England had declared a critical incident - an internal warning to the system that they are struggling to provide priority services such as emergency care.\n\nWe do not have comparable figures for previous years.\n\nBut to provide some comparison, there are two key figures to keep in mind.\n\nFirstly the number of Covid admissions being seen is already double the number normally seen at this time of year for all types of respiratory infection - and it is still rising.\n\nStaff absences are also thought to be twice what they would usually be - although the latest figures are not due out until later.\n\nArmy medics and support staff have been used to support health services throughout the pandemic - they were deployed to work in Northern Ireland's hospitals in September and were also needed in London this time last year.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said the Armed Forces would again be working \"hand-in-hand\" with NHS staff \"to protect the nation from Covid-19\".\n\nHe added: \"They have shown their worth time and again throughout this pandemic, whether driving ambulances, administering vaccines or supporting patients in hospital and they should be proud of their contribution to this truly national effort.\"\n\nThere are 40 teams of five, with one medic and four general duties personnel, who have started work this week and will be allocated according to need.\n\nMedics will work with patients, whereas the soldiers will be working on maintaining stocks, checking in patients on arrival, and conducting basic checks.\n\nParamedics in the South Central Ambulance Service, which covers Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire, will also be bolstered with 32 military co-responders, who are expected to stay with them until the end of March.\n\nStaff testing positive for Covid are off work for much longer than is typical for a sickness absence and about 10% of staff at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust are off sick\n\nJane Clegg, the regional chief nurse for the NHS in London, said: \"We are thankful for the support of the armed forces alongside thousands of NHS staff, as they respond to the increased demands brought by Covid - ensuring continued high quality care and treatment for the many Londoners being looked after by the NHS this winter.\"\n\nAbout 1,800 regulars and reservists from the Army, Navy and the RAF are supporting the NHS response to the pandemic in the UK.\n\nMore than 400 military paramedics are assisting ambulance trusts, with 313 in the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust and 96 in the Scottish Ambulance Service.\n\nAnd more than another 1,000 are working on the vaccine booster programme, with 730 in England, 221 in Scotland and 98 in Wales.\n\nHave you been affected by NHS staff absences? Do you work for the NHS? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How is the NHS in your area coping this winter? This trust does not currently supply A&E waiting time figures. When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data. Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted. This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available. If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed. In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data. Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board. Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.", "Police Scotland is deploying more than 500 officers to support local policing divisions due to high Covid-related absence levels across the country.\n\nThe force said over 300 specialist officers and 258 probationary constables would be drafted in to help their colleagues from Monday.\n\nResources were previously drawn from both groups earlier in the pandemic and during the COP26 summit in Glasgow.\n\nIn the week ending 29 December, 1,701 officers were off due to Covid issues.\n\nThis was an increase of 450 (36%) on the previous week.\n\nA breakdown of the statistics reveals the majority, 669, were absent due to acute Covid while a further 500 were self-isolating due to a household contact or while awaiting a test result.\n\nThe figures show absence levels have continued to trend above the same periods in 2019 and 2020.\n\nBut they remain \"significantly below\" the peak in April 2020 - the month after the first Scottish cases were confirmed.\n\nLast month, the public were warned to to expect longer waiting times for 101 non-emergency calls due to the surge in virus cases.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Alan Speirs, who leads on professionalism and assurance, said the force was working hard to maximise the availability of officers and staff in frontline duties.\n\nHe added: \"Omicron is having a significant effect on the country and Police Scotland is included in that.\n\n\"The welfare of our officers and staff is paramount and has been throughout the pandemic.\n\n\"As a national service, we can quickly flex resources and move people to where they are needed and respond to increased demand and high absence levels.\"\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie urged people to \"show a bit of patience\" after they contact police\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie, whose portfolio includes community wellbeing, later told BBC Scotland he hoped the public would not notice a difference in the standard of service provided by the force.\n\nBut he admitted officers would face some challenges, especially at busy times, and urged people to \"show a bit of patience\".\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Ritchie also stressed that emergency and critical incidents would be prioritised.\n\nHe confirmed that the probationary officers, who have still to complete their training at the Scottish Police College, had all been trained in the basics such as police powers, first aid and officer safety.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Ritchie added: \"We will also make sure that when they are deployed operationally they are deployed with a more senior officer.\"", "This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nSidney Poitier, the star of Hollywood classics like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and To Sir, With Love, has died at the age of 94.\n\nThe actor came to fame at a time of racial segregation in the United States and went on to become the first black man to win a best actor Oscar.\n\nThe BBC's Lizo Mzimba looks back on his film career.\n\nMore on this story: Hollywood icon Sidney Poitier dies aged 94", "A 27-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder following a fatal stabbing in west London.\n\nDariusz Wolosz, 46, was attacked on Yiewsley High Street in West Drayton in the early hours of Tuesday morning.\n\nHe was pronounced dead at the scene. A post-mortem examination found he had suffered fatal wounds to his groin and chest.\n\nThe suspect remains in custody and a 13-year-old boy arrested on Thursday has been bailed, the Met Police said.\n\nOfficers believe Mr Wolosz, a Polish national who lived locally, was attacked by a \"group of males\".\n\nFollowing the arrest, Det Ch Insp Wayne Jolley continued to appeal for witnesses and those with dashcam footage to come forward, adding that Mr Wolosz's family had been left \"distraught\" by his death.\n\nHe said: \"We believe Dariusz was attacked by a group of males in Tavistock Road following a verbal dispute. The group then fled in different directions.\n\n\"Dariusz's family are distraught and we are doing everything we can to support them at this time.\"\n\nMr Wolosz's death was the second fatal stabbing in the Yiewsley area in less than a week.\n\nIonut Elvis Tacu was fatally stabbed on 30 December - making him London's 30th teenage homicide victim in 2021\n\nIonut Elvis Tacu, 16, died after being stabbed at Philpot's Farm Open Space, close to Heather Lane, on 30 December. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson, who is the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, said he was \"deeply saddened\" by the two fatal stabbings.\n\n\"My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of both victims at this time,\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"There continues to be an increased police presence in the local area and anyone with any further information in relation to either of these incidents should speak to local officers or call 101.\n\n\"I continue to offer my full support to the police both in Hillingdon and across the country in their efforts to tackle knife crime.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 31 December and 7 January.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nDirt sheep: Mark Reynolds discovered that sheep are not pure white while in a snowy scene on the High Bridge Path in Lochabe.\n\nI came, I saw, I conkered: Peter Wilkinson took this picture of a red squirrel eying up his assiette of desserts at Morton Lochs.\n\nPainting the town red: Janina Dolny visited Edinburgh Castle in the run-up to Hogmanay and took this picture of the view over a festive-looking East Princes Street Gardens from a cannon placement overlooking the city.\n\nHawkward: Brian Ross discovered this wonderful and rare ice spike in a bird bath in his Edinburgh garden.\n\nArch...itecture: Marie McEntee went back to Glasgow University where she studied photography to take pictures during her new year trip home from where she lives now in Essex.\n\nThis view drives me crazy: Victor Tregubov took this shot of a winter road in Glencoe\n\nWhat's up, dock?: David Millar saw a nice angle where a pier used to be at Mellon Charles, Wester Ross.\n\nScotland the wave: Clare Hogan captured a very stormy sea at Cullen in Moray.\n\nCan't see the wood for the trees: Joanna Gilpin saw this plucky red squirrel observing the observer in Benmore, Argyll.\n\nWater house: Annie Melvin saw the beauty in this block of flats on the shore in Leith.\n\nFruit for thought: Brian Colston said the Dunmore Pineapple in Dunmore Park, near Airth in Stirlingshire, is \"still looking great after more than 250 years\".\n\nAbbey days: Peter Swan took this picture of Dunfermline Abbey from Pitcorthie – with a long telephoto lens on a long exposure.\n\nPoultry in motion: Artur Olszewski was walking in Tentsmuir Forest in Fife when he saw these oyster catchers.\n\nMist opportunity: Brian Turnbull nearly mist this shot, by the looks of things, of Hume Castle above the fog.\n\nDon't rock the boat: Brian Watson took this picture of the Old Boat of Caol shipwreck in Corpach.\n\nThe Birds: Jacki Gordon took this picture of seagulls at James Hamilton Heritage Park in Glasgow.\n\nLunar landscape: Philip Markham scrambled up to reach Sgurr Mhic Choinnich above Glen Brittle on the Isle of Skye\n\nIt's pasture bedtime: Ross Tetlow said he was walking in Red Point when he saw \"this fabulous cow which seemed to be drinking from the sea at sunset\".\n\nTreasure highland: Louise Love took this picture high on a hillside of a small group of sheep with the mighty Bla Bheinn in sunshine on the Isle of Skye.\n\nInkredible: Carl Taylor took a picture of this street art in Glasgow\n\nPier pressure: Fiona Beattie captured the might of the sea at Arbroath seafront.\n\nReally scaly: Peter Blair captured this Stone Dragon, the great protector of Irvine, guardian of the beach park and watcher on the hill.\n\nTime to reflect: Janette McDonald took this picture of Kilchurn Castle during a visit to Scotland for Christmas and New Year.\n\nYou're so cool: Derek Braid took this picture of the Loony Dook at North Berwick in East Lothian.\n\nIn plane sight: Ewan Gordon said he was walking at Culbin Forest when a plane appeared just above the water.\n\nI a-boar-you: Chris Hart said he took this picture of \"a happy hog\" at Loch Glass\n\nIn-tree-guing: David Inglis grabbed this shot while on an early-morning walk over the Gleniffer Braes in Paisley.\n\nIm-peck-able: Lorraine Campbell took this picture of a Goldfinch waiting its turn to get onto the feeders in her Dumbarton garden.\n\nWell red: Tracy Mackenzie took this picture of her daughter at the edge of Loch Mallachie near Nethybridge where they live.\n\nCave it for a rainy day: Gordon Pryde pased this on his walk from Cellardyke to the Caves of Caiplie, or as it is also known the Hermit's Well - renowned because a local man lived there for a number of years back in the mid-20th Century.\n\nCome ear often? Chris Bowen got up close to this inquisitive friend at Benmore Gardens on the Cowal Peninsular .\n\nMonumental view: Stuart Mowat said he took this picture of the National Wallace Monument in Stirling from Mine Woods while on a morning walk.\n\nWheely cool: Peter Whittick took this picture while biking through Glencoe this week.\n\nAll those puns flew over my head: Curtis Welsh said he took this picture of a \"cute sharp eyed Nuthatch\" in his back garden in the Scottish Borders.\n\nSun's out: Gordon Bain took this photograph of the sunset at Loch Ness.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "The armed forces have been called on for support at various stages of the pandemic Image caption: The armed forces have been called on for support at various stages of the pandemic\n\nAround 150 military personnel are to support the North West Ambulance Service from next week to help cover staff absences caused by Covid.\n\nTroops will begin training on 11 January in driving ambulances, manual handling, kit familiarisation and basic life support.\n\nThey will be available to respond to patients whose need is not urgent who often have longer waits when the service is busy, NWAS said.\n\nIt comes after about 200 personnel were sent into NHS hospitals across London to plug staff shortages.\n\nNWAS director of operations Ged Blezard said the ambulance service - and the NHS as a whole - has been under \"extreme pressure for several months\".\n\nThe service was also seeing high numbers of staff absences due to confirmed Covid-19 cases and isolation, with around 25% of the workforce currently affected, he said.\n\nHe added: \"We worked alongside the military last February and March, and it allows us to have more of our vehicles on the road, getting people the treatment they need sooner. This frees up emergency ambulances to attend to urgent, life-threatening cases.\"", "Tennis star Novak Djokovic has thanked people \"around the world\" for their support as he awaits a decision on his deportation from Australia.\n\nDjokovic landed this week to play in the Australian Open, having controversially been given an exemption to Australia's vaccination rules.\n\nBut he was dramatically denied entry on landing.\n\nDjokovic is currently in immigration detention in Melbourne with a court challenge due on Monday.\n\nIn his statement, the men's world number one tennis player thanked people \"around the world for your continuous support\".\n\n\"I can feel it and it is greatly appreciated,\" he said in a message posted on Instagram.\n\nDjokovic, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted a medical exemption to play in the tournament for unspecified reasons, in a decision that infuriated many Australians.\n\nMore than 90% of the country's adult population are fully vaccinated, but they still face restrictions as cases of infection rise.\n\nDjokovic's exemption was given by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia, the body that runs the event, and Victoria state.\n\nBut on Wednesday, Australian Border Force (ABF) officials said the 34-year-old player had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" at Melbourne Airport.\n\nIn an interview with Channel 9 on Friday, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews denied Djokovic is being held captive, adding that the tennis star \"is free to leave at anytime that he chooses to do so and Border Force will actually facilitate that\".\n\nIt is not yet clear how long Djokovic will remain in the immigration detention hotel that has often been criticised by refugees for its poor conditions. Serbia has demanded Australia move him to a nicer hotel.\n\nDjokovic's father, Srdjan, said his son had been held in a room guarded by police at the airport, adding that it was \"not just a fight for Novak, but a fight for the whole world\".\n\nThe Australian Open is due to start on 17 January. Djokovic was bidding to win the tournament for the tenth time, which would make him the men's most successful player, with 21 Grand Slams.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil reports from outside hotel where Djokovic is being detained\n\nAnother player - the Czech Renata Voracova - has also had her Australian visa cancelled, the Czech government said.\n\nThe foreign ministry said she was being held in the same facility as Djokovic but would drop out of the Australian Open and leave the country.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: PM confirms Plan B will stay, as England sees fastest growth in Covid cases\n\nEngland's current Plan B rules will continue for now, Boris Johnson has confirmed - as new figures show a record one in 15 people had Covid on New Year's Eve.\n\nIn an update to MPs, the prime minister said the Covid measures will be reviewed again by 26 January.\n\nThe rules cannot be scrapped completely because hospital admissions are rising rapidly, he added.\n\nOmicron continues to spread widely, with some hospitals struggling to cope.\n\nA record 3.7 million people in the UK had Covid in the week to New Year's Eve - an extra million more than the week before - according to estimates from the Office for National Statistics.\n\nThis equates to one in 15 people in England, one in 20 people in Scotland and Wales, and one in 25 in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe estimate was highest for London, where one in 10 people were believed to have Covid - although the ONS said there were some \"early signs\" cases were no longer increasing in the capital.\n\nThe figures are part of the ONS weekly infection survey which tracks the pandemic by sampling the population. It does not include people in hospitals and care homes.\n\nMaking an announcement in the House of Commons earlier, Mr Johnson said the government would not be bringing in new measures.\n\n\"In response to the latest data the cabinet agreed this morning that we should stick with Plan B for another three weeks with a further review before the regulations expire on 26 January,\" he said.\n\n\"I know some might therefore ask whether this means we can now do away with measures altogether, but I'm sorry to report that hospital admissions are rising rapidly, doubling around every nine days, with already more than 15,000 Covid patients in hospital in England alone.\n\n\"We're experiencing the fastest growth in Covid cases we've ever known,\" he said - citing the record 218,724 daily confirmed cases on Tuesday, although that included some delayed reporting from over the festive period.\n\nAnd Mr Johnson warned case rates are now rising rapidly among older and more vulnerable people - with infections doubling every week in over-60s.\n\nMore than 20 English NHS trusts have declared critical incidents - according to Downing Street - and some non-urgent surgery is being cancelled due to staff shortages.\n\nOne ambulance service is asking people with suspected strokes or heart attacks to get relatives or friends to drive them to hospital because of staff shortages.\n\nFront-line NHS services and businesses have told the BBC how they are coping with staff being off work with Covid, with one doctor at a surgery in Cambridgeshire saying people are \"falling like flies\".\n\nThe UK announced a further 194,747 cases on Wednesday, as well as 334 deaths within 28 days of a positive test - although the death figures include a backlog from NHS England between 1 and 4 January. A total of 17,276 people are in UK hospitals with Covid, the figures show.\n\nOther changes to Covid measures have also been announced:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Labour's Angela Rayner gives her response to the PM's statement on Plan B\n\nUnder England's Plan B measures, people are told to continue working from home wherever they can, wear face coverings on public transport and in public places, and show their Covid status to get into nightclubs and large events.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are in charge of their own Covid rules - and all brought in stricter measures after Christmas.\n\nIn Scotland, pubs and bars are operating with table service only, and people are being asked to limit social contact to two other households, while in Wales gatherings are limited to six people in public premises, large events are not allowed and nightclubs are closed. In Northern Ireland, nightclubs are also closed and a maximum of six people are allowed at a table in hospitality venues.\n\nScotland also cut its self-isolation period to seven days for people who record two negative lateral flow tests, which brings it in line with the rest of the UK.\n\nIn a Commons statement on Wednesday, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said about 8% of school staff were absent at the end of 2021, and that was \"likely to rise\" as Omicron continues to spread.\n\nCovid measures taken in schools, such as mandatory face coverings for secondary school children, were part of the government's plan to do \"everything in our power to keep children in our classrooms\", he said.\n\nA Department for Education study has found that in 123 schools where face coverings had been in use in the autumn term, there were fewer children absent because of Covid than in schools that were not using masks, Mr Zahawi added.\n\nHe accepted face coverings could be \"distracting\" and \"not great\" for children's wellbeing or education, and said he had commissioned further research into the negative impact of them.", "Covid testing rules for people who do not have symptoms are set to be relaxed in Wales.\n\nFrom Thursday, anyone who has a positive lateral flow test, but does not have symptoms, will no longer need to take a PCR test to confirm they have Covid.\n\nIt comes as Health Minister Eluned Morgan said demand for PCR tests had reached \"unprecedented levels\".\n\nThe move is in line with the rest of the UK, Ms Morgan said.\n\nIn a written statement to Senedd members, she said demand for PCR testing had reached \"unprecedented levels across the UK\" as a result of the spread of the Omicron variant.\n\nDaily bookings at PCR test sites across Wales have risen to 28,000 since Christmas Day, \"a record high\", she added.\n\nUnvaccinated people who have been in contact with a positive case are also now being advised to take lateral flow tests on days two and eight of their ten-day isolation rather than PCR tests.\n\nPCR tests - which are processed in laboratories - have been considered to be more reliable than lateral flow tests.\n\nHowever the minister said: \"As the prevalence of coronavirus is above 1%, the risk of false positives from lateral flow devices decreases.\n\n\"This means there is less value in having a follow-up PCR test to confirm the result.\"\n\nMs Morgan said she estimated the change would \"reduce the demand for PCR tests by between 5% and 15%\".\n\nThose in a clinically vulnerable group who have no symptoms but have had a positive lateral flow test result are still being advised to book a follow-up PCR test.\n\nMs Morgan urged everyone to report the result of every lateral flow test they do and to self-isolate \"as soon as they test positive\".\n\nMs Morgan said the change could increase demand for lateral flow tests\n\nShe added that: \"We recognise these changes will potentially increase demand for lateral flow tests.\n\n\"There are no current issues with supplies but we are aware of issues with distribution for people to access tests at some collection points including pharmacies.\n\n\"UKHSA [UK Health Security Agency] manage the logistics and deliveries across the UK and we are working closely with them to improve the situation.\n\n\"More than four million tests were distributed to workplaces, people's homes and collection points in Wales last week.\"\n\nThe rule change was welcomed by Welsh Conservatives.\n\nParty health spokesman Russell George said it would \"preserve an increasingly precious supply of PCR tests\" and maintain \"consistency across the United Kingdom\".", "Fully vaccinated passengers and under-18s no longer need to take a pre-departure test or self-isolate when they come to Northern Ireland.\n\nBut they will still have to fill out a passenger locator form and take a test on or before day two of their arrival.\n\nFrom Sunday, this can be either a lateral flow or PCR test.\n\nFree NHS lateral flow kits cannot be used for international travel so the lateral flow test must come from a private provider.\n\nThe move is a relaxation of rules introduced in December to curb the spread of the Omicron variant.\n\nArrivals who have not received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine must still take a pre-departure test, have a PCR day two and eight test and isolate for 10 days.\n\nThey also have to fill in a passenger locator form.\n\nFully vaccinated arrivals who receive a positive lateral flow test must book a PCR test and isolate.\n\nIf the PCR is negative, isolation can end.\n\nIt comes after Stormont ministers opted not to introduce any more Covid restrictions on Thursday.\n\nFirst Minister Paul Givan also said a plan to tighten controls around face coverings had been scrapped, although Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill denied it had been completely axed.\n\nOn the same day the number of coronavirus-linked deaths in Northern Ireland passed 3,000.\n\nMinisters have been told Covid transmission has reached an all-time high, which has pushed testing limits to capacity and put pressure on the health service, schools and businesses due to staff members self-isolating.\n\nLast week, ministers agreed to cut self-isolation rules in a bid to relieve workforce pressures.", "Alice Clark, 21, was \"so excited\" to qualify as a paramedic, her parents said\n\nTributes have been paid to a newly-qualified paramedic who was killed in a crash involving an ambulance and a cement lorry.\n\nAlice Clark, 21, died in the crash on the A21 near Tonbridge, Kent, at about 22:15 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThree other people, including another paramedic, were also hurt.\n\nThe ambulance was on its way to an incident and no patients were in the vehicle, South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb) said.\n\nIn a statement, Ms Clark's parents described her as a \"beautiful, kind and fun-loving daughter, sister and granddaughter\" who would be missed \"more than words can say\".\n\nMs Clark had joined the trust in November 2021 and was \"so excited to qualify as a paramedic\", her parents said.\n\nA spokesman for Secamb said a male paramedic was airlifted to Kings College Hospital in London with serious injuries and a student paramedic travelling in the back of the ambulance was taken to hospital with a head injury.\n\nGiovanni Mazza, manager at the Paddock Wood operating unit where Ms Clark was based, described her as a \"kind and dedicated paramedic.\"\n\nThe A21 was closed southbound from the junction with the A25 at Westerham to the A255 junction for Hildenborough\n\nMr Mazza said: \"Although she had only been with us for a short time, Alice was already very much part of our ambulance family.\"\n\nSecamb executive director of operations Emma Williams added: \"Our thoughts are also with the other injured staff members as well as all of those who responded to the incident.\"\n\nKent Fire and Rescue Service said four engines were sent to the scene. Fire crews used hydraulic rescue equipment to free the casualties.\n\nThe road, which links London, Tunbridge Wells in Kent and Hastings in East Sussex, reopened after being closed overnight.\n\nPolice are asking for anyone with dashcam footage to contact them.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "'Government is turning its eyes away from NHS staff' with indy plans\n\nScottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton challenges the first minister on a \"litany of social problems\" - including in the health service and with poverty - which he says the government has deferred because of the pandemic. Yet, he says, \"miraculously\" we are told this week that the threat of the virus has abated to such an extent that we can hold an independence referendum in 2023. Mr Cole-Hamilton asks the FM if she understands the anger of front-line health care staff, \"who are on their knees\", as the government \"turns its eyes away from them\" Ms Sturgeon says her government focuses on these issues each and every day and that will continue as we come out of the pandemic and hopefully into the recovery phase.", "Sir Elton John has been forced to postpone two concerts in Dallas, Texas after recently testing positive for the coronavirus.\n\nThe musician, 74, is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is currently experiencing only mild symptoms, according to a post on his Instagram.\n\nThe global pandemic has caused many delays in Sir Elton's Farewell Yellow Brick Road world tour.\n\nAnother British superstar, Adele, also cancelled US shows last week.\n\nThe Dallas shows were originally scheduled to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.\n\n\"It's always a massive disappointment to move shows and I'm so sorry to anyone who's been inconvenienced by this but I want to keep myself and my team safe,\" Sir Elton wrote on Instagram.\n\nHe assured fans they would be contacted once new dates had been announced.\n\nHe also said he expects to be able to perform at scheduled shows in Arkansas this weekend.\n\nThe changes are the latest setback in what has been an ill-fated final tour for the musician.\n\nFarewell Yellow Brick Road began in 2018 as Sir Elton's curtain call after more than half a century on the road.\n\nBut the busy schedule of more than 300 shows worldwide was repeatedly interrupted, first by pandemic-related restrictions, then because Sir Elton needed hip surgery after a fall in September last year.\n\nThe show restarted after almost two years last Wednesday in New Orleans, Louisiana.\n\nThe Londoner - who once had seven consecutive number-one albums in the US - is expected to crisscross through the country until April, when he begins the European leg of his tour.\n\nLast Thursday, a tearful Adele postponed her first-ever Las Vegas concert residency, just 24 hours before opening night.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nMarcus Rashford says he does not condone discrimination \"of any kind\" after being criticised for posing for a photo with controversial rapper Wiley.\n\nRashford and Manchester United team-mate Jesse Lingard were pictured with the grime artist this week in Dubai.\n\nWiley, banned from Twitter last year for anti-Semitism, shared the photo, now deleted, on his Instagram account.\n\n\"I believe tackling anti-Semitism in and outside the game requires a greater level of attention,\" Rashford tweeted.\n\nWiley was dropped by his management company after his outburst two years ago and has had a number of his social media accounts closed down.\n\n\"This picture has been brought to my attention which I understand now, given context, could easily be misconstrued,\" England striker Rashford added.\n\n\"I would like to reinforce that I do not and will not condone discriminative language or behaviour of any kind aimed at the Jewish community or any other community.\"\n\nRashford has previously spoken out against racism and was widely hailed for his response last year after becoming a target for abuse following his missed penalty in the Euro 2020 final.\n\nHe has also been praised for his activism, most notably his campaign against child food poverty, and was made an MBE last year.\n\nLingard echoed Rashford's response on social media, tweeting: \"I want to make it clear that I do not condone any form of racism whatsoever.\"\n• None Our coverage of Manchester United is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything United - go straight to all the best content", "Police are investigating multiple events at Downing Street to see if Covid rules were broken.\n\nThe BBC's Ros Atkins examines how we got to this point.", "Middlesex chairman Mike O'Farrell has apologised for comments on black and South Asian interest in cricket that were called \"painful\" and \"outdated\" by ex-England player Ebony Rainford-Brent.\n\nO'Farrell said football and rugby become \"much more attractive to the Afro-Caribbean community\" and cricket was sometimes \"secondary\" to education for young South Asian players.\n\nHe was speaking at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee hearing into how cricket plans to tackle racism in the sport.\n\nRainford-Brent said such \"outdated views\" were \"exactly\" why cricket was under pressure to tackle issues of diversity and inclusion following former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq's account of racism in the sport.\n\nO'Farrell subsequently offered his \"wholehearted apologies\" for the \"misunderstanding\" his comments at the hearing had caused.\n\n\"I wholly accept that this misunderstanding is entirely down to my own lack of clarity and context in the answers I provided, and I am devastated that my comments have led to the conclusions some have made,\" he said.\n\n\"For the purposes of clarification, I was aiming to make the point that as a game, cricket has failed a generation of young cricketers, in systematically failing to provide them with the same opportunities that other sports and sectors so successfully provide.\"\n\nRafiq, who in November told the DCMS select committee that English cricket was \"institutionally racist\", said he accepted O'Farrell's apology \"without a doubt\", adding: \"If someone apologises we have to forgive and we have to try and work together.\"\n\nHowever, the 30-year-old told BBC Radio 4 the language used at the DCMS hearing was \"painful\" and \"hurtful\" as it was a reminder of how Yorkshire had dealt with him.\n\nRafiq told the PM programme: \"I think today has shown everyone what I was talking about and how we have a long way to go.\n\n\"Clearly the counties and the game are still very much in denial and that's a big worry.\"\n\nRafiq claims the data he has seen does not support O'Farrell's reasons why players were not progressing in the sport.\n\nInstead, he says O'Farrell's view on black and South Asian players are \"a stereotypical way of trying to blame a minority group for why there is a problem in the game\".\n\nRafiq added: \"Any person of colour reading that, to say Asian kids don't want to pay cricket because it's time consuming... it's staggering.\n\n\"What worries me is he felt so comfortable... to sit in front of a public forum and to express the views. If that is what is at the top, then it's worrying times for Middlesex Cricket Club.\"\n• None Racism was an issue at Glamorgan, says chairman\n\nA parliamentary report earlier this month recommended the government should limit public funding for cricket unless there was \"continuous, demonstrable progress\" on eradicating \"deep-seated racism\".\n\nWhen asked about Middlesex's record on diversity and inclusion, O'Farrell said that 57% of their players under the age of 17 came from \"culturally diverse backgrounds\".\n\nHe said that diversity was \"more difficult\" to maintain at higher levels and particularly in the academy, for \"several reasons\".\n\nGoing into those reasons, O'Farrell claimed that \"the football and rugby worlds become much more attractive to the Afro-Caribbean community\" at that age.\n\nHe added: \"In terms of the South Asian community, there is a moment where we're finding that they do not want necessarily to commit the same time that is necessary to go to the next step because they prefer - not always saying they do it - they sometimes prefer to go into other educational fields and then cricket becomes secondary.\n\n\"Part of that is because it's a rather more time-consuming sport than some others, so we're finding that's difficult.\"\n\nHe said the situation was \"changing\" with Twenty20 and one-day cricket and because there was \"much more choice and variation in the game\" young South Asian men and women were \"finding this a much more attractive sport\".\n\nHe added: \"We are moving it forward - it's not as fast as we'd like it to and we're trying to make as many opportunities as we can.\"\n\nRainford-Brent said on social media that \"unfortunately the decision-makers hold on to these myths\" and \"the game deserves better\".\n\nIn 2018, South Asian players represented 30% of recreational players but only 4% of first-class county players.\n\nThe proportion of recreational players who are South Asian has since dropped to 28% but the ECB says there has been an increase in South Asian players in county academies, from 11% in 2018 to 17% in 2019-20.\n\nRainford-Brent helped found Surrey's African Caribbean Engagement Programme (ACE) to address a 75% decline in cricket participation by members of the black community over the past 25 years.\n\nShe said: \"The interest is there the young people just need the right offer.\"\n\nIn his statement, O'Farrell added cricket \"won't make the progress it needs to\" unless it learns how to make the game \"an attractive proposition for youngsters of all backgrounds to continue through the pathway into the professional game\".\n\n\"We at Middlesex are no different,\" he said.\n\n\"We have an academy side that contains in excess of 60% British-born Asian and black young cricketers and we must take responsibility for ensuring that the route into the professional game is as accessible and appealing as other sports or opportunities.\n\n\"I speak on behalf of the entire club in saying that our desire is to see a 1st XI walking out to play for the club which is truly reflective of the broadly diverse county that Middlesex is today and that we will do all within our power to make that happen.\n\n\"Once again I apologise for any upset or hurt my earlier comments may have caused, that was most definitely not my intention.\"", "Boris Johnson says the Met's investigation should bring clarity - but he should perhaps be careful what he wishes for.\n\nWe can't anticipate the findings of that inquiry - but even if the prime minister is not slapped with a fixed penalty notice, if any action were to be taken against staff, then questions about the Downing Street \"culture\" under his leadership will come to the fore.\n\nThe former chief whip Mark Harper was anxious to know if the PM himself would be questioned by officers.\n\nEven if this was as a witness, this would not exactly help rebuild public trust which has eroded in recent weeks.\n\nAnd the clarity he seeks could take some time to deliver, potentially elongating the political pain.\n\nSome of the Conservative rebels have reached their own verdict, and are hopeful that the mere prospect of a PM's activities being subject to a police investigation will encourage others to join them in submitting letters of no confidence sooner rather than later.\n\nOne of them said MPs should see this as a political problem, not a police problem.\n\nBut I have spoken to a few MPs who were poised to send their letters and emails when the Sue Gray inquiry reported. And they are now willing to wait for the Met.\n\nThat buys time for the PM. One of his colleagues said Johnson would be hoping people would get bored of the issue - especially in the face of potential conflict in Eastern Europe.\n\nTony Blair was questioned in No 10 by officers in 2006, as a witness not a suspect, during the \"cash for honours\" inquiry - which did not immediately end his premiership.\n\nBut another Tory rebel could not see how police involvement could be spun as somehow a good thing for Johnson.\n\nHe said the situation was \"untenable\", and urged his colleagues to \"grow some\" and eject Johnson from office.", "The aim of Cardiff's Otter Project is to provide a \"baseline\" of data on environmental river pollution\n\nToxic \"forever chemicals\" used in non-stick saucepans and food packaging have been found in otters across England and Wales, according to a study.\n\nThe substances, called PFASs, are also used in waterproof clothing, stain resistant products and fire retardants.\n\nThe chemicals are linked to pregnancy complications, liver disease, cancer and other illnesses.\n\nScientists say concentrations of these compounds in otters are a guide to levels of pollution in the environment.\n\nThe substances can leach out from products, getting into drains and sewage treatment works - from which they can then escape and contaminate the environment more widely.\n\nPFAS substances are present in farmland sludge, which can wash from fields into rivers. Factories and landfill sites are another source for the chemicals.\n\nDenmark recently banned their use in food packaging paper.\n\nUsed since the late 1940s, PFAS chemicals - which are divided into compounds called perfluoroalkyls and polyfluoroalkyls - help to make products water, grease and stain resistant.\n\nThey are known as \"forever chemicals\" because they don't break down easily in the environment. They contaminate fish, which can then be ingested by animals and humans. PFAS compounds can also get directly into drinking water.\n\nResearchers tested 50 otters found dead in 2007-09 and detected PFASs in all of them. 80% of the animals had at least 12 different types of the chemicals in their livers. Despite subsequent voluntary restrictions by the industry, a similar range of PFASs were found in a more recent sample of otters that died in 2014 - 2019.\n\nEmily O'Rourke, a PhD student at Cardiff University and lead author of the study, told BBC News that otters were a \"sentinel\" species, revealing \"widespread environmental pollution\" of British fresh waters. The research backs up a recent Environmental Audit Committee report which showed there was a \"chemical cocktail\" of pollutants in rivers.\n\nIt's unclear whether the concentrations of chemicals found in the otters are high enough to cause harm. The otters mainly died in road collisions and so the precise impact of the chemicals on their health is not known. Ms O'Rourke said it was likely the toxic chemicals had a \"sub-lethal\" effect.\n\nPFASs are widely used in consumer products, including waterproof clothing and non-stick cooking utensils\n\nPFASs will be in the environment \"for years and years to come\" according to Ms O'Rourke.\n\n\"When we are washing clothes, or just washing things down the drain, they get into our sewage works, which are not designed to remove PFASs because they're ancient. They are also retained in the sewage sludge,\" she said.\n\nMs O'Rourke said there were over 5,000 different types of the chemicals now in use. So far they had been regulated individually, but she believes they should be regulated by class.\n\n\"Denmark recently banned their use in food-contact paper - like in fast-food packaging - and Britain needs to catch up. Now that we are not under the EU chemicals framework, we need to get our own chemicals strategy,\" Ms O'Rourke explained.\n\nSome 27 NGOs including Breast Cancer UK, The Alliance for Cancer Prevention and the CHEM Trust have come together to set out the case for a UK Chemicals Strategy, which should include phasing out \"all very persistent chemicals, including the whole PFAS family and other halogenated chemicals\".\n\nSince 2000, a series of voluntary industry initiatives has limited their use. However, according to the study, concentrations of PFASs are regularly recorded that are above the Environmental Quality Standards for water and fish in England.\n\nIn July 2021, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden officially informed the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) of their intention to restrict PFAS.\n\nDr Elizabeth Chadwick, principal investigator on a long-term monitoring scheme called the Otter Project, encouraged members of the public to continue reporting otters found dead.\n\n\"Our research was possible though the ongoing collection of otters found dead from across Britain. Our archive has samples from more 4,000 individuals collected since 1992; it is a unique and important resource for understanding this protected species, and for understanding environmental contamination and health,\" she said.\n\nThe findings have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology.", "Cardi B has been awarded over £2 million in damages after winning a defamation lawsuit against a YouTuber.\n\nThe rapper and songwriter, known for songs including I Like It, Money and WAP, was subjected to a \"malicious campaign\" of false accusations by Latasha Kebe, known online as Tasha K.\n\nKebe hosts gossip site UnWineWithTashaK which has one million subscribers.\n\nShe was previously made to pay damages of almost £1 million.\n\nOn Tuesday, a jury in the state of Georgia ordered that Kebe pay a further £1,109,625.00 in damages and £990,342.88 in legal fees.\n\nThe total she now has to pay to Cardi B is £3,027,405.38, documents obtained by the PA news agency show.\n\nDuring the trial, lawyers for the singer, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, said Kebe had waged \"a campaign to damage and destroy [Cardi B's] reputation among her fans and the consuming public\".\n\nThey claimed Kebe started making \"degrading and harassing statements\" in early 2018 and continued to do so, at one point falsely claiming the star had worked as a prostitute.\n\nCardi B's lawyers said comments and videos on Kebe's channel caused the singer \"embarrassment, humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional distress\".\n\nThe singer is well known for other hits including Thru Your Phone, I Like It and Bodak Yellow which appear on her 2018 album Invasion Of Privacy.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. School test changes help teachers monitor coronavirus, says principal Ralph Magee\n\nSchool principals should ask all pupils in a class where there are a number of Covid cases to take a lateral flow test.\n\nThat is according to updated guidance to schools from the Education Authority (EA) and Public Health Agency (PHA).\n\nThe updated guidance said that principals did not need to contact the PHA before introducing \"extended testing\".\n\nThe new guidance applies to pupils in both primary and post-primary schools.\n\nIn a joint letter to principals, the EA and PHA said that the Omicron variant had \"led to a steep increase in Covid-19 case numbers in Northern Ireland and this is now impacting on all of society including schools\".\n\nThe letter continued: \"Evidence shows, however, that Omicron, whilst more transmissible than previous variants, is also generally less severe in its effects with a reduced risk of serious illness and hospitalisation.\n\n\"As with Delta, the Omicron variant also presents in the vast majority of children as a mild, self-limiting illness.\"\n\nThe new guidance applies to pupils in both primary and post-primary schools\n\nAn accompanying letter from the PHA said: \"With the very high community transmission we are experiencing, we expect to see more cases associated with a school or community setting and this does not necessarily reflect transmission in the class or school.\"\n\nAll school staff and post-primary pupils had previously been advised to take twice-weekly lateral flow tests.\n\nBut the updated guidance from the EA and PHA said primary school children should also be asked to take a lateral flow test at home if they are asymptomatic but in a class where there are a number of positive cases.\n\nIf the test is negative and the child has no symptoms, they can go to school, but if it is positive they should isolate and be treated as a positive case.\n\n\"Only those children and young people who have tested positive for coronavirus and those who are symptomatic awaiting test results should be isolated from the school environment,\" the updated guidance said.\n\n\"High-risk close contacts\" will continue to be identified by the PHA, according to a template letter for schools provided with the new guidance.\n\nRecently-retired teachers have been asked to consider returning to work to cover staff absences\n\nThe PHA letter also said Omicron was expected to peak in the coming weeks and the guidance to schools would be reviewed in mid-February.\n\nMeanwhile, the latest figures from the Department of Education (DE) show that staff absences due to Covid remain relatively high.\n\nOn Monday 24 January, 9% of teachers and 11% of classroom assistants in schools were absent due to Covid - the highest rates since the new term began.\n\nAbsences were highest in primary and special schools.\n\nHowever, about 5% of teachers were off school for non-Covid reasons - and the figure for classroom assistants was similar.\n\nOnly just over a quarter of schools (28%) in Northern Ireland had no teachers absent for Covid-related reasons on Monday 24 January.\n\nSome schools have struggled to find substitute teachers when staff are off and have had to send some year groups home on a temporary basis as a result.", "Brewdog co-founder James Watt has been accused of abuse of power in the workplace by former staff\n\nThe chief executive of Scottish beer giant Brewdog has been accused of inappropriate behaviour and abuse of power in the workplace by former staff.\n\nMore than 15 ex-Brewdog workers have spoken out about CEO James Watt to the BBC's Disclosure programme.\n\nFormer Brewdog USA workers said Mr Watt's behaviour made female bartenders feel \"uncomfortable\" and \"powerless\".\n\nLawyers for Mr Watt said the allegations were false and he denied behaving inappropriately.\n\nBrewdog was founded in 2007 by Mr Watt - then just 24 - and his friend Martin Dickie and it has its headquarters in Ellon in the north east of Scotland.\n\nThe company, which has more than 100 bars and employs more than 2,000 people worldwide, says it is worth about £2bn.\n\nIn 2016, Brewdog opened its first bar in the US - in Columbus, Ohio - and it now has eight across three states.\n\nThe BBC Scotland Disclosure team started investigating the company after almost 300 former and current Brewdog employees signed a letter last year accusing Mr Watt of presiding over a toxic culture of fear.\n\nThe documentary The Truth about Brewdog features interviews with 12 former Brewdog USA staff who have alleged inappropriate behaviour and abuse of power in the workplace by Mr Watt.\n\nKatelynn Ising, who worked in DogTap, Brewdog's flagship bar and brewery in Canal Winchester, Ohio, said female staff would dress down when they knew Mr Watt would be in their bars.\n\nKatelynn Ising advised female staff not to wear makeup or wear hair down when Mr Watt was in town\n\nShe said: \"We would make a point to warn new girls - like, 'Hey, just so you know, James Watt's coming to town.\n\n\"Just, kind of, leave after your shift, don't really hang around [and] don't always do your hair and makeup that day, like don't catch his attention.'\"\n\nKatelynn said she witnessed Mr Watt take female customers on late night tours of the US brewery, next to the DogTap.\n\n\"Sometimes there would be one woman, sometimes there would be a gaggle of women,\" she said.\n\n\"They were always intoxicated, they were in their twenties usually. They were very pretty, and he would say he's taking them on a private tour of the brewery.\"\n\nFormer duty manager Jackie English said she witnessed Mr Watt doing similar things.\n\nShe said: \"There were three separate nights… [he'd]… come into the building with a girl, a young female, you know, cute little blondes and he would take them into the brewery… to give them a tour or whatever.\"\n\nJackie said this behaviour made her feel \"uncomfortable\".\n\nShe said: \"You're showing your employees that you can do whatever you want because of who you are and who your name is. That's how it felt a lot of times.\"\n\nMr Watt's lawyer told the BBC this allegation was false.\n\n\"Mr Watt regularly takes both women and men, friends and customers on evening tours of the brewery,\" the lawyer said.\n\n\"It is not true to say that those who accompany him are intoxicated. The claim that he did, was made by an employee in June 2021.\n\n\"It was fully investigated - the claims were not substantiated - no further action was warranted by Brewdog USA HR.\"\n\nDylan Gray said he would schedule more men on nights when Mr Watt was there\n\nDylan Gray was a manager at Brewdog Franklinton, in Columbus, Ohio.\n\nHe told the programme: \"I would schedule certain female staff around him so they would not be there. I would schedule more men at nights when he was there. I would sit behind the bar with female staff so they wouldn't feel uncomfortable.\"\n\nOne bartender, who asked not to be named, told the programme that Mr Watt was \"a starer\".\n\n\"He liked to stare,\" she said. \"I just wanted to leave [and] not really deal with it.\"\n\nShe said she would ask to have her shifts changed in order to avoid him.\n\n\"What do you do when that's your boss, the head of the company? You can't really tell them no, or cut them off - you feel a little bit powerless,\" she said.\n\nBrewDog launched its first operations in the US in 2016 and now has eight bars across Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana\n\nManager Dylan Gray said the female bartender discussed her concerns with him.\n\nHe said: \"It didn't make me feel good, to have someone who is your captain to make you feel that way, that shouldn't be how it is.\n\n\"It was disappointing and I'm more or less disappointed in myself that I couldn't make something happen sooner.\"\n\nDylan claimed he would have been \"canned long ago\" if he confronted Mr Watt.\n\nMr Watt's lawyer told the BBC: \"This is categorically denied. At no time has Mr Watt given unwelcome attention to any female bartender. That account is not true - this was fully investigated by Centric HC who concluded that there was no substance to these claims.\"\n\nThe lawyer said following enquiries by Brewdog, none of the managers interviewed had any knowledge of staff attempting to change shifts to avoid Mr Watt.\n\nBrewdog has made its name with beers such as Punk IPA and Elvis Juice\n\nFormer manager Meg Herman told the BBC Mr Watt had been \"flirtatious\" with an employee one evening at their Canal Winchester HQ.\n\nShe said: \"He ends up going up to the roof with her, and no-one on staff, that was downstairs, felt comfortable with it.\n\n\"He could've gone anywhere else but he didn't. He did it at the brewery. And that is a power trip.\"\n\nMr Watt's lawyer told the BBC that their client \"has never been on the roof of the DogTap, either on his own or accompanied by anyone.\"\n\nThe Brewdog US HQ in Canal Winchester, Ohio\n\nDuty manager Nathan Quick worked in Brewdog's Franklinton bar until last year. He is one of two former staff who say they witnessed Mr Watt having a sexual encounter on the roof terrace bar.\n\n\"He was on the rooftop kissing with his hand up the shirt of this young lady,\" he said.\n\n\"It wasn't uncommon for us to have the perception that that was going on, but for us to physically see it was something else.\"\n\nMr Watt's lawyer said: \"At no time did Mr Watt have a sexual encounter on the roof terrace of the Franklinton bar.\n\n\"We hold a statement from the only party that Mr Watt could have been present with at the Franklinton Bar. She has confirmed in her statement that Mr Watt and her did visit the roof briefly, but absolutely no sexual encounter took place.\"\n\n\"She has also confirmed that far from being intoxicated; she drove herself home that evening.\"\n\nMr Watt's lawyer said that they \"hold a statement from the manager of Brewdog Franklinton, that it has never been reported to him, nor does he have any knowledge of Mr Watt ever having any kind of sexual encounter with someone on the rooftop bar\".\n\nThe BBC investigation spoke to almost 100 former and current Brewdog staff. Most of those who still work at the company said they were afraid to speak publicly for fear of losing their jobs.\n\nKayla McGuire said Mr Watt's behaviour around women was a talking point among staff\n\nOne current employee was willing to speak publicly. Kayla McGuire works in the brewery in Ohio.\n\n\"I don't think that leaders should be able to intimidate their staff,\" she said.\n\n\"I don't [think] anyone should have to go to work and be afraid of what's going to happen to them, especially not in an industry that should be joyful and fun and creative.\"\n\nShe said Mr Watt's behaviour around women was a talking point among staff at Brewdog USA.\n\n\"Those allegations have made many of us uncomfortable. Myself included,\" she said.\n\nJames Watt declined to be interviewed for the BBC Disclosure programme.\n\nBrewdog chairman Allan Leighton said he had been given assurances from Mr Watt that the BBC's claims were not accurate, and were based on misinformation.\n\nMr Leighton said: \"James has committed to making improvements to his management style.\"\n\nHe also noted: \"Since publication of the open letter in 2021, the Board has overseen a major independent review into our culture and we have implemented a wide-ranging action plan to address the issues raised.\"\n\nThe BBC Disclosure programme makes no allegations of criminal behaviour with women by Mr Watt.", "The SDF is a US-backed militia alliance that controls much of northern and eastern Syria\n\nKurdish-led forces in Syria say another 250 militants have surrendered as they work to clear the last part of a prison seized by the Islamic State (IS) group.\n\nAt least 300 handed themselves in on Monday as Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commandos moved into the facility in the north-eastern city of Hasaka.\n\nDozens are still thought to be holed up inside, along with guards held as hostages and several hundred children.\n\nIS attacked the prison last Thursday in an attempt to stage a mass breakout.\n\nMore than 160 people have been killed in the ensuing fighting, including 114 suspected militants and 45 SDF personnel, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.\n\nThe UN says up to 45,000 residents of Hasaka have also fled their homes to escape the clashes.\n\nBefore last week, Ghwayran prison held some 4,000 men and boys detained by the SDF, a US-backed militia alliance that controls much of northern and eastern Syria.\n\nDozens of inmates managed to escape after IS launched a series of attacks on the facility on Thursday night, in what was the group's most ambitious military operation since the loss of its self-declared \"caliphate\" almost three years ago.\n\nThe prison takeover sparked a major battle, during which a US-led multinational coalition carried out air strikes and deployed armoured vehicles in support of the SDF.\n\nBy Monday night, SDF commandos had surrounded the prison and were preparing to retake the northern wing, where hundreds of militants and inmates were holed up with a number of guards who they had taken hostage.\n\nThe militants were also believed to be holding up to 700 boys, some as young as 12, who were previously transferred to Ghwayran after being deemed too old to remain in detention camps for the families of suspected IS militants.\n\nThe SDF accused IS of using the children as \"human shields\" and the UN's human rights office said it was extremely concerned for their safety and well-being.\n\nA 17-year-old Australian sent a series of audio messages from the prison, in which he said he had suffered a head injury in an air strike and appealed for medical help.\n\n\"I'm very scared, there's a lot of people dead in front of me,\" he said. \"I'm scared I might die at any time because of the bleeding. Please help me.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSDF spokesman Ferhat Shami said on Tuesday afternoon that the operation to regain full control of the prison was proceeding slowly because the alliance was \"more interested in liberating prisoners and protecting our people than eliminating mercenaries\".\n\nRami Abdul Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP news agency that talks to end the stand-off were under way.\n\n\"If there is no deal for a swap, there will be a massacre, hundreds of people will be killed,\" he warned.\n• None The Lion Cubs of the caliphate\n• None IS mother 'regrets everything' about Syria journey", "Molnupiravir is the first antiviral pill licensed for treating Covid in the UK\n\nOver-50s and younger adults with underlying health conditions are being urged to participate in a study of a life-saving treatment for Covid-19.\n\nThe study is open to those who test positive for Covid and had symptoms develop in the previous five days.\n\nVolunteers will be given pills to take at home.\n\nThe study will help decide how antiviral drugs will be used, Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid asked everyone eligible to \"step forward\" and \"help us to learn more about medicines which could save thousands of lives\".\n\nAntivirals were \"part of our approach as we learn to live with Covid, by preventing the most vulnerable from being hospitalised\", he said.\n\nThe pill being used in the Panoramic trial is called Molnupiravir and is made by Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD).\n\nIt was licensed by UK regulators in November after trials showed promising results at reducing the risk of serious illness or death.\n\nThe study will give doctors an idea of the potential benefits to vaccinated patients - and help the NHS plan how the drug can be used.\n\nLaunched in December, it already has 4,500 people signed up but needs 6,000 more as soon as possible.\n\nYou can sign up at the study website now or your GP may contact you to ask you to participate if you test positive for Covid.\n\nCharities, including the British Liver Trust, Kidney Care UK and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, are urging anyone vulnerable to Covid to sign up.\n\nThe study is open to those aged 50 and above or aged 18-49 with an underlying health condition that makes them more vulnerable to COVID-19.\n\nPeople with the following health conditions are also encouraged to sign up:\n\nFiona Loud, from Kidney Care UK, said antiviral treatments would be \"a vital tool to give more protection to people who are most at risk from Covid-19, including those with kidney disease\".\n\nPippa Erskine, a double lung transplant recipient with cystic fibrosis, was treated with antivirals after testing positive for Covid at the start of January.\n\nKnowing the drugs would help ease her symptoms and prevent complications was \"a huge relief\", she said.\n\n\"With restrictions easing, it's so important that those vulnerable to Covid-19 have the best possible chance of staying protected against the virus and, most importantly, staying out of hospital,\" Ms Erskine added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nCoverage: Daily radio commentaries on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Sport website and app, with selected live text commentaries online; TV highlights from middle Saturday.\n\nRafael Nadal again showed the immense fight which has characterised his career as he overcame physical issues to beat Canada's Denis Shapovalov and reach the Australian Open semi-finals.\n\nSpanish sixth seed Nadal won 6-3 6-4 4-6 3-6 6-3, despite struggling physically in the fourth set.\n\nNadal, whose only title at Melbourne Park came in 2009, needed medication for what seemed to be a stomach issue.\n\nThe 35-year-old faces seventh seed Matteo Berrettini in the last four.\n\nItalian Berrettini overcame a fightback by French 17th seed Gael Monfils to win 6-4 6-4 3-6 3-6 6-2 and become the first Italian man to reach the Australian Open semi-finals.\n\nThe Wimbledon runner-up earned decisive breaks in the opening two sets before Monfils, buoyed by the vocal support of the Rod Laver crowd, hit back in the third and carried that momentum through to take the fourth and level the match.\n\nBut the 35-year-old could not sustain that energy in the decider as Berrettini held his nerve - despite a rowdy fan being ejected - to clinch victory and gesture to the crowd that he could no longer hear them.\n\n\"It feels unbelievable,\" he said. \"I am really happy for myself, what a great match, a lot of emotions, I thought I had him in the third and then found myself in the fifth!\n\n\"It is full of people, I like it - some of them are not really tennis fans I think, but it is what it is, you cannot control everybody. To be respectful is something you have to do anyway. It's fine, I win and I'm happy.\"\n• None Shapovalov says Nadal gets 'preferential treatment' from umpires\n• None 'Australia late to show LGBT support but now we're here'\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n\nNadal is two more victories away from earning a record 21st Grand Slam men's title, which would move him clear of long-time rivals Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.\n\nNadal's relief at coming through the toughest of tests was evident after Shapovalov pushed a backhand volley wide on the Spaniard's first match point.\n\nGrinning widely, Nadal celebrated by standing in front of his box and staring at his team while shaking both fists. In contrast, Shapovalov demolished his racquet on the court.\n\nAfterwards, Nadal said he \"didn't know\" how he managed to win on a Melbourne afternoon where temperatures topped 30C.\n\n\"I was completely destroyed,\" he said. \"It was a very tough day, very warm, I didn't practice for it.\n\n\"At the beginning of the match I was playing great, I know how difficult it is to play against a player like Denis.\n\n\"I had my chances at the beginning of the third, I didn't get it and then started to feel a bit more tired and he pushed me.\"\n\n'Playing again is the present of life'\n\nIn the absence of the deported Djokovic and the injured Federer in Melbourne, Nadal can move ahead of his great rivals in the race to finish with most major titles.\n\nWhile eager to win as many Grand Slam titles as possible, Nadal has often said he is not motivated by beating Djokovic and Federer.\n\nAt this year's Australian Open, he is grateful to be even playing.\n\nNadal missed five months because of a foot injury which - he revealed last week - left him doubting whether he would even return to the top-level.\n\nA bout of coronavirus in mid-December also left him \"very sick with fever\".\n\nAfter beating Shapovalov to move closer to another Grand Slam title, Nadal said: \"Of course, I'm surprised to be here.\n\n\"We can create history but the real thrill is that two months ago we didn't know if we could be able to get back on tour.\n\n\"For me this is a present of life to be playing tennis again and I am just enjoying it.\"\n\nThroughout his career, Nadal has exerted every bit of energy and fight possible - with all those trademark qualities on show in an absorbing contest with 14th seed Shapovalov.\n\nEverything seemed to be going swimmingly for Spaniard when he led by two sets against the 22-year-old, who was aiming to reach his first Australian Open semi-final.\n\nNadal broke once in each of the opening two sets and did not face a break point himself.\n\nShapovalov, who struggled with his returning game in particular, showed his frustrations at the start of the second set.\n\nFirst, he complained to umpire Carlos Bernardes about how long it took Nadal to change his kit.\n\nShapovalov asked the official to give a time violation and after he declined, Shapovalov shouted: \"You guys are all corrupt.\"\n\nThe Canadian remonstrated with Bernardes again before the second game of the second set, now about the time Nadal was taking to serve.\n\nEventually he regained his composure and changed the momentum of the match in third set.\n\nShapovalov, now guided by Andy Murray's former coach Jamie Delgado, was unable to convert either of the two break points in the sixth game but sealed the set with his fourth chance.\n\nAnother break for the Canadian saw Nadal trail 4-1 in the fourth, when the Spaniard called the trainer for his stomach issue.\n\nNadal grimaced as he discussed the issue with the medic, pointing to his abdominal area before taking medication to alleviate the problem.\n\nShapovalov maintained his advantage to level the match and bring back memories of Nadal losing from two sets up against Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas in last year's quarter-finals.\n\nBut Nadal broke serve in the second game of the decider, saving break points in his service games either side, to reach the Melbourne semi-finals for the first time since 2019.\n\n\"I am not 21 anymore, after this match it is great to have two days off,\" said Nadal, who went off court at the end of the fourth set for a medical examination.\n\n\"I felt quite good physically in terms of movement but the conditions haven't been that hot.\"\n• None Content creators reveal ways in which to make it a lucrative career\n• None Get your fix of all the latest and biggest transfer stories", "Consumer goods giant Unilever has confirmed it will cut about 1,500 jobs globally as part of an overhaul of its management and structure.\n\nThe Marmite-to-Domestos maker said the cuts would not affect shopfloor jobs in factories.\n\nUnilever is under pressure after a failed £50bn bid for a division of GlaxoSmithKline, and some shareholders have demanded changes.\n\nThe firm employs more than 6,000 people in its UK and Ireland operations.\n\nPlans for jobs cuts and a re-organisation have been underway for many months.\n\nUnilever said the proposed job cuts would reduce the number of senior management roles by about 15% and there would be 5% fewer junior management roles.\n\nThe new Unilever will be re-organised around five divisions, including beauty, personal care and ice cream, resulting in several senior executive changes along with cuts further down the management chain.\n\n\"Our new organisational model has been developed over the last year and is designed to continue the step-up we are seeing in the performance of our business,\" said chief executive Alan Jope.\n\n\"Moving to five category-focused business groups will enable us to be more responsive to consumer and channel trends, with crystal-clear accountability for delivery. Growth remains our top priority and these changes will underpin our pursuit of this.\"\n\nUnilever's 80 brands are currently divided into three divisions: Beauty & Personal Care, Food & Refreshment, Home Care. The new structure spins off brands Ben & Jerry's, Magnum and Cornetto into a separate division called Ice Cream, headed by Matt Close.\n\nUnilever said Ben & Jerry's will retain its separate independent board, a structure agreed when Unilever bought the brand in 2000.\n\nThe announcement comes just a week after Unilever sparked anger from some investors when it dropped a short-lived pursuit of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) healthcare business.\n\nUnilever had initially said it wanted a bigger slice of the personal healthcare and hygiene market, to offset slow growth in its foods business.\n\nBut GSK, which owns brands such as Sensodyne toothpaste and Panadol painkillers, said the offer \"fundamentally undervalued\" the division and Unilever has since refused to raise its bid.\n\nThe saga has sparked unease about the firm's management under Mr Jope, with the head of Unilever's 13th biggest investor labelling the GSK bid as a \"near death experience\".\n\nUnilever chief executive Alan Jope is under pressure after a failed bid for GSK's consumer healthcare arm\n\nIn a scathing attack, influential fund manager Terry Smith, who runs Fundsmith, criticised Unilever's \"meaningless platitudes\" over its social and environmental commitments and told Mr Jope to focus on improving the existing businesses \"before taking on any more challenges\" like the GSK bid.\n\nUnilever, one of the biggest companies on the FTSE 100, is also one of the biggest dividend payers to shareholders and pension funds.\n\nPowerful activist investor Nelson Peltz has also been agitating for change, raising a question mark over Mr Jope's future.\n\nAfter the humiliation of having its bids for GSK's consumer healthcare business repeatedly rejected, this is a real \"What next?\" moment for Unilever.\n\nThe answer appears to be to knuckle down and focus on the existing business, trimming out excess fat and attempting to accelerate growth, rather than building new empires.\n\nIt is likely to be a more popular approach with leading investors, several of whom were deeply unhappy with the idea of a move into the personal healthcare business.\n\nThe fact that activist investor Nelson Peltz has come on board is likely to add extra urgency to the restructuring process.\n\nBut that still leaves question marks hanging over chief executive Alan Jope and his team. Can they restore their lost credibility - and do they have anything else up their sleeves?\n\nMr Peltz's hedge fund Trian Partners has previously demanded reforms at rival consumer goods firms Procter & Gamble and Mondelez.\n\nIt emerged on Monday that Trian had taken a stake in Unilever. The size of the stake is not known but Mr Peltz's decision pleased investors, with shares in the company jumping by 7.3% in London on Monday.\n\nIn a note, analysts at Barclays said Mr Peltz's investment \"will not be that much of a surprise to industry specialists\".\n\n\"From Unilever's perspective, the status quo is not an option,\" they added. \"It would seem that the stars are aligning with both Unilever management and an activist pushing for more urgency.\"\n\nAnalyst Susannah Streeter, from stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, said Tuesday's announcement was an attempt by management \"to show they are getting the house in order\".\n\nUnilever shares rose briefly after the news, but have since lost ground. \"Some investors [are] not satisfied that cost cutting alone will be enough to ensure Unilever turns a corner,\" Ms Streeter said.\n\nShe added: \"Clearly more clarity is being demanded about the direction ahead, and Alan Jope is still under pressure to come up with a brand new strategy.\"\n\nCorrection 14 March 2022: This article was amended to provide more details about how the workforce would be affected. We also clarified that the number of junior management roles would be cut by 5%, rather than a 5% cut across the whole workforce as we reported in an earlier version of this story.", "The government is planning on banning a cosmetic surgery called hymenoplasty across the UK.\n\nIt attempts to recreate a woman's hymen, which in some cultures is linked to virginity, and has been described as a form of honour-based abuse.\n\nThe procedure will be criminalised, as will virginity testing.\n\nMinister for Care and Mental Health Gillian Keegan said the government was \"committed to safeguarding vulnerable women and girls in this country\".\n\nHymenoplasty is available in clinics and can cost up to £3,000.\n\nThe procedure recreates a thin membrane known as the hymen which partially covers the entrance to the vagina. It is often done as a way to \"repair\" a hymen.\n\nBut the World Health Organization (WHO) says \"the appearance of a hymen is not a reliable indication of intercourse\".\n\nA woman's hymen can tear for all sorts of reasons and not just through sexual intercourse, for instance through playing sports or using tampons.\n\nThe practice of hymenoplasty is linked to conservative cultures which place a high value on virginity, with the expectation a virgin should bleed after sex on her wedding night.\n\nThe WHO says virginity testing is practised in at least 20 countries. It involves an intrusive vaginal examination to check if the hymen is intact.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Aleena, voiced by an actress, speaking to Rajdeep Sandhu\n\nAleena, whose name we have changed, said she was raped and then, as a teenager, faced years of pressure from her family to get the procedure.\n\n\"It wasn't something I felt like I had a choice over,\" she said. \"It was always put on me as if this was the only option and this is something you can do to fit back in.\n\n\"I felt very, very alone. I felt guilty if I didn't do it, I felt it was a very big weight on my shoulders. I didn't feel like I had a choice.\"\n\nAleena said she refused to have the surgery but the pressure continued. In order to escape the situation she married someone who did not care that her hymen was not intact.\n\nShe said she is proud she had the courage to not go through with the procedure.\n\n\"I knew that I made the right choice and I knew everything that my parents were saying was only for pressure and their honour,\" she said.\n\nIf you're affected by any of the issues in this article you can find details of organisations who can help via BBC Action Line.\n\nThe government promised at the end of last year to \"introduce legislation to ban hymenoplasty at the earliest opportunity\".\n\nIt has now included amendments in the health and care bill which would criminalise \"aiding or abetting\" a person carrying out hymenoplasty and could result in up to five years in prison. It would also be a criminal offence to take a girl or woman overseas to have the procedure.\n\nLast year when the bill was in the House of Commons, the government amended it to ban virginity testing after calling the practise \"indefensible\". Campaigners say virginity testing and hymenoplasty are closely linked.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Detained and forced to have a 'virginity test'\n\nDiana Nammi, executive director at Iranian & Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation, has campaigned for a ban and said: \"Every woman and girl who faces this invasive surgery, it is under duress - direct or indirect - to present as a 'virgin' and in many cases, it is carried out to enable a forced marriage, organised by her family.\n\n\"Hymenoplasty causes trauma and in around half of cases, it fails to make the woman or girl bleed the next time she has intercourse, leaving her highly vulnerable to 'honour' based abuse or even 'honour' killing.\"\n\nHalaleh Taheri is the founder of the Middle Eastern Women and Society Organisation charity. She said it will take time and education to stop the practice from happening and has been working with parents.\n\nOne of the women she has worked with is Golaleh Simili, who is Kurdish. Growing up in Iran she was brought up to believe in the purity of virginity and had to present a virginity certificate before her own wedding. She said she felt \"humiliated\".\n\nShe moved to the UK in 2017 but when she found out her daughter was not a virgin, she says she was very nervous and worried and they discussed the surgery. But after working with MEWso, she said she realised she should not impose the same injustice on her daughter.\n\nIndira Varma works for a helpline run by charity Karma Nirvana. She said it can take months for woman and girls who call the helpline to admit to having hymen repair surgery. She says the procedure is often described as is being \"cut\", \"fixed' or \"sewn up\".\n\nWhile the majority of procedures are thought to be done in clinics, there is anecdotal evidence of some getting the procedure done at home.\n\nShe said: \"Victims described community elders coming into the home or doctors would make home visits to patients and they would charge an obscene amount of money for it. This is usually to avoid having to take the victim out to minimalize [the risk of] the victim asking for help or running away.\"\n\nShe said it was \"an underground but thriving industry\" but one that \"deepened the cycle of abuse for victims\".\n\nBut Dr Dheeraj Bhar, a cosmetic surgeon who runs a privative clinic in Harley Street London, disagrees with the ban. He says he has never done a virginity test and does not agree with them, but does perform hymenoplasty. On average, he says it can cost between £3,000-£4,000 and takes up to 45 minutes.\n\nBy banning the procedure he worries women and girls could be put at further risk, instead he says it should be regulated.\n\nHe said: \"When you ban something like a medical procedure you drive patients underground. They will start to go to back alley doctors, or fly in doctors who fly from other countries to perform these procedures.\n\n\"I think the bigger issue here is if you don't know these procedures are being done you can't then monitor the complications and follow ups.\"\n\nMany of the women who come to him are pressured by family or society but are not being forced into it, he said.\n\n\"It's just that they want to be accepted by their society and in order to be accepted by their own individual societies this is one of the pillars and tenets they have to follow though they do so,\" he added.\n\nHe says he has refused patients where he has felt they were being pressured by family members.\n\nMs Keegan said the government would continue to work with local communities and organisations \"to tackle the taboos and damaging preconceptions associated with virginity and a women's worth\".", "Royal Mail plans to cut around 700 management jobs as it tries to reduce costs amid growing competition from rivals.\n\nThe move, part of a restructuring plan, comes as the firm faces heavy criticism over ongoing postal delays.\n\nThe company has been struggling to cope with Covid-related staff absences.\n\nThose have led to severe delays in some areas and the regulator, Ofcom, has said it may impose fines where services have fallen short.\n\nSome customers have complained of waiting up to a month for important deliveries, including prescriptions and legal documents as well as late Christmas cards.\n\nOfcom said recently that it was \"concerned about these delays and have made it clear to Royal Mail that it must take steps to improve its performance as the effects of the pandemic subside\".\n\nLarge parts of London, Manchester, Hertfordshire, Wales and Scotland, have been particularly affected by the delays.\n\nIn early January, around 15,000 - or more than one in 10 - of Royal Mail's staff were off sick or isolating. But Simon Thompson, who took over as chief executive of the delivery firm a year ago, said the situation was now improving.\n\nMr Thompson said absences had been \"a headwind\" in delivering productivity targets. Between April and December last year the firm had spent more than £340m on overtime, additional temporary staffing and sick pay, he said.\n\nRoyal Mail said the latest planned job cuts would incur a charge of £70m but would deliver annual savings of around £40m.\n\nThe company axed a fifth of its managers - around 2,000 posts - in June 2020, shortly after the start of the pandemic.\n\nRoyal Mail has seen deliveries particularly hard hit by staff sickness and absences with the advent of Omicron, with around one in eight staff affected over the Christmas period. But even before that, it had repeatedly failed to meet delivery targets.\n\nWith pressure from customers, the regulator and shareholders for more efficient operations, Royal Mail is undertaking an overhaul. And its managers will bear the brunt.\n\nThe company says that losing 700 posts will enable it to streamline its structure and improve local performance and ultimately, save £40m per year. It will now have to consult unions on the proposals.\n\nIn the first year of the pandemic Royal Mail saw rising demand for its services as people switched to shopping online at home.\n\nOver the past year, with High Street stores open again, that demand has fallen back, but Royal Mail's chairman Keith Williams said the trend for higher numbers of parcels being delivered remained.\n\nThe volume of domestic parcels being delivered by Royal Mail between October and December was 33% above pre-pandemic levels in 2019, but 7% lower than in 2020. However, the number of letters Royal Mail handled in the October to December period declined compared to both 2020 and 2021.\n\nRoyal Mail said it believed it was retaining its share of the deliveries market, although it saw a slower than expected pick-up around the Black Friday shopping period.\n\n\"The past few months have demonstrated that the challenge for Royal Mail is to improve both quality and efficiency,\" Mr Williams said.\n\nPrice rises in the UK and elsewhere have raised costs for both its domestic and international businesses, Royal Mail said.\n\n\"Looking forwards, the delivery of our transformation and modernisation plans remain incredibly important in light of the fast‐paced change we are seeing and ongoing inflationary pressures.\"\n\nRoyal Mail also said that as government guidance over Covid-19 changed, there would be fluctuations in the number of Covid tests it would be delivering.\n\nThe firm agreed in December to double deliveries of tests to a total of 900,000 a day, including both PCR and lateral flow tests. Over the nine months to the end of last year, Covid tests accounted for between 4% and 6% of Royal Mail's parcel volumes.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UUP leader Doug Beattie apologises for making a joke about Edwin Poots and his wife\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie has said he is \"deeply ashamed and embarrassed\" by a number of historical tweets he published.\n\nEarlier Mr Beattie apologised for tweeting a joke about the former DUP leader Edwin Poots and his wife.\n\n\"Since I made my unreserved apology in relation to a tweet at the weekend I have been made aware of a number of historic tweets which I published.\n\n\"I am deeply ashamed and embarrassed by the content of these tweets. They are totally unacceptable. They do not reflect the opinions or values I hold today,\" he tweeted.\n\nThe Upper Bann MLA said since the time he entered politics he had made a serious effort to increase the representation of women and advocate policies which would improve the lives and well-being of all women and girls.\n\n\"That is where I stand and I deeply regret the fact that these historic tweets could serve to undermine that position,\" he said.\n\nHe said misogyny was something which must be taken very seriously and admitted he had fallen short in the past.\n\nHe did not provide any details of what he said in the past tweets.\n\nDoug Beattie's rise through the political ranks has been meteoric. Now his fall threatens to be equally rapid.\n\nTwitter is awash with historical tweets containing many derogatory references to women.\n\nOne has emerged in which he accused Muslims of playing the victim.\n\nThere's even one in which he uses the N-word.\n\nThe fact that most date from a decade or more ago is largely irrelevant.\n\nThen he was still a soldier.\n\nTonight he's facing another battle - for his political career.\n\nEarlier, Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots said his wife was disgusted by a joke posted about her by Mr Beattie.\n\nThe joke was posted on Saturday night and by Sunday morning Mr Beattie had deleted it.\n\nIn his apology, he told Mr and Mrs Poots that he was \"sorry for the hurt I may have caused\".\n\nMr Poots said the joke had demeaned women and specifically had demeaned his wife.\n\nThe Lagan Valley assembly member, who briefly served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) last year, told the BBC's The Nolan Show that the UUP leader's judgement in posting the joke was \"poor\".\n\n\"I just don't know what he was thinking,\" he said.\n\nEdwin Poots says he accepted Doug Beattie's apology but believes the UUP leader's judgement was \"poor\"\n\n\"I'm a big boy, I can take a lot of abuse in politics and that's fine but [he] shouldn't be drawing other members of people's families into anything.\"\n\n\"Saturday night was the first time we had been together as a family for four years because we have two children who are doing voluntary work abroad - it coincided that they happened to be home.\"\n\nThe DUP politician said it was the \"type of joke you'd have heard people telling on TV on a Friday or Saturday night in the 1970s or '80s\".\n\n\"There may be a global anger that [the joke] demeans women in general, and it does, but it demeans one woman in particular and that one woman happens to be my wife and my children's mother,\" he said.\n\n\"She happens to be married to a politician - I wasn't a politician when she married me, but she's given me her full support.\n\nDoug Beattie deleted and later apologised for the post on Twitter\n\nSpeaking on the Nolan Show, Mr Beattie said he was \"genuinely sorry\" and he had written to Mr Poots to apologise.\n\nHe later repeated the apology in the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday afternoon.\n\n\"I posted a joke and regardless of what my intentions were it wasn't just inappropriate,\" he said.\n\n\"It was absolutely wrong and fundamentally wrong and therefore it's important I stand here and I say to Mr and Mrs Poots that I am sorry for the hurt I may have caused.\n\n\"I have to say to wider society, that my language was wrong on every level.\n\n\"We have to have our guard against this and I did not show the leadership I should have shown.\"\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said social media companies had a \"moral and corporate responsibility\" to ensure those engaged in misogyny, sexism, online abuse and threats are blocked from their services.\n\n\"For those in political leadership that engage in that everyday sexism and think it's a joke that's just disgusting in itself,\" she said.\n\n\"That's not political leadership, political leadership is calling out things whenever it's wrong and in this case misogyny online is a huge problem.\"\n\nMs O'Neill added: \"For a political leader to be engaged in online what he deems to be jokes, I do not deem to be jokes, I think is just incredulous\".\n\nSDLP leader Colum Eastwood said there was \"no place for misogyny in our society\".\n\n\"We need to take a zero tolerance approach,\" he said.\n\n\"We have a huge responsibility to call out misogyny in other men - Doug Beattie has totally failed the leadership test on this issue.\"\n\nAlliance Party leader and Justice Minister Naomi Long said she was \"genuinely shocked at just how casually misogynistic\" the tweet was.\n\n\"It would have made many a 1970s comic blush,\" she said.", "Playboy has said it \"strongly supports\" women who recently came forward with \"allegations of abhorrent actions\" by the company's late founder Hugh Hefner.\n\nA new 10-part US docuseries accuses Hefner - who died in 2017 aged 91 - of coercing and drugging women into sex at the Playboy mansion and at nightclubs.\n\nFormer girlfriends describe the iconic publisher as \"like a vampire\" who \"sucked the life\" out of young girls.\n\nThe company is pledging to \"actively listen and learn\" from the women.\n\n\"Today's Playboy is not Hugh Hefner's Playboy,\" read an open letter published over the weekend.\n\n\"We trust and validate these women and their stories and we strongly support those individuals who have come forward to share their experiences.\"\n\nTouting its sex-positive brand and overwhelmingly female workforce, Playboy added it would \"continue to confront any parts of our legacy that do not reflect our values today\".\n\nSecrets of Playboy premiered on the A&E Network on 24 January.\n\nIn it, veteran insiders and ex-girlfriends recount a \"cult-like\" atmosphere around the man known to fans as \"Hef\".\n\n\"Women had been groomed and led to believe they were part of his family,\" said Miki Garcia, a former director of Playmate promotions, who claims she saw many Playmates overdose on drugs.\n\nHolly Madison, who dated Hefner for eight years and became his \"special one\", described the lifestyle as \"a cycle of gross things\" that led her to drink heavily and consider taking her life.\n\nMs Madison moved into the mansion at age 21 but says Hefner \"brainwashed\" and controlled her to the point she was afraid to leave.\n\n\"I watched girl after girl show up, fresh-faced, adorable and their beauty just washed away. We were nothing to him,\" said Sondra Theodore, a former model and actress who dated Hefner in the 1970s and 80s.\n\nShe claimed the mansion hosted group sex events, fuelled by drugs, five nights a week.\n\nIn one Thursday night tradition known as \"Pig Night\", sex workers (\"pigs\") would allegedly be examined by a doctor and then be used for sex by Hefner's VIP friends.\n\nTheodore, now 65, said Hefner would send her on cocaine runs and the powder was often so plentiful at home the dogs became addicted to licking it off the floor.\n\nA former executive assistant to Hefner said he kept a stockpile of Quaalude sedatives that he called \"leg-spreaders\".\n\nThe show also details at least three tragic deaths in the publication's heyday.\n\nHefner founded Playboy in 1953. It became the largest-selling men's magazine in the world, shifting seven million copies a month at its peak.\n\nThe company stopped printing its magazine and relisted on the stock market in 2020.", "Luke Whitehouse and Lachlan Mantell fell in love with the £650,000 three-bedroom home\n\nA gay couple have described their shock at being refused a viewing and the chance to buy a house in south London because of their sexuality.\n\nLachlan Mantell and Luke Whitehouse were sent a message from the owners of the property they were interested in that said they were \"unwilling\" to let them view or buy it.\n\nThe homeowners defended their decision based on their religious beliefs.\n\nOnline estate agency Purplebricks has withdrawn the house from their website.\n\nMr Whitehouse, 34, and Mr Mantell, 37, have been together for eight years and planned to view the three-bedroom, £650,000 house last Saturday.\n\nBut, before they could do so they got a message from the sellers via Purplebricks.\n\nIt read: \"Dear Lachlan and Luke, thank you for sharing your circumstances with us.\n\n\"We're sorry if we seem intrusive, but we just want to make clear that we would be unwilling for two men in a partnership to view or buy our house. As it is contrary to the gracious teaching in God's Word, the Holy Bible, e.g. Romans 1:24-28 and Jude (King James Version).\"\n\nThe couple said they were not planning on taking any legal action, but they were keen to get back to searching for a new home.\n\nMr Mantell told BBC London: \"To have it as the first time we could put an offer on, and to love it so much, and to have that reaction, took the wind out of our sails. It was so disappointing.\n\n\"We don't wish the couple any ill will, we just wanted to get a message out that this kind of thing happens and it is not acceptable.\"\n\nMr Whitehouse, from Putney and originally from Sedgley, West Midlands, said he initially thought the message was a joke, but then described feeling angry and sad at what they were facing.\n\n\"We've experienced homophobia before but this seemed like it was on a bigger scale,\" he said.\n\n\"It was preventing us from progressing in our lives, not just a flippant remark.\n\n\"It felt like the biggest form of discrimination I've ever experienced.\"\n\nPurplebricks said the sentiments expressed in the homeowners' message were \"completely opposed to Purplebricks' views and values\".\n\nA spokeswoman added: \"We have contacted the seller to return their fee and request that they sell their property with a different agent.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Struggling UK families may need help with energy bills as inflation soars, an International Monetary Fund expert has said.\n\nIt comes as the IMF predicted that the UK economy will grow more slowly than expected this year as it recovers from the Covid pandemic.\n\nThe forecast for UK growth in 2022 was cut to 4.7% from 5% in the IMF's latest world economic outlook.\n\nHowever, this will be the fastest in the G7 industrialised nations.\n\nIt partly reflects a rebound from sharp falls the UK suffered during initial pandemic lockdowns two years ago.\n\nThe International Monetary Fund is an organisation of 190 countries that works to secure financial stability.\n\nIts first deputy managing director, Gita Gopinath, told the BBC that targeted help might be needed to help vulnerable households deal with higher energy bills as they face a cost-of-living squeeze.\n\nShe said: \"The UK has done very well on the vaccination front, on testing and tracing and so on.\n\n\"All that has to be continued. An argument can be made that, especially for instance, in April, as more of the energy price pass-through happens, then that could be a big, sharp increase in the cost of living.\n\n\"And one could see a case for very, very targeted help to highly vulnerable households for a short space of time.\"\n\nSurging food and energy prices drove inflation to 5.4% in the 12 months to December, up from 5.1% the month before, in a blow to struggling families.\n\nThe International Monetary Fund expressed concern that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could see energy prices go even higher and stay there for longer.\n\nIts first deputy managing director, Gita Gopinath, backed the idea of help with spiralling energy bills in the UK.\n\nThat intervention could be helpful to the Treasury, which is currently deciding what type of help could be given to mitigate a £50-a-month rise in bills.\n\nSome MPs want the government to delay its announced rise in National Insurance, especially after lower-than-expected public borrowing figures.\n\nThe Treasury is believed to be looking instead at focusing support on those most in need.\n\nOn Tuesday, the IMF sharply downgraded its forecasts for the two biggest global economies - the US and China - citing high energy prices and new Covid curbs among its reasons.\n\nOverall, the IMF now expects global growth to go from 5.9% in 2021 to 4.4% in 2022, half a percentage point lower for this year than in its last prediction in October 2021.\n\n\"The global economy enters 2022 in a weaker position than previously expected,\" said the IMF report.\n\nAs the new Omicron Covid-19 variant spread, countries had reimposed restrictions, it added.\n\n\"Rising energy prices and supply disruptions have resulted in higher and more broad-based inflation than anticipated, notably in the US and many emerging market and developing economies.\n\n\"And the ongoing retrenchment of China's real estate sector and slower-than-expected recovery of private consumption have limited growth prospects.\"\n\nThe IMF predicted that the higher levels of inflation currently seen in the global economy would go on for longer than it anticipated in its last forecast, persisting for most of 2022.\n\nIt said supply chain disruptions, energy price volatility and localised wage pressures meant that \"uncertainty around inflation and policy paths\" was high.\n\nUS economic growth for this year was downgraded by the IMF from 5.2% to 4% after it removed the effects of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better fiscal policy package from its calculations.\n\nThe legislation is currently stalled in Congress and is unlikely to be enacted in its present form.\n\nChina's forecast for 2022 was cut from 5.6% to 4.8%.\n\n\"In China, disruption in the housing sector has served as a prelude to a broader slowdown,\" the IMF report said.\n\n\"With a strict zero-Covid strategy leading to recurrent mobility restrictions and deteriorating prospects for construction sector employment, private consumption is likely to be lower than anticipated.\"\n\nThe IMF said the cut in expectations for global growth also reflected revisions among some other large emerging markets.\n\nIn particular, the two biggest Latin American economies, Brazil and Mexico, suffered the largest growth downgrades.\n\nBrazil, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is seeking re-election later this year, is now expected to grow by just 0.3% in 2022, down from the previous forecast of 1.5%.\n\nMexico also saw a downgrade of 1.2 percentage points and is now predicted to see growth of 2.8%.", "Star Hobson suffered a cardiac arrest as a result of catastrophic injuries and died in September 2020\n\nBradford Council is to be stripped of control of its children's services in the wake of Star Hobson's murder.\n\nThe authority's department will instead be operated by a council-owned trust led by an independent board.\n\nOfsted rated children's services as \"inadequate\" in 2018 and a commissioner was appointed a year after 16-month-old Star was killed in September 2020.\n\nThe trust's creation follows recommendations by the commissioner to Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi.\n\nMr Zahawi said: \"Keeping vulnerable children safe from harm is non-negotiable.\n\n\"Where a council is not meeting its duty to do this, we will take action to protect children and put their needs first.\"\n\nHe said that it was clear from commissioner Steve Walker's recommendations the council needed support to improve.\n\nMr Zahawi added: \"I'm pleased that Bradford council have agreed to establish a new trust that will bring positive change for the council and independent oversight that drives improvements.\"\n\nCommissioner Mr Walker was appointed by the government in September 2021 over the \"slow pace of change\" after Ofsted inspectors had said some children remained \"at risk of serious harm\".\n\nHe began his review a year after Star died following months of \"neglect, cruelty and injury\".\n\nBradford Council was contacted on a number of occasions about the treatment of Star Hobson by Savannah Brockhill (left) and Frankie Smith in the run up to her death\n\nSavannah Brockhill, 28, was jailed for a minimum of 25 years for her murder. Star's mother, Frankie Smith, 20, was sentenced to eight years for causing or allowing her death.\n\nTheir trial heard of at least five occasions when concerned family members and friends made referrals about Star's treatment to the council's social services department.\n\nStar bled to death after suffering \"catastrophic\" injuries at the hands of Brockhill, her mother's \"violent-tempered\" girlfriend, at the couple's home in Keighley.\n\nBradford Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe acknowledged the \"pace of improvement needs to quicken\" but said the trust would enable the authority to focus on \"delivering consistently high-quality care\".\n\n\"Inevitably this will take time and we're acutely conscious that there can be no pause in our improvement journey,\" she said.\n\nMs Hinchcliffe said the Labour-controlled authority was committed to supporting \"front-line staff\".\n\nShe said the new arrangement would give members of the children's services department \"certainty over the future direction\" and an opportunity to draw on resources and expertise nationally.\n\nA whistleblower who works for Bradford Council's children's services department has told BBC Look North about the difficulties faced by people employed by the authority.\n\nThey said staff had raised issues with managers in the department about working conditions due to their high case loads, exacerbated by the number of people leaving.\n\n\"It's unmanageable workloads. Individual social workers are being set up to fail,\" the anonymous employee told the BBC.\n\nThey added that senior colleagues were \"constantly afraid\" of hearing things not being done correctly and \"just wanted to cover it up\".\n\nThe whistleblower said staff in the department were \"overworked, under-trained, unsupported and voiceless because any grievance you raise, it will be shut down and you will be made an example of\".\n\nAn independent review examining how the authorities responded to social services referrals in the months leading to Star's death will be rolled into the national review launched in the wake of the murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, the government also said.\n\nBradford West MP Naz Shah said there had been \"opportunities to get this right\"\n\nRobbie Moore, Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, said children across Bradford had been \"repeatedly\" failed by the council.\n\n\"Vulnerable and looked-after children deserve much better.\n\n\"Our area has been haunted by such failings for far too long which has led to so many tragedies in our area, including cases of neglect, continuous child sexual exploitation and the recent tragic murder of Star Hobson which could have been prevented had Children's Services acted upon repeated warnings,\" said Mr Moore.\n\nHe echoed previous calls for Ms Hinchliffe and authority chief executive Kersten England to resign and said he had \"no confidence\" in their leadership.\n\nStar Hobson suffered a cardiac arrest as a result of catastrophic injuries and died on 22 September 2020\n\nHigh caseloads, high staff turnover and the use of lots of agency staff are among the problems Bradford's children's services has struggled with over past years.\n\nWe don't yet know whether or not those pressures were a factor in the way child protection services responded to the concerns raised by family and friends about Star Hobson. That will be for the official review to decide.\n\nHowever, the government-appointed commissioner is clear in his conclusion that \"the council doesn't have the capacity and capability to improve services at pace on its own\".\n\nThe new arm's-length organisation will be one of about a dozen independent trusts in England set up after local authority children's services have failed to improve quickly enough.\n\nIn some cases, that has led to significant improvement. In others, progress has been much slower.\n\nNot least because changing the structure of services does not in itself deal with underlying problems, such as the difficulty of recruiting and keeping experienced staff.\n\nNaz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West said there was a \"dysfunction across many areas\" of the council related to leadership, organisational culture, and a lack of resources, with the latter causing \"stresses and strains\".\n\n\"But you can only use the issue of resources for so long as a mitigating factor.\n\n\"The truth is it requires leadership, it takes bold and brave leadership especially given that concerns have been raised, I raised them in 2016 and I've been raising them since.\n\nAnne Longfield, the former Children's Commissioner for England, welcomed the government announcement and said she hoped it \"marks the beginning of a period of major reform\" and investment in children's social care, adding: \"We cannot hope to protect vulnerable children on the cheap\".\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.", "Scientists studied groups of hippos living in a nature reserve in Mozambique\n\nWild hippos are noisy creatures, their calls travelling long distances across lakes and rivers.\n\nBut until now the precise function of the loud \"wheeze honks\" the animals make has been a mystery.\n\nScientists studying hippos at a nature reserve in Africa say the distinctive honks enable the large mammals to tell friend from foe.\n\nAnd the team says the animals can probably recognise individuals from their \"voices\".\n\nStudy leader, Prof Nicolas Mathevon, from the University of Saint-Etienne, in France, has studied the sounds animals make across the world, from leopard seals to hyenas.\n\nHe said hippos have a wide vocal repertoire, including grunts, bellows, squeals and \"wheeze honks\", but very little is known about their social communication.\n\n\"In their call, there is information about the identity of the individual - so they have 'voices' - and they are able to recognise each other by their voices,\" he said. \"This recognition ability supports the social relationships between individuals.\"\n\nThe area has a number of lakes with different hippo populations\n\nTo find out more about hippo communication, French researchers recorded the sounds of hippos living in the Maputo Special Reserve in Mozambique.\n\nThe wheeze-honk is the most common hippo call and the loudest- travelling as far as 1km, according to the study.\n\nThe biologists recorded the wheeze-honks of hippos and broadcast these from the shore of lakes to see how other individuals responded.\n\nThey found hippos could tell apart friends, neighbours and strangers from their voices. In addition to telling apart friend from foe (or, at least, unfamiliar hippos), the animals can probably distinguish between individuals, according to the researchers - though they can't be absolutely certain of this.\n\nAnd despite appearing to be lounging around on the water, the large mammals were clearly paying close attention to their surroundings and responded immediately to the broadcasts.\n\nThe animals responded more aggressively to unknown hippos - with quicker, louder and more frequent calls, often accompanied by territorial displays of dung spraying.\n\nProf Mathevon said it was important to learn more about the biology and behaviour of hippos to help avoid human-animal conflicts.\n\nThe knowledge might also assist with conservation, he said, as wild hippos are sometimes moved from one location to another to keep local populations healthy.\n\nThe work may inspire conservationists to make recordings to allow local hippos to get used to the voice of the new ones before they arrive, he added.\n\nHippos are not yet endangered in the wild, but their numbers are plummeting fast. They are a source of animal-human conflict, with hippos causing hundreds of human deaths a year.\n\nThe research is published in Current Biology.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"My most overwhelming memory is the physical pain of it,\" said Dr Koshka Duff\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has apologised to a woman for the \"sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language used\" while she was being strip-searched.\n\nDr Koshka Duff was detained in 2013 after offering a legal advice card to a black teenager during his stop-and-search.\n\nOn CCTV footage, officers can be heard laughing about her hair, clothes and talking about her underwear.\n\nThe force said it had settled her claim and \"sincerely apologised\".\n\nDr Duff, who is now an assistant professor at the University of Nottingham, was trying to give the \"know your rights\" card to a 15-year-old boy in London.\n\nThe officers accused her of obstruction and arrested her.\n\nShe told the BBC she decided to act in the spirit of \"passive resistance\", and went limp rather than walking to the police van willingly.\n\nShe was taken to Stoke Newington police station, where Sgt Kurtis Howard approved the strip search.\n\nThe custody sergeant asked two female officers to cut off her clothes in a cell after Dr Duff would not give her name, and because they did not know anything about her or what she was carrying.\n\n\"She's resisting. Resistance is futile... treat her like a terrorist, I don't care,\" he said.\n\nThis photo of Dr Duff's injured arm was taken while she was at the police station\n\nDr Duff described the strip search, which was carried out by female officers, as a \"very violating and humiliating experience\".\n\nShe said it left her with multiple injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.\n\n\"They caused significant injury, and subjected me to degrading treatment,\" the academic said.\n\n\"When they had me completely naked they touched my breasts and between my legs.\"\n\nDr Duff added she heard male officers talking through the open door, and feared they might be watching.\n\nDr Duff described the strip search as a \"very violating and humiliating experience\"\n\nOn CCTV footage Dr Duff managed to obtain years after the search, officers can be heard laughing about her hair, saying her clothes stink and talking about her underwear.\n\nDr Duff was later charged with two counts of assaulting a police officer and one charge of obstructing a police officer, but was acquitted of all charges following a trial.\n\nThe Met held a misconduct hearing in August 2018, and halfway through Sgt Howard was cleared of gross misconduct without giving evidence.\n\nPanel chairman Maurice Cohen said there were \"reasonable grounds justifying Sgt Howard's actions in authorising a strip search\".\n\nIn a statement, the Met said: \"In November 2021, the Met settled a claim following the arrest of a woman in Hackney in May 2013.\n\n\"We have sincerely apologised to the complainant for the language used while she was in custody and any distress caused.\n\n\"Following the conclusion of the civil claim, allegations of misconduct relating to these comments were referred to our Directorate of Professional Standards and are currently being investigated.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Kate Wilson said senior officers had been aware of her relationship with Mark Kennedy\n\nAn activist deceived into a relationship with an undercover officer has been awarded £230,000 compensation after a tribunal found the Metropolitan Police breached her human rights.\n\nKate Wilson met Mark Kennedy while he was posing as an environmental campaigner in Nottingham in 2003.\n\nIt later emerged he was married and had sexual relationships with up to 10 other women during his deployment.\n\nThe tribunal said the case revealed \"disturbing and lamentable failings\".\n\nThe officer, who had used the name Mark Stone, had been sent to spy on activists as part of the Met's National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPIOU).\n\nHe was one of half a dozen undercover officers from the NPIOU or its \"sister unit\", the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), who Ms Wilson came into contact with between 1998 and 2010.\n\nOn Monday, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) ordered the Met and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) to pay a total of £229,471.96 to Ms Wilson \"by way of just satisfaction for the breaches\" under the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nHelen Ball, the Met's assistant commissioner for professionalism, said: \"We recognise the gravity of the judgment in this case, which outlined a series of serious failings that allowed Kennedy to remain deployed on a long-term undercover deployment without the appropriate level of supervision and oversight.\n\n\"In entering into a sexual relationship, Kennedy's actions went against the training and guidelines undercover officers received at the time.\n\n\"However, the tribunal found that the training was inadequate and more should have been done to consider the risks of male undercover officers forming relationships with women. We accept these findings.\"\n\nMr Kennedy had a series of relationships with women during his undercover deployment\n\nThe tribunal heard Mr Kennedy had been sent to infiltrate the Sumac Centre in Nottingham in 2003.\n\nShortly after arriving, a relationship between Ms Wilson and Mr Kennedy began, which lasted for two years before an amicable split when she moved to Spain.\n\nIn 2010, she learned his real name and that he was actually a married police officer.\n\nMs Wilson brought legal action against the Met and the NPCC for breaches of her right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, her right to privacy and right to freedom of expression.\n\nIn last year's ruling, the tribunal found the Met's claims that undercover officers (UCOs) knew sexual relationships were banned were \"materially undermined by the sheer frequency with which [Mr Kennedy] (and other UCOs) did conduct sexual relationships without either questions being asked or action being taken by senior officers\".\n\nIt concluded the case was not just about a \"renegade police officer who took advantage of his undercover deployment\", but also that authorisations were \"fatally flawed\".\n\nIn a statement issued through the Police Spies Out Of Lives group, Ms Wilson said the compensation was not about the relationship she was deceived into by Mr Kennedy, as that was settled in a civil claim in 2017.\n\nShe said it was related to parts of the claim \"that the police denied right up to the end\", including the role of other officers in \"violating my political rights\".\n\nMs Wilson added: \"The finding that these operations breached the rights to freedom of expression and assembly and were unlawful amounts to a long overdue recognition that spying on the protest movement is political policing and has no place in a democratic society.\n\n\"It is important because it goes beyond the scandal of undercover officers deceiving women into intimate relationships.\n\n\"Violating our political rights was the entire reason for these deployments and thousands of people will have had their political rights violated in this way.\"\n\nThe NPCC said there had been \"significant\" changes to undercover policing since the case came to light.\n\nTheir lead for undercover policing, Chief Constable Alan Pughsley, said training was more rigorous than it had been, and the psychological fitness and wellbeing of undercover officers was \"a key consideration\" during their recruitment, training and deployment.\n\nHe added: \"Significant work has been undertaken to ensure undercover officers and those authorising their deployment understand the legal limits within which they operate, including the core concepts of deployments needing to be necessary and proportionate, and the need to minimise collateral intrusion into the private lives of others.\n\n\"Oversight of undercover deployments is maintained at a senior level. At least those of Assistant Chief Constable rank or equivalent now authorise deployments, and, for deployments exceeding 12 months, this is conducted by a Chief Constable or equivalent. The independent Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office is informed of and scrutinises undercover deployments.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sean Ivey's home was badly damaged by fire just days after he posted a video on social media of youths careering around on motorbikes. Amanda Dunn took her own life following a decline in her mental health during an ongoing dispute with a neighbour.\n\nBBC Panorama reports on what can happen when anti-social behaviour escalates, and investigates how police and local councils deal with it.\n\nRead more: IS anti-social behaviour still seen 'as a bit of bother'?'\n\nYou can watch Panorama's Anti-Social Behaviour: Afraid in My Own Home on BBC1 on Monday 24 January at 7.30pm or on Iplayer.\n\nIf you are affected by suicide or mental distress, support is available at BBC Actionline.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThree children and two adults have been taken to hospital after a double-decker bus hit a shop in north-east London.\n\nThe crash happened on Selwyn Avenue in Highams Park, Chingford, at about 08:20 GMT, the Metropolitan Police said.\n\nLondon Ambulance Service (LAS) said 14 other people were treated at the scene, near Highams Park Overground station, but did not need hospital treatment.\n\nAn eyewitness told the BBC that the driver said \"his brakes had failed\" and he had to be cut free by firefighters.\n\nBen Taylor-Coleman, who had just dropped off his daughter at nursery, described children on a zebra crossing \"jumping out of the way\" of the bus.\n\n\"The bus carried across the kerb and into the shop on the other side,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"I called 999 and as I was speaking to police I was helping people getting off the bus - as were lots of others.\n\n\"Some had hurt themselves and the driver told me he was trapped in his cab.\n\n\"There was plenty of crowding and a few local shopkeepers came out with water and toilet roll to mop up blood and petrol.\n\n\"Paramedics arrived in less than 10 minutes and the fire service cut the driver out of his cab.\"\n\nEric Garip, who helped at the scene of the crash, said some passengers were in tears\n\nThe owner of a local café who helped with rescue efforts said a number of schoolchildren were among the injured passengers found \"scared and crying\" inside the bus.\n\nEric Garip, 38, described hearing a \"big bang\" on the opposite side of the road and began trying to carry people out through the emergency door of the bus.\n\n\"There were a couple of kids on the floor,\" he said.\n\n\"We were trying to take the kids out and they were panicking. I spoke to the driver and said to come out, he said: 'I can't, I'm stuck.'\"\n\nThe 212 bus route goes between St James' station and Chingford station\n\nMr Garip added: \"Some parents were in the bus as well, crying. I tried to calm them but it was a big shock.\n\n\"We went upstairs and told the kids to come out but one was on the stairs so [we] were lifting them.\n\n\"It was very bad. They were all scared and crying.\"\n\nMayor of London Sadiq Khan said his thoughts were with those affected by the \"terrible incident\".\n\nThe Met Police said it was investigating the crash and officers were carrying out inquiries.\n\nData published by TfL showed that last year 10 people died as a result of incidents involving buses, with 17 others seriously injured.\n\nLouise Cheeseman, TfL's director of buses, said: \"Our thoughts are with everyone involved in the bus collision in Highams Park this morning.\n\n\"We have support available to anyone affected by this incident and a full investigation is under way.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Draco Chapman died in a children's hospice on 23 April 2019, three weeks after he got trapped between two stair gates\n\nA four-year-old boy died after his neck became trapped between two stair gates that had been positioned one above the other, an inquest heard.\n\nDraco Chapman was found unresponsive at his home in Norwich on 2 April 2019, and died three weeks later.\n\nThe inquest heard Draco's neck was trapped as he tried to climb between the stair gates, causing a cardiac arrest and irreversible brain damage.\n\nA serious case review by Norfolk Children Safeguarding Partnership has recommended that all stair gates should come with a mandatory warning for them not to fitted above another one.\n\nThe coroner's court in Norwich heard that Draco's mother, who was 20-weeks pregnant at the time, had been \"finding it hard to manage\" and the house had \"got out of hand\".\n\nIn a statement, she said she fitted a stair gate on top of another as the children would climb over if there was just one.\n\nShe said it was to \"stop them from getting out of the lounge and on to the stairs\", and to \"stop them from hurting themselves\".\n\nShe said the instructions did not suggest one could not go on top of the other, and she had \"seen other people\" do it.\n\nOne stair gate was placed above the other at the family's home in Norwich\n\nOn the day of the incident, she said the children had been to school and nursery, and then went to McDonald's as a \"Tuesday tradition\".\n\nShe said she had gone to a parents' evening and left her eldest child, who is now 19, to look after the younger ones.\n\nWhen she arrived home, she said her eldest was on the phone to the ambulance service and was \"screaming Draco isn't breathing\".\n\nThe four-year-old was taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital before he was transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.\n\nDraco had Noonan syndrome - a genetic condition that can cause a range of health problems. His mother's statement said he had heart abnormalities, was small for his age and had a mental age of a two-year-old.\n\nHe was later taken off life support and transferred to Quidenham Children's Hospice in Norfolk where he died on 23 April 2019.\n\nIn summing up, Norfolk's assistant coroner Ms Thompson said the serious case review referred to videos on YouTube about using double stair gates, adding that \"there may well be an issue that needs to be addressed\".\n\nSpeaking after the inquest, Draco's father said his son was \"mischievous at times, but in a loveable way\" and the family had been \"destroyed\" by his death.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Louise Smith reported being raped by \"one of her peers\" a year before her death\n\nA teenager killed in a \"sexually-motivated\" murder did not receive appropriate support after reporting being raped, a review has found.\n\nLouise Smith, 16, was found dead at Havant Thicket, Hampshire, on 21 May - 13 days after she went missing.\n\nShane Mays, 30, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years in December, following a trial.\n\nHampshire Safeguarding Children Partnership said Covid-19 restrictions may have prevented Louise getting help.\n\nIts report found Louise went to Hampshire Constabulary to report being raped by \"one of her peers\" a year before her death.\n\nHowever, when officers told her no further action would be taken over the allegation, there was no supporting professional there to assist her.\n\nThe report states the \"impact of Covid\" could have been to blame.\n\nJon Chapman, independent scrutineer, said the force should \"review its process when providing victims of rape and serious sexual assault with an investigative outcome\".\n\nShane Mays was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years in December, following a trial\n\nDuring Mays' trial for her murder, Winchester Crown Court heard Louise had been living with him and his wife, Chazlynn Jane, after fighting with her mother.\n\nLouise had a social worker and a Children and Families Assessment was being carried out at the time of her death because she \"was considered at risk of homelessness\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe report said support from agencies involved in Louise's care \"dissipated\" as she moved from school to college.\n\nIt added she \"had gone from a child who would readily engage with professionals to disengaging at college and no longer accessing the support offered\".\n\nThe report said the involved agencies should have ensured a \"co-ordinated response\" to provide ongoing care and support.\n\nChief Supt Raj Kohli, of Hampshire Constabulary, said the force had \"engaged with the review process\" and \"recognised it could make improvements\".\n\nIn February 2021, the Court of Appeal rejected a bid to increase Mays' prison sentence after the Solicitor General claimed it was \"unduly lenient\".\n\nLord Justice Davis, sitting with two other judges, concluded the sentence should not be altered.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Experts at Roman fort Vindolanda fear that climate change is drying the peat soil that protects ancient objects\n\nClimate change is threatening to destroy treasures buried in the UK as the soils that protect them dry out.\n\nA Roman toilet seat, the world's oldest boxing glove, and the oldest handwritten letter by a woman are some of the extraordinary objects discovered in at-risk British peatlands.\n\nIt means climate change could undermine our understanding of our past, say archaeologists.\n\nAbout 22,500 archaeological sites in UK may be in danger.\n\nThe problem is that changing weather patterns are drying out some peatlands - the waterlogged soils that cover about 10% of the UK.\n\nBecause peat contains very little oxygen, organic materials like wood, leather and textiles do not rot. They can survive for thousands of years, preserved by the stable anoxic chemistry of the soil.\n\nBut if the soils dry, oxygen can enter the system, kick-starting the process of decomposition. If that happens artefacts can, quite quickly, rot away.\n\nExcavating these potentially huge sites could cost hundreds of millions of pounds and take decades, by which time they may have been badly damaged.\n\nA baby's shoe was preserved for about 2,000 years in peat soil\n\nThe trustees of Magna, a Roman fort alongside Hadrian's Wall, fear the process is already under way at the site.\n\nThe warnings come as celebrations for the 1,900th anniversary of the start of construction of the wall begin this week.\n\nThe land at Magna has subsided by up to a metre in places in the past decade. It is evidence of \"desiccation\" - the drying of the peat layer - fears Dr Andrew Birley, the chief archaeologist at the site.\n\nIt means \"an historical time capsule\" is at risk, he says, because only a tiny part of the site has so far been excavated.\n\n\"This place has the potential to be quite frankly, amazing,\" Dr Birley believes. \"Pretty much everything the Romans used here for 300 or 400 years could have been preserved in more or less the same state it was thrown away, which is an incredible opportunity.\"\n\nA toilet seat used by Romans is one of the objects found preserved in UK peatlands\n\nAnother fort a few miles along Hadrian's Wall gives an idea of the astonishing objects that could lie hidden at Magna.\n\nDigs at Vindolanda have uncovered the world's oldest boxing gloves - so well-preserved that you can still see the imprint of the boxer's knuckles on one.\n\nMore Roman footwear has been discovered here than at any other site in the world.\n\nIt is also the source of the oldest handwritten message by a woman found anywhere.\n\nIn the note, Claudia Severa, the wife of the commanding officer of a nearby fort, invites her friend Lepidina to her birthday party on 11 September about 1,900 years ago.\n\n\"Oh how much I want you at my birthday party,\" writes Claudia. \"You'll make the day so much more fun. I do so hope you can make it. Goodbye, sister, my dearest soul.\"\n\nA boxing glove was found as well as combs, toys and shoes at the site of Roman forts\n\nDay-to-day objects like this provide a unique connection to the lives of ordinary people in ancient times.\n\n\"This sort of stuff doesn't normally survive, \" says Dr Birley, who works at both sites. \"It can give us amazing insights into what life was really like here on the Northern frontier almost 2,000 years ago.\"\n\nHe says the priority at Magna now is to try to work out what is happening underground.\n\nBoreholes have been dug, and electronic equipment measures the water flow and temperature every hour.\n\nWhole bodies have been found in peat soils, like the famous Lindow man discovered in Cheshire\n\nAt Teesside University, Dr Gillian Taylor is analysing the chemicals in soil cores from the site to try to understand the processes at work.\n\nIt would be a \"catastrophe\" for any organic artefacts if the peat dries, she says. \"The risk is they will disappear. We will lose our heritage if we don't look at what's occurring now.\"\n\nFearing the worst, Dr Birley is planning to dig the first test trenches at the site next year. As a small charity, it's the earliest they can start given the cost and labour needed.\n\nHe says if it looks like the condition of the peat is changing rapidly and the treasures could be lost, a full excavation may be necessary.\n\nAnd changing weather patterns are not just threatening the survival of Roman remains. Experts estimate that there are about 22,500 archaeological sites in or beneath peat in the UK.\n\nDr Rosie Everett, of Northumbria University, is part of a team that has been assessing the effect of climate change on peatland archaeology across the UK.\n\nShe says a host of historic sites in peatlands are under threat, covering the entire sweep of the country's history.\n\nThere are Palaeolithic pathways up to 12,000 years old, and Bronze Age burial sites as well as the remains of more modern settlements and industrial activities.\n\n\"Peatlands represent such a small part of the ecology of Britain, but they have massive potential to tell us about our past,\" says Dr Everett.\n\nWhile an archaeologist working at a \"dry\" site might find 10% of what was once there, at a peatland site they may find as much as 90% of the material culture of ancient communities, say archaeologists.\n\n\"The loss of peatlands would have big implications for the understanding of the country's history but also for our climatic history and our environmental history,\" says Dr Everett.\n\nThat's why she believes there should be greater efforts to protect them.\n\nDr Birley agrees. \"If we lose places like this, we lose that direct connection to the people who lived in this island 2000 years ago,\" he says.\n\n\"We lose the chance to learn as much as we can about them. And we lose part of our own heritage and part of our own history.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"One minute I was caving, the next minute the world went mad\"\n\n\"I kept flipping between two states - there was 'I'm going to fight this and survive', which became, 'I really don't care'.\"\n\nThere were dark moments as George Linnane lay in agony, deep in the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system after breaking a leg, his jaw and ribs in a fall.\n\nIf hypothermia was not going to kill him, maybe a lacerated spleen or punctured lung could.\n\n\"I might never have come out,\" he admits.\n\nDescribing being trapped underground for 54 hours, he said: \"One second I was caving, the next minute, the world went mad.\n\n\"And then it all went black. And then two minutes later, I woke up in a very different state.\"\n\nGeorge, 38, has been back to the scene of one of the longest cave rescues the UK has seen, where about 300 volunteers rushed to his aid from around the country.\n\nFeeling \"lucky to be alive\" and \"very lucky\" to still have his right leg, he is keen to return to caving and has joined the specialist team that brought him to safety.\n\n\"It was meant to be a five or six hour easy trip, out in time for dinner and fireworks,\" he says of the ordeal that started one Saturday last November.\n\nPerhaps the first question is why a mechanical engineer from Bristol was in a dark, cold complex that reaches about 902ft (275m) below ground near Penwyllt in the Brecon Beacons.\n\nIt is one cavers are always asked without ever really being able to answer, he says.\n\nGeorge had started out as a diver and wanted to become a cave diver to access more remote sites.\n\nFor this he needed to learn caving, but fell in love with the pursuit in its own right, adding: \"When people think of caving, they think of small passages and crawling and misery.\n\n\"And that's really not what it's about. We do that stuff. But we do it to get to the good stuff, pretty amazing things that 99.9% of the population will never see.\n\n\"It's another world down there. It's like being on the moon or another planet.\"\n\nHe set out in a small group on the morning of 6 November, planning to be out that afternoon.\n\nGeorge has met some of his rescuers, pledging his support as a volunteer\n\nBut at some point, deep in the complex that is 61km [38 miles] of twists and turns, an \"instantaneous\" fall happened, with George having a feeling of \"legs whirling around in mid-air, arms grabbing for something\".\n\n\"At that point, it was pure reflex,\" he said, before things went blank.\n\nWhen he came round, it was obvious the bottom half of his leg was broken, there were also teeth missing.\n\nMuch of his body felt uncomfortable - at the time he didn't know the seriousness, such as his lower leg displacing itself from the top half, his jawbone being \"smashed into a number of pieces\" and a large hole that went through to the inside of his mouth.\n\nThere were also three broken ribs, a dislocated clavicle with his collarbone pulling away from his ribcage, a lacerated spleen, a collapsed lung and a broken scaphoid in his wrist.\n\nRescuers entered the system from a small entrance as they tried to get to George\n\nGeorge was upside down on a slope with his legs far higher than his head, and despite the \"intense waves of pain\", he quickly realised he would need to put himself into a more comfortable position.\n\nDragging himself by the tips of his fingers for a number of metres, he struggled to turn his body position around.\n\n\"I was just screaming and screaming in pain at that point. It was nasty. And then when I got to that point, I also flipped myself from my front over to my back,\" he said.\n\n\"I did this so that I could prop myself up into a sort of semi-seated position and then start waiting it out. And that was agony as well.\"\n\nHis friend Mark checked on him before going to raise the alarm and another friend, Mel, was perched above, fearful of moving a muscle in case she knocked any rocks down on him.\n\nShe stood talking to him for hours as they awaited help, although he admits only remembering \"bits and pieces\".\n\nGeorge says caving is part of who he is and is keen to get back as soon as possible\n\nHe recalls giving one-word answers, being told to \"wiggle things\" to try and keep warm, and to generally stay conscious and \"with it\".\n\nHe describes \"dark times\" when he would fight, but then give in to a \"let whatever's going to happen, happen\" state, when he didn't really care and just wished Mel would stop talking.\n\n\"It was when those first advanced first aiders turned up, from that point onwards, I always felt like I had a chance. But initially, I wasn't sure I was going to make it.\"\n\nAt this point, he had been underground for four hours and described himself being \"quite inwardly-focused\", trying to manage the pain rather than thinking how he would get out.\n\nRescuers took it in turns to hike up the hill from their base and enter the cave system\n\nHe remembers hearing voices in the distance and realising they were no longer in his head, but how he was brought to the surface remains \"a bit of a blur\".\n\nThere was the initial assessment and his leg was put in a splint, and then he was offered pain relief but remembers thinking it was not strong enough.\n\n\"I basically lost somewhere between 12 and 18 hours, probably towards the 18 hours,\" he said.\n\nPeople have told him the first mission was to get him through the narrower passages into the main thoroughfare and a tent to keep him warm.\n\nWhen he was safely in it, rescuers were also able to give George sugars and liquids through an intravenous line.\n\nAfter rescuers started arriving, much of the journey out of the cave is a blank for George\n\nHe had initially been given energy gel, but his jaw injury had left a hole on his mouth, meaning it fell out before it reached his throat.\n\nBut there are a few memories: \"Once those initial rescuers turned up, I guess my body went into shock and possibly some sort of hypothermia.\n\n\"I then start remembering things again quite a long time later, on the Sunday afternoon, perhaps even the evening.\"\n\nBy this time there were more than 100 people helping with the operation, with about 300 set to join in total, including many familiar faces.\n\n\"Once I started becoming more aware of my surroundings again, it became obvious to me that people had come from the Forest of Dean and from the Mendips,\" he said.\n\n\"And then I started seeing faces I recognised from Yorkshire. It just became obvious that people were coming from all over the country.\"\n\nCavers had come from all around the UK after hearing about what had happened\n\nAt first, he admits to feeling guilty but also incredibly grateful they had come, but perhaps the familiar faces relaxed him to the extent he described the final leg of the journey as \"a really, really good experience\".\n\n\"You enjoyed it, almost in a funny kind of way, I did,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm sure the morphine didn't hurt. If I had been in loads and loads of pain at that point, it probably wouldn't have been.\n\n\"We've done a couple of days of the rescue by that point, being strapped to that stretcher backboard being very, very uncomfortable.\n\n\"So it was nice to know that it was going to be over at some point.\"\n\nThe sense of relief was compounded by the fact he knew he was on \"the home stretch\", with the last part a fairly spacious area, with lots of people around him.\n\nHis fellow cavers had formed a line and passed the stretcher along with plenty of banter.\n\nThere were many familiar faces helping to get the stretcher out of the cave system\n\nThere was then an \"overwhelming sense of relief\" as they got to the exit, and George's first thoughts were of wanting to get off the backboard.\n\nBut still strapped to it, he was put straight into the back of a Land Rover and taken down the hill to a waiting ambulance.\n\nHis wrist is still strapped up and he will need dental surgery later this year and despite feeling lucky not to lose his leg, there is no doubt he will be back underground soon.\n\nThe \"single bloody-mindedness\" of 300 people to travel from around the UK to help him is one of the reasons.\n\nTheir dedication even ran to searching the accident scene for his missing teeth - a task that proved fruitless.\n\nGeorge was eventually taken away in a 4x4 ambulance\n\n\"This is one of the things that I love most about caving is the sort of camaraderie in the sense of community that we have, this distinctive thing that we do,\" George said.\n\n\"It creates a really sort of tight-knit bond between cavers.\"\n\nAs well as a sense of gratitude to his rescuers, it is also the realisation that in an accident \"there is only one way out\" from underground, and his experiences could one day help someone in a situation such as the one he found himself in.\n\nIt is with this in mind he has signed up as a volunteer for the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team, which co-ordinated the operation.\n\nTwo-and-a-half months after the accident, George is recovering well and hopes to resume his passion soon\n\nHe said: \"Caving is a very safe sport, generally speaking, for people that know what they're doing.\n\n\"It's as safe as crossing a road. But things do happen occasionally. And when they do, there is only one team of people, one type of person that is going to get you out of there.\n\n\"The fire service can't do it, mountain rescue can't do it. The only people that can do it is other cavers, because they're the only people with the skill set to do it.\"\n\nWhile he describes volunteering as a rescuer as \"the right thing to do\", there is also another reason he will be back caving as soon as possible.\n\nIt is something that perhaps everyone else who has fallen in love with the other-worldly experience can relate to.\n\n\"It's what I do and what makes me happy. And I know that whilst something bad did happen to me, the chances of it happening again is very, very low.\n\n\"Let's hope so. I don't think I would be happy if I didn't go back to it.\"", "Holiday bookings have jumped with \"notable increases\" in trips planned for February half-term and Easter ahead of Covid travel tests being scrapped.\n\nJet2 said bookings had increased by 30% on last week after the announcements that rules would be relaxed for people arriving in the UK.\n\nThe rule changes mean fully-vaccinated people arriving in those countries from abroad do not need to take Covid tests.\n\nThe change will come into effect from 04:00 GMT on 11 February.\n\nSteve Heapy, chief executive of Jet2, told the BBC the removal of testing was \"game-changer\" for the travel industry.\n\nHe said demand was \"already strong\" before the rule changes for England and Scotland were announced on Monday, but said bookings had since risen further.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Welsh government confirmed it was \"reluctantly retaining alignment\" with the UK government to also remove tests.\n\nHowever, First Minister Mark Drakeford said the devolved government would \"implement measures to encourage travellers arriving into Wales to take a lateral flow test, plus a follow-up PCR test if positive\".\n\nNorthern Ireland has since announced it will align with the other nations.\n\nThe phasing out of domestic testing rules has resulted in demand growing for flights and holidays through January, though the increase in bookings is from a lower base than pre-pandemic times.\n\nJet2 has said it has planned a larger summer holiday package for 2022 than 2019.\n\n\"We have seen a notable increase in demand for holidays and flights across all seasons, particularly February half term, the Easter holidays and Summer 22,\" Mr Heapy said.\n\nThe company said the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, mainland Spain, Italy and Portugal were \"selling strongly\". It added there was \"enormous growth\" for bookings for Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.\n\nSki flights to Geneva, Salzburg Grenoble, Chambery and Lyon were also up, the company said, after being buoyed by France also easing some restrictions on UK travellers.\n\nAlthough testing requirements have been removed in the UK, people travelling abroad will also be required to follow the isolation and testing requirements of the country they are heading to.\n\nAccording to online travel search firm Skyscanner, there are currently 106 countries, including Spain, Italy and the US, with low restrictions where people who are fully vaccinated can visit by showing proof of vaccine status or a negative test.\n\nThe Netherlands, along with 19 other destinations, have moderative restrictions where forms of quarantine are required. A total of 30 places still have major travel restrictions, such as Australia and New Zealand.\n\nLaura Lindsay, head of consumer travel at Skycanner, said \"confidence\" was returning for people to book, with the travel search engine seeing the \"firm favourites get straight back on travellers' agendas\".\n\n\"Spain, Portugal and the US are all topping the charts again as they did in 2019 before the pandemic,\" she said.\n\nAside from changes for fully-jabbed travellers, rules have been eased for unvaccinated people, who will no longer have to take a day eight test or self isolate, but will still need pre-departure and day two tests.\n\nHowever, everyone arriving in the UK, regardless of vaccination status, will need to fill in a passenger locator form.\n\nTour operator Tui told the BBC it had also seen a \"big increase in bookings\".\n\nAndrew Flintham, managing director for Tui UK said, the removal of arrival tests was a \"huge leap forwards in getting travel back to normal\".\n\nLong-haul destinations including Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cape Verde and the Canary Islands were proving the most popular for winter escapes, he added\n\n\"We now expect summer 2022 bookings to be back to pre-pandemic levels.\"\n\nEasyJet boss Johan Lundgren said every occasion the government had reduced some international travel restrictions, the airline had seen \"big surges in the sales numbers\".\n\n\"We now hope testing and travel is a thing of the past which it should because it was never an efficient measure in anyway to reduce the spread of the virus,\" he told the BBC.\n\nElsewhere, Thomas Cook, which was rebranded as an online holiday company after it collapsed in 2019, said Turkey and Italy were among the most in-demand destinations for summer holidays.\n\nIt said overall weekly bookings were up by \"more than 300% on 2021\".\n\nBoss Alan French said: \"After two years of bans and changing rules, it feels like we've really turned a corner and with the end of testing in sight we expect to see even more people look ahead to a summer of sunshine, beaches and glistening blue seas.\"\n\nHowever, the trade body for the testing firm industry has said the rules have been lifted too quickly.\n\nOn Monday, Tom Watson, chairman of the Laboratory and Testing Industry Organisation, said the body had \"consistently backed relaxing unnecessary restrictions\", but added the \"only way\" to avoid future lockdowns was to maintain \"a robust Covid testing regime to quickly discover new variants\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lord Agnew accuses the Treasury of having \"little interest in the consequences of fraud to our society\"\n\nA Conservative minister in the House of Lords has resigned attacking the government's handling of fraudulent Covid business loans.\n\nLord Agnew accused the Treasury of having \"little interest in the consequences of fraud to our society\".\n\nBut he said his departure was \"not an attack on the prime minister\".\n\nLast year, the National Audit Office criticised the government for failing to implement measures to prevent people exploiting Covid schemes.\n\nLord Agnew, a Treasury minister with responsibility for cross-government efficiency, said \"a combination of arrogance, indolence and ignorance\" was \"freezing the government machine\".\n\nHe accused the government of making \"schoolboy errors\" by giving loans to over 1,000 companies who were not trading when Covid struck.\n\n\"I hope that as a virtually unknown minister beyond this place giving up my career might prompt others to get behind this and sort it out,\" he said.\n\nIn a dramatic moment in the House of Lords, he read out his resignation speech in response to a question from Labour about the £4.3bn of Covid loans written off by the Treasury.\n\nHe concluded with a \"thank you and goodbye\", before marching out of the chamber to a round of applause - a rare occurrence in the Lords.\n\nA No 10 spokesman said: \"We are grateful to Lord Agnew for the significant contribution he has made to government.\"\n\nThe spokesman said the government was taking action against fraud, adding that 150,000 ineligible claims have been blocked and £500m recovered last year.\n\nAn HMRC tax protection taskforce was also expected to recover an additional £1bn, the spokesman added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Bounce Back Loan scheme was set up in April 2020 with the aim of keeping small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nA total of 1.5 million loans worth £47bn were issued through the initiative, after about a quarter of UK businesses applied.\n\nBanks, building societies and other accredited lenders loaned companies up to £50,000, or a maximum of 25% of annual turnover, with the government guaranteeing them repayments if the firms defaulted.\n\nIn September, the state-owned British Business Bank, which oversees the scheme, said £2bn of loans had been repaid and £1.3bn had been defaulted on.\n\nIn December 2021, the public spending watchdog the National Audit Office said counter-fraud activity had been \"implemented too slowly\".\n\nIt estimated that the business department had put the estimated cost of fraudulent loans at £4.9bn - 11% of the total given out.\n\nIn response to Lord Agnew's resignation, the British Business Bank said \"key counter-fraud measures\" had been put in place at the start of the scheme, and it had worked with the scheme's lenders to put additional measures in place.\n\n\"Arrogance, indolence, ignorance\", \"schoolboy errors\", and \"nothing less than woeful\".\n\nAs the political joke goes, Lord Agnew may not have been a household name, even in his own household, but the manner of his attack on the government from the ministerial despatch box points to a serious issue.\n\nThere was always a trade-off between due diligence on pandemic rescue loans and getting some £72bn of cash into the bank accounts of businesses.\n\nThe government made a strategic decision to prioritise speed \"in good conscience\", as ministers put it.\n\nAs a result, a process that would have taken months, in some cases took just days.\n\nThis undoubtedly helped the whole economy bounce back.\n\nBut it is the scale, not of the losses in general (expected to top £20bn, mainly on Bounce Back loans) of the £4bn at least that will be written off due to fraud, that led to this highly public exit from the minister.\n\nIn particular, over 1,000 businesses that were not even trading, received Bounce Back loans, said the minister.\n\nRight now, the banks that operated the scheme are deciding how to account for the loans in their full year results.\n\nOver a quarter of the £1bn given to banks by taxpayers has so far been for fraudulent loans, Lord Agnew told peers.\n\nAnd he fears a \"new dangerous phase\" where banks act less than rigorously in seeking repayment, given they know they can reclaim the cash from the taxpayer.\n\nAt a time of tight budgets, rising prices and taxes, banks could come under pressure to try a little harder to collect the monies owed.\n\nLabour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves described Lord Agnew's departure as \"a damning indictment\" of the chancellor's failures on fraud.\n\n\"It should be a source of enduring shame to [Rishi] Sunak that he has so casually written off £4.3bn of taxpayers' money,\" she added.\n\nLiberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine said the government had \"allowed fraudsters to steal billions of taxpayers' money\" and urged the chancellor to explain how he would get the money back.\n\nLord Agnew was appointed a Treasury minister in February 2020. He has also sat as a non-executive director for the Department for Education.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Scotland to begin 'phased return' to the office from Monday\n\nGuidance urging people to work from home wherever possible in Scotland is to be relaxed in favour of a \"hybrid\" system of office and remote working.\n\nEmployers have been asked to phase workers back into spending some time in the office from Monday 31 January.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the move was possible due to a \"significant\" fall in Covid-19 cases.\n\nBut she warned that a \"mass return\" to offices overnight could run the risk of pushing infection levels up again.\n\nMeanwhile, the requirement for 2m physical distancing in some indoor settings like churches is to be relaxed, while the rules for schools are being \"kept under close and regular review\".\n\nMs Sturgeon told MSPs that Covid case numbers in Scotland had fallen by \"just over a quarter\" in the past week, from an average of 10,000 infections per day to just over 7,000.\n\nThe number of people being admitted to hospital with the virus has also fallen, as has the number in intensive care.\n\nMonday marked a \"significant return to normality\" with nightclubs reopening, curbs on hospitality businesses being eased and crowd limits for indoor events being dropped.\n\nAnd the first minister said the \"significantly improved situation\" meant that restrictions could be eased further.\n\nScottish employers had been urged to enable home working wherever practical, but from Monday this will be replaced by a \"hybrid\" system.\n\nMs Sturgeon said: \"We would not expect to see a wholesale return to the office next week - indeed, given that the level of infection though falling remains high, a mass return at this stage is likely to set progress back.\n\n\"But we know there are many benefits to both employees and employers, and to the economy as a whole, in at least a partial return to the office at this stage.\"\n\nFinance Secretary Kate Forbes later confirmed there would be no fixed timetable on when all workers should return to the office.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland's Drivetime programme: \"Setting an arbitrary date doesn't particularly help. We know different businesses will be able to use home working to various degrees.\"\n\nShe added: \"As of next Monday, the work from home guidance means that employers should go back to working in a hybrid sense.\n\n\"We know that there are many businesses that are unlikely to go back to working as they used to, pre-pandemic.\n\n\"But, quite obviously, it's really important for our high streets and city centres that employers have that discretion and employees can work from home and work in an office building.\"\n\nFrom Friday, the requirement for physical distancing in settings where certain people are exempt from wearing face coverings - like those leading religious services or carrying out some receptionist duties - will be cut from 2m to 1m.\n\nAnd on the same day, face coverings will no longer be required for any adult taking part in organised activities with children under the age of five.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she hoped people would enjoy returning to concerts, shows and sporting events, and meeting up with larger groups of friends.\n\nHowever she urged them to \"continue to exercise appropriate care and caution\", with the health services still under \"immense pressure\".\n\nBusiness groups welcomed the move, with the Scottish Chambers of Commerce saying it would help \"revive our workplaces and our town and city centres, which have been hit hard by the absence of office workers\".\n\nAnd CBI Scotland said hybrid working \"is here to stay for many firms\", adding: \"It's up to them and their staff to work together to maximise the benefits of a balanced approach\".\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said decisions about home and office working should be \"left to employers and the workers themselves\".\n\nHe said: \"Going forward it is vital that we trust people across Scotland to judge what is best for them and their families.\"\n\nMr Ross also called on the government to relax rules on the use of face coverings in schools.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she knew young people \"want to see the back\" of masks in schools as soon as possible, but said they provide \"important protection\" when case numbers among younger age groups remain high.\n\nShe said she would not \"pluck dates out of mid-air\" and would take decisions responsibly.\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said a new approach to managing the virus was needed in future, saying that \"we cannot expect people to live their lives in perpetual crisis\".\n\nHe said there should be \"clear triggers\" for future restrictions, a framework for financial support for firms and workers, and a robust system for testing and contact tracing.\n\nThe government is to set out a blueprint for dealing with future outbreaks in the coming weeks, with Ms Sturgeon saying the goal was to \"manage the virus less restrictively\".\n\nHowever, she stressed that \"living with this does not simply mean giving the virus a free ride\", and that the response would need to be \"smart\" and \"flexible\".", "As the US places thousands of troops on a heightened state of alert, Ros Atkins looks at the short and long-term causes behind the tension on the Ukrainian border.", "Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai sparked global concern when she vanished from public view after posting allegations of sexual assault online\n\nThe organisers of the Australian Open have reversed a ban on T-shirts supporting Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai after a global outcry.\n\nLast Friday, security staff had asked spectators to remove T-shirts and a banner saying \"Where is Peng Shuai?\" before entering the grounds.\n\nMs Peng vanished for weeks after accusing a top Chinese official of sexual misconduct in November.\n\nShe has since re-appeared, but many remain concerned about her wellbeing.\n\nCraig Tiley, chief executive of Tennis Australia - the organising body behind the Australian Open - told reporters they would now allow spectators to wear the T-shirt as long as they attended without the \"intent to disrupt\" and were \"peaceful\".\n\n\"If someone wants to wear a T-shirt and make a statement about Peng Shuai that's fine,\" he was quoted as saying in The Sydney Morning Herald.\n\nBut he added that banners would still not be allowed as \"it really takes away from the comfort and safety of the fans\", and that security staff would make decisions on a case-by-case basis.\n\nTennis Australia had earlier told the BBC that they had a \"longstanding policy of not allowing banners, signs or clothing that are commercial or political.\"\n\nThey added they were \"happy to welcome\" the spectator back to the tournament grounds, but said that \"the policy will continue to be applied .. to any items that compromise the safety and comfort of Australian Open fans.\"\n\nIt did not elaborate further.\n\nThe decision to ban the shirt was met with fierce criticism from human rights groups and the international tennis community, with some suggesting that organisers were bowing to pressure from major Chinese corporate sponsors.\n\nAustralia's defence minister Peter Dutton also lashed out against the ban, calling Tennis Australia's actions \"deeply concerning\" in an interview with broadcaster Sky News.\n\n\"I think we should be speaking up about these issues, and I'd encourage… tennis organisations, including Tennis Australia [to do so].\"\n\nMr Dutton also praised the actions of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), which has pulled all tournaments from China this year in response to the controversy.\n\nFriday's incident has also sparked the creation of a Gofundme page that promised to print out more T-shirts after reaching its AUD$10,000 (£5,296; $7,179) goal.\n\nTennis Australia is not the only body that has terms and conditions governing spectators' attire and conduct.\n\nThe All England Lawn Tennis Club, which organises Wimbledon, prohibits \"any objects or clothing bearing... political statements, objectionable or offensive statements\" from the tournament grounds.\n\nIn November, Ms Peng posted a 1,600-word note on Chinese social media platform Weibo, accusing former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of forcing her to have sex with him.\n\nShe then vanished from the public eye, triggering a wave of global concern among the international tennis community, fans and human rights groups over her whereabouts.\n\nShe resurfaced weeks later, and in her first media interview in December following her reappearance, she denied making any accusations of sexual assault and claimed her social media post had faced \"a lot of misunderstandings\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Britain is prepared to deploy troops to protect Nato allies in Europe if Russia invades Ukraine, Boris Johnson has said in a Commons statement.\n\nThe prime minister warned that President Putin would face \"ferocious\" Ukrainian resistance and \"many Russian mothers' sons will not be coming home\".\n\nThe UK and its allies would also respond swiftly and \"in unison\" with \"severe\" economic sanctions, he added.\n\nRussia, which denies plans to invade, has built up troops at the border.\n\nSome 100,000 Russian soldiers have been deployed.\n\nThe US has put 8,500 troops on alert to deploy at short notice, which Russia said caused it \"great concern\".\n\nMembers of the Nato alliance, including Denmark, Spain, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, are sending more fighter jets and warships to Eastern Europe to bolster defences in the region.\n\nIn a statement made just hours after the announcement of a police probe into No 10 lockdown parties, Mr Johnson said: \"The British Army leads the Nato battle group in Estonia and, if Russia invades Ukraine, we would look to contribute to any new Nato deployments to protect our allies in Europe.\"\n\nOn sanctions, he said he and leaders of the US, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the EU had agreed they would impose \"co-ordinated and severe economic sanctions heavier than anything we have done before against Russia\".\n\n\"And we agreed on the necessity of finalising these measures as swiftly as possible in order to maximise their deterrent effect,\" he added.\n\n\"We've already declassified compelling intelligence, exposing Russian intent to install a puppet regime in Ukraine.\n\n\"And we will continue to disclose any Russian use of cyber attacks, false flag operations or disinformation.\"\n\nMr Johnson said the freedoms gained in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall must be maintained.\n\nHe said Russia was threatening to place a \"gun to Ukraine's head\" but he still believed a diplomatic solution was possible.\n\nBritain already leads a battlegroup in Estonia of around 1,000 troops - part of Nato's response to Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014.\n\nSince 2015, the UK has rotated dozens of troops to Ukraine to help train their armed forces. And in the past week the UK has been willing to supply Ukraine with lethal aid - light anti tank weapons along with around 30 specialist troops from the Army's new Ranger Regiment.\n\nIn the words of one foreign-based diplomat, the UK's response has been \"more muscular\" than many Nato allies. The rhetoric and warnings from UK ministers have also been stronger than most.\n\nSome may interpret tough words and actions as a distraction from domestic political difficulties. But in reality the UK has taken a more robust response to Russia ever since the Salisbury poisoning.\n\nThink of the decision last summer to send a Royal Navy Warship, HMS Defender, to deliberately sail within Crimea's territorial waters - much to the anger of the Kremlin.\n\nSo it is not a surprise that Britain is offering to do more to defend both Ukraine and its Nato allies.\n\nBut Nato is an alliance - and reinforcing its eastern allies will not be a unilateral decision. The options include the possibility of putting forces into Romania and Bulgaria.\n\nFrance has already indicated that it is willing to help out. Britain and the US are seen as two other potential countries who could help bolster the defences. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is set to hold talks at Nato HQ in Brussels over the coming days, about possible options.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party \"stands resolute\" in supporting Ukraine's independence and sovereignty.\n\nAbout half of the staff working at the UK embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv are to return to the UK, but Mr Johnson said the embassy would stay open.\n\nThe Kremlin has said it sees Nato as a security threat, and is demanding legal guarantees that the alliance will not expand further east, including into neighbouring Ukraine.\n\nBut the US has said the issue at stake is Russian aggression, not Nato expansion.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTobias Ellwood MP, chairman of the defence committee, suggested it was \"not to late to mobilise a sizeable Nato presence in Ukraine\".\n\nThe prime minister said it was not a \"likely prospect in the near term\" as Ukraine is not a Nato member, adding \"what we can do, and what we are doing, is sending troops to support Ukraine\".\n\nMr Johnson said Nato was unwilling to send troops into Ukraine itself and had to \"beware of doing things... that would constitute a pretext for Putin to invade\".\n\nEarlier, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told MPs she will visit Ukraine next week.\n\nShe said: \"What we are doing is working very hard to make sure that Ukraine has the defensive weapons it needs, that it has the training it needs... and also that it has the support of the international community.\"\n\nDozens of British troops have been in Ukraine since 2015 to help train their armed forces and last week it was announced the UK was supplying the country with short-range anti-tank missiles for self-defence.", "The Pentagon says US troops are on standby to deploy to Europe, should Russia invade Ukraine (file picture)\n\nUS President Joe Biden has said there is \"total unanimity\" with European leaders over Russia's troop build-up on its border with Ukraine.\n\nDuring crisis talks on Monday, Western powers agreed to \"unprecedented\" sanctions against Russia if it were to invade.\n\nThe US has also put 8,500 troops on alert, which Russia said caused it \"great concern\".\n\nIt denies having any plans for an invasion.\n\nHowever some 100,000 Russian soldiers have been deployed on Ukraine's border.\n\nJoining the US and UK in Monday's talks were the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the EU. The head of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg also dialled in.\n\n\"I had a very, very, very good meeting - total unanimity with all the European leaders,\" Mr Biden said afterwards.\n\nA Downing Street spokesperson said the leaders \"agreed on the importance of international unity in the face of growing Russian hostility\".\n\nShould a further Russian incursion into Ukraine happen, they agreed that \"allies must enact swift retributive responses including an unprecedented package of sanctions\".\n\nThe aim of the 80-minute video call between the allies was to agree on a common strategy against Russia's actions, after some disagreements over how Western nations were responding.\n\nOn Monday, UK PM Boris Johnson warned that \"gloomy\" intelligence suggests Russia is planning a lightning raid on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the UK started withdrawing some staff from its embassy there.\n\nThe US took a similar move, by ordering relatives of its embassy staff to leave.\n\nBut EU staff are to stay in place for now, with foreign policy chief Josep Borrell saying he would not \"dramatise\" the tensions.\n\nThere have also been differences on the support given to Ukraine - the US and UK are among the nations to have sent military aid. However Germany refused Ukraine's request for defensive weapons, and will instead send medical aid, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht told local media.\n\nThe Pentagon has said some 8,500 combat-ready US troops are on alert to deploy at short notice.\n\nBut they would only be deployed if the Nato military alliance decides to activate a rapid-reaction force, \"or if other situations develop\", said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.\n\nThere are no plans to deploy to Ukraine itself, he added.\n\nSome Nato members, including Denmark, Spain, France and the Netherlands, are already planning to send fighter jets and warships to eastern Europe to bolster defences in the region.\n\nOver the weekend, some 90 tonnes of US \"lethal aid\" including ammunition for \"front-line defenders\" arrived in Ukraine.\n\nThe Kremlin has said it sees Nato as a security threat, and is demanding legal guarantees that the alliance will not expand further east, including into neighbouring Ukraine. But the US has said the issue at stake is Russian aggression, not Nato expansion.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFor months now, the Ukrainians have been preparing a territorial defence force of volunteers. They are training for a possible defence of Kyiv.\n\nOne woman member, Marta Yuzkiv, a doctor in her 50s, told the BBC: \"Of course I am worried. I am a peaceful woman, I don't want to have a war started. But in any case, in case it's started, I should be ready to defend the country.\"\n\nAndrei Volkov, an IT consultant in Kyiv, called the situation \"dangerous\".\n\n\"The situation is extremely tense, I think something might happen,\" he said, adding that he was making \"contingency plans\".\n\n\"Going to western Ukraine I suppose, going somewhere where it's going to be safe.\"\n\nRussia has seized Ukrainian territory before, when it annexed Crimea in 2014. After Russian forces seized control, Crimea voted to join Russia in a referendum the West and Ukraine deemed illegal.\n\nRussian-backed rebels also control areas of eastern Ukraine near Russia's borders. That conflict has cost an estimated 14,000 lives, with a 2015 peace deal a long way from being fulfilled.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a Cabinet Office inquiry into claims made by a Muslim MP who says her faith was given as a reason for her sacking as a minister in 2020.\n\nNusrat Ghani said a government whip told her \"Muslimness was raised as an issue\".\n\nThe Conservative MP welcomed the inquiry, saying all she wanted was for the matter to be taken seriously.\n\nConservative Chief Whip Mark Spencer said the claims were completely false.\n\nHe said Ms Ghani was referring to him and that he considered her allegations to be defamatory.\n\nMr Johnson declined to say if the chief whip could stay in his job while the investigation was conducted.\n\nHe said: \"This is something I take extremely seriously. We must wait and see what the investigation produces.\"\n\nThe new Cabinet Office inquiry comes at the beginning of what could be a difficult week for the prime minister, with the expected completion of a report into gatherings on government premises that took place when coronavirus restrictions were in place.\n\nSenior civil servant Sue Gray has been asked to look at the nature and purpose of the gatherings, including who went to them \"with reference to adherence to the guidance in place at the time\".\n\nMr Johnson has faced calls from some of his MPs to resign over the matter, but others say they are withholding judgement until the findings of Ms Gray's report are published.\n\nOn Monday the PM's former aide, Dominic Cummings, said he had sent Ms Gray written evidence but would not be meeting her.\n\nNus Ghani's allegations come at a time when there all these different fuses that have been lit.\n\nThere are small flames travelling along the line towards Downing Street: whether it is this story, or whether it is the story about a small group of 2019 MPs who have their own claims that the whips have gone beyond what is normal - and MP William Wragg will be talking to the police about all of that.\n\nBut the biggest threat to Boris Johnson is the Sue Gray report, which might emerge on Wednesday or Thursday.\n\nDespite lots of frenzied reporting nobody, other than Ms Gray and her team, knows exactly who she has been talking to, or the evidence being gathered.\n\nThe expectation is we will get a series of conclusions, but I would expect calls from the opposition and some Conservative MPs for the whole thing to be published.\n\nWhy does the report matter so much right now? It is not just because the public want to know what has been going on.\n\nMany MPs see the Sue Gray report as the crucial piece of evidence that will help them make up their mind about whether it is time to end the Johnson leadership.\n\nIt is going to be a very, very significant week for Downing Street.\n\nNus Ghani with William Wragg (left), another vice chair of the 1922 committee - the body which represents Conservative backbench MPs\n\nResponding to news of the inquiry, Ms Ghani, a vice-president of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs, said: \"As I said to the prime minister last night all I want is for this to be taken seriously and for him to investigate.\n\n\"I welcome his decision to do that now. The terms of reference of the inquiry must include all that was said in Downing Street and by the whip.\"\n\nNo 10 has said that when Ms Ghani first made the allegations, the prime minister recommended that she make a formal complaint to Conservative Campaign Headquarters, but she did not take up this offer.\n\nThe prime minister's spokesman could not provide details of the terms of reference for the investigation but said officials should be able to \"investigate freely\".\n\nSpeaking on Sunday, Ms Ghani said when she had not used the Conservative Party's internal process because it was \"very clearly not appropriate for something that happened on government business\".\n\nEducation Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said it was \"important\" for the inquiry to go ahead, adding that Ms Ghani was a \"valued colleague\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Nadhim Zahawi tell BBC Breakfast: 'I certainly don't recognise institutional racism in my party'\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast he hoped she would present evidence to the Cabinet Office, adding that it had taken \"a lot of bravery\" to make the allegations.\n\nConservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi - who has frequently spoken about Islamophobia in her party - said Ms Ghani should never have been asked to go through the party's complaint process.\n\n\"This allegation relates to comments made in Downing Street, not Conservative headquarters; it relates to a job in government, not a job in the Conservative Party; the allegations were made by the chief whip, not by the chief executive or chairman of the party,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"This was not a party issue, this was a government issue.\"\n\nBaroness Warsi, the first Muslim woman to attend cabinet, said Ms Ghani's experience had been \"an open secret in Westminster\" and that she had \"struggled to be heard\" for nearly two years.\n\nThe former party chair said that she believed there was a \"pattern\" with Islamophobia in the Conservative Party, where \"Islamophobic racism is not viewed as seriously as other forms of racism\" and \"action is rarely taken until the media is involved\".\n\nShe called for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to intervene, arguing the government might have broken the law.\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said the prime minister's standards adviser Lord Geidt should investigate if the chief whip broke the ministerial code with his alleged comments.\n\nMs Ghani was appointed to a post at the Department for Transport in 2018, becoming the first female Muslim minister to speak in the Commons.\n\nShe lost that job in a mini-reshuffle of Mr Johnson's government in February 2020.\n\nSpeaking to the Sunday Times, Ms Ghani said that when she asked for an explanation, a government whip had told her that \"Muslimness was raised as an issue\" during discussions about the reshuffle, and her status as a \"Muslim woman... was making colleagues uncomfortable\".\n\nThe Wealden MP said she had dropped the matter after being told that if she \"persisted\" in asking about it she \"would be ostracised and her career and reputation would be destroyed\".\n\nAfter her allegations were published, Mr Spencer identified himself as the person Ms Ghani's claims were made about, saying he did not want other whips to be \"drawn into this matter\".\n\nThe Sherwood MP said he had previously provided evidence to the Singh investigation which he said had \"concluded there was no credible basis for the claims\" but he later added the phrase \"to be included in the report\".\n\nProf Swaran Singh's 2021 report - which examined how the Conservative Party dealt with discrimination complaints - found that while \"not systemic\" there was \"evidence of discrimination\" in the Conservative Party, and it called for the complaints process to be overhauled.\n\nThe report made 16 recommendations - eight of which the Conservative Party says are still to be implemented. The EHRC has said it is monitoring the progress made by the party.", "Mary Nightingale will present the new hour-long weekday news programme\n\nITV has announced a shake-up of its evening schedule which will see its news programme extended and top soaps given new slots.\n\nUnder the plans, ITV News will be broadcast from 18:30 to 19:30, with more focus on stories outside London.\n\nEmmerdale, which currently airs in the 19:00 slot, will move half an hour later, to 19:30, to make room.\n\nAnd Coronation Street will broadcast three hour-long episodes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the network said.\n\nThis means the soap will no longer be divided into two separate half-hour chunks with a different programme in between, as it is currently.\n\nOn certain nights of the week, ITV's soaps will also be on at the same time as EastEnders, which is on at 19:30, 20:00 and 20:30. ITV's soaps have been more popular in TV ratings than EastEnders for a few years, so when the shows clash, ITV will probably feel it is in the stronger position.\n\nOther changes mean there will be a total of 90 minutes of ITV news programming broadcast on the channel from 18:00.\n\nSally Dynevor has appeared in Coronation Street since 1986\n\nITV's most popular soaps will move into new back-to-back schedule slots \"destined to build a strong block of continuing drama\", the network said.\n\nEmmerdale will continue to broadcast one half-hour episode every weeknight, but its slot will move further into prime time and air at 19:30 instead of the current 19:00.\n\nThere are also changes for Coronation Street, which currently broadcasts six episodes per week across three nights. These are normally split between one half-hour episode at 19:30, and another at 20:30.\n\nUnder the current schedule, a different programme is usually scheduled between the two Coronation Street episodes. Paul O'Grady: For The Love of Dogs and Bradley & Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad are among the programmes scheduled in the 20:00 slot this week, for example.\n\nHowever, under the new schedule, Coronation Street will be broadcast in a single hour-long chunk, from 20:00 until 21:00, interrupted only by regular advert breaks.\n\nITV said this new \"super soap\" scheduling means live TV viewers of Coronation Street and Emmerdale \"can get their soap fix back-to-back\".\n\nEmmerdale won the serial best drama prize at the National Television Awards in 2020\n\nAnnouncing the changes, ITV's managing director of media and entertainment, Kevin Lygo said Coronation Street and Emmerdale are \"fundamental to the success of ITV\".\n\n\"We know that, as with all dramas, viewers increasingly watch them whenever, and however they choose. The new scheduling means that viewers can watch them live on TV in one go in a continuous soap fix, as well as on ITV Hub where they are regularly in the most watched shows every month,\" he said.\n\nThe broadcaster also announced on Monday its plan to increase news output, marking the biggest expansion of jobs in ITV News in 20 years.\n\nThe newly-extended evening news programme, which will be presented by Mary Nightingale, will bring \"more focus on reporting from outside of London... to reflect the whole of the UK,\" ITV said.\n\nThe new evening schedule will mean a total of 90 minutes of news, with the regional half-hour programme broadcast at 18:00, followed by the newly-expanded hour-long ITV News at 18:30.\n\nThe changes mean ITV News will air until 19:30, placing it in competition with Channel 4 News and the BBC's magazine programme The One Show.\n\nThe expansion of ITV News means it will compete with the BBC's magazine programme The One Show at 19:00\n\nITV said 27 new journalists, producers and multi-skilled camera operators/video editors would be recruited to join the programme alongside ITV's existing specialist editors and correspondents.\n\nCorrespondents will be hired in Wales, Scotland and the north of England, while a new Social Affairs reporter based in the north of England will also be among the new appointments.\n\nWhen the email dropped at 10.30 this morning in the ITV newsroom, there were a lot of smiling faces (after weeks of rumours). In recent years, news has more often been about 'managed decline', with decreasing budgets, bureaus closing and rounds of job cuts the norm not just at ITN (which makes ITV News).\n\nInstead, today the story is of investment in news, with the biggest expansion in airtime at ITV for decades and a round of appointments to come. The pressure is now on ITN to get it right; to ensure disgruntled Emmerdale fans and others who switch on to get primetime ITV programmes at 7pm aren't turned off by what they'll now see instead.\n\nI understand the beefed-up evening news won't be morphing into a news and discussion show (like Channel 4 News) or even (as is being suggested by some) into a magazine format (like BBC's The One Show), but will, in the main, simply contain more on-the-ground reports and lives. I'm told the phrase that has been used in recent months in planning this is 'getting Britain right' and that the programme will focus primarily on UK coverage and on telling the story of Britain.\n\nITV's decision is an acknowledgement of the value of live broadcasting in the age of the streamers (think of the wall-to-wall coverage Paul Brand's scoop got recently, across the channels, as ITV News aired the video of the PM's former Press Secretary Allegra Stratton being asked about rumours of a Christmas party held at Downing Street). The decision is also likely a sign that, in order to invest in primetime dramas like Trigger Point, which started last night on ITV, cuts need to be made in other parts of the primetime schedule. News can fill that hole.\n\nThe big question, of course, is what it means for ITV's News at Ten - or 'News at When' as it used to be dubbed as it bounced around the schedule. Does an extended early evening news bulletin signal plans for a future scaling back of the later news bulletin? It's a trend in the US, where the main news programmes are primarily aired in the early evening. That's denied by ITV, but media watchers will be looking to see if anything else emerges from the channel in the months ahead.\n\nLygo said their evening news programme continued to attract large audiences despite rapidly changing viewing habits.\n\n\"We are very excited to be announcing this investment in what is an important public service strength of ITV - high-quality, impartial, trusted broadcast journalism - at a time when it could not be more important,\" he added.\n\nEvening news bulletins are regularly among the most-watched programmes on both BBC One and ITV.\n\nOn Friday (21 January), BBC One's Regional News and Weather was the most popular programme of the day on the network, with five million viewers watching at 18:30.\n\nITV said it would hire 27 new journalists, producers and camera operators for its increased news coverage\n\nITV said its own evening news programme was watched by an average of 3.2 million viewers in 2021, with the show posting its highest viewing shares for a decade in 2020 and 2021.\n\nViewers in the Scottish STV licence areas will continue to receive STV News at 18:00 on Monday to Friday under the new plans, followed by the new hour-long news programme.\n\nOn Thursdays, STV's current affairs programme, Scotland Tonight, will move from its usual 19:30 slot to 20:30.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Taylor Swift told Albarn that she writes all of her own music\n\nTaylor Swift has criticised Damon Albarn, lead singer of Blur and later of Gorillaz, after he said that she doesn't write her own music.\n\nTalking to the LA Times, Albarn replied to the interviewer calling Swift \"an excellent songwriter\" by stating \"she doesn't write her own songs\".\n\nSwift responded on Twitter: \"I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this.\"\n\n\"I write all of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and so damaging.\"\n\nAlbarn said in the interview that he prefers Billie Eilish, who he called a \"really interesting songwriter\".\n\n\"I'm more attracted to that than to Taylor Swift. It's just darker - less endlessly upbeat. Way more minor and odd. I think she's exceptional.\"\n\nEilish co-writes her songs with her brother, producer Finneas.\n\nWhen the interviewer said that Swift co-writes her music, Albarn responded: \"That doesn't count. I know what co-writing is. Co-writing is very different to writing. I'm not hating on anybody, I'm just saying there's a big difference between a songwriter and a songwriter who co-writes.\"\n\nThere was a swift backlash on Twitter, including from producer Jack Antonoff, who has worked with Swift extensively.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by jackantonoff This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAlbarn later apologised, writing to Swift on Twitter: \"I totally agree with you. I had a conversation about songwriting and sadly it was reduced to clickbait. I apologise unreservedly and unconditionally. The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand.\"\n\nThis is not the first time Albarn has caused controversy when criticising pop stars. He once reportedly called Adele \"insecure\" after they had worked together on music that was never released.\n\n\"It ended up being one of those 'don't meet your idol' moments,\" she later told Rolling Stone.\n\n\"And the saddest thing was that I was such a big Blur fan growing up. But it was sad, and I regret hanging out with him.\"\n\nAlbarn later denied calling her insecure, stating the reports were concocted from someone overhearing a conversation with a friend.\n\nSwift also got the backing of an unexpected supporter, the president-elect of Chile, a known fan of her music, who once posed with a picture of the singer mocked up as a saint.\n\nGabriel Boric, who is 35, tweeted in English: \"Here in Chile you have a huge group of supporters who knows that you write you[r] own songs from the heart. Don't take seriously guys that need to insult or lie to get attention. Hugs from the south Taylor.\"", "Artwork: Webb should be ready for full science operations in June or July\n\nThirty days after it was launched, the James Webb telescope has arrived at the position in space where it will observe the Universe.\n\nThe Lagrange Point 2, as it's known, is a million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth on its nightside.\n\nWebb was finally nudged into an orbit around this location thanks to a short, five-minute thruster burn.\n\nControllers back on Earth will now spend the coming months tuning the telescope to get it ready for science.\n\nKey tasks include switching on the observatory's four instruments, and also focusing its mirrors - in particular, its 6.5m-wide segmented primary reflector.\n\n\"There's a pretty intensive effort to take all of those 18 segments from their current state and get them to act as one big mirror, and also to get the secondary mirror into its optimised condition,\" explained Charlie Atkinson, the chief engineer on Webb at Northrop Grumman, the American aerospace company that co-led the telescope's development with the US space agency (Nasa).\n\n\"We do this using the science images, which is why we need to get the science instruments activated and checked out with some initial calibration work,\" he told BBC News.\n\nWebb, billed as the successor to the famous Hubble Space Telescope, was launched on 25 December by an Ariane-5 rocket from French Guiana.\n\nIts overarching goals are to take pictures of the very first stars to shine in the Universe and to probe far-off planets to see if they might be habitable.\n\nEurope's Ariane-5 gave the new observatory a near-perfect trajectory and velocity to get it out to L2. Even so, two course correction burns were necessary, with the third on Monday tipping Webb into its planned parking position.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lift-off: Watch the moment the James Webb left Earth on its Ariane rocket\n\nThe Lagrange Point 2 is one of five gravitational \"sweet-spots\" around the Sun and Earth where satellites can hold their position with few orbital adjustments, thus conserving fuel.\n\nThe other advantage is that Webb will not experience at L2 the big swings in temperature and light endured by space telescopes positioned much closer to Earth.\n\nThis is vital for the mission. It's designed to view the cosmos in infrared light and must maintain therefore constant super-cold conditions for its hardware.\n\nInfrared light has waves that are just longer than those of visible light. \"Seeing\" in the infrared will allow the telescope to, for example, look through dust to image stars that would otherwise be obscured.\n\nThe individual segments of the primary mirror must be aligned to act as one\n\nWebb will now circle L2, keeping the Earth and the Sun in a near-straight line.\n\n\"L2 is pseudo-stable,\" said Jean-Paul Pinaud, who leads the Northrop engineers that keep Webb on track.\n\n\"The flight operations team is preparing routine station-keeping burns. They'll be doing those every 20 days or so with the trajectory calculations provided by our flight dynamics team. We'll set them up in a similar way, and then fire the thruster. But the burns will be quite small.\"\n\nHidden behind a big sunshield, Webb's optics and instruments will soon cool to about -230C (some sections of the telescope are already there). When that happens, controllers will switch on Webb's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to take a picture of a test star to begin the process of aligning the big mirror.\n\n\"We know when we first focus on a star in space, we'll actually see 18 different spots of light because the 18 individual mirror segments won't be aligned,\" said Nasa instrument systems engineer Begoña Vila.\n\n\"But we'll adjust the mirrors to bring all the spots together to make a single star that's not aberrated and good for normal operations.\n\n\"It's a long process. It can take up to three months during commissioning, and we are ready to do that,\" she told BBC News.\n\nFocusing involves driving small actuators, or motors, on the back of the 18 segments of the primary mirror to harmonise their curvature. The current misalignment, which is measured in millimetres, will be brought down to one measured in nanometres - a factor of a million improvement.\n\nSimilar adjustments will be applied to the 74cm-diameter secondary reflector which sits out in front of the primary mirror and is used to bounce light back towards the instruments.\n\nAn image taken from the top of the Ariane as Webb separates to begin the next phase of its journey\n\nSo far, the Webb mission has not put a step wrong. The launch and journey out to L2 passed off without incident.\n\nAnd even the complex business of unfolding the telescope after it came off the top of the Ariane rocket was made to look like the easiest of rehearsals.\n\n\"We were thrilled with the precision and success of all those deployments,\" said Kyle Hott, the mission systems engineering lead at Northrop.\n\n\"It's pretty incredible to think that it was all just a concept on paper decades ago, and now it's actually here, arriving at L2. Morale is high and we're so very excited.\"", "One of three ex-Minneapolis policemen present at the death of George Floyd will testify in his own defence in a federal civil case against him and his colleagues.\n\nThe charge that Thomas Lane deprived Mr Floyd of his civil rights is \"a perversion of justice\", his lawyer said.\n\nMr Lane, 38, and ex-officers J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao are also facing state criminal charges.\n\nIn her opening argument, Samantha Trepel, the government prosecutor, said that the three men should be held accountable for failing to act as Mr Floyd had his neck pinned to the ground by senior officer Derek Chauvin.\n\n\"These three CPR-trained defendants stood or knelt next to Officer Chauvin as he slowly killed George Floyd right in front of them,\" she said.\n\nThe government is seeking to prove that the ex-officers showed \"deliberate indifference to [Mr Floyd's] serious medical needs\" during the attempted arrest, thus depriving him of his right against illegal search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution.\n\nBut Eric Gray, Mr Lane's lawyer, described him on Monday as a \"gentle giant\" who \"did everything possible to help George Floyd\".\n\nRobert Paule, a lawyer representing Mr Thao, told the court: \"The death of George Floyd is indeed a tragedy. However, a tragedy is not a crime.\"\n\nIt is rare for US police officers to be charged under civil rights statutes, and the trial could ultimately expand how officers are held liable for excessive use of force.\n\nTwelve jurors and six alternates were selected for the trial last week.\n\nVideo evidence shows that, as Chauvin pressed his knee into Mr Floyd's neck, Mr Lane restrained his legs, Mr Kueng, 27, held his torso, and Mr Thao, 35, warned bystanders to keep away from them.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Lane and Mr Kueng's defence teams are expected to argue that fault lies with Chauvin, the senior officer. Their lawyers have pointed out that the two men were rookies in their first week on the job, with Chauvin as their training officer.\n\nA criminal complaint against Mr Lane mentions he twice asked Chauvin whether they should turn Mr Floyd over into a side recovery position and was rebuffed both times.\n\nThe trial is expected to last about four weeks. None of the members of the jury are African American.\n\nThe judge overseeing the case, US District Judge Paul Magnuson, told potential jurors last week that the case had \"absolutely nothing\" to do with race and would only rely on the facts.\n\nLegal experts say prosecutors could also ask Chauvin to take the stand against his colleagues.\n\nConvicted of murder and manslaughter last June, Chauvin is serving 22 1/2 years in state prison.\n\nHe is also awaiting federal sentencing for his own civil rights charges, after accepting a plea deal in December in order to avert a second trial.\n\nLawyers for the Floyd family said the trial would be \"another painful experience\" but \"another milestone in the long, slow journey to justice for George Floyd and his family\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Fans rush towards the Olembé stadium in Yaoundé before the crush\n\nAt least eight people have been killed and 38 injured in a crush outside an Africa Cup of Nations football match in Cameroon.\n\nVideos showed screaming fans being crushed at an entry gate to the Olembé stadium in the capital Yaoundé.\n\nWitnesses described chaotic scenes outside the ground as thousands of fans struggled to get access.\n\nTwo boys, aged eight and 14, are among the dead, and seven people were seriously injured.\n\nCameroonian President Paul Biya ordered an investigation into the \"tragic incident\". The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has also launched its own investigation, and says a minute's silence will be observed at future matches as a mark of respect to those who died.\n\nOfficials say about 50,000 people tried to attend the match on Monday.\n\nThe stadium has a capacity of 60,000 but it was not meant to be more than 80% full for the game because of Covid restrictions.\n\nNick Cavell, a producer for BBC Africa Sport, was at the match and says news of the crush did not seem to filter through to the crowd until there were reports on social media.\n\nImages on social media show fans clambering over fences, rushing past checkpoints and trampling on unconscious supporters. Others show some trying to resuscitate their fellow fans.\n\nDanish journalist Buster Emil Kirchner described seeing \"a lot of chaos\" as fans clamoured to enter the ground through a single open gate.\n\n\"It was hectic - people running, people climbing fences, people breaking through the barricades,\" he told the BBC.\n\nAnother journalist, Leocadia Bongben, saw a commotion coming from one of the fan zone areas outside the stadium.\n\n\"People started shouting,\" she told the BBC's Newsday programme. \"A minute after that an ambulance came to the stadium, but when we got to the place the police would not allow us to get close to where the stampede was.\n\n\"It's really quite a sad situation that people go to watch a game and they end up dying there.\"\n\nSome of the injured were in a \"desperate condition\", nurse Olinga Prudence told the Associated Press.\n\nCameroon is football-mad and has not hosted an Africa Nations Cup in 50 years, so crowds flocked to the stadium to see the biggest game of the tournament so far. The problem is, 30 minutes before kick-off, only one gate - the south gate - was open.\n\nA bottleneck formed, with one eyewitness saying fans with tickets were waving them in the air trying to gain access, frustrated with the slow speed of entry. Fans without tickets were also in the crowd, trying their luck.\n\nFans need a negative Covid test to get into the stadium, which can only delay things - but this is not done by the gates - and separate sources I've spoken to do not believe it had a major bearing on the stampede.\n\nSecurity at the Afcon stadiums could be better - there is a significant police presence but it is not as organised as it could be. Some gates are flimsy with temporary fencing supported by breeze blocks that can be pushed down - though this was not the case with the south gate, where people were trampled and pressed against fences in the crush.\n\nVanessa Tchouanzi told Reuters news agency she saw her friend get knocked over and killed by a rush of people \"coming in in droves\".\n\n\"She couldn't take the shock, the weight of all those people,\" she said.\n\nFootball's world governing body Fifa said the \"thoughts and prayers of the global football community\" were with those affected.\n\nCaf President Patrice Motsepe said no more tournament matches would take place at the stadium until there was an \"absolute guarantee\" fans would be safe.\n\n\"Clearly there were failures - there were things that should have been foreseen,\" Mr Motsepe told a press conference.\n\nThe African football body said Sunday's quarter-final would now be moved from the Olembé stadium and held instead in another stadium in the same city - the Ahmadou Ahidjo.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Charles Ayitey This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAfter a low turnout at the first round of matches of the continent's top football tournament, the Cameroonian authorities have organised mass transport and given out free tickets to lure fans to attend.\n\nThe Olembé stadium, officially called the Paul Biya stadium but dubbed \"Olembé\" after the neighbourhood it occupies, is the largest in Cameroon and opened last year. It was scheduled to host three more matches, including the final.\n\nCameroon was supposed to host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019, but was stripped of the event amid concerns over delays in building stadiums and infrastructure.\n\nMonday's last 16 match between Cameroon and Comoros took place despite the incident and ended with a 2-1 win for the hosts.\n\nMore on Cameroon's Africa Cup of Nations:", "Downing Street may have officially \"welcomed\" the police inquiry into the shenanigans behind closed doors in No 10 during lockdown.\n\nBut what is likely to emerge in the next few days may be anything but welcome for Boris Johnson.\n\nIt is only the second time in a century that a serving prime minister has been part of a police investigation.\n\nIt is embarrassing, serious and could end up finding that some of the most powerful people in the country broke the law.\n\nFor a Conservative leader of the party that prides itself on being the guarantor of law and order, that is deeply uncomfortable.\n\nBefore the police inquiry completes its work, Westminster and Whitehall is now braced for the results of the official inquiry into what went on, which could be published as early as Wednesday.\n\nI'm told the report prepared by senior official Sue Gray, who pulls no punches, is essentially complete.\n\nAs I write late on Tuesday night, it is yet to be delivered officially to Downing Street, but Ms Gray is understood to be on the verge of submitting it.\n\nShe is also keen, I'm told, that the inquiry is published in its entirety with no summary, or redactions which could blur or mask some of its more pointed information.\n\nThe report is said to be full and frank, and is not expected to be easy reading either for the government, or the civil service itself.\n\nIt's understood that there has been no shortage of evidence, with photographs and Whatsapp messages passed to her.\n\nMuch of that evidence has over recent days been passed to the police, explaining why the Met concluded on Tuesday that it was important for them to publicly announce that they would also investigate.\n\nA dispute over whether the publication of the inquiry report would have to be delayed caused a frenzy in Westminster on Tuesday.\n\nBut in the end, short of more twists in this bizarre and serious story, the report will be published very soon, quite separately and in advance of the police's conclusions.\n\nPublication could be crunch time politically, because remember, many Tory MPs have been so angered and embarrassed by weeks of allegations that they have been pondering seriously whether it's time to call a halt to Boris Johnson's time in office.\n\nFor some of them, the report will give the cover they seek to make public their view that he ought to go.\n\nFor many others, who might see themselves as the reasonable rump of the party, the findings of the report and how Boris Johnson explains himself immediately after will be the deciding factor into whether they will continue to back him or not.\n\nWhat they are acutely conscious of too is the reason why all the weeks of allegations have been so toxic.\n\nIt's not that Boris Johnson and his staff had a slice of cake, or shared a hunk of Cheddar in the Downing Street back garden.\n\nIt's because the impression has been created that while millions of members of the public were suffering because of the lockdown rules, those who had written and imposed them were not paying attention at all.\n\nThere is a strand of opinion in the Tory party and among the public too, that, as we discussed yesterday, it's ridiculous to consider removing a prime minister over people having a sausage roll or a gin and tonic when they weren't meant to.\n\nYet with the involvement of the police, a potentially bruising official inquiry and the broad public reaction reflected in the polls, there is no question that these are intensely difficult days for Downing Street, and a decisive 48 hours for Boris Johnson.", "Interest payments on government borrowing last month hit a record high for December as surging inflation increased the cost of debt.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics (ONS) said interest on government debt hit £8.1bn last month - up from £2.7bn a year earlier.\n\nThe increase came as soaring energy costs sent inflation to a 30-year high.\n\nOfficial borrowing - the gap between spending and tax receipts - last month was a lower-than-forecast £16.8bn.\n\nThe figure was down £7.6bn from the same month a year earlier, with the Treasury's coffers bolstered by more income from housing stamp duty and fuel taxes.\n\nBut public debt interest payments are linked to the Retail Prices Index of inflation, which hit 7.5% last month, the highest rate since March 1991.\n\nFor the financial year to date, borrowing has now reached £146.8bn, the second-highest figure for the period since records began in 1993.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak, under pressure to relax planned tax rises in April, underlined the impact of rising debt repayments in a statement after the figures were released.\n\nHe said: \"We are supporting the British people as we recover from the pandemic through our Plan for Jobs and business grants, loans and tax reliefs.\n\n\"Risks to the public finances, including from inflation, make it even more important that we avoid burdening future generations with high debt repayments.\n\n\"Our fiscal rules mean we will reduce our debt burden while continuing to invest in the future of the UK.\"\n\nIn total, more than 50 schemes have been announced by the UK government and devolved nations to support individuals and businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThe consensus among economists was that December borrowing would reach about £18.5bn. However, with the rate of inflation set to continue rising until about April, analysts at Capital Economics said further falls were unlikely.\n\nNational Insurance (NI) is set to rise in April, piling more cost-of-living pressure on struggling households.\n\nAlthough Mr Sunak has so far given no signal he will bow to pressure to scrap the rise, Capital Economics said the December figures suggest he \"would have enough fiscal room to cancel\" the NI rise without too much damage to the nation's finances.\n\nOverall the public purse may be in better shape than some had feared - but that doesn't mean the chancellor is in a generous mood.\n\nThe amount of interest the Treasury paid on its debts in December was three times what it was a year ago.\n\nAbout a quarter of public debt is linked to inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index. And that inflation is now at a 30-year high of over 7%, and is set to rise further in the coming months.\n\nMoreover, interest rates themselves are likely to rise in a bid to curb price rises - and every 1% on rates adds £20bn to the cost of public debt repayments.\n\nIt's mounting cost that a chancellor who is intent on reducing borrowing has zoomed in on. Rishi Sunak has stressed that it's \"important that we avoid burdening future generations with high debt repayments\".\n\nThat may be his way of hinting that he won't be swayed by calls to delay looming tax changes that are set to take a further chunk out of household budgets, and that the Treasury is prepared to give only limited help to reduce the pain of soaring energy costs.\n\nEconomists at the Institute of Fiscal Studies say that the chancellor does have the financial wiggle room to at least delay tax rises for now.\n\nBut they also say that those rises will have to eventually come, faced with rising demands from the likes of an ageing population, the public finances are to be knocked into a more sustainable state.", "About a million children in England - one out of every eight pupils - were off school last Thursday, as Covid-related absences rose.\n\nThe official figures also show staffing problems worsening, with a quarter of schools seeing teachers and leaders' absence rates above 15%.\n\nAcross England as a whole, about 9% of teachers were absent.\n\nEducation Secretary Nadhim Zahawi says he is giving schools what they need to keep pupils in class.\n\nHe said: \"As we transition from pandemic to endemic, it makes me even more determined to fight for children to be in school every day they possibly can be.\"\n\nThe government is also loosening Covid restrictions in schools by no longer requiring pupils to wear masks.\n\nOf the one million pupils (12.6%) absent, 415,000 were out of school for Covid-related reasons.\n\nAlso on 20 January, 47,000 teachers and school leaders were absent - 3,000 more than two weeks previously - half for Covid-related reasons.\n\nNational Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman said: \"Covid absence figures for pupils are the worst they have been this academic year.\n\n\"Schools are struggling to keep things running, with nearly 10% of their staff off, on average - but for some, this is much higher.\n\n\"Our members are repeatedly telling us that they are having to drop everything to find cover and that just keeping things going is a challenge.\"\n\nAnd this was putting huge pressure on pupils in exam years.\n\nJohn Blaney, assistant chief executive of BMAT Stem Academy - a university technical college in Harlow, Essex - said the general message seemed to be the pandemic was over \"but on the ground in schools, that isn't the case, one of [our trust's] schools is currently operating with almost 50% of staff off isolating,\"\n\nIt was \"nigh on impossible to get supply teachers into schools\", he told the Commons Education Committee on Tuesday morning.\n\n\"If we want to avoid such issues in the future, we need to have a long-term plan to get teachers back into the classroom,\" Mr Blaney added.\n\nMeanwhile, Jo Cotton, chief executive of the NET Academies Trust, which runs six primary schools in Essex, said remote learning had led to \"disjointed learning and inconsistent teaching\".\n\nAssociation of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton said: \"The passing of the first two full weeks of the spring term have seen attendance deteriorate further in our schools, with even more students and staff away from the classroom.\n\n\"The government's unexpected announcement last week that face coverings are now no longer recommended in classrooms, and from Thursday in communal areas, reduced the defences available to schools to control the spread of Covid-19.\"\n\nThe Department for Education is also launching a consultation on managing school absences, after statistics showed persistent absence is rising.\n\nMr Zahawi said: \"Absence due to Covid is unavoidable, but there are other reasons children miss out on school too.\"\n\nHe said the new plans would end \"the postcode lottery of how attendance is managed\" around the country,\n\nThey aim to make make sure \"every child and family gets the best possible support to attend school as regularly as possible\".\n\nThe plans include requiring schools to have robust policies setting out how they support pupils to attend regularly.\n\nThey will also set out how schools and local authorities should use penalty notice fines for non-attendance.", "Last updated on .From the section Watford\n\nWatford have appointed Roy Hodgson as their new manager.\n\nThe former England and Liverpool boss, 74, returns to the Premier League after leaving Crystal Palace at the end of last season.\n\nThe Hornets sacked Claudio Ranieri on Monday, the 15th managerial change since the Pozzo family took over the club in 2012.\n\nHodgson will be tasked with securing Premier League survival as they sit 19th, two points from safety.\n\nRay Lewington, who managed Watford between 2002 and 2005, will join as assistant, filling the same position he did under Hodgson for England and Palace.\n\nThe club have not announced the length of Hodgson's contract.\n\nWatford acted quickly to find a successor to Ranieri, whose last game in charge was Friday's 3-0 home defeat by relegation-rivals Norwich.\n\nHodgson's first game will be away to Burnley, who are bottom of the table, on 5 February.\n\nHodgson has been in football management for the best part of 50 years and Watford become the 17th club he has managed in eight countries, while he has also had spells in charge of the Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Finland national sides.\n\nHe worked for the Pozzo family during a brief spell in charge of Udinese, and led Fulham to the Europa League final in 2010 before taking over as Liverpool boss that summer.\n\nHaving departed the Reds after only six months, he joined West Brom in February 2011 and guided the Baggies to two mid-table finishes.\n\nHe also guided England to the quarter-finals at Euro 2012 but left following a 2-1 last-16 defeat by Iceland at the 2016 tournament in France having also overseen a group stage exit at the 2014 World Cup.\n\nHodgson, who will extend his own record as the oldest person to manage in the Premier League, spent nearly four years as Crystal Palace boss having replaced Frank de Boer in September 2017 with the club bottom of the table.\n\nDespite losing his first three games in charge, he guided Palace to 11th in the table. They finished 12th and 14th twice in his subsequent three seasons, and recorded their joint-best Premier League points total of 49 in 2018-19, matching the tally from the 42-game season in 1992-93.\n• None Our coverage of Watford is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Watford - go straight to all the best content", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Dame Cressida Dick announce the Met Police's investigation into No 10 lockdown parties\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has launched an investigation into parties held in No 10 during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nOfficers were looking into \"potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations\" in Downing Street and Whitehall since 2020, Commissioner Cressida Dick said.\n\nShe added that the investigation was launched after an internal inquiry led by civil servant Sue Gray passed information to the force.\n\nHis spokesman said the PM did not believe he had broken the law.\n\nBBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said Ms Gray's report is essentially complete, and it was likely to be published on Wednesday.\n\nBut she added No 10 would not see the report on Tuesday evening, meaning it was not expected to be published before Prime Minister's Questions.\n\nFor months, the prime minister has been dogged by reports of staff parties in Downing Street, some attended by him, when lockdown laws preventing social mixing were in force.\n\nThe PM has apologised for attending a \"bring your own booze\" event on 20 May 2020, during the first lockdown, saying he thought it was a \"work event\".\n\nDame Cressida would not say which parties were being investigated by the force, and while breaches of regulations can result in fixed penalty notices, the police inquiry did not mean they would be issued \"in every instance and to every person involved\".\n\nLabour deputy leader Angela Rayner renewed calls for Mr Johnson to resign in light of the inquiry, calling him a \"national distraction\".\n\nIn the Commons, she said \"potential criminality has been found in Downing Street\", and that the need for a police investigation into No 10 parties was \"a truly damning reflection on our nation's very highest office\".\n\nBoris Johnson told the Commons he welcomed the investigation, as it would \"give the public the clarity it needs\" over the allegations.\n\nAnd Paymaster General Michael Ellis called for MPs to \"let the investigation run its course and not pre-empt its conclusions\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Labour's Angela Rayner: \"Potential criminality has been found in Downing Street\"\n\nMr Johnson - who was in the Commons to deliver a statement on the situation in Ukraine - said: \"I welcome the Met's decision to conduct its own investigation because I believe this will help to give the public the clarity it needs and help to draw a line under matters.\n\n\"But I want to reassure the House and the whole country that I and the government are focused 100% on dealing with the people's priorities.\"\n\nThe news comes after fresh allegations of a birthday party being held for the prime minister in June 2020.\n\nDowning Street admitted that staff gathered inside No 10 to celebrate Mr Johnson's birthday when the first Covid lockdown was still in place, but ministers have disputed reports about the number of people attending.\n\nDame Cressida said on Tuesday that she understood the \"deep public concern\" about the allegations of parties inside No 10, along with the \"huge sacrifices\" the public had made during the pandemic.\n\nAnd she said it would \"not normally be a proportionate use of time\" for the force to investigate rule breaches as far back as two years, but police would look at allegations that \"appeared to be the most serious and flagrant breach\" of regulations.\n\nDame Cressida said while the force would not give \"a running commentary\" on the case, it would provide updates at \"significant points\".\n\nMet Police Commissioner Cressida Dick - pictured here with Boris Johnson in 2019 - confirmed the force would look into \"potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations\".\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told the BBC the government was in \"meltdown\", adding: \"We got here because the prime minister can't tell the truth, he's lied continually, he's been dishonest to Parliament and to the British people.\n\n\"He has to go, he should resign.\"\n\nBut Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg told reporters the PM's leadership had been \"brilliant\", and the government had done \"an amazing job\" throughout the pandemic.\n\nAnd Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh told MPs: \"When Europe stands on the brink of war and there is a cost-of-living crisis, can we please have a sense of proportion over the prime minister being given a piece of cake in his own office by his own staff?\"\n\nBoris Johnson says the Met's investigation should bring clarity - but he should perhaps be careful what he wishes for.\n\nWe can't anticipate the findings of that inquiry - but even if the prime minister is not slapped with a fixed penalty notice, if any action were to be taken against staff, then questions about the Downing Street \"culture\" under his leadership will come to the fore.\n\nThe former chief whip Mark Harper was anxious to know if the PM himself would be questioned by officers.\n\nEven if this was as a witness, this would not exactly help rebuild the public trust which has eroded in recent weeks.\n\nAnd the clarity he seeks could take some time to deliver, potentially elongating the political pain.\n\nSome Tory MPs have already openly called for Mr Johnson to go over the alleged parties, but others have said they are waiting to read Ms Gray's conclusions before deciding on the PM's future.\n\nA total of 54 Conservative MPs must write to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, declaring no confidence in the PM, to trigger a leadership contest.\n\nSenior backbench MP David Davis, who called for Mr Johnson to resign at last week's PMQs, said the police investigation meant \"this nightmare gets even worse\", adding: \"We have to be able to get back to dealing with real threats as quickly as possible.\"\n\nAnother senior Tory told the BBC the PM \"can't stay now\" and this latest development \"may trigger a few more to put their letters in\".\n\nBut a former cabinet minister told the BBC he thought the police investigation would delay more letters being written, adding: \"Where it depended on what Sue Gray said, it now depends on what the police will say.\"\n\nThis is a hugely important investigation politically, but as police inquiries go it is actually very straightforward.\n\nIt is what is known as a \"summary\" offence, the maximum penalty is a fine, and if the fine was challenged it would only be dealt with by a magistrates' court.\n\nIt would be disproportionate to carry out a very detailed and intrusive investigation.\n\nNow that the Metropolitan Police has decided which of the alleged parties is potentially in breach of the law, the question is: Who was at them?\n\nMuch of the leg-work will have been done on that by Sue Gray's team in the Cabinet Office.\n\nDetectives will be looking at emails, CCTV, movements of staff passes, and personal accounts given to Sue Gray or to the police.\n\nThey will also be looking at whether anyone who they decide was present at a particular event had a good reason to be there.\n\nIt could be that at some of the events some people had a just about good enough reason to be there, but other people did not.\n\nMaybe it was the workplace for some people, and they were just on the right side of the law on that occasion. For others that may not apply.\n\nThe government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street. Boris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Finn Kitson \"didn't really leave his room very much at all\" during his Covid self-isolation period, his mother said\n\nA student took his own life after being told to isolate shortly after arriving at university, an inquest has heard.\n\nFinn Kitson was forced to self-isolate when a flatmate tested positive for Covid-19 within days of him starting at the University of Manchester in 2020.\n\nHis mother told Manchester Coroner's Court the 19-year-old from Cambridge \"literally\" felt \"very, very isolated\".\n\nCoroner Zak Golombeck said there was \"no doubt\" the situation affected Mr Kitson's mental health.\n\nThe court was told the pandemic had disrupted the student's gap year travels in south-east Asia and he had arrived back home during the UK's first national lockdown in March 2020.\n\nHis mother Jane Denney said her son's summer months had been \"miserable\", but she genuinely thought he was \"excited\" about moving to Manchester in September and \"looking forward to the next stage of his life\".\n\nThe court heard Mr Kitson had socialised as much as he could with friends before a fellow student in his halls of residence in Fallowfield tested positive.\n\nDuring his isolation period, the University of Manchester announced that all tutorials would be held remotely while infection rates in the area increased.\n\n\"I know he felt very, very isolated - literally - and he didn't really leave his room very much at all,\" Mrs Denney said.\n\n\"He didn't know the people in his flat either.\"\n\nThe hearing was told Mr Kitson attended a Zoom session with his academic adviser on 30 September and that the university's residential life advisers would also regularly contact students living in halls, although no evidence was provided that the 19-year-old was either seen or spoken to during his self-isolation.\n\nSecurity staff found Mr Finn dead in his room on 8 October, one day after his family raised concerns and two days before his self-isolation period was due to end.\n\nThe court was told he had been diagnosed with anxiety as a young teenager and had been under the care of a consultant psychiatrist, but had stopped taking his medication after returning from his travels, telling his mother he felt \"much better\".\n\nRecording a conclusion of suicide, Mr Golombeck said it was clear the pandemic had an effect on his plans, both with travelling and \"more significantly to his mood in the period of isolation\".\n\nMr Golombeck said this would be \"a difficult period\" for any person in Mr Kitson's position and he had \"no doubt that that period of isolation would have had an effect on his mental health\".\n\nThe coroner said Mr Kitson had not disclosed his anxiety on his Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (Ucas) application form, which had only asked prospective students to confirm any \"disability or special need\".\n\n\"In my judgment, the form and the specific wording... does not encourage prospective students to confirm such a diagnosis,\" he said, adding that he would be writing a Prevention of Future Deaths report to Ucas.\n\nHe stressed the form did not contribute to the student's death, but it was \"certainly an issue of concern\".\n\nSpeaking after the hearing, Mrs Denney and Mr Kitson's father, Michael, said in a statement that their son had been a \"beautiful and brilliant young man\" who was \"desperately\" missed by his family.\n\nThey added that they were \"very pleased\" that his inquest had \"shone a spotlight on mental health provision in universities\" and welcomed the coroner's report \"on this very important issue\".\n\nIf you or someone you know has been affected by issues raised in this story, sources of support are available at the BBC Action Line.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The mural was designed by the My City, My Shirt project to help minority communities identify more with their city\n\nA mural known as Cardiff's \"Mona Lisa\" has been painted over to advertise McDonald's burgers.\n\nThe artwork, in the Butetown area of Cardiff, was created last spring to promote diversity and inclusion.\n\nMonths later it was vandalised, which police investigated as a hate crime - but it has now gone completely.\n\nMcDonald's said it did not know about the mural and had \"instructed the artist to repaint his original mural immediately\".\n\nIn a response to Cardiff South and Penarth MP Stephen Doughty on Twitter, who asked \"What on earth are you thinking?\", McDonald's said the site was hired by a third party and it had been unaware of the mural.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by McDonald's UK This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut art project organiser Yusuf Ismail said the agency involved was made aware of the cultural significance of the mural, but were \"dismissive\" and went ahead with the \"hamburger promotion\" anyway.\n\n\"The agency were given all the information about the sensitive site, not just the fact that it's got an incredible piece of artwork on it, but that it was vandalised, probably racially motivated,\" he said.\n\n\"So they had all that information, this is something that they clearly knew about, and they still went ahead with it. The artist had nothing to do with it.\"\n\nHe added that \"just a restoration of the mural isn't really sufficient\" and said there needs to be \"something with a bit of legacy behind it\".\n\n\"Let's try to find a silver lining in all of this… something that will live longer.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The mural's subject Maimuna Indjai said taking part in the project meant a lot to her\n\nThe mural was painted over in mustard yellow, ready for the McDonald's ad\n\nThe mural was loved by many in the community, with children at Mount Stuart Primary School and St Mary the Virgin Church in Wales Primary School in Butetown fundraising to preserve the mural last year.\n\nMr Ismail said he was \"completely devastated\" when he realised \"Butetown's Mona Lisa\" was going to be painted over.\n\n\"That bit of art encapsulated, embodied, so much good about Cardiff, Wales.\n\n\"I've always struggled with that issue of dual identity - am I Welsh, am I Somali? The truth is I'm both.\n\n\"With that one piece of art we were able to address that, to explain to people from different ethnicities... as long as you are in Wales and Cardiff, the city, the country embraces you and you should embrace it back.\n\n\"The mural has been painted over in mustard yellow... it's pretty tasteless.\"\n\nEconomy Minister Vaughan Gething tweeted that the removal of the mural was \"staggeringly insensitive\", while Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport Dawn Bowden said: \"This is so bad. We can surely do so much better than this?\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Vaughan Gething This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Louie Anderson won an Emmy in 2016 for his role as Christine Baskets in comedy drama Baskets\n\nUS comedian Louie Anderson, whose film appearances included Coming to America and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, has died following complications from cancer.\n\nHis representatives said in a statement that he \"passed away peacefully\" on 21 January in Las Vegas, aged 68.\n\nThe comic won an Emmy in 2016 for his role as Christine Baskets in comedy drama Baskets, plus two nominations for outstanding supporting actor.\n\nHe also co-created and starred in the cartoon sitcom Life With Louie.\n\nAnderson based the show on his childhood, and also hosted popular US game show Family Feud for a number of years.\n\nAs well as having a role in 1988 romantic comedy film Coming to America, starring Eddie Murphy, the comic also appeared in its sequel last year.\n\nHe starred alongside Zach Galifianakis and Martha Kelly in FX show Baskets, and guest-starred on Big Bang Theory spin-off Young Sheldon, as well as playing a recurring character in the TBS dark comedy Search Party.\n\nThe comic was also a best-selling author, and his books included Dear Dad, which explored his relationship with his alcoholic father, and Goodbye Jumbo...Hello Cruel World, in which he wrote about his struggle with food addiction and self-esteem.\n\nHe paid tribute to the enduring influence of his late mother in his 2018 book Hey Mom.\n\nActor and writer Henry Winkler said: \"Your generosity of spirit will cover the world from above.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Henry Winkler This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe comic, who was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, started his career on the US club circuit.\n\nHe got his break-out moment in 1984 when he performed a set on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, according to Variety.\n\nAnderson went on to have a four-decade stand-up career, including a comedy special on Showtime in 1987, plus regular TV appearances on late-night shows.\n\nThe comedian, who had been receiving treatment for DLBCL (diffuse large B cell lymphoma), is survived by his two sisters, Lisa and Shanna Anderson.", "Stars including Cher, Brian May and Bonnie Tyler have paid tribute to rock singer Meat Loaf, who has died aged 74.\n\nCher, who duetted with him on the 1981 track Dead Ringer for Love, recalled having \"had so much fun\" with him.\n\nQueen guitarist Brian May, who also worked with Meat Loaf, said he was \"completely gutted\".\n\nHe wrote on Instagram: \"Always full of madness, with the innocent sense of naughtiness of a five-year old, Meat was forever young.\"\n\nBrian May joined Meat Loaf on stage in 2004\n\nMeat Loaf's best-known album, the bombastic Bat Out Of Hell, remains one of the best-selling releases of all time.\n\nThe star sold 100 million albums worldwide in total and also appeared in movies like Fight Club, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Wayne's World.\n\nHe was also known for hits like I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) and Dead Ringer For Love.\n\nThe news of his death was confirmed on the star's Facebook page by his family.\n\n\"We know how much he meant to so many of you and we truly appreciate all of the love and support as we move through this time of grief in losing such an inspiring artist and beautiful man,\" their message read.\n\nBonnie Tyler, who released an album with Meat Loaf in 1989, said he was \"a larger than life character with a voice & stage presence to match & is one of those rare people who truly was a one-off talent and personality.\"\n\nQueen's current frontman Adam Lambert remembered him as \"a gentle hearted powerhouse rockstar forever and ever\".\n\nFellow rocker Alice Cooper also paid his respects, saying: \"Meat Loaf was one of the greatest voices in rock 'n' roll, and he was certainly one of my closest friends in the business.\n\n\"There was nobody, and I mean nobody like Meat Loaf,\" he added. \"His shoes can never be filled.\"\n\nTheatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote: \"The vaults of heaven will be ringing with rock. RIP Meatloaf.\"\n\nBritish vocalist Lorraine Crosby, who sang on I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), told BBC News he was \"a great man\" who was \"very generous with everything\".\n\nThe star was \"larger than life\" and \"had a temper\", she said, but added: \"He didn't fall out with you for long. He'd say his bit, and then everything would be fine the next day.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Meat Loaf in 2016: \"I either want to die in my sleep or die on stage\"\n\nThe Dallas-born singer was born Marvin Lee Aday but also known as Michael, and got his nickname when his dad said he looked as red as meat at birth, before a high school football coach added the \"loaf\".\n\nAs well as the Bat Out Of Hell trilogy, he released a string of other albums in the late 1970s and 1980s, most notably Dead Ringer and Midnight at the Lost and Found.\n\nIn the 90s, I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) was the UK's best-selling single of 1993 and earned him a Grammy Award.\n\nOn screen, he played Eddie in 1975 musical film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, was bouncer Tiny in 1992's Wayne's World, and appeared opposite Brad Pitt as bodybuilder Robert Paulsen in 1999's Fight Club.\n\n\"If Bruce Springsteen can take it over the top, Meat Loaf can take it five storeys higher.\"\n\nThat's how Todd Rundgren, the producer of Bat Out Of Hell, described Meat Loaf's bombastic, operatic voice. He was one of a kind, larger than life - living proof that those clichés can be true.\n\nBorn to a family of gospel singers, he got his break in musical theatre, where he teamed up with Jim Steinman. Together, they spent four years making Bat Out Of Hell.\n\nThe session musicians thought it was a joke, and it was rejected by four record labels. But after two explosive TV performances - on the UK's Old Grey Whistle Test and America's Saturday Night Live - it couldn't be stopped. It has now sold more than 43 million copies worldwide.\n\nThe resulting tour was punishing. Meat Loaf ended up with exhaustion and his career stalled. Worse still, contractual problems meant he received no royalties from Bat Out Of Hell for years, eventually declaring bankruptcy. In one interview, he confessed he was so angered by the situation that he would pull copies of the CD off record store shelves and smash them under his feet to make sure no-one else got paid, either.\n\nBut his career rebounded in the 1990s when he teamed up again with Steinman for Bat Out Of Hell II, producing the high-camp I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That), which spent seven weeks at number one in the UK.\n\nHis death robs rock of a true original. But we'll always be able to belt out those classics in the way they were intended - at the top of our lungs on a late night car ride. Paradise By The Dashboard Light, indeed.\n\nOther friends and collaborators told stories of their time with Meat Loaf. Irish singer Imelda May recalled a boozy night out with him.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Imelda May This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Imelda May\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Boy George This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMeat Loaf was one of the few big-name American entertainment figures to campaign for US presidential candidate Mitt Romney in his race against Barack Obama in 2012.\n\nRomney ultimately lost, but kept his friendship with the singer, who he described on Friday as \"a man of gentle kindness, generous spirit and exceptional talent\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Mitt Romney This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDonald Trump, who did later make his way into the Oval Office, said the late singer was \"smart, talented, open and warm\". The two appeared together on the celebrity version of the US Apprentice.\n\nIn the UK, former culture secretary Matt Hancock revealed that a Meat Loaf gig in Manchester was his first experience of live music.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Matt Hancock This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The head of the German navy has resigned over controversial comments he made over Ukraine.\n\nKay-Achim Schönbach said the idea that Russia wanted to invade Ukraine was nonsense. He added that all President Vladimir Putin wanted was respect.\n\nA number of countries have supplied weapons to Ukraine, including the US and UK. But Germany has refused Ukraine's request for ammunition.\n\nRussia has denied claims that it is planning to invade Ukraine.\n\nBut President Putin has issued demands to the West which he says concern Russia's security, including that Ukraine be stopped from joining the military defence alliance Nato.\n\nHe also wants Nato to abandon military exercises and stop sending weapons to eastern Europe, seeing this as a direct threat to Russia's security.\n\nMeanwhile, the UK has accused Mr Putin of plotting to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government.\n\nMr Schönbach said on Saturday that he had resigned from his role \"with immediate effect\" in order to \"avert further damage\".\n\nHe made the controversial comments while speaking at a think-tank discussion in India on Friday and the video was later published to social media.\n\nIn the video, Mr Schönbach said Mr Putin needed to be treated as an equal by the West.\n\n\"It is easy to give him the respect he really demands - and also probably deserves,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, \"is gone and will never come back\".\n\nThe head of Nato has warned there is a real risk of a fresh conflict in Europe after an estimated 100,000 Russian troops amassed on the border.\n\nSome 170 tonnes of US \"lethal aid\" arrived in Ukraine on Saturday and Sunday, and the UK announced earlier this week that it was sending defence weapons and extra troops for training. Several other Nato members are sending military equipment or deploying forces.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nGermany has refused to send weapons, instead offering to send Ukraine a field hospital. It has reportedly blocked attempts by Estonia to send Ukraine German-origin weapons, according to the Wall Street Journal.\n\nDefence Minister Christine Lambrecht told Welt am Sonntag newspaper that Berlin had already delivered respirators to Ukraine and severely injured Ukrainian soldiers are being treated in German military hospitals.\n\nUkraine has denounced Germany's response, accusing Berlin of undermining Western unity by refusing to transfer weapons to Ukraine or allowing some of its allies to do so.\n\nUkrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a series of posts on Twitter that Germany's stance encouraged Mr Putin to launch an attack.\n\nIn an interview with Sky News on Sunday, Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, called on Germany to play a \"significant role\".\n\n\"If they're not ready to provide us with weapons, defensive weapons, OK, they might do something else which will help us,\" he said.\n\nMr Prystaiko said he would \"absolutely\" like to see Germany block Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.\n\nThe pipeline runs from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, and, if granted regulatory clearance, would increase Moscow's gas exports to Europe. The Ukrainian presidency has described it as a \"dangerous geopolitical weapon\".\n\nApproval for the project is currently being decided by Germany's energy regulator.", "Mr Blinken met his opposite number, Sergei Lavrov - but neither expected a breakthrough\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken hopped on a plane to Europe this week to do three things.\n\nHe wanted to assure Ukraine the US would support it in the face of Russian military threats; rally support among US allies for a unified, aggressive response if needed; and sit down with his Russian counterpart to find a diplomatic solution - or at least show the US was not giving up on diplomacy.\n\nIt was clearly a hastily-arranged trip.\n\nUS officials had only two days' notice to prepare a day full of meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Secretary Dmytro Kuleba, as well as with concerned staff at the US embassy.\n\nThroughout, Mr Blinken hammered the same message: the US stood by Ukraine.\n\nRussia had a stark choice between \"diplomacy and dialogue\" on one hand and \"conflict and consequences\" on the other, he said. By the end of that long first day, it seemed like the US was making progress.\n\nThen President Joe Biden did a rhetorical belly-flop in the middle of the diplomatic pool overnight.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joe Biden: \"It is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further invade Ukraine\"\n\nDuring a nearly two-hour press conference, he said the US would surely argue with its allies over how to respond to a \"minor incursion\" by Russia into Ukraine - and that he thought it was probable that Russia would \"go in\" to Ukraine.\n\nThose views left heads nodding in foreign policy circles. But when it comes to diplomacy, some truths are best left unsaid.\n\nThe next day, Mr Blinken was meeting US \"quad\" allies from Germany, the UK and France in Berlin. But he had to spend most of the day clarifying Mr Biden's comments instead of polishing the appearance of allied unity in the face of Russian intransigence.\n\nMeanwhile, back in Ukraine, President Zelensky was firing off snarky tweets, and other government officials fretted that Mr Biden had given a \"green light\" to a Russian invasion.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDuring a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, both diplomats talked up the strength of the yet-to-be-detailed sanctions that loomed if Russia attacked. Neither, however, seemed interested in discussing whether suspending the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany was a possibility.\n\nEnergy sanctions would hit Russia's national pocketbook the hardest, but seem unlikely. Europe relies on Russian natural gas and Mr Biden is politically sensitive to rising petrol prices in the US.\n\nThe rest of \"the quad\" has issues, too.\n\nFrance's Emmanuel Macron seems intent on pursuing a separate diplomatic strategy with Russia's Vladimir Putin. Plane-spotters were quick to note the longer route around France and Germany that British cargo flights had to take to bring short-range anti-tank missiles to Ukraine this week.\n\nThe US and its allies were talking a good game, but the Russians had to be at least somewhat encouraged by the way the week was playing out.\n\nThe bilateral meeting between Mr Blinken and Russia's Sergei Lavrov on Friday was a spectacle.\n\nAt the historic President Wilson hotel on the banks of a wind-swept Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Russian and American reporters jostled for position.\n\nRussian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, in an attempt to evade the media crush, sought refuge behind a coat rack. Press Secretary Maria Zakharova complained that she couldn't have a casual conversation with reporters who kept trying to record her on their mobile phones.\n\nEventually Mr Lavrov and Mr Blinken made opening remarks, seated across from each other at two long sets of tables adorned with pink and green bouquets.\n\nMr Lavrov said he hoped for \"concrete answers to our concrete proposals\" - including demands that Nato will never expand to former Soviet nations like Ukraine. Mr Blinken, for his part, repeated that Russian aggression would prompt a \"united, swift, and severe response\" from the US and its allies.\n\nAfter the meeting, both sides said little progress had been made - but little had been expected.\n\nMr Lavrov said Russia had no plans to invade Ukraine, despite amassing more than 100,000 troops on its borders. Mr Blinken said he stood by Nato's \"open door\" policy of expansion eligibility for all European nations and promised to provide a written response to Russia's \"concerns\" next week.\n\nAsked if the US would consider using its military to defend Ukraine, he said America was committed to protecting its Nato allies.\n\nBut Ukraine is not a member of Nato - something Ukrainian officials are painfully aware of.\n\nBoth sides promised to keep the dialogue going and left open the possibility of a future meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Putin.\n\nBut in a way, the spectacle is already a win for Russia, regardless of how the crisis is resolved. This is a diplomatic conflict of Russia's making.\n\nTheir movements have prompted a week of furious activity on the part of the Americans and their allies at a time when the US would much rather be focusing on what it views as an era-defining competition with an ascendant China.\n\nInstead, the high-stakes negotiations in Geneva hearken back to a time decades past: Russia is, for the moment, again the centre of global attention.\n\nMr Blinken suggested as much in a speech in Berlin on Thursday afternoon.\n\nAfter detailing what he viewed as the long history of Russian deceit and broken promises, he said it sometimes seemed like Russia wanted to return to the days of the Cold War.\n\n\"We hope not,\" he said. \"But if [Vladimir Putin] chooses to do so, he'll be met with the same determination, the same unity that past generations of leaders and citizens brought to bear to advance peace, to advance freedom, to advance human dignity across Europe and around the world.\"\n\nQuestions remain over what Mr Putin's next move might be\n\nAs he heads back to Washington, it's hard to say what, if anything, has changed in three days of crisis diplomacy.\n\nBoth sides are still talking, but talk without results only goes so far.\n\nRussia could use the US's written response next week as pretext for further escalation. In Ukraine, US diplomats don't know what to expect - more cyber-warfare, a \"minor incursion\" or tens of thousands of Russian troops pouring into the country from three sides and paratroopers landing in Kyiv.\n\nAnything, they say, is possible.\n\nThe US seems determined to try to keep the Russians talking until the spring rains make tank invasion impractical. As for what Russia wants, both Mr Blinken and Mr Biden have been consistent in their conclusion: it ultimately depends on what's going on in Mr Putin's head.", "The student officers had been due to commence training in March\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is to postpone the recruitment of 85 officers due to financial pressures.\n\nIn a letter to the Policing Board, Chief Constable Simon Byrne described the move as \"prudent\" in the circumstances.\n\nThe student officers had been due to start training in March and would have upped costs by up to £5m this year.\n\nIt is understood the Northern Ireland Executive is aware of the development.\n\nThe move comes amid police concerns at Stormont's current draft budget and a warning that, if implemented, officer numbers could drop by 900 over the next three years.\n\nIt currently has about 7,000 officers.\n\nThe PSNI has said that in its current form the budget would leave it facing an operational shortfall of £180m between 2022 and 2025.\n\nSimon Byrne described the postponement as \"prudent\" in the circumstances\n\nIt believes the financial squeeze could only be addressed by having fewer officers - those retiring at a rate of 300 a year would likely not be replaced.\n\nHowever, some level of recruitment is seen as preferable.\n\nIn the 2020 New Decade, New Approach political agreement, which led to the restoration of devolved government at Stormont, the executive pledged to increase officer numbers to 7,500.\n\nThe PSNI is largely funded through the Department of Justice.\n\nThe department told the BBC that Justice Minister Naomi Long believed Stormont's draft budget \"would be damaging to the fabric of the justice system\".\n\n\"Whilst the minister secured funding to increase [police officer] numbers last year, that progress would be reversed if the current draft budget were to be agreed,\" said the department.\n\n\"Given around 70% of the justice budget is spent on policing, there will potentially be significant reductions in the numbers employed in policing and significant and detrimental impacts to key public services provided by the justice system in order to live within the draft budget.\n\n\"There would be very damaging outcomes for some of the most vulnerable in our society.\"\n\nIn 2020 the Stormont executive pledged to increase police officer numbers to 7,500\n\nAlmost 80% of the PSNI's allocation goes on staff operating costs.\n\nIn his letter to the Policing Board, seen by BBC News NI, Mr Byrne states while recognising consultation on the budget is still ongoing, \"we consider it prudent to defer recruitment planned for March\".\n\nIt goes on: \"The impact is that 85 student officers will not now commence training.\"\n\nMr Byrne adds that if there was a \"remedy\" to the budget, \"we are in a position to accelerate recruitment intakes to maintain operational capability\".\n\nPolicing Board member Jonathan Buckley, who is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) assembly member, said he was aware of the decision to postpone recruitment and was \"extremely concerned\".\n\nThe DUP is against the draft budget in its current form.\n\n\"We need more officers, not less, and the finance minister needs to provide the funding required to ensure the commitment to 7,500 officers is met,\" said Mr Buckley.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People have been searching for survivors amid the ruins of the prison\n\nThe UN has condemned an air strike on a Yemen detention centre that has killed more than 70 people.\n\nThe facility in Saada, a stronghold of the rebel Houthi movement in north-western Yemen, was hit on Friday.\n\nUN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the \"escalation needs to stop\".\n\nIn a statement on Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in the country denied it had carried out the air strike.\n\nThe coalition also said the site was not on a list of targets to avoid that had been agreed with the UN and had not been reported by the Red Cross.\n\nSaudi-led coalition forces have been fighting Houthi rebels since 2015. Tens of thousands of civilians, including more than 10,000 children, have been killed or wounded as a direct result of the fighting.\n\nMillions have been displaced and much of the population stands on the brink of famine.\n\nHours after the air strike, rescue workers were still pulling bodies out of the rubble, and hopes of finding survivors are fading, says BBC Middle East correspondent Anna Foster.\n\nThe exact death toll is unclear. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said at least 70 people were killed, though the number is expected to rise.\n\nHouthi-run television showed pictures from the scene of men clearing debris with their hands and of wounded at a local hospital. MSF said one hospital had received more than 200 casualties.\n\n\"There are many bodies still at the scene of the air strike, many missing people,\" Ahmed Mahat, MSF chief in Yemen, told AFP news agency. \"It is impossible to know how many people have been killed. It seems to have been a horrific act of violence.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called for de-escalation.\n\nHope of finding survivors in the rubble is said to be fading\n\nFurther south, three children were killed as they were playing football when an air strike hit a telecommunications facility in the rebel-held port city of Hudaydah, Save the Children aid agency said.\n\nThere was a near countrywide internet outage around the same time, which Houthi media blamed on the attack on the telecommunications site.\n\nSaudi Arabia said the coalition had carried out air strikes in Hudaydah.\n\nThe coalition has stepped up air strikes since the Houthis carried out a rare drone and missile attack on the UAE on Monday. Three civilians were killed in what was the first deadly attack of its kind in the emirates.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nCoverage: Daily radio commentaries on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Sport website and app, with selected live text commentaries online; TV highlights from middle Saturday.\n\nDan Evans was unable to match his best run at the Australian Open as defeat by ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime ended British interest in the singles.\n\nBritish men's number two Evans, seeded 24th, was beaten 6-4 6-1 6-1 by the Canadian in the Melbourne third round.\n\nEvans, 31, lost a tight opener after two sloppy errors at 5-4, handing over the set and the momentum.\n\nAuger-Aliassime also dominated the big points in the second set and cruised through the third to reach the last 16.\n\nEvans is the last of seven Britons to fall in the singles at Melbourne Park, after the earlier exits of Andy Murray, Emma Raducanu, Cameron Norrie, Heather Watson, Harriet Dart and Liam Broady.\n\nEvans received a walkover into the third round after France's Arthur Rinderknech withdrew through injury.\n\nHe was aiming to move into the last 16 for the second time in his career after reaching the same stage in 2017.\n\n\"It's tough to say the walkover had a negative effect on me, but maybe I would have to deal with it better next time if it happened. I had a lot of time to think,\" said Evans.\n\nAuger-Aliassime, who also reached the Melbourne fourth round last year, will face Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev or Croatia's Marin Cilic in the last 16.\n\nEvans made a fantastic start to the 2022 season, winning all three of his matches at the ATP Cup and reaching the semi-finals in Sydney.\n\nA straight-set win against Belgium's David Goffin at Melbourne Park maintained his run of positive results, but he did not have to hit a ball on the match court to reach the third round after Rinderknech pulled out.\n\n\"I wasn't at the races as I have been and losing is difficult to take. But it has been a good swing here in Australia and a lot of positives to take,\" Evans said.\n\n\"Losing here today is not the be all and end all. Losing is part of the sport.\"\n\nAfter four days without a match, Evans started well on serve - despite being irritated by loud music from an outside stage drifting over onto court - and created the first break points of the match.\n\nThe Briton dumped a forehand into the net at 2-2, before a double fault from Auger-Aliassime gave him another opportunity at 4-4.\n\nThis time, the Canadian's deep baseline returning and an ace denied Evans taking a crucial lead.\n\nThe scoreboard pressure then told on Evans.\n\nAt 5-4, a rare foray forward ended with a stretching volley being pushed long for 30-40 and a forehand drive volley into the net on set point - the first break opportunity of the match for Auger-Aliassime - left Evans trailing.\n\n\"It was a bit of a snowball effect. I was nervous, it was difficult and it was a big opportunity,\" Evans said.\n\n\"I didn't take care of business when I had break points so that made it a little worse for how I was feeling.\"\n\nEvans' despondency at losing the opener in such a manner appeared to carry over into the second set.\n\nA double-fault allowed Auger-Aliassime to break for a 2-0 lead and Evans continued to struggle on first serve.\n\nThe Canadian took advantage to go a double-break up at 4-0 and comfortably saw out a set where Evans landed 50% of his first serves.\n\nAfter Evans held at the start the third set, the one-sided nature of the contest quickly resumed. Auger-Aliassime broke for 2-1 and then dropped just four more points as he cruised to victory.\n\n\"It is tough not to feel better, it is one of the best Grand Slam performances I've had,\" said Auger-Aliassime.\n\n\"Everything was working for me today, I'm happy to be through in straight sets.\"\n\nEvans suffered the same fate as Murray and Broady by losing on John Cain Arena, which is known as the 'people's court' because it is open to non-ticket holders.\n\nUsually that leads to a boisterous atmosphere in the stands but, on this occasion, the noise drifting onto court during the opening five games came from live music on a stage entertaining fans outside.\n\nIt was a bizarre situation, one not befitting such an important Grand Slam match, and irritated Evans in particular.\n\nEvans created a break point for 3-2 as a version of The Beatles' Hey Jude played out, but put the forehand into the net and let umpire Jaume Campistol know his feelings at the changeover.\n\n\"It's not like it's a little bit loud, it's on the court,\" Evans told the official.\n\nThe tunes soon stopped and allowed Evans to focus on the set which mattered - the opening one of the match, not the musical variety.\n\nAfterwards, Evans joked they should have kept the music on.\n\n\"I played better with it on,\" he said. \"It was probably the best part of the match, listening to that, I think 'Rocketman' by Elton John.\"\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n\nDan Evans is not a man to make excuses.\n\nHe had his chances early on, he failed to take them, and then experienced a \"snowball effect\" in the second and third sets.\n\nFelix Auger-Aliassime served superbly and put the hammer down in the third set to try and win as quickly as possible, after spending eight hours on court in the first two rounds.\n\nEvans won seven matches in Australia (if you include his walkover here in Melbourne) in another good start to the year. After a short break and some fitness training he has another string of hard court tournaments to look forward to - in Doha, Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami.\n\nHe is inching closer to the world's top 20 but does have quite a number of ranking points to defend over the next three months, including last year's semi-final performance on the clay of Monte Carlo.\n• None BBC News presenter Ros Atkins swaps his news desk for the DJ decks", "Erika Thompson says she is not against vaccines but made a personal decision not to be vaccinated\n\nA midwife fears losing her job over her refusal to get a Covid vaccination due to having a health condition.\n\nMaking vaccination a condition of employment will apply to NHS workers from 1 April.\n\nBut Erika Thompson, from Hampshire, says she has chosen not to get vaccinated as she has heart inflammation conditions.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) says vaccinations remain the \"best defence\" against the virus.\n\nMs Thompson, who has previously had Covid, is an independent midwife but also works at her local NHS local unit when they need staff.\n\nShe is not against vaccines but feels the risks for her personal health are not worth getting the jab.\n\nShe said: \"I don't want to not be a midwife anymore. I feel like it's part of who I am.\n\n\"But I also feel strongly that a mandate is not the way forward and that it's infringing on our human rights to make these decisions.\"\n\nThe Royal College of Midwives does not believe mandatory vaccines are the correct approach\n\nShe said she had seen evidence of very rare cases where heart conditions are affected by the vaccines, and considered her personal circumstances before deciding not to get vaccinated.\n\nWhen asked by the BBC if Covid also posed a risk to her, she replied: \"Absolutely, yes... I have had Covid and I have got natural immunity, and I think we need to ask the question why are we not considering natural immunity in this equation.\"\n\nImmunity against serious illness, gained by catching Covid, wanes faster than the protection from vaccines, according to Prof Adam Finn, a government vaccine adviser.\n\nMs Thompson said the NHS could not afford to lose staff \"or their years' of experience and it will be the public who suffer as a result\".\n\nShe added: \"Why spend all this time protecting the NHS only to decimate it overnight by sacking the staff?\"\n\nThe British Heart Foundation currently recommends that people with a history of heart inflammation still take the vaccine.\n\nAbout 90% of NHS workers are already vaccinated but an estimated 7,000 NHS staff have yet to have one jab in the south region.\n\nBoth the Royal College of Midwives and Unison support staff getting vaccinated but they are opposed to making it mandatory.\n\nA DHSC spokesperson said: \"NHS and care staff do amazing work and we are thankful to those who have chosen to get the vaccine.\n\n\"Health and social care workers are responsible for looking after some of the most vulnerable people in society, many of whom are more likely to suffer serious health consequences if exposed to the virus.\n\n\"This is about patient safety, and ensuring people in hospital or care have as much protection as possible.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A 22-year-old Thai man has been charged with the murder of a British man in western Thailand, according to local officials.\n\nMarcus Evans, 49, died after being attacked in Kanchanaburi in the early hours of Saturday, Thai police said.\n\nA second British man, named by police as Shaun Dagnan, 54, was seriously injured and taken to hospital. A sickle was found at the scene, they added.\n\nThe alleged attacker is due in court on Monday, police said in a statement.\n\nPolice released passport photos of the two men, which show Mr Evans was born in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset and Mr Dagnan was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.\n\nA spokesperson from the UK Foreign Office said: \"We are in contact with the Royal Thai Police following the death of one British man and the hospitalisation of another in Thailand and are ready to provide consular support.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Winter Sports\n\nDave Ryding has won Britain's first alpine skiing World Cup gold medal with victory in the Kitzbuhel slalom.\n\nRyding, 35, was on Friday named in Great Britain's squad for the Beijing Winter Olympics - his fourth Games.\n\nHis two runs clocked in at one minute and 41.26 seconds, 0.38 seconds ahead of Lucas Braathen, with fellow Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen third.\n\nRyding sat sixth after his first run of 51.40 seconds but claimed gold with a brilliant second effort of 49.86.\n\n\"You know, I'm 35 now, but I never stopped believing, I never stopped trying, and to bring the first victory for Great Britain in a World Cup, in Kitzbuhel... I mean, I don't know if dreams are made better,\" he said.\n\nRyding finished second on the same course in 2017, matching the previous best alpine skiing result by a Briton - Konrad Bartelski's runner-up place in the 1981 Val Gardena downhill.\n• None The Football News Show brings you the biggest stories every day\n• None 'I'm here for you': Men from the world of sport and social media open up about their mental health", "Footage from a helicopter shows a black SUV on top of a red Prius, as well as a silver car and a white car, which is partly obscured in this image by a tree\n\nActor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been involved in a car accident in Los Angeles, his spokesman has confirmed.\n\nA woman was hurt in the four-vehicle crash, which occurred on Friday afternoon, Los Angeles Police said.\n\nPhotos from the scene show a large SUV on top of three other vehicles at an intersection near his home in the upscale neighbourhood of Brentwood.\n\nPolice said that no arrest has been made and ruled out the involvement of drugs and alcohol.\n\nThe former California governor's spokesman confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that he was driving the SUV when the incident occurred, but was not hurt.\n\nPhotos after the crash show the 74-year-old standing on the side of the road talking to the other drivers and police officers.\n\nA police report, seen by CBS Los Angeles, said that Schwarzenegger was \"near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Allenford Avenue, when a collision occurred with a red Prius making a u-turn as it continued through a 'red arrow' signal to turn left.\"\n\nIt added that the SUV rolled on top of the red Prius and then ended up hitting two other vehicles.\n\nTabloid news site TMZ reported that the woman driving the Prius had head injuries and was taken to hospital, but her injuries are not thought to be life threatening.\n\n\"He is fine, his only concern right now is for the woman who was injured,\" a representative told PEOPLE magazine.\n\nA spokesman for Schwarzenegger said the actor was unhurt in the incident\n• None No charges over attack, says Schwarzenegger", "Olympic champion Chris Boardman is to lead a new body that aims to encourage cycling and walking.\n\nActive Travel England will seek to improve infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians as well as funding projects to improve air quality.\n\nMr Boardman, previously commissioner for Transport for Greater Manchester, is to become the interim commissioner of the York-based organisation.\n\nIt comes as ministers pledged £5.5m of investment in cycling and walking.\n\nActive Travel England also has a role in inspecting the standards of local highways and ensuring that major planning applications cater for the interests of cyclists and walkers.\n\nIn his Manchester post, Mr Boardman helped to set up the first phase of the city's Bee Network for cyclists and walkers.\n\nHe said high levels of cycling and walking had positive benefits which are \"clearly visible in pockets around the country where people have been given easy and safe alternatives to driving\".\n\nMr Boardman, who won Olympic cycling gold at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, said: \"Perhaps most important of all, though, it makes for better places to live while helping both the NHS and our mission to decarbonise.\"\n\nHe told the BBC he was inspired to help improve cycling and waking infrastructure when he felt it was not safe for his daughter to ride less than 550 metres to their local park.\n\nHe said the body would ensure schemes met a national standard \"so you would feel comfortable letting your kids ride or walk to school in the mornings\".\n\n\"A lot of the time we haven't got a consistent standard so we can't trust what we see. And sometimes it's, 'let's get people who want to ride bikes out of the way of the car' and it's not convenient and it doesn't make people feel safe,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tips from the Netherlands on how to build a nation of cyclists\n\nDuncan Dollimore, from Cycling UK, told BBC Breakfast his organisation had been campaigning for separate infrastructure for active travel for many years but that needed investment.\n\nHowever, for places such as rural roads, where new infrastructure is unlikely to be built soon, he said it was also important to change the behaviour of drivers and raise awareness about how to keep cyclists safe.\n\nActive Travel England begins its work in the summer and Mr Boardman said it was time to \"enable the whole nation to travel easily and safely around their neighbourhoods without feeling compelled to rely on cars\".\n\nThe Department of Transport confirmed its funding for England, which was previously announced, will include £3m to boost cycling infrastructure around railway stations and £300,000 to subsidise 250 electric cargo delivery bikes for small businesses.\n\nA total of £2.2m is also being made available to local authorities to explore making cycling and walking part of NHS \"social prescribing\" schemes, which sees patients being referred to non-clinical services for support.\n\nHealth Minister Maria Caulfield said: \"This vital investment in cycling and walking schemes is providing new ways to improve the health and wellbeing of the nation.\"", "Kiribati went into its first ever lockdown on Saturday\n\nThe remote island nation of Kiribati has gone into lockdown after passengers on the first international flight in 10 months tested positive for Covid.\n\nUnder the new measures, people have been told to stay at home and social gatherings are banned.\n\nSome 36 people on the flight from Fiji have tested positive. Four people have caught the virus from community transmission.\n\nUntil last week, Kiribati had recorded just two Covid cases.\n\nKiribati is one of the most isolated islands in the world. It is some 4,800km (2,980 miles) from its nearest continent, Australia.\n\nOn Tuesday, the government confirmed that 36 of the 54 passengers had tested positive. It said in a post on Facebook that all passengers are currently being monitored by health officials..\n\nAll of the passengers on the flight are fully vaccinated, the government said.\n\nHowever three members of the quarantine facility's security team have since tested positive. Another person who does not work at the facility has also contracted the virus, the government said.\n\nThe lockdown came into force on Saturday but it is not clear how long it will last.\n\nPeople are not allowed to leave their homes unless for essential services. They can buy essential items from shops but only between 06:00 and 14:00.\n\n\"The only way that we can fight this virus is through complete vaccination,\" the office of President Taneti Maamau said on Facebook. \"The public is urged to complete their vaccination doses in order to protect themselves and families.\"\n\nIt is not known what proportion of the 120,000 people in the country have been fully vaccinated.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Kiribati sailors stranded eight thousand miles from home", "Tamana Zaryabi Paryani posted a video of herself pleading for help\n\nThe Taliban can threaten with a whisper. After 20 years of violent struggle, and the loss of tens of thousands of civilian lives, they took power here using brutal force.\n\nEven so, Afghan women refuse to be intimidated.\n\nTamana Zaryabi Paryani is one of those women. It takes raw courage to stand up to armed men who want to take away almost everything you have achieved in life.\n\nLast weekend, she joined dozens of others to demand the right to work and the right to an education. The protesters were pepper-sprayed by Taliban fighters, and a number said they had been stunned by electric shocks.\n\nAfter making their voices heard, they returned home. Some feared they had been followed.\n\nOn Wednesday night, at 20:00, armed men entered Tamana Paryani's apartment block in Kabul's Parwan 2 neighbourhood. She was alone at home with her sisters. The men began to kick the door.\n\n\"Please help, the Taliban have come to my house, my sisters are at home,\" Ms Paryani pleaded on a video posted to social media.\n\n\"We don't want you here now,\" she screamed. \"Come back tomorrow, we can speak tomorrow,\" she pleaded.\n\n\"You can't see these girls at this time of night. Help, the Taliban have come to my house,\" she said before the video ended.\n\nSince the Taliban took power on 15 August, women have complained that they are now prisoners in their own homes.\n\nAnd even there they are not safe. It is a violation of Afghan culture to enter a home that contains only women.\n\nBut having dismissed women police officers, the Taliban do not have female personnel available to question women.\n\nTamana Paryani has been missing for two days now. I went to her apartment to try and trace her.\n\nThere was no-one inside the home. A large muddy boot-print was still visible on the front door.\n\nNeighbours said Ms Paryani had been taken away along with two of her sisters, and no-one has been to the apartment since. They would say only that \"an armed group\" had taken the sisters.\n\nOther women protesters were targeted that night. Another, Parawana Ibrahimkhel, is also missing. Still, the Taliban denied taking them.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC on Thursday, Suhai Shaheen, who hopes to become the Taliban's ambassador to the UN, said: \"If [the Taliban] had detained them, they would say they have detained them, and if that is the allegation they will go to court and they will defend themselves... This is something legal, but if they are not detained, and they are making such fake scenes and shooting films in order to seek asylum abroad.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Taliban official Suhail Shaheen told the BBC that Tamana Paryani's video was faked\n\nOne of Miss Paryani's friends told a different story.\n\nFrom a safe location, in an interview with the BBC, she said, \"I told her as soon as possible, leave your home, take this more seriously you are in danger… When I got home, a friend, also a protester - I don't want to mention her name - she was crying that Tamana had been arrested by the Taliban and that she had released a video on social media.\"\n\nIt is not known if the authorities are looking for the women.\n\nMost of the world refuses to recognise the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. More than half the population is going hungry because of Western-imposed sanctions.\n\nUnder Taliban rule Afghanistan has become the only country in the world which publicly limits education on the basis of gender, which is a major sticking point in the Taliban's quest for legitimacy, and in the lifting of sanctions. The regular protests by women highlighting the issue are a source of embarrassment to the group.\n\nRegardless of who has Tamara Paryani, her sisters and her friends, the Taliban are collectively punishing Afghan women.\n\nOver the past 20 years women here have cast off cultural and family prejudice to live more freely - decades of progress the Taliban appear determined to destroy.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Elika Ashoori is campaigning to free her father from an Iranian jail\n\nBritish-Iranian Anoosheh Ashoori, who is being held in Iran on spying charges, is beginning a hunger strike.\n\nThe retired civil engineer, who is approaching his 68th birthday, has been detained in Evin prison for four years and denies the charges against him.\n\nHis daughter said he hoped the protest would bring \"global attention to the plight\" of those unfairly held by Iran.\n\nThe Foreign Office said Iran's continued detention of Mr Ashoori was \"wholly unjustified\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elika Ashoori This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Ashoori lived in the UK for 20 years, but was arrested in Iran after flying out to see his mother in 2017. He was convicted in July 2019 of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.\n\nIn April 2021, Mr Ashoori's legal team submitted a request to the UK government to grant him diplomatic protection, but this has not yet been granted.\n\nHis wife, Sherry Izadi, has told the BBC she is concerned for his health as he is on prostate and cholesterol medication.\n\nHis family have said that during his detention, Mr Ashoori has been subjected to solitary confinement, coercive and abusive interrogations without a lawyer, forced confession, and threats to his and his family's safety.\n\nThey added that Mr Ashoori has been forced to represent himself during his trial and is in an extremely vulnerable position.\n\nLike Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, he is one of about a dozen Western dual nationals being held by Iran.\n\nAnoosheh Ashoori (pictured with his daughter and his wife) is a retired civil engineer from London\n\nAs well as drawing attention to his own plight, Mr Ashoori wants to show solidarity with a 77-year-old former US diplomat who was held in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Barry Rosen began a hunger strike last week in Vienna, where talks to revive a nuclear deal with Iran are being held.\n\nMr Rosen is demanding that no deal be made without the release of dual nationals from several Western countries being held by Tehran as what he calls bargaining chips.\n\nMs Ashoori said that her father would join others \"who have courageously begun a hunger strike in Vienna, demanding that the release of all foreign and dual nationals held by Iran should be a pre-condition of any new agreement by Iran and the JCPOA parties\".\n\nThe Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is known as the Iran nuclear deal. It is an agreement made in 2015 between Iran and seven world powers (the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany). Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.\n\nThe parties involved in the nuclear deal are meeting in Vienna this month.\n\nAmnesty International's Sacha Deshmukh said the UK government needed to \"immediately grant Anoosheh diplomatic protection status\" and should \"use this as the basis for more sustained action to secure Anoosheh's release and the release of all UK nationals being arbitrarily detained in Iran\".\n\nA Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spokesperson told the BBC that \"Iran's continued detention of Anoosheh Ashoori is wholly unjustified\".\n\nThey added: \"Iran should free all those British nationals unfairly detained in Iran. The Foreign Secretary, Minister Cleverly and senior officials consistently raise the cases of Nazanin Zaghari- Ratcliffe, Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz with the Iranian authorities and will continue to do so.\"\n\nMrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in Iran for five years on spying charges and lost an appeal against a second jail sentence in October.\n\nShe was arrested there in 2016 while taking the couple's daughter, Gabriella, to see her family, and was accused of plotting to overthrow the government. She served four years of a five-year sentence in Evin prison in Tehran, and one under house arrest.", "The car went through the safety barrier and landed on the A1 (M) below\n\nA woman is in a critical condition in hospital after a car plunged off a bridge and landed on its roof in the middle of a busy motorway.\n\nIt happened at the Bowburn Interchange of the A1 (M) at 10:35 GMT on Friday.\n\nThe vehicle, which was being driven on the A177 flyover, went through a safety barrier before landing in the central reservation below, Durham police said.\n\nThe driver of the red Vauxhall Astra freed themselves from the wreckage but the passenger had to be cut free.\n\nPolice confirmed that a woman in her mid-40s suffered serious injuries and remains in a critical condition.\n\nA man in his early 30s was arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and remains in custody.\n\nThe North East Ambulance Service said it requested help from the Great North Air Ambulance which dispatched its critical care team.\n\nIt said one person was flown to Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary's major trauma centre, and another was taken by ambulance to the University Hospital North Durham.\n\nThe road is expected to be closed until Saturday\n\nThe A1(M), within Junction 61, and the A177 were closed in both directions which caused major delays.\n\nThey are likely to remain shut until Saturday while repairs are carried out to the safety barriers and investigations continue.\n\nDrivers are urged to avoid the area and find an alternative route if possible.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by National Highways: North-East This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDet Con Natalie Horner, of Durham Constabulary's collision investigation unit, has appealed for witnesses.\n\n\"We would also urge anyone who saw this vehicle being driven between 09:00 and 10:30 today, especially in the Sherburn Village area, to contact us,\" she said.\n\nA number of ambulances were despatched to the scene on Friday morning\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. MPs should report intimidation tactics to the police, says William Wragg\n\nA Conservative backbencher who accused Downing Street of trying to \"blackmail\" MPs seeking to oust Boris Johnson is to meet police to discuss his allegations.\n\nWilliam Wragg said he will be speaking to a Met Police detective in the House of Commons early next week, after requesting a meeting with the force.\n\nThe MP, who wants the prime minister to quit, said he wanted to leave any probe to \"experts\" rather than No 10.\n\nDowning Street said it had not seen any proof of the behaviour he alleges.\n\nA spokesman said on Friday they were not investigating the allegations but would look \"carefully\" at any evidence presented to them.\n\nChris Bryant, who is chairman of the Commons Committee on Standards, said he had spoken to about a dozen Tory MPs in the past few days who had made similar allegations of whips threatening to withdraw funding for their constituencies, including for campaigning and infrastructure such as bypasses and schools.\n\n\"I've even heard MPs alleging that the prime minister himself has been doing this,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHe described the alleged behaviour as \"misconduct in public office\" and said it was a matter for the police.\n\nThe Labour MP added that he believed this had happened much more over the past 10 years and there had been \"a steady erosion of standards in the way we allocate funding\".\n\nOn Thursday Boris Johnson said he had seen no evidence to support Mr Wragg's allegations.\n\nIt comes as Tory whips and No 10 try to shore up support for the prime minster ahead of civil servant Sue Gray's report into a series of Downing Street lockdown parties which is expected next week.\n\nMr Johnson has been facing down an attempt from some Conservative MPs to oust him since he admitted attending a drinks event at No 10 during the first lockdown, although he says he believed it was a work event.\n\nSo far six Tory MPs have publicly declared no confidence in the PM, but more are thought to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, who organises Tory leadership contests.\n\nUnder party rules, if 54 letters are submitted a no confidence vote is triggered which could result in a leadership election.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tory MP David Davis to PM: In the name of God, go\n\nMr Wragg, MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester and chairman of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, first raised his concerns on Thursday and advised colleagues who feel threatened to go to the police.\n\nHe told the committee that Tory whips - the MPs in charge of party discipline - had threatened those suspected of wanting Mr Johnson out with the removal of government investment in their constituencies.\n\nHe also said he had received reports of government ministers, advisers and staff at No 10 \"encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass\" those suspected of lacking confidence in the prime minister.\n\nMr Wragg, who is also vice-chairman of the 1922 committee, claimed the reports \"would seem to constitute blackmail\" - and as well as contacting police, affected MPs should contact the Commons Speaker.\n\nHe told the Daily Telegraph he would outline \"several\" examples of bullying and intimidation when he speaks to police.\n\n\"I stand by what I have said. No amount of gas-lighting will change that,\" he said.\n\n\"The offer of No 10 to investigate is kind but I shall leave it to the experts.\"\n\nA Met Police spokesman said: \"As with any such allegations, should a criminal offence be reported to the Met, it would be considered.\"\n\nAfter Mr Wragg made his allegations on Thursday, Christian Wakeford - who this week defected from the Conservatives to the Labour Party - said he was threatened he would not get a high school in his constituency if he did not vote in a certain way.\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng later questioned Mr Wakeford's claims, saying he had \"never heard of anything like this\" since becoming an MP but if it had happened it would be \"very seriously regarded\" by the government.\n\nConservative MP Tom Tugendhat, who is chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, also said he had not experienced or been told about any instances of blackmail, despite voting against the government on several occasions.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast his relationship with whips had always been \"productive\".", "The incident happened in a post office on Staplestown Road in Carlow town on Friday morning\n\nAn investigation has begun after claims that the body of a dead man was taken into Irish post office in an attempt to claim his pension.\n\nReports suggest a deceased pensioner was \"propped up by two men\" as his body was carried into the building in County Carlow, according to the Irish Times.\n\nIt said the two men \"dropped\" the body and fled when staff questioned them.\n\nGardaí (Irish police) are investigating the circumstances surrounding the \"unexplained death of an elderly male\".\n\nA Garda spokesman would not comment on the specifics of the incident which happened at a post office in Carlow town on Friday morning but released a brief statement.\n\n\"The services of the Garda Technical Bureau and the Office of the State Pathologist have been requested,\" it said.\n\n\"A post mortem will be conducted by the Office of the State Pathologist, the results of which will determine the course of the investigation.\"\n\nGardaí would not comment on the specifics of the incident but have begun an investigation\n\nThe Irish Times said it understood that a concerned staff member \"enquired about the wellbeing of the man being propped up\" when the group approached the post office counter.\n\nThe two men fled, dropping the body at the scene and when staff went to check on the elderly man they were shocked to discover he was dead, the paper said.\n\nIrish broadcaster RTÉ reported that earlier on Friday, a man had called in to the post office on Staplestown Road in Carlow and asked to collect a pension on behalf of an elderly man.\n\nThat request was refused as staff told him the pensioner had to be present in order to release the money.\n\nA short time later, two men arrived back with a man aged in his 60s who \"collapsed\" in the post office.\n\n\"Detectives are now investigating if the man was already dead when he was brought to the post office,\" RTÉ said.\n\nIt reported that a nearby house has been \"sealed off as a crime scene\".", "Francis Urquhart was depicted as a fearsome chief whip in the BBC's House of Cards series\n\nIn fact, their job is a very basic one; they must ensure MPs vote in the way the party leadership wants, and (in the case of the government whips) see that the government gets its business through Parliament.\n\nIt doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to get done.\n\nBut it's easy to see why Machiavellian Francis Urquhart in the BBC TV series House of Cards could be viewed as a role model, rather than a villain.\n\nWhipping is \"a deed without a name\" involving \"the dark arts\", and its practitioners deploy fiendish subtlety and precisely targeted intimidation like a combination of Sigmund Freud and Don Corleone.\n\nIn his recent memoirs, former Conservative chief whip Andrew Mitchell puts it like this: \"A whip is not moral or immoral, but amoral.\n\n\"If the government decides to proceed with the Slaughter of the First-Borns Bill, it is the whips' job to secure the necessary votes by explaining that there are too many first-borns around, fettering the chances of the second and third-born children… 'it will go down particularly well in your constituency, have you not studied your own population statistics?'.\"\n\nIt's not a huge step from that kind of persuasion to more heavy-handed tactics.\n\nTory MP Andrew Mitchell describes whips as \"amoral\" in his memoirs\n\nThe former foreign secretary Jack Straw describes in his memoirs how, when he looked likely to defy the Labour Party line as a young MP in the 1980s, the legendary Labour whip Walter Harrison's attempt to dissuade him involved administering a painful twist to his genitals.\n\nAnd as I write, hundreds of Westminster journalists will be digging into William Wragg's extraordinary allegations.\n\nThere is a more benign side to whipping, though. It's a kind of HR function, which involves helping MPs deal with all kinds of personal crises, from looming bankruptcy to divorce, or mental health issues, and very little of that seeps out into public view.\n\nBut the point here is that core whipping is supposed to be invisible. Government business is supposed to go through smoothly and efficiently, with the behind-the-scenes efforts which make it happen never exposed to the light. If strong-arm tactics become the story, they've failed.\n\nWhen, during the Blair years, the Labour MP Paul Marsden objected to a dressing down from the then Chief Whip, Hillary Armstrong, he recorded the exchange and went public by giving a verbatim account to the Mail on Sunday.\n\nNo 10 was forced to put out a statement saying that dissenting backbenchers would be allowed to speak out on the Iraq war. At the time, it was an extraordinary thing to do, but these days MPs are more likely to go public if they think they're being mistreated.\n\nOf course, the Commons generation of 2019 have not had a normal start to parliamentary life.\n\nFor most of their time in parliament, they've been whipped by WhatsApp, so their relationship with their whip has been much more superficial. Now, at a dangerous political moment, that is starting to matter.\n\nIf the whips can't head off or suppress dissent, or stop eruptions by the likes of William Wragg and David Davis, it becomes harder to deliver the vote.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. MPs should report intimidation tactics to the police, says William Wragg\n\nThere's talk that Tory dissidents are looking for an opportunity to register their discontent with a vote against the government.\n\nThe whips scan through the agenda for the week ahead looking for pitfalls - and they will be scrutinising very carefully right now.", "Pro-Russia militants are on the frontline in the contested Donbas region\n\n\"Europe is now closer to war than it has been since the break up of former Yugoslavia.\"\n\nStark words of warning from the senior EU diplomat I've just been speaking to off the record about current tensions with Moscow, over its huge military build-up on the border with Ukraine.\n\nThe mood in Brussels is jumpy. There's a real fear that Europe could be spiralling towards its worst security crisis in decades.\n\nBut angst isn't wholly focused on the prospect of a long, drawn-out ground war with Russia over Ukraine.\n\nFew here believe Moscow has the military might, never mind the money, or popular support back home for that.\n\nTrue: the EU warns the Kremlin of \"extreme consequences\" should it take military action in neighbouring Ukraine. Germany's new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was in Kyiv and Moscow saying just that on Monday.\n\nSweden moved hundreds of troops over the weekend to its strategically important Gotland island - which lies in the Baltic Sea. And Denmark strengthened its presence in the region a few days before that.\n\nThe rising tensions have also re-ignited the debate in both Finland and Sweden as to whether they should now join Nato.\n\nBut the overarching concern in the West - Washington, Nato, the UK and the EU - is less the possibility of conventional warfare over Ukraine, and far more, that Moscow is seeking to divide and destabilise Europe - shaking up the balance of continental power in the Kremlin's favour.\n\nPoland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told me late last year that the West needed to \"wake up from its geopolitical slumber\" regarding Moscow's intentions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Poland's prime minister says Russia and its allies want to \"disunite\" the EU\n\nFellow EU countries would say they have now woken up and are smelling very strong coffee.\n\nBut, as is so often the case when it comes to foreign policy, EU leaders are far from united over which precise course of action to take.\n\nMoscow denies - despite the massive build-up of troops on the border with Ukraine - that it's planning a military invasion. But it has issued Nato with a list of security demands. Loudly blaming the alliance for \"undermining regional security\", Vladimir Putin insists, among other things, that Nato bans Ukraine and other former Soviet states from ever becoming members of the organisation.\n\nNato flatly refused and the three summits held over the last week or so, between Russia and Western allies, have failed to find much common ground.\n\nWhat Vladimir Putin plans to do next is unclear. But the West believes the Kremlin has invested too much in its very public manoeuvres over Ukraine to back down now, without something to show for it.\n\nThe Biden administration is waiting impatiently for a forceful EU position on possible sanctions, depending on what course of action Moscow takes: a military incursion into Ukraine, cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns or - as is considered most likely - a mish-mash of hybrid attacks.\n\nEU optimists predict the bloc will agree a raft of possible sanctions by 24 January, at the next foreign ministers' meeting. But that's far from guaranteed.\n\nA number of EU countries are umming and ahing about the cost of eventual sanctions to their own economies. Brussels normally discusses burden-sharing, but the outcome of those negotiations may well not please everyone.\n\nThere's also widespread concern in EU countries about gas supplies from Russia. Especially with prices already so high for European households this winter.\n\nWashington says it's looking into ways of softening the impact on energy supplies.\n\nIt wants to hurry the EU into agreeing a firm position on sanctions - knowing all too well that, on foreign policy, approval needs to be unanimous amongst member states.\n\nWere post-Brexit relations easier between the UK and EU, you'd expect a lot more shuttle diplomacy right now between London, Berlin and Paris to compare and discuss ideas, maybe agreeing a common course of action.\n\nBrussels diplomats slightly cattily describe the UK government as \"probably too wrapped up in domestic political scandals to have geopolitics top of its in-tray right now\", but they openly admit the UK is fully engaged on the Russia-Ukraine issue within Nato.\n\nOn Monday, British defence secretary Ben Wallace announced Britain was supplying Ukraine with short-range anti-tank missiles for self-defence. He said a small team of British troops would also provide training.\n\nMr Wallace earlier warned Moscow that there would be \"consequences\" for any Russian aggression towards Ukraine. Britain would \"stand up to bullies\", he said, no matter how far away the conflict.\n\nWashington insists there's no time to lose. It says the Kremlin is considering a \"false-flag\" operation \"laying the groundwork to have the option of fabricating a pretext for invasion\" - i.e. blaming Ukraine for an attack that Russian operatives would carry out.\n\nThe Russian and US leaders have spoken via video link and over the phone\n\nBut US officials say Moscow is preparing to repeat a pattern seen back in 2014 when it accused Kyiv of abuses before Kremlin-backed forces seized control of Ukraine's southern peninsula of Crimea.\n\nThe territory has a Russian-speaking majority. It then voted to join Russia in a referendum that Ukraine and the West consider illegal. Thousands then died in the conflict that ensued in eastern Ukraine.\n\nThe West is bracing for what might follow now.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nEngland's second Twenty20 against Australia in the Women's Ashes was abandoned after only 4.1 overs at the Adelaide Oval because of rain.\n\nEach side get one point and holders Australia now lead the multi-format series 3-1 following their victory in the first T20.\n\nAfter rain initially reduced the match to 14 overs per side, Australia won the delayed toss and bowled first.\n\nEngland reached 25-0 before heavy rain forced the players off the field.\n\nDanni Wyatt was unbeaten on 14 off 12 balls, with Tammy Beaumont six not out off 14 deliveries.\n\nThe third and final T20 also takes place in Adelaide and is set to start at 03:10 GMT on Sunday.\n\nA one-off Test and three one-day internationals then follow.\n• None BBC News presenter Ros Atkins swaps his news desk for the DJ decks", "Thich Nhat Hanh, an influential Vietnamese Buddhist monk, has died at the age of 95.\n\nHis Zen teaching organisation, Plum Village, said the monk \"passed away peacefully\" at the Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam on Saturday.\n\nA prolific author and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh, is often referred to as the \"father of mindfulness\".\n\nOn Twitter, his organisation called for its followers to hold Thich Nhat Hanh \"in our hearts\".\n\nThich Nhat Hanh, was exiled from Vietnam in the 1960s after opposing the war.\n\nDuring the height of the Vietnam War, he met with Martin Luther King, persuading the civil rights leader to speak out against the conflict.\n\nKing later nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for a Nobel Peace Prize, describing him as \"an apostle of peace and non violence\".\n\nAfter hearing of the monk's death, King's daughter Bernice shared an image of the pair together.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Be A King This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Be A King\n\nThe monk spent decades in France after being exiled and went on to establish monasteries and meditation centres around the world, known as the Plum Village Tradition.\n\nDuring his lifetime, he wrote more than 100 books that were translated into more than 40 languages. His last book was published in October 2021.\n\nHe travelled on regular speaking tours of Europe and the US, talking about the practice of mindfulness.\n\nBut his movement was hindered by Vietnam's communist government in 2009, when his Zen centre in Lam Dong was forced to close.\n\nIn 2018, he returned to Vietnam and was permitted by authorities to spend his final days at the Tu Hieu temple.\n\nIt is not yet clear how the government will react to his funeral, which is set to begin in Hue on Saturday and last five days.", "The boyfriend of killed blogger Gabby Petito \"admitted responsibility\" for her murder in a journal found with his body, according to the FBI.\n\nBrian Laundrie, 23, shot himself after Petito was found in September strangled in a Wyoming campground. The couple had been on a cross-country road trip.\n\nLaundrie's body was found in a Florida nature preserve near his parents' home on 20 October.\n\n\"The investigation did not identify any other individuals other than Brian Laundrie directly involved in the tragic death of Gabby Petito,\" FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider said in a statement on Friday.\n\n\"The FBI's primary focus throughout the investigation was to bring justice to Gabby and her family.\"\n\nHe said all \"logical investigative steps have been concluded\" in the case.\n\nIn a statement, the Petito family thanked law enforcement for their investigation. They gave particular praise to the FBI's Victim Services Department, which they said helped the \"entire family navigate through the worst moments of their lives\".\n\nThe couple had been documenting their travels on social media before Laundrie returned alone to his family home in North Port, Florida, on 1 September without Petito.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Police stopped Gabby Petito two weeks before she went missing\n\nShe was reported missing by her mother on 11 September after she stopped responding to phone calls. Her body was discovered near Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park on 19 September.\n\nLaundrie's body was found in an area of the nature preserve that had previously been underwater, the FBI said. He was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, along with the journal, a revolver and a backpack.\n\nThe FBI statement said that, on his journey back to Florida, Laundrie sent text messages between his and Petito's phones in an attempt \"to deceive law enforcement by giving the impression Ms Petito was still alive\". He also used her debit card without authorisation.\n\nThe FBI had previously identified him as a \"person of interest\" in the case.\n\nPetito was last seen alive on 27 August.\n\nThe mystery of her disappearance, along with a video from a police traffic stop in Utah showing her crying and describing a fight with Laundrie, led millions of people to closely follow updates in the case.\n\nFBI Agent Schneider praised the public for submitting \"thousands of tips,\" calling their role \"invaluable\".\n\nA lawyer representing Laundrie's family said the case \"has caused enormous emotional pain and suffering to all who loved either or both\" Petito and Laundrie.\n\n\"We can only hope that with today's closure of the case each family can begin to heal and move forward and find peace in and with the memories of their children. May Gabby and Brian both rest in peace.\"", "High street pharmacists in England can now refer customers who are concerned about being overweight to a free online NHS service to help them get in shape.\n\nThe programme, which is also available on a smartphone app, takes 12 weeks to complete, and offers support and tips on achieving healthy weight loss.\n\nIt is designed to help the estimated one in four adults who are obese.\n\nUntil now, obese patients with either high blood pressure or diabetes had to be seen by their GP to access it.\n\nTo be eligible for the programme, people need to have a body mass index (BMI) of over 30.\n\nBMI is a measure of whether you're a healthy weight for your height. Being overweight increases the risk of a number of health conditions, including heart disease. During the pandemic, obesity has been linked to worse outcomes from Covid.\n\nPeople from Asian, black and minority ethnic backgrounds can join the programme at a lower BMI of 27.5, due to their increased risk of type 2 diabetes.\n\nFor most adults, a BMI of:\n\nDr Bruce Warner, Deputy Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at NHS England, said: \"Obesity is a significant threat to the nation's health - it increases your chance of dying from Covid and puts you at greater risk of stroke, cancer and other deadly disease.\n\n\"The NHS's radical action plan means it is now easier for people to take control of their health - adults with obesity can now walk into any High Street community pharmacy to take the first step on a life-changing weight-loss journey.\"\n\nTrained staff in pharmacies will work with people who want to lose weight and signpost them to a range of resources and available support, including the NHS weight management programme.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Christmas in Kyiv has continued as normal, with little sign of anxiety or alert\n\nSometimes it looks a bit like a diplomatic version of \"does he take sugar?\"\n\nIn Geneva and Brussels, Western diplomats face off against their Russian counterparts, discussing, among other things, Ukraine's ability as a sovereign, independent state, to shape its own destiny.\n\nBut Ukraine is not there.\n\nNo matter how many times senior US officials repeat the mantra \"nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine\" - and they repeat it at every opportunity - it's hard for Ukrainians to avoid wondering just what is being discussed behind their backs.\n\nWith an estimated 100,000 Russian troops massed on the country's northern and eastern borders, you might think this would be cause for serious alarm.\n\nOrthodox Christmas was celebrated here last Friday, and if you stroll through Kyiv's busy Christmas markets you're not exactly assailed by a sense of heightened alert and anxiety.\n\n\"People are used to heavy times,\" says Petro Burkovsky from one of Kyiv's oldest independent think tanks, the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. \"In the 20th Century, we had many occasions when people lived in daily horror. It's part of their historical memory.\"\n\nUkraine's current horror has been going on for almost eight years, since masked Russian troops first appeared on the streets of Crimea.\n\nFighting broke out in the eastern Donbas region in April 2014. Since then, 14,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in what the government in Kyiv calls the \"Russian-Ukrainian War\". Russia insists to this day that it is not a party to the conflict.\n\nEach morning, at a short, sombre ceremony outside the defence ministry in Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers killed on that particular calendar day since independence in 1991 are commemorated. The vast majority have died since 2014.\n\nOn the morning we attend, four names are read out, each killed on 11 January. The last of them, Oleh Andriyenko, died a year ago.\n\nA ceremony takes place in Kyiv every day to commemorate those who have fallen\n\nEach name is met with a volley of gunfire and the toll of a bell.\n\nAcross town, the faces of dead soldiers stare out in serried ranks from the walls of St Michael's Cathedral in a memorial that stretches for almost 100m.\n\nPassers-by stop and reflect, undeterred by the snow and freezing temperatures.\n\nViktor Moroshan, 63, was injured during the ferocious battle for Ilovaisk in August and September 2014. He points to the faces of fallen colleagues from the volunteer Donbas Battalion, which took heavy losses.\n\n\"Everyone had one goal,\" he says finally. \"To liberate our land from those Russians.\"\n\nViktor met his wife, Tetyana, while he was recovering in the hospital in where she was a volunteer.\n\n\"Maybe the war will be big next time,\" she says. \"He [Putin] has a lot of plans to start a new war. It's not a fairy tale.\"\n\nViktor describes himself as ethnically Russian, from one of the areas now under rebel control. But his hatred for Russian leader Vladimir Putin is deep. \"He's a maniac. A killer.\"\n\nRetired now, he says he still keeps an emergency bulletproof vest and helmet ready.\n\n\"My wife says 'Vitya, maybe you shouldn't.' But I say we need to be ready. No-one else can defend our fatherland but us.\"\n\nIt's the kind of defiant talk you might expect in a country facing potentially overwhelming odds and knowing that if it comes to a fight, there will be limits to support from outside.\n\nUkraine's Western allies talk of \"massive\" consequences if Russia mounts an incursion. But while those could well include increased military assistance, it would be Ukrainians alone doing the fighting and the dying.\n\nHence the growing support for Nato membership.\n\n\"Every time Russia starts an escalation in the front line, support for Nato membership grows,\" says Petro Burkovsky, \"and the readiness to make concessions with Russia falls.\"\n\nPublicly, Nato leaders say the door to membership, opened to Ukraine and Georgia in 2008, is still open.\n\nUkraine's deputy prime minister, visiting Nato headquarters in Brussels on Monday, repeated her government's refrain.\n\n\"We have the inherent, sovereign right to choose our own security arrangements,\" Olga Stefanishyna told reporters. \"Including treaties and alliances.\"\n\nBut it's hardly a secret that Nato membership is not on the cards right now. Western officials know it's the very thing most likely to provoke the military confrontation they're so anxious to avoid.\n\nMr Burkovsky says Ukraine has little choice but to wait out a slow-burning, long-term crisis.\n\n\"Right now we have to accept the reality of confrontation and conflict with Russia,\" he says.\n\n\"Maybe in the course of time, the situation in Russia will change. Russia will not be as formidable as it is now, Ukraine will be stronger and the West will be more decisive towards Ukraine and towards Russia.\"\n\nFor the time being, he says, Ukraine should concentrate on avoiding the fate of two of Russia's other neighbours, Belarus and Kazakhstan.\n\n\"They show the fate of people in countries that are Russian satellites,\" he says. \"Most people in Ukraine don't want this destiny for them and of course for their children.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "How do you solve a problem like bad information?\n\nWhen it comes to understanding science and making health decisions, it can have life-or-death consequences.\n\nPeople dissuaded from taking vaccines as a result of reading misleading information online have ended up in hospital or even died.\n\nAnd inaccurate or completely made-up claims about 5G and the origins of Covid-19 have been linked to violence and vandalism.\n\nBut completely removing information can look a lot like censorship, especially for scientists whose careers are based on the understanding that facts can and should be disputed, and that evidence changes.\n\nThe Royal Society is the world's oldest continuously operating scientific institution, and it is attempting to grapple with the challenges posed by our newest ways of communicating information.\n\nIn a new report, it advises against social media companies removing content that is \"legal but harmful\". Instead, the report authors believe, social media sites should adjust their algorithms to prevent it going viral - and stop people making money off false claims.\n\nBut not everyone agrees with that view - especially researchers who are experts in tracking the way misinformation spreads online, and how it harms people.\n\nThe Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) maintains there are cases when the best thing to do is to remove content when it is very harmful, clearly wrong and spreading very widely.\n\nThe team points to Plandemic - a video that went viral at the start of the pandemic, making dangerous and false claims designed to scare people away from effective ways of reducing harm from the virus, like vaccines and masks, and was eventually taken down.\n\nSocial media companies were better primed for the video's sequel Plandemic 2, which fell flat after being restricted on major platforms, having nothing like the same reach as the first video.\n\n\"It's a political question...what balance we see between individual liberties and some form of restrictions on what people can and cannot say,\" says Prof Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.\n\nProf Nielsen acknowledges that, although it's a relatively small part of people's media diets, science misinformation can lead to disproportionate harm.\n\nBut, he adds, given a lack of trust in institutions is a big driver of misinformation: \"I imagine that there are quite a lot of citizens who would have their worst suspicions confirmed about how society works, if established institutions took a much more hands-on role in limiting people's access to information.\"\n\nEchoing this concern, the Royal Society says: \"Removing content may exacerbate feelings of distrust and be exploited by others to promote misinformation content.\" This \"may cause more harm than good by driving misinformation content...towards harder-to-address corners of the internet.\"\n\nThe fact that those corners are \"harder to reach\", though, is arguably part of the point. It reduces the risk that someone who is not already committed to potentially harmful beliefs, and isn't seeking them out, will be exposed to them by chance.\n\nSome of the violent protests that were driven at least in part by conspiracies had their origin not in obscure corners of the internet, but on Facebook. And there is little clear evidence that removing content drives people further into harmful beliefs.\n\nScientific misinformation is nothing new.\n\nThe incorrect belief in a link between the MMR vaccine and autism came from a published (and later retracted) academic paper, while widespread unevidenced beliefs in the harm of water fluoridation were driven by the print media, campaign groups and word of mouth.\n\nWhat's changed is the speed at which false facts travel, and the huge numbers of people who can end up reading them.\n\nRather than removing content, one way suggested by the report's authors of tackling misinformation is making it harder to find and share, and less likely to appear automatically on someone's feed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThis, Prof Gina Neff, a social scientist at the Oxford Internet Institute explained, was to \"ensure that people still can speak their mind\" - they just aren't guaranteed an audience of millions.\n\n\"They can still post this information, but the platforms don't have to make it go viral.\"\n\nThe Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a think tank which monitors extremism, points out a substantial proportion of misinformation relies on the appropriation and misuse of genuine data and research.\n\n\"This is sometimes more dangerous than outright false information, because it can take substantially longer to debunk by explaining how and why this is a misreading or misuse of the data,\" its spokesperson says.\n\nThat's where fact-checking comes in - another tool which the Royal Society supports.\n\nOne of the most common pieces of vaccine misinformation over the past year - which the BBC has repeatedly fact-checked - was the notion that people are being harmed in high numbers by the jab. This claim is based on a misinterpretation of real figures.\n\nThe ISD says research has shown that a small group of accounts spreading misinformation had a \"disproportionate influence on the public debate across social media\".\n\n\"Many of these accounts have been labelled by fact-checkers as sharing false or misleading content on multiple occasions, yet remain live.\"\n\nThe Royal Society did not investigate removing the accounts of \"influencers\" who are especially prolific spreaders of harmful misinformation.\n\nBut this is seen as an important tool by many disinformation experts, and research into ISIS and the far-right suggests it can be successful.\n\nWhen David Icke, a prolific spreader of Covid misinformation as well as anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, was removed from YouTube, research from the CCDH found his ability to reach people was considerably reduced.\n\nWhile his videos remained on alternative video-hosting platform BitChute, their views fell from 150,000 on average before the YouTube ban to 6,711 afterwards. On YouTube, 64 of his videos had been viewed 9.6 million times.\n\nResearch from Cardiff University, found that the de-platforming of Kate Shemirani, a former nurse and prolific spreader of Covid misinformation, decreased her reach in the short term.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"Part of the issue is that current models of de-platforming need to be developed. It's not enough to just take down a piece of content, or a small number of accounts,\" one of the paper's authors - Prof Martin Innes - explains.\n\nResearch from organised crime and counter-terrorism shows the need to disrupt the whole network, he says.\n\nBut he believes \"this level of sophistication isn't embedded yet\" in the way we tackle disinformation that could put people in danger.", "NHS England staff must be fully vaccinated by 1 April under government rules\n\nThe deadline for health workers to have a Covid vaccination should be delayed to prevent staff shortages in England, the Royal College of GPs has said.\n\nNHS staff must have a first jab by 3 February and be fully vaccinated by 1 April to continue in frontline roles.\n\nThe Department of Health said there were no plans to delay and it was \"the right thing to do to protect patients\".\n\nNHS workers who oppose the government's mandatory vaccination policy have staged a protest in central London.\n\nDemonstrations were also held in other cities across the UK including Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.\n\nScotland and Wales have not made any proposals to make Covid jabs compulsory for NHS workers or care home staff, while in Northern Ireland there will be a public consultation.\n\nThe UK recorded 76,807 coronavirus cases and 297 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test, daily government figures show.\n\nMartin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said compulsory vaccination for health professionals in England was \"not the right way forward\".\n\nHe said the vast majority of staff were vaccinated but some 70,000 to 80,000 were not and they accounted for 10% of staff at some hospitals or GP surgeries.\n\nSome 94.3% of NHS trust health care workers in England have had a first dose of vaccine, and 91.5% have had a second dose, figures to 31 December show.\n\nThe data also shows there were 1,480,351 staff on the electronic record - although not all in patient facing roles. Some 1,395,268 staff members had had a first jab, leaving 85,083 unvaccinated.\n\nIf unvaccinated staff were taken out of frontline roles by 1 April there would be \"massive consequences\" for the NHS, Mr Marshall told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHe said a delay would allow time for booster jabs and a \"sensible conversation\" about whether vaccines should be mandatory at all.\n\nDanny Mortimer, deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said some frontline staff would have to leave their roles if they chose not to be vaccinated.\n\nHe said: \"This will reduce frontline NHS staff numbers even further and lead to more gaps in capacity at a time of intense pressure and patient demand.\"\n\nGroups including NHS100K and Together Association marched against compulsory Covid jabs for health workers\n\nIn London, demonstrators marched from Regents Park to the BBC headquarters in Portland Place in a peaceful protest against mandating vaccines for health workers.\n\nBut Dr Nikki Kanani, medical director of primary care for NHS England, said health care professionals had \"a duty\" to make sure they were protected.\n\nShe said: \"If you're marching today, just take a moment, think about the people that you've been looking after who have experienced Covid, think about your colleagues who you've been working with, and think about the best way to make sure that we're all protected, and that we're all as safe as possible, because we are very much in this together and it's down to us to look after each other too.\"\n\nProtesters marched to the BBC's headquarters in central London\n\nMeanwhile, Kate, a nurse in Hampshire, told the Today programme she was prepared to lose her job rather than have a coronavirus vaccine against her will.\n\n\"I don't feel like the vaccination needs to be mandated because we are medical professionals and we have enough information to make that decision for ourselves,\" she said.\n\n\"When I had Covid I was ill but not particularly unwell and when it comes to me being forced to do something or lose my job, I just can't understand how they think that's a sensible position.\n\n\"I'm good at my job, I care about people, and I certainly have never and would never put people at risk.\"\n\nThe deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said delaying the policy on mandatory vaccination was not the answer.\n\nShe said staff who worked with patients and choose not to be vaccinated \"will be redeployed where that is possible, or potentially dismissed\".\n\nAnd while health bosses were worried about \"exacerbating staff shortages at a time when the service is under huge operational pressures\", the majority backed the policy.\n\nShe said: \"The last thing trust leaders want to do is further deplete the workforce by dismissing their staff, but they are obliged to implement the law.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Wednesday, some Conservative MPs called on Boris Johnson to rethink the policy.\n\nThe prime minister told the House of Commons the plan was supported by the NHS and that healthcare workers had a \"professional responsibility\" to get the jab.\n\nBut he added: \"We will reflect on the way ahead. We don't want to drive people out of the service.\"\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said front line staff looked after the most vulnerable people in society, who could face serious health consequences if exposed to the virus.\n\n\"Ensuring staff are vaccinated is the right thing to do to protect patients and those in care.\"\n\nAre you unvaccinated against Covid-19 and an NHS employee? Share your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of an 86-year-old woman and the attempted murder of her 88-year-old husband.\n\nFreda Walker was found dead at her home in Station Road, Langwith Junction, Derbyshire, on 15 January.\n\nKen Walker, a former district councillor, was found severely injured and remains in hospital in a critical condition.\n\nVasile Culea, 33, appeared before magistrates in Nottingham on Saturday.\n\nFreda Walker died at the scene while Ken Walker remains in hospital\n\nSpeaking through a Romanian interpreter, he confirmed his name, age and address - Grove Road in Church Warsop, Nottinghamshire.\n\nHe was remanded into custody and will appear before Derby Crown Court on Tuesday.\n\nThe couple were found at their home in Station Road\n\nMr and Mrs Walker were discovered by a concerned neighbour.\n\nMrs Walker died at the scene and her husband was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The mural honouring those who died in the fire 41 years ago has been unveiled\n\nA mural has been revealed in honour of 14 young black people killed by a fire in south London 41 years ago.\n\nThe victims, aged between 14 and 22, were celebrating a 16th birthday when the fire broke out in New Cross.\n\nNine partygoers were found dead, another four died in hospital in the following days and the 14th victim took his own life two years later.\n\nWayne Haynes, who survived the fire, unveiled the artwork along with friends and family of those who died.\n\nMany people believe the fire was a racially motivated arson attack\n\nRichard Simpson organised for the mural to be painted outside his restaurant on New Cross Road, doors from the site of the blaze.\n\nMr Simpson, the owner and founder of the Cummin Up Caribbean chain of restaurants in south London, lost friends in the disaster, which happened on 18 January 1981.\n\nAhead of the unveiling he said: \"We lost friends. I lost Glenton Powell who used to eat in my house and watch television in my house. We are all personally affected and the voices of those who walk around with trauma are not being heard.\n\n\"We are going to do this for our friends, those who were playing the music, those who were the celebrants, those who were enjoying themselves, and we are going to mark this now on New Cross Road, where it took place.\"\n\nA crowd gathered as the mural was unveiled\n\nMany people attended the unveiling to pay their respects\n\nSome attendees managed to flee the party at 439 New Cross Road but many were trapped inside the three-storey home due to the severity of the blaze.\n\nNobody has been charged with causing the fire, although many believe it was a racist attack.\n\nGrieving families and friends joined a 20,000-strong protest march to the House of Commons in March 1981, unhappy with the police investigation.\n\nTwo inquests since the disaster have recorded open verdicts.\n\nThe official reaction to the fire triggered the Black People's Day of Action march\n\nMr Simpson had kept details of the mural a surprise until it was unveiled.\n\nHe said: \"It's a silhouette. The silhouette represents the anonymous people who didn't have that voice and so there will be lots of imagery and significance within it.\n\n\"This is something that is very personal to me. This week I am going to be introduced to one of Glenton's relatives. I will be able to tell her the story of him that she hasn't been able to hear yet.\"\n\nThere was also a memorial service at St Mary's Church on Lewisham High Street at 11:00 GMT, which was livestreamed on the Lewisham Parish website.\n\nSome attendees managed to flee the party at 439 New Cross Road but many were trapped inside the three-storey home\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ana de Armas appeared in the latest Bond film No Time to Die\n\nTwo US fans of Cuban-Spanish actress Ana de Armas have sued Hollywood studio Universal Pictures, saying they were duped into renting a film because she was in the trailer.\n\nConor Woulfe and Peter Rosza say they each paid $3.99 (£2.94) for the comedy Yesterday, only to discover the actress had been removed from the final cut.\n\nThey are seeking $5m in compensation on behalf of all affected viewers.\n\nUniversal Pictures has so far not commented on the issue.\n\nThe fans say they were victims of deceptive marketing, and that Universal used de Armas's \"fame, radiance and brilliance\" to promote a film she wasn't in.\n\n\"Although defendant included the scenes with Ms de Armas in the movie trailer advertisements, for the purposes of promoting Yesterday and enticing film sales and rentals, Ms de Armas is not and was never in the publicly released version of the movie,\" says the complaint filed in California on Friday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.\n\nYesterday is about a singer-songwriter who hits his head and wakes up to discover he is the only person on Earth who remembers the Beatles.\n\nAna de Armas - who appeared in the latest Bond film No Time to Die - was to have co-starred as a love interest of the singer in the comedy.\n\nBut the scenes with the 33-year-old actress were cut, apparently because audiences did not like that aspect of the storyline.\n\nRichard Curtis, the screenwriter, said in 2019 that it had been a \"very traumatic cut\", because de Armas was \"brilliant\" in the role.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe boss of one of London's busiest hospitals has said he is worried about losing staff when new rules come in requiring them to be vaccinated.\n\nFrom April, front-line NHS staff in England will need to have the Covid jab - or will be moved to another role.\n\nKing's College Hospital chief Dr Clive Kay said his job was to encourage workers to get jabbed - and 10% of his 14,000 staff were still unvaccinated.\n\nThe government's Nadhim Zahawi defended the policy as \"the right thing\" to do.\n\nFrom the start of April, under law NHS staff in England who have direct face-to-face contact with patients will need to have been vaccinated against Covid.\n\nThis includes front-line workers as well as non-clinical staff who might come across patients, such as receptionists, porters and cleaners.\n\nA similar policy has already been brought in for staff working in social care in England - with care homes warning it has worsened the staffing crisis. The NHS is already facing a severe lack of staff and is short of about 93,000 workers.\n\nDr Kay was speaking after one of his own doctors challenged Health Secretary Sajid Javid over the issue, saying he was \"not happy\" that he faced being dismissed for not getting the jab.\n\nThe doctor, consultant anaesthetist Steve James, argued that he believed he already had antibodies after catching Covid - and has since told the BBC he believes vaccination should be a matter of personal choice.\n\nSajid Javid spoke to consultant Steve James who said he had not got the Covid vaccine\n\nHospital boss Dr Kay refused to say whether he thought the new rule was fair - although argued that staff were \"not being forced\" to have the jab, but instead \"being encouraged\".\n\nBut pressed on the rules, he acknowledged it could mean people leaving their current job: \"There's a possibility if they choose not to be vaccinated they could be redeployed. And if we can't find that opportunity to redeploy them then the consequence is that they will [not have a job].\"\n\n\"We will not make individuals be vaccinated,\" Dr Kay told the BBC's Sophie Raworth on the Sunday Morning programme. \"We must treat them with kindness, with compassion, we must give them every single opportunity to talk through if they don't want the vaccine... but ultimately it is their choice.\"\n\nAsked how many front-line staff he could lose under the law change, Dr Kay said: \"I am confident that we are already seeing a number of staff choosing to be vaccinated. I don't want at this stage to predict or give any numbers.\"\n\nBut he said he was \"of course\" worried about staffing, adding: \"My job is to worry about everything in relation to whether or not we have enough staff here to provide care for patients safely.\"\n\nAccording to Mr Javid in November, more than 93% of NHS front-line staff had had their first dose and 90% were fully vaccinated. This is higher than the wider population, where 90% have had a first dose and 83% have had both.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Sophie Raworth on Sunday morning, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi defended mandatory vaccines for NHS staff in England, saying: \"We have a duty of care when looking after the most vulnerable to protect ourselves and to protect them.\"\n\nDr James told the BBC's Broadcasting House programme on Sunday: \"My view is that we should not mandate vaccination.\"\n\n\"Normally you go through this process of informed consent, where you weigh up as a doctor with the patient, the risks the benefits and that person's personal preference.\"\n\nHe said he has been written to by \"hundreds of people\" since he spoke to Mr Javid, who have told him they were thankful that he has spoken up about how he felt.\n\n\"I've been written to by a group of midwives who say that, I think 41 or 45 of them in that unit will all not be vaccinated. That means the entire midwife staff from one hospital are going to leave.\"\n\nEach of the four UK nations makes its own decisions on the issue.\n\nScotland and Wales have not made any proposals to make Covid jabs compulsory for NHS workers or care home staff, while in Northern Ireland there is to be a public consultation.\n\nScotland's Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said they were not going down the same route as England \"partly because the uptake from NHS and social care staff is so incredibly high\". \"I don't think making vaccines mandatory is the way to go,\" he said.\n\nIt comes as the UK recorded 141,472 new cases, as well as 97 deaths within 28 days of a positive test - although the number of deaths recorded over weekends tends to be lower because of reporting delays.\n\nThe total number of cases over the past seven days is up 6.6% on the previous week, while the figure for deaths is up 30.9%.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nEngland's batting woes crossed formats and continents as they were routed by West Indies in the first T20 international in Barbados.\n\nSix days on and 10,000 miles away from the conclusion of a dismal Ashes series in Australia, an almost entirely different set of players found themselves 49-7 after being put in on a two-paced pitch.\n\nEngland's T20 record low score of 80 was in danger, only for 28 from Barbados-born Chris Jordan and 22 by Adil Rashid, two of just four players to reach double figures, to spare them from that indignity.\n\nThe tourists were ultimately bowled out for 103, with the superb Jason Holder twice taking two wickets in two balls in figures of 4-7.\n\nBrandon King's unbeaten 55 led the home side to their meagre target with 17 balls to spare, a nine-wicket margin of victory that matched West Indies' biggest win and England's largest defeat in T20s.\n\nThe second game in the five-match series, all of which is being played in Barbados, is on Sunday.\n• None The Sports Desk podcast: What is the future for red-ball cricket in the English game?\n\nEnglish cricket will have expected a different format and opponent to bring a change in fortune. Instead, the kind of helter-skelter batting implosion that was commonplace during the Ashes was repeated.\n\nOnly Sam Billings, who made the journey to Barbados from Hobart after being drafted in for the fifth Test, is part of both squads, meaning England had five survivors from the team that was beaten in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup in November. Liam Livingstone was ruled out through illness and sorely missed.\n\nWith another World Cup just nine months away, the fringe players missed the opportunity to push their claim to be part of the tournament in Australia.\n\nEngland were 10-3 after two overs and never recovered. Overall, four wickets fell one ball after a visiting batter hit a boundary.\n\nJason Roy charged past a Sheldon Cottrell full toss, Tom Banton edged Holder to a wide slip and Moeen Ali loosely drove his first ball to point.\n\nJames Vince slapped a Cottrell long hop to cover, Billings was stumped off spinner Akeal Hosein and out-of-sorts captain Eoin Morgan took 29 balls over 17, during which time he overturned being given caught behind and saw Liam Dawson calamitously run out.\n\nJordan smeared three sixes, adding 36 with Rashid, who scraped England past 100 before he and Saqib Mahmood fell in the final over.\n\nIn meant England had been bowled out for 124 in the last Ashes Test and 103 in a T20 in the same week, 20 wickets for 227 runs overall.\n\nWest Indies put up a limp defence of their world title, exiting in the group stage, and have since moved on from white-ball mainstays like Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo. Even then, they lost a one-day series to Ireland earlier this month.\n\nHowever, this was a magnificent performance, exacting a measure of revenge from an England team that bowled them out for 55 at the World Cup.\n\nIt was led by former captain Holder, who swung the new ball and often befuddled the England batters by first extracting steepling bounce, then using his slower deliveries. He started by removing Banton and Moeen in successive balls and finished by doing the same to Rashid and Mahmood.\n\nThere was no let-up from the rest of the attack, expertly marshalled by experienced skipper Kieron Pollard, while everything catchable was taken.\n\nOpeners King and Shai Hope ensured there was no way back for England, mastering the tricky conditions with a stand of 52.\n\nHope was stumped off a ripping leg-break from Rashid for 20, but King was joined by Nicholas Pooran to complete a ruthless West Indies chase.\n\n'We didn't adapt well enough'\n\nEngland captain Eoin Morgan: \"We didn't seem to adapt well enough. We'll have to come back tomorrow with a fresh gameplan because conditions are likely to be similar. Trying to get the mindset around risk and reward we found a challenge today.\"\n\nWest Indies captain Kieron Pollard: \"When it comes to Kensington Oval and Jason Holder, he steps it up. He was phenomenal for us. We backed it up in the field and the guys really put on a show today.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHong Kong leader Carrie Lam has warned that Covid-19 infections could be growing exponentially in one part of the city and more cases spreading due to an outbreak in pet hamsters.\n\nEarlier this week, authorities ordered a hamster cull following the outbreak.\n\nThe spate of Delta cases had been linked to a pet shop worker which prompted officials to test hamsters, with some found positive.\n\nMs Lam urged people to avoid gatherings ahead of next week's Lunar New Year as the territory also tackles an outbreak of the Omicron variant.\n\nThe Asian financial hub has some of the world's tightest coronavirus rules as it follows mainland China's tough zero-Covid policies.\n\n\"We are worried that the exponential growth of cases that we have seen in other parts of the world is now happening in Kwai Chung,\" she is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.\n\nKwai Chung is a highly-populated residential area north of the city's Kowloon peninsula.\n\nThe outbreak was linked to an employee of this pet shop in the Causeway Bay area\n\nShe said cases involving the Delta variant were also rising because of the hamster outbreak.\n\n\"I understand that pet owners are unhappy... the biggest public interest is to control the pandemic,\" she said.\n\nSome 2,000 hamsters and other small mammals are set to be culled because of the outbreak linked to the pet shop. Officials say it may be an example of animal-to-human Covid transmission.\n\nThousands of people have signed a petition against the move, and thousands more have offered on social media to save the pets.\n\nThe virus that causes Covid-19 - Sars-Cov-2 - can be caught by animals including dogs, cats, ferrets and rodents, all commonly kept as pets. But there is no clear evidence that pets can easily pass the infection to humans.\n\nIn late 2020, millions of farmed mink in Denmark were culled amid fears around mutations to the virus potentially occurring within the animals.", "Matthew Willson had been visiting his girlfriend when he was shot, according to US police\n\nAn English astrophysicist was killed by a stray bullet that travelled through a wall and hit him in his bed, US authorities have said.\n\nDr Matthew Willson, 31, from Chertsey, Surrey, was found with a single gunshot wound to the head.\n\nPolice were called to an apartment in Brookhaven, Atlanta, at 02:00 local time (07:00 GMT) last Sunday.\n\nSgt Jake Kissel, from the Brookhaven Police Department, said the shooting was believed to have been a random act.\n\nThere have been no arrests so far.\n\nSgt Kissel said the stray bullet that hit Dr Willson travelled less than 100 yards (91m) and entered through an exterior wall of the apartment.\n\n\"The two apartment complexes where the gunfire took place and where Matthew was staying, they're separated by a patch of woods, so they back up to each other,\" he said.\n\n\"We're saying it's the reckless discharge of firearms from one apartment complex and the stray bullet travelled through the woods and entered his apartment.\"\n\nDr Willson was in the US visiting his girlfriend Katherine Shepard.\n\nAman Kar, who shared the flat with Ms Shepard, told BBC Breakfast \"multiple rounds of gunshots\" were fired in the opposite complex \"about 20ft away\" in the early hours of Sunday 16 January.\n\nMr Kar added that the gunfire \"had happened before... but not for so long\".\n\nHe said the pair moved into the apartment last August and recalled two similar incidents in October and November when police had been called - but said it was \"just a few shots\" on those occasions.\n\n\"This time it kept going on for 20 or 30 minutes, until one of the stray bullets hit Matthew.\"\n\nMr Kar said he hoped somebody would come forward with more information on the incident \"because as much as it's an accident, it's also not, because the sheer number of shots that were fired.\n\n\"It's hard to see how something so random happened. It's reckless... reckless people with guns.\"\n\nDr Willson was in an apartment block on Clairmont Road in Brookhaven when he was killed\n\nSgt Kissel said investigators were following up on all leads, adding: \"We're receiving tips from the public and our investigator team has been working around the clock to ensure that we're tracking down the individuals that are responsible.\"\n\nHe said an innocent bystander being struck by a stray bullet was the first incident \"of its kind\" in Brookhaven and was an \"alarming\" and \"tragic event\".\n\n\"Even though we believe that it was a random act and complete reckless discharging of firearms, we're still approaching it as a homicide,\" he added.\n\nDr Willson was taken to a local trauma centre but died of his injuries.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was \"supporting the family of a British man following his death\".\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "The UK has accused President Putin of plotting to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government.\n\nThe Foreign Office took the unusual step of naming former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev as a potential Kremlin candidate.\n\nRussia has moved 100,000 troops near to its border with Ukraine but denies it is planning an invasion.\n\nUK ministers have warned that the Russian government will face serious consequences if there is an incursion.\n\nIn a statement, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: \"The information being released today shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking.\n\n\"Russia must de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy.\"\n\nThe Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that the Foreign Office was \"circulating disinformation\" and urged it to \"cease these provocative activities\" and \"stop spreading nonsense\".\n\nDeputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said there was \"a very serious risk\" of invasion but there would be \"severe economic consequences\", including sanctions, if Russia took that step.\n\nHowever, he told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme it was \"extremely unlikely\" British troops would be sent to defend Ukraine, adding that the country was not a Nato ally.\n\nAsked if the threat of sanctions would be enough to deter Russia from invading, Mr Raab said Vladimir Putin would also be worried about getting \"bogged down in Ukraine\" and ending up \"with another Chechnya\", where there was several years of conflict in the 1990s.\n\nHe added that Russia \"needs to live up to the basic tenets of international law and invading another country is not one of those\".\n\nRussia has denied it is planning any attack but Mr Putin has issued demands to the West, including that Ukraine be prevented from joining the Nato military alliance.\n\nHe also wants Nato to abandon military exercises and stop sending weapons to eastern Europe, seeing this as a direct threat to Russia's security.\n\nRussia has seized Ukrainian territory before, when it annexed Crimea in 2014, after the country overthrew their pro-Moscow president.\n\nEver since, Ukraine's military has been locked in a war with Russian-backed rebels in areas of the east near Russia's borders. An estimated 14,000 people have been killed in the Donbas region.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab urges Putin to \"step back from the brink\"\n\nMr Murayev, a media owner, lost his seat in the Ukrainian parliament when his party failed to secure 5% of the vote in the 2019 elections.\n\nResponding to the claim that he was a potential Kremlin candidate to lead Ukraine, he told the Observer newspaper that the Foreign Office \"seems confused\".\n\n\"It isn't very logical. I'm banned from Russia. Not only that but money from my father's firm there has been confiscated,\" Mr Murayev said.\n\nHe later wrote in a post on Facebook that \"the time of pro-Western and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine is gone forever\".\n\n\"Ukraine needs new politicians whose policy will be based solely on the principles of the national interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,\" he said.\n\nBut Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, said he believed Russia was trying to install a pro-Moscow leader.\n\n\"It's not the first time they're trying to do so,\" he told Sky News's Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme.\n\nStung, perhaps, by suggestions that while a crisis was boiling in Europe, the foreign and defence secretaries were both in Australia, the UK government does seem to be trying to show that it's getting a grip.\n\nBut its method - a pair of statements aimed very much at the Sunday papers - has raised eyebrows. The Foreign Office, in a press release remarkably short on detail, said it had evidence of a Russian plot to install a puppet government in the wake of an invasion.\n\nThe man it named as a possible pro-Russian candidate for president, former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev, seems to have dismissed the allegation, but this morning said the country needed new leaders.\n\nOf the four other Ukrainian politicians named, at least three fled to Moscow eight years ago.\n\nThe Russian Foreign Ministry said Britain should stop spreading nonsense, but the British allegations do echo similar warnings made by the American government on Thursday. In Kyiv, some Ukrainian government officials appear to be taking them seriously.\n\nThe Foreign Office also named four other Ukrainian politicians who it said maintained links with the Russian intelligence services.\n\nIt said some of the individuals had been in contact with Russian intelligence officers working on an invasion plan.\n\nThey include Mykola Azarov, who served as prime minister under the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in 2014.\n\nMr Azarov then fled to Russia where he established what was widely seen as a puppet government-in-exile.\n\nHe has been the subject of international sanctions and an Interpol \"red notice\" issued at the request of the Ukrainian government, for charges including embezzlement and misappropriation.\n\nAlso named is Volodymyr Sivkovych, the former deputy head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, who was this week made the subject of US sanctions for allegedly working with Russian intelligence.\n\nThe others are Serhiy Arbuzov and Andriy Kluyev, who both served as deputy prime minister under Mr Yanukovych.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Prystaiko said the question was not whether Russia would invade Ukraine but whether it would be a \"full-scale invasion\" or something smaller, adding that Russia had already been in Crimea for almost eight years.\n\nThe Ukrainian ambassador to the UK said his country was \"prepared to fight\" but that it was \"not that well equipped\" for a prolonged conflict with Russia.\n\nOn Saturday, a US shipment of around 90 tonnes of \"lethal aid\" arrived in Ukraine, including ammunition for \"front line defenders\".\n\nDozens of British troops have been in Ukraine since 2015 to help train their armed forces, and the UK has also made a commitment to help rebuild Ukraine's navy following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014.\n\nEarlier this week, the UK announced it was sending defence weapons and extra troops for training.", "Dr Rosie Baruah said period products should be viewed as a basic necessity and not a luxury\n\nA leading Scottish ICU consultant has told the BBC of the dread female staff can feel knowing that they could be about to bleed through their scrubs but have no access to pads or tampons.\n\nDr Rosie Baruah backed the BMA's call for period products to be provided in all NHS staff toilets.\n\nShe said the products should be viewed as a basic necessity not a luxury.\n\nThe British Medical Association said it was a dignity in work issue and called for all staff to have access.\n\nIt said providing period products could play a huge role in the wellbeing and comfort of their staff.\n\nThe union said it was disappointed that too many responses to Freedom of Information requests submitted by Scottish Labour MSP Monica Lennon showed health boards still did not even have a policy of making period products available and accessible.\n\nThe FOI responses showed there had been improvements in comparison to February 2020 but five of Scotland's 14 health boards stated that free period products were not provided to staff, including NHS Lothian.\n\nDr Baruah, a consultant in critical care and anaesthesia in Edinburgh, told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme that getting through a busy shift and being able to change your menstrual protection as often as needed was not always easy.\n\nShe said this had become even more of an issue during the pandemic with doctors and nurses wearing full PPE and following strict guidelines.\n\nThe consultant said period products were available in schools and in hospitals for all patients who may need them but health boards did not have an obligation to provide them for staff.\n\nPeriod products are available in schools and in hospitals for patients but not all staff\n\nDr Baruah said menstruation was often \"unpredictable\" and \"frequently messy\". She said doctors and nurses could be working far from their usual clinical area with a patient in critical need.\n\n\"While you might have access to toilet facilities, if there are no period products there you can end up stuffing your underwear with toilet paper,\" she said.\n\n\"I have had colleagues who have to cut up patient's incontinence pads to place in their own underwear until they can access period products.\"\n\nDr Baruah said period products should be seen as a basic hygiene essential like toilet roll.\n\n\"They are seen as this added extra, this luxury, whereas I see them as being absolutely fundamental to being able to function at work.\"\n\nThe critical care consultant said she was well-paid and could afford period products but this was not about cost instead it was an issue of access to products to avoid stress and embarrassment.\n\n\"It is massively distracting at a time when you can't afford to be distracted,\" she said.\n\nMs Lennon said there was a lack of leadership on the issue and health boards should get their act together.\n\nThe Scottish Labour MSP said doctors should not have to worry about bleeding through their scrubs.\n\n\"We want employers around the country to do the right thing by their staff and I really think health boards should be leading the way on that.\"\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"Scotland was the first country in the world to make period products widely available for free. We believe that being able to access period products is fundamental to equality, dignity and human rights.\n\n\"We expect that NHS boards should provide period products for free for women who need them, when they need them, and that this is a fundamental aspect of their care.\n\n\"The Scottish government previously confirmed with all NHS boards that sanitary products are freely available for women that need them in all appropriate wards in all hospitals.", "Matthew Willson had been visiting his girlfriend when he was shot, according to US police\n\nAn astrophysicist has been killed in a \"reckless\" shooting while visiting his girlfriend in the US state of Georgia.\n\nAt 02:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Sunday, officers were called to an apartment block in Clairmont Road in Brookhaven, Atlanta.\n\nDr Matthew Willson, 31, from Surrey, UK, was found in bed with a single gunshot wound to the head.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was \"supporting the family of a British man following his death\".\n\nBrookhaven Police said the shooting of Dr Willson, from Chertsey, was \"random\" and involved the \"reckless discharge of firearms\".\n\nDr Willson \"was in town from England visiting loved ones when the incident occurred,\" police said.\n\nPolice told local news station WSB-TV2 in Atlanta that it was \"a senseless act\" and Dr Willson was \"a completely innocent victim\".\n\nInvestigators also said he had just flown in to Atlanta.\n\nDr Willson was staying with his girlfriend at an apartment in this complex on Clairmont Road in Brookhaven when he was killed\n\nOfficers had earlier been called to a neighbouring block of flats after reports of gunshots. They received a second call regarding a \"person being shot\" while they were checking the area.\n\nDr Willson was a former PhD student at the University of Exeter in the south-west of England.\n\nThe university said in a statement that Dr Willson was a \"much-loved member of our astrophysics team\".\n\nIt added: \"Our hearts go out to his family, friends and colleagues. We are offering support to colleagues at the university who will also want to commemorate his life.\"\n\nDr Willson also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia State University between 2017 and 2019, the university said.\n\nNo suspects have been arrested and police are seeking information from the public. Authorities are offering a cash reward for tips that lead to an arrest.\n\nSgt Jake Kissel from Brookhaven Police described the location of the shooting as \"a generally safe area\".\n\nSgt Kissel told BBC Radio Surrey that officers \"immediately responded to the priority call of someone being shot and that's where they met with a female caller who was rendering aid to her boyfriend who had been shot dead\".\n\nHe said: \"We are asking for our public's help in assisting us with this investigation.\n\n\"Our investigators are currently following up on all leads to include potential video, eyewitness accounts as well as the evidence that was left on scene.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The boat used by Jean-Jacques Savin was found overturned\n\nA 75-year-old Frenchman who was trying to row across the Atlantic Ocean has been found dead at sea, his support team said.\n\nAdventurer Jean-Jacques Savin had previously made the crossing in a large barrel in 2019.\n\n\"Unfortunately, this time the ocean was stronger than our friend, who loved sailing and the sea so much,\" a statement on his Facebook page said.\n\nSavin had triggered two distress beacons on Thursday night.\n\nHis family had not heard any news from him since, and \"were hoping for a glimmer of hope, and even good news,\" the Facebook statement said. But on Friday Savin's canoe was found overturned off the Azores, an island chain in the North Atlantic Ocean, by Portuguese maritime officials.\n\nThe exact circumstances of his death have not yet been determined.\n\nThe former military paratrooper, who celebrated his 75th birthday at sea last week with foie gras and champagne, set off from Sagres in southern Portugal on 1 January, with the aim of crossing the ocean solo.\n\nOn Wednesday, he wrote on Facebook that there were strong winds which made his journey longer by 900km (560 miles), and said he was having trouble with his solar power. But he added: \"Rest assured, I'm not in danger!\"\n\nJean-Jacques Savin's canoe was named Audacieux, which means \"bold\" or \"audacious\" in French\n\nHe said he planned to fix the issues once he arrived at the \"beautiful marina\" of Ponta Delgada, the capital of the Azores.\n\nSavin had planned to spend some three months in his 8m (26ft) canoe, which he referred to as his \"friend\".\n\nHe had described the rowing feat as a way to \"laugh at old age\".\n\nIn 2019, the adventurer successfully crossed the Atlantic in a barrel-shaped orange capsule, using the sea currents alone to propel it across the water for 4,500km (2,800 miles) - a journey of 122 days.", "When BBC correspondent Dan Johnson posted on Twitter shortly before Christmas that he had finished editing a project capturing the voice of his late father Graeme, he was surprised by the reaction. It made him consider the importance of preserving the memories of loved ones.\n\nThrough the dark days of December, my dad was a constant companion. He spoke to me almost every day while I limited my social life to protect my Christmas plans. I couldn't speak to him, though. He'd died four years earlier.\n\nI'd finally got round to editing his own personal version of Desert Island Discs - the long-running BBC radio programme where guests share the soundtrack of their lives - recorded in his last few months. I listened over and over to set the sound levels, carefully piecing together his audio jigsaw - the music that meant the most to him, and the comedians who made him laugh.\n\nHe had lung cancer, despite never smoking, and while we knew his life would be shortened, his outlook was positive - he was responding to treatment and focused entirely on living. We never discussed death. His suggestion, that we sit down and cover everything from Dusty Springfield to The Moody Blues, Morecambe and Wise to Eddie Izzard, was the only hint of something to leave behind, apart from a bench overlooking his favourite view across Green Moor cricket ground high on a hill in South Yorkshire.\n\nIt's the sort of talking we didn't do much of. He was a fairly typical Yorkshireman when it came to emotions. Besides that, I wouldn't have felt able to raise the idea for fear of negatively affecting his optimistic outlook, maybe even his chances. But thankfully, he was up for it and signalled a willingness to step outside our usual comfort zone. Even if his intention was to speak only about songs and sketches, I saw a chance to nudge him into reflecting a little on life and the things that made him tick.\n\nWe started recording on a wet and windy night in September 2017, hunkered down in the old station master's house at Ribblehead, by the impressive viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales. We were away for a few days in one of his favourite spots, where he'd stayed decades before as a boy scout on his first night away from family in Hull. Now he'd been drawn back.\n\nGraeme said he was introduced to the power of music through a neighbour's radiogram in Hull\n\nHe'd already given me a scrawled list of clips to play next to the warming fire as trains passed by the window. I waved a microphone towards him and he explained he thought it would be a nice thing to hand on, something he wished he had from his parents and grandparents.\n\nAs we embarked on the list, he described a fascination with sound, its power and projection, that began as a young boy at the house of a neighbour who had a big radiogram. He captured typical family life at the end of the 1960s, gathered around watching the Morecambe and Wise Christmas special and having to take his turn on the new \"Hi-Fi system\" to play his budding LP collection that started with the Beatles' Abbey Road. The older girls next door had asked if he wanted to see the Beatles with them at Hull's ABC cinema. His parents said 12-year-old Graeme was too young.\n\nI never knew he'd flunked his A-Levels and been forced to take a gap year to weigh up his options. He spent that summer in France, working on a campsite, where the local kids played Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on the bar's jukebox.\n\nGraeme had hidden a teenage love of Motown because he said it wasn't cool at the time\n\nHe went on to build a career in town planning, which took him to Liverpool, Nottingham and Barnsley, where he worked on redeveloping a landscape scarred by coal mines and coke works. He'd drag me and my sister along the redundant railway lines converted to cycle paths or march us up replanted slag heaps to see the new roads and modern warehouses which were replacing the old industries.\n\nIn the old station master's house, we talked about Van Morrison being a grumpy old man but a great performer. He remembered Bruce Springsteen's epic live gigs full of energy. He described a secret teenage love of Motown, hidden because it wasn't deemed cool at the time.\n\nAs he relaxed a bit, he confessed some thoughts of \"what if\", but was content things had worked out well. He'd made plans in life but had always been flexible, prepared to take opportunities and confident things would be fine.\n\nAfter three recording sessions, we were about two thirds of the way down his playlist when time ran out. I started editing soon after his lungs suddenly deteriorated at the end of 2017. But I found it tough. It was upsetting and I faced a difficult decision. Without a proper ending, I wasn't sure how to wrap up his unfinished symphony. I wonder if I was also reluctant to complete what had become the last task of his life.\n\nDan and Graeme on the weekend they made the recording in the Yorkshire Dales\n\nTrue to form, he'd left a list of scribbled suggestions, so eventually I took that, explained his spoken contribution would end there, then let his other choices play through.\n\nThere was other stuff that went unsaid. He chose Dear John, sung by Eddi Reader but written by Kirsty MacColl about the end of her marriage. My dad referred to his own divorce, but he didn't say much and I didn't press him. \"It had a resonance, it rang a bell,\" he said. \"It made me think, yes, she's captured that very well.\"\n\nThese were hints of deeper meaning behind his choices, even the entire project. He was more emotionally engaged than he let on. He'd learned to love music listening to albums in their entirety, through upbeat hits and darker melodies, changing moods and different tones. He took the rough with the smooth and focused on the overarching narrative, aware that development comes in stages and hopeful that it would be alright in the end - whatever happens along the way.\n\nSome of my family were wary of listening to the finished recording. They'd had four years of radio silence and had to brace themselves to hear his voice again. My sister said it wasn't the gut punch that she'd feared it might be. She found it warm and comforting, not distant or upsetting. The familiarity reassured her that she hadn't forgotten him. Van Morrison brought tears because Brown Eyed Girl had been set as his ringtone.\n\nI appreciate we're really fortunate to have this. I know so many others do not, and I'm sorry. I hope photos, videos and stories can help keep memories fresh and flowing. Death has snatched suddenly from so many families, without even the chance to say goodbye. But if you have the opportunity, make the most of it - get something recorded. It doesn't matter what you talk about. The reflections and insights are powerful but really, it's much simpler than that.\n\nI'll never hear my dad as an old man, the tales he would have told his grandsons, the new interests he'd have immersed himself in. But he left me his snorting, sniggering laughter, the traces of his Hull accent still stretching out his words, and his friendly voice preserved in all its rich, gentle warmth.\n\n\"I may be old, but at least I got to see all the best bands,\" he said, quoting one of his own statement t-shirts. It's arguable. He'd only just turned 63 and, as he said himself, he never did see the Beatles.", "Jake Olenick, 24, is spending almost two-thirds of his take-home pay renting a London flat but he started to get on the property ladder last year.\n\nA new job, rigorous saving and \"lucky family circumstances\" have enabled him to buy a share of a flat in Kilburn.\n\nJake is not alone in managing to get a foot on the housing ladder in 2021.\n\nFigures from mortgage lender Halifax suggest there were a record number of first-time buyers last year, despite rising house prices and falling affordability.\n\nJake, who is originally from New York, graduated from Oxford University and got a job in Oxford working as a games developer in 2019.\n\nSix months ago, he landed a software development job in London and moved into a West Hampstead flat with his girlfriend.\n\nThat relationship broke down in October and Jake started to pay all of the rent, which worked out at about 60% of his take-home pay.\n\n\"I couldn't keep paying that much in rent and I already knew that it's almost always much better to buy,\" he said.\n\nSo he started the ball rolling on buying 40% of a flat in Kilburn, sharing ownership with a housing association. In total, he'll be paying 35% of his salary on rent, mortgage and service charge when he moves in.\n\nHe said one of the main reasons he was able to do this was \"extremely lucky family circumstances\".\n\nHis parents had been saving for him to go to a US university, which was much more expensive than a UK one, and they were able to cover his fees at Oxford.\n\nSo when he left, he had no student loans, which helped him when viewing properties.\n\nHe also managed to put aside money from his job and has been saving birthday and Christmas money his whole life.\n\nJake is really looking forward to moving into his new flat.\n\n\"I'm very excited!\" he says. \"I'll be able to put up posters, make repairs, the oven door will close, I'll be able to sleep because the windows are insulated, triple-glazed even!\n\n\"I'll be able to afford a weekend away, maybe I'll be able to afford a keyboard so I can play piano again. All sorts of things!\"\n\nThere were more than 400,000 people buying their first home in 2021, up 35% from the previous year, the Halifax said. That rate dropped by 13% in 2020, when the number of Halifax buyers was about 300,000.\n\nA stamp duty holiday that started in 2020 saw house buyers rush to pick up properties - although first-time buyers were not part of this stampede.\n\nHowever, this meant a number of so-called \"first-rung\" homes came on to the market, which first-time buyers took advantage of in 2021, despite hikes in property prices.\n\nEsther Dijkstra, mortgage director at Halifax, said: \"There were a number of factors influencing home-buying decisions in 2021.\n\n\"While working from home and the 'race for space' was key for many, particularly movers, it's clear that the stamp duty holiday increased the availability of first-rung homes as others moved up the ladder.\"\n\nThe average age of first-time buyers rose to 32, up from 29 in 2011. Ms Dijkstra said that this rise in average age was mostly due to \"the need to save a significant deposit to get on the housing ladder\".\n\nThe average buyer used a £53,935 deposit on a first property costing £264,140.\n\nBecause of difficulties raising a deposit, the gap between the purchase price and the deposit widened in every region in the UK, Ms Dijkstra added.\n\nIt's only in three local authority areas in Scotland that homes are either more affordable - in Clackmannanshire and Moray - or as affordable - in East Ayrshire, since 2011.\n\nHouses in the rest of the UK have become less affordable since then, Halifax said.\n\nOn average, properties now cost nearly seven times the annual salary of first-time buyers.\n\nThe limit for affordability is considered to be four times the average income.\n\nIn some areas, affordability has dropped very sharply since 2011.\n\nIn one London borough, Merton, affordability has halved, with similar drops, albeit not as pronounced, in Reigate and Banstead, South Kesteven, Westminster and Ashford.\n\nAnya Martin, director of campaign group PricedOut, which pushes for more affordable housing, said: \"House prices and rents have been pushed out of reach by decades of failure to build enough homes.\n\n\"First-time buyer schemes may help a few, but ultimately they are designed to help people stretch to high prices, rather than dealing with the cause of those high prices.\"\n\nChae Sarjant, her partner, and her son Kayden (pictured) are getting a home with the help of Chae's parents\n\nMany first-time buyers get help from their parents to be able to afford a home, but some use a mortgage firm that was itself set up by frustrated first-time buyers.\n\nRetail worker Chae Sarjant is buying a home with her partner, who works for the NHS, on the same road where she grew up in East Finchley.\n\nThey got a mortgage through a company called Generation Home. Chae says: \"To be honest, we couldn't have done it without them.\"\n\nHer mum \"is only able to give us as much as she is because it's a loan protected by Generation Home, so she can get it back when we move and use it in retirement\" and her stepfather has also taken a stake in the property, Chae says.\n\n\"We're buying about two minutes walk from them in East Finchley,\" she says. \"It's the same road I grew up on and it means my son gets to go to the same schools I went to.\n\n\"We're all thrilled, although we're currently in conveyancing hell,\" she says. \"It's a long and very annoying process.\"\n\nThe family are hoping to move in February and \"we're really looking forward to settling down\".\n\nThey have rented for the past four years, \"which has meant moving a lot, and I know my son is looking forward to that being over!\" she adds.\n\nShe said they \"never really took the idea of buying our own place that seriously, to be honest\".\n\n\"Our salary has been eaten up by rent every month, so we have very little savings of our own and our income means most mortgage companies were giving us way less than we needed to afford anything even remotely close to our families,\" she said.\n\nFlats in East Finchley typically cost between £350,000 and £550,000, she said.\n\n\"Having my mum loan us the money makes us all a lot more comfortable,\" Chae adds. \"She's able to get the money back in the future and I'm a lot less stressed about affecting her retirement.\"", "A Connecticut woman is suing Instagram's parent company Meta and Snap Inc, alleging an addiction to their social media platforms caused the suicide of her young daughter.\n\nSelena Rodriguez, an 11-year-old resident of the town of Enfield, took her own life last year.\n\nThe lawsuit alleges that her death was caused by the potentially dangerous features of the platforms.\n\nThe case comes amid growing fears over the impact of social media on children.\n\nAccording to a statement from the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) - which filed the suit in California on behalf of Selena's mother, Tammy - the young girl suffered from an \"extreme\" addiction to Instagram and Snapchat.\n\nMs Rodriguez confiscated her daughter's devices on multiple occasions, only to have her run away to use social media, according to the SMVLC.\n\n\"On multiple occasions, Selena received mental health treatment for her addiction,\" the statement said. \"One outpatient therapist who evaluated Selena remarked that she had never seen a patient as addicted to social media.\"\n\nBefore her suicide on 21 July 2021, Selena had allegedly suffered from sleep deprivation and depression for months, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic began and she spent more time on social media.\n\nAdditionally, the lawsuit alleges that Selena was repeatedly solicited for sexually exploitative content, which she ultimately shared.\n\nThe images were then leaked and shared by her classmates, leading to a deterioration of her mental state and eventually to her suicide.\n\nThe lawsuit, which was filed in a federal courtroom in California on Friday, alleges that both social media giants \"knowingly and purposefully\" designed and marketed products that were harmful to a \"significant\" number of their underage users.\n\n\"[The] defendants intentionally created an attractive nuisance to young children but failed to provide adequate safeguards from the harmful effects they knew were occurring on their wholly owned and controlled digital premises,\" the lawsuit says.\n\nIn a statement sent to the BBC, a Snap spokesperson said the company was \"devastated\" to hear of Selena's death, although it declined to comment on the lawsuit specifically.\n\n\"Nothing is more important to us than the wellbeing of our community,\" the spokesperson said, adding that it helps people communicate with friends \"without some of the public pressure and social comparison features of traditional social media platforms\".\n\nThe spokesperson added that it \"intentionally makes it hard for strangers to contact young people\" and is working with mental health organisations to provide in-app tools and resources.\n\nMeta - the parent company of Facebook - did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.\n\nThe lawsuit comes as US lawmakers and the public have grown increasingly concerned over the impact of social media on young people.\n\nIn November, former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen told lawmakers the company was harming children, but alleged that it \"won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people\".\n\nAfterward, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent a letter to staff - made public on his Facebook page - that the company cares \"deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health\".", "Google is backing a return to the office with an investment that will expand its UK capacity by 50% and \"reinvigorate\" the work environment.\n\nThe search giant is spending £730m ($1bn) and expects headcount to rise from 6,400 to 10,000.\n\nIt is buying one of the London sites, Central Saint Giles, in which it is currently a tenant.\n\nGoogle's UK boss Ronan Harris told the BBC the investment reflected the firm's faith in the office as a place of work.\n\n\"We want to reinvigorate the work environment. We're making this commitment to rebuild. We're buying these buildings and we're keen to see everybody come back in and see a vibrant workspace again,\" Mr Harris said.\n\nAs well as purchasing the Central Saint Giles site, Google said it would be undertaking a multi-million pound refurbishment of its offices there to ensure they were on a par with those in its new King's Cross development currently under construction.\n\nThat will provide more space so offices can be less densely populated, and will include collaboration spaces and \"inclusive meeting rooms for hybrid working\" as well as covered outdoor workspaces, the firm said.\n\nGoogle is trialling hybrid meeting spaces in its US offices\n\nCurrent government guidance remains to work from home where possible, but that - along with other government restrictions - will be reviewed on 26 January.\n\nEventually, Google wants the vast majority of its workforce to return to the office for three days a week.\n\nBut employers are feeling their way as the country emerges from two years of pandemic-enforced changes, during which many people adapted to completely different ways of working.\n\n\"I think the next two [years] will be an experiment where we try and figure out what hybrid and flexible actually mean,\" said Mr Harris.\n\n\"And I think it will differ from company to company and from role to role. I think it'll be a lot of trial and error over the next two years.\"\n\nOutdoor workspaces are also being piloted in the US\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak welcomed Google's investment, describing it as \"a big vote of confidence in the UK as a world-leading tech hub\".\n\nThe employers group the CBI said a return to the workplace was vital for economic recovery, particularly for the UK's town and city centres.\n\nRetail and hospitality businesses especially are eager for office staff to return to old habits, picking up coffees, sandwiches and shopping during the day and going out after work in the evening.\n\nHowever, many employees don't want to return full time to the office and the number of days that employers require their staff to attend in person is emerging as a key point of difference in the recruitment process.\n\nNeil Carberry from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation told the BBC: \"Pay used to be the main lever employers could use in negotiations. Office attendance is now a major conversation between firms and potential employees.\"\n\nAre you affected by issues covered in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A major rescue operation was launched off the coast at Berck-sur-Mer when the dinghy got into difficulty\n\nA man has drowned and 30 other people have been brought to safety by French rescue services after they tried to cross the Channel to the UK.\n\nThe man fell overboard when the small migrant boat got into difficulty close to the French coast at Berck-sur-Mer, south of Boulogne.\n\nMost of those rescued were on board the dinghy, but five people were picked up from a sandbank.\n\nFriday's drowning is thought to be the first fatality in the Channel in 2022.\n\nProsecutors said the man who died on Friday was believed to be in his 20s and of Sudanese origin.\n\nLocal media said the alarm was raised when someone on land spotted the boat getting into difficulty in freezing temperatures, possibly when they were trapped by the tide. Some of those rescued were suffering from hypothermia, according to officials.\n\nThose who were brought ashore were said to be suffering from hypothermia\n\nLast November, at least 27 peopled drowned in the Channel in the worst single incident involving migrant boats since the strait between northern France to the UK became a popular migration route.\n\nSeveral boats and a helicopter responded to Friday's alert, and the man was recovered from the water unconscious by a lifeboat crew.\n\nFrance's Channel and North Sea maritime authority said the boat had been towed to shore, where it was left on the quayside. A subsequent aerial search had spotted no-one else in the sea.\n\nThe number of people who crossed the English Channel in small boats last year was three times the number for 2020.\n\nFigures compiled by the BBC show at least 28,431 migrants made the journey in 2021. Attempts to cross the Channel have continued this month, with 271 people reaching the Kent coast on Thursday alone, more than the entire number in January 2020.\n\nAccording to the local French news website La Voix du Nord, authorities nearby in Le Touquet prevented a crossing involving mainly Syrians, Afghans and Iranians and arrested two Syrian traffickers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "At Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson told MPs that he was technically within the rules when he attended a drinks party in his own back garden on May 20, 2020, during lockdown.\n\nHe set out part of the defence he has put forward to the senior civil servant, Sue Gray, who is investigating the allegations of parties taking place on government property.\n\nOn Wednesday, the prime minister told MPs: \"Number 10 is a big department with the garden as an extension of the office - which has been in constant use because of the role of fresh air in stopping the virus.\n\n\"I believed implicitly that this was a work event.\"\n\nA Downing Street spokesman later provided more of the case for the defence - that the prime minister had not seen the email invite to No 10 staff from civil servant Martin Reynolds, encouraging them to bring their own booze to the event.\n\nBut the building - or buildings - in Downing Street also form part of the defence case.\n\nNo 10 acts as both a home and an office for the prime minister, although the flat where he lives is actually above No 11 Downing Street.\n\nThe higgeldy-piggeldy property is variously a conference centre, a venue for ministerial meetings, a workplace for civil servants and advisers, and - in 2020 - also where press briefings were conducted.\n\nSo it's possible the prime minister may be able to claim that if members of his household happened to \"mix\" with staff when restrictions were in place, that was because they were simply using their own back garden.\n\nAnd when he was \"mixing\" with officials that was because the garden was also an office, and those key employees did not need to work from home.\n\nBut this explanation is rejected by former members of Mr Johnson's own staff.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I offer my heartfelt apologies\": Watch Boris Johnson admit to attending the No 10 party in May 2020\n\nIn a tweet on Wednesday, Dominic Cummings argued that 20 May - given the formal e-mail invitation - was \"no way within the rules\" and was \"obviously social, not work\", which would not have been allowed.\n\nAnother former staffer - who has not, unlike Mr Cummings, been openly critical of the prime minister - told the BBC there were \"no legal grounds\" for the 20 May gathering.\n\nAnd they noted that while there was a reference to good weather in the emailed invitation, there was no mention of work - and the only nod to the pandemic was that the drinks would be \"socially distanced\".\n\nSue Gray will no doubt form her own view - but with more Conservative MPs becoming openly critical of Mr Johnson even before she completes her report, there is little doubt that he is in a tight spot.\n\nFormer government insiders are suggesting the culture that was allowed to flourish at Downing Street from the first lockdown onwards contributed to the prime minister's current predicament.\n\nA regular visitor to Downing Street from another department said that drinks were available on some evenings at post-press conference meetings in the garden.\n\nA former No 10 insider has already said drinks were available regularly on Fridays when people were working late.\n\nDominic Cummings was no stranger to the Downing Street garden\n\nDominic Cummings has insisted that the photograph, published by the Guardian, in the Downing Street garden from 15 May 2020 - showing wine on a table - depicted a work meeting, not a social event.\n\nAnd he added in his blog \"No 10 staff were ENCOURAGED\" [his caps] to have meetings in the garden April-August for the obvious reason that we were in a pandemic with an airborne disease and being outside was safer!'\n\nThis account has been corroborated by others in government at the time who said evidence was emerging of the lower risk of transmission outdoors.\n\nBut a former government adviser told the BBC that because people were getting used to meeting outside, the lines between work and socialising had got blurred.\n\nHe suggested that this may have \"normalised\" the drinking and chatting in the garden that took place on 20 May.\n\nBut he nonetheless agrees with Mr Cummings that this event - with that email invite from Mr Johnson's Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds - was \"blatantly against the rules\".\n\nAnd he said several people who worked in No 10 at the time felt Mr Reynolds' email invitation was \"nutty\".\n\n\"Anyone with political nous would know this was wrong,\" said the former insider.\n\nAs we reported, the event went ahead despite opposition from key political staff, leading some to believe it must therefore have been sanctioned by the prime minister himself.\n\nBut the former government source believes Downing Street's denial of this is credible - again, because of the unusual culture at No 10.\n\nHe said that civil servants who are Principal Private Secretaries, like Mr Reynolds, would normally work closely with their ministers,\n\nAnd it would be assumed that they were speaking with the authority of their political masters.\n\nBut in Boris Johnson's case, added our source, \"he just isn't across the detail\".\n\nSo, he claimed, it was left to others in No 10 to undertake functions usually associated with the prime minister himself.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Sir Keir Starmer asks if the PM will do the decent thing and resign\n\nLabour sources say they haven't asked for Martin Reynolds's resignation as the \"culture inside No 10 was set by the man at the top\".\n\nSo bit by bit, a picture of working life inside No10 during the coronavirus crisis is emerging.\n\nThe prime minister would prefer to talk of the government's achievements in the face of the challenge of Covid - such as the mass vaccination programme.\n\nBut as one of Boris Johnson's MPs put it after Prime Minister's Questions, \"it is just drip, drip, drip. It will continue to be drip, drip, drip\" - and \"partygate\" could continue to be politically corrosive.\n\nThe key question now will be whether the No 10 defence - that while mistakes were made, rules were not technically broken - will wash with Sue Gray, and with the wider public.", "Armed police forced their way into the flat to end the stand-off on Thursday\n\nArmed police have forced their way into a flat to end a stand-off which lasted five days.\n\nA 41-year-old man had barricaded himself in the building in Coventry with an eight-year-old boy and refused to leave since Sunday.\n\nFirearms officers moved into the flat at about 20:30 GMT and detained the man, police said.\n\nThe boy is believed to be physically unharmed and is being cared for by family members, they added.\n\nAn eyewitness told the BBC they heard \"a lot of bangs\" and ran outside to \"see the armed police going through the window\".\n\nThe woman, who did not want to be identified, added: \"A lot of the neighbours started coughing because there was tear gas which had been released as well.\"\n\nThe man has been taken into custody and will be assessed by mental health professionals.\n\nOfficers have been at the scene since Sunday\n\nSupt Ronan Tyrer said the situation \"became untenable\" and they decided to act for the boy's safety.\n\n\"At all times, we had to balance the risk to the boy being kept in the house, with the risk that he could be harmed if we did enter the house,\" he added.\n\nWest Midlands Police had cordoned off the area since the weekend after being called there for a welfare check and the force said it believed there were weapons in the ground-floor property.\n\nRoads, businesses and a school have been closed all week. Some residents living near the scene in Earlsdon Avenue North said they could not leave their homes without police escort.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Using a company to help you claim a tax rebate could end up costing you hundreds of pounds extra according to consumer group Which?\n\nDozens of firms online offer to help customers claim back tax they're owed by HM Revenue & Customs, for example, for the Marriage Allowance.\n\nBut these third-party firms charge fees and take a percentage of the tax claim.\n\nWhich? says most people are much better off going straight to HMRC themselves to avoid \"unnecessary bills\".\n\nTax rebates are free to claim via HMRC, and the process is \"relatively simple\", but some firms are charging between a quarter and half of the final tax payment received in return for their services, Which? said.\n\nThe consumer rights group has identified 208 firms with \"tax reclaim\", \"tax refund\", \"tax claim\" and \"tax rebate\" in their names. It found the term \"tax rebate\" gets more than 40,000 Google searches a month.\n\nSome of these third-party firms use similar branding and language to the HMRC, Which? said.\n\nJenny Ross, Which? money editor, said their research showed huge numbers of people were coming into contact with firms hoping to persuade them to use their services to claim rebates, costing people \"potentially hundreds of pounds\".\n\n\"For most people with a rebate to claim, HMRC is the best port of call. Go to its website directly to ensure you aren't left footing any unnecessary bills,\" she said.\n\nOne of the most common tax claims is for Marriage Allowance, Which? said, which allows one spouse to transfer 10% of their tax-free personal allowance to their partner if their partner earns less than the current personal allowance, and it can be backdated up to a total of £1,220.\n\nWhile firms are permitted to charge a \"reasonable amount\" for such services, Which? said it found one firm, Tax Credits Ltd, was charging a service fee of 48%.\n\nTax Credits said: 'We spend a significant amount on marketing and providing access to this potential tax relief. In many cases it's our advertising, not HMRC's, that makes a person aware of it.\n\n\"We then present the claimant with a simple mechanism to access the potential overpayment of tax. Our remuneration is contingent on a repayment being secured, and the amount we retain is reflective of this,\" it added.\n\nWhich? said customers who have been misled by websites into thinking they were dealing with the tax authority directly should make a complaint to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service.", "Police found faeces and vomit over the floor, bedding, and dormer window of the attic room\n\nA photo revealing the conditions inside a bedroom in which an autistic man was imprisoned by his mother and stepfather has been released.\n\nMatthew Langley, 22, was left \"close to death\" after being locked in the attic room for seven months.\n\nLorna Hewitt, 43, and her husband Craig Hewitt were convicted of falsely imprisoning him at their Sheffield home between November 2019 and June 2020.\n\nThe National Autistic Society said the scene was \"deeply disturbing\".\n\nBy the time he was found on 2 June 2020, Mr Langley, who also had learning difficulties and suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, double incontinence and arthritis, weighed just six stone (39kg) and was severely dehydrated.\n\nThe photograph, which was released by police, shows piles of rubbish and soiled items in the vomit and faeces-covered room.\n\nThe couple are due to be sentenced on 18 February\n\nThe National Autistic Society said the image was \"really shocking\".\n\nTim Nicholls, head of policy, public affairs and research partnerships at the society, said: \"What happened to Matthew was horrifying.\n\n\"Autistic people and families across the country will be deeply disturbed by this case and the shocking conditions shown in this picture.\n\n\"It's inexcusable, no-one should have to go through what Matthew faced.\"\n\nFollowing a trial at Sheffield Crown Court the Hewitts, of Walkley Road, were also found guilty of causing or allowing a vulnerable adult to suffer serious physical harm.\n\nJurors heard Mr Langley had become so extremely malnourished and dehydrated that his \"life was in the balance\".\n\nProsecutor Nicholas Campbell QC told the court Mr Langley was in a \"pitiable state\" and had been left unable to walk, with bruises showing he had been \"crawling on all fours\" in his room.\n\nThe couple are due to be sentenced on 18 February.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Couple kept autistic son in attic for seven months\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested lockdown rules may have been too tough at the time the May 2020 drinks party took place in Downing Street.\n\nHe told MPs a future inquiry about Covid should look at whether \"all those regulations were proportionate or whether it was too hard on people\".\n\nAt the time, lockdown guidance said gatherings must be limited to two people outside.\n\nThe PM admitted he attended the drinks but believed it was a \"work event\".\n\nMr Johnson told MPs he had joined colleagues for drinks for around 25 minutes, to \"thank groups of staff\" for their hard work during the pandemic and apologised for his handling of the event, saying he understood people's \"rage\".\n\nHe is facing calls to quit from some senior Tories, as well as opposition parties, after admitting attending the party.\n\nCommons leader Mr Rees-Mogg said: \"I think everybody understands that people were obeying the rules and these rules were very hard for people to obey.\"\n\nHe told MPs that he had been contacted by a friend who was unable to go to the funeral of his two-year old granddaughter during lockdown.\n\n\"We must consider as this goes to an inquiry and we look into what happened with Covid whether all those regulations were proportionate or whether it was too hard on people,\" he added.\n\nThe public inquiry into Covid is set to begin work this spring. Baroness Heather Hallett was announced as the inquiry chair in December.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said the government had sought to strike the right balance when introducing regulations and guidance.\n\n\"Clearly this was a unique situation in which we were required to move at speed and oftentimes whilst the evidence base was continuing to grow.\n\n\"We've sought to learn lessons throughout as we developed guidance in response to the pandemic over this period. But we're confident we sought to strike the right balance throughout.\"\n\nHe added: \"I think prime minister has absolutely acknowledged that these restrictions do not...there is no cost-free option, both in allowing the virus to continue unimpeded and indeed introducing restrictions on people's way of lives and their livelihood.\"\n\nGovernment tweet from 20 May 2020 explaining the guidance that was in operation\n\nThe first coronavirus lockdown was introduced in England in late March and rules were slowly relaxed in May 2020, but it was not until 1 June that people were allowed to meet outside in groups of up to six people.\n\nThere were a number of legal restrictions in place in May 2020, including the law that people could not leave their homes - or be outside the place they live - without a reasonable excuse, which included work (where you couldn't work from home), exercise and getting things like food and medicine.\n\nThe gathering in Downing Street, described in the invitation as \"socially distanced\", was attended by around 30 people, who were invited to bring their own alcohol.\n\nMr Rees-Mogg also continued his criticism of the Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, who has called for the prime minister's resignation.\n\nMr Rees-Mogg dubbed the MSP and MP a \"lightweight\" on Wednesday, and said: \"It seems to me that people who hold office ought to support the leader of the party, that is the honourable and proper thing to do.\"", "Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001\n\nA lawyer for the woman accusing the Duke of York of sexually assaulting her at 17 says a money settlement alone will not be enough for his client.\n\nPrince Andrew faces a civil case in the US after Virginia Giuffre sued him, claiming he abused her in 2001. He has consistently denied the claims.\n\nA judge has ruled the case can continue after Prince Andrew tried to have it dismissed.\n\nDavid Boies, Ms Giuffre's lawyer, told the BBC she wants to be vindicated.\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers had cited a 2009 deal Ms Giuffre signed with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as grounds for the dismissal of the case, arguing she had waived her right to pursue a claim against the royal.\n\nBut Judge Lewis A Kaplan said the case could continue, adding that this ruling did not determine the \"truth or falsity\" of Ms Giuffre's complaint. The case against Prince Andrew, 61, could now be heard in court later this year.\n\nMr Boies told BBC's Newsnight the ruling was \"an important step\" in moving towards a trial.\n\nHe said: \"I think it's very important to Virginia Giuffre that this matter be resolved in a way that vindicates her and vindicates the other victims. I don't think she has a firm view as to exactly what a solution should be.\n\n\"But I think what's going to be important is that this resolution vindicates her and vindicates the claim she has made.\"\n\nIn court documents, Ms Giuffre said she was the victim of sex trafficking and abuse by late billionaire financier Epstein.\n\nPart of her abuse involved being lent out to other powerful men, she alleges.\n\nPrince Andrew, the Queen's second son, said in an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he had no recollection of ever meeting Virginia Giuffre, and her account of them having sex in the US and UK \"didn't happen\".\n\nAsked if Ms Giuffre would be open to an out-of-court money settlement, her lawyer said he did not want to \"pre-judge that\", adding there had been \"no suggestion of settlement discussions at this point\".\n\n\"A purely financial settlement is not anything I think she is interested in,\" he said.\n\nMs Giuffre filed a civil case in New York in August 2021 under the state's Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of childhood sexual abuse to pursue a case which otherwise would have been barred because too much time had passed.\n\nNow 38, she says the three alleged instances of abuse by Prince Andrew continue to cause her \"significant emotional and psychological distress and harm\".\n\nOn Thursday, a letter was released signed by more than 150 Royal Navy, RAF and Army veterans asking the Queen to strip Prince Andrew of his ranks and titles in the British armed forces.\n\nIn the joint letter, released by anti-monarchy pressure group Republic, they wrote: \"Were this any other senior military officer it is inconceivable that he would still be in post.\"\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers could potentially launch an appeal against Judge Kaplan's decision\n\nPrince Andrew withdrew from public duties soon after his 2019 appearance on Newsnight.\n\nHe used the interview to reiterate his denials of Ms Giuffre's claims and explain his one-time friendship with Epstein and the late financier's girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nOne of Ms Giuffre's allegations is that Prince Andrew abused her at the London home of Maxwell, who in December was convicted by a jury in New York of procuring teenage girls for Epstein.\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers could potentially launch an appeal against Judge Kaplan's decision - although they would need his permission to do so, and legal commentators say the wording of his decision suggests it would not be granted.", "Flowers and candles were laid at Belfast City Hall on Friday evening\n\nVigils have been taking place across Ireland to commemorate murdered teacher Asling Murphy.\n\nThe 23-year-old was attacked on the banks of the Grand Canal outside Tullamore, County Offaly, on Wednesday afternoon and died at the scene.\n\nGardaí (Irish police) said she sustained serious injuries \"consistent with an assault\".\n\nOn Thursday night a 40-year-old man arrested over the murder was released, with police saying he was not longer a suspect.\n\nThe National Women's Council of Ireland said vigils were being planned at dozens of locations.\n\nThe organisation said the vigils were being organised to remember Ms Murphy, to show support to her family and to say: \"We want an end to male violence against women\".\n\nCandles were lit and flowers left beside a picture of Ms Murphy at Belfast City Hall\n\nPoliticians and members of the public stood side by side in Guildhall Square in Lononderry\n\nMessages were left at the vigil in Derry outside the Guildhall\n\nMusic was played outside Government buildings in Dublin. Ms Murphy was a talented musician\n\nA big crowd gathered in Dublin, many carrying photos of Ms Murphy\n\nVicky Masterson holds a picture of 23-year-old Ashling Murphy during a vigil outside Government buildings, in Dublin\n\nTaoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheal Martin was among those who attended the vigil in Dublin\n\nFlowers have also been laid the scene of Ms Murphy's murder in Tullamore\n\nIn Newry the slogan \"she was going for a run\", which has been used on social media, was held up\n\nA vigil in Coleraine, County Londonderry, was attended by the town's three female assembly members\n\nMusicians, some of whom had met and played with Ms Murphy, performed at a vigil in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh", "Those eligible for a one-off payment will have to have been in receipt of one or more types of means-tested benefits in December 2021\n\nStormont ministers have approved a plan to provide one-off payments of £200 to people needing support with energy costs.\n\nCommunities Minister Deirdre Hargey proposed the scheme to help about 280,000 people in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe executive backed the proposal at its meeting on Thursday.\n\nThose who are eligible for the payment will have to have been paid one or more of five qualifying benefits during the week beginning 13 December 2021.\n\nThe Department for Communities said the qualifying benefits were:\n\nNo application process will be needed, and payments will be issued automatically to individuals rather than households.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey: \"You don't have to apply.\"\n\nMs Hargey said she hoped the first payments would be made next month, but there were a number of steps in the process.\n\nThe scheme needs new legislation to be drafted and passed in the assembly, and it also requires input from the Department of Work and Pensions.\n\nMs Hargey said her department wanted to get through these steps \"as quickly as possible\".\n\n\"I now have to lay draft affirmative legislation that gives me the power to do that\", she said\n\n\"As soon as I can get that done, we are engaging with the Department of Work and Pensions who will manually make these payments on their computer systems.\n\n\"I'm looking at over the next period of weeks and going into February for those payments to start to reach bank accounts\", she added.\n\nAge NI says it is worried some older people will be excluded because they are not in receipt of a qualifying benefit\n\nThe scheme has been welcomed by Age NI.\n\nBut the charity said it was concerned some older people in need would be excluded because they were not on a qualifying benefit.\n\nIn a statement the charity said: \"We worry for those older people who have just about been managing up until now.\n\n\"Pensioners who have been getting by on a modest pension income have little or no leeway to absorb the impact of up to 50% fuel cost increases\".\n\n\"Northern Ireland needs a longer term strategy on energy and a task force dedicated to tackling this issue all year round. It's time to stop responding to a crisis every winter and leaving vulnerable older people stuck in the cold\".\n\nFirst Minister Paul Givan said energy payments could begin in March \"at the latest\" but he hoped they would start sooner.\n\n\"People have faced the very real choice of heating or eating and this is our contribution to that,\" he said.\n\nThe scheme is expected to cost about £55m, with some of the funding expected to come from a reallocation exercise known as a monitoring round.\n\nThe remainder is set to come from what is known as a Barnett consequential - additional money issued to the devolved administrations when a spending decision is made for England.\n\nThe move by the Department for Communities to draw up another scheme to tackle rising energy costs comes amid concerns about a smaller support fund already in place.\n\nA smaller fuel poverty scheme worth £2m opened last week but has been capped at a daily limit with some people struggling to access the online application portal.\n\nOn Wednesday, Ms Hargey said the cap was to ensure the funding lasted until March, when the scheme is due to close.\n\nBut Alliance assembly member Kellie Amstrong said the \"extraordinarily tight\" criteria for the scheme, administered by Bryson Charitable Group, had not been properly promoted, meaning some people were potentially applying when they may not be eligible.\n\nIt is understood that people who have applied for the smaller fuel scheme can still access this new scheme, providing they meet its criteria.", "Prince Andrew was interviewed by BBC Newsnight's Emily Maitlis in 2019\n\nIt is more than two years since I sat down with Prince Andrew in a Buckingham Palace ballroom and posed questions that seemed almost too surreal to ask.\n\nIt is two years since the world heard his defence - about a birthday party in Woking, a trip to Pizza Express, and his inability to sweat - and shook a collective head, trying to work out what any of it meant. At the time, the specifics seemed almost comical. They spawned memes and riffs, quiz-show questions and stand-up routines. But now, suddenly, they feel deadly serious.\n\nRight now a New York judge is deciding whether to allow Virginia Giuffre, the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking victim, to pursue her civil case against the prince. The answers the duke gave Newsnight in 2019, and the rest of his testimony to me that day, form a critical part of this landmark legal case. Ms Giuffre is suing the prince, claiming he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 - and a minor under US law. The duke denies the allegations.\n\nIn a hearing by teleconference on Tuesday, Prince Andrew's lawyer argued a 2009 settlement - between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein - made it impossible for Ms Giuffre to take the case against the duke any further. Her lawyers argued the allegations against the prince were not covered by the 2009 deal. The judge, who said he appreciated the \"arguments and passion\" over the settlement - whatever that means - did not deliver his decision on whether the case should be thrown out or proceed, promising only to give that \"pretty soon\".\n\nPrince Andrew came to Newsnight that day because he wanted to clear his name. He believed things had been said about him that he could disprove. And he had his defence ready.\n\nThe answers he gave me on camera may have seemed astonishing, jaw-dropping, even, in places. But bizarrely, I had been expecting them. We had talked through the things he wanted to say earlier, so part of my job that day was just to let him speak. To let him explain to the world his own version of events.\n\nWe went into that interview knowing that we would have one chance to get it right. One chance to provide a record of testimony, one chance to offer up a first-person account\n\nWe met the duke in the days before the interview took place. We were invited right into the heart of Buckingham Palace - his office rooms in what felt like the eaves of the palace. It was there - under a sloping roof, around a mahogany table - that we were treated to tea in dainty bone-china cups with the royal crest on them.\n\nIt was there the duke shook my hand, sat down, and explained he was going to tell us why he believed the photograph of him and Ms Giuffre - showing Prince Andrew with his arm around her - was likely a doctored fake.\n\nIt was Prince Andrew who volunteered the information to me in that early meeting that he was \"unable to sweat\". His Falkland Islands wartime experiences, he claimed, had produced a glut of adrenalin that meant he hadn't been able to sweat properly since being shot at.\n\nI remember him asking me very directly if we thought that would be interesting to hear. And I said yes - I was fascinated by adrenalin - and that we wanted to hear as much detail of his account as we could.\n\nThere were phone calls between the palace and several of my producers. We had asked him to explain his whereabouts on the night Ms Giuffre alleged he had danced with her in Tramp nightclub, in London. His office had checked the date, and told us he couldn't have been with her because he had been at a children's birthday party that same evening.\n\nI'm not sure we knew about Woking, but we did know about Pizza Express. The prince, in other words, had his alibi ready. He wanted to get that across in the interview. Of course, a children's birthday tea party and a late night in a club are not chronologically incompatible: it would have been more than possible to do both.\n\nBut the point of the interview was not to catch him out - I can't stress this enough. The point of the interview was just to have a record of Prince Andrew's own version of events. He wanted to set his own record straight. He offered minutiae and anecdote, detail and description, and we were ready to hear it all.\n\nPrince Andrew, Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001\n\nWe went into that interview knowing that we would have one chance to get it right. One chance to provide a record of testimony, one chance to offer up a first-person account if the case ever went to court. One chance to let a senior royal face questions of the utmost seriousness and give us what he assured us were straight answers.\n\nWhen I listen back to the questions I posed that day there is a directness to them that even now makes me catch my breath. I can't quite believe that the words came out in the order I intended. But they had to. Because we had just one chance.\n\nAnd we had to be very, very sure - not of the answers - but of the things we needed to find out. Virginia Giuffre alleged she had dined and danced with a sweating Prince Andrew in that London club. And that afterwards she was made to have sex with him in Ghislaine Maxwell's house.\n\nI was already prepared for much of what he was going to say - although never the exact manner in which he said it. But I had to ask those questions in the way I did - to hear and to capture those answers on tape - for wherever the story would take us next.", "The world's number one male tennis player has now had his visa cancelled - again\n\nThe Australian government was never going to come out of this saga looking good.\n\nThey've been on the back foot ever since Novak Djokovic announced he was coming to defend his Australian Open title.\n\nThe decision to cancel Djokovic's visa - after a court previously ruled in his favour - is largely about saving face with Australian voters in an election year.\n\nTo achieve this, the government is prepared to endure any diplomatic fallout, international embarrassment and the wrath of Djokovic's supporters.\n\nThroughout the past two weeks, the federal government has been adamant to make a point: no-one is above the rules. Not even the men's world number one.\n\nA simple, straightforward principle. But the way it's been handled has been anything but.\n\nOn the afternoon before Djokovic arrived, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the player would \"be on the next plane home\" if his documents were not in order on arrival in Melbourne.\n\n\"Rules are rules,\" Mr Morrison reiterated when Djokovic's visa was revoked the next day, on 6 January.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Scott Morrison This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhen Djokovic challenged the decision, Mr Morrison said it was up to the court.\n\nBut suddenly the government's position began to look very shaky as it asked for more time - denied by a judge - to compile its legal case amid questions over federal procedures. It also faced scrutiny over why Djokovic had been allowed to get on a plane in the first place.\n\nThe whole thing could have ended when judge Anthony Kelly decided in Djokovic's favour - citing a bungle in the process at Melbourne Airport - and ordered the government to reinstate his visa and get him out of detention.\n\nThe immigration minister, Alex Hawke, had the option to use his executive powers to cancel the visa and deport Djokovic and he did.\n\nA lot has been said about the motivation behind this - mainly that it's political. And it is. The blaring politics is impossible to escape.\n\nThere are two things to consider here on the government's front.\n\nFirst, the deep embarrassment this has caused the Morrison administration. To Australians and indeed to the world, politicians look like they are enforcing rules they themselves don't understand or are unclear about. They also seemed to not talk to each other.\n\nThe decision comes as an election is just around the corner for Mr Morrison\n\nOne layer of government - the state of Victoria - was making decisions with Tennis Australia, in isolation. Federal officials were saying something entirely different. And the tournament organisers were complaining they'd been caught in between.\n\nThe second has to do more with Covid and less with tennis. The mood in the country is one of shock and fury. Australia's two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, have been reporting tens of thousands of cases for weeks now.\n\nTesting clinics are still struggling and the number of deaths is also rising. Though it's not at the rate of, say, Europe or the US, this is Australia - a country that imposed some of the strictest Covid rules in the world. A country where, at times, a single case could push a whole city or state into lockdown.\n\nAustralians feel abandoned. They feel like things have turned so bad, so quickly. Many also say they've done everything that's been asked of them.\n\nThey got vaccinated and are now getting their boosters, But still, the Omicron variant is rampant around them leaving many asking what more they could've done.\n\nNow juxtapose that picture against a tennis star who publicly said he opposed the vaccine and who admitted to breaking isolation rules while Covid positive, and to providing false information on his travel declaration form.\n\nThere's also that discrepancy about when he found out he had Covid. He said in his statement that week that he knew on 17 December. But the sworn affidavit he presented to the court said the positive test was confirmed on 16 December.\n\n\"If it were you or me,\" someone said on my Twitter feed, \"Would they allow us in after all that?\"\n\nThere's no doubt that Scott Morrison's government has been bruised by this controversy.\n\nThe political tussling between state and federal governments; the breakdown of communication; the opaqueness of which rules apply to whom; an unvaccinated famous athlete that has broken Covid rules. It all makes for a messy picture that politicians have been trying to straighten out.\n\nGiven all that we know now, the government would have had a lot more to explain if they didn't cancel Novak Djokovic's visa.", "Christine Lee runs a law firm, with offices in London and Birmingham\n\nMI5 has issued a rare warning that an alleged Chinese agent has infiltrated Parliament to interfere in UK politics.\n\nAn alert from the security service said Christine Ching Kui Lee \"established links\" for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with current and aspiring MPs.\n\nShe then gave donations to politicians, with funding coming from foreign nationals in China and Hong Kong.\n\nIt comes after a \"significant, long-running\" investigation by MI5, Whitehall sources told the BBC.\n\nOne of the MPs funded by Ms Lee was Labour's Barry Gardiner, who received over £420,000 from her in five years - but he said he had always made the security services aware of the donations.\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also received a £5,000 donation when he was energy secretary - but he said the money was accepted by his local association and it was \"the first time he has been given cause to be concerned\".\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said it was \"deeply concerning\" that someone \"who has knowingly engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party has targeted parliamentarians\".\n\nBut she said the UK has measures in place \"to identify foreign interference\".\n\nThe security service said anyone contacted by Ms Lee should be \"mindful of her affiliation\" and its \"remit to advance the CCP's agenda\".\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"We condemn in the strongest terms the attempts by China to interfere in Britain's democratic processes.\"\n\nShe said Labour was seeking further information from the Home Office and MI5 on the \"extent of the deception and interference and the ongoing risks of malign activity from foreign states\".\n\nAll MPs and peers must be given an update from MI5 on security risks and how to guard against interference, she added.\n\nIssuing an alert about an individual is an unusual move for MI5.\n\nIt signals that their long-running investigation had led them to become sufficiently concerned that they felt they had to act now.\n\nWe have heard about concerns over Russian influence in the past but China, British intelligence officials say, has now become their top priority.\n\nThe allegation here is interference - covertly gaining influence - and not espionage (stealing secrets).\n\nAnd one concern from security officials is that there are not the laws in place to be able to tackle interference.\n\nAs a result, they sometimes believe that going public - as they have done in this case - is the best way of disrupting any ongoing risk.\n\nConservative MP and former party leader, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, brought up the alert in the Commons, confirming it had been emailed out to MPs by the Speaker.\n\nHe said it was \"a matter of grave concern\", calling for Ms Lee to be deported and demanding the government make a statement to the House.\n\nFormer defence minister Tobias Ellwood also called for a statement in the Commons, adding: \"This is the sort grey-zone interference we now anticipate and expect from China.\n\n\"But the fact that it's happened to this Parliament, there must be a sense of urgency from this government.\"\n\nAccording to the alert, Ms Lee claimed her involvement with Parliament had been to \"represent the UK Chinese and increase diversity\".\n\nBut MI5 said that activity \"had been undertaken in covert coordination with the United Front Work Department [of the CCP], with funding provided by foreign nationals located in China and Hong Kong\".\n\nThe UFWD is alleged to be seeking to \"cultivate relations\" with \"influential figures\" to ensure the UK political landscape is favourable to the CCP and to challenge those that raise concerns about the party, including over human rights.\n\nThe security service said Ms Lee had \"extensive engagement with individuals across the UK political spectrum\", including the now disbanded All Party Parliamentary Group, called Chinese in Britain.\n\nBut they warned Ms Lee \"may aspire to establish APPGs [parliamentary groups] to further the CCP's agenda\".\n\nMr Gardiner began getting donations from Ms Lee's law firm, Christine Lee & Co, at the end of 2014.\n\nAccording to the register of MPs' interests, between then and 2020, he received over £420,000 in donations, mostly covering the costs of employing parliamentary researchers.\n\nMs Lee's son was also understood to have volunteered for the Labour MP and was later employed as his diary manager.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Gardiner, who was a member of the shadow cabinet when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, confirmed he had received the donations and that Ms Lee's son had worked for him.\n\nBut he said he had been \"liaising with our security services for a number of years\" about her and they had \"always known, and been made fully aware by me, of her engagement with my office and the donations she made to fund researchers in my office in the past\".\n\nThe Brent North MP said she had \"no role\" in who was appointed as his researchers and all donations were \"properly reported\", adding: \"I have been assured by the security services that whilst they have definitively identified improper funding channelled through Christine Lee, this does not relate to any funding received by my office.\"\n\nHe also confirmed her son resigned from his post on Thursday, and that MI5 had no intelligence that showed he was aware of, or complicit in, his mother's actions.\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed also received £5,000 from Ms Lee when he was a minister in the coalition government.\n\nA spokesman for the party said Sir Ed was \"shocked by these revelations\", adding: \"The email from the Speaker of the House of Commons today was the first time he has been given cause to be concerned about a donation to his local party association received in 2013.\n\n\"The government must make it a national security priority to protect the UK's democracy from threats and interference by foreign actors.\n\n\"This donation was reported properly and all rules and guidance was followed - as Ed expects is the case with donations made to colleagues across the House.\"", "Nicholas Rossi campaigned on children's rights and appeared on TV in the US\n\nAn American man believed to have faked his own death is facing extradition after being arrested in hospital in Glasgow.\n\nNicholas Rossi, 34, was wanted by Interpol and faces a charge of rape in Utah in the United States.\n\nHe was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in December with Covid-19 - where he used the alias Arthur Knight.\n\nPolice Scotland said he was detained under an international arrest warrant.\n\nAuthorities in the US have confirmed that Mr Rossi was also known as Nicholas Alahverdian in the state of Rhode Island where he was involved in local politics and was a critic of the state's child welfare system.\n\nPolice tracked the fugitive to Scotland where he was on a ventilator at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital\n\nMr Rossi told US media in December 2019 that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. Several outlets reported that he had died in February 2020.\n\nA memorial posted online declared him a \"warrior that fought on the front lines for two decades\" for children's rights and said his ashes had been scattered at sea.\n\nMr Rossi is believed to have been traced to the intensive care unit at the QEUH in Glasgow where he was on a ventilator. Medical staff were unaware he was on Interpol's red list.\n\nHe was arrested at the hospital by Police Scotland on 13 December on behalf of colleagues in Utah.\n\nLegal documents show that Nicholas Rossi used a number of aliases\n\nThe Crown Office said he appeared by video link from the hospital in relation to extradition proceedings to the US.\n\nUtah's county attorney confirmed he was known in the state as Nicholas Rossi. Court records showed that Utah officials were looking for him for an alleged rape.\n\nWhen he was arrested in Glasgow he was on the run from authorities in several US states.\n\nThe online memorial for Nicholas Alahverdian described him as a \"warrior\"\n\nInvestigations by other agencies have recognised him as Nicholas Alahverdian, Nicholas Alahverdian Rossi, Nicholas Edward Rossi, Nicholas Alahverdian-Rossi, Nick Alan, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Brown and Arthur Knight.\n\nThe FBI also had a warrant for his arrest on charges of defrauding his foster father by taking out credit cards in his name and running up debts of more than $200,000.\n\nThe Providence Journal reported on Friday that in December 2019, weeks before Mr Rossi told reporters he had non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a Utah investigator contacted the FBI with information on his location.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by NBC 10 WJAR This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Utah charges had come from an initiative to review historical sex assault cases where DNA evidence kits had not been tested.\n\nNicholas Rossi was the suspect in a case in 2008. It had been closed by the lead detective without being referred to the Utah County Attorney's Office for screening.\n\nIn 2018 the DNA review connected him to another sexual assault case in Ohio. Investigators believed Mr Rossi had left the US and had led state legislators in other states to believe he was dead.\n\nThe Utah county attorney's office is now working with federal and international agencies to extradite Mr Rossi back to Utah.\n\nUtah County Attorney David Leavitt said inter-agency investigations had led to the arrest\n\nUtah county attorney, David Leavitt, told BBC Scotland: \"We will now have to go through the process of proving in a Scottish court that Arthur Knight is Nicholas Rossi. That will be a process that will take some time but it's one we will willingly go through because our victim in Utah has been suffering now for all these 13 years.\n\n\"I have no idea what he was doing in Scotland prior to lying in a hospital bed with Covid.\"\n\nHe added: \"Our office is grateful for the significant inter-agency collaboration of law enforcement to bring this suspect to justice.\n\n\"We credit Utah's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant funded through the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Assistance as playing a significant role in testing backlogged kits and ultimately identifying the suspect.\"\n\nMr Leavitt is also encouraging other potential victims of a crime by Mr Rossi to come forward.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tim White, reporter for CBS, says: 'It wasn't the cops that caught him, it was Covid'\n\nCBS investigative reporter in Rhode Island, Tim White, told BBC Scotland: \"Everyone was stunned when news broke that he was alive in Scotland.\n\n\"It's an unbelievable story. People are now coming out of the woodwork, talking about their experiences and reflecting on their interactions with him.\n\n\"Investigators are painting a picture of a pathological liar. He has nearly a dozen aliases.\n\n\"Police say he has changed his story multiple times, he has changed his identity multiple times. Cops tried to get him. It wasn't the cops that caught him though. It was Covid.\"\n\nMr White said that in 2020 a woman claiming to be Nicholas Alahverdian's wife rang several media outlets and said he had died of cancer and urged them to write an obituary.\n\nHowever, the reporter from his organisation was suspicious as lots of things did not add up and a decision was made not to publish the obituary, despite repeated emails and phone calls from the woman claiming to be his wife.\n\n\"We later learned that the state police and FBI were looking into whether he was alive or not,\" Mr White said.\n\nHe said a memorial mass had been arranged at a Catholic church following Mr Alahverdian's \"death\".\n\n\"The priest was putting all the pieces in place and then his phone rang,\" Mr White said. \"It was a detective from the Rhode Island state police who told him 'don't put that mass on, we think he's alive so this would be a complete fraud of a memorial service'.\n\n\"That was a really telling and wild moment. It really was the first time reporters realised that investigators had serious questions about the story of his death.\"\n\nPolice Scotland confirmed that Mr Rossi was arrested in Glasgow on 13 December in connection with an international arrest warrant.\n\nA spokesman said: \"A report was submitted to the procurator fiscal.\"\n• None 'Why we had to fake my murder'", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "\"Party-gate\" has left the MPs who sit behind Boris Johnson questioning whether to stand up for him\n\nCulture Secretary Nadine Dorries has urged her colleagues to \"keep calm heads\" following the prime minister's admission he attended a drinks party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020.\n\nShe suggested some of the opposition to Boris Johnson was coming from his usual detractors.\n\nBut it is also the case that some of his previously vocal supporters - who admit they owed their election victory to Mr Johnson - are turning on him.\n\nAs one veteran of the May and Johnson premierships put it: \"Some of the 2019 intake are feeling trigger happy.\"\n\nThis is, in part, driven by constituents who are making their views of so-called \"party-gate\" known in no uncertain terms.\n\nOne winner of a Red Wall seat told me: \"I have an inbox like many colleagues - yes, the usual lefty detractors, but there is a considerable amount of criticism from Conservative voters.\n\nAnother said that while it wasn't the worst \"influx\" of criticism they had experienced, the problem was growing, adding: \"People are concerned, people are worried.\"\n\nTheir constituents' disgruntlement is feeding their own disillusion with their leadership.\n\nAs an MP who snatched their seat from Labour put it: \"Lots of my colleagues are at the end of their tether.\n\n\"The polls are bad (one poll put Labour 10 points ahead this week) and are likely to get worse. This feels terminal.\"\n\nTo trigger a leadership contest, 54 Conservative MPs would have to write to - or email - the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady.\n\nHe is a paragon of discretion and never reveals how many of his colleagues have been sending anti-leadership missives until the requisite threshold has been reached.\n\nSo when people estimate the number of letters which have gone in (and letters can be withdrawn, as well as submitted) these should be taken, not with a pinch, but with a mine of salt.\n\nNonetheless, the talk at Westminster is that perhaps half a dozen letters or emails have been sent by 2019 MPs who would have been assumed to have been supportive.\n\nAnd even if accurate, it is the tip of an iceberg of discontent and restlessness.\n\nSir Graham Brady keeps tight lipped about how many letters he receives - until they hits the magic number\n\nThere are those who are critical privately but are keeping their powder dry until the senior civil servant Sue Gray delivers her report on the alleged parties and events during lockdown.\n\n\"I want to see the facts established,\" said one, while another added: \"This is not something to do lightly.\"\n\nSo there is a moment of jeopardy for Boris Johnson.\n\nA former government adviser characterised the situation like this: \"His biggest problem is the number of newly elected MPs he has got.\n\n\"There is a real divide between those elected in 2010 and 2015 and those from 2019 - those who have lived through the omnishambles Budget can see that this doesn't need to be terminal.\"\n\nThat was when George Osborne's budget unravelled and Labour went ahead by around 10 points in the polls, but the Conservatives went on to win an overall majority in 2015.\n\nHe went on: \"The new intake, who should be ambitious to get on the ministerial ladder, aren't used to seeing polls tighten, so instead they are worried that they could lose their seats.\"\n\nBut what of those sturdy veterans of the 2010 and the 2015 intake who have weathered previous political storms?\n\nWell, the danger for the PM is that some of them are now openly breaking ranks too.\n\nCaroline Nokes - a former minister elected in 2010 - said this week: \"He is damaging the entire Conservative brand for his unwillingness to accept the strictures that other people have lived by.\"\n\nWilliam Wragg, a select committee chair who won his seat in 2015, told the BBC PM programme: \"A series of unforced errors are deeply damaging to the perception of the party. The prime minister's position is untenable.\"\n\nAnd off the record, some of the longer-standing MPs are privately critical.\n\n\"Anyone who has broken the rules must face the consequences,\" said one.\n\nAnother told me that he believed Mr Johnson was impugning the reputation of his own MPs.\n\nBut there is a disagreement over not just if to act, but when.\n\nCaroline Nokes has publicly called for the PM to resign\n\nSome MPs believe that any electoral consequences arising from the current turmoil need to be proven - and that would come after what are expected to be poor local election results in May.\n\nBut others are asking why good councillors should be potentially thrown to the wolves, and are more restless.\n\nOne longer standing MP has said that Chancellor Rishi Sunak \"shouldn't look too eager\" for the top job - it would be better to wait if a leadership challenge is to be successful.\n\nSome of Mr Johnson's strongest critics in private insist that they are not part of any organised putsch or are in a rival camp - they are simply drawing their own conclusions from looking at their postbags.\n\nOne source insisted that Boris Johnson doesn't just have trouble with \"Red Wallers\" who worry that new voters might return to their old Labour roots, but \"those in Lib Dem-facing seats\" are worried too.\n\nAnd after the North Shropshire and Chesham and Amersham by-elections, that is perhaps understandable.\n\nIt's possible the Sue Gray report may yet be more of a damp squib than the ammunition for a Conservative coup.\n\nBut several MPs I spoke to were fearful that hers would not be the last word on \"party-gate\", and that more damaging revelations may appear - either from Dominic Cummings or elsewhere if Mr Johnson stays in post.\n\nA former government adviser who straddled the May/Johnson years put it like this: \"When something happens, it could happen quite quickly.\n\n\"Under Theresa May, there was a growing sense of inevitability - it feels a bit like that now.\"", "Ron and Joyce Bond, aged 102 and 100, say the secret to their long-lasting relationship is \"give and take\"\n\nA couple celebrating their 81st wedding anniversary were told \"it wouldn't last long\", their daughter has said.\n\nRon and Joyce Bond, aged 102 and 100, who live at Shenley Wood Retirement Village in Milton Keynes, are thought to be the UK's longest-married couple.\n\nThey married on 4 January 1941 in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire.\n\nTheir daughter Eileen said: \"It was said of them at the time of their wedding it would not last long. How wrong did folks get that?\"\n\nThe Bonds married in January 1941 at Newport Pagnell Register Office\n\nLast year, the couple received written congratulations from the Queen on reaching their Oak anniversary.\n\nRon, from Blaina in Blaenau Gwent, and Joyce, who was born in Bow Brickhill, Milton Keynes, met in Bletchley and married at Newport Pagnell Register Office on a day when there was three inches of snow on the ground.\n\n\"There were queues of couples as Ron's section were all being sent abroad to assist with the war effort,\" said Mrs Bond.\n\nThe pair agree it was love at first sight and believe they are evenly-matched in the relationship.\n\n\"There is no boss in our relationship. We both give and take,\" said Mrs Bond.\n\n\"We never expected to reach 81 years of marriage. We know we are very fortunate to have achieved this amazing goal. It feels excellent.\"\n\nMr Bond said: \"Sometimes life is hard but we work through it together. We look after each other, too.\"\n\nLast year, the couple received written congratulations from the Queen on reaching their 80th anniversary\n\nThe couple had two children, Eileen and Bill, and now have three grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.\n\nMr Bond worked at a Shell garage in Bletchley before retiring while Mrs Bond worked at Woolworths in Queensway. The pair moved to the retirement village in 2013.\n\nTheir daughter said her parents were a \"truly inspirational couple\".\n\n\"There was always a warm welcome and lots of love for all,\" she said.\n\n\"Dad worked hard to provide for the family, while mum worked hard at keeping our home and us clean and tidy.\n\n\"You only have to spend time with them to know they love and care for each other, even after 81 years of being married.\"\n\nMr and Mrs Bond moved to their Shenley Wood Retirement Village apartment in 2013\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001\n\nThe woman who has accused the Duke of York of sexually abusing her has welcomed a US judge's decision to allow her legal case to continue.\n\nPrince Andrew faces a civil case in the US after Virginia Giuffre sued him, claiming he abused her in 2001. He has consistently denied the claims.\n\nMs Giuffre said she was \"pleased\" with the ruling the case can continue, after the prince tried to have it dismissed.\n\nShe said she is glad to have a \"chance to continue to expose the truth\".\n\nAs part of her case, Ms Giuffre claims she was the victim of sex trafficking and abuse by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, alleging she was trafficked to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17.\n\nWriting on Twitter, Ms Giuffre thanked her \"extraordinary\" legal team and said: \"Their determination helps me seek justice from those who hurt me and so many others.\n\n\"My goal has always been to show that the rich and powerful are not above the law & must be held accountable. I do not walk this path alone, but alongside countless other survivors of sexual abuse & trafficking.\"\n\nOn Thursday it was revealed the prince's military titles and royal patronages had been returned to the Queen and he will stop using the style His Royal Highness in an official capacity, a royal source said.\n\nLike Harry and Meghan, Prince Andrew retains his title HRH but will not use it in any official capacity.\n\nA source close to the prince has said he will \"continue to defend himself\" against the case brought in New York by Ms Giuffre.\n\nThe ruling on Wednesday that the civil action could proceed was \"not a judgement on the merits of Ms Giuffre's allegations\", the source added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Prince Charles is asked about his brother Andrew\n\nBuckingham Palace said in a statement: \"With the Queen's approval and agreement, the Duke of York's military affiliations and royal patronages have been returned to the Queen.\n\n\"The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.\"\n\nAll Prince Andrew's roles have been returned with immediate effect, and will be redistributed to other members of the Royal Family, a source said.\n\nA letter - released by anti-monarchy pressure group Republic - had been signed by more than 150 Royal Navy, RAF and Army veterans asking the Queen to strip Prince Andrew of his eight British military titles.\n\nThe prince had a 22-year career in the Royal Navy, and served as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War.\n\nThe palace announcement means he has lost military titles including Colonel of the Grenadier Guards - one of the most senior infantry regiments in the Army, alongside nine other British military titles and several overseas honorary roles.\n\nBut he will retain his service rank of vice-admiral, the palace confirmed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Why Prince Andrew's military titles and royal patronages meant so much\n\nSeveral other charities and organisations had cut their ties with the prince, but he continued to hold dozens of royal patronages - including being a patron or member of prestigious golf clubs, schools and cultural trusts.\n\nThere is no set definition of the role of a patron in charity law, according to the Charity Commission - which registers and regulates charities in England and Wales.\n\nHowever, the main role of a royal patron is generally considered to gather publicity for and raising the profile of charities or other organisations, with more than 3,000 listing a member of the Royal Family as their patron or president.\n\nOn Friday, a senior Liberal Democrat councillor from City of York Council launched a campaign to strip the prince of his Duke of York title, a call which was echoed by a local Labour MP.\n\nCllr Darryl Smalley said even though the prince \"remains innocent until proven guilty\", Buckingham Palace and the government \"must consider the implications of these troubling allegations\".\n\nMP for York Central Rachael Maskell agreed, tweeting: \"It's untenable for the Duke of York to cling onto his title another day longer; this association with York must end.\"\n\nMs Giuffre claims late billionaire financier Epstein trafficked her to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17\n\nOn Thursday, Ms Giuffre's lawyer David Boies told the BBC a financial settlement alone would not be enough for his client and that she wishes to be vindicated.\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers had argued her case should be dismissed, citing a 2009 deal she signed with Epstein.\n\nBut in a 46-page decision, Judge Lewis A Kaplan dismissed the prince's claim that the case against him was \"legally insufficient\" and could not go on to be heard at a future trial.\n\nMs Giuffre, now 38, filed a civil case in New York in August 2021 under the state's Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of childhood sexual abuse to pursue a case which otherwise would have been barred because too much time had passed.\n\nIn court documents filed as part of her civil case, Ms Giuffre also alleges the prince abused her on three occasions - both in the UK and the US - when she was a minor under US law.\n\nIn an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, Prince Andrew said he had no memory of ever meeting Ms Giuffre, and her account of them having sex \"didn't happen\".\n\nHe withdrew from public life shortly after the interview - which he used to repeat his denials of her allegations, as well explain his one-time friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, and the late financier's girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nLast month, Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting and trafficking underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.", "Dutch monarchs, including King Willem-Alexander, have traditionally travelled in the carriage to the state opening of parliament\n\nThe Netherlands' King Willem-Alexander has announced that Dutch royals will cease using a historic golden carriage amid a debate over slavery links.\n\nCritics say that one side of the horse-drawn carriage, called De Gouden Koets, is decorated with an image that glorifies the country's colonial past.\n\nOut of use since 2015, the carriage has traditionally been used to carry Dutch monarchs to the opening of parliament.\n\nThe move comes amid an ongoing debate in the country over its history.\n\nThe controversial image featured on the vehicle is called Tribute from the Colonies, and depicts black and Asian people - one of whom is kneeling - offering goods including cocoa and sugarcane to a seated young white woman who symbolises the Netherlands.\n\nSeated next to her is a man offering a book to a young boy, which the work's painter, Nicolaas van der Waay, said in 1896 was intended to portray the Netherlands' gift of \"civilisation\" to its colonies.\n\nIn an official video announcing the move, King Willem-Alexander accepted that the carriage was offensive to a large number of people and called on the country to face the legacy of its colonial history together.\n\n\"There is no point in condemning and disqualifying what has happened through the lens of our time,\" he said.\n\n\"Simply banning historical objects and symbols is certainly not a solution either. Instead, a concerted effort is needed that goes deeper and takes longer. An effort that unites us instead of divides us.\n\n\"As long as there are people living in the Netherlands who feel the pain of discrimination on a daily basis, the past will still cast its shadow over our time,\" he added.\n\nThe carriage has been out of use for several years and has resided at the Amsterdam Museum since a lengthy restoration project concluded last year.\n\nAnti-racism campaigners in the Netherlands have welcomed the move, but have called on the king to take further action to face up to the legacy of colonialism.\n\n\"He says the past should not be looked at from the perspective and values of the present,\" said Mitchell Esajas, co-founder of The Black Archives in Amsterdam.\n\n\"I think that's a fallacy because also in the historical context slavery can be seen as a crime against humanity and a violent system.\"\n\nIn recent years, many Dutch people have been urging the country to have a reckoning with its colonial past.\n\nDuring the 17th Century the Netherlands conquered large swathes of territory in regions now known as Indonesia, South Africa, Curaçao and West Papua, and became a key player in the transatlantic slave trade.\n\nLast year, the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, formally apologised for the city's role in the slave trade.\n\nThe move put her at odds with Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who has rejected calls for a formal state apology.", "MrBeast uses stunts and pranks to delight his audience\n\nJimmy Donaldson, the 23-year-old American better known as MrBeast, was YouTube's highest-earning content creator in 2021, according to Forbes.\n\nHis elaborate stunts have generated more than 10 billion views on the platform and earned him $54m (£39m).\n\nHe has overtaken 10-year-old toy reviewer Ryan Kaji, who has topped the annual list for the past two years.\n\nTogether, the 10 best-paid YouTubers made a combined $300m (£218m) in 2021, the US magazine estimated.\n\nJake Paul is in second place, his first appearance in the top 10 since 2018, and his brother Logan also returns after being absent since 2017.\n\nMinecraft player Nathan Graham, known as Unspeakable, makes the list for the first time in fifth place.\n\nJake Paul's high-profile boxing fights have earned him a spot back on the list\n\nYouTube trends expert Chris Stokel-Walker said this year's list is interesting because it shows \"how stale\" YouTube has become. \"It strikes me how white and male this whole list is,\" he said.\n\n\"If you take any of the names and look at previous years' lists, you'll probably find them on there as well, just in a different order.\"\n\nDuring the pandemic, lots of traditional entertainment media had a difficult time adjusting. Movies were delayed, soap opera schedules were altered and video game releases were postponed.\n\nFor YouTube, however, it was a time of boom.\n\nResearch suggests that in 2021, the platform had 2.3 billion users worldwide. YouTube says one billion hours of video content is consumed on the platform every day.\n\nStokel-Walker said: \"YouTube was developed as something that would shake up the media industry and get rid of gatekeepers. It was going to democratise how our society and entertainment industry looks.\n\n\"This list suggests that it's become more like TV than it would prefer to be. The arrival of money on the platform means content is very high stakes - and we see this in what MrBeast is making.\n\n\"It's not really similar to anything else on YouTube. It's more like big-budget TV.\"\n\nStokel-Walker suggested the high production values of YouTube today are creating a barrier to entry, meaning you need to \"pay to play and be successful\".\n\nSeven-year-old Nastya is the only female in the top 10\n\nThe top earners as identified by Forbes are not necessarily those with the most views, but rather those who have been able to successfully earn money through brand partnerships, sponsorship deals and merchandise sales.\n\nAlthough it's estimated that two-thirds of YouTube content is not in the English language, it seems that English-speaking creators are most able to financially capitalise on their popularity.\n\nYouTube, like many other modern media platforms, is dealing with issues of misinformation and harmful content - however this doesn't seem to have affected its creators' abilities to attract advertisers and sponsors to their channels.\n\nPreston Arsement grew his community largely thanks to videos centred around Minecraft, although he runs several channels on the website.\n\nA regular on this list, he earned an estimated $16m (£11m) in 2021 - down a little from the year before, when he placed sixth.\n\nThe controversial boxer and vlogger was last in the top 10 in 2017. He earned $18m (£13m) in 2021.\n\nComedy pranksters Dude Perfect was number three on the list in 2020. They made $20m (£14m) last year.\n\nThe world's most famous toy reviewer has dropped from the top of the tree to number seven.\n\nIn 2021, his blend of toy reviews, educational videos and family vlogs helped him earn $27m (£19m).\n\nThe seven-year-old Russian has nearly 90 million subscribers on YouTube.\n\nShe started as a toy unboxer but now her vlogs and music videos are growing in popularity and her earnings have risen to $28m (£20m) in 2021.\n\nA new entry, the Minecraft player has been uploading to YouTube for a decade.\n\nHe sold the rights to his back catalogue to the business Spotter last year, which contributed to his earnings of $28.5m (£20m).\n\nA staple of the YouTube highest earning list, the hosts of geek chat show Good Mythical Morning earned $30m (£22m) in 2021.\n\nAnother regular gaming creator, Markiplier has used his business acumen to make a successful brand of merchandise, earning $38m (£27m) last year.\n\nBy branching out into boxing, Jake Paul has found himself back in the top 10. His high-profile fights against UFC stars helped him earn $45m (£32m) in 2021.\n\nIt's some turnaround for the creator who was criticised alongside his bother for some of their vlogs in 2017, which many found to be in poor taste.\n\nWith more boxing plans in the pipeline for 2022, it would be no surprise to see him keep his place among YouTube's elite on next year's list.\n\nYouTube's top earner is a creator who uses stunts and pranks to delight his audience.\n\nLast year, he recreated elements of Netflix hit Squid Game on his channel, played hide and seek in an 80,000-seater stadium and was buried underground.\n\nHis 10 billion views, alongside the MrBeast burger franchise, meant Jimmy Donaldson almost doubled his income in 2021 after ranking second on this list the previous year.", "More than 10,000 people in Scotland have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid, according to the latest figures.\n\nData published on Friday showed that another 41 deaths linked to the virus had been recorded the previous day, bringing the total to 10,038.\n\nThese daily figures are one of three ways in which deaths are counted.\n\nAnother includes all death certificates where Covid is mentioned, even if the person has not been tested.\n\nThe latest statistics, published by the National Records of Scotland on Wednesday, suggested that 12,543 people had now died under this measure. The figure had reached 10,000 in April 2021.\n\nThe third method is by looking at excess deaths, a figure which is reached by comparing the total number of deaths to the five-year average. There have been 12,510 excess deaths in Scotland since 16 March 2020.\n\nNational Records of Scotland figures for excess deaths show that deaths from most causes rose in 2020 and during 2021.\n\nThe exception in both years has been deaths from respiratory diseases, which have been lower than average.\n\nOn Friday, the latest daily figures showed that a further 9,910 new cases of coronavirus had been reported in Scotland.\n\nThe Scottish government said large volumes of PCR tests being processed by laboratories had affected turnaround times, leading to delays between specimens being taken and results being received and reported.\n\nIt was the second day that the data included cases identified by lateral flow tests, as well as PCR tests.\n\nScotland's national clinical director, Prof Jason Leitch, said he was hopeful cases may be reaching or have reached a peak, but added: \"You can only see the peak once you are off it and it is behind you\".\n\nHe told BBC Scotland's Drivetime programme: \"You can see Wales changing today and that suggests that London has peaked and the rest of us are just a little bit behind.\"\n\nThe latest Office for National Statistics data for the week up to 6 January suggests one in 20 Scots had Covid, which Prof Leitch described as \"enormous numbers\".\n\nHe said: \"It was nearly 300,000 infections in that seven-day period. So if you go out and you are in a room of 100 people, you are likely to meet five positives.\n\n\"That should give us all pause. It shouldn't make us lock the door and stay at home. But it should give us pause about socialising, about being careful, about being vaccinated, and testing before we leave the house.\"\n\nProf Leitch said it was impossible to say what stage the pandemic was at, but that expert opinion suggested Covid could have a five-year span.\n\nHe said: \"I anticipate this spring being better than winter and I'm hopeful we will continue to see progress.\n\n\"But I cannot guarantee that we won't have another variant, meaning we will have to go backwards a little and then forwards again.\n\n\"So I think we've got Covid for some years to come - how we manage that around the world and in Scotland is something we're going to have to think about over the next few weeks and months.\"\n\nOf the cases reported on Friday, 4,602 people had tested positive through only a PCR test; 3,933 through only a lateral flow test (LFT); and 1,375 through a PCR test following a lateral flow test.\n\nPeople with no symptoms who have a positive LFT are no longer required to take a PCR test to confirm the result. However, they must immediately isolate and report the test.\n\nThose with symptoms should still book a PCR test.\n\nMeanwhile, NHS Lanarkshire has reintroduced essential visiting across all its inpatient sites.\n\nThe health board confirmed only visits to patients who would be distressed or suffer by not seeing a family member would be permitted, based on the professional judgement of staff.\n\nNHS Lanarkshire nurse director Susan Friel said: \"We understand that patients in hospital are having a challenging time and want to have their family and friends around them for support.\n\n\"Unfortunately, it is our priority to protect our patients and staff as much as is possible and this is why we have made the difficult decision to limit visiting at this time.\n\n\"However, this is being reviewed daily and as soon as it is safe to do so, we will be expanding visiting by prioritising access for those closest to the patient.\"", "Irish traditional musicians played at the Belfast vigil in tribute to the talented violinist\n\nThousands of people have attended vigils across the island of Ireland on Friday in memory of murdered teacher Ashling Murphy.\n\nThe 23-year-old was killed on the banks of the Grand Canal outside Tullamore, County Offaly, on Wednesday.\n\nHer family attended a candlelit vigil near the murder scene.\n\nThe Irish Independent reported that her father paid a poignant tribute to the talented young musician, by performing her favourite song.\n\nRay Murphy reportedly broke down in tears while playing the final chords of \"When You Were Sweet Sixteen\".\n\nAshling Murphy has been described by her family as \"a little angel\"\n\nThe Murphy family were said to be \"appreciative and overwhelmed by the national outpouring of support show to them,\" according to a statement from Gardaí (Irish police).\n\nIt said that the family had requested \"privacy, space and time to process Ashling's death\".\n\nThe statement added that \"significant progress\" has been made in the murder investigation to date but the force said it was \"not confirming any specific details for operational reasons\".\n\nA 40-year-old man arrested after Ms Murphy's murder was released without charge on Thursday night \"and is no longer a suspect\", according to gardaí.\n\nThe National Women's Council of Ireland had announced details of vigils at dozens of locations on Friday and many event attracted very large crowds.\n\nMany of the vigils began at 16:00 local time, organised to coincide with the time Ms Murphy was fatally attacked.\n\nThe streets around Government Buildings in Dublin were thronged during the vigil\n\nOne of the biggest events took place outside the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) buildings in Dublin.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin was among those in attendance.\n\nIrish Justice Minister Helen McEntee tweeted a photo of a candle shortly after the vigils began and said she was \"thinking of Ashling and all women who are and have been victims of violence\".\n\n\"We must come together to demand zero tolerance of violence against women. As minister for justice, I am working to ensure we have a society that does not tolerate this any longer,\" she said.\n\nEvents are also taking place in Northern Ireland including vigils in Belfast, Londonderry, Newry, Coleraine, Strabane and other locations.\n\nA number of politicians attended the event in Derry's Guildhall Square, including the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) Colum Eastwood.\n\nPoliticians stood with members of the public in Derry's Guildhall Square\n\nIn Belfast, a large crowd gathered outside the City Hall to lay candle and flowers.\n\nA number of traditional Irish musicians performed at the event, in tribute to Ms Murphy who was a talented multi-instrumentalist and member of the National Folk Orchestra of Ireland.\n\nIn Newry, County Down, crowds gathered in Hill Street near the city's cathedral and listened to speeches protesting against violence against women.\n\n\"Women should be able to feel safe every day and go about their daily lives, free from misogyny and violence and abuse,\" said one woman who addressed the event.\n\nPeople placed flowers and candles at the Belfast vigil outside the City Hall\n\nMs Murphy's family have spoken of having lost \"a little angel\" and \"our rock\" in an interview with the Irish Independent newspaper.\n\nHer father, Raymond, told the paper of his daughter's talent for music and how she had \"crammed so much into her short life\".\n\nHer mother, Kathleen, added that \"she was so soft and gentle\".\n\n\"She was a beautiful girl, she was just the best,\" she said.\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins said he had spoken to the Murphy family on Friday morning to express sympathy on behalf of the people of Ireland.\n\n\"The outpouring of grief at the death of Ashling shows how we have all been very touched, and it is so exemplary for young and old, to read of all Ashling's accomplishments during her short but brilliant and generous life,\" he said.\n\n\"It is of crucial importance that we take this opportunity, as so many people have already done in the short time since Ashling's death, to reflect on what needs to be done to eliminate violence against women in all its aspects from our society.\"\n\nPeople in Strabane, County Tyrone, paid their respects on Friday afternoon\n\nThe director of Ireland's National Women's Council Orla O'Connor told BBC News there was \"nationwide devastation, grief and shock at this horrendous killing\".\n\nShe said the vigils were being organised all around Ireland to remember the young teacher, to show support to her family and say: \"We want an end to male violence against women\".\n\n\"There is a lot of anger and frustration that has been expressed,\" she said.\n\n\"This has really triggered past experiences of physical and sexual violence that women have had,\" she added.\n\n\"It also really shows how much women are limiting their lives because of the fear and threat of violence. Here was a young woman going for a run during the day when everyone expects to be safe.\"\n\nCandles were lit at a vigil in Galway on Thursday night\n\nThe taoiseach said Ms Murphy was a talented musician who \"represented the very best of the tradition of teaching in Ireland\".\n\n\"I think it has united the nation in solidarity and revulsion at what has happened,\" he added.\n\n\"We have to do everything that we possibly can to eliminate this appalling behaviour from our society,\"\n\nTánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar said that men needed to have conversations about violence against women and how it was \"never justified\".\n\n\"It doesn't matter who she is, it doesn't matter where it was, it doesn't matter what time of day it is, it is never justified, it is always wrong,\" he said.\n\nFlowers were placed at the gates of the school where the young victim worked\n\nOn Friday morning, gardaí renewed their appeal for information about the murder.\n\nDetectives have previously said they believed she was killed by one man who acted alone.\n\nA team of more than 50 officers has been assigned to the murder investigation and an incident room has been set up in Tullamore.\n\n\"No stone will be left unturned in bringing the perpetrator of this crime to justice,\" said Supt Eamonn Curley on Thursday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Eamonn Curley: \"The injuries are consistent with an assault.\"\n\nHe said Ms Murphy sustained serious injuries \"consistent with an assault\".\n\nA post-mortem examination was carried out to determine the exact cause of her death, but gardaí have said the results would not be released \"for operational reasons\".\n\nDetectives have appealed for information about a Falcon Storm mountain bike.\n\nThey released a photo of the bike, which they said had \"straight handlebars and distinctive yellow/green front forks\".\n\nDetectives issued a photo of a mountain bike in their appeal for witnesses\n\nThey said they also still wanted to hear from anyone who was near the scene of the murder at Cappincur, Tullamore, on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nGardaí responded to the incident following a call from a member of the public at about 16:00 local time and found Ms Murphy with serious injuries.\n\nShe was given medical attention but could not be saved.\n\nMs Murphy worked at Durrow National School and she was also a talented musician who played the concertina, violin and was also learning the uilleann pipes.\n\nShe taught 28 pupils in the 1st class (age six to seven) at the school and had joined the staff team in March 2021.\n\nHer principal James Hogan told Virgin Media News that the school community was \"devastated and numb\".\n\nA team of more than 50 officers has been assigned to the murder investigation\n\nHe paid tribute to her as a \"fantastic, beautiful, an extraordinary sportsperson, Irish musician, choral conductor and an inspiration\".\n\nHe said she was referred to as the \"shining light\" whose face lit up the room when she came into it and said the school was working to support staff and students.", "Staff absences are putting even more pressure on the healthcare system, Eluned Morgan said\n\nThere are currently 10,000 Welsh NHS staff off work either sick or self-isolating, the highest since April 2020, according to the health minister.\n\nEluned Morgan said some councils have also had to redeploy workers because of shortages in social care.\n\nFive local authorities in south east Wales have put out a plea to relatives to help with care.\n\nThey warned that provision is likely to be limited and \"may not be ideal\" but \"will be all that is available\".\n\nIt comes as the number of people in hospital with Covid have increased 48% on the previous week.\n\nThe official statistics do not make clear whether patients were admitted for something other than Covid but tested positive on arrival - the so-called \"incidental\" cases.\n\nSpeaking at a news conference, Ms Morgan said: \"Just over 8% of staff are currently off work sick or self-isolating - that's around 10,000 people.\n\n\"These levels of staff sickness are putting even more pressure on our healthcare system at a time when it's already seeing incredibly high demand for emergency and medical care.\n\n\"The number of NHS staff off with coronavirus is at its highest level since April 2020.\"\n\nThe minister said there are now \"more than a thousand Covid-19 patients in our hospitals across Wales, and that's the highest level since last March\".\n\nShe added that from April carers in Wales will be paid the \"real living wage\" in an effort to address staff shortages.\n\nStaff shortages have also meant \"all maternity services are increasingly finding it difficult\", according to the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).\n\nLast week Cardiff and Vale and Aneurin Bevan health boards both warned expectant mums that, to provide safe staffing levels, the number of sites where expectant mums can be cared for may be reduced.\n\nRCM national officer for Wales Vicky Richards said: \"Staff are burnt out. And the staff absence rate is quite high, so they are having to work extra hard.\n\n\"They are trying extremely hard to provide a service 24/7 and keep that service going, but of course with the absences being quite high that sometimes is difficult.\n\n\"Usually where services are reduced, they are only reduced for a short period of time and then recommenced as soon as safe to do so, but that decision is not taken lightly.\n\n\"I think it's important that we reassure women that services are available for them, it's just sometimes they are tweaked a little bit depending on the situation.\n\n\"But that's done with their best interests and to ensure a safe service is provided for all involved.\"\n\nMaternity services are also being affected by more staff being off work\n\nShe added that going forward, the recovery phase from the pandemic would need adequate resourcing.\n\n\"We do need to invest in the conditions and the right environments to support the service and to ensure that maternity is a place that staff want to work and not get burnt out and leave the service - which is always a worry.\"\n\nLater, First Minister Mark Drakeford told Senedd members it was unclear whether recent figures that appear to show a decline in the number of Covid cases were \"genuine falls\" or a result of fewer people going for PCR tests because of recent changes which no longer require those receiving a positive lateral flow test to follow up with a PCR test.\n\nMr Drakeford said that even though they were showing a decline the figures were still \"astronomically high\" and that it would take \"a few days yet\" before it is clear whether they represent a genuine downturn.\n\n\"I just caution members on the most recent figures, they do show the start of a decline in the number of people falling ill they are still astronomically high compared to what we would have seen in earlier parts of the pandemic.\n\n\"And it is not clear as to whether or not these are genuine falls or whether they are a result of fewer people presenting for PCR tests because of the substitution of lateral flow tests in a number of contexts where previously, PCR tests would have been used.\"\n\nArmed forces personnel have been helping the Welsh Ambulance Service since October\n\nTuesday is the first anniversary of the worst day of the pandemic in Wales - on 11 January 2021 there were 83 deaths involving Covid.\n\nLatest figures from the Office for National Statistics show there were 24 deaths in Wales involving Covid in the last week of 2021, the lowest weekly figure since the end of August.\n\nThis compared to 49 deaths registered in the previous week, according to the ONS, which gives details of death certificates where Covid is a contributory factor.\n\nThere were no deaths involving Covid in 10 counties in the week ending 31 December: Anglesey, Blaenau Gwent, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Ceredigion, Merthyr, Monmouthshire, Newport, Powys and Rhondda Cynon Taf.", "More babies are going to hospital with Covid during this latest Omicron wave but they are not very sick with the virus, say UK experts - based on the available data since December.\n\nDoctors say early findings are \"incredibly\" encouraging - Covid remains very low-risk.\n\nThey say parents can be reassured, and the NHS has space if babies need care.\n\nWhile many of the babies had a fever with or without a cough, few needed treatment such as oxygen.\n\nThe rise in Covid-related paediatric admissions which hospitals have been seeing is largely for under-fives, and particularly children under the age of one.\n\nNHS England conducted a very rapid evaluation of around 50 admissions of babies with Omicron across around 33 hospitals.\n\nIt continues to gather more evidence as new cases occur.\n\nMeanwhile, early data has also been released by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) comparing around 171 child admissions with Omicron to those earlier in the pandemic.\n\nWith more of the virus circulating at the moment, there is a greater chance that children will catch Covid. Around 4.3 million, or one in every 15 people, are thought to be infected with Covid at the moment. People aged 20 to 29 have the highest rates, and the over-80s the lowest.\n\nAs with earlier in the pandemic, most children and babies who catch Covid will not become ill, but a small proportion will. Some may be in hospital for other reasons, but test positive for the virus while there.\n\nProf Calum Semple, who advises the Government as part of Sage, said: \"Our study has shown that there has been an increased proportion of children being admitted in the last four weeks associated with the onset of Omicron and this has been particularly driven by children under the age of one.\n\n\"The striking feature is that we're now seeing essentially 42% of the children are under the age of one, whereas previously it was around about 30%.\"\n\nProf Russell Viner, who is an expert in child health at University College London, said Covid was behaving like normal winter viruses in children: \"Clinically, this picture is incredibly reassuring. Half were in for observation only. The average length of stay was low...around two days.\"\n\nEven babies with other serious medical complications do not appear to be getting very ill with the virus.\n\nWhen babies and infants do get Covid symptoms, they tend to be a raised temperature and a slight cough.\n\nA fever is something parents or carers should consider seeking medical advice about.\n\nAnd women who are pregnant can help protect themselves and their baby by getting vaccinated against Covid.\n\nUnvaccinated mums-to-be who catch the virus near the end of pregnancy are at higher risk of birth-related complications, including premature births and stillbirths.\n\nIdeally, use a digital thermometer to get a fast, accurate reading\n\nA fever is a temperature of 38C or above and can be a sign of an infection such as Covid\n\nYou can contact your GP or call 111 for advice if your baby has a temperature\n\nSome can be managed at home\n\nThe Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says children's wards are experiencing a busy winter, as is usual for this time of year. While paediatricians are seeing lots of babies and young children with fever and respiratory conditions, very few with Omicron are needing paediatric intensive care.\n\nRCPCH President Dr Camilla Kingdon said: \"We need to watch this space but the picture is a reassuring one.\"", "Samuel Barker suffered head injuries after being hit by the minibus\n\nA seven-year-old boy died after becoming trapped while operating the doors of his school minibus, an inquest has concluded.\n\nThe inquest in Newport was told that children should not have been allowed to operate school bus doors.\n\nThe inquest has previously heard that Samuel and his brother opened and closed the bus doors themselves before it was driven off near Monmouth.\n\nGiving a narrative conclusion, the jury said: \"Samuel died by falling under the rear wheels of a minibus on 13 January 2020 on Hereford Road, Monmouthshire, resulting in catastrophic head injuries.\n\n\"Samuel died because he was in close proximity of a slow moving vehicle under which he was trapped after falling when operating the doors.\"\n\nDebra-Hill Howells, a council official with responsibility for passenger transport, said the council's driver rule book said \"never to allow pupils to operate doors\", unless in an emergency.\n\nIn evidence, the driver John Jason Bevan said: \"I was never made aware of this document.\"\n\nCatherine Barker, Samuel's mother said Jason Bevan would \"very rarely\" get out of his vehicle.\n\nAnswering a question from a juror, Mrs Hill-Howells said there had been two incidents where monitoring officers found \"drivers haven't been complying\" with the rule.\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive issued the council with an improvement notice following Samuel's death which caused the council to review its arrangements for school transport.\n\nThe notice extended beyond the issues surrounding Samuel's death.\n\nMrs Hill-Howells said procedures had since been changed, including creating transport officers who check buses at schools during morning and afternoon drop-off.\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive was satisfied the requirements of the improvement notice have been met, the inquest was told.\n\nThe inquest previously heard Samuel had been travelling home from school on the bus with his brother and one other passenger on 13 January 2020.", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "We've just heard that the next step in Djokovic's legal journey is a hearing, in front of Australia's Federal Court, at 10:15 Saturday morning local time (that's 23:15 Friday GMT).\n\nThe judge in Friday's hearing ruled that the tennis star's case should be transferred to the federal court.\n\nAt that hearing which concluded just a couple of hours ago it was agreed that Djokovic would be taken into immigration detention once more on Saturday morning at 08:00 local time.\n\nHere are the documents from Friday's hearing .\n\nDjokovic's side want the case to move as quickly as possible as they are hoping for a successful challenge to the visa cancellation before play starts in the Australian Open on Monday.", "Care providers say they are struggling to maintain services\n\nAlmost one in three councils in England say they are having to ration care for older and disabled people, as staff sickness soars because of Omicron.\n\nDirectors who run council care services say at least 49 local authorities are having to take \"drastic measures\".\n\nThis can mean people losing help to get out of bed, or people with dementia being left alone for longer than usual.\n\nThe government says protecting care staff and their clients continues to be a priority.\n\n\"We are now in the midst of a national crisis for adult social care,\" says the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass).\n\nA questionnaire sent by Adass to its members in all of England's 152 local authorities received 94 replies.\n\nOf these, 49 councils said they were having to take measures to prioritise care in at least some of their area for some of the time, including:\n\n\"We warned before Christmas that we were heading into a national emergency for social care. The sobering reality of that is now becoming starkly clear.\" says Adass president Stephen Chandler.\n\n\"Every council is taking extraordinary steps. These are decisions no-one wants to take, and many are unacceptable.\n\n\"They are drastic measures and must not become the norm.\"\n\n\"I've never seen pressure this big,\" Norfolk's director of adult social services, James Bullion, says\n\nNorfolk County Council executive director of adult social services, James Bullion, says staff sickness, because of Omicron, has put the system under critical pressure for more than three weeks.\n\nIt means the council has been unable to fully meet the care needs of 870 people. However, with the peak of Omicron in the area estimated to be two weeks away, Mr Bullion fears levels of staff sickness and unmet needs are likely to rise.\n\n\"I've never seen pressure this big,\" he says. \"It's a really critical and risky moment for us.\"\n\nIn King's Lynn, Chris Evans has struggled with mobility and balance since a brain bleed in 2017 and receives three council-funded care visits a day.\n\nHis wife Jane fears any suggestion of care rationing in Norfolk, saying the impact of fewer care visits on her family's health and stability would be massive.\n\nShe would have to stop work, she says, when \"the only income we have is mine\".\n\n\"I think it would put greater pressure on our wider family, on our children. It's like you drop a pebble in a pond and the ripples fan out... with caring for somebody, if you're left alone, it can become a really big problem.\"\n\nJane Evans, whose husband struggles with his mobility and balance, fears any reduction in his care package\n\nEarlier, the National Care Forum (NCF), which represents not-for-profit providers of social care said high sickness rates because of Omicron are compounding existing staff shortages.\n\nOf NCF members who took part in research this month, two-thirds of those providing home care said they were unable to take new clients, and nearly half of those running care homes have closed to new residents.\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care official said: \"Care staff are working incredibly hard, and to strengthen the workforce we have provided £462.5m for recruitment and retention, expanded the Health and Care visa scheme, and are running our Made with Care recruitment campaign.\n\n\"Over the course of the pandemic, we have made available more than £2.9bn in specific funding for adult social care.\n\n\"More than 50 million PCR and 142 million lateral flow kits have been delivered to care homes, and we have invested a further £478m to support safe and timely hospital discharges to get patients into the best place for their care and support to continue.\"", "Protesters climbed to the top of a train carriage at Shadwell station\n\nTwo climate change activists who sat on the roof of a rush-hour train in east London have been cleared of obstructing a carriage on the railway.\n\nThe Rev Sue Parfitt, 79, and Fr Martin Newell, 54, climbed on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) carriage at Shadwell station on 17 October 2019.\n\nA third activist, Philip Kingston, 85, superglued his hand to the train.\n\nSpeaking outside Inner London Crown Court, Ms Parfitt said: \"It's wonderful that the jury saw the bigger picture\".\n\nMike Schwarz, solicitor at the law firm Hodge Jones and Allen which represented the defendants, described the verdict as being part of an \"escalating pattern\".\n\nHe said: \"There is mounting evidence from the courts and in particular from juries that the public is taking the climate crisis and the increasingly urgent need to focus on it far more seriously than government and business.\"\n\nThe verdict comes after four people were recently cleared of criminal damage over toppling the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol and throwing it in the harbour.\n\nFr Martin Newell, from Birmingham, and the Rev Sue Parfitt, from Bristol, praised the jury\n\nSpeaking outside the court, Fr Newell was asked if he was planning to disrupt public transport again. He replied: \"I'm not sure that disrupting public transport is the right thing to do at this point, but in terms of would I risk going to prison? Absolutely.\"\n\nMs Parfitt, 79, said she felt the verdict showed that the protest had been \"the right thing to do\".\n\nShe said: \"It's wonderful that the jury saw the bigger picture, that the court has vindicated our action and we hope it in some small way inspires others to feel that there may be sacrifices to be made, perhaps particularly by people of faith.\"\n\nLast month, the Anglican priest admitted she was \"surprised\" to avoid jail for blocking the M25.\n\nShe was one of seven members of Insulate Britain who were handed suspended sentences for breaching an injunction and being in contempt of court. Two others were jailed.\n\nDuring this trial the jury had heard that the trio were strongly motivated by their Christian faith while Mr Kingston's grandchildren also influenced his participation.\n\nThe ex-university lecturer, from South Gloucestershire, said he had been trying \"to put others first\" during the protest which disrupted services for 77 minutes and led to 15 trains being delayed or cancelled.\n\nPhilip Kingston's stunt disrupted services for more than an hour\n\nThe jury heard that some passengers told the environmentalists that the train they had targeted was an electric train - one of the greenest modes of transport - and should therefore not be the focus of the protest.\n\nThe court heard the DLR service, which was travelling from Lewisham to Bank shortly before 07:00 BST, had been at about 70% capacity.\n\nIn what they said was an attempt to appeal to the public and the government about the dangers of climate change and the financial institutions whose actions damage the planet, the defendants targeted a train one stop away from Bank, in the City of London's financial district.\n\nThis was partly because, according to the activists, they had planned the demonstration to ensure there was no risk to public safety, by taking measures including targeting a station above ground and having 10 Extinction Rebellion activists on the platform to ensure violence did not break out.\n\nFr Newell said: \"I'm very grateful to the jury to acting on their conscience and hearing the issues that we wanted to raise in the original action two and a half years ago.\n\n\"The climate emergency is the biggest issue facing the human race in our time and nothing is more important with dealing with that and despite the words that many governments have said about being more urgent, they're just not doing it.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Harry Dunn died in hospital after his motorbike was involved in a crash outside RAF Croughton, near Brackley\n\nNext week's court appearance of Anne Sacoolas over the death of motorcyclist Harry Dunn has been postponed.\n\nMr Dunn, 19, died in a crash with a car near RAF Croughton, Northamptonshire, on 27 August 2019.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the delay was to allow \"ongoing\" discussions with the legal team of US national Mrs Sacoolas.\n\nRadd Seiger, spokesman for Mr Dunn's family, said they were waiting to hear \"further developments\" from the CPS.\n\nMrs Sacoolas, 44, had been driving near the US airbase and had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US government following the collision.\n\nShe was able to leave the UK afterwards.\n\nIn December 2019, the CPS authorised Northamptonshire Police to charge Mrs Sacoolas with causing death by dangerous driving.\n\nAn extradition request for her to be brought to the UK was rejected by the US government.\n\nRadd Seiger (centre) said Harry Dunn's parents Charlotte Charles (left) and Tim Dunn (right) had \"full faith\" in the CPS\n\nA hearing was scheduled for Westminster Magistrates' Court on 18 January, but the CPS said this had been \"vacated\".\n\nA spokesman for the CPS said: \"This is to enable ongoing discussions between the CPS and Anne Sacoolas's legal representatives to continue.\"\n\nLast month, Mrs Sacoolas's lawyers denied she would attend a court appearance via video link and said no such agreement had been made.\n\nMr Seiger said: \"We have full faith in the Crown Prosecution Service and will wait to hear from them with further developments, hopefully in the near future.\n\n\"Harry's family were obviously looking forward to the hearing on Tuesday so they hope an agreement will be reached sooner rather than later.\n\n\"It is vitally important for their mental health that justice and closure is achieved soon.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n• None Anne Sacoolas case to be heard by UK court\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Police investigating the murder of a young woman in County Offaly say her injuries were \"consistent with an assault\" and she died at the scene.\n\nAshling Murphy, a 23-year-old primary school teacher in Tullamore, was killed on Wednesday afternoon along the banks of the Grand Canal at Cappincur.\n\nA 40-year-old man has been arrested and is being detained at Tullamore Garda Station.\n\nSupt Eamonn Curley told reporters on Thursday: \"This area here, where the crime occurred, is popular among Tullamore residents and is widely used for recreational purposes.\n\n\"The victim of this crime is Ashling Murphy.\n\n\"Our prayers are with Ashling's family at this time and indeed the wider community, her teaching colleagues, and the children she taught who are without their teacher today.\"", "Waqass Goraya left Pakistan for the Netherlands where he became a prominent critic of the Pakistani military\n\nA man has gone on trial in London, accused of plotting to kill a Pakistani blogger living in the Netherlands.\n\nA court heard that 31-year-old Muhammad Gohir Khan was hired as a \"hitman\" by figures said to be based in Pakistan.\n\nHe was arrested last June and pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to murder.\n\nLawyers said the intended victim, Ahmad Waqass Goraya, had set up a blog on Facebook making fun of the Pakistani military and detailing alleged human rights violations.\n\nKingston Crown Court heard that Mr Goraya, who was living in Rotterdam at the time, \"was known for speaking out against the activities of the Pakistani government and appears to have been targeted for that reason\".\n\nThe jury was told that Mr Khan, a supermarket worker from East London, was heavily in debt - with the prosecution alleging he reacted \"enthusiastically\" to a proposal by a man named only as \"MudZ\" to kill the Pakistani political activist in exchange for £100,000.\n\nLeading the prosecution, Alison Morgan QC, said in December 2018 Mr Goraya had received information from the FBI that he was on a \"kill list\" and that he had received threats online and in person, some of which he believed \"were being orchestrated by ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence)\", Pakistan's intelligence agency.\n\nThe court was shown alleged Whatsapp messages between the defendant Mr Khan and a middle-man named as \"MudZ\" appearing to discuss the murder allegedly using a code referencing fishing, with the target on one occasion described as \"a little fish\" as opposed to a \"shark\" and that a \"little knife… hook\" would suffice for the job.\n\nAnother figure mentioned in the messages in relation to the alleged plot was referred to as \"Big Boss\".\n\nThe prosecution said the defendant had been sent Mr Goraya's home address and photograph, and had travelled to Rotterdam where he purchased a knife, but that he had been unable to locate Mr Goraya and so returned to the UK where he was arrested.\n\nProsecuting lawyer, Ms Morgan QC, told the court Mr Khan accepts sending and receiving all the messages in question and travelling to Rotterdam, but maintains he intended to keep the money and not carry out the murder.\n\nThe prosecution alleges he did intend on killing Mr Goraya.\n\nThe trial is set to last around two weeks.\n• None London man in court over plot to kill activist", "Lord Sainsbury hosted a visit by the Queen to celebrate the supermarket's 150th anniversary\n\nThe former chairman and chief executive of supermarket chain Sainsbury's, Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover, has died aged 94, the company has announced.\n\nDuring his 40-year career with the firm he covered several roles, becoming a director in 1958 before being promoted to lead the business in 1969.\n\nLord Sainsbury retired from the company in 1992, becoming its life president.\n\nSainsbury's current CEO Simon Roberts described him as \"one of the great retailers of his time\".\n\nHe added he was \"a shopkeeper to his core\" and \"was ambitious for the company and led Sainsbury's through an unprecedented period of growth; he was a truly inspirational man\".\n\nMartin Scicluna, chairman of Sainsbury's, said he would be \"greatly missed\" by all his friends and colleagues.\n\nJohn Sainsbury photographed in 1973 as the company went on the London Stock Exchange\n\nJohn Davan Sainsbury started working in his family's business in 1950, after national service and university, initially taking on a role in the grocery department.\n\nHis time at Sainsbury's saw the company grow from a regional, middle-sized grocery chain, to a national household name.\n\nLord Sainsbury became biscuit buyer in 1951 and bacon buyer from 1956, according to The Sainsbury's Archive.\n\nA visit to Canada inspired a new method of producing bacon for the new self-service market which he developed and piloted at the abattoir at Haverhill, the archive said.\n\nHe was also heavily involved in the development of Sainsbury's own range of products, personally approving every packaging design, it said.\n\nLord Sainsbury led the company through other significant changes, including conversion to scanning, the introduction of debit and credit cards, and energy management, it added.\n\nJohn Sainsbury, centre left, at a celebration of the company's centenary on 15 April 1969\n\nIn 1980 he was knighted by the Queen for services to the food retailing industry and with his brothers Simon and Timothy helped transform Sainsbury's.\n\nIn 1991, former managing director Sir Roy Griffiths said no senior member of a family ever cherished the family traditions more closely than Lord Sainsbury.\n\nHe added: \"No chairman has ever looked after the corporate values so committedly, and nothing has been too much, no generosity too great for people who serve the customer, and by definition the company well.\"\n\nLord Sainsbury, whose mantra was \"retail is in the detail\" retired from his role as chief executive and chairman in 1992.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The UK economy surpassed pre-Covid levels for the first time in November after recording stronger-than-expected growth.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics said gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.9% between October and November.\n\nThat was higher than economists' expectations and meant the economy was 0.7% larger than in February 2020.\n\nBut there is concern growth slowed again after the spread of Omicron and the introduction of Plan B measures.\n\n\"The economy grew strongly in the month before Omicron struck, with architects, retailers, couriers and accountants having a bumper month,\" said ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner.\n\n\"Construction also recovered from several weak months as many raw materials became easier to get hold of.\"\n\nAnalysts at Capital Economics said the economy was boosted by 3.5% growth in the construction sector, adding \"the unusually dry weather probably helped\".\n\nIt also said manufacturing output also improved and the professional sector also picked up, \"apparently due to architectural and engineering activities being brought forward from December\".\n\nGDP or Gross Domestic Product is one of the most important ways of showing how well, or badly, an economy is doing.\n\nIt's a measure - or an attempt to measure - all the activity of companies, governments and individuals in an economy.\n\nGDP allows businesses to judge when to expand and hire more people, and for government to work out how much to tax and spend.\n\nRising GDP means more jobs are likely to be created, and workers are more likely to get better pay rises.\n\nIf GDP is falling, then the economy is shrinking - bad news for businesses and workers.\n\nThe Covid pandemic caused the most severe recession seen in over 300 years, hurting business and employment, and forcing government to borrow hundreds of billions of pounds to support the economy.\n\nEconomists had been expecting GDP to expand by 0.4% in November.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said the stronger growth was \"a testament to the grit and determination of the British people\".\n\nBut Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: \"GDP almost certainly dropped in December, as households hunkered down in response to the Omicron variant.\"\n\nThe Omicron variant emerged at the end of November and Plan B measures were introduced on 8 December.\n\nMr Tombs said data such as restaurant diner numbers, transport usage and cinema revenues \"point to a pullback in consumer services expenditure\" last month, while \"Omicron also depressed labour supply\".\n\nHowever, he added: \"Omicron looks set to fade almost as quickly as it arrived, thanks partly to the rapid rollout of booster jabs. As a result, we expect the government to allow Plan B rules to automatically expire on 26 January and for GDP to bounce back in February.\"\n\nThese figures show that the reopening and recovery of the UK economy was motoring just before Omicron struck.\n\nThe economy had for the first time regained, on a monthly basis, all the very heavy losses during the pandemic lockdowns. Business had been returning to something approaching normality after the government's decision to axe restrictions since the summer.\n\nMonthly figures are quite volatile though and usually not provided by other countries. It is possible that the Omicron-linked hit to the economy in December could undo the impressive growth in November on the key fourth quarter figure. Using this more usual and internationally comparable quarterly basis, it is still not certain if the UK economy has recovered these losses.\n\nThe bigger question is about the impact of Omicron. With hopes that the rapidly-spreading variant has peaked, economists are now confident it will have far less of a hit than previous Covid waves. Retailers' results over the festive period have been very encouraging.\n\nBut the response of the public and its attitude to going out and spending is the big economic unknown. And while Omicron concern fades, the hits to disposable income from rising prices are very real.\n\nSo while the chancellor called today's GDP milestone \"amazing\" it's probably not the moment for celebration.\n\nThe ONS said that, on a quarterly basis, in the final three months of 2021 the UK economy will reach or surpass pre-Covid levels seen in the last quarter of 2019 if GDP grows by at least 0.2% in December and there are no downward revisions to figures for October and November.\n\nHowever, several economists pointed to a bumpy road for growth in the first months of this year.\n\n\"We expect growth to slow in 2022 as it will no longer be able to simply rely on the [Covid] rebound effect to propel it,\" said Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK.\n\n\"In addition, rising taxes and borrowing costs, as well as elevated inflation, will squeeze households' purchasing power, while the lingering effects of supply chain bottlenecks together with a persistent shortage of labour could constrain production this year.\"\n\nInflation is expected to hit 6% by spring, according to the Bank of England which raised its key interest rate in December and is forecast to lift borrowing costs again this year.\n\nThe government will raise the National Living Wage by 6.6% for over 23 year-olds in April but that is the same month when energy regulator Ofgem will implement the new price cap on household gas and electricity bills.\n\nOfgem is widely expected to lift the price cap following a sharp rise in wholesale gas prices last year which forced around 20 smaller energy companies out of business.\n\nAlso from April, employers, workers and the self-employed will all pay 1.25p more in the pound for National Insurance.", "Djokovic is scheduled to play in the Australian Open in Melbourne on Monday\n\nNovak Djokovic is set to be detained on Saturday after Australia cancelled his visa for a second time, in a row over his right to remain in the country unvaccinated.\n\nThe decision on \"health and good order\" grounds means he faces deportation and a three-year visa ban.\n\nDjokovic's lawyers called the judgement \"irrational\" and have appealed.\n\nThe men's tennis number one is still scheduled to play in the Australian Open in Melbourne on Monday.\n\n\"Today I exercised my power... to cancel the visa held by Mr Novak Djokovic on health and good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so,\" Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said in a statement.\n\nPrime Minister Scott Morrison said the decision followed \"careful consideration\".\n\nAlluding to the heavy criticism his government has faced for allowing the unvaccinated player into Australia, Mr Morrison said: \"Australians have made many sacrifices during this pandemic, and they rightly expect the result of those sacrifices to be protected.\"\n\nSerbian President Aleksandar Vucic condemned the move, telling the 34-year old in an Instagram message: \"Novak, we stand by you.\"\n\n\"If you wanted to ban Novak Djokovic from winning the 10th trophy in Melbourne why didn't you return him immediately, why didn't you tell him 'it is impossible to obtain a visa'?\" Mr Vucic added.\n\n\"Why are you mistreating him, why are you taking it out not only on him but also on his family and the whole nation,\" the Serbian president said.\n\nAt an emergency late-night court hearing shortly after the decision was announced on Friday, Judge Anthony Kelly ruled that Djokovic could not be deported while the appeal proceedings were happening. An appeal hearing is expected on Sunday.\n\nThe judge also said the government could detain Djokovic after he meets immigration officials in Melbourne on Saturday morning. However, he will be allowed to go to his lawyers' offices to prepare his case ahead of Sunday's hearing.\n\nAn initial hearing will be held on Saturday at 10:15 local time (23:15 GMT on Friday).\n\nDjokovic's legal team called the minister's decision to cancel the visa \"patently irrational\".\n\nCiting a government document with more details on why it was revoked, Djokovic's lawyer, Nicholas Wood, said it was not because he is a danger to the public, but because \"he will excite anti-vax sentiment\".\n\nAlthough Djokovic is not vaccinated, he has not actively promoted anti-vax disinformation. However, Australian anti-vaxxers have been using the hashtag #IStandWithDjokovic on social media.\n\nMr Wood added that the minister had chosen to \"remove a man of good standing\" from Australia and \"impair\" his future career over anti-vaccination comments Djokovic had made in 2020.\n\nThe nine-time Australian Open winner was hoping to defend his title next week, which if he won, would make him the most successful male tennis player in history with a record 21 Grand Slam titles.\n\nFor the moment, Djokovic remains in the Australian Open draw and is due to face fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic on Monday - the first day of the tournament.\n\nDjokovic's visa was first revoked shortly after his arrival in Melbourne on 6 January, after Australian border Force officials said he had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" to receive a vaccine exemption.\n\nHis initial announcement that he was coming to play in the Open prompted a backlash from some Australians, who have lived under long and strict Covid lockdowns, because it was unclear if he could meet the country's strict entry rules. Melbourne in particular was hard bit by lockdowns, enduring 262 days under heavy restrictions last year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"If he plays, I will not watch him\": Watch strong reactions on the Novak Djokovic case in Australia\n\nDjokovic was detained for days at an immigration hotel, before his visa was reinstated by Judge Kelly, who ordered his release, ruling that border officials ignored correct procedure when he arrived.\n\nBut on Friday evening in Melbourne, Mr Hawke again cancelled Djokovic's visa under separate powers in Australia's Migration Act.\n\nThe act allows him to deport anyone he deems a potential risk to \"the health, safety or good order of the Australian community\", however Djokovic can still appeal this.", "There is now high confidence that Omicron is relatively mild for most adults, says the UK Health Security Agency in its latest risk assessment.\n\nThis is largely thanks to vaccines providing high protection against serious illness caused by this latest Covid variant that is infecting many.\n\nIt comes as other data shows while more babies are being admitted to hospital with Omicron, they are not very sick.\n\nMeanwhile, Covid cases are on the way down, according to UK daily figures.\n\nThere were 99,652 new cases reported on Friday, a continuing drop which pushed the seven-day figure down by 29.5% on the week before.\n\nIt is too soon to say if the Omicron wave has peaked though, since the daily statistics are based on people who come forward for testing.\n\nProf Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics at The Open University, said: \"Infections often do not cause any symptoms, even though asymptomatic infected people can still spread the infection to others. Without symptoms people might not be routinely tested, and so end up not being counted.\"\n\nThere will also be some regional variation, with some parts of the UK running hotter with Covid than others.\n\nDifferent figures, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), estimate infection rates in the community by swabbing people regardless of whether they think they might be infected.\n\nThat data, which goes up to 7 January, suggests 4.3m in the UK have Covid. That's roughly one in 15 people and is the highest level of infections recorded by the ONS since the survey started.\n\nThe number of people testing positive for coronavirus fell in London, but increased in the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the North East.\n\nOn Friday, the UK reported another 270 deaths of people who had tested positive for Covid within the previous 28 days. The seven-day total for deaths is up 67% on the week before, following a record spike in infections in recent weeks. Some of these will be people who died with Covid, not from it.\n\nThe The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says the best way people can protect themselves and others against Covid, is to get fully vaccinated. People who need it can still get a first, second or third dose.\n\nSusan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor at UKHSA, said: \"A booster dose of the vaccine provides you with significant protection against hospitalisation from Omicron. Booster doses also increase the protection against symptomatic and asymptomatic infection, which will reduce transmission in the population.\n\n\"While prevalence remains high, make sure to wear your mask in indoor settings and take a lateral flow test before meeting others. If you develop any symptoms, isolate immediately and get a PCR test.\"\n• None Babies in hospital with Omicron as a precaution\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Prit Pal Singh says the PM should have had more control over his colleagues Image caption: Prit Pal Singh says the PM should have had more control over his colleagues\n\nThe Essex seat of Harlow, which has been held by the Conservatives since 2010, is often seen as a good indicator of the political temperature.\n\nBBC East has been asking local people what they think about the latest revelations of lockdown parties at Downing Street.\n\n\"People were dying in the UK, people losing their loved ones, and he [Boris Johnson] was allowing the parties to happen at Downing Street,\" he says. \"Being the leader of the country, he should have had more control of his colleagues who were working with him.\"\n\nSakeena was disgusted at the reports Image caption: Sakeena was disgusted at the reports\n\nMother-of-five Sakeena, 35, says the behaviour we've heard about is \"disgusting\".\n\n\"We're being told we can't do this or we can't do that and we can't take our kids out, and then he can have social gatherings with whoever he wants, whenever he wants. I really don't think that's fair.\"\n\nBut John Chittock, 86, isn't sure whether the prime minister should resign.\n\n\"Whatever they do, it's up to them. If they want to get Covid, I get it, but it is bad on people who suffered,\" he says.\n\nRead more about what people in Harlow think here.", "Folk musicians have played at a vigil for murdered Irish woman Ashling Murphy.\n\nThe 23-year-old was attacked on the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore, County Offaly, on Wednesday afternoon and died at the scene.\n\nShe had been a talented musician and was a member of the National Folk Orchestra of Ireland.\n\nAt a vigil in Galway city on Thursday night, fellow musicians played while candles were lit and flowers were laid.\n\nMore vigils are to be held across Ireland on Friday.\n\nRead more: Vigils across Ireland for murdered teacher", "A man arrested over the murder of a young teacher in Tullamore, County Offaly, has been released \"and is no longer a suspect\", gardaí (Irish police) have said.\n\nThey said the 40-year-old had been eliminated from their enquiries.\n\nAshling Murphy, 23, was attacked on the banks of the Grand Canal outside the town on Wednesday afternoon and died at the scene.\n\nEarlier, gardaí said they believed she was killed by one man who acted alone.\n\nA team of more than 50 gardaí have been assigned to the murder investigation and an incident room has been set up in Tullamore.\n\n\"No stone will be left unturned in bringing the perpetrator of this crime to justice,\" said Supt Eamonn Curley.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Eamonn Curley: \"The injuries are consistent with an assault.\"\n\nIn a press conference from the scene, he said Ms Murphy sustained serious injuries \"consistent with an assault\".\n\nA post mortem examination has been carried out to determine the exact cause of her death, but gardaí said on Thursday evening that the results were not being released \"for operational reasons\".\n\nDetectives have appealed for information about a Falcon Storm mountain bike.\n\nThey released a photo of the bike, which they said had \"straight handlebars and distinctive yellow/green front forks\".\n\nDetectives issued a photo of a mountain bike in their appeal for witnesses\n\nThey said they also still wanted to hear from anyone who was near the scene of the murder at Cappincur, Tullamore, on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nGardaí responded to the incident following a call from a member of the public at about 16:00 local time and found Ms Murphy with serious injuries.\n\nShe was given medical attention but could not be saved.\n\nMs Murphy worked at Durrow National School and she was also a talented musician and member of the National Folk Orchestra of Ireland.\n\nShe taught 28 pupils in the 1st class (age six to seven) at the school and had joined the staff team in March 2021.\n\nHer principal James Hogan told Virgin Media News that the school community was \"devastated and numb\".\n\nGardaí have cordoned off Grand Canal Way as they examine the murder scene\n\nHe paid tribute to her as a \"fantastic, beautiful, an extraordinary sportsperson, Irish musician, choral conductor and an inspiration\".\n\nHe said she was referred to as the \"shining light\" whose face lit up the room when she came into it and said the school was working to support staff and students.\n\nMs Murphy's death has also shocked the world of Irish traditional music, according to Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (Gathering of Musicians of Ireland).\n\n\"Ashling was among the finest exponents of the concertina and fiddle and was also learning the uilleann pipes,\" the group said in a statement.\n\n\"She was an exceptionally talented young lady who made an unforgettable impression on all who had the good fortune to know her.\"\n\nIt said she had been a member of the Comhaltas National Folk Orchestra of Ireland since 2017 and performed with them during visit of Pope Francis to Ireland in 2018.\n\nPeople have been visiting the scene to lay flowers\n\nTributes have also been paid by her former teachers in her home town of Tullamore and by staff at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in Limerick, from where she graduated very recently.\n\n\"The entire MIC community is heartbroken and shocked to the core to hear of the tragic and senseless killing of Ashling Murphy who graduated from MIC only three months ago,\" said its president Eugene Wall.\n\n\"Our heartfelt sympathy go out to her family, friends, colleagues and pupils. RIP Ashling.\n\nMs Murphy was attacked between Boland Lough and Digby's bridge on the canal bank.\n\nAccording to RTÉ News she was exercising in the area when she was assaulted and the suspect fled when two women came across the attack.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said the \"entire country is devastated and shocked by the violent and barbaric killing\".\n\n\"There is no place in our society for violence, particularly violence against women. It cannot and will not be tolerated,\" he added.\n\nJustice Minister Helen McEntee described Ms Murphy's murder as a \"truly shocking crime\".\n\nMs McEntee urged anyone with information about the incident to come forward.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Helen McEntee TD This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) said the attack was an \"appalling tragedy\" and it offered its condolences to Ms Murphy's family and friends.\n\n\"For such an appalling tragedy to befall a young woman, who only recently began her teaching career, adds to the profound sense of loss and grief felt,\" it said.", "First Minister Mark Drakeford was the starter for Trelai Parkrun in Cardiff in October 2021\n\nThe decision to ban mass outdoor group exercise events in Wales is unjustified and disproportionate, a UK minister has said.\n\nPopular 5km (3.1 mile) run event Parkrun decided to cancel events in Wales after the Welsh government restricted outdoor events to 50 people.\n\nUK government Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the event had \"helped so many people improve their health\".\n\nThe Welsh government said the country was facing \"a serious situation\".\n\nParkrun events take place every Saturday morning at 2,000 locations in 23 countries around the world.\n\nMr Javid was commenting following a Parkrun blog post about the situation in the different UK nations, which stated: \"The evidence remains clear that the infection risks presented by outdoor events like ours are exceptionally low and the public health benefits of remaining open are incredibly high.\n\n\"It is our intention therefore that wherever Parkrun events are legally permitted to operate they should do so.\"\n\nParkrun events bring together people of all ages and abilities to exercise\n\nThe blog listed the situation in each of the four nations - with no restrictions in England or Northern Ireland.\n\nIn Scotland, coronavirus rules mean there are limits of 500 people at social gatherings - but with Parkrun events attracting fewer people than this limit, each is still scheduled to go ahead.\n\nIn Wales, because of the limit on social gatherings, all events have been cancelled from 1 January.\n\nHowever, because children are exempt, junior parkrun for youngsters aged four to 14 will continue to take place.\n\nMr Javid tweeted in response: \"Parkrun has helped so many people improve their health across the UK. I can't see how restricting outdoor exercise in this way is justified or proportionate.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sajid Javid This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWelsh athletics boss James Williams raised concerns about the move last week, saying: \"We all know January is when people make New Year's resolutions to get physically active.\n\n\"Parkrun is the perfect place for people to go to start that journey and if they don't do it on the first of January, the likelihood is they won't do it at all over the next 12 months.\"\n\nResponding to the concerns of both Welsh Athletics and Parkrun last week, a Welsh Government spokesperson said: \"We are facing a very serious situation in Wales. A wave of infections caused by the new, fast-moving and very infectious omicron variant is headed our way.\n\n\"We understand the importance of exercise for people's health and wellbeing - and encourage people to keep active during this difficult time. For the time being, there is a limit of 50 people for outdoor events and activities.\"\n\nNo end date has been set for the new restrictions but First Minister Mark Drakeford has said he wants them in place for the shortest possible time.\n\nParkruns have faced a difficult time during the pandemic - they restarted in England in July after a pause of 16 months because of the pandemic, and then later in the other nations.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nBritain's Andy Murray reached his first ATP Tour final since 2019 with a three-set win over Reilly Opelka at the Sydney Tennis Classic.\n\nThe 34-year-old fought back from a set down to beat the 25th-ranked American 6-7 (6-8) 6-4 6-4.\n\nMurray let out a roar of triumph after converting his first match point.\n\nCompatriot Dan Evans was unable to set up the first all-British final at ATP Tour level after losing to Russian top seed Aslan Karatsev in the semi-final.\n\nSaturday's final will be shown live on BBC iPlayer, Red Button and BBC Sport website and app from 0800 GMT.\n\nThird seed Evans, 31, lost 6-3 6-7 (13-15) 6-3 to the 28-year-old, ending the Briton's hopes of securing his second ATP Tour title.\n\nHe saved three match points before going on to win an epic second-set tie-break but was then furious about a bathroom break taken by Karatsev.\n\nEvans was broken in the first game of the deciding set and Karatsev then disappeared for five minutes.\n\nIn an expletive-laden outburst, the Briton accused the umpire of failing to apply the ATP rules, which allow players a maximum of three minutes once they have entered the toilet.\n\nThose who are changing their clothes are allowed an additional two minutes.\n• None Djokovic has visa cancelled & could be deported\n\nIt is the first final Murray has reached since the 2019 European Open, where he claimed an emotional victory over Stan Wawrinka.\n\nThat was Murray's 46th ATP title and is his only singles trophy since he had career-saving hip surgery in January 2019.\n\n\"It would be amazing to start the year with a trophy, but it's already been a big week for me,\" Murray said in his on-court interview.\n\n\"To string four results together like this is much more than I managed last year.\"\n\nMurray is preparing for the Australian Open, starting on Monday, where he will play Georgian 21st seed Nikoloz Basilashvili in the first round.\n\nHe is now ranked 135 in the world after struggling with niggling injuries in the past two years but has moved well in all of his matches in Sydney.\n\nMurray was visibly frustrated after fighting back from 5-1 down in the first set tie-break to draw level at 6-6, only to lose it 8-6 against the big-serving Opelka.\n\nHowever, his return was excellent as he broke Opelka early in the second set to eventually force a decider.\n\nMurray could not convert four break points on the Opelka serve before he eventually found a way through and served out the match to love.\n\n\"I lost a tight first set and it's not easy to come back against someone who serves like that, but I love competing,\" Murray added.\n• None Who will be the first to be told 'You're Fired'?\n• None The Peaky Blinders series 6 trailer is here", "Kate Josephs left the Cabinet Office to work for Sheffield City Council\n\nA former Covid taskforce chief hosted leaving drinks in the Cabinet Office in December 2020, it has emerged.\n\nKate Josephs worked for the unit, responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions, before she became chief executive of Sheffield City Council.\n\nThe drinks reception is understood to be among the events being investigated by senior civil servant Sue Gray.\n\nMs Josephs said she was \"truly sorry\" for joining the event, held while London was under Tier 3 rules.\n\nShe said she was co-operating fully with the investigation into gatherings in government buildings.\n\nMs Josephs served as director general of the taskforce from July 2020 until her departure on 18 December 2020.\n\nAt the time of her Cabinet Office departure London was subject to restrictions preventing most indoor mixing between those from different households.\n\nMs Gray's inquiry is to establish \"a general understanding of the nature\" of gatherings that took place and whether any \"individual disciplinary action\" should be taken, according to its terms of reference.\n\nIn a statement posted on Twitter Ms Josephs wrote: \"On the evening of 17 December, I gathered with colleagues that were at work that day, with drinks, in our office in the Cabinet Office to mark my leaving the Civil Service.\n\n\"I am truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result.\"\n\nMs Josephs posted a tweet the following day which included a picture of her outside 10 Downing Street alongside a message praising her \"incredible colleagues who make up the Covid taskforce\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kate Josephs This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn her apology, she said she did not attend any events at Number 10, and would not comment further until an investigation led by senior civil servant Sue Gray had been completed.\n\nMs Josephs also apologised \"unreservedly\" to the people of Sheffield, who she said had \"suffered greatly during this pandemic\".\n\nCity council leader Terry Fox said the two had met today and he expressed \"deep disappointment\" at her actions.\n\n\"People will rightly feel angry and let down. I get that completely,\" he said.\n\nHe said since taking up the role Ms Josephs had been an asset who had worked \"tirelessly for Sheffield and its people\"\n\nHe added: \"Our residents will understandably have questions and concerns, and we await the findings of the investigation.\"\n\nMs Josephs was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for public service in the Queen's Birthday honours in 2021.", "Novak Djokovic sought a medical exemption from Australia's strict Covid visa regulations on the basis that he'd contracted the infection in mid-December.\n\nMr Djokovic was tested in Serbia, where you are legally required to isolate for 14 days following a positive Covid test.\n\nAfter days of speculation over public engagements he apparently attended following his positive test, he has now said he did appear in public during this period of isolation.\n\nHere is a timeline of events from what we know so far.\n\nMr Djokovic attended a Euroleague basketball game in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, between Red Star Belgrade and Barcelona.\n\nAfter the game, numerous people who attended tested positive for Covid-19, so it is possible this is where Mr Djokovic became infected.\n\nMr Djokovic had front row seats at the Euroleague basketball game in Belgrade on 14 December\n\nMr Djokovic says he took a lateral flow test on 16 December following the Covid outbreak at the basketball game.\n\nHe says this came back negative, but that he also took a PCR test \"out an abundance of caution\".\n\nIn court documents, Mr Djokovic's lawyers submitted evidence that confirms he took a PCR test just after 13:00 on 16 December.\n\nThe document from the Institute of Public Health of Serbia states the result came back positive seven hours later, at about 20:00 on the same day.\n\nMr Djokovic says he wasn't notified about his positive PCR result until the following day.\n\nMr Djokovic attended a panel discussion and a ceremony for the unveiling of a stamp in his honour in Belgrade on 16 December (before 20:00), which he posted about on Twitter the next day.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Novak Djokovic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn the morning of 17 December, the Tennis Association of Belgrade posted on Facebook about an award ceremony at the Novak Tennis Center in Belgrade which was happening later that day.\n\nThey said the trophies would be \"handed over to the young talent by the favourite tennis player of this region, and beyond\".\n\nA series of pictures was later posted on the same Facebook page of Mr Djokovic presenting awards without a mask.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by TSB Teniski savez Beograda Belgrade Tennis Association This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nBefore attending the event Mr Djokovic says he produced another negative lateral flow test, and he was \"asymptomatic and felt good\".\n\nIt was after this event that Mr Djokovic says he received notification that his PCR test was positive. At this point he should have began 14 days of isolation.\n\nIt has been reported by French newspaper L'Equipe that Mr Djokovic attended an interview and photo shoot with their paper in Belgrade on 18 December.\n\nHe has since admitted attending this engagement, which he says was \"an error of judgement and I accept I should have rescheduled\".\n\nSerbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told the BBC that it was \"a clear breach of the rules\" if Mr Djokovic continued with public events, knowing he had Covid.\n\nThe paper says he wore a face mask during the interview, but removed it for the photo shoot.\n\nHe posed with the newspaper's Champion of Champions trophy - an award which recognises the outstanding sportsperson of the year.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by L'ÉQUIPE This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFollowing this engagement, Mr Djokovic says he cancelled all other events and isolated for the required period.\n\nIn the court documents provided by Mr Djokovic's lawyers, there is confirmation that he had another PCR test on 22 December.\n\nThis test came back negative at 16:15 the same afternoon, although we don't know when Mr Djokovic was informed of the result.\n\nSerbian Covid regulations stipulate a full 14-day self-isolation period, unless the person who has tested positive receives a negative PCR test result during that period.\n\nMr Djokovic was pictured playing tennis in the streets of Belgrade over the Christmas period.\n\nA fan tweeted a video of the outing on 25 December, which was also reported in several tennis publications in the days following.\n\nThe video was caption: \"Novak Djokovic, playing tennis on Christmas Day in Belgrade... Footage from today!\"\n\nOn the same day, Mr Djokovic was also pictured posing with Serbian professional handball player, Petar Djordjic, in Belgrade.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by José Morgado This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn 31 December, pictures and video was shared online that appear to show Mr Djokovic in Spain on that date.\n\nA tennis academy based in Sotogrande, Spain (near Marbella) tweeted a video of Mr Djokovic training, as well as several pictures of him meeting fans.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by SotoTennis Academy This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSeveral tennis websites reported he was training in Marbella for the possibility of competing in the Australian Open.\n\nThis is where he was quizzed by border officials and his visa was revoked after he confirmed he wasn't vaccinated.\n\nIn Mr Djokovic's Australian travel entry form - released by the federal court - it was stated that he had not travelled anywhere else in the 14 days prior to his arrival there.\n\nMr Djokovic says the form was filled in by a member of his team who - in \"human error\" - had ticked the wrong box about his previous travel before coming to Australia.\n\nAustralian immigration officials said on Tuesday they were investigating whether he had made a \"false declaration\" - which would be grounds for a visa cancellation.", "E.On says its socks \"should have been stopped\"\n\nEnergy supplier E.On has said it is \"incredibly sorry\" for sending socks to customers in a bid to encourage them to turn the heating down.\n\nIt is the second major supplier to admit to a marketing gaffe when customers are facing a cost of living squeeze driven by energy prices.\n\nEarlier in the week, Ovo's founder said he was \"really embarrassed\" about energy saving advice including \"doing a few star jumps\" and cuddling pets.\n\nEnergy bills are set to soar in April.\n\nA new price cap looks set to add about £600 to the annual gas and electricity bill of a household with typical energy usage.\n\nThe socks were sent out by E.On Next - an arm of the energy giant which sells and promotes renewable electricity.\n\nThe footwear came with a message encouraging people to leave \"lighter footprints\" by turning heating down and lowering carbon emissions.\n\nHowever, some customers reacted with anger and perplexity - especially when they were sent to elderly relatives. Now, the company has apologised.\n\nWriting on Twitter, it said: \"If you recently received a pair of socks from us, we would like to say we are incredibly sorry for how we have made some people feel.\n\n\"In light of the seriousness of current challenges that many people are facing, this mailing should have been stopped and we are sorry.\"\n\nAs first reported in the Daily Mail, the company said it sent the socks to 30,000 customers who responded to an energy saving campaign last year.\n\nIn a subsequent statement, a spokesman for the company said: \"This activity was in no way designed to detract from the seriousness of the current energy crisis\n\n\"This campaign originally went ahead last year and was intended as a fun way to encourage people to think about 'lightening your carbon footprint' and isn't meant to be anything to do with the current challenges many people are facing.\"\n\nHe said E.On had invested billions of pounds into better insulation, efficient heating, and advice to customers.\n\nE.On is the UK's second biggest energy supplier, after British Gas.\n\nStephen Fitzpatrick, the founder of the third-largest, Ovo, said earlier in the week that \"someone had a bad day\" when a link was sent to customers directing them to a blog encouraging them to save energy by hugging pets.\n\nThe latest gaffe comes on the day an alliance of charities called on the government for urgent action to tackle the energy bill crisis.\n\nThe 25 charities, including Save the Children, Age UK, End Fuel Poverty Coalition, WWF, Green Alliance and Greenpeace, said emergency funding was needed to support the most vulnerable.", "Emily Lewis, 15, was among 12 people onboard the boat when it struck a buoy\n\nTwo men have been charged in connection with the death of a girl after a boat crashed during a sightseeing trip.\n\nEmily Lewis, 15, was fatally injured in the excursion, off Southampton, on 22 August 2020.\n\nMichael Lawrence, 54, who was driving the speedboat, has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter.\n\nCompany owner Michael Howley, 51, has been charged with failing to take all reasonable steps to secure that the boat was operated in a safe manner.\n\nThey will appear at Southampton Magistrates' Court on 2 February.\n\nThe crash happened during an excursion on speedboat Seadogz on 22 August 2020\n\nTwo other passengers were thrown overboard when the rigid inflatable boat collided with a buoy in Southampton Water.\n\nThey and the remaining nine passengers and the skipper suffered \"varying degrees of injuries\", a Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report found.\n\nEmily was taken to Southampton General Hospital where she later died.\n\nShe was a pre-booked passenger on the scheduled one-hour trip, which was run by Seadogz Rib Charter Ltd, and departed from Ocean Village marina.\n\nAn inquest heard she died of an upper abdominal injury, and that her father, Simon Lewis, mother Nikki, and sister Amy, who was 19 at the time, were also on the boat.\n\nFollowing Emily's death her family said in a statement: \"We are all in shock that our beautiful daughter and sister is no longer with us, and words just don't seem available to express our deep sense of loss.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 7 and 14 January.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you follow current coronavirus guidelines and take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nIan MacDonald's snap from the recent spell of cold and snowy weather kicks of the latest gallery. Ian said: \"A windswept robin after the snowfall taken on a farm road in Stewarton, East Ayrshire.\"\n\nAgi Gara, of Dundee, said of this picture: \"I took this photo today at Loch an Diamh. We went for a hike, the weather conditions were perfect and not a soul around other than some deer.\"\n\nDouglas Potter said: \"I had a fantastic day in Glen Nevis climbing Stob Ban in Alpine-like conditions.\"\n\nDavid Miles' image from an early morning summit of Cairn Gorm, with a wind chill of -18C. David said: \"So cold my jacket froze solid.\"\n\nJoanna Mills, of Kippford, said of her image: \"Magical winter walk in Broughtonknowe Wood, near Broughton on the A701.\"\n\nStargazer Stuart Gilbert said of his shot: \"It was cold but perfectly clear skies over St Monans, Fife.\"\n\nCheryl Davis sent in this image. She said: \"The night sky of Loch Ness. Lots of stars and a touch of the aurora.\"\n\nDawid Gierszewski captured this image of the Northern Lights from Newburgh in Aberdeenshire.\n\nLesley Simpson took her picture of a friendly reindeer called Morse while on a visit to Aviemore.\n\n\"Muirneag, the highest hill in Lewis north of Stornoway, with three stags posing in the foreground,\" said Morris Macleod of his picture.\n\nShirley Potts, of Skye, said: \"Shepherds were gathering the hill sheep and they were about to pass by our gate. I stepped back when I realised that they were looking at me so this was the only picture I took but fortunately it worked.\"\n\nJacqueline Lewis' picture of a \"cheeky\" mountain hare in the Monadhliath mountains.\n\n\"A wee ladybird trying to keep cosy,\" said Carole Barr of this picture taken in her garden in Ardwell.\n\nRon Macdonald's picture of murmurating starlings entering their night-time roost near Ellon.\n\nBeverley Morrison, of Bridge of Earn, said: \"Saw my very first fogbow whilst coming down Derry Cairngorm in the Cairngorms.\"\n\nDavid Hay saw this fogbow on Pitlochry Golf Course. David said: \"It was visible for less than two minutes. This is the second time I have seen this rare weather event in less than a month.\"\n\n\"I was lucky enough to capture this fogbow over the Lecht Ski Centre while driving from Strathdon to a worksite at Tomintoul,\" said Alan Fraser, of Lhanbryde.\n\nMike Wright said of his shot: \"A great day to be out watching the big wave action at Birsay, Orkney.\"\n\nWaves breaking at sunset in Prestwick in a picture from Marianne Mann, of Stewarton.\n\nJane Sayliss' view from Mellon Udrigle beach. Jane said: \"I loved the way the sun just caught the mountain top. The whole scene was a vision of winter beauty.\"\n\nGeoff Smith said of his photo: \"We passed these sea stacks on a walk from Sheigra, near Kinlochbervie, to Sandwood Bay.\"\n\nAndy Maclennan, who sent in this picture, said: \"Brora beach on a beautiful winter day.\"\n\nRobin Blythe was below the surface of the sea for this image. Robin said: \"Whilst diving off Millport, hailstones above yet summer bloom below the surface.\"\n\nThere was also an underwater theme to Liz Rodger's picture. Liz, of Forfar, said: \"Amazing artwork at a derelict site in Dundee.\"\n\nKim Bennett, from Cupar, said she was distracted from her work by these mammatus clouds.\n\nStephen Todd, of Glasgow, photographed this sunrise from the Forties oil field.\n\nAlison Cunningham said: \"I spotted these incredible altocumulus lenticularis clouds near Evanton, Easter Ross. Anyone of a more nervous disposition might have thought we were about to be invaded by aliens.\"\n\nCatherine Cumming, of Newburgh, said of her cloud photo: \"I think it looks like a flying swan.\"\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "Christine Lee runs a law firm, with offices in London and Birmingham\n\nChina has denied interfering in UK politics after MI5 warned an agent of the country had infiltrated Parliament.\n\nThe security service said Christine Ching Kui Lee \"established links\" for the Chinese Communist Party with current and aspiring MPs.\n\nShe then gave donations to politicians, including Labour MP Barry Gardiner, who received more than £420,000 from her.\n\nThe Chinese Embassy in London accused MI5 of \"smearing and intimidation\" against the UK's Chinese community.\n\nIn a statement on the embassy's website, a spokesman said: \"China always adheres to the principle of non-interference in other country's internal affairs.\n\n\"We have no need and never seek to 'buy influence' in any foreign parliament. We firmly oppose the trick of smearing and intimidation against the Chinese community in the UK.\"\n\nAccording to the alert, Ms Lee claimed her involvement with Parliament had been to \"represent the UK Chinese and increase diversity\".\n\nBut MI5 said that activity \"had been undertaken in covert coordination with the United Front Work Department [of the CCP], with funding provided by foreign nationals located in China and Hong Kong\".\n\nThe UFWD is alleged to be seeking to \"cultivate relations\" with \"influential figures\" to ensure the UK political landscape is favourable to the CCP and to challenge those that raise concerns about the party, including over human rights.\n\nThe security service said Ms Lee had \"extensive engagement with individuals across the UK political spectrum\", including the now disbanded All Party Parliamentary Group called Chinese in Britain.\n\nMI5 warned Ms Lee \"may aspire to establish APPGs [parliamentary groups] to further the CCP's agenda\".\n\nConservative MP and former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith brought up the alert in the Commons on Thursday, confirming it had been emailed out to MPs by the Speaker.\n\nHe said it was \"a matter of grave concern\", calling for Ms Lee to be deported and demanding the government make a statement to the House.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said it was \"deeply concerning\" that someone \"who has knowingly engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party has targeted parliamentarians\".\n\nBut she said the UK has measures in place \"to identify foreign interference\".\n\nMr Gardiner began getting donations from Ms Lee's law firm, Christine Lee & Co, at the end of 2014.\n\nMs Lee's son was also understood to have volunteered for the Labour MP and was later employed as his diary manager.\n\nMr Gardiner, who was a member of the shadow cabinet when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, said he had been \"liaising with our security services for a number of years\" about her.\n\nMs Lee had \"no role\" in who was appointed as his researchers and all donations were \"properly reported\", he said.\n\nMr Gardiner later told Sky News: \"From my point of view, that money was there to improve the work I was able to do in Parliament, and to improve the work I was able to do for my constituents - it paid for those researchers and it paid for them directly, none of it was for my personal benefit.\"\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also received a £5,000 donation when he was energy secretary - but he said the money was accepted by his local association and it was \"the first time he has been given cause to be concerned\".", "Simon Ward was among Conservative leaders who voted to withdraw support from the PM\n\nA Conservative association in a safe Tory seat in the West Midlands has voted unanimously to withdraw its support from Boris Johnson.\n\nThe prime minister is facing calls to resign from the opposition and some Tory MPs after admitting attending drinks in the Downing Street garden.\n\nSimon Ward, from the Royal Sutton Coldfield Conservative Association, said \"the culture starts at the top\".\n\nMr Johnson has urged MPs to wait for the outcome of an investigation.\n\nConservative leader of the town council, Mr Ward, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"We were asking people all over our country to make massive sacrifices... over the last two years.\n\n\"I think we have the right to expect everybody in government and in those positions of leadership to follow those same rules and guidelines as well.\"\n\nConservative MP Andrew Mitchell attended the meeting but did not vote\n\nThe vote asking the PM to stand down happened at a meeting on Thursday night, where the area's Conservative MP, Andrew Mitchell was present, but did not take part.\n\nHe retained the seat in the 2019 election with a majority of more than 19,000.\n\nSutton Coldfield is Conservative through and through.\n\nFor many years it was the only Conservative seat in the second city, so if Tories here are not supporting the PM, you have to ask how long will his support hold up elsewhere?\n\nThis vote took place even before the headlines in today's Telegraph detailing parties on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral. A story guaranteed to play badly in The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield.\n\nLike Andrew Mitchell, many Conservative MPs I have been in contact with say they are waiting for the findings of Sue Gray's report, but pressure on them will grow if other associations make similar moves.\n\nThe councillor said the move to withdraw support from the prime minister reflected \"local views at the very grassroots levels\" and was about \"the standards of leadership we expect\".\n\n\"This is about what the right thing is for politics, what the right thing is for our leaders, how this reflects on our country as well, and it's just massively disappointing and it reflects very, very poorly on us as a nation,\" he added.\n\nThe interim chair of Wyre Forest Conservative Association, Julian Phillips, echoed these sentiments, calling on the prime minister to resign.\n\nMr Johnson, for whom he didn't vote for as leader, had always been a \"controversial character,\" he said, but the latest revelation \"stings a lot more\" than any of his previous controversies.\n\nHe confirmed his views were shared with the wider party in Wyre Forest.\n\n\"I don't think anyone is now of the mindset to defend the Prime Minister. There's a great deal of anger, a great deal of embarrassment. It's not great for any of us.\"\n\nTwo more parties, first revealed by the Daily Telegraph have been referred to Sue Gray as part of a civil service probe into alleged Covid rule breaking in Downing Street and government departments.\n\nMinisters have said it will be published shortly.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Garda at the Grand Canal in Tullamore where Ashling Murphy was murdered on Wednesday\n\nA man who was eliminated as a suspect in the Ashling Murphy murder inquiry is now in hiding after he was vilified on social media, his solicitor has said.\n\nThe 40-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday, shortly after Ms Murphy was killed in Tullamore, County Offaly.\n\nBut he was released on Thursday night, after gardaí (Irish police) said he had been eliminated from their inquiries and was no longer a suspect.\n\nSolicitor Donal Farrelly said the man was in a hotel for his own safety.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, Mr Farrelly said his client was escorted to the hotel by gardaí on Thursday night because of concerns about possible \"retribution\" from members of the public.\n\nHe said his client had been subjected to \"extreme vilification\" on social media since his arrest.\n\nMr Farrelly said social media users had posted material which clearly identified his client as the suspect under arrest.\n\nAlthough they did not use his client's name, they posted other identifying details, including his photo, on several social media platforms.\n\nThe solicitor also expressed concern that the information posted online identified his client's family members and said they were all going through \"an extremely difficult time\".\n\nThe man was questioned over two days about the murder of the 23-year-old teacher, before being released without charge.\n\nAshling Murphy was murdered on the banks of a canal on Wednesday afternoon\n\nMr Farrelly described Ms Murphy's murder as a horrific crime and said he was thankful that gardaí had made a public statement making it clear that his client had been eliminated as a suspect in the investigation.\n\nBut he said it was \"still difficult to get that message out\" to some social media users.\n\nHe also said that he understood his client would be allowed to stay at the hotel until he felt safe enough to leave.\n\nGardaí are still searching for Ms Murphy's killer and continue to appeal for information.\n\nVigils paying tribute to the young teacher are taking place across the island of Ireland on Friday.", "Zuhir Nassrat was linked to two of the three chemicals used by the Abedi brothers\n\nA man arrested during the Manchester Arena bombing investigation is on the run in Libya and wanted by police for his role in a drugs conspiracy.\n\nZuhir Nassrat, 23, was linked to two of the three chemicals used by the Abedi brothers to make the bomb that killed 22 people in May 2017.\n\nHe was arrested but not charged in relation to the attack. He denied playing any part in what happened.\n\nSalman and Hashem Abedi were responsible for the bombing.\n\nThree trials at Manchester Crown Court, the last of which ended earlier, have detailed the criminal activities of associates of the bombers.\n\nIn the final case, five men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply drugs, including cocaine, from January 2017 until December 2020.\n\nThose convicted, all from south Manchester, are:\n\nThe first four have appeared in the evidence at the ongoing Manchester Arena Inquiry due to their links to the Abedi brothers or other suspects.\n\nSentencing will take place on a date to be fixed.\n\nShamsudin Khalifa, the only man to proceed to trial, was found not guilty earlier.\n\nKhalifa and Alhamruni have not featured in any way at the Arena inquiry.\n\nBrothers Mohammed (right) and Ebrahim Sadigh are among those convicted of conspiracy to supply drugs\n\nThe final trial heard business cards were printed and spread around Manchester advertising named \"drug lines\", comprising phone numbers where people could order narcotics.\n\nNeil Fryman, prosecuting, said police \"haven't managed to catch up\" with Nassrat and another man, but \"from the evidence that's been collected it's clear they're involved\".\n\nNassrat is understood to be in Libya.\n\nThe court heard that phones belonging to Nassrat and Abudaber were seized by police on 17 April 2017, more than a month before the bombing, from a crashed car on Wilmslow Road, Rusholme.\n\nA mobile attributed to Nassrat was a \"drug dealer's phone\", jurors were told, showing the owner to be a \"street runner directed by other persons to deliver the drugs\".\n\nIt was only after the arena attack, and indeed after Nassrat had been questioned by police for two weeks, that officers found the phone had been used to search for one of the three chemicals needed to make the deadly explosive TATP.\n\nThe google searches had been deleted, but were forensically recovered from the phone.\n\nFollowing the arena attack, Nassrat had been arrested and questioned about why his bank details were used in three unsuccessful attempts in March 2017 to purchase another chemical.\n\nHe had texted his home address to Hashem Abedi and photos of a bank card to Ebrahim Sadigh.\n\nThe first attempted purchase was traced to Nassrat's home.\n\nIllyas Adubaber's wifi was used in attempted bomb chemical purchases\n\nWhen Hashem Abedi made further attempted purchases of the chemical on Amazon, he used a wi-fi network at a room rented by Abudaber in Rusholme.\n\nNassrat was questioned again by counter-terror officers in 2019. He was not charged and left the UK soon afterwards.\n\nNeither Ebrahim Sadigh nor Abudaber would provide witness statements to the arena bombing investigation, although both denied knowledge of the plot when first approached by officers after the atrocity.\n\nAbudaber faced a separate trial in July last year, which can now be reported, after he was arrested in October 2019 following a high-speed car chase in south Manchester involving police cars, a helicopter, and the suspect driving over a \"stinger\" designed to burst his tyres.\n\nAfter crashing, he fled on foot but was arrested by police. He had been carrying a loaded revolver, drugs, thousands in cash, and a baseball bat in the boot of his stolen white Audi.\n\nAbudaber pleaded guilty possessing the illegal items but denied having the gun with an \"intent to endanger life\". The jury acquitted him of this more serious charge.\n\n\"I had no intention of using the firearm whatsoever,\" he told jurors, adding he was given the gun to hold by a leading dealer whom he would not name.\n\n\"I was too scared to say no to him so I had to take it,\" he said.\n\nElyas Elmehdi was an associate of the Abedi brothers\n\nThe recent drugs conspiracy prosecution is the second to emerge from the arena bombing investigation, showing the criminal context in which the Abedi brothers moved.\n\nBoth drugs trials fell under the same operational codename, which was a spin-off from the terrorism investigation.\n\nThe Abedis had stored explosives in a Nissan Micra purchased specifically to store the lethal material, which they parked outside a flat associated with a friend called Elyas Elmehdi while the brothers were in Libya.\n\nOn his arrival back in the UK on 18 May 2017, days before the attack, Salman Abedi went straight to the Micra in the car park of Devell House in Rusholme.\n\nWhen officers raided the property a week after the bombing, they found that a separate vehicle close to the Micra had been used by Elmehdi and others to store drugs.\n\nSalman Abedi pulling a suitcase full of explosive material away from Devell House on 19 May 2017\n\nThe BBC previously revealed that Elmehdi fled to Libya, despite remaining a suspect in the arena investigation, and was convicted and sentenced in his absence for his role in a conspiracy to supply cocaine and other drugs.\n\nMohammed Sadigh, convicted in the second drugs prosecution, had actually been arrested with Elmehdi five days before the arena attack while they were visiting the convicted terrorist Abdalraouf Abdallah in prison on Merseyside.\n\nThey had been attempting to pass over a bag containing tablets to the prisoner.\n\nElmehdi and another Sadigh brother had earlier accompanied Salman Abedi on a prison visit to Abdallah, who himself became a suspect in the bombing investigation due to his links to Abedi.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "\"Any good work that was done has been undone,\" says Aled Hughes\n\nA father fears his mentally ill daughter could kill herself while isolating after catching Covid.\n\nAled Hughes' daughter Catherine, 18, tested positive on 4 January, but negative on days six and seven of her confinement.\n\nHe said Catherine, a patient at Wrexham Maelor Hospital's Heddfan unit, was told to quarantine until January 20.\n\nWales and UK guidance advises 14-day isolation for hospital patients, a week longer than for the general population.\n\nMr Hughes, who previously lost a son with mental health problems, wants that changed.\n\nHe said: \"The other day she phoned her mother up to ask if she could help her kill herself.\n\n\"She was doing quite well, but now that has all been undone with the extended quarantine.\"\n\nHe could not understand why the quarantine period for staff was just seven days, but double that for patients.\n\n\"It's just not doing her any good whatsoever,\" Mr Hughes said. \"Any good work that was done has been undone.\"\n\nCatherine Hughes has mental health problems and must isolate for 14 days, in line with rules for hospital patients\n\nMr Hughes, from Prestatyn, Denbighshire, said it was more than a week since his daughter tested positive.\n\n\"They still insist on locking her in her room, essentially, with five-minute breaks every now and then for a cigarette,\" he said.\n\nMr Hughes said his daughter was missing being with other patients.\n\nShe was admitted to the Heddfan unit last autumn and appeared to be making good progress.\n\nMr Hughes praised the \"excellent\" staff for doing all they could but called for a policy change.\n\nCatherine has consented to being identified by the BBC.\n\nMr Hughes said his daughter coped with the initial isolation, but the quarantine extension was making her \"worse and worse.\"\n\n\"I've already lost one child and I don't want to lose another one,\" Mr Hughes said.\n\nThe 18-year-old is a patient in Wrexham Maelor Hospital's Heddfan unit\n\nHe was unaware of any scientific reason why patients need isolate for longer.\n\n\"She's in the safest place she can be, but she has managed to self-harm and cut herself even in a secure unit,\" he said.\n\nVale of Clwyd Member of the Senedd (MS) Gareth Davies called for a review of the situation.\n\nHe has written to Betsi Cadwaladr health board chief executive Jo Whitehead, describing the extended period as \"overzealous and disproportionate\" for patients such as Catherine.\n\nThe health board said it was following its own infection prevention and control guidance, which it said was in line with Welsh government rules.\n\nThe board's mental health services head, Teresa Owen, said: \"We understand this can be a difficult time for patients and their families.\n\n\"We will liaise with them directly to provide as much support as possible, while also ensuring any arrangements continue to protect other patients, visitors and staff at our sites from infection.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said the 14-day period was kept under review.\n\nA spokesman said: \"Our guidance on self-isolation for people in hospital with Covid-19 is different to that in the wider population because of the increased vulnerability of people in hospitals.\"", "President Joe Biden's hopes of overhauling the US election system look doomed after two of his fellow Democrats came out against them.\n\nMr Biden has been arguing for the hugely controversial step of scrapping a key Senate norm to pass the bills.\n\nBut Senator Kyrsten Sinema said she refused to worsen the \"disease of division infecting our country\".\n\nAt the Capitol to arm-twist lawmakers, Mr Biden conceded he was \"not sure\" his plans would work.\n\nHe wants to repeal the filibuster, which requires a 60% majority to pass certain legislation in the Senate. The upper chamber of Congress is currently split 50-50 between the two parties.\n\nNo Republicans support the two Democratic-proposed plans, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Among other things, the bills would impose federal standards on elections, ushering in the most sweeping reform in a generation.\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Biden went to Congress in a last-ditch effort to persuade lawmakers to remove the filibuster so he could get the legislation passed.\n\nBut emerging from a meeting that lasted over an hour, he conceded that opposition from two key Democratic lawmakers had blocked his agenda.\n\n\"The honest to God answer is I don't know whether we can get this done,\" Mr Biden said.\n\n\"As long as I'm in the White House, as long as I'm engaged at all, I'm going to be fighting,\" he added.\n\nMs Sinema, an Arizona senator, and another Democrat, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, both said they would not support nuking the filibuster rule.\n\nSpeaking on the floor of the Senate, Ms Sinema said: \"We must address the disease itself, the disease of division, to protect our democracy.\"\n\nIn a statement later on Thursday reiterating his position, Mr Manchin quoted Mr Biden's late friend, the former Senator Robert Byrd, who once warned against any attempt to scrap the filibuster.\n\n\"We must never, ever, ever, ever tear down the only wall, the necessary fence, that this nation has against the excesses of the executive branch and the resultant haste and tyranny of the majority,\" Mr Byrd said.\n\nThe crushing blow to Mr Biden's legislative agenda came on the day that the Supreme Court outlawed his national vaccine mandate, which was central to his coronavirus pandemic strategy.\n\nDemocrats have argued the voting bills are needed to counter recent voting laws enacted in state legislatures controlled by Republicans, who maintain that election security needs to be boosted.\n\nBut Mr Biden's incendiary rhetoric - likening Republican measures such as requiring ID to vote to the 1960s Civil Rights era when police billy clubs, fire hoses and dogs were used against black protesters - was described as \"a little too far\" by one of the president's own allies, Senator Dick Durbin, on Wednesday.\n\nDuring his presidency, Donald Trump urged the Senate to remove the filibuster to secure funding for his proposed southern border wall.\n\nWhile top Republican Mitch McConnell had removed the 60-vote threshold for confirming top judicial nominees, he refused to take the so-called nuclear option and eliminate it altogether for legislation.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nThe government should limit public funding for cricket unless there is \"continuous, demonstrable progress\" on eradicating \"deep-seated racism\", a parliamentary report has recommended.\n\nAzeem Rafiq gave emotional testimony last year to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee about racism he experienced at Yorkshire.\n\nThe committee's report was published on Friday, with chair Julian Knight MP describing Rafiq's story as \"typical of an endemic problem across the whole of cricket\".\n\nYorkshire have been widely criticised for their handling of Rafiq's allegations.\n\nFormer chairman Roger Hutton and chief executive Mark Arthur have resigned and 16 members of staff have been sacked.\n\nThe committee said changes made by Lord Patel, who replaced Hutton in November, were a positive step but they alone \"could not eradicate racism\".\n\n\"This is a watershed for cricket,\" Knight said.\n\n\"Those who love and support the game are part of the solution and must play their part.\"\n\nRafiq welcomed the report, adding that it also made clear the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) responsibilities in tackling racism in the sport.\n\nHe said: \"The committee has listened and taken sensible action. It is absolutely brilliant that Julian Knight and his colleagues on the committee are going to hold the ECB to account.\n\n\"This shows just how seriously politicians are taking an issue that too many people in cricket ignored for so long. The committee understands how important it is to clean up the game.\n\n\"I'm glad that MPs will monitor any progress, so that the reforms needed to make the sport inclusive to all youngsters can happen soon.\"\n• None Listen to Around the Wicket - Yorkshire's Asian Cricket\n• None Yorkshire cricket racism scandal - how we got here\n\nResponding to the report on Friday, ECB chief executive Tom Harrison said he welcomed the \"scrutiny\"- and that he was \"very confident\" cricket would be able to \"demonstrate massive progress in this space\".\n\nHarrison agreed that a link between showing change and government funding was \"right and proper\".\n\n\"I'm very confident that in the not-so-distant future we can become an exemplar of the kind of behaviours that promote social integration and understanding,\" Harrison told BBC Sport.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC on Friday, Rafiq said Yorkshire should not be given Test cricket back \"indefinitely\" and should be \"kept under review for a good four or five years at least\".\n\nHe said: \"There's two times the game's acted [on racism]. One is when their pockets have been hit or they've been embarrassed. So it's really important that we keep an eye on what's happening.\"\n\nRafiq described the start of his campaign for change as \"just a broken man speaking about his experiences\" and said: \"I just woke up and I just tried to keep fighting because I knew that if I didn't carry on doing that people forget it very quickly.\n\n\"I think there needs to now be a little bit of a shift into love and compassion. And if people are willing to change, then we need to support them.\"\n\nWhat does the report say?\n\nRafiq told the select committee in November that English cricket is \"institutionally racist\" and racist language was \"constantly\" used during his time as a player at Yorkshire.\n\nKnight said the MPs had been \"shocked\" by language used in correspondence they had received following the hearing.\n\nThe report also made reference to stories in the media run to \"discredit\" Rafiq.\n\n\"It further established that eradicating racism from the game will be a long and difficult road,\" the report said.\n\n\"It does not matter if a whistleblower is of perfect moral character but whether the issue raised is valid.\n\n\"It is evident to us that there is a deep-seated issue of racism in cricket.\"\n\nKnight again praised Rafiq's courage in speaking out about racism.\n\nMPs also heard from Hutton and representatives from the ECB, including chief executive Tom Harrison, during November's session.\n\nHarrison said English cricket was nearing an emergency over its failure to address racism, with the governing body subsequently publishing a five-point plan to tackle the issue.\n\n\"Public funding for cricket must depend on real leadership and progress by the ECB to tackle abhorrent behaviour,\" Knight said.\n\n\"The government must make future funding conditional on the game cleaning up its act.\n\n\"We put the ECB on notice that we expect regular updates delivered to this committee on progress being made.\"\n\nMPs recommended the ECB develop a set of \"key indicators\" to measure progress and then report back to the committee.\n\nThey will also invite Yorkshire and the ECB to give evidence on their progress early in 2022.\n\nKnight told BBC sports editor Dan Roan that the long-term viability of the ECB itself could be questioned if they did not tackle racism.\n\n\"Any grants from Sport England or any form of governmental grant should be dependent upon the ECB showing that it has not just established these targets but is actively looking to achieve them,\" he added.\n\n\"If that also doesn't happen, we could potentially look at an option down the line of establishing an independent regulator.\n\n\"This is a key test of whether or not that should still remain the case.\"\n\nWhat has been the reaction?\n\nResponding to the report, Lord Patel called Rafiq's testimony \"a watershed moment for the sport as a whole\" and added that Yorkshire were \"committed to ensuring that no-one endures the unacceptable experience that he did\".\n\nA DCMS spokesperson added: \"We thank the select committee for its report into the disgraceful treatment of Azeem Rafiq by Yorkshire County Cricket Club and racism in the sport.\n\n\"We will now consider the report's recommendations and take further action if necessary.\"\n\nBarry O'Brien, interim ECB chair, said: \"We welcome the committee's recommendations and we also embrace the ongoing scrutiny of the committee. We are determined to root out racism - and other forms of discrimination - from our sport.\n\n\"We had already taken important steps to make cricket more inclusive in recent years. We are deeply sorry for the pain people have suffered and recognise the courage it has taken to speak out. We are determined to make cricket a stronger, more welcoming sport.\"\n\nTim Hollingsworth, chief executive of Sport England, said: \"The DCMS select committee's report highlights the powerful need for the ECB, the counties, and other cricketing stakeholders to reform and take action to end structural racism in the sport.\n\n\"Sport England's funding is explicitly linked to the development and implementation of robust diversity and inclusion policies and plans. We have made that clear to the ECB, who have responded positively and constructively.\n\n\"Azeem Rafiq's powerful and personal testimony to the committee shows us that ultimately, the litmus test of progress will be the lived experiences of diverse communities and their involvement in the game. Until experiences like Azeem's are eradicated, the work to defeat racism in sport must continue.\"\n\nHow did we get here?\n\nOff-spinner Rafiq, who had two stints at Yorkshire between 2008 and 2018, initially went public with his experiences in September 2020.\n\nYorkshire launched a formal investigation the same month and received the findings in August 2021.\n\nHowever, the club did not release the report, despite being asked to by the ECB. They instead released a statemen admitting Rafiq was \"the victim of inappropriate behaviour\" - something he said was downplaying racism - and offered him their \"profound apologies\".\n\nFollowing further criticism, Yorkshire received a summary of the findings, which said seven of Rafiq's 43 allegations had been upheld.\n\nThey concluded no-one at Yorkshire would face disciplinary action but the club were heavily criticised by pundits and MPs, with a number of sponsors withdrawing from their deals.\n\nRafiq and other individuals were then asked to speak to the DCMS committee in November.\n\nWhat are Yorkshire doing to change?\n\nPatel has made a number of changes since taking over at Yorkshire, including setting up a whistleblowing hotline - which Knight said had received around 50 complaints - reviewing procedures and policies at the club and settling an employment tribunal with Rafiq.\n\nIn December, 16 members of staff, including director of cricket Martyn Moxon and first-team coach Andrew Gale, were sacked.\n\nFormer Yorkshire and England pace bowler Darren Gough has since been appointed director of cricket until the end of the 2022 season, while former England bowlers Ryan Sidebottom and Steve Harmison have joined the coaching staff on an interim basis.\n\nHowever, the club are still banned from hosting England matches by the ECB.\n\nPatel told BBC Sport on Wednesday he was confident the ban on hosting England matches would be lifted, while Rafiq has also said Yorkshire \"deserve\" to have games at Headingley.\n\n\"In the last two months, Yorkshire have made significant progress in our efforts to rebuild, and I am heartened that the committee considers that there is room for optimism in what we have achieved,\" Patel said in a statement on Friday.\n\n\"We share that optimism and have made some real improvements, but we are only at the start of this long and important journey.\n\n\"Azeem Rafiq's testimony was a watershed moment for the sport as a whole, and we are committed to ensuring that no-one endures the unacceptable experience that he did.\"", "One of the duke's military appointments was Colonel of the Grenadier Guards\n\nThe Duke of York's military titles and royal patronages have been returned to the Queen, Buckingham Palace has said.\n\nPrince Andrew, 61, will also stop using the style His Royal Highness in an official capacity, a royal source said.\n\nIt comes as he faces a US civil action over sexual assault allegations - claims he has consistently denied.\n\nA source close to the duke said he would \"continue to defend himself\" against the case brought in New York by Virginia Giuffre.\n\nBut the source insisted a judge's ruling on Wednesday that the civil action could proceed was \"not a judgement on the merits of Ms Giuffre's allegations\".\n\nBuckingham Palace said in a statement: \"With the Queen's approval and agreement, the Duke of York's military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to the Queen.\n\n\"The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen.\"\n\nAll Prince Andrew's roles have been returned to the Queen with immediate effect, and will be redistributed to other members of the Royal Family, a source said.\n\nThe issue had been widely discussed with the Royal Family, the source said.\n\nLike Harry and Meghan, Prince Andrew retains his title HRH but will not use it in any official capacity.\n\nAll of Prince Andrew's roles have been immediately returned to his mother, the Queen\n\nA spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said it had no comment about the duke's military titles being handed back to the Queen, and that it was a matter for the Palace.\n\nOn Thursday, a letter - released by anti-monarchy pressure group Republic - was signed by more than 150 Royal Navy, RAF and Army veterans asking the Queen to strip Prince Andrew of his eight British military titles.\n\nLt Stuart Hunt, who served in The 1st Royal Tank Regiment and signed the letter, welcomed the prince losing his military titles but suggested the matter should have been resolved sooner.\n\nThe 52-year-old told the PA News Agency: \"It's an unsavoury business... I'm just glad he's not associated with the military now.\n\n\"Whether he's guilty or not, he has brought things into disrepute... He's not fit to serve in an honorary rank. He has forgone that right by getting into this sort of situation.\"\n\nThe response from Buckingham Palace has been swift and almost brutal.\n\nThe Royal Family is being firmly distanced from the toxic fall-out from the allegations against Prince Andrew.\n\nHe will have to defend himself against Virginia Giuffre as a private citizen, there will be no more His Royal Highness in this court case.\n\nThis is claimed to have been by mutual agreement, a stepping back rather than something imposed.\n\nBut the military titles and royal roles will go to other members of the family, which means they won't be coming back to Prince Andrew whatever the outcome.\n\nThe door is being closed on a return to public life.\n\nAlthough he does seem to be keeping his constitutional role as \"counsellor of state\", one of four royals who can undertake the Queen's official duties, should she be unwell.\n\nThe court case will still make headlines, and there will be concerns it could cloud a jubilee year, but this unambiguous decision will have already answered the inevitable calls for his removal from his remaining public roles.\n\nPrince Andrew has strongly denied any wrongdoing - and his representatives say that fighting the case is a \"marathon and not a sprint\".\n\nAlthough this must feel like a huge and rapid retreat.\n\nThe duke had a 22-year career in the Royal Navy, and served as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War.\n\nThe latest Palace announcement means he has lost military titles including Colonel of the Grenadier Guards - one of the most senior infantry regiments in the British army.\n\nThe other UK military titles he no longer has include:\n\nThe duke will also lose several overseas honorary roles including colonel-in-chief of The Royal Highland Fusiliers Of Canada, colonel-in-chief of the Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment, colonel-in-chief of the Princess Louise Fusiliers of Canada and colonel-in-chief of the Queen's York Rangers (1st American Regiment).\n\nBut he will retain his service rank of Vice-Admiral, the Palace has confirmed.\n\nAs an ex-member of the armed forces, he was promoted in line with his still-serving peers and made Vice-Admiral by the Navy on his 55th birthday in 2015.\n\nThe duke was due to be promoted to Admiral on his 60th birthday in 2020, but asked to defer this after stepping back from public duties in 2019.\n\nAt the time, the Palace said his other military appointments had been suspended.\n\nSeveral other charities and organisations had cut their ties with the duke, but he continued to hold dozens of royal patronages - including being a patron or member of prestigious golf clubs, schools and cultural trusts.\n\nThe chair of the Commons Defence Select Committee, Tobias Ellwood, welcomed the returning of the Duke of York's military titles and royal patronages.\n\nHe told the BBC's Newscast podcast that the duke's change in status ahead of the US civil case was \"necessary\" to protect the reputation of the military.\n\n\"Prince Andrew already had stepped back from many of his public duties - I think all of them, as well - so I think this was anticipated, indeed it was expected, from this perspective, so I'm actually not surprised.\n\n\"It's important that the problems that Prince Andrew has incurred aren't bled over into the regiments that he was representing,\" Mr Ellwood said.\n\nPrince Andrew is seen leaving his Windsor home for the first time since a US judge ruled he should face the civil charges brought against him by Virginia Giuffre.\n\nEarlier, Ms Giuffre's lawyer David Boies said a money settlement alone will not be enough for his client - telling the BBC she wants to be vindicated.\n\nThe prince's lawyers had argued her case should be dismissed, citing a 2009 deal she signed with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nBut in a 46-page decision, Judge Lewis A Kaplan dismissed Prince Andrew's contention that the case against him was \"legally insufficient\" and could not go on to be heard at a future trial.\n\nMs Giuffre, now 38, filed a civil case in New York in August 2021 under the state's Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of childhood sexual abuse to pursue a case which otherwise would have been barred because too much time had passed.\n\nIn court documents filed as part of her civil case against Prince Andrew, Ms Giuffre said she was the victim of sex trafficking and abuse by the late billionaire financier, Epstein.\n\nShe alleged that part of her abuse involved being loaned out to other powerful men.\n\nMs Giuffre claims the late billionaire financier trafficked her to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17.\n\nMs Giuffre claims Epstein trafficked her to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17.\n\nShe alleges the duke abused her on three occasions - both in the UK and the US - when she was a minor under US law.\n\nIn an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, the Queen's second son said that he had no recollection of ever meeting Ms Giuffre, and her account of them having sex in the US and UK \"didn't happen\".\n\nThe duke withdrew from public life shortly after the interview, which he used to repeat his denials of Ms Giuffre's claims and explain his one-time friendship with Epstein and the late financier's girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nLast month, Ms Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting and trafficking underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.\n• None What do charities get from having a royal patron?", "It is 150 years since the death of Greyfriars Bobby, the dog whose story of devotion has become known across the world.\n\nHis loyalty to his \"master\" John Gray has been immortalised in books, films and the famous statue which has long been a popular tourist attraction in Edinburgh.\n\nBut he is not the only dog to have inspired a statue. Here, we tell the stories of Bobby and some of the other canines who have been commemorated across the world.\n\nGreyfriars Bobby was the faithful dog of John Gray, also known as Auld Jock, in Edinburgh. When Gray died and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Bobby sat by the grave every day and guarded it for the remaining 14 years of his life. The Skye Terrier was buried nearby.\n\nBobby's devotion captured hearts in Edinburgh, and he was commemorated with a statue in 1873 - a year after his death - near the entrance to the graveyard. The story has been brought to the world's attention through a 1912 book by Eleanor Atkinson and a 1961 Disney movie starring Donald Crisp, as well as a more recent movie in 2005.\n\nTourists from around the world stop to pose and have their picture taken with Bobby in front of a pub of the same name. Many touch the dog's nose for good luck, but that rubbing has left Bobby's face with a golden hue throughout the years. The local council has, on occasion, restored the statue.\n\nA statue of Franklin D Roosevelt and his dog Fala at the president’s memorial in Washington DC\n\nFala is perhaps the most famous White House dog of all. He was the trusty companion of President Franklin D Roosevelt, and was pictured with FDR on many engagements.\n\nOne of the most famous chapters of Fala's life involved a presidential trip to the Aleutian Islands in 1944. FDR was accused by his political opponents of leaving his Scottish Terrier behind on an island by mistake, and then sending a US ship back to pick him up - to the extortionate expense of the American taxpayer.\n\nThe story was political mischief-making from the president's Republican adversaries, and FDR made light of it in what became known as the 'Fala speech'. The president, during a televised campaign event, said he didn't mind personal attacks on himself, but joked Fala was furious and FDR wanted to object to the \"libellous statements about my dog\" . The quip went down well.\n\nCourtesy of the town of Gander Sergeant Gander is fondly remembered by veterans and many others in Canada\n\nSergeant Gander was a Newfoundland dog who became the mascot of The Royal Rifles of Canada during the Second World War. When they were fighting the Japanese in Hong Kong in 1941, Gander was alongside them.\n\nGander was noted to have protected Canadian soldiers during the fighting on two occasions, but the third time it cost the dog his life. Sergeant Gander picked up a grenade that was thrown at the Canadian troops and ran away with it, saving the lives of the soldiers while sacrificing himself.\n\nGander was posthumously awarded the Dickin medal - the equivalent of the Victoria Cross for animals - in 2000, and has been commemorated with a statue at the Gander Heritage Memorial Park in Newfoundland and Labrador.\n\nBobbie even starred as himself in a 1924 film\n\nThe story of Bobbie the Wonder Dog could be straight out of a Hollywood movie. It begins when Bobbie was with his family on a road trip in Indiana in 1923. When he was attacked by other dogs, Bobbie ran away and his heartbroken family could not find him.\n\nEventually, they returned to their home in Silverton, Oregon - more than 2,500 miles (4,023km) away - resigned to the fact they would never see their companion again. Six months later, a scrawny, mangy Bobbie with his toenails worn down, somehow turned up in Silverton to the astonishment of all. It looked like he had walked the whole way home.\n\nUnsurprisingly, the story became a sensation. Numerous articles were written, medals were bestowed and Bobbie even starred as himself in the 1924 silent film The Call of the West. He died in 1927 and is remembered with a statue in Silverton. Anyone else off to watch Homeward Bound?\n\nThe statue of Hachiko is a well-known landmark in the Japanese capital\n\nLike Greyfriars Bobby, the story of Hachiko is a famous tale about the devotion of a dog to its human. In the early 1920s Hachiko was the Akita dog of Professor Ueno, a university academic in Tokyo. Hachiko would accompany his master to Shibuya station every morning as the professor travelled to work, and then return in the afternoon to greet him back home.\n\nThe professor died in 1925 while at work. For about the next 10 years, until his own death, Hachiko travelled to the station daily in the hope of seeing the professor again. The dog was commemorated with a statue at the railway station, and another memorial - depicting a reunion between the long-lost companions - was unveiled at the University of Tokyo in 2015.\n\nThe story inspired films including the 1987 Japanese movie Hachiko Monogatari (also known as Hachi-ko), and the 2009 Hollywood take Hachi: A Dog's Tale, starring Richard Gere.\n\nThis photograph from 1925 shows Gunnar Kaasen and Balto at the unveiling of the Balto statue\n\nThe statue of sled dog Balto has stood in New York's Central Park since 1925, and has been a very popular attraction for families ever since.\n\nThe Siberian husky, with musher Gunnar Kaasen, is famous for leading a team of sled dogs on the final part of an epic 674-mile (1,084km) trek. It took place across treacherous terrain in horrendous blizzards, as they delivered a serum to the isolated area of Nome, Alaska, to tackle an outbreak of diphtheria. The act is thought to have prevented the deaths of thousands of people.\n\nBalto was pictured at the unveiling of the bronze statue, as the contribution of all of the dogs was remembered on a nearby plaque. Like Greyfriars Bobby on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, parts of the Balto statue have been discoloured over the years, with countless children climbing on its back for a hug and a photograph.\n\nThe dogs stand guard outside the Cathedral of Santa Ana\n\nLos Perros de La Plaza de Santa Ana, outside Las Palmas Cathedral - also known as the Cathedral of Santa Ana - is a tourist attraction in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.\n\nIn the square are statues of dogs in various poses. What is the significance of the animals? The Canary Islands are not named after the little bird, but one theory suggests the name derives from the Latin word for dogs - canes - with Europeans reportedly encountering dogs when they first came across the islands.\n\nHowever, this idea has been dismissed as a myth by some interested in the history of the archipelago. Regardless, the dog statues are a popular addition to the square and a favourite spot for a picture.\n\nMorley’s dog was an ordinary garden ornament that became a symbol for the city of Johnstown\n\nThe Johnstown flood of 1889 was utterly devastating. The catastrophic failure of a dam in Pennsylvania caused the deaths of 2,209 people and resulted in widespread damage to Johnstown.\n\nOne remnant of this awful event, still remembered today by people in the local area, is the statue of Morley's Dog. It was just an ordinary Victorian-era garden statue belonging to a man named James Morley, which was swept away in the flood. But after the traumatic event, it was recovered and eventually became a beloved Johnstown landmark in the local park - one symbol of a community that had rebuilt.\n\nWhile Morley wasn't based on a real dog, it also represents local tales of a dog who did help rescue people during the flood. After a restoration, the statue is now situated inside the Johnstown Heritage Discovery Centre.\n\nFido became very famous in Italy after the Second World War after his story was reported in newspapers and magazines\n\nLike Greyfriars Bobby and Hachiko, the tales of devoted dogs are remembered around the world - including Shep in the USA and Waghya in India. This one comes from Italy during the Second World War.\n\nFido's story starts in 1941, when a labourer called Carlo Soriani found a street dog injured in a ditch at the side of the road in Borgo San Lorenzo, near Florence. Soriani took the dog home to care for it, and called him Fido - the Latin word for trusty.\n\nFido accompanied his master to a bus stop as Soriani made his way to and from his work. At the end of 1943, Soriani was killed during an Allied bombardment. For the next 14 years, until his own death, Fido would go to the bus stop in the hope of being reunited. He became a local celebrity and was remembered with this statue.\n\nMany people in Wales know the legend of Gelert\n\nWe end our list with a tragic Welsh tale - the story of Gelert. According to the legend, and it may just be that, Llywelyn the Great - the medieval Welsh prince - went hunting one day.\n\nThe prince returned to find his baby missing and his faithful dog Gelert covered in blood. In a fury, the prince plunged his sword into the dog, thinking Gelert had killed the child. But, according to the gravestone on Gelert's Grave, \"the dog's dying yell was answered by a child's cry\".\n\nThe missing child was found unharmed nearby, next to the body of a wolf that Gelert had slain. The graveside transcription ends: \"The prince filled with remorse is said never to have smiled again.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson needs to \"change his ways\", says pensions minister\n\nA minister whose baby twins died during the pandemic says Boris Johnson \"needs to change his ways\", following a string of revelations about drinks parties at No 10 during lockdown.\n\nGuy Opperman said that in May 2020 - when the PM attended a garden party - he could not visit his wife and sons in hospital due to Covid rules.\n\nHis twins Rafe and Teddy died shortly afterwards.\n\nBut Mr Opperman told the BBC that Boris Johnson should stay in his post.\n\nNo 10 has urged critical MPs to wait for senior civil servant Sue Gray to finish her report into lockdown gatherings.\n\nEarlier this week Mr Johnson acknowledged that he attended a drinks gathering on 20 May 2020 but insisted he believed it was a work event.\n\nDowning Street has also apologised to Buckingham Palace after it emerged two staff parties were held at No 10 on the night before Prince Philip's funeral.\n\nMr Johnson was not at either event, but his spokesman said it was \"deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Politics North programme, Mr Opperman - pensions minister and MP for Hexham in Northumberland - said: \"I feel pretty emotional about this because in May 2020 my wife and kids were unwell and they went to hospital.\n\n\"I was not able to go there to support them.\n\n\"And I've got constituents who couldn't go to the care homes, to funerals who were obviously obeying the rules and quite clearly in No 10 at that time there were a number of people not behaving appropriately.\n\n\"I feel pretty emotional that I wasn't able to support my wife and kids.\"\n\nHe added while some of the behaviour in No 10 was clearly not acceptable, it was 18 months ago and the prime minister should continue in his position. He said Sue Gray's report would be the time to \"consider what has happened\".\n\nLabour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP are all calling for Mr Johnson to resign after he admitted attending the 20 May 2020 drinks party in the Downing Street garden during lockdown.\n\nAnd Andrew Bridgen has become the fifth Conservative MP to publicly declare they have written to the chairman of the 1922 Committee - which organises Tory leadership contests - to say they have no confidence in the prime minister.\n\nFifty-four Conservative MPs have to write a letter to trigger a vote.\n\nElsewhere the former head of the government's Covid taskforce has apologised for attending a leaving drinks at the Cabinet Office on 17 December 2020 when she left the civil service.\n\nKate Josephs, who is now the chief executive of Sheffield City Council, said she was \"truly sorry\" for \"the anger that people will feel\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jurassic Park premiered at Carmarthen's Lyric as part of Liz Evans's fight to save the theatre\n\nA film about a hairdresser who helped bring Hollywood to west Wales to save a local theatre is hitting cinemas.\n\nLiz Evans, played by Samantha Morton, led a campaign that convinced Steven Spielberg to stage a premiere of blockbuster Jurassic Park in Carmarthen's Lyric theatre in 1993.\n\nSave the Cinema's stars also include Sir Jonathan Pryce and Rhod Gilbert.\n\nLiz's real-life son, tenor and Go Compare star Wynne Evans, plays himself and found reliving that time emotional.\n\nHe said he was about 13 years old when his mother took on the herculean fight to save the Lyric from demolition to make way for a shopping centre.\n\nJurassic Park was one of the blockbuster films of the 1990s\n\n\"I've got mixed emotions about the time if I'm honest... she just moved into the theatre,\" Evans said.\n\nHe said his mother lived by the maxim \"do it now and apologise later\".\n\n\"If I wanted to see my parents I'd have to go to the theatre, and so it was very difficult to have to share your mother and your father with an entire town... it was quite a difficult time if I'm honest.\n\n\"I lost out on having a constant mum and dad there to help me with my school work or to take interest in things that I would do outside of the youth opera or outside of the theatre.\"\n\nLiz Evans' son, the tenor Wynne Evans, is more accustomed to playing his alter-ego Gio Compario in the Go Compare adverts\n\nEvans, who also presents a show for BBC Radio Wales, said revisiting his childhood had been \"very emotional and changed my opinion of my parents hugely\".\n\nHe remembers his mother as a strong and driven women with an gift of getting people in authority round to her way of thinking.\n\n\"I've never seen anybody walk into a council meeting and manage to turn the room around like my mother could... they just couldn't say no to her.\"\n\nThe real Liz Evans speaking to BBC Wales Today in 1991\n\nEvans has not yet seen the finished film, but is looking forward to seeing his mother portrayed on the big screen.\n\n\"If you showed a realistic version of my mother it wouldn't be a PG, that's for sure,\" he joked.\n\nFor Oscar-nominated British actress Samantha Morton, the role of Liz was irresistible\n\nSamantha Morton was able to learn about Liz Evans through documentary footage and speaking to those who knew her\n\n\"I just wanted to be part of it,\" she said.\n\n\"Liz was incredibly inspiring to young people, and she had their backs.\n\n\"No matter who you were, once you were in the youth opera, you were in. And she was a tough teacher as well, which I quite like, in that she treated everybody the same.\"\n\nLiz died in 2004, but Morton was able to watch her in documentaries and speak to people who knew her.\n\n\"Everybody had a Liz story,\" she said.\n\nShe also had help perfecting Liz's accent.\n\n\"I had documentary footage of her talking, but I also had a wonderful voice coach who really helped me with the Carmarthen accent,\" she said.\n\n\"Even for the younger people from Carmarthen, the accent is quite different to what it was in the early nineties, so I was well supported in navigating how to play her.\"\n\nMorton also wanted to take on the role because of the film's wider message about the importance of local independent theatres and cinemas.\n\n\"The arts have taken such a crushing blow, both with Brexit and with the pandemic, that I feel that this film is very poignant, and quite on-point really, in reminding people what's important in life,\" she said.\n\nSir Jonathan Pryce also stars in the film\n\nFlintshire-born Hollywood star and fellow Oscar nominee Sir Jonathan Pryce plays Mr Morgan, a retired school master and projectionist, who joins the fight to save the cinema.\n\n\"I'm from north Wales and it's always very nice to go back home in a way, even though it's down to south Wales, which isn't quite as good as north Wales but there you go, you can't have everything,\" he joked.\n\n\"I hope people take from it the sense of the enjoyment of seeing a community again because we're very broken up, pandemic or no pandemic.\n\n\"Seeing people coming together with a common aim with a sense of humour and sense of joy, with a song in your heart kind of stuff.\"\n\nDirector Sara Sugarman says the film's cast and crew \"fell in love with west Wales\"\n\nDirector Sara Sugarman, who was born in Rhyl, Denbighshire, said she was immediately taken by the warmth of the story.\n\n\"I love old-fashioned, feel good films and I'm not going to apologise, not at my age now,\" she said.\n\n\"I don't want to be cool, I want to sing unsung songs about local heroes, that's what I do, and Liz was this.\n\n\"Despite my funky hair I'm actually quite conventional.\"\n\nShe said despite the challenges of making a film during the pandemic, being on location in Carmarthenshire, including Carmarthen, Ammanford, Laugharne and Llandeilo, had been a joy.\n\nThe film will be shown at the Lyric from Friday\n\n\"Everybody fell in love with west Wales to be honest, we had a great time,\" she said.\n\n\"The Welsh people are an amazing talent, I'm really, really proud to be Welsh, we've just got so much to give.\n\n\"If you go up the club at the end of the road in the valleys, everybody's up on the stage with voices that could be in the West End.\n\n\"When I come to Wales my heart sings.\"\n\nRhod Gilbert also stars in the film\n\nCovid restrictions meant the crew had to take PCR tests every third day and they could have a maximum of 20 supporting artists, which made making the Lyric look full with 300 people a challenge.\n\n\"We had 20 [people] and a few dummies, it did have its challenges but we had a great team and we made it work.\"\n\nShe said she wanted to see more stories from Wales being told in cinema.\n\n\"We need to keep pushing forward and telling Welsh stories that people can connect to all over the world,\" she said.\n\n\"I made [the film] with hiraeth in my heart and I'm very privileged to be telling Liz's story.\n\n\"That woman is one in a million. I expect in Wales there's quite a few like that.\"\n\nCarmarthenshire council said the film had boosted the local economy by about £750,000 and more economic benefit was expected in the coming months.\n\nDecades on from Liz Evans' fight the Lyric is still going strong\n\nCarmarthenshire council leader Emlyn Dole said hosting the production had been a delight.\n\n\"Attracting national and international productions such as this has a major impact on the growth of our economy and ensures that our communities reap the benefits,\" he said.\n\nThe film will be shown on Sky Cinema and at various cinemas in Wales and the rest of the UK, including The Lyric, from 14 January.\n\nMr Dole added: \"To screen it in the place where it was filmed is just the icing on the cake.\"", "There are \"very positive signs\" that Wales is \"coming to the peak\" and \"possibly turning the corner\" on the coronavirus wave, a minister has said.\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan spoke ahead of Friday's announcement of the latest review of Covid restrictions.\n\n\"It would be a huge, huge relief\" if Wales was reaching that stage, she said.\n\nWales' rules were last tightened on 26 December, meaning no more than 50 people can attend a sporting event.\n\nThe rules have forced many teams to play behind closed doors.\n\nSocial distancing restrictions are also in place in businesses and a rule of six applies in hospitality venues such as pubs and restaurants.\n\nWelsh Tory Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies called for the rule of six and sport restrictions to be scrapped.\n\nHe said it was \"time to move forward as we learn to live with the virus\".\n\nPlaid Cymru called for a \"roadmap\" for lifting restrictions, something Conservatives have also been calling for.\n\nIn Scotland restrictions on large outdoor events, including football matches and concerts, will be lifted from next Monday.\n\nGiving evidence to the Senedd Health and Social Care Committee on Thursday, Ms Morgan said: \"I know that in London about 10% of the population are ill with Covid and in Wales it's about 6%.\n\n\"So that's a significant difference and, obviously, we're hoping that we're coming to the peak now.\n\n\"And if we arrive at a peak of 6% and they're at 10% then, actually, there is real cause to celebrate, that is a snapshot that you can look at.\n\n\"We are clearly keeping a very close eye on the data at the moment but there are some very positive signs, I'm pleased to say, in terms of us possibly turning the corner, which would be a huge, huge relief.\"\n\nHer comments contrast with those of First Minister Mark Drakeford two days ago, when he said modelling suggested rates getting worse over the next week.\n\nHe indicated that ministers could ease restrictions in a week's time, but cautioned that it was a \"big if\" whether Wales would be in a position for that to happen.\n\nEluned Morgan said she is hoping Wales is coming to a peak in the latest wave of Covid\n\nThe Wales case rate has fallen to the lowest level since 27 December - 1,492.4 per 100,000 people over seven days.\n\nWhile that includes a change in policy where people who are not showing symptoms but test positive on lateral flow devices no longer need PCR tests, cases were falling three days before that happened.\n\nThe number of people with Covid in critical care beds stands at 20% of the number at this point last year.\n\nOn 12 January 2021 there were 150 patients with the virus in critical care. On Wednesday that figure stood at 30.\n\nThere is a daily average of 850 patients with confirmed Covid in hospital beds - a 36% rise on the week.\n\nBut that is 54% of the figure seen at this point in 2021.\n\nNeath Port Talbot has the highest case rate of Welsh counties, with 1,893 cases per 100,000, while the positivity rate has fallen to 44.6% - the lowest since 27 December 2021, with Anglesey having the highest rate at 48.3%.\n\nAll age groups are showing a decline in cases, especially those younger age groups which were driving the spike over the Christmas period.\n\nAll but four local council areas in Wales also showing a drop in case rates among the under 25s.\n\nAndrew RT Davies urged Labour ministers to \"scrap their economically cruel and clinically unnecessary rules on businesses so they can recover from the restrictions they imposed on Wales in recent weeks, whilst increasing compensation for those firms hit\".\n\n\"The nonsensical and bizarre rules on watching and participating in sports must be scrapped, given the negative effects on physical and mental health, let alone their perverse consequences, which is evident in pushing people indoors to watch games instead.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru's spokesman for health and care, Rhun ap Iorwerth, called for ministers to explain how restrictions will could be lifted in the days or weeks ahead.\n\n\"Realistically, we know when we are past that peak that we're likely to be seeing things getting better better, and hopefully quickly,\" he told BBC Radio Wales\n\n\"So, whilst not everything can be done at the same time, I think it could be realistic to expect a roadmap - if you want to use that term - of what might happen when over the next few days, [or] maybe a couple of weeks.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Andrew RT Davies This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMeanwhile, Welsh ministers said they have no plans to cut the self-isolation period for people who test positive for Covid-19, something Welsh Conservatives are also asking for.\n\nIn England, the self-isolation period is being cut from seven to five full days.\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"We will be guided by the evidence and look forward to seeing the clinical evidence that has informed this decision.\"\n\nFrom Monday, people in England will be able to leave isolation after negative lateral flow tests on days five and six.", "At the end of the day, the Australian government gave in.\n\nFacing the weight of the other side's legal evidence, and an increasingly incredulous tone from the judge, the government's lawyers didn't bother proceeding with their rebuttal.\n\nNovak Djokovic is unvaccinated and he may have breached Australia's border laws, but Australia's Federal Circuit Court on Monday did not make a ruling on that.\n\nInstead, it set him free on the basis that immigration officials had done the wrong thing when making the decision to cancel his visa.\n\nThey withheld from him one of the basic tenets of law afforded to anyone who is accused - a right of reply.\n\nTo understand how Djokovic's case succeeded, we have to first recount the details of the tennis player's experience, in the dead of night at Melbourne Airport last Wednesday.\n\nThe tennis star spent more than eight hours in immigration holding after 25 hours flying.\n\nAfter landing just before midnight, he was informed of a visa issue but was not told what it was. Around 04:00 local time, he was told by an Australian Border Force official that they intended to revoke his visa.\n\nDjokovic was shocked, as he believed he'd been fully cleared by authorities to enter the country on a medical exemption.\n\nHe was on his own, and asked to postpone the interview until 08:30 so he could contact his lawyers and tennis authorities when they woke up.\n\nHe repeatedly requested this so he could get more clarity on the case.\n\n\"I don't know really what to do at 4am,\" he told the officer. \"If you allow me to switch on my phone and make a call to my agent and try and get a hold of people from Tennis Australia...\"\n\nAt 05:00, an official agreed to Djokovic's request upon consulting supervisors. But less than an hour after he was left alone, Djokovic was woken up from his sleep by three officers.\n\nAt 06:00 they told him it would be easier for him to get the interview over and done with, and that there was little point in waiting for his lawyers' response.\n\nDjokovic said again he wanted to wait until 08:30, but the officials pressured him into the interview.\n\nIn his affidavit, Djokovic told the court he felt he had no choice and so he relented. \"I know you're going to cancel my visa, it's obvious,\" he told the officials according to the transcript.\n\nShortly after the assessment, at about 07.40, his visa was cancelled and he was taken into detention.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Crowds chanting \"free Novak\" surround a black car leaving the offices of the player's lawyer\n\nDjokovic's lawyers argued a range of legal errors- seven different grounds in fact including invalid exercise of power. But ultimately they won on the common law principles of \"procedural fairness\" and \"legal unreasonableness\".\n\nThese protections aim to ensure an individual is treated properly when undergoing assessment by a public official.\n\nThey can be used in any number of everyday situations: for example, someone challenging their tax claim or fighting back against a council's rezoning plans.\n\nBut in this case, it was about the processes an immigration official takes in deciding to cancel a visa for a tennis star. Did they give Djokovic enough time to process what was happening, to given them a complete response?\n\nHis lawyers argued he had been denied this.\n\n\"It was abundantly clear that Djokovic wanted more time until at least 08:30 to speak with his lawyers, to speak with Tennis Australia, to see what was going on and what was in his interests,\" his lawyer Nick Wood told the court on Monday.\n\nBut he was told \"spurious\" claims from immigration officials urging him to do the interview earlier than promised. Several pages of the transcript show the officials pressuring him. Mr Wood said this was \"manifestly unjust\".\n\nJudge Anthony Kelly plainly agreed. He described Djokovic several times as \"incommunicado\", without his phone and access to help.\n\nThe judge was visibly frustrated with Djokovic's treatment during the hearing on Monday.\n\n\"A person sitting in the shoes of [Mr Djokovic] is not going to care about the hundreds of provisions in the Migration Act. He just says 'tell me what's going on, I don't understand this, give me my phone back and let's try and get a real response.'\"\n\nBut Djokovic wasn't allowed that opportunity to get help.\n\n\"All of the facts and circumstances compel a conclusion, that given fair opportunity to deal with what he wanted to by 8.30, he would have. There was a responsibility on [the official] that he would have [been afforded this],\" Judge Kelly said.\n\nSupporters of Novak Djokovic protesting outside the courthouse throughout proceedings\n\nThe government's lawyers had known these grounds would be the main legal errors they would have to disprove.\n\nIn their written submissions, they said they wanted to get to the main points straight away, addressing \"procedural fairness\" and \"legal unreasonableness\" in their first few pages.\n\nThey had argued that Djokovic \"already had a long opportunity\" to explain his case to the border official. They also said that \"there is no evidence that his lawyers would or could have done anything in that intervening period\".\n\nBut in court on Monday, the lawyers saw that this was too weak a rebuttal against the standards confirmed by the judge, and the evidence of Djokovic's team. They could see that the immigration official had done the wrong thing.\n\nShortly after the court resumed on Monday afternoon, the government's counsel asked for an adjournment.\n\nThey returned 40 minutes later with a concession.\n\nJudge Kelly read out the order which said that the Australian government: \"concedes that [their representative's] decision to proceed with interview and decide to cancel visa… was unreasonable in [the] circumstances\".\n\nThe legal error meant the visa order would be quashed. As such, Novak Djokovic was ruled free to enter Australia.", "The Covid restrictions in place across Scotland are helping to reduce the spread of the Omicron variant, a government adviser has said.\n\nAn update on the current restrictions will be given by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at Holyrood on Tuesday.\n\nBut national clinical director Prof Jason Leitch says measures such as the closure of nightclubs are making a difference.\n\nThe Scottish government has faced criticism that the rules are too tough.\n\nThe latest Scottish government Covid report shows average daily cases in Scotland (2,824 per one million population in the week to 6 January) was higher than in England (2,615 per one million) which has fewer Covid restrictions.\n\nBut Prof Leitch points out that Scotland's rates are well below Wales and Northern Ireland, adding that it is the \"worrying\" increases in Covid hospitalisations which should be the focus.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme, he said the restrictions regime in place \"is protecting people\" despite the scale of infection rates.\n\nHe added: \"Should we still be protecting the public from these case rates if they are just going to go anyway?\n\n\"I think yes is the answer to that. I think the protections reduce the size of the wave and they also potentially elongate the wave to allow you to get more people vaccinated and spread the hospitalisations and intensive care cases out over a longer period.\n\n\"That's got to be good. Now that is not always good if you own a pub or a nursery and people are having to self-isolate, so it's a real balance in there between the number of cases, the numbers off work but I still think it is the right thing to do to try and reduce that case rate.\"\n\nThe hospitality trade has been required to introduce a raft of changes as part of the latest Covid restrictions which are in force until 17 January\n\nProf Leitch also revealed ministers will begin giving out separate figures for positive Covid cases caught on both lateral flow and PCR tests.\n\nThis follows changes announced last week which mean people who have no symptoms but record a positive lateral flow test result will no longer have to go for a PCR test.\n\nPeter Duthie, chief executive of the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow, told BBC Scotland his business has lost about £2m in revenue as a result of the latest restrictions with events such as the Irn Bru Carnival, which would have attracted 150,000 people in the post-Christmas period, curtailed.\n\nHe said: \"It's been a hugely challenging couple of years for the industry and just when a degree of fragile confidence was returning before Christmas we were then hit by this further lockdown.\n\n\"Events matter to people - whether it's sporting events, concerts, live exhibitions - they all play a big part in people's lives.\n\n\"We understand it's a challenging situation, what we're looking for is as much clarity as we can get on the circumstances in which we can reopen.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Edinburgh University, told Good Morning Scotland that the balance in managing harms throughout the pandemic had not been right.\n\nHe said: \"I'm concerned why a lot of the evidence - such as the complete lack of necessity to keep us indoors because this virus does not transmit outdoors - was there from very early on and yet somehow, through the scientific advisory systems and the politicians, this didn't get translated into public health action.\n\n\"As a result we all spent a lot of time having our activities curtailed for very little effect and far too long in my view.\"\n• None State of the Epidemic in Scotland – 7 January 2022 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "\"I rang up the county council and I said I think I've found a dinosaur,\" explained Joe Davis, who works at Rutland Water Nature Reserve.\n\nDuring landscaping work at the reserve's reservoir in February 2021, he had spotted something odd poking out of the mud.\n\nIt wasn't a dinosaur. But it was the fossilised remains of a 10m-long sea predator called an ichthyosaur.\n\nAnd it was the largest of its type ever discovered in the UK.\n\n\"I looked down at what seemed like stones or ridges in the mud and I said this looks a bit organic, a bit different,\" Mr Davis told BBC News. \"Then we saw something that looked almost like a jawbone.\"\n\nThe council said to Mr Davis: \"We don't have a dinosaur department at Rutland County Council so we're going to have to get someone to call you back.\" A team of palaeontologists were brought in for a closer look.\n\nThey concluded it was an ichthyosaur - a type of warm-blooded, air-breathing sea predator not unlike dolphins. They could grow up to 25 metres long and lived between 250 million and 90 million years ago.\n\nDr Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist from Manchester University, was brought in to lead the excavation effort. He called the discovery \"truly unprecedented\" and - due to its size and completeness - \"one of the greatest finds in British palaeontological history\".\n\n\"Usually we think of ichthyosaurs and other marine reptiles being discovered along the Jurassic coast in Dorset or the Yorkshire coast, where many of them are exposed by the erosion of the cliffs. Here at an inland location is very unusual.\"\n\nRutland is more than thirty miles from the coast, but 200 million years ago higher sea levels meant it was covered by a shallow ocean.\n\nWhen water levels at the Rutland reservoir were lowered again in the late summer of 2021, a team of palaeontologists came in to excavate the remains. Special attention was paid to the removal of the huge skull.\n\nA large block of clay containing the ichthyosaur's head was carefully dug out before being covered in plaster and placed on wooden splints.\n\nThe block, weighing almost a tonne, was raised out of the mud and will now be examined further.\n\n\"It's not often you are responsible for safely lifting a very important but very fragile fossil weighing that much,\" said Nigel Larkin, palaeontological conservator and Visiting Research Fellow at Reading University. \"It is a responsibility, but I love a challenge.\"\n\nAnglian Water, which manages the Rutland reservoir, is now looking for funding to enable the ichthyosaur to stay in the area and be enjoyed by the general public.\n\n\"A lot of people thought I was pulling their leg when I told them I'd found a large marine reptile at work,\" Mr Davis said. \"I think a lot of people won't believe it until the TV programme goes out.\"\n\nThat TV programme is on Tuesday 11 January at 8pm on BBC Two. \"Digging for Britain\" will then be available on the BBC iPlayer.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nManchester United booked an FA Cup fourth-round meeting with Middlesbrough as Scott McTominay's eighth-minute header proved enough to beat Aston Villa at Old Trafford.\n\nMcTominay was allowed to run unchallenged to the edge of the Villa six-yard box, where he met Fred's perfectly weighted cross to steer the ball past Emiliano Martinez.\n\nThe goal condemned Villa boss Steven Gerrard to an unhappy return to Manchester, where he was baited by the home supporters because of his allegiance to Liverpool.\n\nHowever, the result was incredibly harsh on Gerrard and his team.\n\nTwice in a matter of minutes early in the second period they had the ball in the United net, only for both to be ruled out.\n\nThe second was a straightforward offside goal against Danny Ings, albeit the flag was not raised until after Ollie Watkins had put the ball in the net.\n\nHowever, the first was far more debatable and involved a lengthy wait for the video assistant referee to ask Michael Oliver to make the final decision by consulting the screen, the referee eventually ruling Jacob Ramsey was offside and impeded Edinson Cavani in the build-up.\n• None Why did VAR rule out Aston Villa goal?\n• None Relive the action at Old Trafford\n• None Go straight to all the best United content\n\nVilla's recent record in this competition has been awful. Their last victory was a third-round replay against Wycombe in 2016, meaning by next year's competition, they will have gone seven seasons without winning a match in it.\n\nThey could easily have avoided that sorry statistic given their part in a breathless all top-flight encounter, which was full of attacking invention and defensive errors.\n\nJohn McGinn and Emiliano Buendia both tested David de Gea. Watkins beat the United goalkeeper but not the crossbar before Ramsey's goal-bound shot was deflected narrowly wide by the legs of McTominay.\n\nThe Watkins effort came courtesy of a woeful first touch from Victor Lindelof, who was partnering Raphael Varane in the absence through injury of Harry Maguire and Phil Jones.\n\nLindelof's attempt to control a high ball facing his own goal only resulted in the Swede propelling it towards his own goal. De Gea did not come for it, leaving the United defender in a shoving match with Watkins which the striker won.\n\nInstead of steering the ball into the far corner, Watkins lifted it past De Gea and on to the bar.\n\nVilla will be aggrieved at Ings' apparent equaliser being disallowed given the time it took to reach a decision, as fans of both sides became increasingly irritated because they had no idea what was going on.\n\nUnited interim boss Ralf Rangnick has spoken repeatedly about his side's need to start controlling matches.\n\nBut this latest effort did not give any indication they know how to do it.\n\nRepeatedly, the hosts gave away possession under little pressure to the extent it was Villa who had the majority of it.\n\nMarcus Rashford had a particularly grim night, blasting his best chance straight at Martinez from an acute angle and failing to follow up on a Mason Greenwood shot that bobbled towards him as the Villa keeper failed to hold. By the time he was replaced by Jesse Lingard four minutes from time, the England man looked a thoroughly dispirited figure.\n\nHe has now gone 11 games without a goal and has not found the net since scoring in the 3-0 win at Tottenham on 30 October.\n\n\"He's trying hard and done well in training in the last couple of days,\" said Rangnick. \"For strikers, it is important to score goals. It would be good for Marcus to score but as long as he's trying and training well I don't see a problem.\"\n\nThis was also an evening when those who feel Cristiano Ronaldo is at the root of United's problems were given food for thought.\n\nRonaldo was missing with what Rangnick described as \"minor problems\" but the spark and fluidity United have been missing in recent times did not reappear.\n• None Attempt missed. Anwar El Ghazi (Aston Villa) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Ollie Watkins with a headed pass.\n• None Attempt saved. Mason Greenwood (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jesse Lingard.\n• None Attempt missed. Danny Ings (Aston Villa) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Matt Targett with a cross.\n• None Offside, Manchester United. Luke Shaw tries a through ball, but Marcus Rashford is caught offside.\n• None Attempt saved. Mason Greenwood (Manchester United) left footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Bruno Fernandes.\n• None Attempt saved. Mason Greenwood (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Bruno Fernandes.\n• None Attempt missed. Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.\n• None Diogo Dalot (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment Durst is sentenced to life in prison for murder\n\nMillionaire convicted murderer Robert Durst has died in prison at the age of 78, according to his lawyer.\n\nDurst died as a California prisoner after being convicted in September of killing his friend Susan Berman.\n\nHe murdered her to stop her talking to police about his wife's disappearance. Police believe he killed two others.\n\nThe US real estate heir turned fugitive unwittingly confessed in an HBO crime documentary series about himself.\n\nDurst's lawyer, Chip Lewis, confirmed that he died at the San Joaquin General Hospital while in the custody of the California Department of Corrections.\n\nHe said that his death was due to \"natural causes\" and that he had been suffering from numerous medical issues.\n\nDurst was sentenced to life in prison in October for the 2000 killing of Berman, who was his long-time confidante and spokeswoman.\n\nHis trial had been delayed for more than a year due to the Covid pandemic. Two days after his sentencing he was admitted to hospital with Covid and placed on a ventilator, according to his trial lawyer.\n\nDurst - whose family have owned a series of New York City skyscrapers, including an investment in the World Trade Center - was investigated after a recording of him confessing was used in the 2015 HBO documentary series The Jinx.\n\n\"What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course,\" he was recorded saying to himself in an apparent hot mic moment.\n\nProsecutors say that he also murdered his neighbour, Morris Black, while living as a fugitive in Texas nine months after killing Berman.\n\nDurst claimed to have shot him accidentally, before going on to dismember his body and dump the parts in Galveston Bay.\n\nAfter a 45-day manhunt, he was arrested for shoplifting a chicken sandwich from a grocery store in Pennsylvania, only a few miles from where he attended university. He was found with thousands of dollars in cash in his rental car, as well as cannabis and Black's driving licence.\n\nHe claimed self-defence at his 2003 trial, and was acquitted after arguing that he fled because he thought his story would not be believed.\n\nDurst is also suspected in the 1982 death of his wife Kathie Durst, whose body has never been found. She was legally declared dead in 2017.\n\nHe was formally indicted for her murder in November by the Westchester Country District Attorney's office in New York.\n\n\"After 40 years spent seeking justice for her death, I know how upsetting this news must be for Kathleen Durst's family,\" District Attorney Miriam Rocah said in a statement on Monday.\n\n\"We had hoped to allow them the opportunity to see Mr Durst finally face charges for Kathleen's murder because we know that all families never stop wanting closure, justice and accountability.\"\n\nThe office added that more information on the Kathie Durst case would be released to the public in the coming days.", "One of Britain's largest energy suppliers has apologised after it advised customers they could cuddle pets and eat porridge to stay warm.\n\nOvo Energy said it was \"embarrassed\" after a link to a blog \"containing energy-saving tips\" was sent to its SSE Energy Services customers.\n\nThe company said it had removed the blog so it could \"update it\" with \"more meaningful information for customers\".\n\nIt comes after concerns over the cost of living amid rising energy bills.\n\nOvo Energy acquired SSE Energy Services in 2020 but the brands are still separate.\n\nIn a statement to the BBC, Ovo Energy said it recognised the content of the blog was \"poorly judged and unhelpful\".\n\n\"We are embarrassed and sincerely apologise,\" the supplier added.\n\n\"We understand how difficult the situation will be for many of our customers this year.\"\n\nOn a now-deleted SSE webpage, which offered tips on \"keeping warm in winter without turning up the heating\", SSE suggested \"10 simple and cost-effective ways\" to stay warm and keep bills down.\n\nThe advice included wearing extra layers and to keep moving by \"cleaning the house, challenging the kids to a hula-hoop contest, or doing a few star jumps\".\n\nAlongside stopping draughts, SSE said people could find \"extra heat\" by leaving your oven open after you've finished cooking and by having \"a cuddle with your pets and loved ones to help stay cosy\".\n\nSpeaking to the Financial Times which first reported the story, Darren Jones, chair of the Commons business select committee, called the advice \"insensitive\".\n\n\"Being told to put on a jumper instead of turning on your heating if you can't afford it, at a time of such difficulty for so many families, is plainly offensive,\" the Labour MP told the newspaper.\n\nIn a tweet following Ovo Energy's apology, Mr Jones said: \"Good, I'm glad they apologised. I'm not sure who signed off a marketing campaign telling people to wear a jumper and eat porridge instead of turning on the heating if you can't afford it.\"\n\nHousehold and businesses have seen their energy bills rise in recent months as energy suppliers pass on a sharp rise in wholesale gas prices.\n\nIncreased oil and gas demand in Asia, a rapid recovery of some economies after lockdown, and a summer with little wind to generate alternative power, have all contributed to rising energy costs.\n\nAnother problem is that much of the UK's housing stock is ageing and very poor at retaining heat, leaving residents particularly exposed to jumps in gas prices.\n\nOn Monday, the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group called on the government to prioritise energy saving through home improvements, saying better insulation could save UK households more than £500 a year on energy bills.\n\nTrade body Energy UK has predicted bills will surge by up to 50% in April, when the change to the price cap, due to be determined in February, kicks in. It said the average household could end up paying about £700 more per year.\n\nThat along with UK inflation at a 10-year high and expected to increase further has prompted warnings of a cost-of-living \"crisis\".", "Novak Djokovic often has to cup his ear to encourage a crowd to cheer for him.\n\nHe has won a record-equalling 20 men's Grand Slam titles and is a world number one with jaw-dropping athleticism - but he is also one of his sport's most polarising figures.\n\nThe 34-year-old Serb is waiting for his latest controversy to play out after having his visa revoked in Melbourne when he arrived to defend his Australian Open title.\n\nAfter Djokovic spent the weekend in a government detention hotel, the judge hearing his challenge dramatically overturned the decision, but Immigration Minister Alex Hawke could still cancel his visa.\n\nWhether or not that happens, the events of the past week have made him an even more divisive player.\n\nJust how has a boy who sheltered during the Nato bombing of Belgrade in 1999 become a player who has struggled to warm the hearts of so many?\n• None The Sports Desk podcast: Djokovic's latest Australian victory - from courtroom to practice cour\n\n'You cannot make people love you'\n\nWhen Djokovic faced Roger Federer in the 2019 Wimbledon final, an epic encounter was marred by booing of the Serb.\n\nHis misses were clapped and he was jeered in a partisan atmosphere more likely found at football stadiums than on Centre Court.\n\nDjokovic saved match points and went on to win a classic final, with pundits urging fans to show more respect to a great player.\n\nIt is hard to know exactly why they did not - yes, the hugely popular Federer has a fanbase like no other, but Djokovic is also one of the sport's greats.\n\n\"You cannot make people love you and that's been the situation a little bit,\" his former coach Boris Becker told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast.\n\n\"He's a fine young sportsman with the right attitude and the right character, he just has a different view on life. He has a different view how he eats, how he drinks, how he sleeps. That's where you can't criticise him. Maybe that's the reason he's so successful, but he's not for everybody - I get it.\"\n\nDoes his way of celebrating wind people up? He does an extravagant gesture to the four corners of the court in gratitude - does that grate when you have been booing?\n\nOr is it past on-court behaviour? He has repeatedly been accused by players of exaggerating injuries, including at last year's Australian Open when Taylor Fritz said the Serb would have retired from their match if his abdomen problem was \"really, really bad\".\n\nBack in 2008, Andy Roddick poked fun at Djokovic by suggesting that among the many ailments bothering the Serb at the US Open might be bird flu, anthrax and SARS.\n\nOr is it his flashes of anger on court? The most infamous of those ended with a default from the 2020 US Open when he accidentally hit a ball at a line judge.\n\nHis rants at umpires and ball kids over the years have also contrasted with the calmer demeanours of his nearest rivals Federer and Nadal, and the word \"arrogant\" is never far from the lips of his critics.\n\nIt may be a mixture of all of it, but it is also worth considering what has happened off the court too.\n\nDjokovic drew much criticism early in the pandemic when he was among several players who tested positive for Covid-19 at his Adria Tour event, where players did not have to social distance and were seen hugging at the net.\n\nWhile lockdown rules in Croatia had relaxed at this point, there was still no vaccine. Britain's Dan Evans said it was \"a poor example to set\" and Australian Nick Kyrgios described it as a \"bone-headed decision\" to play.\n\nDjokovic later apologised, saying it had been \"too soon\" to hold the event but that the move had been driven by \"a pure heart\" and \"good intentions\".\n\nHe again provoked frustration a year ago when he asked Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley to relax quarantine rules, including suggestions such as reducing isolation periods and having players in quarantine moved to private houses with tennis courts.\n\nAgain, Djokovic pointed to \"good intentions\" and said his letter had been \"misconstrued as being selfish, difficult and ungrateful\".\n\nA spiritual and passionate Serb who wants to be liked\n\nGood intentions are the principle behind his Novak Djokovic Foundation, which builds pre-schools and supports teacher training in Serbia to give \"children from impoverished areas the chance to learn and play in a safe, creative and nurturing environment\", and is inspired by his war-torn childhood.\n\nHis country is at the heart of his motivation, having put playing for his national team alongside Grand Slams as his most important sporting aims, and he also loves handing out racquets to young fans in the crowd.\n\nDjokovic fans - and you only need to be at a Serbia Davis Cup tie to know there are a lot of them and they are very vocal - celebrate the fact he has achieved huge success in an era where two other greats have also been playing - Federer and Nadal.\n\nA highly spiritual person who practises yoga and meditation and follows a plant-based diet, Djokovic once put a revival in form down to a five-day mountain trek with his wife that resulted in back-to-back Grand Slam titles.\n\nNicknamed 'The Joker' early in his career when he used to do humorous impersonations of his fellow players, he is also desperate to be liked.\n\nDjokovic has never had the level of support enjoyed by Swiss great Federer and Spain's Nadal, especially at Grand Slams, and particularly at the US Open where it has sometimes been hostile.\n\nWhile he has often brushed off the boos, he could not hide the tears at last year's US Open final when he said that even though he had lost the match he was \"the happiest man alive\" because of the love he felt from the crowd.\n\nSerbian journalist Sasa Ozmo told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast there had been \"unfair treatment\" of Djokovic over the years, and that he \"often made mistakes that gave ammo to the criticism\".\n\n\"But sometimes the things he has done that are very positive just don't get mentioned often enough,\" he said.\n\nWhat love he may have gained in New York has evaporated in Australia, when many locals were infuriated that Djokovic, who has said he is opposed to vaccination against Covid-19, had been granted medical exemption by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia and Victoria state.\n\nAustralians have had to endure some of the world's strictest restrictions - many still cannot travel between states or internationally - and viewed the situation as him being given special treatment.\n\nDjokovic was held in Melbourne Airport for several hours before border officials announced he had not met entry rules relating to the exemption, and his Australian Open participation remains out of his hands.\n\nThe 'will he, won't he be in Australia' debate had dominated pre-season and while many have questioned his opposition to vaccination, the way in which he announced that he was on his way has been seen arguably as damaging.\n\nPosting on social media to say he had been granted a medical exemption without giving the reasons has left fans, locals, politicians and fellow players wanting answers.\n\nIf he can bid for a record-extending 10th Australian Open and record 21st men's Grand Slam title, he will most likely be booed by home fans who have dubbed him 'Novax', and cheered by those who waved signs of support outside the hotel where he was held.\n\nAnd if he can't, he is still likely to be cupping that ear again at his next event.\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n• None Watch the trailer for an epic final series now\n• None Was it the season to go sober? Find out why many opted for no or low alcohol this festive period", "Barry Bennell appeared via video-link at the High Court trial in November\n\nEight men who sued Manchester City after saying they were abused by paedophile Barry Bennell more than 30 years ago have lost a High Court fight.\n\nThe men said he abused them when they played for teams he coached in north-west England between 1979 and 1985.\n\nMr Justice Johnson ruled that it had not been shown that City was \"legally responsible for Bennell's acts of abuse\".\n\nThe lawyer who represented the men said they were \"shocked and dismayed\".\n\nThe men, now in their 40s and 50s, claimed Bennell was a scout for City when they were abused and argued the relationship between the paedophile and the Premier League club was \"one of employment or one akin to employment\".\n\nCity denied the claims and told the court the 68-year-old was a local scout in the mid-1970s but not when the men were abused.\n\nBennell, who is in prison after being convicted of numerous sexual offences against children in recent years, denied being linked to City in the 1980s when he gave evidence during the High Court trial.\n\nHe told the judge he had been a \"local scout\" for City between 1975 and 1979, but not between 1979 and 1985.\n\nBut he told the court he had \"always used and exploited\" his previous connections with City for his \"own benefit\".\n\nThe men claimed Barry Bennell was a scout for Manchester City when he abused them\n\nMr Justice Johnson said Bennell was a \"manipulative liar\" and not a credible witness, and that each of the claimants had proved they were abused by him.\n\nThe judge, who made the ruling at the High Court on Monday, said it was due to the men's \"selfless bravery\" that Bennell was in prison.\n\n\"If it were not for their courage, other boys may have been at risk of suffering in the same way,\" he said.\n\n\"They have saved those boys from that fate. It has come at great personal cost.\"\n\nBut the judge ruled that the claims were brought too late to result in a fair trial.\n\nHe said while each of the men had a \"good explanation\" for the delay, the evidence was less clear than it would have been had the claims been brought in time - in part because a key witness died in 2010.\n\n\"It is not fair, after all these years, to reach a binding determination on MCFC's responsibility for the abuse based on the partial evidence that is still available,\" he added.\n\nThe judge said the connection between the abuse and Bennell's relationship with City was \"insufficient to give rise to vicarious liability\".\n\n\"The relationship gave Bennell the opportunity to commit the abuse, but MCFC had not entrusted the welfare of the claimants to Bennell,\" he said.\n\nSolicitor David McClenaghan, who represented the men, said there would be an appeal.\n\n\"Despite the judge accepting that there was a connection between Bennell and Man City and that he was scouting for them, coaching their feeder teams and helping to organise trial games for them, the club has escaped liability on a technicality,\" he said.\n\n\"My clients are incredibly disappointed by the behaviour of Manchester City Football Club.\"\n\nBennell, who became a coach at Crewe Alexandra in 1985, is currently serving a 34-year sentence after being convicted of sexual offences against boys on five separate occasions - four in the UK and one in the US.\n\nThe trial was shown a card describing Bennell as Manchester City's 'North West Representative'\n\nA Manchester City spokeswoman said it was \"accepted by all parties that the abuse had taken place\".\n\nIn a statement after the ruling, the club said: \"Manchester City has both personally and publicly apologised without reservation for the unimaginable suffering that each survivor experienced as the result of abuse they suffered.\n\n\"The club reiterates this apology today to the survivors and to the multiple family members and friends affected by the traumatic events, the ramifications of which are felt by so many to the present day and will continue to be felt for a long time to come.\"\n\nCity said it had launched a compensation scheme in 2019 \"designed as an alternative route to civil action, which can often be lengthy, traumatic and costly\" offering payments to victims of \"non-recent child abuse\".\n\nThe spokeswoman confirmed that \"scores of survivors via multiple law firms have successfully utilised the scheme\" but the victims in the High Court trial had not used the scheme.\n\nA spokesman for the Offside Trust, an organisation set up by survivors of child sexual abuse in sport, said the ruling was \"yet another step in the search for justice and truth\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Police said the car was stopped at a time when children were leaving school\n\nA driver has been fined after they were spotted with just a \"porthole\" wiped clear in their misted-over windscreen.\n\nPolice Scotland said the car was stopped in Bonhill, in West Dunbartonshire, recently, as pupils were leaving school.\n\nThe force said the driver had not sufficiently demisted their windows \"placing children and other road-users at risk\".\n\nThe driver was given a £100 fine and three points on their licence.\n\nOfficers shared a photo of the car windscreen misted over, with just a small view hole cleared on the driver's side, as a warning to other motorists.\n\nArgyll and West Dunbartonshire Police Division said on Facebook: \"When it's cold, wet and often icy, it's important to take extra time to make sure your vehicle is safe for the journey ahead.\n\n\"Argyll and West Dunbartonshire Police Division Road Policing Officers stopped this vehicle in Bonhill as the schools were coming out.\n\n\"The driver had not sufficiently demisted their windows placing children and other road-users at risk.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Fire is a \"horrific, painful moment\" for New York, says Mayor Eric Adams\n\nAt least 19 people, including nine children, have died after a fire in a New York apartment building.\n\nAnother 32 people were sent to hospital, several of whom are in a critical condition, according to New York Mayor Eric Adams.\n\nFire department Commissioner Daniel Nigro said they had found victims on every floor of the 19-storey block, saying the smoke was \"unprecedented\".\n\nHe told NBC News the death toll was the worst seen in New York for 30 years.\n\nIt comes days after an apartment fire in Philadelphia killed 12, with eight children among the dead.\n\nSunday's fire broke out in an apartment that spans the second and third floors of the Bronx apartment block at about 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT), officials said.\n\nSome 200 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze, which officials believe was sparked by a malfunctioning electric heater.\n\nCommissioner Nigro said there were two floors of fire, but the smoke had spread everywhere.\n\nThe local fire chief said the blaze was \"unprecedented\"\n\nVictims were found on every floor of the building\n\nThe door to the apartment where the fire started was left open, and smoke then spread to every floor, Commissioner Nigro told reporters.\n\n\"Members found victims on every floor in stairwells and were taking them out in cardiac and respiratory arrest,\" he said.\n\nIn a virtual news conference on Monday, Andrew Ansbro, the president of the firefighters' union, said the building was \"well-known in that area, for having difficult fires\", noting that its fire protection rules with regard to sprinklers and self-closing doors may have been different from those of the city.\n\nHe claimed it was because the building had previously received federal subsidies and therefore was not required to follow the same fire codes.\n\nMr Ansbro also said that Covid-19 had affected the staffing levels of first responders.\n\nGeorge King, who lives nearby, told AFP news agency people were waving from the windows as the flames took hold.\n\n\"I saw the smoke, a lot of people were panicking,\" he said. \"You could see that no-one wanted to jump from the building.\"\n\nDozens of people have been injured\n\nA total of 63 people suffered injuries, including the 32 taken to hospital. Thirteen are in a critical condition, Stefan Ringel, a senior adviser to the mayor, told AP news agency.\n\n\"The impact of this fire is going to bring a level of pain and despair to our city,\" Mr Adams told reporters. \"The numbers are horrific.\"\n\nHe told CNN on Monday that the incident was \"a wake-up call for all our buildings\" to ensure complaints are heard and protective measures are working.\n\nNew York Governor Kathy Hochul called Sunday's events \"a night of tragedy\", and pledged to create a victims' compensation fund to support survivors.\n\n\"There will be money to find new housing, burial costs and whatever we need because that's what we do here in New York,\" Ms Hochul said.\n\nThe area of the Bronx where the fire occurred is home to a large Muslim immigrant population and many of those affected by the blaze are believed to have originally come to the US from the Gambia.\n\nMr Adams urged anyone impacted by the fire to seek assistance from the authorities, irrespective of immigration status. He assured residents that their details would not be passed on to immigration services.\n\nSpeaking alongside Mr Adams, New York Senator Chuck Schumer pledged to provide immigration support to allow families to come together to grieve.\n\nThe building hosts a number of affordable housing apartments and the blaze is likely to raise questions over the quality of such units in the city.\n\nRepresentative Ritchie Torres, a Democratic lawmaker whose district includes the building, told the US network MSNBC that developments such as the building where the fire hit pose safety risks to residents.\n\n\"When we allow our affordable housing developments to be plagued by decades of disinvestment, we are putting lives at risk,\" Mr Torres said.\n\nDid you witness the incident? Is there any information that you'd like to share? Contact us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Around 1,000 cars stranded after travelling to see heavy snow in Murree\n\nA tourist trapped in her car for hours by unprecedented snowfall in Pakistan has described how she \"saw death\" in front of her as she waited for help.\n\nSamina was in one of thousands who rushed to view the winter snowfall in the hilltop town of Murree.\n\nBut a blizzard on Friday had felled trees and blocked roads in and out of the town just north of the capital.\n\nAround 1,000 vehicles became stranded, and at least 22 people died, including two large families.\n\nSamina told the BBC she had left her home at 16:00 local time to travel to Murree, but soon found herself among those trapped in the snow. Pictures and videos posted on social media showed stranded cars bumper to bumper, with snow piled on their roofs.\n\n\"I could see death in front of me,\" Samina said. \"It was like there were snow peaks built around our car... I can't explain in words what I was going through.\n\n\"We were praying God may help us and we shouldn't be perished in a snowstorm.\"\n\nAccording to Tariq Ullah, an official in the nearby town of Nathiagali, the blizzard dumped up to 1.5m (5ft) of snow within just a few hours.\n\n\"It was unprecedented,\" he told AFP news agency. \"There were strong winds, uprooted trees, avalanches. People around were terrified.\"\n\nSamina was finally rescued at 10:00 the next morning, spending the night in one of the shelters set up in the resort town, which sits at 2,300 metres (7,500 feet) above sea level.\n\nBut among those who died were 10 children, emergency services said, as well as two families of five and eight.\n\nAuthorities said eight people froze to death, while asphyxiation after inhaling fumes while trying to keep warm in their vehicles has been given as a possible reason for the others.\n\nQuestions are now being asked about how this was allowed to happen.\n\nVehicles became trapped on narrow roads near the hilltop town of Murree on Friday morning\n\n\"We didn't get any type of alert from society, from the government, from Google, from the news, from the weather,\" Duaa Kashif Ali, a tourist from Islamabad, told AFP.\n\nShe and 13 other family members and friends abandoned their cars and walked about a mile (1.5km) to a guesthouse where they found shelter.\n\nAccording to the BBC's Farhat Javed - who is in Murree - there is space for about 5,000 cars in the town. However on Friday, 100,000 visitors had been allowed to enter, causing a massive traffic jam as they struggled through the deep snow.\n\nVehicles were abandoned on the roads, and emergency workers - who were first made aware of the problem on Friday morning - told the BBC their own response was slowed by the traffic jams.\n\nThe Punjab provincial government said there would be a full investigation into whether there was a failure to act on severe weather warnings.\n\n\"A high-level inquiry will be launched and if there is any kind of negligence, then action will be taken against all those involved,\" spokesman Hasaan Khawar said.\n\nBut this will not happen before the roads to Murree - which was built by the British in the 19th Century as a medical base for its colonial troops - are cleared.", "A Ukrainian soldier stationed at the country's border with Russia. Moscow has deployed thousands of troops to its side of the border\n\nRussia has told the US that it has no intention of invading Ukraine, after officials from both countries met for high-stakes talks in Geneva.\n\nAfter a meeting that lasted for seven hours on Monday, both sides agreed to continue efforts to reduce tensions.\n\nBut there was no sign of a major breakthrough following the talks.\n\nAround 100,000 Russian troops are believed to be near the border with Ukraine, prompting fears of an incursion and warnings from the West.\n\nThe US has said there would be sanctions if Russia were to attack Ukraine.\n\nRussia, meanwhile, has warned the US not to \"underestimate the risks\" involved in Moscow's confrontation with the West.\n\n\"We explained to our colleagues that we have no plans, no intentions to attack Ukraine,\" Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters following the meeting.\n\nHe said the Russians had told their US counterparts \"that all measures for the combat training of troops and forces are carried out within our territory\" and that there was \"no reason to fear any escalation scenario in this regard\".\n\nUS Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman described the talks as \"frank and forthright\" discussions designed to encourage a better understanding of each side's security concerns.\n\nThis was the first chance Russian and American diplomats had to discuss face to face the standoff over Ukraine, and Russia's demands for Nato to step back from eastern Europe.\n\nAnd while little agreement appears to have been reached, both sides aired their concerns and set out their demands with at least the possibility of talks continuing in the future.\n\nYet the gap between both sides remains large. The US urged Russia to de-escalate the situation and remove its troops from Ukraine's border but it received no assurance that would happen.\n\nRussia demanded that Nato should give a cast-iron guarantee it would never offer membership to Ukraine. The US rejected this outright. The US offered some ideas for both countries to limit military exercises and missile deployments but there was no sense this would be enough for Russia.\n\nOptimists will point to the fact the talks were business-like, they did not break up in acrimony and Russia insisted it had no intention of invading Ukraine. Pessimists will note that even after such assurances, US officials said they were still not sure if Russia was serious about finding a diplomatic solution to this crisis.\n\nMs Sherman said the US had pushed back on Russian proposals that were \"non-starters\" for the US government, including Russia's demand that Nato commit to never include Ukraine in the alliance.\n\n\"We will not allow anyone to slam closed Nato's open-door policy, which has always been central to the Nato alliance,\" she said.\n\nAccording to Ms Sherman, the US delegation told the Russians that any invasion would be met with \"significant cost and consequences well beyond what they faced in 2014\" when Russia annexed the peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine.\n\nThese measures could include sanctions against key financial institutions, export controls, \"enhancements of Nato force posture on allied territory\" and increased security assistance to Ukraine, she added.\n\nMr Ryabkov said the talks had been \"business-like and professional\" but warned the US not to \"underestimate the risks\" of the tensions.\n\nThe Geneva talks are the first of several meetings between US, allied and Russian officials this week, which will also include a meeting at Nato headquarters in Brussels and at the permanent council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which includes Russia.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMonday's meeting, however, took place without the participation of US European allies, including Ukraine, prompting reassurances from Ms Sherman and other US officials that Ukraine, Europe and Nato would be included in any decisions.\n\nEarlier on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Fontelles said he believed a Russian invasion was still possible. \"There are 100,000 Russian troops on the other side of the border,\" he said. \"I suppose they haven't gone there to drink coffee!\"\n\nMr Borrell added that he'd been told nothing would be agreed without the EU's \"strong co-operation, co-ordination and participation\".\n\nRussia has repeatedly denied it has any plans to launch a military operation in Ukraine. Last month, the Russian government published a series of demands including a commitment that Ukraine will never join Nato.", "At least 17 people, including eight children, have died after a fire in an apartment building in the Bronx.\n\nCity Mayor Eric Adams called it a \"horrific, painful moment\" for New York.\n\nThis video was updated on 10 January, to reflect that city officials had revised the number of people killed in the fire downwards, from 19 to 17.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nNovak Djokovic says he is focused on playing in the Australian Open next week after winning a court battle that overturned his visa cancellation.\n\nThe 34-year-old Serb said he practised on court in Melbourne within hours of leaving an immigration detention hotel.\n\nBut Australia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.\n\n\"Despite all that has happened, I want to stay and try to compete in the Australian Open,\" Djokovic tweeted.\n\nThe statement continued: \"I remain focused on that. I flew here to play at one of the most important events we have in front of the amazing fans.\"\n• None The Sports Desk podcast: Djokovic's latest Australian victory - from courtroom to practice cour\n\nDjokovic also posted a photo of himself and his team - including coach Goran Ivanisevic - on court at the Rod Laver Arena, where he has won a record nine men's singles titles.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January and if Djokovic wins, he will become the most successful men's player in history.\n\nThe world number one is tied with Switzerland's Roger Federer and Spain's Rafael Nadal on 20 Grand Slam singles titles.\n\nDjokovic posted his message on Twitter at the same time his family - parents Srdjan and Dijana, along with younger brother Djordje - were holding a news conference in Serbian capital Belgrade.\n\nDijana Djokovic said overturning the decision to revoke his visa was the \"biggest victory\" of her son's career.\n\nShe also claimed he had been \"subject to torture and harassment\" while staying in an immigration hotel where refugees and asylum seekers have long complained of poor conditions.\n\nThe family was \"pleased that justice has prevailed\", said Djordje Djokovic.\n\n\"Novak is out there to set another record. He is an athlete and the best tennis player in the world of all times,\" he added.\n\n\"Novak has always advocated freedom of choice, nothing more.\"\n\nJudge Anthony Kelly ordered Djokovic's release after the government acknowledged in court that he was not given enough time to respond following the notification to cancel his visa.\n\nYet it is still not guaranteed he will be able to step on to the court next week, when he is set to start the defence of his title.\n\nImmigration minister Alex Hawke is still considering revoking Djokovic's visa. The MP is able to act using broad discretionary powers granted him by Australia's Migration Act.\n\nA spokesman for Mr Hawke said the decision was an \"ongoing process\". An announcement is expected to be made on Tuesday.\n\nSpain's Rafa Nadal, who is tied on 20 majors with Djokovic and Switzerland's Roger Federer, called the build-up to the tournament a \"circus\".\n\n\"Justice has spoken and has said that he has the right to participate in the Australian Open and I think it is the fairest decision,\" Nadal told the Spanish radio station Onda Cero.\n\n'Djokovic is not able to relax yet' - analysis\n\nThat late night practice session at Melbourne Park must have been one of the most exhilarating of Novak Djokovic's career.\n\nHaving won an unexpected victory in an altogether different court earlier in the day - with the judge expressing sympathy for him throughout - his hopes of a 10th Australian Open title are still alive.\n\nAustralian Border Force suggested Djokovic brought little evidence into the country to support his medical exemption. Judge Kelly saw it completely differently, asking \"what else could he possibly have done?\"\n\nBut the world number one is not able to relax just yet, as the Australian immigration minister is expected to decide on Tuesday whether to use his personal power to cancel the visa for a second time.\n\nAnd in the days ahead Djokovic will also need to justify why he posed for photographs with children at a prize-giving the day after his December positive PCR test was confirmed.\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n• None Huge dance tunes and motivational messages for a new year workout\n• None A new education programme to teach the devastating impacts of compulsive gambling", "The past seven years have been the hottest on record, according to new data from the EU's satellite system.\n\nThe Copernicus Climate Change Service said 2021 was the fifth-warmest year, with record-breaking heat in some regions.\n\nAnd the amount of warming gases in our atmosphere continued to increase.\n\nGovernments are committed to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C to curb climate change. But scientists warn that time is fast running out.\n\nThe environmental, human and economic costs of hotter temperatures are already being seen globally.\n\nEurope lived through its warmest summer, and temperature records in western US and Canada were broken by several degrees. Extreme wildfires in July and August burnt almost entire towns to the ground and killed hundreds.\n\n\"These events are a stark reminder of the need to change our ways, take decisive and effective steps toward a sustainable society and work towards reducing net carbon emissions,\" Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, explains.\n\nThe Copernicus data comes from a constellation of Sentinel satellites that monitor the Earth from orbit, as well as measurements taken at ground level.\n\nCopernicus data showed that 2021 was the fifth-hottest on record, marginally warmer than 2015 and 2018. Taken together, the past seven years were the hottest seven years on record by a clear margin, the agency explained.\n\nThe 2021 average temperature was 1.1-1.2C above the pre-industrial level around 150 years ago.\n\nIt would be easy to dismiss the latest global temperature figure as a non-event. Who celebrates fifth place in anything?\n\nIf we were in a film, these annual temperature updates would be the ominous drum beat signalling the plot is darkening.\n\nThey measure out the pace of change in our world. The increments may be tiny - a fraction of a degree - but the direction of travel is inescapable.\n\nAnd make no mistake, the rhythm they mark out increasingly sets the pace for all our lives. Think of the fires and floods that affected so many people in 2021.\n\nAnd now look again at what the data is telling us: the seven hottest years ever recorded have been the last seven years.\n\nWe can't say we weren't warned.\n\nThe agency said that the start of the year saw relatively low temperatures compared to recent years, but that by June monthly temperatures were at least among the warmest four recorded.\n\nPlaces with above average temperatures included the west coast of US and Canada, north-east Canada and Greenland, large parts of north and central Africa, and the Middle East.\n\nThe weather phenomenon known as La Niña - when surface sea temperatures are cooler - contributed to below-average temperatures in western and eastern Siberia, Alaska, and the central and eastern Pacific during the start and end of 2021.\n\nOverall Europe's annual temperature was outside the ten warmest years on record but the summer was the hottest.\n\nA heatwave swept through Mediterranean in July and August, particularly affecting Greece, Spain and Italy.\n\nIn Sicily, 48.8C degrees was reported, breaking Europe's record for highest temperature by 0.8C.\n\nThe hot temperatures in the eastern and central Mediterranean was followed by intense wildfires particular in Turkey but also in Greece, Italy, Tunisia and Algeria.\n\nAnd Europe also saw extreme wet weather, with huge floods devastating parts of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.\n\nThese events were part of the same picture of weather systems disrupted by climate change.\n\nThe concentration in the earth's atmosphere of two gases that significantly contribute to climate change rose in 2021, said Copernicus.\n\nCarbon dioxide concentrations reached 414.3 parts per million last year, growing at a similar rate to 2020.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Climate change is causing once-mighty rivers to dry up and temperatures to rise to deadly levels in Mexico\n\nBut scientists remarked that methane levels in the atmosphere increased to reach an unprecedented approximately 1,876 parts per billion. The growth rate of methane was also higher than in 2020 - Copernicus said both rates were very high compared to the past two decades of satellite data.\n\nScientist say it is important to reduce methane levels because it is more potent than CO2, however it lasts much less time in the Earth's atmosphere.\n\nThe increasing concentrations of these gases showed no signs of slowing down, concluded Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.\n\nMore data about 2021's temperatures will be released in the coming days from other agencies including from Nasa and the UK's Met Office.", "David Carrick appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court in relation to the new charges\n\nA Metropolitan Police officer accused of a string of sex offences has appeared in court on further charges linked to another four victims, including six counts of rape.\n\nDavid Carrick, of Hertfordshire, has been charged with nine further offences, bringing the total to 29.\n\nThe charges relate to eight women for alleged offences between 2009 and 2020.\n\nThe 47-year-old denied 20 of the charges in court in December, but has not entered pleas on the new charges.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service said the latest charges were six counts of rape, one count of attempted rape, one count of assault by penetration and one count of coercive and controlling behaviour between 2009 and 2018.\n\nIn a hearing into the new charges at Westminster Magistrates' Court, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring sent the case to St Albans Crown Court, where Mr Carrick appeared last month via video-link from Belmarsh prison.\n\nAt December's hearing, it was alleged he had raped one woman he met on dating app Tinder and falsely imprisoned another in a cupboard under the stairs.\n\nHe is due to appear at St Albans again later this month, with a provisional trial date set for April.\n\nThe 29 charges he faces are:\n\nMr Carrick was based within the Met's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command and has been suspended from duty.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Species from around the world that are \"hitching a lift\" on ships threaten Antarctica's pristine marine ecosystem.\n\nThat is the conclusion of a study tracking research, fishing and tourist vessels that routinely visit the protected, otherwise isolated region.\n\nIt revealed that ships from 1,500 ports around the globe visit Antarctica.\n\n\"These ships travel all around the world,\" explained lead researcher Arlie McCarthy from the University of Cambridge.\n\n\"It means that almost anywhere could be a potential source for invasive species.\" Those non-native species, she explained, \"can completely change an ecosystem\".\n\n\"They can create entirely new habitats that would make it harder for those amazing Antarctic animals to find their own place to live.\"\n\nAntarctica's coasts are home to many endemic species that have been isolated for millions of years\n\nThe study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, points to the need for more stringent measures to ensure that ships do not bring species that could disrupt Antarctica's fragile habitats.\n\nThe research team, from the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Cambridge, used satellite data and international shipping databases to work out the weight of Antarctic traffic - and the origin of those ships.\n\n\"What was really surprising was that they don't just have one home port that they go back and forth to,\" said Ms McCarthy.\n\nInstead, the global movement of vessels links otherwise isolated parts of Antarctica to more than 1,500 ports all around the world.\n\nAny marine species that can cling to the hull of the ship and survive the journey to Antarctica could pose an invasive threat.\n\nCreatures, including mussels, barnacles, crabs and algae, are of particular concern, because they attach themselves to hulls, in a process termed \"biofouling\".\n\n'Biofouling' - marine organisms clinging to ships - can be seen here in a water discharge outlet on the hull of an Antarctic-going research vessel\n\nMussels, for example, can survive in polar waters and spread easily, threatening marine life on the seabed. Their water filtering alters the marine food chain and also the chemistry of the water around them.\n\n\"This is the last place in the world where we don't have marine invasive species,\" explained Ms McCarthy. \"So we [still] have an opportunity to protect it.\"\n\nProfessor David Aldridge from the University of Cambridge explained: \"Antarctica's native species have been isolated for the last 15-30 million years.\"\n\nThis makes invasive species one of the biggest threats to its biodiversity. And, as Prof Lloyd Peck from the British Antarctic Survey added, \"your chance of losing a species that is completely unique is much higher in the Antarctic\".\n\nTourism is regulated in the region; tourist ships have to follow biosecurity protocols. But this study revealed that tourism accounted for 67% of visits to Antarctic locations (followed by research, which accounted for 21% and fishing, 7%).\n\nAccording to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, the 2019/20 season saw more that 70,000 people visit the region. And while the industry has been disrupted by the pandemic, that number has been increasing steadily since the first few hundred visitors from Chile and Argentina arrived in the South Shetland Islands in the 1950s.\n\nIt is an increase, say researchers, that has other consequences.\n\nMs McCarthy told BBC News: \"Anywhere these ships go, we see other kinds of human impact on the environment, whether that is accidental release of waste, pollution, collisions with wildlife or noise disturbance.\"\n\nProf Peck said Antarctic tourism was both \"positive and negative\". \"They are a big part of the number of visits [to the continent] and therefore could bring [non-native species] in.\n\n\"But the tour operators are very interested in the environment and take a lot of security measures.\"\n\nThe British Antarctic Survey uses sniffer dogs to search for rats or mice aboard research vessels\n\nMore broadly, biosecurity measures to protect Antarctica - such as cleaning ships' hulls - are currently focused on a small group of recognised Antarctic \"gateway ports\".\n\nBut since this study revealed that many more ports around the world are linked to the region, the British Antarctic Survey is calling for \"improved biosecurity protocols\" and environmental protection measures to protect Antarctic waters. This means inspecting ship hulls with cameras and cleaning them more frequently.\n\nProf Peck said this was particularly important \"as ocean temperatures continue to rise due to climate change\". He added: \"we know something will arrive if we leave things as they are\".", "The Welsh government has been in talks with the club's bosses because of the location of Chester FC\n\nChester could look to switch Saturday's home match if there is no resolution in the row over claims they broke Welsh Covid rules, the BBC has been told.\n\nThe English club, whose Deva Stadium straddles the England-Wales border, staged two home games over Christmas.\n\nThe Welsh government said the club was subject to its Covid rules, which effectively ban crowds from matches.\n\nTalks have continued on Monday but a source said other options for the match against Brackley were being looked at.\n\nOne includes switching it to play away as the two sides have not met yet and were due to play at Brackley's St James' Park on 7 May.\n\nIf that is not possible, and no viable alternative can be agreed, the match is likely to be postponed.\n\nThe possible alternatives come after club bosses warned the club could go bust if fans were barred from the stadium.\n\nThey said the financial implications of this could be massive, and urged all involved to use \"common sense\".\n\nBut the Welsh government said \"as a club based in Wales\", Chester FC would be eligible for support because of crowd restrictions.\n\nThe two sides met on Monday and the club's board will meet later.\n\nChester FC was warned by North Wales Police and Flintshire council about playing further home matches with crowds in the stadium while Covid restrictions on spectator numbers are in place.\n\nSince rules capping the number of spectators at events in Wales took effect on 26 December, Chester have hosted two home fixtures at Bumpers Lane - against AFC Telford and AFC Fylde - both in front of 2,000-plus crowds.\n\nThe club had insisted it had been told it was not eligible for financial support - from the £3m available for clubs in Wales impacted by fan restrictions - as it was an English club, but the Welsh government argued it was, adding: \"As a club based in Wales, Chester FC would be eligible for support.\"\n\nClub bosses said Chester FC was an English club, playing in an English league, and so would expect that English rules would apply.\n\nClub chairman Andy Morris warned: \"This is an incredible mess we've found ourselves in. It's never been an issue for the past 30 years but in the last week or so we've found ourselves in a situation that's a bit of a farce.\n\n\"We're a supporter-owned club and all the money we generate is from the supporters. There's no rich benefactor that can write a check for £10,000 if it was a fine.\n\n\"Any fine or reduction in income if we play behind closed doors directly impacts our future as a football club.\"\n\nChester FC fans celebrate - but will they be stopped from watching matches at the Deva Stadium?\n\nAs it stands it does not seem likely Chester will get permission from the Welsh government to get around the rules.\n\nLegally, with the Deva Stadium's pitch and stands in Wales, Welsh law applies and so the public health regulations set by the Welsh government apply.\n\nIt would be a controversial move if the Welsh government chose to permit Chester FC to continue attracting spectators when other rugby and football teams in Wales cannot.\n\nBut I'm told First Minister Mark Drakeford hopes a way can be found through this row - either through the club being compensated like others playing behind closed doors - or Chester plays elsewhere.\n\nThe suggestion that a switch could be found is likely one that would help resolve the situation in Welsh government eyes.\n\nMr Morris added: \"No one is disputing that the border runs through the stadium, but the stadium was built in the early 90s and ever since that date, the safety certificate has been issued by Cheshire council, we've been policed by Cheshire police, everything has been managed from an England perspective.\n\n\"We admit that a significant proportion of the stadium is in Wales, however the entrance to the car park, the front door to the building is in England and the only road in and out is in England so we believe we're in line with our associations' registrations and business registration that we should be treated as an English Club\".\n\nEarlier on BBC Radio Wales' Breakfast programme, he called for \"absolute clarity\", adding: \"On 2 January, Cheshire Police attended our game when this criminal act allegedly happened.\"\n\nWhile the club received a £25,000 business support grant from Flintshire council, Mr Morris said this Chester FC could move game amid England-Wales rowwas because the bar area was in Wales, and it was a UK government support grant for the hospitality sector.\n\nOn Sunday, Welsh Secretary Simon Hart waded into the row.\n\nHe tweeted: \"Don't understand the confusion with Chester FC & whether they fall foul of Welsh gov Covid rules.\n\n\"They're in the English league, under Cheshire W & Chester Council, policed by Cheshire Constabulary.\n\n\"They don't even receive Welsh gov financial aid. Any chance of some common sense?\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Hart This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBefore the pandemic club chairman Mr Morris said the significance of the stadium's unique location had been regarded as little more than the answer to a common quiz question.\n\nOn Saturday he said ground's location was no longer a joke and \"had become a very real problem\".\n\nIt is not the first time the club has been bogged down by Covid rules.\n\nIn October 2020 a cinema event was held close to the club, but ran into issues as the club's toilets were on the Welsh side of the border, where a firebreak lockdown was taking place.\n\nA Welsh government spokesman said talks were held on Sunday and would continue on Monday.\n\n\"Throughout the pandemic we have followed scientific and public health advice to keep people safe. We have introduced additional restrictions on sporting events in Wales, which came into force on Boxing Day, to help control the rapid spread of the new omicron variant,\" he added.\n\n\"Chester City's stadium is in Wales and the club's home games are therefore subject to the current Welsh coronavirus restrictions.\n\n\"We have made a £3m budget available to support professional sports clubs and organisations affected by spectator restrictions. As a club based in Wales, Chester FC would be eligible for support.\"", "The best film and TV shows of the past year were honoured at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday.\n\nHere is the full list of winners, which were announced at a pared-down ceremony in Los Angeles.\n\nThis year's Globes were not televised following controversy surrounding the organisation behind the event, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).\n\nBest actress in a motion picture - musical or comedy\n\nBest actor in a motion picture - musical or comedy\n\nBest supporting actress in any motion picture\n\nBest supporting actor in any motion picture\n\nWill Smith during a photoshoot at Wimbledon for his tennis-themed movie King Richard\n\nBest actress in a TV series - musical or comedy\n\nBest actor in a TV series - musical or comedy\n\nBest actress in a limited series or TV movie\n\nBest actor in a limited series or TV movie\n\nBest supporting actress in a series, limited series or TV movie\n\nBest supporting actor in a series, limited series or TV movie\n\nFollow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pregnant women are being urged not to delay getting their Covid jab or booster in a government campaign.\n\nMore than 96% of pregnant women admitted to hospital with Covid symptoms between May and October last year were unvaccinated, according to the UK Obstetric Surveillance System.\n\nThe campaign will share testimonies of pregnant women who have had the jab on radio and social media.\n\nThe government said the vaccine was safe and had no impact on fertility.\n\nIn December, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation added pregnant women to the priority list for the vaccine, saying they were at heightened risk from Covid.\n\nAround one in five pregnant women admitted to hospital with the virus needed to be delivered pre-term to help them recover, and one in five of their babies needed care in the neonatal unit, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.\n\nSince April 2021, mothers-to-be have been offered the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna jab.\n\nAround 84,000 pregnant women have received one dose and more than 80,000 have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine since then, the department said.\n\nAt the beginning of the UK vaccine programme, the advice was for pregnant women to be offered vaccines if they were in a high-risk group or at high risk of exposure.\n\nProf Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser to the DHSC, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a third of unvaccinated pregnant women with Covid-19 needed help with breathing and one in six were admitted to intensive care.\n\n\"We've also seen stillbirths and neonatal deaths in the latest wave,\" she said.\n\nProf Chappell said the vaccine causes pregnant women to produce antibodies against the virus, which cross over to their babies and give them protection too.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Sultana Ashiq's twins were born by Caesarean section while she was in a coma with Covid\n\nDr Jen Jardine, from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, who is seven months pregnant and has had her booster jab, said: \"Both as a doctor and pregnant mother myself, we can now be very confident that the Covid-19 vaccinations provide the best possible protection for you and your unborn child against this virus.\n\n\"I would strongly call on all pregnant women like me, if you haven't had the vaccine yet, to either speak to your GP or midwife if you still have questions and then book right away today.\"\n\nThe UK recorded 141,472 new cases on Sunday, as well as 97 deaths within 28 days of a positive test - although the number of deaths recorded over weekends tends to be lower because of reporting delays.\n\nThe total number of cases over the past seven days is up 6.6% on the previous week, while the figure for deaths is up 30.9%.\n\nChris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, said he was confident the health service's frontline \"will hold\".\n\nHowever NHS services outside London will be stretched \"perilously thin\", he told the BBC's Sunday Morning show, adding: \"We shouldn't underestimate the degree of pressure that many trusts are seeing.\"\n\nMeanwhile, daily testing of 100,000 critical workers in industries including food processing, transport and the border force is due to begin on Monday.\n\nOn Sunday, Minister Nadhim Zahawi denied reports the government was planning to stop supplying free lateral flow tests, saying 425 million of them had been ordered in January.\n\nHe also told the BBC cutting the self-isolation period for people who test positive to five days would \"certainly help\" with staff absences.", "That might be your reaction to what we know now - that one of Boris Johnson's most senior aides emailed around 100 staff in Downing Street for outdoor drinks in May 2020, during the intense early emergency of lockdown.\n\nMartin Reynolds, the principal private secretary (for how much longer?) invited dozens and dozens of staffers to drinks in the garden, socially distanced, but to many people's minds, in contradiction to the very strict and very clear public guidance to the public at the time that banned socialising in any form.\n\nA jog with a friend in the park or a solitary trudge along the same canal path was just about it.\n\n\"Is this for real?\" was in fact the reaction of one of the staff who was gobsmacked to receive the email, written down in black and white, in a message to another official shared at the time.\n\nAnother, shown to the BBC, said: \"Um. Why is Martin encouraging a mass gathering in the garden?\"\n\nThose exchanges make it pretty clear that there were concerns at the time. Yet the event went ahead, with, I'm told, around 30 people in attendance, a long table set out in the garden for drinks, crisps and sausage rolls with, two eyewitnesses told me, the prime minister and his wife in attendance.\n\nNotwithstanding how many of you might feel reading the details of that event, and the planning that went into it, there are three main reasons why this latest bout of claims about what was happening in Number 10 are deeply troubling for Mr Johnson.\n\nFirst off, the email, a scoop for our colleagues at ITV, is evidence in black and white of a social event that was planned in advance.\n\nThat flies in the face of the prime minister's insistence so far that there were \"no parties\". Evidence of a planned event is not the same as ad hoc chats or the odd drink after hours outdoors or in the office in a Covid-secure environment - the kind of events some in government think could be justified.\n\nWith an official investigation under way by a senior and experienced official with a stringent reputation, that is troublesome.\n\nSecond, the prime minister could lose a senior official over what happened, and there has long been speculation about which moderately senior head might roll in the aftermath of the inquiry.\n\nBut if, as eyewitnesses have told us, Mr Johnson was there himself, he is personally right at the centre of the mess.\n\nThird, for most of Monday the chatter among MPs and ministers getting back into the parliamentary routine was that the mood had calmed, the Tory anger at No 10's chaos had eased off after a liberal application of mince pies and eggnog.\n\nDisillusionment with Downing Street was still extremely common but the heat, and with it the political pressure, had cooled somewhat.\n\nBut now, with this new damaging fodder for the opposition, don't be so sure.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch the moment Michael Gove missed his Today programme interview... and when he turned up after being freed\n\nCabinet minister Michael Gove missed an interview slot on BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier after getting stuck in a lift.\n\nThe levelling up secretary missed his slot on Monday's show, after an elevator in the BBC's Broadcasting House stopped working.\n\nHe was trapped in the lift for around half an hour.\n\nMaking a delayed appearance on the show, he joked staff had \"successfully levelled me up\" and released him.\n\nAnnouncing his detainment on Today shortly after 08.00 GMT, presenter Nick Robinson said he had been stuck for some time.\n\nRobinson added that Mr Gove was \"keeping cheerful\" and had initially offered to conduct the interview by phone from inside the lift.\n\n\"I wish I could say this is a joke, it is not a joke and it is not very funny for Mr Gove and the security man,\" Robinson added.\n\nAppearing on the show about 15 minutes later than planned, Mr Gove said he was \"delighted\" to be finally making his appearance.\n\nAccepting Robinson's apology for the delay, he added: \"I completely understand. These sorts of things happen.\"\n\nHe added that the incident could give \"ammunition\" for scriptwriters on W1A, the BBC TV show that satirised life at the corporation.\n\nMr Gove's job description reflects the government's goal of \"levelling up\" economic opportunity across different parts of the UK.\n\nThe term was added to his official ministerial title in September, when he took over as the minister in charge of housing and local government in England.\n\nA BBC spokesperson said: \"We're sorry Mr Gove was stuck in one of our lifts, but we're glad he was later able to take part in the interview.\"", "The red can clearly be seen on the white cliffs\n\nAn investigation has been launched after Sicily's normally white Scala dei Turchi cliffs were stained red.\n\nThe marl cliffs, which attract thousands of tourists every year, were defaced sometime overnight on Friday.\n\nThe Scala dei Turchi, said to have once been a hiding place of pirates, are one of the island's most loved tourist attractions, in part thanks to the Inspector Montalbano books.\n\nThe staircase-shaped cliffs near the southern town of Realmonte appear regularly as a backdrop in the popular series about the Sicilian detective.\n\nVolunteers and technicians are helping clean the rock\n\nLuckily, it appears the red stains - created with a mix of red plaster dust and water - can be removed, with volunteers helping to cleanup.\n\nThe police, meanwhile, are checking CCTV and the island's stores to trace anyone who has recently bought red plaster in the hopes of catching the culprit.\n\nThis is not the only time the cliffs have hit the headlines in recent years. In 2020, Italian prosecutors took control of the area, saying it was being badly managed.", "Rallies have been held outside the Park Hotel, where Djokovic is being held in Melbourne\n\nThe story of the world's top ranked tennis player being held at an immigration detention centre after arriving in Australia last week caused dismay and anger on all sides.\n\nMost of it has been directed at the authorities, be they in the federal or the Victorian state government.\n\nThere's almost a sense of incredulity at how the situation has been mishandled - the monumental breakdown in communication and the political tussling.\n\nDjokovic, who is not the most popular of tennis players here, was expected to land late on Wednesday to a wave of Australian ire.\n\nAt that point the story seemed fairly straightforward.\n\nA world-famous athlete, who has publicly said he is opposed to vaccination, granted an exemption to play at the Australian Open in a country that has implemented some of the world's strictest Covid-19 measures.\n\nIt was hardly surprising that it caused an outcry in a country whose citizens had been told that full vaccination was the condition to freedom of movement and travel.\n\nBut after Djokovic touched down at Melbourne Airport, things became a little murky.\n\nOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded to the public outcry by saying the decision to grant Djokovic a vaccine exemption certificate was a matter for the state government of Victoria.\n\nA few hours later, a statement from Australia's Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews appeared to contradict Mr Morrison - saying that \"while the Victorian government and Tennis Australia may permit a non-vaccinated player to compete\", the federal government would enforce its requirements at the border.\n\nThe following day, Mr Morrison's stance changed as it was revealed that Djokovic's visa had been cancelled, and that the 34-year-old was facing deportation.\n\n\"Rules are rules,\" the prime minister said.\n\nIn less than 24 hours, Mr Morrison had U-turned from initially accepting that the Serbian's exemption - and participation in the Australian Open - was a matter for the state of Victoria, to putting his foot down on the federal government's right to enforce its border rules.\n\nIt's impossible to ignore the politics at play here.\n\nThe tension between state and federal authorities exists because each wants something different from this.\n\nVictoria wants the world number one to compete in one of the state's most important events.\n\nThe federal government, feeling the anger at Djokovic being allowed to fly in, wants to show Australians that they are in control of who comes in and out of the country and that everyone - including the tennis star - is expected to follow the Covid rules.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shaimaa Khalil reports from Melbourne's Park Hotel on the latest twist in the Djokovic visa row\n\nThis is an election year, Mr Morrison has been under immense political pressure over the handling of the Omicron coronavirus wave, amid rocketing case numbers and chaos at testing clinics. Observers suggest he may have chosen to use this as an opportunity to appear tough on the country's border policies.\n\nBut in trying to appear firm on Covid rules and visa requirements, Mr Morrison and his government has created more chaos. Every statement that comes out, every detail that emerges, seems to bring yet another layer of uncertainty.\n\nDjokovic's legal team ended up successfully challenging the decision to deport him in court on Monday, five days into the saga.\n\nJudge Anthony Kelly ordered Djokovic's release after the government acknowledged in court that he was not given enough time to respond following the notification to cancel his visa.\n\nHowever, Australia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.\n\nThere has been a lot of blaming and finger pointing but no one has come out to clearly answer any of the basic questions around this story. Not the federal or state government officials - not even Tennis Australia.\n\nThe way he's been treated in the past few days seems to have shifted the sentiment towards him.\n\nThe Australian player Nick Kyrgios, who had previously criticised Djokovic for his response to the pandemic, came to his defence - calling Australia's treatment of him \"really bad\" and urging authorities to \"do better\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nicholas Kyrgios This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRights groups have also weighed in - Sophie McNeill of Human Rights Watch in Australia tweeted that she felt \"very uncomfortable\" with the way Djokovic had been treated.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Sophie McNeill This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe authorities are reportedly investigating a number of visas. On Saturday, another Australian Open hopeful, Renata Voracova from the Czech Republic, left Australia after her visa was cancelled.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne.\n\nBut one of the biggest and most important sporting events in the country is turning into a big international embarrassment. The eyes of the world will be on Australia for all the wrong reasons.", "Mehdi Ali arrived in Australia when he was 15. Nine years later, he is still in detention in the same hotel where Novak Djokovic was held.\n\nHe tells me he is being treated \"cruelly and unjustly\" by Australian authorities. He says he has had toothache for months and has not been given any treatment.\n\n\"The cruel uncertainty that we might get out tomorrow, we might never get out is affecting my mental health harshly,\" he says.\n\nHis story highlights the growing concern about the treatment of asylum seekers and the uncertainty about their future.\n\nAnd it comes after other detainees told the BBC of \"inhumane conditions\" at the hotel where one man says his food had maggots in it and another said he spent 23 hours a day in a room that felt like a \"coffin\".\n\nThe Australian Border Force and Home Affairs Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\n\nAustralia's Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews MP told the BBC: \"We treat all people who are in immigration detention fairly and equitably.”", "Supporters of Novak Djokovic have been protesting outside the courthouse throughout proceedings\n\nThe judge hearing Novak Djokovic's challenge to an order by the Australian government revoking his entry visa has dramatically overturned the decision.\n\nJudge Anthony Kelly ordered the release of the tennis star from detention.\n\nHowever, there has been no sign of the Serbian player since the verdict. And Immigration Minister Alex Hawke can still cancel his visa on new grounds.\n\nThe 34-year-old flew into Melbourne last week, hoping to defend his Australian Open title.\n\nThe government acknowledged in court that Djokovic was not given enough time to respond following the notification to cancel his visa.\n\nThe player was told he would have until 08:30 local time last Thursday to make comments about the visa cancellation under section 116 of the Australian Migration Act, but the Border Force made the final decision shortly after 07:40.\n\nThe Judge said Djokovic could have had more time to make a submission about why his visa should not be withdrawn if authorities had stuck to the original time.\n\n\"We all play by the same rules,\" Judge Kelly said. \"Stated in other terms: those rules were not observed.\"\n\nThe trial began on Monday morning after delays caused by technical issues with a live stream of proceedings.\n\nLawyers for Djokovic argued that the 20-time Grand Slam winner entered the country on the understanding that his exemption from restrictions requiring travellers to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 was valid.\n\nNick Wood told the court that the exemption had been granted to the player by two separate medical boards following a recent coronavirus infection and that he had presented all the necessary medical evidence to officials.\n\n\"He had done absolutely everything. He had engaged with everything that was required of him by Tennis Australia,\" Mr Wood said.\n\nJudge Kelly appeared to agree with Mr Wood's argument and told government lawyers that he felt \"agitated\" by what he had heard so far.\n\n\"What more could this man have done?\" he asked.\n\nIt is not clear. The judge's order specified that the tennis star should be released from immigration detention within 30 minutes of the ruling.\n\nDjokovic's family and Serbian officials have said their hero has been arrested, but there is no evidence of that having happened.\n\nDjokovic's lawyers have also argued that his treatment by Australian Border Force officers after his arrival was \"manifestly unjust\".\n\nAfter being approached by officials at the airport, he asked to wait until the morning to hear from his team before deciding whether to leave the country. This was initially agreed to by officials.\n\nHe then went to sleep, but was woken up around 06:00 by officers who allegedly pressured him to respond \"because it was better for him if they made the decision right away\".\n\nGovernment lawyer Christopher Tran argued that Djokovic's recent Covid infection did not qualify him for an exemption from travel rules, and denied there was any unfairness or unreasonableness in the decision.\n\nThough Djokovic has not spoken publicly about his vaccination status, in his interview with border officials he confirms he is not vaccinated.\n\nHe told the interviewer that he tested positive for Covid twice - in June 2020 and on 16 December 2021. Copies of his positive PCR tests were provided to the interviewer - one was issued on the 16 December 2021, a day before Djokovic appeared at public events without a mask.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Novak Djokovic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ikea has cut sick pay for unvaccinated staff who need to self-isolate because of Covid exposure and in some cases for workers who test positive.\n\nThe retail giant acknowledged it was an \"emotive topic\" but said its policy had to evolve with changing circumstances.\n\nFrom this week, sick pay cuts will be implemented at Wessex Water and in the US several major companies have started penalising unjabbed workers.\n\nIt comes as firms struggle with mass staff absences and rising costs.\n\nAt Ikea unvaccinated workers, who do not have mitigating circumstances, who test positive will be paid in line with company sick pay.\n\nUnvaccinated workers, without mitigating circumstances and required to isolate owing to being identified as a close contact, could now receive as little as £96.35 a week - the Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) minimum.\n\nSelf-isolation guidance for people who have been jabbed was relaxed last month. However, there was no change to the guidance for unvaccinated people who come into contact with positive cases, and who must still self-isolate for 10 full days after their date of exposure to the virus.\n\nAverage wages at Ikea are between about £400 and £450, depending on location and, as is the case at many companies, staff get enhanced sick pay. The move was first reported by the Mail on Sunday.\n\nIkea, which employs about 10,000 people in the UK, said in a statement: \"Fully vaccinated co-workers or those that are unvaccinated owing to mitigating circumstances which, for example, could include pregnancy or other medical grounds, will receive full pay.\n\n\"Unvaccinated co-workers without mitigating circumstances that test positive with Covid will be paid full company sick pay in line with our company absence policy.\n\n\"Unvaccinated co-workers without mitigating circumstances who have been identified as close contacts of a positive case will be paid Statutory Sick Pay.\"\n\nIn England, people who are vaccinated with at least two doses need not self-isolate if they have been in close contact with someone infected with Covid. Unvaccinated people contacted through the government's test-and-trace system must still isolate by law.\n\nMany companies complained of labour shortages throughout 2021, and now are seeing mass absences due to the more infectious Omicron Covid strain.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson repeated on Monday that the data continued to show those people most seriously affected by Omicron remained the unvaccinated.\n\nWessex Water's sick pay rule change comes into force this week.\n\nAny employee without at least one Covid-19 vaccination - who does not have a valid medical reason - or does not have a confirmed vaccination appointment, will get only statutory sick pay if required to self-isolate due to close contact with someone testing positive.\n\nA Wessex Water spokesperson said absences have soared this year: \"The vast majority of our workforce has been vaccinated and it's important as a company providing essential services with key worker employees, the remainder get vaccinated to protect themselves, customers and their colleagues.\n\n\"Absences due to Covid have doubled in the last week, so we need everyone to be available so we can continue to provide uninterrupted essential water and sewerage services.\"\n\nThe company said that throughout the pandemic it had not furloughed staff and those self-isolating had received full pay.\n\nLast year, supermarket Morrisons cut sick pay terms, while several companies, including banking giant Citigroup, introduced a \"no jab, no job\" policy. Delta Airlines imposed a surcharge on unvaccinated staff members of its healthcare plan.\n\nBen Willmott, head of public policy at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), told the BBC there were pros and cons with changing sick pay terms for certain workers.\n\nIt could encourage staff to get vaccinated, but others might be less likely to test themselves or self-isolate because they could not afford time off work at the statutory rate of about £96.\n\nHis organisation's official guidance was not to differentiate between employees, as the consequences could be complex and there were potential legal problems.\n\n\"You would have to manage it on a case-by-case basis because of legal risks,\" Mr Willmott said.\n\nEarlier this month, David Josephs, boss of food importer and retailer All Greens, told the BBC that staff at some firms were ignoring Covid rules for financial reasons.\n\n\"We know that in our sector a lot of staff do not get paid sick pay. Ours do - but staff who are on limited contracts or on minimum wage cannot afford to be off work,\" he said.\n\nEmployment lawyer Sarah Ozanne, of CMS, also warned of complex legal issues and said striking the right balance was difficult.\n\n\"This action [by Ikea] seems more of a reaction to staff shortages and how to manage them than any intended 'discrimination' of the unvaccinated,\" she said.\n\n\"But employers should consider whether their actions are proportionate as a means of achieving the aim of getting employees back into work.\"", "Former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings has alleged a social event which took place in No 10 on 20 May 2020 may have broken Covid rules.\n\nIn his blog, he said a \"senior No 10 official\" invited people to \"socially distanced drinks\" in the garden.\n\nMr Cummings said he and another adviser had warned that this could be against the rules but were told the event had gone ahead.\n\nDowning Street has been approached for comment.\n\nBut the BBC understands the alleged event will be investigated by a senior civil servant.\n\nThe first coronavirus lockdown was introduced in England in late March and were slowly relaxed in May 2020, but it was not until 1 June that people were allowed to meet outside in groups of up to six people.\n\nIn December, Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked Simon Case, the UK's top civil servant, to investigate after a series of allegations about events taking place in government buildings despite coronavirus restrictions.\n\nMr Case later stepped down after suggestions one of the parties took place in his own office and the investigation was passed to Sue Gray, another senior civil servant.\n\nMr Cummings has now urged Ms Gray to \"dig up\" the email invitations to the event on 20 May - and his email to colleagues warning against it.\n\nHe also said the senior civil servant should look in to his claim that a party took place in Mr Johnson's Downing Street flat on 13 November - something No 10 has previously denied.\n\nIt is understood Ms Gray will examine the alleged event in May 2020, as well as another gathering five days earlier, which was revealed last month.\n\nThe Guardian published a photo of the prime minister with his wife and 17 other staff members - including Mr Cummings - in the Downing Street garden on 15 May 2020, with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard.\n\nHowever, Mr Cummings argued that event did not break any rules.\n\nWriting on his blog, the former chief advisor, who was forced out of Downing Street at the end of 2020 after an internal power struggle, said \"the scene on the terrace was in no sense a 'party' or 'organised drinks'\".\n\n\"Many meetings had been taking place in the garden all day... those on the terrace nearest me in the photo had been having a meeting.\n\n\"No 10 staff were encouraged to have meetings in the garden April-August for the obvious reason that we were in a pandemic with an airborne disease and being outside was safer!\"", "Chester FC fans celebrate - but will they be stopped from watching matches at the Deva Stadium?\n\nAn investigation is looking into whether an English football team broke Covid rules - because their ground is in Wales.\n\nIn Wales, restrictions mean most matches are being played behind closed doors.\n\nHowever, since rules came into force on 26 December, Chester FC has held two games with each attracting more than 2,000 fans.\n\nThe Welsh government said the club was in Wales and must follow Welsh rules.\n\nClub officials say they have been informed of potential breaches of Welsh Coronavirus Regulations for fixtures held on 28 December 2021 and 2 January 2022.\n\nIn a statement the club said they have been told they \"may commit further potential breaches if it continues to play home fixtures with crowds while the current restrictions in Wales remain in place\".\n\n\"It was agreed that all parties would seek further legal advice given the complex issues and future implications of any outcome,\" they added.\n\n\"Chester Football Club's stadium is in Wales therefore Welsh regulations apply,\" a Welsh government spokesperson said.\n\n\"As the enforcing authorities Flintshire County Council and North Wales Police are dealing with the matter.\"\n\nChester's Deva Stadium is in Flintshire, with the border between Wales and England running through the car park to the east of the stands.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chester FC This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWales has been in Level Two Coronavirus restrictions since 26 December, which means all sporting events effectively have to be played behind closed doors.\n\nThe number of spectators is limited to 50, in addition to those taking part.\n\nStewarding and policing costs mean that it can be impractical for clubs to allow a handful of fans through turnstiles.\n\nHowever, there are no crowd limits in England.\n\nSince the rule changes in Wales, Chester FC's home ground has hosted two games in National League North (the sixth tier of English football).\n\nThe match attendance for Chester FC's home game against AFC Fylde on 28 December was reported to be 2,075 and against Telford on 2 January was 2,116.\n\nChester may be an English club, but their ground is in Wales\n\nChester's 1-1 draw against Telford saw the biggest attendance in the National League North.\n\nDespite the geographic conundrum, matchday policing at the Deva Stadium is carried out by Cheshire Constabulary.\n\nChester fans have argued on social media that the border runs through the clubhouse and that the stadium has a Chester postcode.\n\nThe club's next home game is against Brackley Town on the 15 January.\n\nLarge crowds that usually attend the festive rugby derbies in Wales were locked out because of the ruling.\n\nHowever, the majority of matches fell victim to Covid, with only the Scarlets versus Ospreys going ahead on New Year's Day.\n\nThe ruling also affects Wales' top football sides such as Cardiff City, Swansea City, Newport County and Wrexham AFC.\n\nAlmost 250,000 fans attended Wales' Autumn matches - will they be allowed back for the Six Nations\n\nWales are due to host three games in this year's Six Nations rugby championship - with 72,000 fans expected in Cardiff for the first against Scotland on 12 February.\n\nHowever, the Welsh Rugby Union has said it is exploring the option of moving games over the border to England - where there are no limits on fans.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford has confirmed there will be no change to the rules for the next week at least.\n\nHe said the government would review the situation \"every week\" to see if it is possible to play games \"at home safely\", adding \"of course that's what we want to do\".\n\nHowever, he said \"it's not so much what happens in the stadium itself\" where the stadium \"is properly regulated\".\n\n\"It's the way people get to the stadium, it's the way they leave the stadium and the way people behave around the stadium,\" he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.", "Some schools are using remote learning due to staff absences\n\nNorthern Ireland assembly members will return to the Stormont chamber later to debate how to keep schools open and safe amid a rise in Covid-19 cases.\n\nLast week, the teaching union NASUWT called for action to prevent schools facing \"significant staffing problems\".\n\nHer department has previously said she had written to schools to set out the mitigations in place.\n\nAn assembly recall petition from Sinn Féin was supported by the SDLP and Alliance.\n\nThe motion also urges the minister to address staffing issues \"by utilising and deploying additional teaching capacity to keep schools open and safe\".\n\nThe department said it would do \"everything in our power to help school leaders during these unprecedented and extremely challenging circumstances\".\n\nA number of schools have announced that some year groups will have to return to remote learning because of staff pressures.\n\nMercy College in north Belfast has written to parents and guardians to explain that from Monday Years eight to 11 will have some staggered remote learning days.\n\nMichelle McIlveen has said she wants schools to remain open\n\nPaula Stuart, principal of Belfast Model School for Girls, also in the north of the city, said: \"Unfortunately, due to current levels of staff absence linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, there are insufficient teaching staff to deliver all lessons face to face as per the school timetable on site.\"\n\nShe continued that Year 10 pupils will have to learn remotely on Monday and Tuesday.\n\nFiona Kane, principal of St Ronan's College in Lurgan, County Armagh, said her school is also facing significant disruption due to Covid-related absences among both staff and pupils.\n\nShe told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that she is implementing a contingency plan which prioritises GCSE and A-Level students for classroom-based learning.\n\nMs Kane explained the plan means some other year groups will be asked to learn at home on certain days so her remaining staff can provide classroom cover for pupils due to sit exams.\n\n\"We've a schedule communicated out there to parents, it's on a rotational basis and I know a lot of schools, a lot of my principal colleagues, are doing exactly the same,\" Ms Kane said.\n\n\"We want to keep as many children in school, in face-to-face lessons, as possible and Year 12 and Year 14 - the GCSE and A-Level classes - are the priority, so they will remain in school.\"\n\nChris Donnelly, principal of St John The Baptist Primary School in west Belfast, said teachers wanted pupils to be taught in the classroom.\n\n\"One thing we have learned decisively across the board is the value of classroom-based learning,\" he told BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday with Steven Rainey programme.\n\n\"There is no substitute.\"\n\nGraham Gault, from the National Association of Head Teachers in Northern Ireland, told BBC News NI the current staffing situation was \"critical\".\n\nHe said a \"perfect storm\" had been created with Covid absences and issues with the system for booking substitute teachers.\n\nMonday's assembly motion references the installation of air monitoring and air filtration devices in schools as part of a plan \"that puts the safety of pupils and staff first\".\n\nLast week, the Education Authority confirmed it had ordered 100 air filtration units which would be sent to areas where improving ventilation was not possible immediately.\n\nSinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan, one of the motion's proposers, said the minister should \"stop sitting on her hands\" and introduce a plan to install High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters in schools.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his party colleague Ms McIlveen was considering the installation of ventilation systems, but warned the cost of this could be \"significant\".\n\nPrincipal of St Cecilia's College in Londonderry, Martine Mulhern, has said the current system of keeping windows open to allow for better circulation has proved challenging in the colder months.\n\nThe Department of Education said the vast majority of schools had \"adequate ventilation\", but that air filters \"may be suitable where there is insufficient ventilation\".\n\nEllen Taylor, from the Secondary Students' Union of Northern Ireland, said there should be HEPA filters in each classroom.\n\n\"The level of transmission in school is huge and that is because of the lack of ventilation and also because you have lots of numbers of children mixing together,\" she said.", "The US actor and comedian Bob Saget, best known for starring in the sitcom Full House, has died suddenly aged 65, his family has announced.\n\nThe actor was found unresponsive by staff in his room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Orlando, Florida on Sunday.\n\nOfficers from the Orange County Sheriff's Department arrived after a call from hotel staff and pronounced him dead at the scene.\n\nBut in a short statement posted to Twitter, the Sheriff's Department said that detectives had found no signs of foul play or drug use during initial enquiries.\n\n\"We are devastated to confirm that our beloved Bob passed away today,\" his family said in a statement.\n\n\"He was everything to us and we want you to know how much he loved his fans, performing live and bringing people from all walks of life together with laughter.\"\n\nSaget, a veteran stand-up comedian, had just started a new comedy tour across the US, performing as recently as Saturday in the city of Jacksonville, Florida.\n\nAfter the show he had expressed his joy at being back on stage in a post on his Instagram page, telling fans that he was \"happily addicted\" to his craft.\n\n\"I'm back in comedy like I was when I was 26. I guess I'm finding my new voice and loving every moment of it,\" he said.\n\nAlthough Saget was idolised by many comedians for his profane and often cutting act, he was best known in the US for his role in the sitcom, Full House, where he starred alongside the actors John Stamos and fellow comic Dave Coulier.\n\nHe won plaudits for his portrayal of Danny Tanner, a widowed father of three daughters, playing the role from 1987 to 1995.\n\nHe reprised it in 2016 when Netflix revived the programme for a further five seasons.\n\nIn more recent years he found fame among younger generations as the narrator of the hit show How I Met Your Mother and for his guest stints as a highly fictionalised version of himself in the TV series, Entourage.\n\nJohn Stamos, who worked with Saget on Full House and Fuller House, said he was \"broken\" at the news of his friend's death.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by John Stamos This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCandace Cameron Bure remembered Saget, who played her father on Full House, writing on Twitter that she \"loved him so much\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Candace Cameron Bure This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nActress Kat Dennings, who played Saget's daughter in television series Raising Dad, described him as a \"wonderful guy\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Kat Dennings This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhoopi Goldberg paid tribute to her friend, giving a special mention to his \"huge heart and abject lunacy\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Whoopi Goldberg This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAccompanying a photo of himself and Saget, actor and writer Penn Jillette wrote on Twitter: \"Saget would have wanted something tweeted that was really funny and in very bad taste. I can't do that. I'm just so sad. Bob was just great on every level and we will all miss him.\"\n\nThe former Daily Show host Jon Stewart called Saget \"just the funniest and nicest\" in a tweet on Sunday.\n\nAnd comedian Judd Apatow said: \"Bob Saget was so kind and when you spent time with him he made you laugh hard. He loved to be funny and he was hysterical. He was also there for everyone. A beautiful soul.\"\n\nYou may also be interested in:", "The first phase of an independent inquiry into the murder of Sarah Everard will conclude this year, Home Secretary Priti Patel has said.\n\nMet Police officer Wayne Couzens staged a fake arrest to kidnap Ms Everard before he raped and murdered her.\n\nThe Home Office has published the terms of reference for the two-part inquiry chaired by Dame Elish Angiolini QC.\n\nThe first part of the inquiry will look at Couzens' conduct during his career and any abuse of his police powers.\n\nIt will examine whether any red flags were missed and whether allegations made against him were properly handled.\n\nThe inquiry will also assess his transfer between Kent Police and the Met.\n\nThe second part of the inquiry will look at specific issues raised by part one, which will report to the home secretary as soon as possible.\n\nThe Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) is already investigating two indecent exposure incidents involving Couzens, including one 72 hours before he abducted Ms Everard on 3 March 2021.\n\nMs Patel, who branded Couzens a \"monster\", said the inquiry would proceed on a non-statutory basis, with greater flexibility, in a bid to give Ms Everard's family answers \"as soon as possible\".\n\nWayne Couzens is currently appealing against last September's whole-life order\n\nThe option remained to convert it to a statutory inquiry, Ms Patel added, which would see it underpinned by the Inquiries Act 2005.\n\nMore flexible non-statutory inquiries can progress at a faster pace but witnesses cannot be compelled to attend or give evidence under oath. Sensitive details can also be heard in private to protect intelligence or national security, and non-statutory inquiries are not required to meet the same standard of public accountability set out by the legislation.\n\nMs Patel said: \"I am determined to understand the failings that enabled a serving officer to commit such heinous crimes - we owe an explanation to Sarah's family and loved ones, and we need to do all in our power to prevent something like this from ever happening again.\"\n\nDame Elish Angiolini QC said: \"The publication of the terms of reference is a significant step forward to progressing this vital inquiry and ensuring Sarah's family and the wider public get a full understanding and explanation of the causes of, and factors contributing to, this tragic and harrowing murder.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg is in Kazakhstan's capital amid reports of a power struggle fuelling the recent unrest\n\nInternet services have returned to Kazakhstan's largest city following a five-day blackout.\n\nAlmaty, the country's former capital, has been offline since Wednesday amid a wave of violence in the country.\n\nAlmost 8,000 people have been detained throughout the country, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.\n\nThe demonstrations, triggered by a rise in fuel prices, turned into the worst unrest the country has seen in its 30 years of independence.\n\nThey started on 2 January and grew to reflect discontent at the government and former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who led Kazakhstan for three decades and is still thought to retain significant influence.\n\nLast week, troops from countries including Russia were sent to Kazakhstan to help restore order.\n\nThe presidential statement added that the situation had stabilised, with troops continuing \"cleanup\" operations and guarding \"strategic facilities\".\n\nA state of emergency and a nationwide curfew remain in place.\n\nWhere is it? Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia to the north and China to the east. It is a huge country the size of Western Europe.\n\nWhy does it matter? A former Soviet republic which is mainly Muslim with a large Russian minority, it has vast mineral resources, with 3% of global oil reserves and important coal and gas sectors.\n\nWhy is it making the news? Fuel riots, which have escalated to become broader protests against the government, have resulted in resignations at the top and a bloody crackdown on protesters.\n\nIn the capital, Nursultan, there are obvious signs that security has been tightened, says the BBC's Steve Rosenberg, with the entrance to the city's Presidential Palace blocked.\n\nThere is a growing suggestion, our correspondent adds, that the recent violence is linked to a power struggle within Kazakhstan's ruling elite.\n\nOn Sunday evening government officials retracted an earlier statement posted to an officially-run channel on the Telegram social media app alleging that more than 164 people had died during the wave of violence.\n\nThe Information Ministry told local media that the statement had been issued in error and was the result of a \"technical mistake\". Only 44 deaths have been confirmed.\n\nThe security forces said they killed rioters in Almaty while trying to restore order and that protesters had tried to take control of police stations in the city.\n\nPresident Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said \"20,000 bandits\" had attacked Almaty and that he had told security forces to \"fire without warning\".\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday criticised the president's directive. \"The shoot-to-kill order, to the extent it exists, is wrong and should be rescinded,\" he told ABC News' This Week.\n\nHe said the US was also seeking clarification from the Kazakh president on why he had requested the presence of Russian troops.\n\nIn another development, neighbouring Kyrgyzstan lodged a protest with the Kazakh ambassador over the detention in Kazakhstan of a Kyrgyz jazz musician, after footage emerged apparently showing him in custody, badly beaten.\n\nKazakh authorities accuse Vikram Ruzakhunov of participating in the protests, and have paraded him on state television.\n\nOn Saturday, Kazakh authorities said the country's former intelligence chief Karim Massimov had been arrested on suspicion of treason. They gave no further details.\n\nTwo former deputies to Mr Massimov have also been removed from their posts, the president's office said on Sunday.\n\nMarat Osipov and Daulet Ergozhin had been serving as deputy heads of the country's powerful National Security Committee prior to their removal. Mr Tokayev's office has yet to publicly provide a reason for the sackings.", "The application for Jeremy Clarkson's farm was turned down by West Oxfordshire District Council\n\nA planned new restaurant for TV personality Jeremy Clarkson's Oxfordshire farm has been refused permission.\n\nDiddly Squat Farm, in Chadlington, is the site of the former Top Gear host's Amazon Studios series, Clarkson's Farm.\n\nClarkson said it would enhance farming and tourism in the area and the refusal meant a \"very bad day for farming\".\n\nWhen asked how frustrated he was, he said: \"Very, and so will all the local farmers.\"\n\nPlanning officers said the proposal to renovate a lambing shed into a restaurant was out of keeping with the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).\n\nThe shed was built in 2020 after a new flock of sheep was bought to diversify the farm business.\n\nIt has now been merged with another local farmer's flock, the council said.\n\nBut council officers said the building has since been used, without planning permission, as a cafe and a bar area.\n\nClarkson posed for selfies with fans as he arrived for a village meeting in September\n\nAhead of Monday's meeting, a total of 53 objections were received by the council, along with 12 letters of support.\n\nChadlington Parish Council said it held a public meeting in November to decide its view on the \"divisive and contentious\" application but a vote was inconclusive.\n\nIn September Clarkson admitted the farm had \"swamped\" the village but said it led to increased trade for businesses.\n\nHe hosted a residents' meeting on the farm that month, when he unveiled plans for the new restaurant.\n\nClarkson told Jeremy Vine: \"There is more traffic, yes, but there is more business.\n\n\"The village shop is doing better, the cafe in the village, the pub in the village - they are all doing better.\n\n\"They are swamped with people but they are swamped with people spending money.\"\n\nThe authority said it \"recently\" served Clarkson's farm with a planning contravention notice after allegations that products sold in its shop were not grown, reared or produced on the farm, or from other local producers.\n\nIf proved, that would be in contravention of a condition agreed when that was given planning permission in November 2019, the council said.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Natural defences against a common cold could offer some protection against Covid-19, too, research suggests.\n\nThe small-scale study, published in Nature Communications, involved 52 individuals who lived with someone who had just caught Covid-19.\n\nThose who had developed a \"memory bank\" of specific immune cells after a cold - to help prevent future attacks - appeared less likely to get Covid.\n\nExperts say no-one should rely on this defence alone, and vaccines remain key.\n\nBut they believe their findings could provide useful insight into how a body's defence system fights the virus.\n\nCovid-19 is caused by a type of coronavirus, and some colds are caused by other coronaviruses - so scientists have wondered whether immunity against one might help with the other.\n\nBut the experts caution that it would be a \"grave mistake\" to think that anyone who had recently had a cold was automatically protected against Covid-19 - as not all are caused by coronaviruses.\n\nThe Imperial College London team wanted to understand better why some people catch Covid after being exposed to the virus and others do not.\n\nThey focused their study on a crucial part of the body' s immune system - T-cells.\n\nSome of these T-cells kill any cells infected by a specific threat - for example, a cold virus.\n\nAnd, once the cold has gone, some T-cells remain in the body as a memory bank, ready to mount a defence when they next encounter the virus.\n\nIn September 2020, researchers studied 52 people who had not yet been vaccinated but who lived with people who had just tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nHalf the group went on to get Covid during the 28-day study period and half did not.\n\nA third of the people who did not catch Covid were found to have high levels of specific memory T-cells in their blood.\n\nThese were likely to have been created when the body had been infected with another closely-related human coronavirus - most frequently, a common cold, they say.\n\nResearchers accept other variables - such as ventilation and how infectious their household contact was - would have an impact on whether people caught the virus, too.\n\nDr Simon Clarke, at the University of Reading, said although this was a relatively small study, it added to the understanding of how our immune system fights the virus and could help with future vaccines.\n\nHe added: \"These data should not be over-interpreted. It seems unlikely that everyone who has died or had a more serious infection, has never had a cold caused by a coronavirus.\n\n\"And it could be a grave mistake to think that anyone who has recently had a cold is protected against Covid-19, as coronaviruses only account for 10-15% of colds.\"\n\nProfessor Ajit Lalvani, senior author of the study, agreed vaccines were key to protection.\n\nHe added: \"Learning from what the body does right could help inform the design of new vaccines.\"\n\nCurrent vaccines specifically target spike proteins that sit on the outside of the virus, but those spike proteins can change with new variants.\n\nBut the body's T-cells target internal virus proteins, which do not change as much from variant to variant, meaning vaccines harnessing the work of T-cells more closely could provide broader, longer-lasting protection against Covid, he said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The authorities blame \"terrorists\" for the violence, but there is widespread discontent at the government\n\nThe sound of the broken glass echoed as Andrey Mikhaylovich walked inside a looted shopping mall on the outskirts of Almaty, Kazakhstan's biggest city. Empty boxes, phone cases, shoes and other leftover goods were scattered everywhere.\n\nMr Mikhaylovich runs a clothing shop with his son inside the mall. This is the first time he has visited it since the unrest started in Almaty on 4 January. Upon seeing the destruction, he was left speechless.\n\n\"They looted everything,\" he said. \"In three days they took goods out and robbed the whole place. Our losses are massive. Many people are now left with nothing to live on.\"\n\nWe were approaching a motionless escalator when several gunshots stopped us. It was soldiers trying to chase some curious onlookers out from the mall. The soldiers now guard the area to prevent any more looting.\n\nBut there is not much left to protect.\n\n\"The marauders smashed the glass, broke into the building and went to crack cash machines open,\" said Yedil, a local resident, remembering the first nights of the clashes.\n\nHe came to help his friend protect his shop and goods.\n\n\"Of course, we were scared. They shot at us,\" Yedil said. \"The guards at the mall tried to defend it with a hose but it was useless.\"\n\nYedil tried to protect his friend's shop from looters\n\nLooters set the building on fire in several places. \"It was all in smoke here. We tried to put it out. We tried to call firefighters but phone lines were dead,\" Yedil remembers.\n\nAs I walked towards the main square of Almaty, I counted three dead bodies inside cars.\n\nIt is likely they were shot or died in a crash. One vehicle hit a tree and another one was lying in a ditch on its side. It looked like they suddenly lost control while trying to escape from something.\n\nDuring the peak of the fighting, I sat in a hotel near the main square of Almaty and listened to the sounds of explosions, shooting and machine gun fire.\n\nI watched how the sky flashed from stun grenades and like many in Kazakhstan I was shocked by how quickly the violence spread.\n\nWho were those people who clashed with security forces? Were they really protesters?\n\nThe government calls them bandits and terrorists, and they were reportedly armed.\n\nSome of them tried to storm police stations and military units, hoping to seize their guns. In some cases, they were successful. They also broke into several firearms shops and looted them.\n\nDemonstrators in western Kazakhstan, where the movement started, insist that their protest is peaceful and they do not support aggression. They blame the authorities for provoking the violence.\n\nDosym Satpayev, a political analyst from Almaty believes that at the core of the violent mob that attacked security forces and seized buildings are unemployed young people from poor families who hijacked the protests.\n\n\"If you look around big cities of Kazakhstan, you will find a lot of unemployed young people and this is potentially an aggressive mass,\" he says.\n\n\"And now these people tried to use the events in Almaty for their own interests.\"\n\nThe aftermath of looting at the mall in Almaty\n\nEconomic grievances were certainly one of the major factors that fuelled the protests in Kazakhstan.\n\nThe public's anger with the authoritarian system, which has failed to improve the quality of life, has been growing over the past few years.\n\nIn 2019, when Kazakhstan's first president Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his resignation after being in power for 30 years, there was excitement that change was imminent.\n\nBut Mr Nazarbayev's successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, was seen as loyal to Mr Nazarbayev. This only increased public discontent and the January fuel price hike triggered the mass demonstrations.\n\nBut some observers argue that the public's grievances do not explain why these protests turned so violent.\n\nThey believe it is the power struggle between current and former presidents that led to these clashes. While Mr Nazarbayev still holds such strong influence on the political stage, Mr Tokayev does not have full power.\n\nMany also believe the recent arrest of Karim Masimov, a former secret service chief and a close ally of Mr Nazarbayev is an illustration of this power struggle.\n\nThe competition for power within the elite poses a serious threat for Kazakhstan's stability, says Mr Satpayev. However the power struggle is not necessarily between the two leaders but perhaps among those who belong to their \"inner circle\", he argues.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg is in Kazakhstan's capital amid reports of a power struggle fuelling the recent unrest", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We are coming for you\" - Michael Gove's warning to firms that cut corners, sought to profiteer and mis-sold dangerous products\n\nNo leaseholder living in a building higher than 11m, around four to six storeys high, \"will ever face any costs\" for fixing dangerous cladding, the housing secretary has said.\n\nMichael Gove has given firms until March to agree how to help leaseholders trapped in \"unsellable homes\".\n\nHe warned those who had mis-sold unsafe cladding or cut corners on homes that the government was \"coming for you\".\n\nThe cladding crisis has left many with crippling bills to fix unsafe homes.\n\nResidents in blocks 11-18m high had been ineligible for government support to remove unsafe cladding, but Mr Gove confirmed on Monday that the government was scrapping \"the proposal for loans and long term debt for medium rise leaseholders\".\n\n\"No leaseholder living in a building above 11m, will ever face any costs for fixing dangerous cladding,\" Mr Gove told the House of Commons.\n\n\"They are blameless and it is morally wrong that they should be asked to pay for the price.\"\n\nThe housing secretary said businesses who manufactured combustible cladding and insulation, \"many of whom have made vast profits\" at the height of the pandemic, \"must pay now, instead of leaseholders\".\n\nHe added companies would have the chance \"to do the right thing\", but warned if necessary, the government would \"impose a solution upon them in law.\"\n\nFollowing his speech, Labour's Lisa Nandy said it was a \"relief\" that were was a consensus that \"blameless leaseholders must not pay\".\n\nHowever, the shadow housing secretary questioned what made Mr Gove think he could force developers \"who for four years have refused to do the right thing, to pay up\".\n\nMr Gove said earlier some building companies had shown leadership and covered the costs but others \"had not shouldered their responsibilities.\"\n\nCharlotte Meehan lives with her husband in an East London development that has a range of fire safety issues, including flammable cladding, combustible insulation and missing cavity barriers.\n\nShe told the BBC she wanted to move to start a family, but it was impossible: \"We are completely trapped, we can't sell our flat it's worthless.\"\n\nLeaseholders have had to pay £500,000 over the last two years for a 24-hour waking watch, resulting in their service charge doubling.\n\nThe development's reserves for essential repairs are also \"seriously depleted\" leaving it in a \"dire state of disrepair\".\n\nShe welcomed Mr Gove's plan but said it felt \"half baked\" as it does not cover non-cladding fire safety issues or interim costs.\n\n\"People are going bankrupt and losing their homes based on interim costs,\" she said.\n\nIn the wake of the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in hundreds of blocks of flats across the UK.\n\nThe government has so far only promised to pay to remove cladding in taller buildings, not those between 11m and 18m high.\n\nRemoving cladding can cost millions of pounds per block, with the cost often being borne by individual flat owners, under the leasehold system in England and Wales.\n\nIn his letter, Mr Gove warned he would take \"all steps necessary\" to make developers pay including:\n\nThe time limit for leaseholders to sue builders over defective flats will also be extended from six to 30 years.\n\nIt's estimated that the average cladding bill is around £40,000 per leaseholder. Some people have received bills of more than £200,000, more than they paid for their flats in the first place.\n\nThis package of measures is expected to relieve some of that financial pressure, but it by no means covers everything. These proposals ignore non-cladding problems - leaseholders fear they will still face astronomical bills to fix defective insulation, missing fire breaks and flammable balconies.\n\nCampaigners say it makes no sense to make buildings \"half safe\". This is a partial solution.\n\nIt is also unclear how the government intends to force or coerce developers to pay to fix these faults. There is no new money from Treasury. If Michael Gove is unsuccessful in recouping money from the industry it will have to come out of existing departmental budgets. So that is less money for levelling up and less money for home building as a consequence.\n\nDevelopers often argue that they met building regulations at the time and should not be liable for the cost of removing unsafe cladding.\n\nHowever, some, such as housebuilder Taylor Wimpey, have already promised to foot the bill for issues at their buildings.\n\nStewart Baseley, executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation, said that as well as developers and government, other parties should now contribute.\n\n\"[That] not least [would include] material manufacturers who designed, tested and sold materials that developers purchased in good faith that were later proved to not be fit for purpose,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'My life is on hold until the crisis is over'\n\nLiz Vick from Salford is disappointed by the government's plans. She lives in a low-rise building which faces fires safety issues due to missing cavity barriers, not cladding, so she's still on the hook to pay the costs.\n\n\"We are still waiting for a big bill for remediation,\" she told the BBC. \"It could be anything between £50,000 to £100,000 per leaseholder.\"\n\nShe says such a large bill would push her into bankruptcy and the constant stress has affected her mental health.\n\n\"The only way to describe it is you're living in survival mode 24/7, whether that be in terms of facing financial ruin, or burning to death in a building,\" she said.\n\n\"We can't move on with our lives, we can't afford to start a family. My life has been on hold and will be on hold until this crisis is over.\"\n\nThe government says the vast majority of lower height buildings are safe and others that do have combustible cladding may also be safe or could be made safe using existing fire safety measures such as sprinklers or alarms.\n\nHowever, it said a small number have unsafe cladding that must be addressed.\n\nCladding campaigners have long asked that the government accept both the principle that buildings under 18.5m ought to be covered and that leaseholders should not have to pay.\n\nThey cautiously welcomed the government's new proposals, but warned they ignored the costs of fixing other fire safety issues discovered on thousands of tower blocks across UK.\n\nThere is also no help for the many buildings under 11m high with dangerous cladding.", "An EastEnders source said Dyer's character had a \"huge storyline in store\" before he goes\n\nActor Danny Dyer will leave EastEnders later this year, the BBC has confirmed.\n\nDyer, who plays Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter, is not quitting immediately, with the BBC promising \"plenty of explosive drama\" before he goes.\n\nEastEnders said Dyer, who joined the show in 2013, had made Mick Carter into \"an iconic character\" who they would \"always be grateful for\".\n\n\"Danny will be leaving EastEnders when his contract comes to an end later this year,\" it said in a statement.\n\n\"However, we won't be saying goodbye just yet as there's still quite some time - and plenty of explosive drama for Mick - to come before he departs Walford.\"\n\nDyer's character Mick has become popular with viewers since he was introduced nine years ago.\n\nMick has remained behind the bar at the Queen Victoria pub ever since and has married Linda Carter, played by Kellie Bright.\n\nAn EastEnders source said: \"Danny made the decision quite some time ago that he would leave the show this year, which has given bosses plenty of time to plan a huge storyline for him.\"\n\nThe source added Dyer's character would be \"at the heart of some big drama\" with the return of his on-screen wife this year.\n\nDyer, 44, won three National Television Awards for serial drama performance for playing the role.\n\nA spokeswoman for the soap said Dyer had not been blocked from other projects, following reports in the Mirror newspaper.\n\nBefore joining EastEnders, Dyer was best known for appearing in British films like Mean Machine and The Football Factory.\n\nHe also fronted his own TV series - Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men.\n\nIn 2017, he appeared in an episode of the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, in which he found out he was related to royalty.\n\nDyer discovered that he is descended from William the Conqueror, Edward III and Thomas Cromwell.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson says he is talking to Chancellor Rishi Sunak over how the government could help people with soaring energy prices.\n\nThe prime minister is under pressure to act on rising household costs, ahead of further increases to capped bills due in April.\n\nSome Tory MPs want cuts to green levies and VAT to help bring bills down.\n\nLabour, which also wants VAT suspended, is also demanding higher taxes on oil and gas producers.\n\nThe party said it would use money from the hike to pay for more generous government payments to help poorer households with costs.\n\nOn Monday, Mr Johnson said ministers understood the difficulties people were facing, and \"we're certainly looking at what we can do\".\n\nTrade body Energy UK predicts bills will surge by up to 50% in April, when the change to the price cap, due to be determined in February, kicks in.\n\nThere have been warnings that average households could pay about £700 more per year, amid surging prices for wholesale gas worldwide.\n\nSpeaking to reporters during a visit to a vaccination centre, Mr Johnson said rises were driven by \"general inflationary pressure\" caused by the world economy \"coming back from Covid\".\n\nBut he added: \"We've got to help people, particularly people in low incomes, we've got to help people with the cost of their fuel - and that's what we're going to do.\"\n\nAsked if he would meet Mr Sunak this week, he replied: \"I've been meeting the chancellor constantly. I met the chancellor last night to talk about it.\"\n\nMr Johnson is expected to hold his first formal discussions with Mr Sunak on Monday, although a decision on what to do is not expected imminently.\n\nExperts predict average annual bills could rise to about £2,000 next year\n\nLabour is warning that the expected increase in the energy cap from April, in combination with the planned rise in National Insurance on workers, will lead to a cost of living crisis for many households.\n\nThe party wants an extra £3.5bn to be spent on the warm homes discount, increasing it from £140 to £400 per year, while doubling the number of households eligible to 9.3 million, around a third of the UK total.\n\nIt also wants to remove the 5% VAT rate on domestic energy bills from April for 12 months, which it says would produce an annual saving of £89 per household.\n\nThe party says it would pay for its plans through a year-long 10 percentage point increase to the corporation tax paid by North Sea energy producers on their profits, along with higher-than expected VAT receipts due to inflation.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party was \"stepping into the vacuum of leadership that the government has left with a plan to actually reduce bills\".\n\nLabour will attempt to use a Commons debate on Tuesday to set up a vote next month on its proposals for a VAT cut.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats have also called for a windfall tax on energy firms to pay more more generous support for poorer households, and its ten-year plan to improve home insulation.\n\nSpeaking last week, leader Sir Ed Davey said: \"It can't be right that a few energy fat cats are raking it in from record gas prices while millions of people can't even afford to heat their homes.\"\n\nBut Oil and Gas UK, the offshore industry body, has said a windfall tax would offer \"false hope\" to consumers and damage the UK economy.\n\nIt argues the levy would not benefit users long-term, as it would discourage investment and make the UK more reliant on imported foreign gas.\n\nMr Johnson is also facing pressure from his own side to take action in the coming weeks to reduce costs on households.\n\nEarlier this month, a group of Tory MPs and peers called on him to scrap VAT on bills, and review levies to help for government environmental policies.\n\nOn Monday, Conservative MP Stephen McPartland told the BBC the government should introduce \"credit facilities\" to help energy firms cope with volatile prices.\n\nHe said this would allow firms to draw on financial reserves as an alternative to increasing the government cap on standard tariffs from April.\n\nLast week, Mr Johnson argued that a VAT cut would be too \"blunt\" a tool, as it would affect all households, including the richest, rather than targeting those most in need.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe boss of one of London's busiest hospitals has said he is worried about losing staff when new rules come in requiring them to be vaccinated.\n\nFrom April, front-line NHS staff in England will need to have the Covid jab - or will be moved to another role.\n\nKing's College Hospital chief Dr Clive Kay said his job was to encourage workers to get jabbed - and 10% of his 14,000 staff were still unvaccinated.\n\nThe government's Nadhim Zahawi defended the policy as \"the right thing\" to do.\n\nFrom the start of April, under law NHS staff in England who have direct face-to-face contact with patients will need to have been vaccinated against Covid.\n\nThis includes front-line workers as well as non-clinical staff who might come across patients, such as receptionists, porters and cleaners.\n\nA similar policy has already been brought in for staff working in social care in England - with care homes warning it has worsened the staffing crisis. The NHS is already facing a severe lack of staff and is short of about 93,000 workers.\n\nDr Kay was speaking after one of his own doctors challenged Health Secretary Sajid Javid over the issue, saying he was \"not happy\" that he faced being dismissed for not getting the jab.\n\nThe doctor, consultant anaesthetist Steve James, argued that he believed he already had antibodies after catching Covid - and has since told the BBC he believes vaccination should be a matter of personal choice.\n\nSajid Javid spoke to consultant Steve James who said he had not got the Covid vaccine\n\nHospital boss Dr Kay refused to say whether he thought the new rule was fair - although argued that staff were \"not being forced\" to have the jab, but instead \"being encouraged\".\n\nBut pressed on the rules, he acknowledged it could mean people leaving their current job: \"There's a possibility if they choose not to be vaccinated they could be redeployed. And if we can't find that opportunity to redeploy them then the consequence is that they will [not have a job].\"\n\n\"We will not make individuals be vaccinated,\" Dr Kay told the BBC's Sophie Raworth on the Sunday Morning programme. \"We must treat them with kindness, with compassion, we must give them every single opportunity to talk through if they don't want the vaccine... but ultimately it is their choice.\"\n\nAsked how many front-line staff he could lose under the law change, Dr Kay said: \"I am confident that we are already seeing a number of staff choosing to be vaccinated. I don't want at this stage to predict or give any numbers.\"\n\nBut he said he was \"of course\" worried about staffing, adding: \"My job is to worry about everything in relation to whether or not we have enough staff here to provide care for patients safely.\"\n\nAccording to Mr Javid in November, more than 93% of NHS front-line staff had had their first dose and 90% were fully vaccinated. This is higher than the wider population, where 90% have had a first dose and 83% have had both.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Sophie Raworth on Sunday morning, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi defended mandatory vaccines for NHS staff in England, saying: \"We have a duty of care when looking after the most vulnerable to protect ourselves and to protect them.\"\n\nDr James told the BBC's Broadcasting House programme on Sunday: \"My view is that we should not mandate vaccination.\"\n\n\"Normally you go through this process of informed consent, where you weigh up as a doctor with the patient, the risks the benefits and that person's personal preference.\"\n\nHe said he has been written to by \"hundreds of people\" since he spoke to Mr Javid, who have told him they were thankful that he has spoken up about how he felt.\n\n\"I've been written to by a group of midwives who say that, I think 41 or 45 of them in that unit will all not be vaccinated. That means the entire midwife staff from one hospital are going to leave.\"\n\nEach of the four UK nations makes its own decisions on the issue.\n\nScotland and Wales have not made any proposals to make Covid jabs compulsory for NHS workers or care home staff, while in Northern Ireland there is to be a public consultation.\n\nScotland's Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said they were not going down the same route as England \"partly because the uptake from NHS and social care staff is so incredibly high\". \"I don't think making vaccines mandatory is the way to go,\" he said.\n\nIt comes as the UK recorded 141,472 new cases, as well as 97 deaths within 28 days of a positive test - although the number of deaths recorded over weekends tends to be lower because of reporting delays.\n\nThe total number of cases over the past seven days is up 6.6% on the previous week, while the figure for deaths is up 30.9%.", "Martyn Hett was one of those killed in the Manchester Arena bombing\n\nVenues would have a legal duty to put in place security measures to protect the public from terror attacks under government plans.\n\nIt comes in the wake of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, when 22 people were killed as they left an Ariana Grande concert.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel will set out the proposals on Tuesday, following an 18-week consultation.\n\nThe so-called Protect Duty has been championed by victims' groups.\n\nThese include the Martyn's Law campaign, which was started by Figen Murray, after the loss of her son, 29-year-old Martyn Hett, in the attack.\n\nMrs Murray welcomed the report on the consultation and said she hoped the legislation would be introduced as quickly as possible \"to avoid the further unnecessary loss of innocent lives\".\n\nThe government will seek to introduce the legislation to Parliament at the earliest opportunity, the Home Office said.\n\nThere is currently no legislative requirement for organisations or venues to consider security measures at the vast majority of public places.\n\nA consultation, launched in February 2021, found that seven in 10 of the 2,755 respondents agreed those responsible for publicly accessible locations should take appropriate and proportionate measures to protect the public from attacks. This included ensuring staff were trained to respond appropriately.\n\nThere was also agreement that measures should be proportionate to a venue's size, the Home Office said, with smaller organisations not facing the same requirements as larger ones.\n\nHalf the respondents were in favour of an inspectorate that would identify key vulnerabilities and areas for improvement, as well as share best practice. There was also an even split of those who were supportive of the use of civil penalties to ensure compliance.\n\nTwenty-two people were killed in the Manchester Arena bombing\n\nHome Secretary Ms Patel said: \"My number one priority is keeping the people of the UK safe.\n\n\"Following the tragic attack at the Manchester Arena, we have worked closely with Figen Murray, victims' groups and partners to develop proposals to improve protective security around the country.\n\n\"We will never allow terrorists to restrict our freedoms and way of life, which is why we are committed to bringing forward legislation this year, that will strike the right balance between public safety, whilst not placing excessive burden on small businesses,\" she added.\n\nMinisters have previously suggested the government could support measures called for by the Martyn's Law campaign, including airport-style checks and counter-terror attack action plans for large venues.\n\nHowever, full details are expected to be laid out in a written ministerial statement on Tuesday.\n\nThe Home Office is also helping to develop a new interactive online platform, which is due to launch this year, aiming to provide advice for organisations on counter-terrorism.", "The Queen will be 96 when the main Jubilee celebrations kick off in June\n\nBuckingham Palace has unveiled the full line-up of celebrations to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee this year.\n\nStreet parties, a concert with some of the world's \"biggest entertainment stars\" and a chance to see the Queen's homes up close are all part of the plan to mark her 70 years on the throne.\n\nIt will culminate in a four-day UK bank holiday weekend from 2 to 5 June.\n\nThe first event begins on Monday, with a competition to invent a new pudding to celebrate the Queen's reign.\n\nFinalists will be judged by an expert panel including Dame Mary Berry and Masterchef's Monica Galetti.\n\nThe winning recipe will be made available to the public and the pudding will be enjoyed at Big Jubilee Lunches during the bank holiday weekend.\n\nOn 6 February the Queen will become the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking a 70-year reign.\n\nA series of celebrations will take place throughout the year.\n\nThe Queen marked 50 years on the throne in 2002, with the Duke of Edinburgh by her side\n\nShe rode in the Golden State Coach as part of the celebrations\n\nAs with the Queen's Golden and Diamond Jubilees, the first week in June has been chosen for the celebratory weekend, with the summer offering a better chance of good weather than February.\n\nTo create the four-day weekend, the late May Spring Bank Holiday will be moved to 2 June and an additional one-off bank holiday on 3 June created.\n\nIt is not clear which events the Queen will attend herself. She was advised by her medical team to rest for several weeks after an overnight hospital stay in October.\n\nThe majority of the jubilee duties will probably be given to the rest of the family, including the heir to the throne, the Prince of Wales, alongside his wife the Duchess of Cornwall.\n\nThis jubilee will be the Queen's first without her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died in April last year.\n\nIt's going to be puddings, parties, parades and pageants, in honour of the platinum jubilee.\n\nThere isn't really a template for celebrating a British monarch's 70-year reign, because it's not happened before.\n\nThe nearest was Queen Victoria's 63 years and elsewhere you have to go back to 18th-Century France and Louis XIV, who reached 72 years.\n\nIn this current bleak mid-Covid winter, the jubilee offers the warming prospect of a four-day bank holiday in June, with concerts, parties and pubs open until 1am.\n\nThe \"platinum pudding\" competition is in the tradition of royal-related dishes like Coronation Chicken, invented for the Queen's coronation in 1953. So expect a lot of trifling puns.\n\nThe celebrations are also a reminder of how much the Queen has been a constant figure. A recent study showed for 85% of the population she's the only monarch they've ever known.\n\nThis will be a marker for memories in many people's lives.\n\nPrince Philip joined the Queen on board the Royal Barge Spirit of Chartwell as part of the celebrations in 2012\n\nThe Queen taking part in a Silver Jubilee walkabout in 1977\n\nDuring the festivities, Sandringham and Balmoral will be open for visitors to enjoy the celebrations across the long weekend in June.\n\nAnd during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, a River Of Hope - made up of 200 silk flags decorated with images of hope drawn by children - will make its way along the Mall in central London.\n\nAs part of the Queen's Green Canopy initiative, some 60,000 trees have already been planted to mark the year, as people have been encouraged to \"plant a tree for the jubilee\".\n\nOn 10 January the Platinum Pudding Competition starts. Members of the public are invited to create a dish to dedicate to the Queen's reign.\n\nFrom 12 to 15 May, more than 500 horses and 1,000 performers will take part in a 90-minute show at Windsor Castle, taking the audience on a journey through history from Elizabeth I to present day.\n\nThe first day of the long weekend is Thursday 2 June and will see Trooping the Colour held in full for the first time since the pandemic. There will be more than 1,400 parading soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians taking part. Tickets are available to the public from next week on this site.\n\nAlso that day, Platinum Jubilee beacons will be lit in more than 1,500 locations across the UK, the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories. For the first time, the capital cities of Commonwealth countries will also light beacons.\n\nOn Friday 3 June - the second day of the Bank Holiday weekend - a Service of Thanksgiving for the Queen's reign will be held at St Paul's Cathedral.\n\nOn Saturday 4 June the Queen will be joined by members of the Royal Family at the Derby, held at Epsom Downs. There will also be a Platinum Party at Buckingham Palace, with members of the public invited to apply to attend a live concert. Performers have yet to be named, but it is billed as bringing together some of the world's biggest stars to celebrate the most significant moments from the Queen's seven-decade reign. The ballot for UK residents to secure tickets will be launched in February.\n\nOn Sunday 5 June people across the country will be invited to sit down together to take part in the Big Jubilee Lunch, with street parties held across the UK. That day's events will also include the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, which will feature 5,000 people from the UK and the Commonwealth performing around the area of Buckingham Palace. The palace promises \"pomp and ceremony, street arts, theatre, music, circus, costumes as well as cutting-edge visual technology\".\n\nPrimary and secondary school children are invited to create a picture of their hopes and aspirations for the planet over the next 70 years. A selection of these will be transferred on to silk flags, which will carried by secondary school pupils in the pageant.\n\nIn July, three displays marking the Queen's accession to the throne, the coronation and jubilees will be put on at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. It will include portraits as well as the jewellery and outfits worn for each occasion.\n\nWhat are your plans for the Jubilee? Or if you have a pudding recipe you'd be willing to share, please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A Whitehall source has denied the government is working on a plan for living with Covid in the long term. But there's speculation about what changes that might eventually entail.\n\nThe government has already said in its Autumn and Winter Covid plan for this year that one day lateral flow tests will have to be paid for by businesses and individuals that benefit from them, rather than by the taxpayer. But the source said ministers had not even made a decision about when such a decision might be needed.\n\nThen there's the period you must isolate for if you have Covid. That's already come down from an automatic 10 days to seven if you test negative on the final two, after ministers asked the UK Health Security Agency to review the rule. But the UKHSA estimates there's a 10-30% chance than an individual could still be infectious on day six, so it's not coming down any further for now. That's why ministers who are enthusiastic about people being stuck home for less time say they would support a change if the science changed.\n\nThere are other questions, such as when does the government stop financial support for people who are isolating? You don't get a cheque if you've got a cold, the argument goes.\n\nThe PM's adviser-turned-enemy Dominic Cummings wrote in a blog post last week that the government had also failed to plan ahead for future variants.\n\nThese issues will come to a head in the build-up to 26 January when the measures implementing Plan B in England are due to expire. And again at the end of March when the legislation that underpins much of the response to Covid lapses, too.", "A US man has become the first person in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig.\n\nDavid Bennett, 57, is doing well three days after the experimental seven-hour procedure in Baltimore, doctors say.\n\nThe transplant was considered the last hope of saving Mr Bennett's life, though it is not yet clear what his long-term chances of survival are.\n\n\"It was either die or do this transplant,\" Mr Bennett explained a day before the surgery.\n\n\"I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice,\" he said.\n\nDoctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center were granted a special dispensation by the US medical regulator to carry out the procedure, on the basis that Mr Bennett - who has terminal heart disease - would otherwise have died.\n\nHe had been deemed ineligible for a human transplant, a decision that is often taken by doctors when the patient is in very poor health.\n\nThe pig used in the transplant had been genetically modified to knock out several genes that would have led to the organ being rejected by Mr Bennett's body, the AFP news agency reports.\n\nFor the medical team who carried out the transplant, it marks the culmination of years of research and could change lives around the world.\n\nSurgeon Bartley Griffith said the surgery would bring the world \"one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis\". Currently 17 people die every day in the US waiting for a transplant, with more than 100,000 reportedly on the waiting list.\n\nDr Christine Lau, chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, was in the operating theatre during the surgery.\n\n\"He's at more of a risk because we require more immunosuppression, slightly different than we would normally do in a human-to-human transplant. How well the patient does from now is, you know, it's never been done before so we really don't know,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"People die all the time on the waiting list, waiting for organs. If we could use genetically engineered pig organs they'd never have to wait, they could basically get an organ as they needed it.\n\n\"Plus, we wouldn't have to fly all over the country at night-time to recover organs to put them into recipients,\" she added.\n\nThe possibility of using animal organs for so-called xenotransplantation to meet the demand has long been considered, and using pig heart valves is already common.\n\nIn October 2021, surgeons in New York announced that they had successfully transplanted a pig's kidney into a person. At the time, the operation was the most advanced experiment in the field so far.\n\nHowever, the recipient on that occasion was brain dead with no hope of recovery.\n\nThis watershed moment provides hope of a solution to the chronic shortage of donor human organs. But there is still a long way to go to determine whether giving people animal organs is the way forward. Pig hearts are anatomically similar to human hearts but, understandably, not identical. It's not ideal, compared to swapping in a human donor heart. But it is possible to plumb them in and get them working.\n\nThe bigger issue is organ rejection. These pigs are bred to lack genes that can cause rejection. They are cloned with certain genes \"knocked out\" and reared until they reach an age where their organs are big enough to be harvested for transplantation.\n\nIt is too soon to know how Mr Bennett will fare with his pig heart. His doctors were clear that the surgery was a gamble. The risks are huge, but so are the potential gains.\n\nMr Bennett, however, is hoping his transplant will allow him to continue with his life. He was bedridden for six weeks leading up to the surgery, and attached to a machine which kept him alive after he was diagnosed with terminal heart disease.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Muhammad Mohiuddin from the University of Maryland calls the transplant a \"game-changer\"\n\n\"I look forward to getting out of bed after I recover,\" he said last week.\n\nOn Monday, Mr Bennett was reported to be breathing on his own while being carefully monitored.\n\nBut exactly what will happen next is unclear.\n\nMr Griffith said they were proceeding cautiously and carefully monitoring Mr Bennett, while his son David Bennett Jr told the Associated Press that the family were \"in the unknown at this point\".\n\nBut he added: \"He realises the magnitude of what was done and he really realises the importance of it.\"\n\n\"We've never done this in a human and I like to think that we, we have given him a better option than what continuing his therapy would have been,\" Mr Griffith said. \"But whether [he will live for] a day, week, month, year, I don't know.\"", "Gerald Corrigan was murdered by a crossbow shot outside his remote home near Holyhead in 2019\n\nA \"fraudster\" took more than £200,000 from a man who was later murdered after being shot with a crossbow, a court has heard.\n\nGerald Corrigan, 74, was shot at his home at South Stack, Anglesey, in 2019.\n\nRichard Wyn Lewis, 50, of y Fferam, Anglesey, denies defrauding Mr Corrigan over a number of years before his death.\n\nMold Crown Court was told the murder had \"nothing whatsoever\" to do with the alleged fraud.\n\nMr Lewis, known as Wyn Lewis, is accused of fraud by making false representations to Mr Corrigan and his partner Marie Bailey.\n\nThe charges relate to the alleged development and sale of their home at Gof Du, the alleged purchase of horses, the disposal and sale of their Citroen car and the alleged purchase of a former school at Llanddona.\n\nHis partner Siwan Mclean is accused of money laundering by allowing £50,000 of stolen money into her bank account for the alleged purchase of the former school.\n\nOpening the case, the prosecution claimed Mr Lewis told Mr Corrigan he had a known buyer for Gof Du, named John Halsall, and he also knew a France-based ex-planning officer with Anglesey council called \"David\", who would help with the development.\n\nIt is alleged Mr Lewis charged Mr Corrigan for the alleged work \"almost always\" in cash without ever giving a receipt or documentation.\n\nDescribing Mr Lewis as a \"fraudster\", prosecuting barrister Peter Rouch QC said: \"There never was the potential sale of Gof Du, there never was an ex-planning officer called David, there never was a planning application.\n\n\"The whole thing was a complete sham which cost Gerald Corrigan and Marie Bailey hundreds of thousand of pounds.\"\n\nMr Rouch said it was difficult to say precisely how much cash Mr Corrigan had given Mr Lewis.\n\nMr Corrigan and Ms Bailey's cash withdrawals before they met Wyn Lewis were described as \"modest\".\n\nBut, between the time they became involved with Mr Lewis in 2015 and up to Mr Corrigan's death in 2019, Mr Corrigan had withdrawn £170,000.\n\nThe prosecution claimed the £50,000 transferred from Ms Bailey to Ms Mclean's account raised the total amount of money taken fraudulently from the couple to £220,000.\n\nMr Lewis is also accused of seven other charges of fraud against other people and one count of perverting the course of justice.\n\nThe court heard how in 2017 Andrew Shaw had given Mr Lewis £36,000 in cash, without receipts, to pay for work at a property owned by Gerald Corrigan, which Mr Shaw was to aiming to buy.\n\nThe court heard the house had initially been valued at £130,000, but was later valued at less than £90,000, even after Mr Shaw had paid for work to be done.\n\nAnother alleged victim was a friend of Gerald Corrigan, Eric King, who allegedly gave Wyn Lewis £13,000 in cash to invest in a horse. Mr King died in 2017.\n\nIt is also claimed Mr Lewis took cash from a neighbour, Aiden McGinn, to pay for work which Mr McGinn said didn't need to be done.\n\nMr Lewis is also accused of perverting the course of justice by telling Mr McGinn to tell the police that he gave permission for Mr Lewis to use his bank card.\n\nMr Rouch added that \"over a period of years Wyn Lewis made substantial sums of money\", and he used it \"to fund the lifestyle of Wyn Lewis and Siwan McLean. But that lifestyle was paid for by others.\"\n\nMr Lewis and Ms McLean deny all charges and the trial continues.", "Virgin Mobile and O2 phone users will not face roaming charges following announcements by other networks to reintroduce extra fees after Brexit.\n\nIt means customers travelling to Europe will be able to use their mobile data and make calls and texts on the same deal as they have in the UK.\n\nVodafone, EE and Three are set to reintroduce roaming fees this year for customers travelling to Europe.\n\nConsumer champion Which? urged the UK and EU to \"strike a deal\" on charges.\n\nBefore the UK left the EU, users were able to use their calls, texts, and data allowance in their mobile plans in any EU country after the bloc removed roaming charges in 2017.\n\nHowever, the EU trade deal of December 2020 gave mobile operators the option of reintroducing charges.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that he welcomed the decision by Virgin and O2 to keep roaming free across Europe.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Boris Johnson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nVirgin Media O2 - the company that owns the Virgin Mobile and O2 networks - said a family of four going abroad for two weeks could see an extra £100 on their bill, based on analysis of rates from other providers.\n\n\"We're starting the year by giving our customers some certainty: we will not be reintroducing roaming fees in Europe for customers on O2 or Virgin Mobile,\" said Gareth Turpin, chief commercial officer.\n\n\"With many Brits now looking to plan a trip abroad, we've got our customers covered and extra roaming charges will be one less thing to worry about.\"\n\nVodafone plans to bring back roaming charges at the end of January, while EE is set to in March. Both networks delayed reintroducing the charges earlier due to testing and technical issues respectively.\n\nMeanwhile, Three is to introduce fees in May.\n\nCustomers who joined or upgraded with EE after 7 July 7 2021 face a £2 daily roaming charge in EU countries, while Vodafone will charge the same fee for people who joined the network after 11 August 11 or upgraded or renewed their contract.\n\nHowever, both companies will offer deals to avoid the fee, with EE customers able to buy a 30-day roaming pass for £10 and Vodafone users able to pay £1 a day for an eight or 15-day pass.\n\nThree will bring in the £2 daily charge for people who joined or upgraded after 1 October 2021.\n\nSue Davies, head of consumer protection policy at Which?, said it was \"reassuring\" that Virgin Media O2 had offered some certainty to customers.\n\n\"As the UK continues to negotiate trade deals, it should take the opportunity to lower the cost of roaming for consumers travelling around the world,\" she added.\n\n\"The UK and EU should also work to strike a deal on roaming charges to stop companies chipping away at the roaming benefits customers have become used to and to ensure the high charges people used to face do not return.\"\n\nIn April last year, a £31bn merger between Virgin Media and O2 was approved, making it one of the the UK's largest entertainment and telecoms firms.", "Supermarket Morrisons is to scrap 'use by' dates on most of its milk in a move it says will stop millions of pints being poured down the sink.\n\nThe retailer will instead place 'best before' on 90% of its own-brand milk and encourage customers to use a sniff test to check quality.\n\nRecycling charity Wrap said Morrisons was the first supermarket to make the move, which starts later this month.\n\nIan Goode, senior milk buyer at Morrisons, said it was a \"bold step\".\n\nMilk is the third most wasted food and drink product in the UK, after potatoes and bread, with around 490 million pints wasted every year, according to Wrap.\n\nIt also estimates 85 million pints of milk waste may be due to customers following 'use by' labels, despite research showing it can be used days after the date.\n\nMorrisons believes the move could save seven million pints of its own-brand milk being poured away each year.\n\n'Use by' are the dates until which perishable food can be cooked and consumed safely. 'Best before' on food is guidance for when the product should be consumed to get the best quality, taste and texture.\n\nMorrisons said its research showed that milk does not need to be labelled as a perishable food. \"The dates on the milk will stay the same - it is what we are asking customers to do which is changing,\" the supermarket said.\n\nMr Goode said: \"Wasted milk means wasted effort by our farmers and unnecessary carbon being released into the atmosphere.\n\n\"Good quality, well-kept milk has a good few days life after normal 'use by' dates - and we think it should be consumed, not tipped down the sink.\n\n\"So we're taking a bold step today and asking customers to decide whether their milk is still good to drink. Generations before us have always used the sniff test - and I believe we can too.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMarcus Gover, of Wrap, said: \"I am delighted that Morrisons is the first UK supermarket to take this important step to help reduce household food waste - it shows real leadership and we look forward to more retailers reviewing date labels on their products and taking action.\"\n\nMorrisons has already scrapped 'use by' dates across some of its own-brand yogurt and hard cheese ranges.\n\nThe Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was alright to have 'use by' or 'best before' on milk depending on the processing and type. But there must be clear labelling, and the dates printed on all food and drink must be based on \"robust evidence about the product concerned\".\n\nThe FSA also pointed out that when dealing with food generally, sniffing is not an appropriate safety test, especially with products that could cause food poisoning.", "The case has made headlines around the world, with people in Djokovic's home country taking to the streets in support\n\nNovak Djokovic was given no assurances that a medical exemption would allow him into Australia, lawyers fighting to deport the tennis star have argued.\n\nThe court filing by lawyers for the Australian government also reveal Djokovic, 34, is unvaccinated.\n\nAustralia's Covid border rules ban non-double vaccinated foreigners from entering, unless they have a medical exemption from having the jabs.\n\nA court hearing is under way as Djokovic seeks to stop his deportation.\n\nThe Serbian tennis player flew into Melbourne last week, hoping to defend his Australian Open title.\n\nBut instead he has been held in an immigration detention centre as his lawyers prepare to appeal against a decision by Australia's federal government to cancel his visa.\n\nTennis Australia has said it needs to know by Tuesday if he will be allowed to play, as it has to schedule his matches for the tournament, which begins 17 January.\n\nOn Saturday, Djokovic's lawyers submitted a 35-page document arguing that their client fulfilled the criteria for a vaccine exemption certificate because of a recent Covid infection, which was confirmed by a PCR test on 16 December.\n\nBut in Sunday's court filing, lawyers for Australia's home office dismissed this as a valid reason.\n\n\"There is no suggestion that the applicant had 'acute major medical illness' in December 2021. All he has said is that he tested positive for Covid-19. This is not the same,\" it said, adding there was \"no such thing as an assurance of entry by a non-citizen into Australia\".\n\nIt also said that \"it is common ground\" between the two parties that \"the applicant is unvaccinated\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Serbs in Belgrade give their reaction to Novak Djokovic row\n\nDjokovic has previously said he is opposed to vaccination, but never said openly whether he had had the vaccine.\n\nIn Australia, the news he had been granted a medical exemption was met with anger from citizens who have been living under some of the world's strictest Covid rules.\n\nThose controls have separated families, and meant people missed funerals, births and weddings. Now that more than 90% of Australia's over-16 population are vaccinated some rules have been relaxed. However, some people still cannot travel interstate or globally because of current measures.\n\n\"I think it's a disgrace,\" Melbourne resident Christine Wharton told ABC earlier this week. \"We've all done the right thing, we've all gone out and got our jabs and our boosters and we have someone that has come from overseas and all of a sudden he's been exempt and can play.\"", "The shop worker was abducted and forced to open the Scotmid store on Leven Street\n\nTwo thieves abducted a shop worker on an Edinburgh street, and forced him to return to his store and hand over a four figure sum of cash.\n\nThe 24-year-old was bundled into a car in Spey Street at 22:45 on Thursday after his shift at a Scotmid shop.\n\nHe was driven more than three miles back to the store on Leven Street in a blue Volkswagen Tiguan.\n\nThe men threatened him and forced him to give access to the premises. Police said it was a \"frightening\" incident.\n\nDet Insp Kevin Tait, of Police Scotland said: \"We believe this was a targeted attack and that those responsible had been following the victim prior to approaching him and forcing him to allow them entry to his place of work.\n\n\"While this was a very frightening experience for him, thankfully he was uninjured and we are now pursuing a number of lines of inquiry to trace the suspects.\n\nThe Volkswagen Tiguan was later found on fire in Edinburgh's Lochend Park.\n\nPolice said it had been stolen from Maybury Car Sales on Turnhouse Road on 12 December.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The drive-in movie theatre is due to be held at Chester FC's stadium\n\nPlans for a drive-in cinema in Chester were bogged down after the toilets were found to be across the border with Wales and subject to Welsh Covid rules.\n\nThe bathroom facilities at Chester FC cannot be used due to the new Covid-19 lockdown in Wales.\n\nAnyone caught short would not have been allowed to cross the border.\n\nBut event promoter Storyhouse has confirmed it has managed to hire some portable toilets so customers \"could have a wee without breaking the law\".\n\nChief executive Andrew Bentley said earlier: \"The toilets are in the stand - it is all a bit crazy.\n\n\"Originally we had planned to have six nights on the Welsh part of the ground but had to change it to the English part of the car park after the Welsh Government brought in new restrictions.\"\n\nAndrew Bentley said it was a \"crazy\" situation\n\nStoryhouse said capacity had been reduced to \"comfortably fit\" all the cars on the English side of the border.\n\nBizarrely the Welsh border also runs down the centre of the club's pitch which could have caused problems for Chester FC's players who will play their first game after the Welsh \"firebreak\" lockdown starts.\n\nBut the ultimate offside trap has been avoided, according to club spokesman Albert Davies.\n\nHe said: \"We are actually classed as elite sport, so the rules do not apply.\n\n\"We've played some great stuff recently and it has been elite football.\"\n\nThe National League North team are in action in the FA Cup fourth preliminary round on Saturday against Marine who are based in... Waterloo.\n\nThe toilets are in the Welsh part of the stadium\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Fashion photographer Paolo Roversi said taking a portrait of the duchess was a \"true honour\" and \"a moment of pure joy\"\n\nThe Duchess of Cambridge has marked her 40th birthday by releasing three new photographs.\n\nThe glamorous portraits, taken by fashion photographer Paolo Roversi, show her wearing Alexander McQueen dresses, as well as earrings that belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales, and others loaned by the Queen.\n\nCatherine thanked people for their \"very kind birthday wishes\" and Roversi for \"these three special portraits\".\n\nA big birthday is always a good excuse for nostalgia and reflection - and for the duchess there is plenty to ponder.\n\nMuch has changed for her since her marriage into the Royal Family - not just the prince, their three children and her role as future Queen.\n\nShe has also had to find her feet as a public figure.\n\nMoving from the private Kate Middleton to the public, royal Duchess of Cambridge has had its challenges.\n\nShe has had to navigate the particular and peculiar stresses that come with joining the Royal Family, of which there are many.\n\nThe three portraits were taken at Kew Gardens in November\n\nBuckingham Palace, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were among those to wish her a happy birthday on social media, sharing pictures of Catherine with the Queen, Prince Charles and Camilla.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The Royal Family This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The Royal Family\n\nThe three new photos released of the duchess to mark her big birthday are revealing. They show how she wants to present herself at 40 and they ooze glossy, old fashioned glamour.\n\nThe images were taken at Kew Gardens back in November and will form part of a project from the National Portrait Gallery where the duchess is patron.\n\nThey will go on display in three locations that she has chosen and have special meaning for her.\n\nBerkshire is the county of her childhood and where she was brought up. St Andrews is where she went to university and began her relationship with her husband. Anglesey is where the couple lived together just before and in the early part of their marriage.\n\nThe photos will then be housed in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery.\n\nCatherine wears earrings that belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales, in the two black and white pictures and earrings loaned by the Queen in the other\n\nThese are not royal choices. They are personal ones for a duchess whose happy and settled childhood has provided the blueprint for how she manages the life she now lives.\n\nAnd at 40 she increasingly seems at peace with the path she's on.\n\nI was at her first ever engagement on Anglesey in 2011.\n\nDespite being in a relationship with William throughout most of her 20s, this was the first time we had seen her on official duty. The crowds were big and the spotlight intense but on the surface she seemed unfazed.\n\nIn the years that followed, that calm, sometimes shy, exterior has not gone away but it now includes a growing sense of self confidence in her public work.\n\nThe then Kate Middleton in 2005 at her university graduation in St Andrews - the town is one of the locations where the new portraits will go on display\n\nThe duchess in Ipswich in March 2012, where she gave her first public speech\n\n...and on a more recent visit to a school in London last November\n\nI looked back at her first ever speech in 2012 for East Anglia's Children's Hospices - a cause still close to her heart. She looked and sounded nervous. This wasn't her comfort zone. But fast forward to 2021 and a speech for Action on Addiction and there is an ease and directness in her words.\n\n\"Addiction is not a choice. No one chooses to become an addict. But it can happen to any of us. None of us are immune.\"\n\nAdjusting to the scrutiny has come perhaps most sharply with how she looks.\n\nThe clothes remain a mix of High Street and high end and the duchess has learnt when to pull out all the stops. I give you the James Bond premiere back in September and the Jenny Packham-designed gold dress.\n\nThe duchess wore a gold Jenny Packham dress at the premiere of No Time To Die last September\n\nHer 40s will be another decade of significant change.\n\nAs the Queen does less and works differently due to her age, so the Cambridges will do more.\n\nFor the duchess, that will mean a focus on raising issues around mental health, addiction and early childhood.\n\nShe will also continue to protect the privacy of her own children - Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, six, and Prince Louis, three - managing when we are able to see them.\n\nAt 40 years old, life is now a juggle between the private and the public for the duchess who will one day be queen.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with Prince George and Princess Charlotte in Poland in 2017. Their third child, Prince Louis, was born the following year\n\nIn April 2020 the whole family were pictured taking part in a \"clap for carers\" for BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mark Allen died after jumping into a reservoir to cool off on a hot summer day in 2018\n\nA grieving mother's campaign to help lower the risk of accidental drowning in lakes and reservoirs is to be discussed by politicians.\n\nMark Allen, 18, died after jumping into a reservoir to cool off on a hot summer day in 2018 while out with friends.\n\nMum Leeanne Bartley is now fighting for emergency throwlines to be installed next to every lake in the UK.\n\n\"If there was rescue equipment, we believe there would be a strong chance he'd still be with us today,\" she said.\n\nMark drowned after jumping into Gorton Reservoir near to Debdale Park in Manchester in June 2018. Although it was a warm day, the water was cold and the student immediately got into difficulties.\n\nMark Allen was one of six children and his five sisters are helping with his mum's campaign\n\nMark is one of about 400 people who accidentally drown in the UK every year - of which 45 are in Wales - and Leeanne wants her son's legacy to be increased safety measures around open water in the UK.\n\nNow politicians in Wales are set to hear evidence on Monday as Leeanne takes her campaign for throwline stations around all open water sites to become law.\n\n\"It's obviously a bittersweet day but incredibly important and overwhelming,\" said Leeanne, from Ruthin in Denbighshire.\n\nMark's sisters Caitlin and Meg at the Emergency Throwline station installed next to the lake where Mark drowned\n\n\"We want to keep Mark's name alive, to do something positive and help prevent somebody else from losing their life.\n\n\"It's not uncommon for youngsters to go for a swim in open water because they are unaware of the dangers. Lots of youngsters do it and they are lucky enough to go home to their families. In Mark's case, he was unlucky.\n\n\"There was absolutely zero rescue equipment in place. One of his friends was able to get to him, if there was rescue equipment there and were able to get him out of the water, they could have done CPR and he may still be with us today.\"\n\nMark's family have created a character called Captain Sparky to help raise awareness of the dangers of open water\n\nThrowline stations - which can cost as little as £250 - have since been installed next to the lake where Mark died and his family, of which he was one of six children, feel he could have been saved if they were in place beforehand.\n\n\"I don't think it's too much too ask to have potentially lifesaving equipment next to any open expanse of water,\" said Leeanne.\n\n\"Deliberators are being installed in lots of different communities now because they are potentially lifesaving - and this works in the same way. Anything to increase the risk of saving a life is, I feel, a good idea.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch BBC reporter Natalie Crockett try out the RNLI floating technique\n\nThe UK's first National Drowning Prevention Strategy in 2016 aims to cut the number of people drowning by a half by increasing water safety awareness among children and add water safety risk assessments.\n\nBut Leeanne wants emergency throwline stations to become mandatory next to lakes and reservoirs with more than 110,000 signing to petitions to UK and Welsh Governments - triggering action in both parliaments.\n\nThe UK government have pointed to a water safety toolkit drawn up by local councils and while Leeanne waits for a debate in Westminster, members of Wales' petitions committee will hear evidence on Monday.", "Novak Djokovic sought a medical exemption from Australia's strict Covid visa regulations on the basis that he'd contracted the infection in mid-December.\n\nMr Djokovic was tested in Serbia, where you are legally required to isolate for 14 days following a positive Covid test.\n\nAfter days of speculation over public engagements he apparently attended following his positive test, he has now said he did appear in public during this period of isolation.\n\nHere is a timeline of events from what we know so far.\n\nMr Djokovic attended a Euroleague basketball game in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, between Red Star Belgrade and Barcelona.\n\nAfter the game, numerous people who attended tested positive for Covid-19, so it is possible this is where Mr Djokovic became infected.\n\nMr Djokovic had front row seats at the Euroleague basketball game in Belgrade on 14 December\n\nMr Djokovic says he took a lateral flow test on 16 December following the Covid outbreak at the basketball game.\n\nHe says this came back negative, but that he also took a PCR test \"out an abundance of caution\".\n\nIn court documents, Mr Djokovic's lawyers submitted evidence that confirms he took a PCR test just after 13:00 on 16 December.\n\nThe document from the Institute of Public Health of Serbia states the result came back positive seven hours later, at about 20:00 on the same day.\n\nMr Djokovic says he wasn't notified about his positive PCR result until the following day.\n\nMr Djokovic attended a panel discussion and a ceremony for the unveiling of a stamp in his honour in Belgrade on 16 December (before 20:00), which he posted about on Twitter the next day.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Novak Djokovic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn the morning of 17 December, the Tennis Association of Belgrade posted on Facebook about an award ceremony at the Novak Tennis Center in Belgrade which was happening later that day.\n\nThey said the trophies would be \"handed over to the young talent by the favourite tennis player of this region, and beyond\".\n\nA series of pictures was later posted on the same Facebook page of Mr Djokovic presenting awards without a mask.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by TSB Teniski savez Beograda Belgrade Tennis Association This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nBefore attending the event Mr Djokovic says he produced another negative lateral flow test, and he was \"asymptomatic and felt good\".\n\nIt was after this event that Mr Djokovic says he received notification that his PCR test was positive. At this point he should have began 14 days of isolation.\n\nIt has been reported by French newspaper L'Equipe that Mr Djokovic attended an interview and photo shoot with their paper in Belgrade on 18 December.\n\nHe has since admitted attending this engagement, which he says was \"an error of judgement and I accept I should have rescheduled\".\n\nSerbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told the BBC that it was \"a clear breach of the rules\" if Mr Djokovic continued with public events, knowing he had Covid.\n\nThe paper says he wore a face mask during the interview, but removed it for the photo shoot.\n\nHe posed with the newspaper's Champion of Champions trophy - an award which recognises the outstanding sportsperson of the year.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by L'ÉQUIPE This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFollowing this engagement, Mr Djokovic says he cancelled all other events and isolated for the required period.\n\nIn the court documents provided by Mr Djokovic's lawyers, there is confirmation that he had another PCR test on 22 December.\n\nThis test came back negative at 16:15 the same afternoon, although we don't know when Mr Djokovic was informed of the result.\n\nSerbian Covid regulations stipulate a full 14-day self-isolation period, unless the person who has tested positive receives a negative PCR test result during that period.\n\nMr Djokovic was pictured playing tennis in the streets of Belgrade over the Christmas period.\n\nA fan tweeted a video of the outing on 25 December, which was also reported in several tennis publications in the days following.\n\nThe video was caption: \"Novak Djokovic, playing tennis on Christmas Day in Belgrade... Footage from today!\"\n\nOn the same day, Mr Djokovic was also pictured posing with Serbian professional handball player, Petar Djordjic, in Belgrade.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by José Morgado This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn 31 December, pictures and video was shared online that appear to show Mr Djokovic in Spain on that date.\n\nA tennis academy based in Sotogrande, Spain (near Marbella) tweeted a video of Mr Djokovic training, as well as several pictures of him meeting fans.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by SotoTennis Academy This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSeveral tennis websites reported he was training in Marbella for the possibility of competing in the Australian Open.\n\nThis is where he was quizzed by border officials and his visa was revoked after he confirmed he wasn't vaccinated.\n\nIn Mr Djokovic's Australian travel entry form - released by the federal court - it was stated that he had not travelled anywhere else in the 14 days prior to his arrival there.\n\nMr Djokovic says the form was filled in by a member of his team who - in \"human error\" - had ticked the wrong box about his previous travel before coming to Australia.\n\nAustralian immigration officials said on Tuesday they were investigating whether he had made a \"false declaration\" - which would be grounds for a visa cancellation.", "Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been found guilty of fraud\n\nIt was a verdict that reflected the often painful complexities and contradictions of blood testing company Theranos.\n\nFour guilty verdicts, four acquittals and three charges on which the jury couldn't agree.\n\nFor many who have followed the Theranos saga, the podcasts, the documentaries, the books, you might have thought that Elizabeth Holmes's conviction was nailed down.\n\nAfter all, she had claimed her diagnostics machines could test hundreds of diseases, when they couldn't. And she was the founder and chief executive of Theranos, so surely the buck would stop with her in court?\n\nBut underestimate Holmes at your peril. This is a woman who created a $9bn (£6.6bn) company she set up when she was 19. A woman who at one point had the world at her feet - who Bill Clinton and Joe Biden both praised.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes\n\nThere was another reason to think Holmes might be acquitted. These fraud cases are extremely difficult to prosecute. Jurors were asked to consider hundreds of technical documents and sit through evidence from dozens of witnesses.\n\nHolmes has just had a baby too, and some commentators believed she would strike a sympathetic character.\n\nHolmes also personally gave evidence in court, an unusual thing to do in a fraud trial. She described a relationship she had with Theranos's chief operating officer, Ramesh \"Sunny\" Balwani, who she claimed exercised coercive control over her. She also said she had been sexually abused. Mr Balwani categorically denies the allegations.\n\nSome onlookers have remarked that this part of Holmes's evidence was particularly effective. The jury was listening.\n\nHolmes's defence also believe they had one killer argument - that Holmes never sold her shares. Even when the company was worth nearly $10bn (and Holmes nearly $5bn) all wrapped up in shares, she didn't cash out. Those shares are now worthless.\n\nHer defence argued that if she was a genuine fraud she would have taken the money and run. Instead, they said, she believed in what she was doing.\n\nDuring the trial, Holmes admitted mistakes but said she had never knowingly defrauded patients or investors\n\nYet both things can be true. You can have a vision, a goal, a mission as Holmes would call it, and still commit fraud.\n\nAt times Holmes was shown evidence that she herself admitted didn't look good. She said on more than one occasion that there were things she would have done differently in hindsight.\n\nOne particular example that sticks out is when the logos of Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline were used to suggest the two pharmaceutical companies had endorsed Theranos. They had done no such thing. The prosecution made this a major plank of their argument - as close as they could get to a smoking gun.\n\nHolmes's defence also had a major hole in it. Almost everyone you speak to about Theranos says that Holmes ran the company like an obsessive autocrat. She knew everything about what was going on.\n\nYet part of her defence was that she didn't know what was happening in her company - or the major problems with the tech. All too often she said she wasn't aware of information put to her by the prosecution, or that she didn't remember key events. It didn't ring true.\n\nHolmes always wanted to be in control. And some have speculated that's why she decided to testify, to be in the driving seat of her own defence. It didn't work.\n\nIn 2015, questions were raised about the tech behind Holmes's blood testing ideas and the firm collapsed in 2018\n\nSilicon Valley is full of crooks, frauds and charlatans. \"Fake it until you make it\" is the brash term often used. Holmes certainly talked a good game. Yet the confidence, the certainty of success she conveyed was bluster.\n\nHowever, some have noted it's telling that one of the very few high-profile female tech chief executives has been found guilty of fraud - when other high-profile (men) have not.\n\nThe verdict will, in theory, make founders sit up and take note - that there are consequences to not telling investors the truth.\n\nBut others wonder whether it will change anything much. In Silicon Valley there are still major rewards for selling dreams - for telling investors what they want to hear - rather than the truth.", "Anna Redfern was served with a council closure notice on 18 November\n\nA cinema that was ordered to close after breaking Covid rules flouted the ban to premiere a film by the son of conspiracy theorist David Icke.\n\nSwansea's Cinema & Co was ordered to shut by a judge after boss Anna Redfern breached several Covid regulations.\n\nRedfern, 45, was also fined £15,000 and given a suspended prison sentence for contempt of court.\n\nBut she admitted showing a film making serious unfounded allegations against the NHS after the first court order.\n\nDirected and produced by Mr Icke's son Jaymie, it makes several baseless accusations against NHS doctors and nurses, including that they are deliberately killing elderly people in hospitals in order to \"boost the numbers\" of people dying of Covid.\n\nThe film was described as \"completely false\", \"pernicious\" and \"dangerous\" by the head of research for the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).\n\nRedfern told BBC Wales: \"If the BBC has any concerns regarding the content of the documentary's premiere we screened A Good Death? I suggest that they discuss them with the production company.\n\n\"Firstly, Cinema & Co does not practise censorship.\n\n\"Secondly, caring for my mother at the end of her life and reflecting upon my own mortality, I have given a great deal of consideration as to what constitutes a 'good death' and found the film very thought provoking.\"\n\nAfter this article was first published, the film's director Jaymie Icke contacted BBC Wales to defend the film's content.\n\nDavid Icke is infamous for his belief that he is the son of God and that the Royal family are shape-shifting lizards.\n\nFacebook, Twitter and YouTube suspended his accounts in 2020 for posting misleading claims about the pandemic.\n\nFacebook said David Icke's official account published \"health misinformation that could cause physical harm\"\n\nBefore the second court hearing, which ended with her narrowly avoiding Christmas behind bars, Redfern was interviewed by another of Mr Icke's sons, Gareth, on his video streaming service, and said it would be a \"pleasure\" to host the premiere of the \"eye-opening\" film and that she was doing it to \"disseminate real information\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Cinema owner told to close for not requiring Covid passes said the scheme was discriminatory\n\nAfter receiving a court order to close, the cinema reopened on 1 December for a festive screening of Santa Claus: The Movie.\n\nFour nights later, it hosted the \"world premiere\" of the Icke family's conspiracy film.\n\nThe cinema's media spokeswoman, Jacquelyn Haley, who was at the screening, has shared articles on her Twitter and Facebook accounts - alleging with no evidence - that Covid is caused by 5G phone signals, vaccines have caused more deaths than the virus, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is responsible for murder due to \"deaths caused by the vaccines\".\n\nShe also said that if parents allowed their children to be vaccinated then \"you don't deserve your children\".\n\nIn a video taken at the cinema after the film aired, Ms Haley implored people to \"watch the film and share it far and wide\".\n\nThe cinema opened a day after a judge ordered it to close\n\nAlso present at the screening was Wesley Garner, from Morriston, Swansea, who was one of three people fined more than £2,000 earlier this year for travelling to Liverpool during lockdown to heckle staff at a school for getting tested for Covid.\n\nOn his public Facebook page, Mr Garner makes unfounded claims that \"there is no pandemic\", that the vaccine is made of \"5G\" phone signals, and has compared the vaccine roll out to \"genocide\".\n\nIn a Facebook video filmed and broadcast live from the cinema by Mr Garner, Redfern is seen serving customers while Jaymie Icke explains their \"truth movement\" had been \"crying out\" for people like the Swansea businesswoman who \"refused to back down\".\n\nThe following week, however, Redfern admitted being in contempt of court and promised the judge her \"stand\" was at an end and that she would comply with the local authority.\n\nCallum Hood, head of research at CCDH, said: \"What is really dangerous about the film that the Icke brothers have put together and put on at this cinema in Swansea is that it is painting hardworking NHS doctors and nurses as deliberately setting out to murder patients strictly in order to push up the numbers of the Covid pandemic, which is a complete reversal of what's actually going on in the NHS.\"\n\nMr Hood is an expert on the Icke family, having studied David Icke's behaviour for decades.\n\n\"I think this is a fairly typical piece of conspiracy theory propaganda about Covid, in that it took real moving stories about people who've lost loved ones during the pandemic, but then tried to turn it to the purpose of conspiracy theories by claiming that they have been deliberately killed in order to push up the numbers of people dying with Covid,\" he said.\n\n\"That was what was particularly pernicious and dangerous about it.\"\n\nRedfern has received more than £61,000 in donations since she first received a closure notice after a crowdfunding page was set up by former Brexit Party and Abolish the Welsh Assembly candidate Richard Taylor.\n\nRedfern told the BBC she intended to use the funds to \"educate and empower others to claim their universally declared human rights back\" and to take her family on holiday, while the rest would be spent on activities such as \"free film screenings for all schools living in poverty\".\n\nAt the latest hearing, Redfern's barrister Jonathan Gwyn Mendus Edwards told the court his client did not run the business for profit and was living off £30,000 in savings. District Judge Neale Thomas said he was \"sceptical\" of this claim.\n\nIn May 2019, Cinema & Co went into insolvent liquidation and Companies House records show Redfern then incorporated a new company at the same address named \"Cinema & Go Ltd\".\n\nSwansea council said last month that the cinema had also received more than £52,000 in Covid-related grants since the start of the pandemic.\n\nOfficers are assessing whether any of the grant conditions have been breached and \"whether any of the grants should be recovered\".\n\nOn her public Facebook page, Redfern has previously shared anti-vaccine content, including one post which made unfounded claims that children were being \"coerced\" into being injected with 'an experimental vaccine\", and that children had a \"100% chance of surviving Covid-19\".\n\nFigures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), show that up to 10 December there have been two deaths involving Covid in children under 14 - a boy and a girl - out of 9,102 in Wales. There is no evidence that vaccines have contributed to any death in Wales.", "Earlier today we were at a school in Stoke-on-Trent where pupils told us how they felt about wearing masks in classrooms.\n\nKaitlin, a year 11 pupil, says she finds wearing a mask \"makes learning more difficult because you can’t really tell facial expressions\".\n\n\"But at the same time everyone’s main priority is the safety of each other and protecting everyone. So you have to outweigh the negatives and realise it’s for the greater good,\" she adds.\n\nKian, who is also coming up to his GCSEs, says he finds it \"stressful\" being in a classroom with glasses and a mask on.\n\n\"My glasses steam up a lot and I can’t see the board. It’s just a bit stressful because the mask is always on my face and I can’t really breathe,\" he says.\n\n\"But the positive side is that it’s helping people to stay safe.\"\n\n\"You can’t get the same effect online as in the classroom, with the teachers there for support and technical issues as well,\" he says.", "More people will be eligible for a pardon for historical criminal convictions relating to homosexual activity, the government has said.\n\nIt means anyone convicted or cautioned for consensual homosexual activity, under now-abolished laws, can apply to have them \"disregarded\".\n\nThe convictions would be wiped from record and an automatic pardon given.\n\nThe home secretary said she hoped the revised scheme \"would go some way to righting the wrongs of the past\".\n\nSince 2012, people in England and Wales have been able to apply to have historical same-sex sexual cautions and convictions disregarded.\n\nAnd in 2017 so-called \"Turing's Law\" was passed - named after the wartime codebreaker Alan Turing who was convicted of gross indecency for homosexual acts. It granted automatic posthumous pardons to others who were convicted of sexual acts that are no longer deemed criminal.\n\nHowever, campaigners have argued the crimes covered by the scheme are too narrow.\n\nAlan Turing's pardon came almost 60 years after his death in 1954\n\nThe current law only covers nine former offences included on a specified list, largely focused on the repealed offences of buggery and gross indecency between men.\n\nCampaigner Lord Cashman has previously highlighted how the offence of solicitation by men, which he said \"was used to entrap gay and bisexual men, sometimes for doing nothing more than chatting up another adult man\", is not included in the original scheme.\n\nEarlier this year, fellow peer Lord Lexden said it was \"an affront to gay people\" that the scheme had not been extended.\n\nThe government intends to use an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to broaden eligibility for a pardon.\n\nIn the future, the scheme will encompass any repealed or abolished civilian or military offence which was imposed on someone purely for, or due to, consensual same-sex sexual activity.\n\nThe amendment will also enable those who have died prior to the amendment coming into force, and within a year after the amendment comes into force, to be posthumously pardoned.\n\nLGBT rights campaigner Lord Cashman first came to prominence playing the gay character Colin Russell in EastEnders during the 1980s\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel said: \"It is only right that where offences have been abolished, convictions for consensual activity between same-sex partners should be disregarded too.\n\n\"I hope that expanding the pardons and disregards scheme will go some way to righting the wrongs of the past and to reassuring members of the LGBT community that Britain is one of the safest places in the world to call home.\"\n\nLord Cashman, Lord Lexden and Prof Paul Johnson, who also worked on the campaign, welcomed the news.\n\nIn a statement, they said: \"Parliament has a duty to wipe away the terrible stains which they placed, quite wrongly, on the reputations of countless gay people over centuries.\"\n\nDavid Bonney, who was convicted of homosexual conduct while serving in the RAF in 1993, thinks he was the last person in the UK to be sent to jail for being gay.\n\nBeing gay remained an offence in the armed forces until 2000.\n\nDavid Bonney believes he may be the last person in the UK to be sent to jail for being gay\n\nMr Bonney served four months of a six-month sentence in a military prison in Colchester before he was freed on appeal.\n\n\"They've got the records, they know who we are,\" he said.\n\n\"There are only 2,000 of us. This could be sorted within a couple of years.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Darts\n\nPeter Wright produced a sensational comeback to beat Michael Smith in a thrilling final of the PDC World Darts Championship.\n\nTrailing 5-4 and with Smith two legs up in the 10th set, Wright fought back to win three sets in a row to claim the title.\n\nThe Scot, champion in 2020, is only the sixth player to win the title twice.\n\n\"I'm over the moon, I've got her back,\" said Wright. \"This is my lady and I'm happy to get it back.\"\n\n\"I didn't turn up for eight sets and it was horrible and I was telling myself off so I stopped doing that,\" added Wright, who changed darts twice during the final.\n\n\"I was getting more and more frustrated with myself and I stopped doing that and that's why my darts straightened up.\n\n\"To be part of that elite group, people might have said I was lucky to win to beat Michael van Gerwen [in 2020] who wasn't on form that year but I can prove to everyone I can win it horrible as well.\"\n\nThe 51-year-old wins £500,000 in prize money and is only £15,250 behind world number one Gerwyn Price in the world darts ranking system.\n• None Reaction as Wright wins his second world title\n\nPlaying in his third final, Wright raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to 148 and 124 checkouts but England's Smith won the third with a superb 167 finish in the third leg to break the Scot's throw.\n\nWith the partisan crowd at Alexandra Palace in London firmly behind Smith, Wright missed two darts at the double that would have put him 3-1 up at the first break. Smith, 31, took advantage of Wright's misses to nail double 10 and level the match at 2-2.\n\nWorld Matchplay champion Wright came back from the break with a new set of darts and held his throw to go 3-2 up, despite Smith throwing his 72nd 180 of the tournament to break Gary Anderson's previous record of 71.\n\nNinth seed Smith then won two straight sets to lead the match for the first time at 4-3. Then, after both players held their serve again, a crucial moment came with Smith 5-4 up.\n\nIn the 10th set, Wright was two legs down before winning three in a row to level the match again.\n\nThat gave the Scot the momentum and he reeled off another three legs without a response to win the 11th set then won two more to move within one leg of victory.\n\nSmith stopped the rout winning the third leg in the 12th set but it was not enough and Wright hit double 16 to win the match and become a two-time world champion.\n\nBoth players were in tears at the end, with Smith, who also lost to Van Gerwen in the 2019 showpiece, inconsolable.\n\n\"Michael has done fantastic to get to the final again and will learn from that. He's going to be a future world champion,\" added Wright.\n\nSmith said he would return to the big stage, having lost 7-3 and 7-5 in finals.\n\n\"I got five sets instead of three this time,\" he told Sky Sports.\n\n\"I must have done something terrible in a past life because it's doing my head in now. I'll have a bad night now, but I'll definitely be back on that board and I'll be getting ready for the next one.\"\n• None Tom Holland and Zendaya attempt a Harry Potter quiz and chat about Marvel's latest hit\n• None Running from a past he can't remember: Brand new drama set in the Australian outback starring Jamie Dornan", "US car giant General Motors has lost its title as America's top car seller for the first time in 90 years.\n\nJapan's Toyota claimed the top spot, selling more than 2.3 million vehicles last year, up 10%.\n\nGM said its sales, which fell 13%, were hurt by the widespread shortage of semiconductor parts that has been affecting the car industry.\n\nThe Detroit company had ranked as the number one US car seller since 1931 and vowed it would bounce back.\n\n\"I wouldn't rush out if I were (Toyota) and get a 'We're No 1' tattoo,\" spokesman Jim Cain said, according to Reuters.\n\nOverall, analysts expect the number of new cars sold in the US to have increased roughly 2% in 2021 compared to 2020, when buyers were reeling from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nBut purchases remain depressed compared to their pre-pandemic levels, as companies grapple with supply chain woes, problems that have also pushed prices higher for consumers.\n\n\"The key constraint for sales continues to be reduced inventory levels as a result of the semiconductor shortage,\" GM chief economist Elaine Buckberg said in a statement discussing the firm's sales and outlook for 2022.\n\nGM sold roughly 2.2 million vehicles last year down from 2.5 million in 2020, relying on its profitable pick-up trucks and SUVs to boost its bottom line.\n\nToyota, which saw strong sales of its hybrids and other models, has been less affected than some other car makers by the shortage of chips, thanks to its decision to build up a stockpile after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. But it has also been forced to cut production amid the shortages.\n\nBut America's top car companies have been ceding ground to international rivals well before the pandemic-related snarls.\n\nFord, General Motors and Chrysler once accounted for as much as 90% of all US car sales and still claimed more than half as recently as 2008. But that has slid lower.\n\nToyota's Camry has been the top-selling passenger car in the US for 20 years, while its Rav4 has ranked as the best-selling SUV for five years.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nWorld number one Novak Djokovic will defend his Australian Open title later this month after receiving a medical exemption from having a Covid-19 vaccination.\n\nAll players and staff at the tournament must be vaccinated or have an exemption granted by an expert independent panel.\n\nSerb Djokovic, 34, has not spoken publicly about his vaccination status.\n\nBut Australian Open chief Craig Tiley said \"no special favour\" had been given to the nine-time champion.\n\nSpeaking to Channel Nine's The Today Show, Tiley added: \"We made it extra difficult for anyone applying for an application to ensure it was the right process and to make sure the medical experts deal with it independently. There were 26 athletes that made applications and a handful have been granted.\n\n\"There has been no special favour or special opportunity granted to Novak Djokovic or any tennis player. There's been a process that goes above and beyond the normal process for everyone.\"\n\nThe tournament begins in Melbourne on 17 January and Djokovic said on Instagram on Tuesday: \"I've spent fantastic quality time with my loved ones over the break and today I'm heading down under with an exemption permission.\n\n\"Let's go 2022. I am ready to live and breathe tennis in the next few weeks of competition.\"\n\nThe news was confirmed by tournament organisers Tennis Australia, who said: \"Novak Djokovic will compete at the Australian Open and is on his way to Australia.\"\n\nEarlier this week, Tiley said some unvaccinated players had been granted exemptions to play in the year's first Grand Slam.\n\nOn Wednesday, he added: \"For tennis players it was a process that goes above and beyond what anyone coming to Australia would experience simply because we had an extra panel of experts who, through a blind review, granted exemptions where appropriate.\"\n\nApplications for medical exemptions were assessed anonymously by two separate panels, with inflammatory cardiac illness or another acute condition listed as valid reasons, or evidence of a recent Covid infection.\n\nTennis Australia said Djokovic was granted an exemption after a \"a rigorous review process involving two separate independent panels of medical experts\".\n\n\"Fair and independent protocols were established for assessing medical exemption applications that will enable us to ensure Australian Open 2022 is safe and enjoyable for everyone,\" said Tiley in a statement on Tuesday.\n\n\"Central to this process was that the decisions were made by independent medical experts and that every applicant was given due consideration.\"\n\nDjokovic had pulled out of the Serbia team for the ATP Cup in Sydney, which had raised doubts over his participation at Melbourne Park.\n\nBBC tennis commentator Andrew Castle said, while he was \"not surprised\" by the reaction to the exemption, the decision was \"not unfair\".\n\n\"We don't know what Djokovic's medical exemption is and we'll never know because it's private,\" Castle told BBC Radio 5 Live.\n\n\"But he must have one. We knew this would happen when exemptions were announced. I'm not surprised [by the reaction] but what I will say is, it's not unfair because he satisfied two independent panels.\n\n\"Is he giving the world of tennis the correct lead? It's arguable. It doesn't look like he's broken any rules, he's satisfied the independent panels so we're once again left arguing over another Covid-related matter.\n\n\"I can understand the Australian public being furious. They've been to hell and back and if the crowd boo him - which I think they will - he will put it aside and become the favourite to win. No-one is arguing about his tennis, the concern here is leadership and the example he is setting, but it's not mandatory to have the vaccination.\"\n\nDjokovic has won the past three Australian Opens and is in a three-way tie on 20 majors with Roger Federer, who misses the tournament through injury, and Rafael Nadal in the all-time list.\n\n\"He has a chance to break this record,\" added Castle. \"The tournament would be worse off without him from a tennis point of view, of course. But he's never been quite as loved as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and this won't do anything to endear him to this part of the world.\n\n\"It's another big Covid argument and I want this whole thing to go away.\"\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n• None Shake off festive fatigue with a playlist that will help you relax and reset\n• None Can formulas really pick better teams?", "Several hospital trusts have declared critical incidents amid staff shortages and rising pressures due to Covid-19.\n\nUniversity Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals and Great Western Hospitals in Wiltshire have all been hit hard.\n\nDerriford hospital in Plymouth has problems offloading ambulances, and has recorded nearly 500 staff absences.\n\nCritical incidents are declared when health bosses are concerned they cannot provide priority services.\n\nThis includes treatment for cancer or heart disease patients.\n\nSpeaking in a Downing Street press conference earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the NHS was facing \"huge pressures\".\n\nHe said some services would be disrupted by staff absences but pledged to \"fortify\" the health service to withstand the pressures and protect supply chains.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty also acknowledged some hospitals would come under \"very substantial pressure over the next couple of weeks\" with high numbers of staff absences compounding typical winter pressures.\n\nHospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham are among those where general visiting has been suspended\n\nMeanwhile the highest number of people have tested positive or Covid in the UK with a total of 218,724, the latest figures show.\n\nHowever, that does include tests recorded on some previous days, with not all cases being reported over Christmas.\n\nThere were 15,044 patients with Covid in hospital on Tuesday morning including 797 requiring mechanical ventilation.\n\nThe University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust's chief executive confirmed the declaration of a critical incident.\n\nAaron Cummins, whose trust serves patients in Lancashire and south Cumbria, wrote in an internal message to staff: \"Sadly, despite everyone's best efforts, many of our patients are still receiving a level of care and experience that falls below the level of standards we would like.\"\n\nHe also said some non-urgent operations and procedures would be suspended.\n\nMr Cummins said the escalation \"allows us to be able to take additional steps to maintain safe services for our patients and help us cope with the growing pressures\".\n\nNatalie Hudson, chief operating officer at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said there was \"very high demand\" for services and \"long waits\" in emergency and urgency care departments.\n\nShe said there were continued challenges to discharge patients who no longer medically need to be in hospital but have nowhere else to go, or who have no care packages in place.\n\nThere were very high levels of bed occupancy, she added, while visiting had been suspended.\n\nMs Hudson said these factors were being \"exacerbated by rapidly rising rates of Covid-19 in the community and rising rates of admissions and staff absences\".\n\nHospital trusts declare a critical incident when they are worried they are on the brink of not being able to provide critical services, such as emergency care.\n\nIt is warning to the wider system they need help to pave the way for measures to be taken, such as redeployment of staff.\n\nMany will only last a couple of days.\n\nIt is not unusual for a small number of trusts to declare this at this point of the year - the start of January is the busiest for the NHS.\n\nBut the NHS is, of course, facing an unprecedented set of pressures.\n\nFirstly, admissions for Covid are already above what would normally be seen for all types of respiratory illness at this time of year.\n\nAnd they are continuing to rise.\n\nSecondly, the NHS is having to cope with a higher number of staff absences because of the Covid isolation rules.\n\nIn winter the absence rate can be around 5%, but in the last week before Christmas it hit 8%.\n\nThe higher admissions and absences rise the more common these critical incidents are likely to become.\n\nIn Wiltshire, the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Great Western Hospital in Swindon, declared a critical incident after experiencing \"sustained high levels of demand\" and concerns over the \"availability of beds\".\n\nIt said Covid inpatient numbers had risen 81% since 24 December.\n\nUnited Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said on Monday it had taken similar measures at its hospitals across the county.\n\nMedical director Dr Colin Farquharson said there were \"significant staffing pressures\" due to Covid-related absences.\n\nBut he said essential services \"remain fully open\".\n\nA critical incident was also declared at Plymouth's Derriford hospital with 99 positive cases there and at its three community hospitals.\n\nMeanwhile the number of hospital staff off sick across North East and north Cumbria has increased 135% due to Covid since 24 December.\n\nNeil Halford, medical director for the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System, said: \"Hospital trusts are continually reviewing their planned operations and procedures alongside caring for the sickest patients and ensuring infection prevention control measures can be adhered to.\n\n\"This a difficult balancing act and regrettably some planned operations and procedures may need to be postponed.\"\n\nConcerns have been raised about NHS staff being left exhausted\n\nDr Sakthi Karunanithi, the public health director for Lancashire, warned that his county was braced \"for a tsunami of Omicron cases\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there was a noticeable shift from infections in people under 50 \"to a more 60-plus age group being affected\".\n\nChris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said a critical incident was \"an indication of very serious pressure\" at a trust which may \"not be able to provide\" a range of priority services.\n\nThe chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, said that \"in many parts of the health service, we are currently in a state of crisis\".\n\nHe wrote in a blog, published on Monday: \"Some hospitals are making urgent calls to exhausted staff to give up rest days and leave to enable them to sustain core services.\"\n\nAmbulance services are struggling to cope with the growing pressure due to rising Covid cases.\n\nDr Mathew Beattie, medical director for North East Ambulance Service, said: \"We have seen an 80% increase in Covid-related absences over the last six days, with more than 260 staff absent due to Covid [on Monday].\"\n\nIt has prompted an appeal by West Midlands Ambulance Service for recently retired staff to aid operations in \"challenging times\".\n\nMany hospitals have been forced to ban visiting on wards in a bid to reduce the spread of the Omicron variant by visitors.\n\nBoris Johnson has warned \"considerable\" pressure on the NHS is likely to last for weeks to come and said it would be \"folly\" to think the pandemic was almost over.\n\nA further 157,758 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases were recorded in England and Scotland on Monday, the government said.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Alexandra said comments about her weight were probably meant as banter but they still left her sad\n\nA mum-of-four said she felt \"fat-shamed\" at a pregnancy scan and during follow-up appointments.\n\nAlexandra Dodds said her weight was raised at every appointment, and circled with a pen so vigorously in her notes that she wanted to lose them.\n\nA study into how risk is communicated in pregnancy, found women with obesity feel \"deeply stigmatised\".\n\nThe Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said care should be based on respect and understanding of women's needs.\n\n\"It was just kind of jokes, like 'hope you've stopped the Christmas snacks', or 'make sure you've thrown the box of chocolates away',\" said Ms Dodds.\n\nThe 27-year-old, from Newport, described already being upset at her 12-week scan as she was alone due to Covid-19 restrictions and away from family, who were in Australia, when the midwife broached her weight.\n\n\"I didn't feel like it was said in a spiteful way to try to upset me, it was like banter, but I don't feel like you can banter about that,\" she added.\n\nThe clothing designer said she complained but felt that her weight dominated her entire antenatal care.\n\nAlexandra said the focus on her weight by midwives left her feeling unsupported in the run up to Brianna's birth\n\n\"I didn't feel this was a person that I could talk to openly [to] support me, so I just left not knowing really what I could do. I was really, really sad.\"\n\nBaby Brianna was born healthy at home before a midwife could arrive in July, last year.\n\nAlexandra said she only felt able to speak out about what she wanted during her pregnancy and labour because of three previous pregnancies.\n\n\"If I feel any level of shame, that's just a clear indication that I have to talk about it, because it means I'm not the only person and other people will understand,\" she added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Weight is a sensitive topic for a lot of women\"\n\nJoint research by Cardiff University and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) found women with higher BMIs felt stigmatised by risk messaging in maternity care.\n\nThe Wrisk Project, which surveyed more than 7,000 women, looked at how risk is communicated in pregnancy following concerns it didn't always \"reflect the evidence base\".\n\nClare Murphy, director of BPAS, said the work showed they hadn't got it right.\n\n\"Pregnant women are often infantilized, and it feels like sometimes decisions are made about them, for them,\" she added.\n\nThe data showed many felt they received a lot of information on some topics, such as alcohol and smoking, but wanted more advice on subjects such as looking after their mental health.\n\nThe final results, due to be published and peer-reviewed early next year, suggest women want a balance between a \"better-safe-than-sorry\" approach and evidence-based information.\n\nMs Murphy said the slow uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine among pregnant women had been \"an inevitable consequence\" of a culture in which women were urged to avoid potential risk.\n\n\"The fact we now see pregnant women dying in hospital of Covid because they haven't had the vaccine is an absolutely tragic and avoidable consequence of this narrative,\" she added.\n\nWales' Chief Medical Officer has said the vaccines are \"safe and effective\" in all stages of pregnancy.\n\nUnderstanding risk is the day job for health and safety consultant Stephanie Powell, but she said she hadn't been given enough information to do that during her pregnancy.\n\n\"I was thinking to myself, why am I not hearing about this from my midwife?\" she said.\n\nHealth and safety consultant Stephanie said she was given insufficient information during her pregnancy\n\nThe mum-of-one from Abercynon would have liked more information from healthcare professionals so she didn't have to search online instead.\n\n\"There's a balance between managing anxiety and stress, but I still think there's a way of putting that information across\", she added.\n\nThe 34-year-old said she heard of possible risks from other mums and would like better access to information for people in future.\n\nDr Rhiannon Phillips, from Cardiff Metropolitan University, said not enough research or clinical trials included pregnant women.\n\n\"We are quite naturally and understandably correctly quite risk-averse for that population but we do need evidence so we need to start collecting that so that we can inform people's choices,\" she added.\n\nThe health psychologist's work looks at women with pre-existing, long-term medical conditions who are considering having a baby, or who are already pregnant.\n\n\"People are consistently telling us they're not getting the information they need to make proper decisions about how to manage other health conditions during pregnancy and to really get the best outcomes for themselves and for their children themselves,\" she added.\n\nDr Phillips said, while there were lots of examples of great care, there were also cases of women stopping vital medication to get pregnant when they would be better off continuing with it.\n\nThe Royal College of Midwives Director for Wales, Helen Rogers, said good communication between health professionals and patients was vital.\n\n\"Women should feel comfortable with their midwife and able to ask any and all questions and expect to receive the right answers,\" she said.\n\nShe added the \"use of appropriate language is at the heart of this relationship and is embedded in the NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council) Code that all midwives must adhere to.\"", "The new timetable has 160 fewer services per day\n\nScotRail has introduced a temporary timetable for January because of Covid staffing shortages.\n\nThe rail operator has hundreds of staff off isolating which resulted in dozens of cancellations.\n\nScotRail's managing director Alex Hynes said the new timetable - with 160 fewer services - would give customers a degree of certainty about which trains were running.\n\nThe new timetable will be in place until 28 January.\n\nIt mainly affects passengers travelling on routes in the central belt.\n\nNine routes in and out of Glasgow's two biggest stations will operate on a revised timetable between Mondays and Fridays, while three routes to and from Edinburgh Waverley also being temporarily cut back.\n\nScotland's busiest service, Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk High, is unaffected by the changes.\n\nAlex Hynes, ScotRail's managing director, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"We've got hundreds of staff across the business absent due to Covid and where that affects drivers and conductors clearly that results in cancellations.\n\n\"So we've decided to proactively introduce a new timetable from today to operate slightly fewer services to give customers greater certainty about their journey.\"\n\nHe said there would be about 160 fewer trains running per day. ScotRail usually runs about 2,000 daily services.\n\nHundreds of ScotRail services have been cancelled because of staff shortages in recent weeks\n\nHe added that there were problems backfilling drivers as the training of new staff had been put on hold because of Covid.\n\n\"Even if we wanted to operate a full timetable now we couldn't,\" he said.\n\n\"Record numbers of Covid cases means that we run out of spare train crew and that leads to cancellations. This reduced timetable means we will be able to resource this properly and give customers the reliable service they deserve.\n\n\"I don't believe there is any specific rail-related or ScotRail-related factor here. We've seen record case numbers - 20,000 in Scotland yesterday. The entire population is being affected by that. Our crews are part of that population.\n\n\"What we are seeing is the impact of the fact that people have got Covid, they've got symptoms, they're waiting for test results, they're self isolating - either for themselves or as part of a household.\"\n\nHe said the new timetable would be kept under daily review.\n\n\"The most important thing for us is to deliver a dependable service for our customers because that's what they tell us they value most,\" he added.\n\nA full list of the changes which have now come into force can be found on the ScotRail website.\n\nOn Monday, ScotRail said hundreds of staff were absent, including more than 120 drivers and about 70 conductors.\n\nIt comes out of a workforce of 5,300 drivers, conductors and engineers.\n\nRobert Samson, of the passenger group Transport Focus, said: \"It's better for some services to be temporarily withdrawn on a planned basis than to have chaotic last-minute cancellations as these are harder for passengers to deal with.\n\n\"These temporary changes to the timetable should deliver an increased level of certainty for passengers.\"\n\nThe reduced timetable comes as rail fares on routes across Scotland will increase by 3.8% this month.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Data for England is shown by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. Data for Wales and Scotland is shown by Health Board and in Northern Ireland by Health and Social Care Trust.\n\nWhen you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board and by Health and Social Care trust in Northern Ireland.\n\nComparative data is shown for a previous year where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Earlier data is not available for all measures, so comparisons between years are not always possible.\n\nA&E attendances include all emergency departments in that trust or health board, not just major A&E departments, for example, those who attend minor injury units.\n\nEach nation has different target times for some of the measures shown, therefore comparisons between them may not be possible.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'It felt so wrong we were violated this way'\n\nTaking photos of breastfeeding mothers in public without their consent is to be made a crime in England and Wales.\n\nJustice Secretary Dominic Raab said the move would stop women being \"pestered, whether it's for self-gratification or for harassment purposes\".\n\nCampaigners welcomed the decision, calling it \"a victory for breastfeeding mothers\".\n\nThe law will form part of the the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill going through Parliament.\n\nMr Raab also confirmed another amendment to the bill to give victims of domestic abuse more time to report crimes to police, and \"plug gaps\" in the law that risks offenders escaping justice.\n\nHe confirmed the six-month time limit in cases of common assaults involving domestic abuse will be extended, after the BBC revealed almost 13,000 such cases in England and Wales had been dropped in the past five years.\n\nManchester-based designer Julia Cooper began the campaign to make taking pictures of breastfeeding mothers illegal after her own experience in a local park last April.\n\n\"I sat down to breastfeed my daughter and I noticed a man on another bench staring at us,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"I stared back to let him know that I had clocked his gaze, but undeterred he got out his digital camera, attached a zoom lens and started photographing us.\"\n\nMs Cooper said she was \"completely shocked and devastated\" by the incident, but her troubles continued after Greater Manchester Police told her no crime had been committed and there was nothing they could do.\n\n\"I just felt that was so wrong that we had been violated in this way and there was nothing the police could do to help,\" she added.\n\n\"I was angry he felt just this right to capture what I was doing. It was disgusting. And I just felt so helpless, so I thought I need to do something about this.\"\n\nMs Cooper contacted her local Labour MP Jeff Smith, and his colleague Stella Creasy, who had her own experience of being photographed by a teenager on a train when feeding her child - telling the BBC it was a \"horrible experience\" that made her feel \"so self-conscious\".\n\nThe pair took the campaign to the Commons and put forward an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in June, calling for a change in the law.\n\nBut while Home Office minister Victoria Atkins called taking such photos \"unacceptable, creepy and disgusting behaviour\", she said the government was waiting for a review from the Law Commission on how best to act.\n\nNow there has been a change of heart in the Ministry of Justice, with government minister Lord Wolfson putting forward his own an amendment to the bill in the Lords.\n\nIt will make a new offence of \"recording images of, or otherwise observing, breastfeeding without consent or a reasonable belief as to consent\" and to be found guilty, the perpetrator \"must be acting for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification or of humiliating, alarming or distressing the victim\".\n\nStella Creasy - pictured here with her son in the Commons - was also photographed when breastfeeding her child\n\nMs Cooper said she was \"delighted\" by the move, despite what she described as \"too-ing and fro-ing from government\" on the issue.\n\n\"It is a victory for breastfeeding mothers and it will provide the reassurance that we can breastfeed in public without strangers freely photographing and filming us as they wish.\n\n\"The law is on their side, the law is going to protect them and I am so pleased.\"\n\nMs Creasy also welcomed the change, saying it \"shows the law needs to keep up with the times, with people having phones and being able to take pictures and share them so easily\".\n\nBut the Labour MP also said it showed the importance of having more mothers in Parliament - another campaign she is leading - to make sure their voices were heard on the issues that affected them.\n\nThe other amendment being made to the same bill focuses on extending the six-month time limit victims of common assault face in England and Wales when it comes to reporting the crime.\n\nThe clock currently starts from the date of the incident, and within the next six months, a victim needs to have come forward and the police have to have carried out their work to secure a charge against the alleged perpetrator, or the case will be dropped.\n\nBut victims of domestic common assault - which includes things like a push, threatening words or being spat at - are sometimes reluctant to report incidents and the cases can be complex.\n\nIn October last year, the BBC exclusively revealed that 13,000 cases had been dropped in five years because of the time limit being breached, with campaigners calling for the police to be given more time before having to bring charges.\n\nAt the time, the BBC was told Home Secretary Priti Patel backed increasing the time limit to two years, but nothing official was announced.\n\nNow, her cabinet colleague, Mr Raab, has confirmed the starting point for the sixth month time limit will change - from the point of the offence to when the crime is reported to police - and a new overall time limit of two years will be introduced from the date of the offence to bringing a prosecution.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"The reason is that if you've been the victim of domestic abuse, it takes time to physically recover, to emotionally recover, and then to muster the confidence, the courage to come forward,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"We want to make sure that the perpetrators of abuse cannot evade justice by being timed out.\"\n\nShadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the change, which she had also campaigned for, but insisted she would \"keep up the pressure for more action\" from the government when it came to tackling violence against women and girls.\n\nMr Raab admitted bringing successful prosecutions for domestic abuse and other violent crimes was a \"huge challenge\", but said the government had a \"rigorous and robust\" package in place to support women who'd been subject to abuse or violence, but was \"constantly looking for ways to do better\".", "Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team put in 45 hours during the Christmas week\n\nA Lake District mountain rescue co-ordinator is urging people to properly plan their trips after a record number of call outs last year.\n\nVolunteers were called out 680 times in 2021 with an \"absolutely chaotic\" Christmas week, according to Richard Warren, chairman of the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association\n\nHe said teams \"loved helping people\" but many rescues were \"avoidable\".\n\nMr Warren told BBC Radio Cumbria there were 11 rescues during Christmas week.\n\nOne of the largest operations involved 75 members from multiple teams looking for a man and his 11-year-old son who had been reported missing on Scafell Pike.\n\nThe two walkers were later found after \"getting themselves down\", Mr Warren said.\n\nThere were two call outs on Christmas Day itself, Mr Warren said, adding: \"The Christmas period was absolute chaos.\"\n\nMr Warren said there had been a \"massive increase\" in visitors to the Lake District in 2020 and 2021 due to travel restrictions stopping many people holidaying abroad.\n\nThe previous record was 650 call outs in 2018, but Mr Warren said 2021 had eclipsed that despite the first three months of the year being \"relatively quiet\".\n\nHe said there had been a \"very sad end to the year\" when a man died after suffering a medical episode on Skiddaw on New Year's Eve, while the start of 2022 had been \"just as busy\".\n\nMr Warren said he was \"extremely proud\" of the all the volunteers at the 12 rescue teams in Cumbria.\n\n\"We do it unpaid,\" he said, adding: \"Mountain rescuers don't want to be paid.\n\n\"They do it because they love the mountains and love helping people.\"\n\nLake District mountain rescue teams were called out 680 times in 2021\n\nHe also praised all those who make donations to keep the teams running, with about £750,000 a year needed across all the Cumbria teams.\n\nMr Warren urged people to properly plan their walks by using services such as Adventure Smart UK.\n\n\"A lot of rescues are avoidable because people get lost with no map, compass or torch,\" he said.\n\n\"Really we want people to start thinking about what they are doing, when they are doing it and to check the weather.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pupils at a Stoke-on-Trent school were among those returning to school who could head into class only if their result was negative\n\nPupils in England have been taking Covid tests before heading into class, as schools reopen to a different set of rules following the Christmas break.\n\nMore Covid-related staff and pupil absences are expected this term.\n\nTeaching unions say it is likely some classes and year groups will be sent home to learn remotely at times because of staff shortages.\n\nBut Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi insists face-to-face teaching will remain the norm.\n\nHe emailed England's schools earlier this week to spell out the new measures and suggested classes could be merged and taught together where absences could not be covered.\n\nBut Dr Mary Bousted, joint-general secretary of the National Education Union, expressed reservations about the idea.\n\nShe said: \"Collapsing classes will mix groups of pupils and risks providing the conditions for the virus to spread more rapidly, which will result in greater pupil and staff absence.\"\n\nAcross the UK, staff and secondary pupils are being urged to test themselves regularly, but under the new measures, pupils in England must have their first Covid test in school, while elsewhere, pre-term testing takes place at home.\n\nOne pupil at a school in Stoke-on-Trent, who had turned up early to a temporary testing station in the school hall, told BBC Breakfast she was glad to be back in school.\n\nThe Stoke pupils took tests at numbered tables\n\nThey were asked to wait in a separate room for their test results\n\nAnother said he was \"pretty nervous\" about forthcoming mock exams, noting that he had \"missed quite a big chunk of learning\".\n\nThe pupils were asked to wait in a separate room for their results. If they were negative after 15 minutes, they could head into class. If not, they were asked to return home.\n\nThe government ruled on Sunday that pupils should wear masks in classrooms for the first three weeks of term, bringing England in line with other parts of the UK.\n\nIt also pledged 7,000 air filters would be available to the 20,000-plus schools in England.\n\nLiberal Democrat Education spokeswoman Munira Wilson described the investment as \"pocket change\" compared with what was required to keep schools open.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who has backed mass-testing, said there could not be a return to bubbles or classes going home.\n\nOn Monday, Mr Zahawi said the government had learned a \"painful lesson\" about the impact of previous school closures, which was why he and the prime minister were determined to keep schools open.\n\nBefore last term ended, the education secretary appealed to former teachers to come out of retirement and sign up with teacher supply agencies to help cover staff absence. There has been a similar call to retired staff in Northern Ireland.\n\nHowever, supply agencies warned that it would take time to get those who responded to the call into classrooms.\n\nTom Quinn said pupils sitting exams this year were his priority.\n\nTom Quinn, chief executive of the Frank Field Education Trust, said the organisation had used up its yearly fund for supply teachers last term.\n\n\"The call to arms to have extra funding could help us but… we can't find supply teachers to come in,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"We need high-quality professional teachers to come in to help children learn, and they're not there.\"\n\nMr Quinn was hopeful the trust would find the money, but Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton said that posed its own challenges.\n\n\"If you're going to find that money, you would have to take it away from somewhere else,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\nMr Barton has previously said that the likelihood of high levels of staff absence caused by the prevalence of the Omicron variant was the biggest problem.\n\nHe warned: \"There is a possibility that this will mean that some classes and year groups have to be sent home for short periods of time to learn remotely.\"\n\nPaul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said much of schools' planning depended on the results of teacher and staff testing.\n\n\"Only then will school leaders know who they have available and be able to properly plan.\"\n\nMasks are now compulsory again in classrooms for secondary pupils in England\n\nAsked on BBC Breakfast whether she could say how many ex-teachers had come forward, Vaccines Minister Maggie Throup said: \"It's a matter of thousands of people.\"\n\nOn Sunday six trades unions representing teaching staff called for more government support to help keep schools Covid-safe.\n\nThey want easily accessible funds to cover the cost of the temporary staff who are likely to be needed, support with the testing regime and exemption from Ofsted inspections so they can focus on safety.\n\nThey warned national exams could be at risk if \"urgent and immediate action\" was not taken to minimise Covid-related disruption.\n\nProf Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the Omicron wave had not really hit schools before they shut for Christmas, and a rise in cases was now expected.\n\n\"We expect to now see quite high infection levels - of mild infection I should emphasise - in school-aged children,\" he said.\n\nThere is a further push for staff and more young people to get vaccinated.\n\nThe latest official survey of vaccination rates suggest half of households with children in Great Britain have had their Covid jabs.\n\nLouise, a mother of two from Cambridge, told Today on Tuesday that she had had not been able to get an appointment for a second jab for her 15-year-old until February.\n\nShe also said there were no vaccination sites for 12-to-15-year-olds within 50 miles of her home.\n\nAre you a teacher or parent? How do you feel about the return to school? Share your stories by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "More than 700,000 people have signed a petition calling for former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair to have his knighthood removed.\n\nThe ex-Labour leader, who was in power from 1997 to 2007, was given the title as the New Year's Honours were awarded.\n\nBut the petition complains that his role in the Iraq war makes him \"personally responsible\" for many deaths and accuses him of \"war crimes\".\n\nAnd a government minister said it was \"only right\" to reward the former prime minister, who had done \"many good things\" for the UK.\n\nOn 1 January, Sir Tony became a member of the Order of the Garter, England's oldest and most senior order of chivalry.\n\nThe appointment was the personal choice of the Queen, who has up to 24 \"knight and lady companions\", with current Prime Minister Boris Johnson not involved in the decision.\n\nBut a petition posted on the change.org website by actor and presenter Angus Scott says Sir Tony \"caused irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation's society\" while in office.\n\n\"He was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts. For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes,\" it adds.\n\n\"Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen.\"\n\nAngus Scott had a role in TV drama The Crown\n\nAngus Scott was watching the news on New Year's Eve when he found out Tony Blair was getting a knighthood.\n\n\"I just thought it was an appalling decision, so I decided to do something,\" he tells the BBC. \"I've never done a petition before in my life. It took me quite a while to work out how to get it set up.\"\n\nMr Scott, 55, a voice-over artist and actor, who describes himself as largely apolitical, says: \"I thought it might pick up a few hundred signatures, but obviously it taps into a deep feeling that's pretty obvious around the country. The honours system itself - people are starting to question if it's appropriate.\"\n\nThe petition has received enthusiastic backing on social media from left-wing activists and Stop the War campaigners.\n\nMr Scott, who had a small role in the first season of Netflix drama The Crown, says that even though the petition has attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures, \"realistically, it's unlikely to end up in the rescinding of the knighthood order by the Queen\".\n\n\"It would do almost more damage to the reputation of the Palace by rescinding it,\" Mr Scott, from Norfolk, says. \"The Palace has got itself into a bit of muddle.\n\n\"But if I get enough signatures on the petition, it will give a clear message that this country is a democracy and that the establishment has to start listening to people.\n\n\"He's been out of office for more than 14 years, but an awful lot of people have very strong feelings about Tony Blair's record, and they have to be heeded.\"\n\nUnlike the New Year's Honours list, which is drawn up by the government for the Queen's approval, the Order of the Garter is bestowed as a personal gift by the Queen.\n\nThe Honours Forfeiture Committee cannot recommend the removal of knighthoods handed out in this way.\n\nSir Keir, a former director of public prosecutions who received his own knighthood for services to law and criminal justice in 2014, said: \"I don't think [Boris Johnson] has earned the right to a have an honour. I do think Tony Blair has.\"\n\nConservative minister Maggie Throup told LBC radio: \"[Tony Blair] did lots of good things and it's only right that we do honour our previous prime ministers.\"\n\nCould Theresa May be in line for a damehood following Sir Tony's honour?\n\nOf the other four living former prime ministers, only Sir John Major has received a knighthood-level honour, with Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May as yet missing out.\n\nBut Ms Throup, the vaccines minister, said Sir Tony's award \"now opens the doors for others to be recognised in the same way\".\n\nLabour MP Peter Kyle, a supporter of Sir Tony, told BBC Radio 4's World at One: \"I'm happy about the knighthood. I'm talking to you as a gay man. Almost all the freedoms I enjoy as such were granted by the Blair government.\n\n\"Do I think he deserve a knighthood? I think he deserves a knighthood for that alone\".\n\nIn 2009, US President George W Bush presented Sir Tony with the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest US civilian honour - for \"efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad\".\n\nBut the 2016 Chilcot report into the UK's involvement in the Iraq war found Sir Tony's government had chosen to join the US-led invasion before all peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted.\n\nIt also said planning and preparations for the country after the deposing of Saddam Hussein had been \"wholly inadequate\".", "Adele's 30 was the only album to sell more than half-a-million copies in 2021\n\nAdele's 30 was the best-selling album of 2021, after just six weeks on sale.\n\nThe star sold more than 600,000 copies of her so-called \"divorce album\", with 80% of those sales on CD and vinyl, bucking the trend towards streaming.\n\nHowever. the total falls far below the 800,000 copies her previous album, 25, sold in its first week.\n\nThe discrepancy illustrates how the music industry has become dominated by singles, thanks to streaming, which now accounts for 83% of consumption.\n\nA record 147 billion tracks were streamed in the UK last year, up 5.7% from 2020.\n\nIn June, the country saw its first week in which audio streams topped the 3 billion mark - a feat that was repeated three times in December, record labels association the BPI said.\n\nJust 10 years ago, in 2012, only 3.7 billion songs were streamed over the entire year.\n\nEd Sheeran had 2021's biggest-selling single, Bad Habits. US pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo had the second and third-biggest songs, with Good 4 U and Drivers License.\n\nAll of the top five were by solo acts, without featured artists, for the first time since 2009.\n\nEight of the top 10 albums were from British musicians. Ed Sheeran took second place with = (Equals); and Abba came third with their comeback record Voyage - which was the year's biggest-seller on vinyl.\n\nPerennial best-sellers by Queen, Fleetwood Mac and Elton John held on to their positions in the top 10, thanks to buoyant streaming numbers.\n\nThe overall recorded music market - including physical sales and digital income - was up 2.5% last year. CD sales fell to a 33-year low, with 14 million discs sold. Album downloads also fell, to 4.6 million; while vinyl sales were up 8% to 5.3 million.\n\nBut while record labels will be delighted with the growth, especially in streaming, there is disquiet amongst artists about how the profits are divided up.\n\nThe #BrokenRecord campaign, which was formed to highlight problems with the way streaming revenues are distributed, resulted in a major parliamentary inquiry last year.\n\nMPs called for a \"complete reset\" of the market, with musicians given a \"fair share\" of the £736.5 million that UK record labels earn from streaming; and the UK's top streaming services will be investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority this year.\n\nThe BPI's end-of-year report mounted a defence of the streaming's financial model, saying that, in 2021, almost 2,000 artists were streamed 10 million times in the UK alone; compared with 1,798 artists in 2020 and 1,537 artists in 2019.\n\nAt the top of the leaderboard, 180 different artists had over 100 million streams last year - the equivalent of selling 100,000 CDs.\n\n\"The rise of streaming has empowered more artists than ever - from all backgrounds and eras - to build new fanbases around the world and to forge successful careers in music,\" said the BPI's chief executive, Geoff Taylor.\n\nThe BPI has also warned that government intervention into the market could \"negatively impact performers, jeopardising the [music industry's] hard-won return to growth after years of decline\".\n\nHowever, smaller acts like Nadine Shah told parliament that streaming revenues are not enough to \"keep the wolf from the door\", especially after the pandemic wiped out their touring income.\n\nOn Sunday, German techno artist Skee Mask pulled all of his music from Spotify in protest at how little \"creators behind the music receive in terms of value, respect or space\" - as well as Spotify founder Daniel Ek's recent £83 million investment in military defence company Helsing.\n\nElectronic musician Four Tet is taking his former record label to court over streaming royalties\n\nMeanwhile, British electronic musician Kieran Hebden, who records under the name Four Tet, is taking legal action against record label Domino over the royalties he is paid on digital services.\n\nHebden argues that, under the terms of his 2001 record deal with Domino, he should be getting a 50% of the money generated when his records are streamed, instead of the 18% the label currently offers.\n\nDomino, which argues his reading of the 20-year-old contract is incorrect, recently pulled all three of the Four Tet albums it owns from streaming services, prompting a wave of outrage from fans.\n\nHebden's case may never be heard - the musician says he cannot afford to pursue it if it is escalated to the High Court - but it is certain to focus musicians' attention on the historical deals they have signed.\n\nMeanwhile, the BPI argues that labels are still vital to help artists achieve their dreams.\n\n\"The hundreds of millions of pounds labels invest in the UK each year is supporting the emergence of a new wave of musicians connecting with millions of fans all over the world,\" said Geoff Taylor.\n\n\"This year's growth shows there is a huge appetite for music and we believe that by working together we can increase the value of the whole music market, so that streaming can support even more artists in the future.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "More than 30 million copies of Nevermind have been sold worldwide\n\nA judge in California has dismissed a lawsuit against Nirvana made by Spencer Elden, who appeared as a naked baby on the cover of their album Nevermind.\n\nElden sued the band last year, alleging sexual exploitation, and that the artwork constituted child sexual abuse.\n\nNow 30, he said the infamous image had caused him \"extreme and permanent emotional distress\" as well as loss of wages and \"enjoyment of life\".\n\nNirvana filed to dismiss last month, saying Elden's arguments lacked merit.\n\n\"Elden's claim that the photograph on the Nevermind album cover is 'child pornography' is, on its face, not serious,\" their lawyers said, noting that anyone who owned a copy of the record would \"on Elden's theory [be] guilty of felony possession of child pornography\".\n\nThey continued by noting that, until recently, Elden had seemed to enjoy the notoriety of being the \"Nirvana baby\".\n\n\"He has re-enacted the photograph in exchange for a fee, many times; he has had the album title... tattooed across his chest; he has appeared on a talk show wearing a self-parodying, nude-colored onesie; he has autographed copies of the album cover for sale on eBay; and he has used the connection to try to pick up women.\"\n\nElden has re-created the photo several times\n\nThe motion was filed by lawyers representing surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic; Kurt Cobain's widow Courtney Love; and Kirk Weddle, the photographer of the cover image.\n\nRegardless of the merits of Elden's case, they argued, the statute of limitations on his claims had expired in 2011, meaning he was too late to sue.\n\nHis lawyers have argued that the statute of limitations does not apply, as long as Nevermind continues to be sold in its current form.\n\n\"Child pornography is a forever crime,\" Marsh Law told Variety in a statement last year. \"Any distribution of or profits earned from any sexually explicit image of a child not only creates longstanding liability but it also breeds lifelong trauma. This is common for all of our clients who are victims of actively traded child pornography, regardless of how long ago the image was created.\"\n\nElden's team had until 30 December to respond to Nirvana's motion to dismiss, but missed the deadline.\n\nAs a result, Judge Fernando M Olguin dismissed the case \"with leave to amend\" - meaning his team have until 13 January to refile the case with appropriate changes.\n\nIn a statement to AFP on Tuesday, Elden's lawyer Robert Lewis said they would do so \"very soon.\"\n\n\"We are confident that Spencer will be allowed to move forward with his case,\" Lewis said.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took control of the National League Club from the Wrexham Supporters Trust in February 2021\n\nWrexham FC's celebrity owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have donated £10,000 to a charity fundraising page after the death of a player's baby.\n\nThe donation was made to a GoFundMe page set up by midfielder Jordan Davies and his partner Kelsey Edwards.\n\nThe couple's son Arthur was \"born sleeping\" last month, the page says.\n\nA message saying \"Rob, Kaitlin, Ryan and Blake For Arthur\" was left with the generous donation.\n\nMr Davies said: \"We've been very grateful for the support all at the football club, and the supporters, have showed to Kelsey and I.\n\n\"All donations to our fundraiser have also been gratefully received, knowing that Arthur has helped others means a great deal to us.\"\n\nReynolds and McElhenney, who are married to US actresses Blake Lively and Kaitlin Olson, donated the cash to the fundraising appeal following the baby's death.\n\nThe money will go to the charity Sands (Stillbirth & Neonatal Death Society).\n\nThe charity's website states that it \"works to support anyone affected by the death of a baby, improve the care bereaved parents receive, and create a world where fewer babies die\".\n\nThe bereaved couple said they were \"forever grateful\" to the charity after the death of their baby.\n\nIn the fundraising page description they wrote: \"Our baby boy, Arthur Andrew Davies was born sleeping on 14 December 2021.\n\n\"The support we received during this time was amazing, the midwives provided around the clock care and made sure we were comfortable and they really couldn't do enough for us.\"\n\nThey added: \"We were given the time we needed with our boy and were supported throughout.\n\n\"They also provided us with a memory box with things to cherish forever, we are forever grateful for Sands and all the staff in the Wrexham Maelor.\n\nReynolds and McElhenney took 100% control of the National League club from the Wrexham Supporters Trust in February 2021.\n\nThe celebrity duo also invested £2m in the club under the terms of the deal.", "The growth in the number of cases of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland was exponential at the end of 2021.\n\nIn the week prior to Christmas, the rolling seven-day average for daily cases in Northern Ireland hit a new high and started to creep towards 2,000.\n\nIn the final week of 2021, this new peak itself was dwarfed.\n\nThe rolling seven-day average exceeded 5,000 - a level never before seen in Northern Ireland.\n\nGiven the Christmas and new year holidays, the Department of Health (DoH) dashboard has not been updated as frequently.\n\nBut the updates that have been given have made one thing clear - the omicron variant has been spreading at an exceptional pace.\n\nAccording to the latest figures from the UK government, Northern Ireland's infection stands at 1,619.8 per 100,00 people.\n\nThat is for the seven days up until 27 December and it is the highest in the UK.\n\nThe equivalent number for the same period in the Republic of Ireland was 1,116.\n\nThe majority of new cases have been among young adults.\n\nAbout half of all cases over the past week have been in people aged 20-39.\n\nUntil schools finished for Christmas, infections were driven mainly by young people under the age of 20.\n\nSince Christmas Eve, there has been an increase in the number of inpatients in Northern Ireland's hospitals with the virus - latest figures indicate 314.\n\nThis is about 10% of Northern Ireland's hospital capacity.\n\nThe same figures show there are 34 Covid-positive patients in intensive care, with 25 ventilated.\n\nThese numbers are consistent with what was seen during the rest of December.\n\nThis indicates that Omicron, so far, has not contributed to any noticeable increase in people suffering from the virus requiring intensive care.\n\nThe Covid-19 death rate - as reported by the DoH - fell slightly at the start of December and has been relatively consistent since.", "The Scottish government says the reporting of many test results has been delayed by the high number of PCRs being processed by labs\n\nScotland's Covid testing system faces \"congestion\" as schools and businesses reopen after the holidays, the deputy first minister has warned.\n\nJohn Swinney told BBC Scotland there were likely to be \"challenges\" in some places as the demand for lateral flow and PCR tests rises in the coming days.\n\nPupils are being urged to take a test before returning to school.\n\nCovid infections in Scotland hit another record high on Monday, with 20,217 people testing positive.\n\nReported cases fell slightly on Tuesday to 17,259, according to Scottish government figures. More than 35% of the tests carried out were positive.\n\nThe Scottish government also continued to warn that the reporting of many results has been delayed as labs have been processing a much higher volume of tests.\n\nHowever, Deputy First Minister John Swinney told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme he believed Scotland's testing system could cope with the return to school.\n\n\"I think it can. Obviously it's important that individuals undertake those lateral flow tests, that is a critical part of our defence against Omicron,\" he said.\n\n\"I think what's encouraging is that the level of lateral flow device testing is high, many individuals are participating. The most recent data I've seen indicates that, in the last seven days, 85% of the population took part in lateral flow tests, which is very, very good.\n\n\"But obviously, as people return to school, staff, pupils, as people return to the workplace, it's important that they do that before they embark on it and then, of course, if they're positive, to take the necessary steps to receive a PCR test.\"\n\nAsked whether there was enough PCR testing capacity to cope with demand, he said: \"I think there will be congestion at different points.\n\n\"It's impossible for me to give you a guarantee that at individual test sites there will not be challenges in particular geographies, but I'm confident that we have got a strong testing proposition.\"\n\nThe seven-day average of cases rose from 6,671 on 21 December to 10,387 on 28 December in Scotland, according to the Scottish government.\n\nPublic health expert Dr Christine Tait-Burkard, of the University of Edinburgh, said it was \"almost inevitable\" that Omicron cases would rise still further when pupils returned to school, given the transmissibility of the new variant.\n\nDr Tait-Burkard, a research fellow at the university's Roslin Institute, said cases were likely to increase, even with mitigating measures.\n\nShe told Good Morning Scotland: \"It's almost without a doubt that, when schools return, our numbers will increase further.\n\n\"The virus is very, very prominent in the population at the moment.\n\n\"The week before last, one in 40 people in Scotland had the virus, and that means as soon as schools return, with such a high transmissibility of Omicron, the numbers will rise further, that is almost inevitable.\"\n\nAsked whether this would happen even with mitigations such as mask-wearing and increased ventilation, she said: \"Even with mitigations. As we've seen in the past they help to slow things down... but it's both children returning to school, parents returning to workplaces, which will help the virus spread further than it has before.\"\n\nFigures published by the Scottish government on Tuesday show that the number of people in hospital with Covid is also continuing to rise, going up from 1,031 to 1,147, with 42 people being treated in intensive care.\n\nHowever, Jillian Evans, the head of health intelligence for NHS Grampian, said there were indications that fewer people infected with the Omicron strain required hospital treatment and that hospital stays were getting shorter.\n\n\"The length of stay certainly seems to be lower and that would indicate that people aren't as ill as they were with other variants of Covid,\" she told BBC Radio Scotland's Lunchtime Live.\n\n\"Another thing to look at is the hospitalisation rate... That's been coming down and it's continuing to come down, so I think the number of people who are converting from being infected to being hospitalised is really quite low now and much lower in the last month or so.\n\n\"Those two things give you some cause for optimism.\"", "Vaccinating everyone on the planet against Covid-19 regularly is not sustainable or affordable, a UK vaccine scientist has said.\n\nProf Sir Andrew Pollard, who helped develop the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, said the most at risk should be identified and prioritised instead.\n\nHe said the vaccine rollout had gone \"extremely well\" in the UK but other parts of the world were falling behind.\n\nBooster jabs have been offered to all eligible adults in the UK.\n\nThere has been a surge of Omicron cases in the UK, with a record 218,724 cases reported on Tuesday.\n\nHowever, this figure includes a backlog of two days worth of cases from Wales and four days of cases from Northern Ireland, due to the holiday weekend.\n\nBut Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said the government \"doesn't see any data to suggest that further restrictions would be the right approach\" in England.\n\nHe said the public should be \"in no doubt\" it would be a difficult time for the NHS but there were mitigations in place to help them through a \"challenging winter\".\n\nA number of hospital trusts have declared critical incidents, with coronavirus cases leading to staff shortages and increased pressure on services.\n\nPlan B measures currently in place - including mask wearing in some indoor settings and guidance to work from home where possible - are \"the correct course\", the spokesman added.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the government was not looking at cutting the self-isolation period for those who test positive to five days.\n\nSpeaking after visiting a vaccination centre in south London, he said the current rules allowing people to leave their 10 days isolation early if they test negative on days six and seven was the \"right, balanced, proportionate approach\".\n\nThe prime minister will host a Downing Street news conference later. He will be joined by chief medical officer for England Prof Sir Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.\n\nProf Pollard told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"It really is not affordable, sustainable or probably even needed to vaccinate everyone on the planet every four to six months.\n\n\"We haven't even managed to vaccinate everyone in Africa with one dose so we're certainly not going to get to a point where fourth doses for everyone is manageable.\"\n\nThere is not \"full certainty\" on whether another booster might be needed in the UK, added Prof Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group.\n\nHe said the UK would be in a good position if variants continued to lead to milder disease, as has been the case with Omicron.\n\n\"We may well need to have boosters for the vulnerable in the population but I think it's highly unlikely that we'll have programmes going forwards regularly of boosting everyone over the age of 12,\" he added.\n\nProf Pollard said those who would need further boosters were likely to be older adults or those with health conditions.\n\n\"There will be new variants after Omicron,\" he added. \"We don't yet know how they're going to behave - and that may completely change the view on what the right thing to do is.\"\n\nProf Pollard is chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises the government on vaccines, but he has no involvement in decision-making on Covid-19 vaccinations in the UK.\n\nMaggie Throup, minister for vaccines and public health, told the BBC the government would take advice from the JCVI about a fourth Covid vaccine dose programme and then \"decide whether it's appropriate\".\n\nShe said it was important for people to have their boosters now, or first or second doses if they had not yet done so.\n\nInfectious disease expert Prof Neil Ferguson said he was \"cautiously optimistic\" that Covid cases were starting to plateau in London in the 18-50 age group, which had been seeing especially high numbers.\n\nThe epidemiologist said case numbers should start to fall in the next week in the English capital, and in other regions from a week to three weeks' time.\n\nHe also said current case data was not giving the full picture, with test kits in short supply over Christmas and re-infections not being counted in the official figures - some 10-15% of Omicron cases are re-infections, he added.\n\nBut it is too early to tell what happens next, especially because of \"current mixing trends\" and the \"effect of open schools\" - with pupils returning to classrooms from Tuesday.\n\nCovid-related staff and pupil absences are expected this term with teaching unions saying it is likely some will be sent home to learn remotely at times. Face-to-face teaching will remain the norm, says England's Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi.\n\nProf Ferguson said it was likely there would be \"quite high infection levels\" in school-aged children - albeit with mild illness.\n\nThe fact Omicron is less severe than previous variants is \"good news\" and vaccines are \"holding up against severe disease and against severe outcomes well\", he added.\n\nBut \"that doesn't mean it's not going to be, as the prime minister said, a difficult few weeks for the NHS\".", "A teaching union has called on the Stormont Executive to take urgent action to reduce any further disruption in schools due to Covid-19.\n\nNASUWT said its members want to be able to provide face-to-face teaching in the new term which begins this week.\n\nJustin McCamphill from the union said the executive must do all it can to prevent schools from experiencing \"significant staffing problems\".\n\nThere has been a surge in cases of the Omicron variant in Northern Ireland.\n\nOn Thursday, Stormont ministers were told that the Omicron variant now accounts for about 90% of cases in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"We are calling on the executive to urgently intervene in schools to make sure they're safe,\" Mr McCamphill said.\n\n\"Over the new year we have seen a big increase in the number of cases with the Omicron variant so we're expecting a big amount of disruption in schools when they return this week.\n\n\"Unfortunately, that will mean many classes and year groups will be sent home.\"\n\nBefore Christmas, some schools had to send individual year groups home for remote learning on specific days due to staff absences and difficulty getting substitute teacher cover.\n\nThe NASUWT is urging the executive to:\n\nA Belfast principal said up to 15% of his teaching staff will not be available for the new term which starts in a couple of days.\n\nCahal O'Doherty of St Clare's Primary School said the Omicron variant has made planning difficult.\n\n\"That's a real issue and I think all schools will be facing that,\" he said.\n\n\"I think this particular strain of coronavirus, because it's so much more contagious, it's given us food for thought in terms of being able to manage this situation on the ground.\"\n\nHe said his preparations for the new term are \"changing by the hour\".\n\nThe principal of St Cecilia's College in Londonderry, whose pupils are due to go back to school on Wednesday, said she feels \"anxious\" and would have preferred a delayed return after Christmas and the new year.\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, Martine Mulhern said she had hoped pupils and staff were going into the new term \"better prepared\".\n\n\"As a principal, I have a duty of care to keep staff and young people safe,\" she said.\n\n\"To have everyone back in school with no additional mitigations, for me, could be a potential recipe for disaster.\"\n\nThe SDLP's Education spokesperson, Daniel McCrossan, told BBC News NI's Evening Extra that Stormont's Education Committee had \"continually raised concerns\" with the education minister in relation to the \"very serious risks posed to schools\".\n\nHe said the committee had met \"five days a week in some instances prior to Christmas\" and that a letter being sent to principals and school staff on a Friday evening \"days before schools return is certainly not appropriate\" and that they had \"flagged this issue time and time again\".\n\nA spokeswoman for the Department of Education said both the minister and Permanent Secretary had written to schools setting out mitigations which were in place.\n\nIn a statement, they said they had a \"shared objective to keep schools safe and open as we all know that the best place for our children and young people is in school\".\"We will continue to do everything in our power to help school leaders during these unprecedented and extremely challenging circumstances,\" the statement continued.The department is encouraging schools to ask all staff and post-primary pupils to take a lateral flow test within 24 hours of their return to school in January.\n\nMeanwhile, the Public Health Agency (PHA) has confirmed at least 120 care homes in Northern Ireland are dealing with Covid-19 outbreaks.\n\nDr Gillian Armstrong from the PHA told BBC Radio Foyle different pressures within the sector are likely to continue for some time.\"\n\nLast week, Northern Ireland's First Minister Paul Givan announced a cut to the Covid-19 self-isolation period for positive cases in Northern Ireland to avoid a \"workforce crisis\".\n\nFrom 31 December, people with Covid have been able to end their self-isolation after seven days instead of 10, by providing negative lateral flow results on day six and day seven.\n\nSome principals told Stormont's education committee recently that closing schools \"must be avoided at all costs\".\n\nThey said being out of school had a detrimental impact on children and young people's mental health, wellbeing and education.\n\nThe executive will next meet on 6 January to discuss its measures and the latest data.", "Holmes (centre) remains on bail before sentencing at a later date\n\nTheranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has been convicted of defrauding investors after a months-long landmark trial in California.\n\nProsecutors said Holmes knowingly lied about technology she said could detect diseases with a few drops of blood.\n\nJurors found Holmes guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud against investors and three charges of wire fraud.\n\nShe denied the charges, which carry a maximum prison term of 20 years each.\n\nHolmes was not taken into custody, with no date confirmed yet for sentencing and a further hearing scheduled next week.\n\nJournalists inside the courtroom said the 37-year-old, who gave birth to her first child last year, showed little emotion when the verdicts were read out, and hugged her husband, Billy Evans, and her parents before leaving the courtroom.\n\nHolmes faced 11 charges in total and was found not guilty of four charges relating to defrauding the public.\n\nThe split verdict came after the judge said the jury, having deliberated for seven days, could deliver a partial verdict after being unable to reach consensus on another three counts.\n\nThe three wire fraud charges she was found guilty of are tied to specific investors in her failed company. Wire fraud is a relatively wide-ranging federal crime in the US, which involves using electronic communications, such as emails, to make false statements to get something from another person - usually money.\n\nTheranos, at one point valued at $9bn (£6.5bn), was once the darling of biotech and Silicon Valley.\n\nHolmes was able to raise more than $900m from billionaires such as media magnate Rupert Murdoch and tech mogul Larry Ellison.\n\nThe firm promised it would revolutionise the healthcare industry with a test that could detect conditions such as cancer and diabetes with only a few drops of blood.\n\nBut these claims began to unravel in 2015 after a Wall Street Journal investigation reported that its core blood-testing technology did not work.\n\nFor nearly four months at trial, the jury of eight men and four women were presented with two starkly different accounts of the former self-made billionaire, whose downfall shook Silicon Valley.\n\nCalling some 30 witnesses, the prosecution sought to prove that Holmes knew the product she was selling to investors - a machine called the Edison - was a sham, but remained hell-bent on the firm's success.\n\nHer company secretly relied on commercially available machines to run the tests, prosecutors said.\n\nAt trial, multiple lab directors testified to telling Holmes about the flaws in Theranos' technology but being instructed to downplay their concerns. At the same time, they added , Holmes told investors the technology was operating as planned.\n\nHolmes \"chose fraud over business failure. She chose to be dishonest with investors and patients\", said prosecutor Jeff Schenk in closing arguments. \"That choice was not only callous, it was criminal.\"\n\nThe defence countered with descriptions of a dedicated and driven businesswoman, making waves in a male-dominated industry.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes\n\nTestifying in her own defence, Holmes acknowledged mistakes in Theranos' operation, but maintained she never knowingly defrauded patients or investors.\n\nThe defence also laid blame on Ramesh \"Sunny\" Balwani, her former business partner and ex-boyfriend.\n\nAt trial Holmes accused Mr Balwani, 19 years her senior, of emotional and sexual abuse - allegations he denies.\n\nElizabeth Holmes claimed her diagnostics machines could test hundreds of diseases. They couldn't.\n\nConsidering she was the founder and CEO of Theranos you might think the case would be an easy win for the prosecution. But for a number of reasons the guilty verdicts were by no means assured.\n\nThese technical fraud cases are extremely difficult to prosecute. Jurors were asked to consider hundreds of documents and sit through evidence from dozens of witnesses.\n\nHolmes has just had a baby and some commentators believed she would strike a sympathetic character.\n\nThe difficulty in successfully prosecuting Holmes is reflected in the verdicts - a real mixed bag of decisions from the jury.\n\nBut considering how difficult white-collar fraud cases are to prosecute, the government will be happy with what stuck.\n\nHer former partner, Sunny Balwani, will now face trial next month in the same court for similar charges. It's likely Holmes will not be sentenced until after that case has concluded.\n\nThe verdict sends a clear and frank message to Silicon Valley founders - there are consequences when you say things to investors that aren't true.\n\nUS Attorney Stephanie Hinds thanked the jurors who, she said, had navigated a \"complex case\" over 15 weeks to reach their verdict.\n\n\"The guilty verdicts, in this case, reflect Ms Holmes' culpability in this large-scale investor fraud and she must now face sentencing for her crimes,\" the prosecutor said in a statement read out by an assistant.\n\nHolmes was dubbed the \"next Steve Jobs\" by Inc. magazine, trumpeted by Forbes as being \"the world's youngest self-made female billionaire\", and featured in Time magazine's coveted list of the most influential people in 2015.\n\nShe founded Theranos as a teenager, shortly after dropping out of chemical engineering at Stanford University.\n\nThe firm officially ceased operations in 2018 following the scandal.", "Amber Gibson's body was discovered in Hamilton on 28 November\n\nA second man has been charged in connection with the death of 16-year-old Amber Gibson.\n\nAmber's body was discovered near Cadzow Glen in Hamilton at about 10:10 on 28 November. She had been reported missing two days earlier.\n\nConnor Gibson, 19, understood to be her brother, has already appeared in court charged with her murder.\n\nPolice said the 43-year-old arrested man is due to appear at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Wednesday.\n\nMr Gibson was also charged with offences relating to the Sexual Offences Act 2009 and with attempting to pervert the course of justice.\n\nHe made no plea when he appeared in court in December.\n\nA police watchdog has been ordered to examine Police Scotland's handling of the case, which is understood to relate to the missing person investigation.\n• None Brother of Amber Gibson charged with her murder", "Trials have been going on in Milton Keynes for some time\n\nA major trial of driverless cars on the public roads will begin in Milton Keynes later this month.\n\nThe Fetch car system, backed by the government and Milton Keynes Council, will allow people to order a car through an app.\n\nThe car, which is remotely controlled by an operator, will then be delivered to them.\n\nThe company behind the trials says a \"safety driver\" will also initially be in every vehicle.\n\n\"It's driverless but not autonomous,\" said Koosha Kaveh, the chief executive of Imperium Drive, the company behind the trials.\n\n\"There's still a human involved, but they'll be sitting in a control centre controlling the vehicle in the same way you would control a drone.\"\n\nThe trial is set to begin later in January\n\nHe said to start with, a safety driver will be present for every journey.\n\n\"We're working towards making remote driving safer than normal driving. In normal driving you still have blind spots around you that cause accidents. You also can't anticipate what's coming in terms of traffic, pedestrians, cyclists.\n\nHe said the company has computer image algorithms that detect anything that is near the car.\n\n\"Our goal is to make remote driving safer than actual driving,\" he said.\n\nPreliminary trials of the \"Fetch\" driverless cars have been going on for some time on private land and car parks around Milton Keynes stadium, the home of MK Dons football club.\n\nTheir players and staff will be taking part in the trials.\n\nThe performance director for MK Dons, Simon Crampton, said driverless vehicles will be especially helpful to players because of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n\"The biggest thing at the moment is Covid, because we can't start putting players together in cars, particularly with the omicron variant being very contagious.\n\n\"Our players and staff can now order a vehicle through the app that will arrive at the front of the stadium to take them to training.\"\n\nIf the trials are successful, the service will be expanded to Milton Keynes train station and offered as a paid service for commuters.\n\nThe head of Transport Innovation at Milton Keynes Council, Brian Matthews, said driverless cars will be commonplace in the town within two years.\n\n\"We've been working at this for a number of years. We want people to move away from single occupancy cars.\n\n\"We're looking a range of solutions not just these driverless cars, but also larger shuttles using similar technology and four-seater pods that are completely autonomous.\"\n\nOxford became the first city to hold driverless car trials in the UK in late 2020.\n\nThe trial, which was due to end last Autumn, saw vehicles drive a nine-mile round trip from Oxford Parkway railway station to Oxford's city centre station.\n\nA consultation to update the Highway Code was launched in spring 2021 to \"ensure the first wave of this technology is used safely and responsibly\".", "Armed forces have previously been called in to help the ambulance service throughout the pandemic\n\nUp to 15% of NHS staff at some health boards are off work as record Omicron cases cause disruption to services across Wales.\n\nOn average Wales has seen 8,948 Covid cases a day in the last week, almost double that of the week before.\n\nNHS Wales boss Judith Paget said \"every department\" of the health service was under strain.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance service said with hundreds of staff absent it had called on the military to boost numbers.\n\nWhile hospitalisation levels remain lower than previous waves, one health board has said staff absences posed a \"major workforce challenge\".\n\nThe case rate in Wales has risen to 1986.5 cases per 100,000 in the last seven days of stable data, the highest since the start of the pandemic.\n\nBBC Wales has taken a look at how the variant is impacting services, including the NHS, emergency services, councils and schools.\n\nJudith Paget, the Chief Executive of the Welsh NHS, said the availability of staff was the \"main concern\" for the health service currently.\n\n\"I think that staff absence will mean that health boards have to adjust and pause some of their services, they have done already, they will continue to do that,\" she said.\n\nMs Paget said staff absence levels ranged from 8.5% to 15% across Wales' health boards.\n\n\"Teams are working incredibly hard…staff are changing shifts, working on, changing their rotas, coming in from annual leave, doing what the NHS staff do amazingly well,\" she added.\n\nOne health board said its staff were \"extremely fatigued\" from the pressures of the pandemic\n\nAneurin Bevan Health have said that due to staff absences and \"extraordinarily high demand\" some elective procedures have had to be postponed.\n\nSue Green, of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, said more than 600 staff were off work due to Covid, and staff had cancelled holidays to try to keep services going.\n\nShe added that in total around 10% of the workforce was currently unavailable for duty, and urged people to only go to A&E if it was \"absolutely appropriate to do so\".\n\nCardiff and Vale University Health Board said winter pressures coupled with the pandemic had put \"significant strain\" on its services, and rising cases pose a \"major workforce challenge\".\n\n\"Our staff are extremely fatigued from the exceptional levels of demand over a sustained period, but continue to go above and beyond every day to provide high-quality patient care,\" it said in a statement.\n\nIn a statement Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board said the \"significant pressure\" of staff absences was causing a \"major challenge\" for its workforce.\n\nMeanwhile, Morrison Hospital in Swansea has urged patients not to go to A&E, unless they have a life-threatening illness or serious injury.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Swansea Bay NHS This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance service said 346 frontline staff (10%) were absent due to Covid. When combined with non-Covid sickness this figure rises to 16%.\n\nLee Brooks, of the Welsh Ambulance Service, said 150 soldiers, sailors and aircrew will joining the 100 that had been assisting since October.\n\nArmed forces have previously been called in to help the ambulance service throughout the pandemic\n\nNorth Wales Fire and Rescue said it had decided to scale back some of its prevention activities to \"protect staff and our communities\", as providing services has become \"challenging\" amid absences.\n\nSouth Wales Police appealed to the public to \"not to place further strain on our already stretched frontline services, by not playing their part to slow the spread\".\n\nThe force said it had confidence in its contingency plans, which include the redeployment of officers, to \"ensure we can respond to emergencies and continue protecting those who need us most\".\n\nTransport for Wales have implemented an emergency timetable because of staff absences, cutting up to 15% of its services.\n\nServices around Wales and into England are affected\n\nInitial changes were made on 22 December, but from 3 January additional changes were made due to further absences.\n\nAcross the UK rail passengers are facing reduced services and cancellations, with Scotrail cancelling 8% of its services.\n\nCoach operator Stagecoach said it \"may not be able to run every service as planned\" because of an \"increasing numbers of employees impacted by the virus\".\n\nLaura Doel, director of teaching union NAHT Cymru, said staff absences were expected to cause \"significant disruption\" when most schools return on Thursday.\n\nWales' Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Chris Jones, said the plan was to keep schools open at present.\n\nHowever the first minister has warned staff illness meant some pupils would return to home learning, and schools should prepare for this.\n\nMs Doel said it is vital measures are taken to ensure schools stay open as long as they can\n\nMs Doel said she \"would not rely\" on schools having adequate supplies of lateral flow tests for staff.\n\n\"Schools staying open has to be our number one priority. We know the disruption we've had previously, nobody wants to return to online learning,\" she added.\n\nNeath Port Talbot council said with the areas' Covid rates are the highest since the start of the pandemic, it expected to see disruption to its services over the coming weeks.\n\nIn a statement it said: \"If this happens, we will be prioritising services for vulnerable people and essential services.\"\n\nSharon Carney, of Flintshire council, said the situation was \"challenging\", but at present the council have a degree of \"resilience\".\n\n\"But this is likely to change as the impacts of Covid and service pressures continue to influence workforce numbers,\" she added.\n\n\"The position is highly fluid and may deteriorate over the next few weeks when Covid infection levels are likely to peak.\"\n\nWe've been seeing record numbers of Covid cases in the community, but so far, numbers in hospital are nothing like we experienced last year.\n\nIn the latest figures there was a rolling average of 411 hospital patients with confirmed Covid in Wales on 31 December - a 44% rise on two weeks ago and the highest figure for more than a month.\n\nBut there were nearly four times as many people in hospital with confirmed Covid at the same point in 2020.\n\nWhen we include patients with suspected Covid and recovering from Covid, there is an average of 594 patients. They make up 7.5% of all hospital patients.\n\nHowever, this number also includes patients who are being treated for other conditions - and just happen to test positive when they are admitted.\n\nFigures have not been published in Wales for these \"incidental\" Covid hospitalisations, but we know the proportion is around 30% of Covid patients in England.\n\nThe number of Covid patients on invasive ventilation or in critical care beds stood at 33 on 31 December.\n\nAt the same point in 2020, there were 119 critically ill Covid patients.\n\nAnother key indicator is deaths. Sadly, people are still dying from Covid but in far fewer numbers than we were seeing this time last year.\n\nThere have been 22 Covid deaths occurring in the last seven days, as reported by Public Health Wales, an average of around three a day.\n\nThis time last year, there were 51 Covid deaths a day occurring in Wales, registered with ONS, peaking at 83 deaths a day in the second week of January.", "Covid-19 transmission has reached \"extraordinary levels\" in Northern Ireland, the chief scientific adviser has said.\n\nProf Ian Young told BBC News NI that about one in 10 people in some parts of Northern Ireland has the virus.\n\nHe said he expected a peak in the next two to three weeks.\n\nAlmost 12% of the total number of positive cases recorded since the start of the pandemic were reported in the past seven days.\n\nNorthern Ireland has recorded a total of 432,492 coronavirus cases, 50,627 of them in the past week.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann said the Omicron variant had brought an \"unprecedent surge\", after more than 30,000 cases were recorded in the past four days.\n\nProf Young said he hoped pressure on hospitals would be less than they were last January, when Northern Ireland was under lockdown measures.\n\nHe said case numbers were expected to peak early to mid-January, while hospital pressures were likely to peak in late January to early February.\n\nProf Young added that evidence suggested Omicron is less severe than the Delta variant.\n\n\"That is going to be what keeps hospital pressures from rising to very high levels.\n\n\"I hope if we all play our part that hospital pressures might be able to stay below the pressures we observed last January.\n\n\"There does remain a significant threat and we all have a role to play in trying to minimise the pressures that hospitals are going to be under.\"\n\nMr Swann said the risk of getting Covid was now \"considerably higher\" than it had ever been and urged people to get a booster dose of the vaccine.\n\n\"Faced with this very real threat, getting your booster dose right now is the single most important step you can take,\" he said.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann said a booster dose was \"the single most important step\" people can take\n\nSince 24 December, the number of patients with Covid in Northern Ireland hospitals has risen from 336 to 348.\n\nAs of Tuesday there are 31 Covid-positive patients in intensive care, 25 of whom are ventilated.\n\nThese figures are consistent with those recorded during the rest of December.\n\nNorthern Ireland's infection rate is the highest in the UK, according to the latest UK government figures.\n\nIn the seven days up until 30 December, 2,252 in 100,000 people here had the virus.\n\nThe pandemic and related pressure on hospital services is also continuing to have an impact on surgical services for cancer.\n\nIn total, 162 red flag suspected or confirmed cancer procedures have been cancelled across all health trusts since 26 November, according to figures from the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB).\n\nIt said trusts are actively working to offer new dates as soon as possible.\n\nDr Frances O'Hagan, the deputy chair of the British Medical Association's Northern Ireland GPs committee has said anyone with cold-like symptoms should book a PCR test.\n\n\"A sore throat is probably one of the most prominent symptoms for Omicron, so it's really important that people do get tested, especially if you do have any other associated symptoms as well, in particular a temperature.\"\n\n\"It is important to go ahead and get a PCR booked as it is so difficult now to know what the symptoms are.\"\n\nHowever the Northern Ireland Executive's advice remains that people should only book a PCR test if they have a high temperature, a new, continuous cough or a loss or change in sense of smell or taste.\n\nClose contacts who are fully vaccinated should take daily lateral flow tests for 10 days following their exposure to the virus.\n\nThey should only book a PCR if a lateral flow is positive.\n\nThe measures taken to contain the Omicron variant in Northern Ireland were tightened at the end of December.\n\nThis includes the closure of nightclubs, table service only at hospitality venues and a limit on the number of people from different households that can sit together.\n\nProof of Covid status remains a requirement to enter some hospitality premises and some other indoor settings.\n\nLaws surrounding the wearing of face coverings were also strengthened.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, people who test positive can leave self-isolation after seven days if they produce negative lateral flow results on days six and seven.\n\nMeanwhile, the Irish government will ask the country's chief medical officer to consider relaxing the self-isolation rules for fully vaccinated close contacts of confirmed Covid cases.\n\nTánaiste Leo Varadkar said the rules were causing problems across public services, industry and critical infrastructure.\n\nOn Tuesday, Boris Johnson announced about 100,000 critical workers will take daily Covid tests to reduce the spread of the virus to colleagues.\n\nThe testing, set to begin form 10 January, will include workers in food processing, transport and the border force,", "The French government wants to tighten restrictions on unvaccinated people\n\nSeveral French MPs say they have received death threats as they debate a Covid-19 pass that would bar the unvaccinated from much of public life.\n\nThe government is seeking to pass a law that would require people to show proof of vaccination to access public venues and transport with some exceptions.\n\nThe legislation is expected to be approved in a vote this week but has angered vaccine opponents.\n\nFrance has one of the highest Covid vaccination rates in the EU.\n\nAt least 91% of the adult population have been fully jabbed, according to the French government.\n\nOn Sunday Agnès Firmin Le Bodo of the centre-right Agir party tweeted an email she received containing graphic threats to kill her over her support for the vaccination pass.\n\n\"Our democracy is in danger,\" wrote Ms Firmin Le Bodo, who is also a pharmacist and vaccinates people against Covid.\n\nIn an interview with BFM TV, she said she had reported the threats to the police and would not be deterred from supporting the vaccine pass.\n\nAgnès Firmin Le Bodo tweeted out a screen shot of an emailed threat she received\n\nAnother MP, Naïma Moutchou of the Horizons party, shared a similar tweet which included a screenshot of an emailed threat.\n\nIn parliament on Monday, Health Minister Olivier Véran condemned the death threats and the \"selfishness\" of vaccine opponents.\n\nLast week Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said police would strengthen protections for elected officials ahead of the vote on vaccine passes.\n\nBarbara Bessot Ballot of the ruling En Marche! party said MPs had received messages threatening to kill them for \"attacking our freedom\".\n\n\"Those death threats are unacceptable,\" she wrote on Twitter.\n\nThroughout the pandemic, critics have accused French President Emmanuel Macron's government of violating freedoms by imposing Covid rules. Protests against these rules have been held regularly.\n\nFor months France has asked people to show either proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test to access many public venues.\n\nBut the French government has decided to remove the option to show a negative test in response to record increases in infections, driven by the highly contagious Omicron and Delta variants of Covid.\n\nThe government is aiming to bring the vaccine pass into force in mid-January, once it has been approved by parliament.\n\nMost parties back the vaccine pass, which is expected to be passed by the lower house early this week, before being debated in the Senate on Wednesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Experts answer your questions about the Omicron variant", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) assembly member Diane Dodds has described online abuse mocking her late son as \"callous and malicious\".\n\nThe Upper Bann representative's son Andrew was born with spina bifida and died in 1998, aged eight.\n\nPolice are investigating after she was targeted by an anonymous Twitter account, which has since been removed.\n\n\"In politics you expect the rough and tumble, but you probably don't expect that level of brutality,\" she said.\n\nA spokesperson for Twitter said the company wanted to \"reiterate our commitment to ensuring that Twitter doesn't become a forum that facilitates abuse\".\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show, Mrs Dodds said online trolling could be both harmful and dangerous, adding that those involved set out to \"strike the core of your very being\".\n\nShe said she had received messages of support from members of the public and other politicians following the incident on New Year's Eve.\n\n\"People are shell-shocked that there can be this much cruelty and callousness,\" she said.\n\nMrs Dodds said the anonymous Twitter account involved has also been trolling victims of terrorism on the platform.\n\nPolice Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers attended her constituency office on Tuesday.\n\nPolice officers visited Diane Dodds at her constituency office on Tuesday\n\nThe former economy minister welcomed Westminster's plans to introduce an online harm bill but she said what is being proposed won't be effective enough.\n\n\"People in the public eye seem to be seen as fair game,\" Mrs Dodds said.\n\n\"I don't see anything in the new bill that will actually deal with this feature that people on social media can hide behind a cloak of anonymity.\n\n\"It is really time the government got a grip on the situation.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Twitter said: \"Protecting the health of the public conversation on Twitter is important to us, and we'll continue to enforce our policies across violative content.\n\n\"We acknowledge and want to reiterate our commitment to ensuring that Twitter doesn't become a forum that facilitates abuse and we continue to examine our own policy approaches and ways we can enforce our rules at speed and scale.\"", "Ryanair said the diversion was \"a precaution\"\n\nA Ryanair flight from Manchester had to make an emergency landing in France after smoke was smelt on board, the airline has said.\n\nThe FR4052 flight took off at 18:30 GMT on Monday destined for Faro, in Portugal, but then had to be diverted.\n\nRyanair said the plane landed in Brest, France, after \"a minor technical issue which caused an unidentified smoke smell in the cabin\".\n\nPassengers waited three hours before another plane took them to the Algarve.\n\nA Ryanair spokesperson said: \"Passengers disembarked the aircraft as normal and were taken to a secure area in Brest airport where they were provided with refreshments.\n\n\"An aircraft from London Stansted was arranged to carry the passengers on the remainder of their journey to Faro, following a delay of under three hours.\n\n\"Following an inspection of the aircraft by our engineers, the aircraft was released back to service.\"\n\nThe airline insisted the diversion was \"a precaution\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Omicron variant accounts for almost two-thirds of US cases\n\nThe US has recorded more than one million new Covid cases as officials warn the peak of a fast-spreading Omicron surge is still to come.\n\nA record 1,080,211 cases were reported on Monday - the highest one-day tally of new cases anywhere in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nThe Omicron variant accounts for the majority of cases in the US.\n\nPresident Joe Biden, who is facing criticism over his response, called for schools to stay open despite the surge.\n\nWhile rates of death and hospital admissions in the US have been far lower in recent weeks than in previous infection spikes, the number of hospital admissions has been steadily rising.\n\nThe country is now facing \"almost a vertical increase\" in cases, said top US pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci, adding that the peak may be weeks away.\n\nMr Biden acknowledged on Tuesday that there has been \"concern and some considerable confusion about the rising cases\", but reiterated that the majority of hospital admissions and deaths from Covid are among the unvaccinated, and that the US has enough vaccines to fully jab every eligible citizen.\n\n\"We know kids can be safe while they're in school. That's why I believe schools should remain open,\" he said.\n\nOmicron has also led to school districts across the country postponing the return of students to classrooms following the Christmas break due to the rapid spread of the variant and subsequent staffing shortages. There are also concerns over challenges in securing rapid tests for students and teachers.\n\nIn Detroit, Michigan, for example - which is experiencing an all-time high infection rate of 36% - city school officials announced that schools will remain closed until Thursday.\n\nA number of other major school systems, including Atlanta, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Newark, have announced postponements or a return to virtual classes.\n\nIn New York City, the largest school district in the US, schools remained open. On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams said that school is \"the safest place for our children\".\n\nThe New York Times reported, however, that approximately one third of parents kept their children at home over Covid-19 fears.\n\nAcross the country, more than 450,000 children returned to temporary remote learning in the past week due to the variants, the Times reported.\n\nThe surge has led increased criticism of Mr Biden, who came into office vowing to \"shut down the virus.\" In recent weeks he has sought to place the onus of responsibility on state and local governments, saying that they must do more to encourage vaccination, mask use and adherence to social distancing measures.\n\nIn his remarks on Tuesday, Mr Biden announced that the US order of Pfizer pills, which treat Covid infection, had been doubled from 10m to 20m pills.\n\nBut the pills take months to manufacture, meaning the US will not see the additional order for at least six months, warns Dr Krishna Udayakumar, a health professor at Duke University.\n\n\"We need to have testing in place, and we know we don't have adequate, timely testing,\" he told BBC World News America, adding that treatment must begin early in order to have a positive outcome.\n\n\"Even though we have some of the technical tools, like vaccines and diagnostic tests and treatments, we haven't built a system that's strong enough to put it all in place,\" said Dr Udayakumar.\n\nDr Fauci meanwhile told ABC on Monday that \"a fair number\" of the tens of millions of Americans who are unvaccinated will contract severe disease.\n\nSome 8,652 people are reported to have died from coronavirus in the past week, according to Johns Hopkins.\n\nThe previous US record of infection cases was 590,000, reported four days ago.\n\nThe highest number outside the US came during India's Delta surge, when more than 414,188 people were confirmed as having the disease in May 2021.\n\nStudies suggest that Omicron is milder than the previously dominant Delta variant but fears remain that the sheer number of cases stemming from the highly infectious Omicron could overwhelm hospitals.", "Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001\n\nA US judge will decide \"soon\" whether a civil sex assault case against the Duke of York will be dismissed, following the latest hearing in New York.\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyer told Judge Lewis A Kaplan that the duke could be covered by a 2009 deal his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, made with Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nMs Giuffre is suing the prince claiming he sexually assaulted her - when she was 17 and a minor in some US states.\n\nAt a virtual hearing in Manhattan on Tuesday, Judge Kaplan said he appreciated the \"arguments and the passion\" over the 2009 agreement.\n\nHe said he would give a decision on the case \"pretty soon\" but declined to say exactly when.\n\nMs Giuffre's central allegation is that Epstein, and the now-convicted Ghislaine Maxwell, trafficked her into sexual abuse and exploitation - including incidents in which she said she was expected to engage in sexual activity with Prince Andrew in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands.\n\nThe 2009 settlement agreement, released yesterday, revealed that now-dead financier Epstein paid Ms Giuffre $500,000 to end a claim for damages - and she agreed not to bring any future cases against other \"potential defendants\".\n\nIt does not mention Prince Andrew, now 61, by name, and his lawyers argue the deal means Ms Giuffre, now 38, cannot sue him. Her lawyers contest that.\n\nJudge Kaplan used Tuesday's hearing to closely question lawyers for both sides as to whether the Epstein-Giuffre damages settlement could be used at all by Prince Andrew to stop the case.\n\nThe 2009 deal shows both Epstein and Virginia Giuffre agreed that neither of them would disclose the deal to other parties - unless ordered to do so by a court.\n\nSecondly, both of them accepted that the agreement could not be used in any other court case that was not directly related to enforcing its terms.\n\nJudge Kaplan said that the wording could mean that both Epstein and Ms Giuffre had to jointly agree on whether or not the settlement could be used to release other potential defendants from facing court.\n\nHe said: \"If someone got sued and Jeffrey Epstein said this person was within the release, and it was okay with Ms Giuffre, then [the deal] could be made available and Epstein could enforce it - but not otherwise.\"\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyer, Andrew B Brettler, objected, - saying that US law made clear that a third party - such as his client - had rights to rely on the settlement to prevent them being unfairly taken to court.\n\nIf Judge Lewis Kaplan had been minded to rule swiftly in Prince Andrew's favour to stop the case, he could have done two things immediately today.\n\nFirst, he could have indicated in court his direction of travel - and secondly he could have torn up the currently tight timetable he has set for the duke to meet Ms Giuffre's requests for documentary evidence - the next important stage in a damages case that's heading for trial.\n\nHe did neither. But what he did do, in the dying minutes, is closely question both sides over part of the Epstein deal that had gone unnoticed in the hours since its publication.\n\nEven if Prince Andrew could be properly classed as a \"potential defendant\" to Ms Giuffre's 2009 Florida claims, her settlement with Epstein says that third parties - meaning someone whose signature was not on the agreement - could not use that agreement in another court without their permission.\n\nGiven that Epstein is dead and Ms Giuffre doesn't want the prince to benefit from the agreement's terms, a strict reading of that paragraph would mean the agreement is irrelevant to her damages case.\n\nThe duke's lawyer disputed this - but when Judge Kaplan soon rules on the future of the case, this might just be the most important part of today's hearing.\n\nEarlier in the virtual hearing, Mr Brettler told Judge Kaplan that a potential defendant was \"someone who was not named as a defendant but could have been\".\n\nHe said that a potential defendant would be someone Ms Giuffre knew that she had \"claims against at the time that she filed the lawsuit\" in 2009.\n\nJudge Kaplan said \"potential\" was a phrase that neither he nor Mr Brettler could \"find any meaning at all\" in.\n\nMr Brettler told Judge Kaplan that Prince Andrew \"could have been sued\" at the time but was not, and added that he wanted Ms Giuffre to \"lock herself into a story now\" and provide further and more precise details of her allegations.\n\n\"She does not articulate what supposedly happened to her at the hands of Prince Andrew,\" he said.\n\nBut Judge Kaplan replied: \"That's not a dog that is going to hunt here. It's not going to happen.\" That information was not required at this stage of proceedings, he added.\n\nMr Brettler concluded by saying the case should \"absolutely be dismissed\".\n\nDavid Boies, acting for Ms Giuffre, told Tuesday's hearing the prince would not be a \"potential defendant\" as referred to in the civil case documents released on Monday.\n\n\"The only claim that is asserted that was made in Florida in the 2009 action that covered Prince Andrew was the third count, which was to transport somebody for the purpose of illegal sexual activity,\" he said.\n\n\"There is no allegation that Prince Andrew was the person transporting. There is no allegation that Prince Andrew fell into the category of people who were doing the trafficking.\n\n\"He was somebody to whom the girls were trafficked.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince Andrew tells BBC Newsnight in 2019 he cannot recall any incident involving Virginia Giuffre\n\nThe prince has consistently denied Ms Giuffre's allegations, telling BBC Newsnight in 2019: \"It didn't happen. I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened. I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever.\"\n\nIn her 2009 claim against Epstein, lawyers for Ms Giuffre said that as well as being exploited by Epstein, Ms Giuffre \"was also required to be sexually exploited by defendant's adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academics, businessmen and or other professional and personal acquaintances\".\n\nThat case never went to trial because on 17 November 2009, Epstein agreed to pay her $500,000 to stop it in its tracks. That deal had been confidential but has now been made public because of its potential importance to the Andrew case.\n\nEpstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.", "A 28-year-old man has died following a stabbing incident in Downpatrick, County Down.\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland has begun a murder investigation after the attack in Church Street on Monday.\n\nIt happened at about 11:00 GMT and the victim was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.\n\nA man in his 30s has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) said it sent several crews to the incident after it received a 999 call about an assault in Church Street.\n\nIt deployed an air ambulance crew, three emergency crews and a rapid response paramedic to the scene.\n\n\"Following assessment and initial treatment at the scene, no patients were taken to hospital,\" an NIAS spokesman said.\n\nAssembly member Colin McGrath, from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), told BBC News NI it was the second stabbing to take place on Church Street in recent days.\n\nHe condemned the incident and said \"the local community will be understandably shocked\".\n\nSinn Féin councillor Cathy Mason described reports of the stabbing as disturbing and urged anyone with information to contact police.\n\n\"My thoughts and prayers with family and friends of the victim,\" she added.\n\nHouse of Lords member Baroness Margaret Ritchie also sent her deepest sympathies to the dead man's family and friends.\n\n\"I totally condemn this murder which will be abhorred by all the population in Downpatrick and further afield,\" she said.\n\n\"This follows on from the stabbing incident in the town a few days ago,\" the peer added.\n\n\"Both incidents are not characteristic of life, society and our community in Downpatrick and understandably the local population in Church Street and the wider town area will be traumatised and appalled by this incident.\"\n\nThe earlier stabbing took place at a bar in Church Street on Saturday morning, 1 January.\n\nHowever, it is understood police are not investigating a link at this time between Saturday's stabbing and the murder on Monday.", "George Alagiah said his life and family \"didn't feel like a failure\"\n\nBBC newsreader George Alagiah has said he thinks the cancer he has had since 2014 will \"probably get me in the end\", but that he still feels \"very lucky\".\n\n\"I don't think I'm going to be able to get rid of this thing. I've got the cancer still. It's growing very slowly,\" he said on the podcast Desperately Seeking Wisdom.\n\nAlagiah was first diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in April 2014.\n\nBut he said he was able to look back at the \"great good fortune\" in his life.\n\nSpeaking on the podcast with ex-Downing Street director of communications Craig Oliver, Alagiah said that when his cancer was first diagnosed, it took a while for him to understand what he \"needed to do\".\n\n\"I had to stop and say, 'Hang on a minute. If the full stop came now, would my life have been a failure?'\n\n\"And actually, when I look back and I looked at my journey... the family I had, the opportunities my family had, the great good fortune to bump into (Frances Robathan), who's now been my wife and lover for all these years, the kids that we brought up... it didn't feel like a failure.\"\n\nHe also spoke about his treatment, saying: \"My doctor's very good at every now and again hitting me with a big red bus full of drugs, because the whole point about cancer is it finds a way through and it gets you in the end.\n\n\"Probably... it will get me in the end. I'm hoping it's a long time from now, but I'm very lucky.\"\n\nAlagiah has also worked as a BBC News foreign correspondent and specialist on Africa and the developing world, covering events including the Rwandan genocide and interviewing Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.\n\nIn October, the journalist said he was taking a break from TV to have treatment after \"a further spread of cancer\" was discovered. He said in June 2020 that the cancer had spread to his lungs, liver and lymph nodes.\n\nWhen asked what piece of wisdom he would give, he spoke about the need for people to think more collectively.\n\n\"I think it would be to constantly ask the question, 'What is it we can do together?'\" he said.\n\n\"I spent a lot of my time in Africa, and in South Africa they have a word: Ubuntu. It's the idea that I'm only human if I recognise the humanity in you.\n\n\"There's this collective notion of life which I think we have lost.\"", "President Bolsonaro, seen here during a ceremony last November, was stabbed in the abdomen in 2018\n\nBrazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has been hospitalised with an intestinal blockage after falling ill on holiday.\n\nThe president posted a photo from his hospital bed on Twitter, saying doctors had inserted a nasogastric tube and were evaluating potential surgery.\n\nDoctors said on Monday that his condition was improving.\n\nMr Bolsonaro, 66, has been admitted to hospital several times since being stabbed in the abdomen during his 2018 presidential campaign.\n\nIn his tweet, the president said he had started feeling unwell on Sunday afternoon after lunch. He was flown from the southern state of Santa Catarina, where he was vacationing, to urgently be admitted to the Vila Nova Star hospital in São Paulo.\n\nTelevision images showed the president walking down the stairs of the presidential plane after landing in the early hours of Monday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jair M. Bolsonaro This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Bolsonaro said that the symptoms were the same ones that had led to a four-day hospitalisation in July, saying the stabbing was the root cause of his health problems. Mr Bolsonaro was seriously wounded in the attack and has had at least four operations since.\n\nIn a statement reported by Reuters later on Monday, doctors said his condition was improving but it was not yet known if he would need further surgery.\n\nThe far-right president, who took office in 2019, plans to run for re-election in a vote scheduled to take place in October. His popularity has plummeted in recent months, amid his government's widely criticised response to the pandemic and the country's economic downturn.\n\nLast month the president came under criticism for not interrupting his beach vacation while floods swept through the north-eastern state of Bahia, killing at least 25 people. He posted videos of himself jet-skiing through crowds of cheering supporters.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Residents of Itabuna, Brazil use rafts to bring each other supplies after flooding hit the area", "A further 20,217 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Scotland, the highest daily figure since the pandemic began.\n\nThe official figures are the first to be published in 2022, and overtake the previous high of 16,857 positive results reported on 30 December.\n\nThe Scottish government said there had been delays in results being reported due to the high volume of tests.\n\nIt said turnaround times had also been impacted by the holiday weekend.\n\nNo figures have been available since 31 December but headline statistics were released on Monday.\n\nThe figures showed that of the 65,860 tests that reported results on Monday, 34.9% were positive.\n\nThe daily data for 1 and 2 January was also published on Monday - it showed 17,065 new cases were reported on 1 January and 14,080 were reported for 2 January.\n\nThe Public Health Scotland statistics also showed 1,031 people were in hospital - the highest since September last year.\n\nWhile there is evidence that fewer people become seriously ill with the new strain, the large numbers of infected people combined with staff absences could still put the NHS under severe pressure.\n\nIn terms of vaccinations, figures showed 4,383,212 people have received their first dose, 4,017,051 have received their second dose and 2,992,583 had received a booster.\n\nMore detailed data will be released on Wednesday.\n\nThe Scottish Parliament will hold a virtual meeting of MSPs that day at 14:00 for an update from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on the Covid situation in Scotland.\n\nNHS Grampian's head of health intelligence Jillian Evans previously said data from her region suggested cases were still doubling every three days.\n\nShe said it would be a \"crunch week\" for understanding the variant's impact.\n\nMeanwhile the Scottish government's Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said officials were paying \"close attention\" to the figures, and that all restrictions were kept under constant review.\n\nMs Somerville added everyone should continue to limit their contacts and follow the recommended safety precautions.\n\n\"Although the numbers are high today, and obviously that's a concern, we're not powerless in this and there are things that everyone can do to play their part in ensuring that we keep the numbers as low as possible,\" she said.\n\nAhead of the return to school, Ms Somerville urged pupils and staff to take a lateral flow test twice a week.\n\nShe also encouraged young people to get vaccinated when they are eligible. Drop-in vaccinations are now available in some areas for 12 to 15-year-olds, and they are being encouraged to get a second dose of the vaccine if at least 12 weeks have elapsed since their first jab.\n\nNHS Tayside said it had had to draft in extra vaccinators for Monday and Tuesday due to increasing demand across all its drop-in vaccination sites.\n\nThe board said it was \"really encouraging\" to see so many people coming along to be vaccinated, but asked people to be prepared to wait if necessary.", "General visiting has been banned at hospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham\n\nA critical incident has been declared at four Lincolnshire hospitals because of staff shortages due to Covid-19.\n\nUnited Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said it was taking \"additional steps to maintain services\" at all its hospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham.\n\nThe trust's medical director, Dr Colin Farquharson, said there were \"significant staffing pressures due to absence related to Covid-19\".\n\nBut he said essential services \"remain fully open\".\n\nLast month, visiting restrictions were brought in at Lincoln County, Grantham and District, Pilgrim Hospital Boston and County Hospital Louth to slow the spread of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus.\n\nIn a statement, Dr Farquharson said: \"As a result of significant staffing pressures due to absence related to Covid-19, we are having to take additional steps to maintain services.\n\n\"Our staff continue to work exceptionally hard and we would like to reassure our patients and the public that in spite of the challenges faced, essential services remain fully open for anyone who needs them, so people should continue to come forward for care.\"\n\nHe added people could \"reduce pressure on health services\" by getting a booster vaccine.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Shaun Lintern This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAccording to a leaked email seen by The Sunday Times, the trust declared a critical incident on Saturday night \"due to extreme and unprecedented workforce shortages\".\n\nIt issued an \"urgent appeal\" for clinical and non-clinical staff to offer extra time supporting colleagues \"over the next 72 hours\".\n\nIt also asked staff to \"consider limiting social contacts with people outside of work\".\n\nChris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said a critical incident was \"an indication of very serious pressure\" at a trust which may \"not be able to provide\" a range of priority services.\n\nHelen Monday, a nurse at the trust, said hospitals were busy but were \"not being inundated with Covid-positive patients\".\n\nShe said colleagues were \"helping out as much as they can\" as a result of absences caused by staff self-isolating due being in contact with someone who tested positive.\n\n\"People are now getting to the point where they're burnt out.\"\n\nBoris Johnson has warned \"considerable\" pressure on the NHS is likely to last for weeks to come and said it would be \"folly\" to think the pandemic was almost over.\n\nHe pledged to \"make sure that we look after our NHS any way that we can\".\n\nThe situation in Lincolnshire is not unique.\n\nIt is understood at least half a dozen NHS trusts have declared critical incidents over the past week.\n\nThat is not that unusual in the depths of winter - the NHS is entering what is traditionally its busiest time of year.\n\nBut the scale and nature of the challenges are, of course, unprecedented, with growing rates of staff absences due to Covid.\n\nAt this time of year the NHS can see around 1,000 admissions a day for all types of respiratory illness - and it is getting more than that just for Covid, and the number is rising.\n\nA critical incident does not mean emergency care stops being provided, rather it is an alert to the wider system that the trust is under acute pressure and needs help, such as getting staff redeployed from elsewhere.\n\nMany of these incidents will be over in a few days.\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Banffshire and Buchan Coast representative, who was elected last year, had faced a backlash for a tweet about paedophiles last week.\n\nMs Adam said abusers were not \"Mac wearing flashers in the street\" but \"our family, friends and colleagues\".\n\nShe added: \"It's uncomfortable to humanise them because we then have to face the horrors in plain sight.\"\n\nFollowing the post, the MSP - who said she was a survivor of child sexual exploitation - added that she had received death threats, including a threat to put her through a woodchipper.\n\nThe post was interpreted by some, including Alba Party general secretary Chris McEleny, as an attempt to humanise those who abuse children - something the MSP firmly rejected.\n\nMs Adam said she was attempting to make clear that abusers were normal people who often \"go under cover as 'respectable'\".\n\nOn Monday, in a tweet posted just after 03:00, Ms Adam said she had received death threats as a result of her original tweet and suggested she could pursue legal action.\n\n\"Can't sleep, not eaten. I'm worried for mine and my families safety after I was just told my personal details are now being shared,\" she wrote.\n\n\"Death threats, vile abuse, told to kill myself. Told I'd be put through a wood chipper. Grateful for litigation advice. I'm off for a wee bit.\"\n\nA Police Scotland spokeswoman said: \"We can confirm that a complaint has been made regarding online threats and police inquiries are ongoing.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: It would be folly to think Covid is almost over\n\nEngland will continue with its Plan B Covid measures amid growing pressures on the NHS, Boris Johnson has said.\n\nThe prime minister said it would be \"folly\" to think the pandemic was over and pressure on hospitals would be \"considerable\" over the coming weeks.\n\nHowever, he added the country was in a \"much better position\" than this time last year thanks to vaccinations.\n\nThe PM stressed Omicron looks less severe than other variants, despite it being \"incredibly transmissible\".\n\nSpeaking during a visit to a vaccination centre in Aylesbury, he said the \"mixture of things we're doing at the moment\" were the correct measures.\n\nHe said this included continuing with Plan B, which includes mask wearing in certain indoor settings and guidance to work from home where possible, ensuring it is taken \"seriously\" by people.\n\nThese measures are due to expire on 26 January, although they are expected to be reviewed on Wednesday.\n\nBBC political correspondent Chris Mason said to expect the status quo to rumble on until the end of the month, when the picture should be clearer as to what impact Christmas and New Year mixing had.\n\nOn Monday, 157,758 new coronavirus cases were reported across England and Scotland, with data from Wales and Northern Ireland to be reported after the holiday weekend.\n\nA further 42 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test were reported in England.\n\nMr Johnson added people should be \"sensible\" and take a rapid test before going to see people they do not usually meet, as well as getting their first, second and booster jabs.\n\n\"We've got to make sure we look after our NHS in any way that we can\" he said, adding: \"I appreciate the pressures that our hospitals are under.\"\n\nAs NHS trusts warn of staffing pressures, Mr Johnson said the government was looking at what it could do to \"move people into those areas that are particularly badly affected\".\n\nHe said: \"Looking at the pressures on the NHS in the next couple of weeks and maybe longer... looking at the numbers of people who are going to be going into hospital, it would be absolute folly to say that this thing is all over now bar the shouting.\n\n\"We've got to remain cautious, we've got to stick with plan B, we've got to get boosted.\"\n\nChris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said on Twitter it was \"very clear\" the NHS in the rest of the country was \"now coming under the significant pressure London has been encountering\".\n\nMany trusts said the biggest challenge was rising staff absence, he said, so some were declaring critical incidents to manage those.\n\nParts of the health service are in crisis, Matthew Taylor, NHS Confederation chief executive, warned.\n\n\"Some hospitals are making urgent calls to exhausted staff to give up rest days and leave to enable them to sustain core services. Many more hospitals are having to ban visitors to try to reduce the spread of infection,\" he said.\n\nThe devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have the power to set their own Covid restrictions.\n\nIt comes as secondary school children are due to head back to school this week, with testing and mask wearing in classrooms part of their return.\n\nOn a new requirement for masks, Mr Johnson agreed with Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi and said the government \"won't keep them on a day more than is necessary\".\n\nMr Johnson said he did not \"like the idea of having face masks in classrooms any more than anybody else does\", but said there is an \"increasing body of scientific support\" for the idea that face masks contain transmission.\n\nEarlier on Monday, Mr Zahawi defended plans to require secondary pupils to wear masks during lessons until 26 January, adding ministers were determined to keep schools open after learning a \"painful lesson\" from earlier closures.\n\nHe confirmed all secondary pupils in England would be tested before returning this week.", "As cases rise, the Western Trust has suspended visiting at its care homes\n\nAt least 120 care homes in Northern Ireland were dealing with Covid-19 outbreaks over the weekend, NI's Public Health Agency (PHA) has said.\n\nAs Omicron cases rise, the Western Trust has suspended visits to its care homes and hospitals.\n\nIndependent care homes are following advice from the Department of Health.\n\nDr Gillian Armstrong, from the PHA, told BBC Radio Foyle different pressures within the sector are likely to continue for some time.\n\n\"We are getting a huge amount of calls and inquiries related to cases linked to that and also staffing shortages as well,\" she said.\n\nThere has been a surge in cases of the Omicron variant in Northern Ireland.\n\nLast Thursday, Stormont ministers were told that it now accounts for about 90% of cases in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"It's spreading really very fast in Northern Ireland, like it is in the rest of the UK and Ireland - the rate of spread is phenomenal,\" Dr Armstrong told The Breakfast Show.\n\n\"We're seeing a very high number of cases - the highest that we've ever seen - and Omicron has become dominant,\" she added.\n\n\"We will expect that to continue to go up over the next number of weeks just with the sheer numbers of cases in the community.\"\n\nShe said people should not be lulled into a \"false sense of security by data that it looks like it's milder\".\n\n\"With the sheer volume of cases and the acceleration of the cases, it could mean that we could have a very high number of people needing admission in a short space of time, which would further put pressure on our hospitals and health care services,\" she said.\n\n\"We are working closely to support staff as quickly as we can, in terms of risk assessment managing, trying to prevent any onward spread of transmission and support in relation to staffing.\"\n\nSome private care homes are also taking the decision to restrict visitors\n\n\"People need to see their loved ones as well but, at the moment, there is an unprecedented level of community transmission.\n\n\"Each care home will make their own risk assessment according to the vulnerability of their patients and what their staffing levels are like as well.\"\n\nShe encouraged members of the public to see what they could do virtually or over the phone.\n\nDr Armstrong urged those visiting to do lateral flow tests before going, get vaccinated or get their booster and to wear a good quality face mask.\n\nShe said some private care homes were taking the decision to restrict visitors.\n\nBut the Independent Health and Care Providers (IHCP) chief said staffing issues are its biggest problem at the minute.\n\n\"Like everywhere else, lots of people have tested positive, they're maybe not extremely ill - it may only be minor symptoms like a cold - but they can't go to work,\" said Pauline Shepherd.\n\nAccording to Dr Armstrong, data around Omicron-related hospital admissions will take two or three weeks to translate into hospitalisations.\n\n\"All I can say at this early stage is we have we are aware of a number of residents that have had to go into hospital for further treatment,\" she said.\n\n\"That picture will become clearer over the next number of weeks.\"\n\nThe spike in cases comes as a teaching union called on the Stormont Executive to take urgent action to reduce any further disruption in schools due to Covid-19.\n\nLast week, Northern Ireland's First Minister Paul Givan announced a cut to the Covid-19 self-isolation period for positive cases in Northern Ireland to avoid a \"workforce crisis\".\n\nFrom 31 December, people with Covid have been able to end their self-isolation after seven days instead of 10, by providing negative lateral flow results on day six and day seven.", "David Bowie, pictured in 1992, released 26 studio albums during his lifetime\n\nDavid Bowie's estate has sold the publishing rights to his \"entire body of work\" to Warner Chappell Music, including hundreds of songs such as Space Oddity, Changes and Let's Dance.\n\nWCM now has global music publishing rights to his song catalogue, the singer's estate told the BBC.\n\nVariety suggested the deal was worth \"upwards of $250m (£185m)\", but the terms of the agreement were not given.\n\nWCM head Guy Moot said they were \"proud\" to be \"chosen as caretakers\".\n\nBowie died of cancer in 2016. He was hailed as an extraordinary artist and genius in a huge global outpouring of tributes from fellow music stars, including Sir Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Brian Eno and Madonna among others.\n\nBowie [L] performed Starman on Top of the Pops in 1972\n\nThe agreement with WCM includes the 26 studio albums released during Bowie's lifetime and the posthumous studio album release, Toy, plus the two studio albums from Tin Machine - the rock supergroup fronted by Bowie.\n\nTracks released as singles from soundtracks and other projects are also included.\n\nGiven the ups and downs of the music industry over the last 20 years, the appeal of a big cheque is, perhaps, unsurprising - especially for 'heritage' acts.\n\nStreaming may not quite have replaced the billions lost by the decline of the CD, but it is, for many established artists, proving to be a regular, and largely recession-proof, income stream; and for record labels and a number of new firms who have entered the market, this is, they think, a lucrative asset.\n\nWith the music industry becoming ever more complicated, with licensing deals over streaming, adverts, films, video games and online video to negotiate, the artists - or their estates and families - have a large and hassle-free deposit in the bank, and the complicated job of turning music into money is left to the experts.\n\nWith Spotify adding 60,000 songs to its catalogue every day, the chance of a new act making a splash seems tougher than ever - legacy artists with 50 years of fame and proven sales look like a relatively safe bet.\n\nBowie released a total of 111 singles, averaging two per year during his career, and 51 music videos.\n\nThis deal follows huge names, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, recently selling the rights to their music catalogues.\n\nMoot, who is WCM's co-chairman and chief executive, said Bowie's was \"one of the most ground-breaking, influential, and enduring catalogues in music history\", adding he had \"inspired millions of fans and countless innovators, not only in music, but across all the arts, fashion, and media\".\n\n\"These are not only extraordinary songs, but milestones that have changed the course of modern music forever,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe described Bowie's \"vision and creative genius\" driving him to \"push the envelope, lyrically and musically - writing songs that challenged convention, changed the conversation, and have become part of the canon of global culture\".\n\nThe executive added they were looking forward to \"tending his unparalleled body of songs with passion and care\".\n\nWCM said the agreement followed last year's announcement of a deal between Bowie's estate and Warner Music Group [WMG], for it to oversee his full back catalogue of albums between 1968 and 1999.\n\n\"Warner Music has licensed worldwide rights to Bowie's recorded music catalogue from 1968. With this new deal with Warner Chappell, WMG is now home to Bowie's body of work as both a songwriter and recording artist,\" WCM added.\n\nWarner Chappell Music is the global music publishing company of Warner Music Group. WCM co-chair and COO Carianne Marshall said they were \"pleased\" the estate felt they had the \" knowledge, experience, and resources to take the reins and continue to promote a collection of this stature\".\n\nShe called Bowie's music a \"living, breathing collection of timeless songs that are as powerful and resonant today as they were when they were first written\".\n\nAllen Grubman , speaking on behalf of Bowie's estate, said: \"We are truly gratified that David Bowie's body of music will now be in the capable hands of Warner Chappell Music Publishing. We are sure they will cherish it and take care of it with the greatest level of dignity.\"\n\nBowie's innovation was not just in the recording studio and in front of the camera - he was also involved in the world of finance. In the mid-90s, Bowie, his financial manager Bill Zysblat, and banker David Pullman came up with a new scheme to generate cash from the singer's extensive back catalogue.\n\nBowie introduced the bonds in the late 1990s\n\nIn 1997, Bowie sold asset-backed securities, dubbed \"Bowie bonds\", which awarded investors a share in his future royalties for 10 years. The securities, which were bought by US insurance giant Prudential Financial for $55m, committed him to repay his new creditors out of future income, and gave a fixed annual return of 7.9%.\n\nHe struck a deal with record label EMI which allowed him to package up and sell bonds on royalties for 25 albums released between 1969 and 1990 - which included classics such as The Man Who Sold The World, Ziggy Stardust, and Heroes, according to the Financial Times.\n\nBut in 2004, rating agency Moody's Investors Services downgraded Bowie bonds to only one level above \"junk\", the lowest rating, after a downturn in the music industry.\n\nBowie had already predicted the decline in traditional music sales, telling the New York Times in 2002 that music would become \"like running water or electricity\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Fire crews had to call reinforcements to fight the blaze at the parliament building on Monday\n\nA fire that devastated South Africa's parliament in Cape Town has been contained after it reignited on Monday, city officials say.\n\nThe fire first broke out on Sunday and completely destroyed the National Assembly, or lower chamber.\n\nStrong winds caused smouldering wood in the roof to catch fire again on Monday, before firefighters doused the blaze.\n\nPolice have arrested a suspect who is due to appear in court later on charges of arson, housebreaking and theft.\n\nNo casualties have been reported in the fire, but the damage to the parliament has shocked the nation.\n\nAuthorities had warned that flare-ups would be possible because of carpets and wooden floors in the building.\n\nBut just 12 firefighters were on site when the wind reignited wood above the National Assembly on Monday, according to news agency AFP.\n\nDespite reinforcements being sent, flames could still be seen emerging from the building as night fell.\n\n\"The fire was fanned by a strong south-easterly wind but firefighters managed to contain the fire just before 12:00 last night,\" firefighters spokesman Jermaine Carelse told AFP.\n\nOn Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa - who admitted the building's sprinkler system had not functioned properly - praised firefighters for responding to the \"terrible and devastating event\" in minutes.\n\nGovernment minister Patricia de Lille separately admitted that CCTV cameras had not been monitored at the time the initial fire started.\n\nThe chairperson of the upper chamber, Amos Masondo, said Sunday's fire had led to the \"complete burning down\" of the National Assembly chamber. Other areas of the parliamentary complex - parts of which date back to 1884 - were also badly damaged.\n\nThe parliament is not currently in session because of the holidays, and no-one was injured.\n\nThe building is home to thousands of treasures including historic books, photographs and important works of art, which officials said had been saved.\n\nThere had been particular concern that the valuable Keiskamma Tapestry, which is 120m (394ft) long and documents South Africa's history, may have been damaged or destroyed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video shows black smoke coming from the roof of the building in Cape Town on Sunday\n\nIt is expected to be many months before the building can be used again.\n\nCape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the city's council chamber would be made available as an alternative place for parliament to meet.", "UK steel companies have been operating at a significant disadvantage compared to their European rivals since the beginning of 2022.\n\nThe EU has done a deal with the US, which took effect on 1 January, to allow companies to export steel to the US again without any tariffs.\n\nThe UK is yet to reach a similar agreement though it is hoping for more talks with America this month.\n\nIt means British companies still face a 25% tariff on exports to the US.\n\nAnd the effect of the change is already being felt.\n\nAt a foundry in Chesterfield, raw materials are being melted in a furnace to make cast iron bars.\n\nSteel and cast iron are no longer a huge chunk of the British economy but they are about to get a little bit smaller.\n\nBecause of the US tariffs on products from the UK, United Cast Bar Limited (UCB), the company that runs this foundry, is moving some of its production to a factory in Spain.\n\n\"60% of the products we can make here we can also make in Spain,\" says James Brand, managing director of foundries at UCB. \"And our customers don't want that extra 25% cost.\"\n\nUCB's James Brand says if it moves steel production to Spain it is unlikey to return to the UK even with a US deal\n\nBut if the UK manages to do a deal of its own with the US, will that production come back?\n\n\"Probably not,' he says. \"It really depends on how early the deal is done.\"\n\nOnce US importers get used to consignments arriving from Spain, a new trade pattern will have been established and the way the tariffs have been set up means they can't be avoided if any part of a product originates in the UK.\n\n\"It is highly likely we will just leave it over there (in Spain),\" Mr Brand says. \"Lost to the UK completely, then.\"\n\nIt was President Donald Trump who signed an order in 2018 to introduce the steel tariffs on national security grounds, which he claimed was to help protect US jobs.\n\nFormer US President Donald Trump claimed tariffs would protect American jobs\n\nIf the UK government had hoped that Joe Biden's administration would change course quickly, it has been disappointed.\n\nNeither public diplomacy nor private negotiation has yet led to any breakthrough.\n\nFollowing Mr Trump's move, both the UK and the EU retaliated with tariffs of their own against US products. But it is the EU that has got a deal done first, to resolve the dispute.\n\nThat's partly because in trade, size matters.\n\n\"They (the EU) are just bigger so they account for more steel exports to the US, and that means there is more interest from US importers in getting it resolved,\" says Soumaya Keynes, Britain economics editor at The Economist.\n\n\"And because there is more trade involved with the EU, the retaliation hurts more.\"\n\nThe EU was also more explicit about how it intended to accelerate retaliation against the American tariffs.\n\nThe UK was, says Ms Keynes, \"a bit friendlier, a bit chummier, and that could mean the EU had more leverage.\"\n\nFor the UK government, there is an added complication.\n\nThere is political concern in Washington about British threats to suspend parts of the post-Brexit deal with the EU on Northern Ireland.\n\nThe two issues are quite separate, but it is possible that one could delay the other.\n\nThe government argues that the steel dispute could in fact lead to further complications in Northern Ireland, because of its special status as part of the EU single market for goods.\n\nBut it is an awkward mix.\n\nThere is also the question of stepping up UK retaliation against the US tariffs.\n\nThe government's formal response to a public consultation on further counter-measures has already been delayed, and it cannot be put off forever,\n\nTrade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan issued a careful warning when she spoke to the BBC last month, after returning from a visit to Washington,\n\n\"We had a very frank conversation, and I was very clear that the pressures that we are under to use countervailing measures if we can't solve the problem are becoming more and more acute.\"\n\nThe government certainly hopes the dispute can be resolved soon, before it gets worse.\n\nA solution later this month would be a great relief, and the message from industry is pretty clear.\n\n\"Crack on, please,\" says UCB's James Brand. \"Let's get a deal brokered as soon as possible and put us on a level playing field with the rest of Europe.\"\n\nIt wasn't supposed to be like this. After Brexit, the UK was relying on a closer relationship with the US than it had when it was part of the EU.\n\nBut in matters of trade, many things are easier said than done.", "BBC News NI outlines the latest data on coronavirus and Covid-19 vaccinations across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Department of Health has reported 15 more Covid-19-related deaths on Tuesday.\n\nIt is the department's first statistical release since 30 December, meaning the statistics cover a four-day period.\n\nDeaths are measured by recording those who died within 28 days of receiving a positive result in a test for coronavirus.\n\nThe total number of deaths linked to Covid-19 in Northern Ireland since the start of the pandemic is 2,995.\n\nFrom midnight 30 December to midnight 3 January, a further 30,423 cases of coronavirus were reported.\n\nThe data includes cases confirmed from samples taken in previous days, not necessarily just in the latest reporting period.\n\nThe previous number issued on Thursday was for an additional 4,701 cases in a 24-hour reporting period.\n\nAs of Tuesday, the number of positive cases confirmed in the past seven days was 50,627 - more than 10% of the total number of positive cases since start of pandemic (432,492).\n\nOn Tuesday, there were 348 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals in Northern Ireland, up from 303 on Thursday.\n\nThere are 31 patients with Covid-19 in hospital intensive care units, compared to 32 on Thursday.\n\nA total of 3,530,777 vaccines for Covid-19 had been administered in Northern Ireland as of Tuesday.\n\nOf that total, 1,399,866 were first doses, 1,297,302 were second doses and the remaining were third doses.\n\nThe total number of deaths related to Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland since the start of the pandemic is 5,912.\n\nThis figure, which is subject to revision, is updated weekly and includes \"probable and possible\" Covid-19-linked deaths.\n\nAnother 21,302 cases of coronavirus were reported in the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday, compared to 16,986 cases on Monday.\n\nOn Tuesday morning, there were 884 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals in the Republic of Ireland, up from 804 on Monday.\n\nOf those patients, 90 were being treated in intensive care units, three fewer than were in ICU on Monday.\n\nA total of 7,497,045 vaccines for Covid-19 (excluding boosters) had been administered in the Republic of Ireland as of Monday.\n\nA total of 3,657,589 people have had their first dose and 3,602,370 have had their second dose, while 237,086 single-dose vaccines have been administered.\n\nA total of 2,204,047 booster jabs had been administered as of Monday.", "Ariel Henry, seen here during an event last July, was targeted by \"bandits and terrorists\", his office said\n\nGunmen tried to kill Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry during an event on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the country's independence, officials say.\n\nThe incident happened as Mr Henry took part in the ceremony at a church in the northern city of Gonaïves.\n\nVideo posted online showed the prime minister and his entourage scrambling toward their cars amid intense gunfire.\n\nThe security situation has deteriorated significantly since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last July.\n\nMr Henry has pledged to crack down on powerful gangs that are blamed for a wave of kidnappings and for seizing control of much of the gas distribution around the country, causing severe fuel shortages.\n\nThe prime minister's office said \"bandits and terrorists\" were behind the assassination attempt, and that arrest warrants had been issued for the suspects.\n\nThe office accused the group of hiding behind walls to attack the convoy and of threatening the bishop by surrounding the church, according to the Associated Press.\n\nOne person was killed and two others were injured in the gunfight between the armed men and security forces, local media reported.\n\nThe attack is another blow to the fragile administration led by Mr Henry, who became Haiti's acting head of state two weeks after Moïse was killed. The circumstances of the assassination, believed to have been carried out by a group of mercenaries, are still unclear.\n\nNo date has been announced for a vote to elect a new president.\n\nThe rise in violence and a dire economic situation, made worse by several natural disasters in recent years, have led to a growing number of Haitians seeking opportunities in other countries.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "She was \"the world's youngest self-made female billionaire\", trumpeted Forbes magazine. The \"next Steve Jobs\", said Inc, another business magazine that put her on the cover.\n\nIn 2014, Elizabeth Holmes, then 30 years old, was on top of the world. A Stanford University drop-out, she had founded a company valued at $9bn (£6.5bn) for supposedly bringing about a revolution in diagnosing disease.\n\nWith a few drops of blood, Theranos promised that its Edison test could detect conditions such as cancer and diabetes quickly without the hassle of needles. Bigwigs from Henry Kissinger to general James Mattis sat on the board.\n\nBut by 2015, the seams were coming apart, and within a year, Holmes was exposed as a fake. The technology she touted didn't work at all, and by 2018 the company she founded had collapsed.\n\nIn January, she was convicted by a jury in California on four counts of fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.\n\nThe jury found her not guilty on four other charges and failed to reach a verdict on three more. Holmes, who had pleaded not guilty to all charges, sought a new trial but those requests were denied.\n\nShe was sentenced on Friday to 11 years and three months in prison.\n\nMedia tycoon Rupert Murdoch lost £120m he had invested in Theranos\n\nDuring the trial Holmes accused her ex-boyfriend and business partner, Ramesh \"Sunny\" Balwani, of emotional and sexual abuse at the time of the alleged crimes, impairing her mental state.\n\nBalwani, 56, who faced the same fraud charges, was convicted in July and is due to be sentenced next month. He had called the claims \"outrageous\".\n\nDespite being the subject of a book, HBO documentary, TV series and an upcoming film, it is still unclear why Holmes took such a gamble on technology she knew didn't work.\n\nShe was raised in a comfortably well-off family in Washington DC, and was a polite but withdrawn child, according to people who knew her.\n\nInventor and businessman Richard Fuisz, 81, speculated there must have been immense pressure on Holmes to succeed. His family lived next door to the Holmes family for years, but they fell out when Theranos sued him over a patent dispute in 2011 (it was later settled).\n\nHolmes's parents spent much of their careers as bureaucrats on Capitol Hill, but \"they were very interested in status\" and \"lived for connections\", he told the BBC. Her father's great-great-grandfather founded Fleischmann's Yeast, which changed America's bread industry, and the family was very conscious about its lineage, he said.\n\nAt age nine, the young Elizabeth wrote a letter to her father declaring that what she \"really want[ed] out of life is to discover something new, something that mankind didn't know was possible to do\".\n\nWhen she got to Stanford University in 2002 to study chemical engineering, she came up with an idea for a patch that could scan the wearer for infections and release antibiotics as needed.\n\nDr Phyllis Gardner told Holmes her idea would not work\n\nAt 18, she already displayed an intransigence that would apparently continue and drive the company she would found the following year.\n\nPhyllis Gardner, an expert in clinical pharmacology at Stanford, recalled discussing Holmes's skin-patch idea and telling her it \"wouldn't work\".\n\n\"She just stared through me,\" Dr Gardner told the BBC.\n\n\"And she just seemed absolutely confident of her own brilliance. She wasn't interested in my expertise and it was upsetting.\"\n\nMonths later Holmes dropped out of Stanford aged 19 and launched Theranos, this time coming up with an apparently revolutionary way of testing blood from a simple finger prick.\n\nPowerful people were enthralled and invested without seeing audited financial accounts.\n\nUS Treasury Secretary George Schultz, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and America's richest family, the Waltons, were among her backers.\n\nThe support lent her credibility, as did her demeanour.\n\n\"I knew she'd had this brilliant idea and that she had managed to convince all these investors and scientists,\" said Dr Jeffrey Flier, the former dean of Harvard Medical School, who met her for lunch in 2015.\n\n\"She was self-assured, but when I asked her several questions about her technology she didn't look like she understood,\" added Dr Flier, who never formally assessed her technology. \"It seemed a bit odd, but I didn't come away thinking it was a fraud.\"\n\nOn stage with former US President Bill Clinton in 2015. At the time Ms Holmes was said to be the world's youngest self-made female billionaire\n\nDr Flier ended up inviting her to join the medical school's Board of Fellows, which he regrets, although she was removed when the scandal broke.\n\nIt began to unravel in 2015 when a whistleblower raised concerns about Theranos' flagship testing device, the Edison. The Wall Street Journal wrote a series of damning exposes claiming the results were unreliable and that the firm had been using commercially available machines made by other manufacturers for most of its testing.\n\nLawsuits piled up, partners cut ties and in 2016 US regulators banned Holmes from operating a blood-testing service for two years.\n\nIn March that year, Holmes settled civil charges from financial regulators that she had fraudulently raised $700m from investors.\n\nBut three months later she was arrested, along with Mr Balwani, on criminal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.\n\nProsecutors said she knowingly misled patients about the tests and vastly exaggerated the firm's performance to financial backers.\n\nAs the Theranos scandal reached trial, commentators said it was remarkable how tightly Holmes clung to her original story, and people who knew her said they doubt she has changed.\n\nSince the trial, Holmes has been living in California with partner William \"Billy\" Evans, 27, an heir to the Evans Hotel Group. They had a son in July 2021 and she is pregnant with their second child.\n\nHolmes's attorneys had said she should not face prison time on the grounds that she was not a danger to society. They offered testimony from more than 130 people on her behalf, including Senator Cory Booker.\n\nBut prosecutors argued that she was \"blinded\" by ambition, which put \"and will continue to put people in harm's way\".\n\n\"She accepts no responsibility,\" they wrote in court filings. \"Quite the opposite, she insists she is the victim.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Starmer: The government is unworthy of voters' trust\n\nSir Keir Starmer has sought to capitalise on Boris Johnson's recent troubles by promising to restore trust in government if he wins power.\n\nIn a new year speech, the Labour leader announced a \"contract with the British people\", he said he would offer \"security, prosperity and respect\".\n\nHe said Boris Johnson had lost moral authority and, in contrast to the PM, he would offer \"straight leadership\".\n\nThe Conservatives dismissed the speech as the \"same old platitudes\".\n\nIt comes after opinion polls showed a Labour lead for the first time since Mr Johnson came to power.\n\nStanding in front of two union flags, Sir Keir said Labour was a \"deeply patriotic party\" whose electorally successful leaders - Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair - had enacted reforms \"rooted in the everyday concerns of working people\".\n\nHe also said that 2022 is a big year for the country, with the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and Birmingham hosting the Commonwealth Games later in the year, as well as both England's men's and women's football teams competing for international honours.\n\nAnd he added that 2022 is the first year in which the UK needs to tackle some \"big challenges\" including \"repairing after the pandemic, combating the climate crisis; and making Brexit work\".\n\nHe said: \"I believe that the best still lies ahead for this country. But only if we have the courage to create a new Britain. A country in which you and your family get the security, prosperity and respect you deserve.\"\n\nBut he added that the Conservatives were \"too busy squabbling\" over Boris Johnson's leadership of the party to offer leadership to the country.\n\nThis New Year political curtain raiser was Sir Keir Starmer aiming to capitalise on a bumpy few months for the prime minister and emphasise how he sees himself as very different.\n\nIt was an attempt to make a virtue out of being serious, even boring, in comparison to Boris Johnson.\n\nWhen he offered \"straight leadership\" it was pretty obvious the point he was making.\n\nEver the lawyer, he offered a \"contract\" with voters, what he called a \"solemn agreement\".\n\nWhen he said \"I don't think politics is a branch of the entertainment industry. I think it's the serious business of getting things done\" I was reminded of a political advertising campaign from 15 years ago.\n\nThe man at the centre of that? Gordon Brown.\n\nLabour's slogan \"Not flash, just Gordon\" was also an attempt to sell being serious, in contrast to Tony Blair, who he had just replaced as Labour leader and his political opponent David Cameron.\n\nSir Keir said the government had lost the \"moral right\" to set new Covid rules, adding: \"the British people do not like being taken for granted. And they do not like being taken for fools\".\n\nHe also highlighted looming tax increases and rising prices, predicting that a \"cost of living crisis\" would become a \"major story\" in the spring.\n\nHe also talked about crime - one of the PM's key policy areas - claiming that \"too many people do not feel safe in their streets\".\n\nHe also took a swipe at the prime minister's character by saying: \"I don't think politics is a branch of the entertainment industry. I think it's the serious business of getting things done\".\n\nReacting to previews of the speech, Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden said: \"New year, same old platitudes from Keir Starmer\".\n\n\"Instead of building trust with the British people, he's out of touch and without a plan for Britain's future,\" he added.\n\nIn a torrid few weeks, Boris Johnson has faced reports of parties at Downing Street while Coronavirus restrictions were in place, a backbench rebellion over Covid rules - which only passed because of Labour backing - and a defeat to the Liberal Democrats in the North Shropshire by-election.\n\nThis followed weeks of damaging headlines over the autumn after his botched attempt to block a suspension for now ex-Tory MP Owen Paterson, who was found to have breached Commons rules on paid lobbying.\n• None PM has lost trust and authority to lead - Starmer", "Virginia Giuffre agreed not to sue anyone connected to Jeffrey Epstein who could be described as a \"potential defendant\", a 2009 damages settlement against the sex offender shows.\n\nThe document, disclosed by a New York court, reveals the financier paid her $500,000 (£371,000) to end her claim.\n\nMs Giuffre is suing the Duke of York in a civil case for allegedly sexually assaulting her 20 years ago, when she was a teenager.\n\nHe has consistently denied the claims.\n\nThe document was released ahead of a critical hearing on Tuesday in the civil case involving Prince Andrew - and the interpretation of the settlement will form a central plank of the argument between the two sides.\n\nMs Giuffre alleges she was trafficked to the prince by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nAlthough the settlement does not mention the prince by name, his lawyers say this 2009 deal means she cannot sue him - because she agreed to end all legal action against anyone connected to the offender who could be described as a \"potential defendant\".\n\nEpstein died in prison in 2019, while Maxwell was last week convicted of recruiting and trafficking young girls to be abused by the late financier.\n\nMs Giuffre's legal team say the terms of the Florida settlement are irrelevant to her case against the prince - which alleges sexual abuse by the royal in New York, London and the US Virgin Islands.\n\nIn her 2009 claim against Epstein, lawyers for Ms Giuffre said she was lured into a world of sexual abuse at his Florida home when she was a teenager.\n\nThey added: \"In addition to being continually exploited to satisfy defendant's [Epstein] every sexual whim, [Ms Giuffre] was also required to be sexually exploited by defendant's adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and or other professional and personal acquaintances.\"\n\nThat case never went to trial because on 17 November 2009 Jeffrey Epstein agreed to pay her $500,000 to stop it in its tracks. That deal was confidential until now - but has been made public because of its potential importance to the Prince Andrew case.\n\nIn the document, Ms Giuffre, also referred to by her unmarried name Roberts, agreed to \"release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge\" Epstein and \"any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant\".\n\nThe settlement's wording says she discharges \"potential defendants\" from any US legal action, including damages claims dating \"from the beginning of the world\".\n\nThe precise meaning of that wording is expected to be the subject of intense legal arguments in New York on Tuesday.\n\nEpstein and Maxwell have been pictured at the Queen's private Scottish estate, Balmoral\n\nIn filings to the New York court last month, Andrew B. Brettler, the duke's lead lawyer, said the Epstein settlement's plain language would be clear once it was released to the public.\n\n\"Epstein negotiated for this broad release, insisting that it cover any and all persons who Giuffre identified as potential targets of future lawsuits, regardless of the merit— or lack thereof —to any such claims,\" he said.\n\n\"Giuffre's baseless claims against Prince Andrew... must be dismissed at this stage.\"\n\nIn a statement, one of Ms Giuffre's lawyers, David Boies, said the settlement was not relevant to her claim and \"does not mention Prince Andrew\".\n\n\"He did not even know about it,\" he said.\n\nIn a previous court filing her lawyers said that the Epstein deal was \"outside the four corners\" of her action against Prince Andrew because it does not cover her claims against him.\n\nLisa Bloom, a lawyer for alleged victims of Jeffrey Epstein, described the settlement as \"one of the most bizarre\" she had ever seen, telling BBC News she thought it was \"incomprehensibly vague\".\n\n\"We want contracts to clearly specify who is released from a lawsuit and who is not,\" she said, adding that she could not see a judge releasing Prince Andrew from a lawsuit because he was not named specifically.", "A record 28,431 migrants made the journey across the English Channel last year\n\nThe number of people who crossed the English Channel in small boats last year was treble the number for 2020.\n\nFigures compiled by the BBC show at least 28,431 migrants made the journey in 2021, despite huge UK investment in France to prevent crossings.\n\nA Home Office minister said the government was \"reforming\" its approach and introducing tougher asylum rules.\n\nRefugee charities said the \"dangerous and callous policy\" would lead to more arrivals and drownings.\n\nClare Moseley, founder of charity Care4Calais, which supports refugees living in northern France, said rising numbers of small boat arrivals reflect a shift away from attempts to cross by lorry.\n\nShe said: \"They are some of the most vulnerable people in the world, having lost family members in bloody conflicts, suffered horrific torture and inhumane persecution.\n\n\"The Government tells us that people should travel by legal means, but if this were truly possible why would so many be risking their lives in flimsy boats?\"\n\nIn 2020, a total of 8,417 people crossed the Channel in small boats.\n\nLast year's record number - an increase of about 20,000 - saw arrivals peak in November when, despite falling temperatures, at least 6,869 people reached the UK.\n\nThe first migrants to arrive in 2022 were brought ashore at Dover on Tuesday morning.\n\nThe Home Office said 66 people arrived in two small boats, while the French authorities stopped 38 people trying to cross in a single boat.\n\nA family with a baby are believed to be among the first to migrants to cross the Channel in 2022\n\nOn 24 November at least 27 people died as their boat sank.\n\nThe same month saw a new record for a single day, when 1,185 people reached British shores aboard 33 boats.\n\nIn 2020 the most arrivals on a single day was 416, set in September.\n\nBorder Force has seen a sharp increase in the number and size of small boats making the crossing\n\nThe government said its new Nationality and Borders Bill would make it a criminal offence to enter the UK illegally and it would introduce life sentences for people-smugglers.\n\nHome Office minister Tom Pursglove said the government was \"making the tough decisions to end the overt exploitation of our laws\".\n\nHe continued: \"The sooner the House of Lords approves the Nationality and Borders Bill, the sooner these reforms will be delivered.\"\n\nHowever, the chief executive at Refugee Action, Tim Naor Hilton, said he believed tougher measures would not deter people from making these journeys, and smugglers would continue to profit \"unless ministers open up more routes for refugees to claim asylum\".\n\nHe said: \"The government wants to legalise this dangerous and callous policy in its Anti-Refugee Bill, which will only lead to more people drowning.\"\n\n\"It must wake up and scrap this bill now.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff had tried in recent years to relaunch their media careers\n\nGrichka and Igor Bogdanoff became France's most famous twins, hosting a TV science and science-fiction show in the 1980s on a spaceship set.\n\nThey died of coronavirus within days of each other in hospital, Grichka on 28 December and his brother on Monday.\n\nAged 72, the brothers had not been vaccinated against Covid-19.\n\nTheir friends said they were convinced their healthy lifestyle would protect them and they were admitted to hospital in mid-December.\n\nAlthough their families did not specify the cause of their deaths, their lawyer Edouard de Lamaze confirmed they had both contracted the virus.\n\nFamily friend Pierre-Jean Chalençon said they had left it too late to seek hospital treatment, deciding it was similar to flu. \"People have said they were anti-vaxxers but they absolutely weren't,\" he told BFMTV. \"Several friends told them to get themselves vaccinated but they felt because of their lifestyle and their [lack of] comorbidity, they weren't at risk of Covid.\"\n\nThe Bogdanoff brothers were a pair of eccentrics, descended from Austrian nobility.\n\nFeted for their initial Saturday afternoon TV programme Temps X which ran from 1979, they were synonymous for years with popular science and were part of public life for the rest of their lives.\n\nTheir programme on TF1 was for years seen in some ways as highlighting cutting-edge technology, according to Le Monde, which described them as icons from a kitsch period of culture. Temps X showcased other TV shows such as Doctor Who, The Prisoner and Star Trek, with guests including electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre.\n\nThe twins presented their hit TV series from 1979-1987\n\nHowever, when the TV channel went private in 1987, they were dropped.\n\nDuring the 1990s their facial features changed dramatically, leaving them with odd-looking chins, lips and cheek-bones. \"We are proud of having faces like extra-terrestrials,\" they once said.\n\nGrichka Bogdanoff was adamant that they had never had \"what people call cosmetic surgery\", insisting that he and his brother were experimental by nature and had tried out very advanced technology.\n\nThat was contradicted by their friend, former education minister Luc Ferry, who said they had both had Botox injections.\n\nThe brothers later tried their hands at academic work, writing doctoral theses in mathematics and theoretical physics which were both panned by their peers.\n\nRidiculed by sections of French media, they won a 2014 court case for defamation before losing a lawsuit against the French National Centre for Scientific Research.\n\nAsked why they had chosen not to have the Covid vaccines if they were not themselves anti-vaxxers, Luc Ferry said on Monday: \"Like Igor, Grichka wasn't antivax, he was just antivax for himself.\n\n\"They were both athletic, with not an inch of fat, and they thought the vaccine was more dangerous than the virus.\"\n\nBefore they were admitted to hospital, the twins had been working on a pilot project to resurrect their old TV show, again set on a spaceship and planned for broadcast on another channel in the near future.\n\nIn a statement on Monday, Igor Bogdanoff's family said he had \"gone towards the light\", surrounded by his children and family.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Experts answer your questions about the Omicron variant", "Banksy's 'Season's greetings' appeared in Port Talbot on steel worker Ian Lewis' garage in 2018\n\nA man tried to destroy a Banksy mural after hearing it was being moved from Wales to England, a court heard.\n\nMichael Thomas, 42, tried to break his way into a Port Talbot building to spray the £500,000 artwork with white paint on 26 November last year.\n\nSwansea Crown Court heard Thomas was angry the piece had been sold to a fan of the graffiti artist in London.\n\nThomas was given a 14 month suspended sentence after admitting attempted burglary and criminal damage.\n\nThe image, depicting a child enjoying snow falling - the other side revealing it was from a fire emitting ash - sparked a frenzy after it appeared on a steel worker's garage in 2018, and was later sold to art collector John Brandler.\n\nThe court heard how Thomas, of Mayfield Road, Port Talbot, tried to break into the building just days after it was revealed the piece was set to leave Wales.\n\nProsecutor Sian Cotter told the court neighbours called the police after hearing him breaking a window at 05:30 GMT.\n\n\"Witnesses heard him saying, 'It's the only thing in Port Talbot and they are taking it away',\" she said.\n\n\"Thomas intended to destroy the painting so no-one else could have it.\n\n\"A couple and their five-year-old child heard the defendant shouting, 'It's for us. They're taking it away, some rich man has it'.\n\n\"Another witness heard Thomas shouting, 'I'm going to kill it'.\"\n\nThe court heard how Season's Greetings was valued at half-a-million pounds.\n\nPort Talbot council put up a temporary structure around the Banksy after it appeared on the side of a garage in 2018.\n\nMr Lewis said at the time he was relieved to sell the Banksy artwork to John Brandler\n\nMs Cotter said: \"Thomas called police to say he'd committed the damage in anger because he didn't want the painting to leave Port Talbot.\n\n\"He said the work was being moved to England and that made him angry so he decided to destroy it.\"\n\nJonathan Tarrant, defending, said it was more of a protest than an act of criminal intent and it was unlikely Thomas would reoffend.\n\nThomas was given a 14-month suspended prison sentence, suspended for two years.\n\nJudge Geraint Walters told him: \"There was an intention to move the Banksy artwork out of Port Talbot to the London area, and that angered you.\n\n\"It may well be that it was not Banksy's intention that the painting should ever leave Port Talbot.\n\n\"I am aware the decision to remove the work has caused consternation in some quarters.\"\n\nThe judge said Thomas reacted \"bizarrely\" by breaking into the building with the intention of destroying the Banksy.\n\nHe added: \"This work does now belong to an individual who has had to pay for it.\n\nBanksy's 'Season's greetings' appeared in Port Talbot on steel worker Ian Lewis' garage in 2018\n\n\"The commercial reality is that it is a work of art of great value and now it's in private ownership.\"\n\nThomas was ordered to pay £1,058 compensation and has to wear an electronic tag for 12 weeks.", "Last updated on .From the section League Cup\n\nLiverpool have made a formal request to postpone Thursday's Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at Arsenal because of an increase in Covid-19 cases at the club.\n\nPlayers Alisson, Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino also missed the game while three members of staff tested positive.\n\nThe Reds' squad has been further stretched by the departure of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita for the Africa Cup of Nations.\n\nThe request has been made to the English Football League (EFL) with the match at Emirates Stadium scheduled to take place at 19:45 GMT on Thursday.\n\nA Liverpool statement said: \"Among the considerations which led to today's application to the EFL is the need for travelling supporters to be given as much notice as possible of any potential postponement.\n\n\"With no prospect of the current situation improving ahead of Thursday's fixture and the potential for it to worsen, the club considers it both prudent and reasonable to ask for the fixture to be rescheduled.\n\n\"Liverpool FC will offer a further update on the application process, as well as the resumption of training, in due course.\"\n\nAn EFL spokesperson said Liverpool's request \"will now be considered in accordance with the competition rules as set out at the start of the season alongside information submitted by the club\".\n\nThe EFL added: \"We will look to confirm the League's position as soon as possible once the circumstances have been fully reviewed.\"\n\nLiverpool are due to host Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup third round on Sunday (14:00) before the second leg against Arsenal at home on 13 January.\n\nChelsea host Tottenham in the other Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday (19:45 GMT).\n\nThe latest round of Premier League testing showed a first week-by-week decrease in positive Covid tests for eight weeks.\n\nThere were 94 new cases among Premier League players and staff from a total of 14,250 tests in the seven days up to and including 2 January - down from a record 103 cases over the previous seven days.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "The boss of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital says it is an \"incredibly pressured time\" for everyone working in health and social care\n\nA county's health care system has been placed on the highest state of alert.\n\nNorfolk and Waveney's care system, covering three hospitals, the ambulance service, community and social services, has declared a critical incident.\n\nHospital trusts elsewhere have also declared critical incidents amid staff shortages and pressures from Covid-19.\n\nUniversity Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals and Great Western Hospitals in Wiltshire have all raised the alarm.\n\nDerriford hospital in Plymouth has problems offloading ambulances, and has recorded nearly 500 staff absences.\n\nCritical incidents are declared when health bosses are concerned they cannot provide priority services.\n\nThis includes treatment for cancer or heart disease patients.\n\nSpeaking in a Downing Street press conference earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the NHS was facing \"huge pressures\".\n\nHe said some services would be disrupted by staff absences but pledged to \"fortify\" the health service to withstand the pressures and protect supply chains.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty also acknowledged some hospitals would come under \"very substantial pressure over the next couple of weeks\" with high numbers of staff absences compounding typical winter pressures.\n\nHospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham are among those where general visiting has been suspended\n\nMeanwhile the highest number of people have tested positive or Covid in the UK with a total of 218,724, the latest figures show.\n\nHowever, that does include tests recorded on some previous days, with not all cases being reported over Christmas.\n\nThere were 15,044 patients with Covid in hospital on Tuesday morning including 797 requiring mechanical ventilation.\n\nNHS England confirmed to the BBC that the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System - which covers part of north Suffolk - was in the highest state of alert.\n\nHealth services in the area said seasonal flu and the winter vomiting bug had placed extra demands on services.\n\nThe county's biggest hospital - the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) - said its number of patients with Covid had almost doubled, from 50 to 91, since Friday.\n\nIt said many wards were prepared to further expand capacity beyond the usual practice as a short-term response.\n\nIn a statement, NNUH medical director Erika Denton said: \"Our hospital is extremely busy and it is an incredibly pressured time for everyone working in health and social care.\n\n\"The hospital is full and we have already taken steps to increase bed capacity in response to high emergency demand and a record number of Covid-19 infections that has led to a surge in admissions.\"\n\nIt said its staff sickness rate was about 6%, which which was higher than average for the time of year due to staff having to isolate due to Covid and other factors such as seasonal illnesses.\n\nFamilies of patients fit for discharge have been asked if they can help with care so they can be discharged before social services care is arranged.\n\nEarlier The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust's chief executive confirmed it had declared a critical incident.\n\nThe trust serves patients in Lancashire and south Cumbria where some non-urgent operations and procedures have been suspended.\n\nNatalie Hudson, chief operating officer at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said there was \"very high demand\" for services and \"long waits\" in emergency and urgency care departments.\n\nShe said very high levels of bed occupancy were being \"exacerbated by rapidly rising rates of Covid-19 in the community and rising rates of admissions and staff absences\".\n\nIn Wiltshire, the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Great Western Hospital in Swindon, declared a critical incident after experiencing \"sustained high levels of demand\" and concerns over the \"availability of beds\".\n\nIt said Covid inpatient numbers had risen 81% since 24 December.\n\nConcerns have been raised about NHS staff being left exhausted\n\nDr Colin Farquharson, medical director of United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said on Monday there were \"significant staffing pressures\" due to Covid-related absences, though essential services were still operating.\n\nA critical incident was also declared at Plymouth's Derriford hospital with 99 positive cases there and at its three community hospitals.\n\nMeanwhile the number of hospital staff off sick across North East and north Cumbria has increased 135% due to Covid since 24 December.\n\nNeil Halford, medical director for the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System, said: \"Hospital trusts are continually reviewing their planned operations and procedures alongside caring for the sickest patients and ensuring infection prevention control measures can be adhered to.\n\n\"This a difficult balancing act and regrettably some planned operations and procedures may need to be postponed.\"\n\nDr Sakthi Karunanithi, public health director for Lancashire, warned his county was braced \"for a tsunami of Omicron cases\" with a noticeable shift in infections in people under 50 \"to a more 60-plus age group being affected\".\n\nChris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said a critical incident was \"an indication of very serious pressure\" at a trust which may \"not be able to provide\" a range of priority services.\n\nThe chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, said that \"in many parts of the health service, we are currently in a state of crisis\".", "Giles Davies of Cosheston, Pembrokeshire, photographed the thousands of stranded starfish\n\n\"Tens of thousands\" of stranded starfish have been washed up on the Welsh coast.\n\n\"I have never seen something like this before,\" said Giles Davies, an amateur nature photographer.\n\nMr Davies photographed thousands of the stranded sea creatures on Coppet Hall Beach in Pembrokeshire.\n\n\"It's really sad to just see that in nature, because you're looking at deaths in the thousands of one species,\" he said.\n\nA beach in Scotland saw a similar stranding of sea life last November following bad weather from Storm Arwen.\n\nExtreme weather is the likely cause of such incidents, said the Marine Conservation Society.\n\nStormy weather and strong tides are usually the case of such incidents\n\nMr Davies said there had been reports of starfish stranded on beaches from Coppett Hall all the way up the coastline to Tenby, Pembrokeshire.\n\n\"That would kind of make sense because Tenby is the first place where the tide turns in Wales, so when you get strandings they come to shore generally in that area,\" said Mr Davies.\n\n\"But it's the sheer volume, you're always going to get winter tides where stuff will come ashore.\n\n\"For that volume to come ashore, no, something seriously has gone wrong with nature,\" he said.\n\nJake Davies, a marine biologist who works for the Angel Shark Project Wales, said large storms are often the cause of such events.\n\n\"This type of event of stranding does occur following a big storm along with big tides,\" he said.\n\n\"Every year there are images of large strandings of starfish coming ashore.\n\n\"A similar event was seen on the Gower beach [last] year where rock pools were full of starfish.\"\n\nMr Davies added: \"It's an incredible thing to see, it's very, very sad but it's an incredible thing to see.\"", "Thai police display some of the jewels they recovered, with Kriangkrai in handcuffs on the right\n\nSaudi Arabia and Thailand have ended a 30-year row over a scandal involving stolen jewels and a string of murders.\n\nThe resumption of full diplomatic ties came during a visit to Riyadh by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha.\n\nA Thai cleaner working for a Saudi prince took the gems in 1989. A rare 50 carat blue diamond was never recovered.\n\nThree Saudi diplomats were shot dead in Bangkok following the theft. Several top Thai policemen were implicated in the affair but never convicted.\n\nThe deal opens the way for Thais once again to find employment in Saudi Arabia, which says it needs millions of overseas workers.\n\nIt will also allow renewed co-operation in areas such as tourism and petrochemicals. Saudi Arabian Airlines has announced it will restart direct flights to Thailand in May.\n\nRelations between the two countries were downgraded after Thai cleaner Kriangkrai Techamong stole the jewels from his employer Prince Faisal, the eldest son of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.\n\nKriangkrai Techamong ended up being jailed for less than three years\n\nKriangkrai sold them back in Thailand without realising their real value.\n\nBut when the Thai police returned some of the jewels - said to be worth $20m (£14.8m) - the Saudis said most were fake.\n\nThen, a year after the theft, three Saudi diplomats in Thailand were shot dead, and an investigator sent there to track the missing jewels disappeared. Two Thais linked to the crime also died in suspicious circumstances.\n\nKriangkrai the cleaner and one police officer were the only two individuals jailed over the affair.\n\nSaudi Arabia accused the Thai police of a bungled investigation, amid allegations the stolen jewels were acquired by senior officers. In 1994, the then Saudi charge d'affaires said the murdered diplomats had been \"silenced\".\n\nThai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha's landmark visit to Saudi Arabia is the highest-level contact between the countries since the bizarre and embarrassing scandal, the BBC's Jonathan Head reports from Bangkok.\n\nIn a joint statement, the prime minister expressed \"sincere regret over the tragic events in Thailand between 1989 and 1990\".\n\nThe Thai and Saudi leaders hope they have drawn a line under the affair\n\nAnalysts say the dispute has cost billions of dollars in trade, and led to job losses for tens of thousands of Thai migrant workers. Before the scandal, as many as 300,000 Thais were employed in Saudi Arabia.\n\nMost of the jewels were never found. The scarcity and value of blue diamonds is in part down to the fact so few places in the world mine for them.\n\nThe stones get their colour when the chemical boron is present during formation.\n\nThe origin of the Saudi blue diamond is unclear and no known photographs of it exist.\n• None The mystery of the stolen blue diamond", "Sir Elton John has been forced to postpone two concerts in Dallas, Texas after recently testing positive for the coronavirus.\n\nThe musician, 74, is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is currently experiencing only mild symptoms, according to a post on his Instagram.\n\nThe global pandemic has caused many delays in Sir Elton's Farewell Yellow Brick Road world tour.\n\nAnother British superstar, Adele, also cancelled US shows last week.\n\nThe Dallas shows were originally scheduled to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.\n\n\"It's always a massive disappointment to move shows and I'm so sorry to anyone who's been inconvenienced by this but I want to keep myself and my team safe,\" Sir Elton wrote on Instagram.\n\nHe assured fans they would be contacted once new dates had been announced.\n\nHe also said he expects to be able to perform at scheduled shows in Arkansas this weekend.\n\nThe changes are the latest setback in what has been an ill-fated final tour for the musician.\n\nFarewell Yellow Brick Road began in 2018 as Sir Elton's curtain call after more than half a century on the road.\n\nBut the busy schedule of more than 300 shows worldwide was repeatedly interrupted, first by pandemic-related restrictions, then because Sir Elton needed hip surgery after a fall in September last year.\n\nThe show restarted after almost two years last Wednesday in New Orleans, Louisiana.\n\nThe Londoner - who once had seven consecutive number-one albums in the US - is expected to crisscross through the country until April, when he begins the European leg of his tour.\n\nLast Thursday, a tearful Adele postponed her first-ever Las Vegas concert residency, just 24 hours before opening night.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nMarcus Rashford says he does not condone discrimination \"of any kind\" after being criticised for posing for a photo with controversial rapper Wiley.\n\nRashford and Manchester United team-mate Jesse Lingard were pictured with the grime artist this week in Dubai.\n\nWiley, banned from Twitter last year for anti-Semitism, shared the photo, now deleted, on his Instagram account.\n\n\"I believe tackling anti-Semitism in and outside the game requires a greater level of attention,\" Rashford tweeted.\n\nWiley was dropped by his management company after his outburst two years ago and has had a number of his social media accounts closed down.\n\n\"This picture has been brought to my attention which I understand now, given context, could easily be misconstrued,\" England striker Rashford added.\n\n\"I would like to reinforce that I do not and will not condone discriminative language or behaviour of any kind aimed at the Jewish community or any other community.\"\n\nRashford has previously spoken out against racism and was widely hailed for his response last year after becoming a target for abuse following his missed penalty in the Euro 2020 final.\n\nHe has also been praised for his activism, most notably his campaign against child food poverty, and was made an MBE last year.\n\nLingard echoed Rashford's response on social media, tweeting: \"I want to make it clear that I do not condone any form of racism whatsoever.\"\n• None Our coverage of Manchester United is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything United - go straight to all the best content", "Prince Andrew has denied being a close friend of convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, in a legal response to the woman who is suing him in the US for sexual assault.\n\nLawyers for the prince also say he wants to go before a jury to contest the claim brought by Virginia Giuffre.\n\nThe Duke of York has consistently denied all the allegations against him.\n\nMs Giuffre alleges he assaulted her when she was 17 at homes owned by Maxwell and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nBut in the 11-page court document, filed on Wednesday, Prince Andrew's legal team list a number of reasons why they believe her civil lawsuit should be dismissed.\n\nOne factor they ask the court to consider is the issue of consent.\n\nThe document says: \"Assuming, without admitting, that Giuffre has suffered any injury or damage alleged in the complaint, Giuffre's claims are barred by the doctrine of consent.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From November 2019: Prince Andrew said he was \"not aware\" of the arrest warrant for Jeffrey Epstein when he was invited to Princess Beatrice's birthday party\n\nThe document also states that Prince Andrew \"admits that he met Epstein in or around 1999\", but denies that he participated in any abuse with the late financier.\n\nOn the matter of a photograph of the prince with his arm around Ms Giuffre, with Maxwell in the background, his lawyers say they do not have enough information to admit or deny its existence.\n\nElsewhere, the document \"denies\" Ms Guiffre's claim that Prince Andrew was a close friend of Maxwell.\n\nWriting to a US judge, his lawyers state: \"Prince Andrew hereby demands a trial by jury on all causes of action asserted in the complaint.\"\n\nUS lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represents a number of Maxwell's and Epstein's accusers, called this demand a \"PR move\", saying Ms Giuffre had already asked for a jury trial.\n\nShe said Prince Andrew's request was \"meaningless\" as it was Ms Giuffre's constitutional right to have a jury trial if she asked for one.\n\nThis is a wide-ranging set of denials which is specific about the denial of the sexual abuse.\n\nPrince Andrew is denying even that he was a close friend of Ghislaine Maxwell and frequent visitor of Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nI think Buckingham Palace, which has pushed Prince Andrew and this whole case as far away as it possibly can, will be viewing this with suppressed horror.\n\nThey will realise the capacity this story has to dominate headlines and we are just 10 days away from the start of the Platinum Jubilee.\n\nIn terms of the strategy, I think Prince Andrew's lawyers are trying to give the impression that Virginia Giuffre's reputation will be damaged if this does come to court.\n\nThey will attempt to assert that her conduct was sufficiently wrong in itself that she has forfeited the right to benefit in any way from this situation..\n\nThough one has to wonder how that argument will play in front of a New York jury - a British prince trying to blame Virginia Giuffre.\n\nIt's a great final line in this document that Prince Andrew demands the right to be tried by a jury. But as I understand it he gets a jury trial anyway.\n\nCould this all be part of a softening up process in the hope that, as the other side recognises the sort of defence that will be mounted, perhaps they will be more inclined to consider an out of court settlement?\n\nThough at the moment, everything that Virginia Giuffre and her lawyers are saying is indicating that they do want to push this to a trial and they do want their day in court.\n\nIn the papers, Prince Andrew's lawyers further argue that Ms Giuffre has no legal basis to bring the case since she is a permanent resident of Australia.\n\nThey also refer to a 2009 settlement agreement between Ms Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein, a long-time associate of Prince Andrew.\n\nEpstein, a convicted sex offender, killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial. British socialite Maxwell was found guilty last month of grooming underage girls to be abused by him.\n\nMs Giuffre is suing the Queen's son for allegedly sexually assaulting her in London, New York and the Virgin Islands when she was a teenager.\n\nShe is seeking unspecified damages, but there is speculation the sum could be in the millions of dollars.\n\nEarlier in the month, a judge ruled that the case could proceed.\n\nBuckingham Palace later stripped Prince Andrew of his military titles and patronages, and said he would contest the case as a private individual.\n\nThe new court documents describe the Queen's second son as \"Prince Andrew, Duke of York aka Andrew Albert Christian Edward, in his personal capacity\".\n\nIn a statement, David Boies - who is representing Ms Giuffre - said his client and legal team \"look forward to confronting Prince Andrew with his denials and attempts to blame Ms Giuffre for her own abuse at his deposition and at trial\".", "Michelle O'Neill says she has spoken to Sinead Ennis, Jemma Dolan and Emma Sheerin about the posts\n\nHistorical comments made on social media by three Sinn Féin MLAs are \"wrong and unacceptable\", Michelle O'Neill has said.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Nolan Show reported that Sinead Ennis, Jemma Dolan and Emma Sheerin had posted tweets containing derogatory language.\n\nThe tweets were published about 10 years ago, before the three women had entered elected politics.\n\nMs O'Neill said she had spoken to the MLAs. All three have since apologised.\n\nOne tweet posted by Sinead Ennis used derogatory language about Protestants, while another from Jemma Dolan used a slur about people with disabilities.\n\nEmma Sheerin had made a remark about the late deputy first minister Martin McGuinness meeting the Queen in 2011.\n\nMs O'Neill, Stormont's deputy first minister said it was \"not acceptable language for any Sinn Féin representative to use\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Emma Sheerin This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I have spoken directly with each of the MLAs and made this very clear to them.\n\n\"They have each told me they deeply regret the language used and will apologise.\"\n\nOn Wednesday afternoon, Ms Ennis, Ms Dolan and Ms Sheerin issued separate apologies on Twitter.\n\nMs Ennis then locked her twitter account so only approved followers can view her tweets.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jemma Dolan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn Tuesday, Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie apologised for historical tweets he posted containing derogatory language but denied accusations of misogyny and racism.\n\nThe posts had emerged after Mr Beattie apologised for tweeting a joke about former DUP leader Edwin Poots and his wife on Saturday night\n\nThat comment is now the subject of potential legal action, after it was confirmed by a solicitor for Mr Poots and his wife that legal proceedings had been initiated against Mr Beattie and Simon Hoare, chairman of the Northern Ireland Select Committee.\n\nIt is understood Mr Hoare retweeted Mr Beattie's post, before later deleting it.", "Police are investigating multiple events at Downing Street to see if Covid rules were broken.\n\nThe BBC's Ros Atkins examines how we got to this point.", "Middlesex chairman Mike O'Farrell has apologised for comments on black and South Asian interest in cricket that were called \"painful\" and \"outdated\" by ex-England player Ebony Rainford-Brent.\n\nO'Farrell said football and rugby become \"much more attractive to the Afro-Caribbean community\" and cricket was sometimes \"secondary\" to education for young South Asian players.\n\nHe was speaking at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee hearing into how cricket plans to tackle racism in the sport.\n\nRainford-Brent said such \"outdated views\" were \"exactly\" why cricket was under pressure to tackle issues of diversity and inclusion following former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq's account of racism in the sport.\n\nO'Farrell subsequently offered his \"wholehearted apologies\" for the \"misunderstanding\" his comments at the hearing had caused.\n\n\"I wholly accept that this misunderstanding is entirely down to my own lack of clarity and context in the answers I provided, and I am devastated that my comments have led to the conclusions some have made,\" he said.\n\n\"For the purposes of clarification, I was aiming to make the point that as a game, cricket has failed a generation of young cricketers, in systematically failing to provide them with the same opportunities that other sports and sectors so successfully provide.\"\n\nRafiq, who in November told the DCMS select committee that English cricket was \"institutionally racist\", said he accepted O'Farrell's apology \"without a doubt\", adding: \"If someone apologises we have to forgive and we have to try and work together.\"\n\nHowever, the 30-year-old told BBC Radio 4 the language used at the DCMS hearing was \"painful\" and \"hurtful\" as it was a reminder of how Yorkshire had dealt with him.\n\nRafiq told the PM programme: \"I think today has shown everyone what I was talking about and how we have a long way to go.\n\n\"Clearly the counties and the game are still very much in denial and that's a big worry.\"\n\nRafiq claims the data he has seen does not support O'Farrell's reasons why players were not progressing in the sport.\n\nInstead, he says O'Farrell's view on black and South Asian players are \"a stereotypical way of trying to blame a minority group for why there is a problem in the game\".\n\nRafiq added: \"Any person of colour reading that, to say Asian kids don't want to pay cricket because it's time consuming... it's staggering.\n\n\"What worries me is he felt so comfortable... to sit in front of a public forum and to express the views. If that is what is at the top, then it's worrying times for Middlesex Cricket Club.\"\n• None Racism was an issue at Glamorgan, says chairman\n\nA parliamentary report earlier this month recommended the government should limit public funding for cricket unless there was \"continuous, demonstrable progress\" on eradicating \"deep-seated racism\".\n\nWhen asked about Middlesex's record on diversity and inclusion, O'Farrell said that 57% of their players under the age of 17 came from \"culturally diverse backgrounds\".\n\nHe said that diversity was \"more difficult\" to maintain at higher levels and particularly in the academy, for \"several reasons\".\n\nGoing into those reasons, O'Farrell claimed that \"the football and rugby worlds become much more attractive to the Afro-Caribbean community\" at that age.\n\nHe added: \"In terms of the South Asian community, there is a moment where we're finding that they do not want necessarily to commit the same time that is necessary to go to the next step because they prefer - not always saying they do it - they sometimes prefer to go into other educational fields and then cricket becomes secondary.\n\n\"Part of that is because it's a rather more time-consuming sport than some others, so we're finding that's difficult.\"\n\nHe said the situation was \"changing\" with Twenty20 and one-day cricket and because there was \"much more choice and variation in the game\" young South Asian men and women were \"finding this a much more attractive sport\".\n\nHe added: \"We are moving it forward - it's not as fast as we'd like it to and we're trying to make as many opportunities as we can.\"\n\nRainford-Brent said on social media that \"unfortunately the decision-makers hold on to these myths\" and \"the game deserves better\".\n\nIn 2018, South Asian players represented 30% of recreational players but only 4% of first-class county players.\n\nThe proportion of recreational players who are South Asian has since dropped to 28% but the ECB says there has been an increase in South Asian players in county academies, from 11% in 2018 to 17% in 2019-20.\n\nRainford-Brent helped found Surrey's African Caribbean Engagement Programme (ACE) to address a 75% decline in cricket participation by members of the black community over the past 25 years.\n\nShe said: \"The interest is there the young people just need the right offer.\"\n\nIn his statement, O'Farrell added cricket \"won't make the progress it needs to\" unless it learns how to make the game \"an attractive proposition for youngsters of all backgrounds to continue through the pathway into the professional game\".\n\n\"We at Middlesex are no different,\" he said.\n\n\"We have an academy side that contains in excess of 60% British-born Asian and black young cricketers and we must take responsibility for ensuring that the route into the professional game is as accessible and appealing as other sports or opportunities.\n\n\"I speak on behalf of the entire club in saying that our desire is to see a 1st XI walking out to play for the club which is truly reflective of the broadly diverse county that Middlesex is today and that we will do all within our power to make that happen.\n\n\"Once again I apologise for any upset or hurt my earlier comments may have caused, that was most definitely not my intention.\"", "People no longer need show proof of Covid status for bars, restaurants and cinemas\n\nProof of Covid-19 status to enter bars, restaurants and cinemas has been scrapped in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe change took effect at 12:00 GMT following a decision by Stormont ministers last week.\n\nNightclubs - which were forced to close on 26 December - can now also reopen, along with the return of indoor standing events.\n\nVaccine passports will still be required to access nightclubs and large events.\n\nThe Stormont Executive said the use of Covid certification in hospitality would continue to be \"strongly encouraged\", but in guidance only.\n\nThe latest relaxation of Covid rules was approved by the executive after health officials advised that Northern Ireland had passed the peak of community transmission with the Omicron variant.\n\nFrom Wednesday, the legal requirement for offices to take reasonable measures for 2m (6ft) social distancing is being removed, with guidance remaining in place that risk assessments should be carried out.\n\nHowever, further advice remains that people should work from home where they can and take lateral flow tests before meeting others.\n\nThe executive will meet again on 10 February to review the remaining Covid restrictions in Northern Ireland.\n\nThis will include the laws on mandatory use of face coverings, the legal requirement for track-and-trace in hospitality and the use of Covid certification in nightclubs and for large events.\n\nThe removal of social distancing rules in work environments will allow more office workers to return from working at home.\n\nSocial distancing requirements are being removed in work spaces\n\nRachel McMillan runs an office in River House in Belfast and said they were removing blockages on seats in preparation.\n\n\"I do think it's important for our government to encourage office workers to come back and the economy really does rely on office workers being back in the city,\" she said.\n\n\"There are a lot of small businesses around the building and they really benefit from our members being back.\n\nShe also said there were benefits for those workers who had not had a chance to meet in person with the rest of their colleagues.\n\n\"We have so many different businesses under the one roof,\" she added.\n\n\"We would put events on for members and it's a way for them to meet other people and collaborate with like-minded people and you're not going to get that at home.\"\n\nNightclubs have been preparing to reopen since hearing of the relaxation in regulations.\n\nStephen Boyd runs a nightclub venue in Belfast and said they had had to be creative with their business model during periods of restriction, branching out into distributing bottled cocktails to off licenses.\n\nHe said that staff would be coming in today to \"get rid of all the tables and get the dancefloor up and running\".\n\n\"I would like to think we could get back to normal and back to trading again, but again, who knows what's around the corner?\" he told Good Morning Ulster.\n\nNightclubs will require proof of vaccination for entry\n\nHe added that he hoped the rules for nightclubs on vaccine passports would be brought in line with other venues as soon as was safely possible.\n\n\"Hopefully within the next few weeks we can get a change,\" he said.\n\n\"I understand why these things have to be done, but if the risk isn't there, then surely it's time for them to go.\"\n\nOn Friday, First Minister Paul Givan said it was his \"continued view\" that vaccine passports should be scrapped in all settings.\n\nIt came after the Irish government decided to end the use of Covid certification for all but international travel in the Republic of Ireland on Saturday.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A message in a bottle from a Peterhead girl in 1996 is found in Norway after 25 years\n\nA message in a bottle sent by a young girl in Aberdeenshire has been found in Norway 25 years later.\n\nJoanna Buchan was eight when the bottle was dropped from a fishing boat off Peterhead in 1996 for a school project.\n\nIt was found 800 miles (1,287km) away at Gasvaer in northern Norway by Elena Andreassen Haga, who tracked Joanna down on social media.\n\nThe schoolgirl's letter reveals a love of sweets but a dislike of the opposite sex. \"By the way I hate boys,\" it ends.\n\nNeatly handwritten and addressed to the \"discoverer\", Joanna also describes her pet dog, her school projects and her love of collecting Blu Tack.\n\nElena, 37, told BBC Scotland she found the green bottle in summer 2020 and could see immediately there was something inside.\n\n\"So we opened it and we had to be really careful because, as you can see by the picture of the letter, it has probably been in the water for some time, but we managed to fold it out and we're able to read that this is actually from Scotland, so that was kind of cool,\" she said.\n\n\"My son Eliah was six when we found the bottle, he honestly didn't quite understand the fuss at first - old-fashioned fun I guess\".\n\nJoanna Buchan was just a young girl when she sent the letter as part of a school project\n\nThe Norwegian sent a Facebook message for Joanna, but the former Peterhead schoolgirl did not spot it until Monday.\n\nElena said: \"My father also found a message in a bottle when he was about five and he's 66 now so that's quite some time ago, but in the same area.\n\n\"So this is like it's normal to have things washed up on shore but it's not very often that you find something with this kind of significance.\"\n\nElena Andreassen Haga said son Eliah did not initially understand the fuss when they found it\n\nJoanna is now 34 and a doctor in New South Wales in Australia.\n\nShe said she found the \"absolute gem of a message\" from Elena, dating back to 2020, while scrolling through the message requests section of Facebook Messenger.\n\n\"I vaguely remember doing a message in a bottle at Peterhead Central School that we sent off Peterhead in 1996,\" she added.\n\nJoanna Buchan said her letter now made her laugh\n\n\"I was like 'that's my handwriting'.\"\n\nThe letter included details about her \"rather big house\", and her love of teddy bears.\n\n\"When I read it I just died laughing\", she said.\n\n\"There's some really lovely lines in there, like what was important to me at the time. I wish I could tell my teachers of the time, whose idea it would have been.\n\n\"It's clearly done its time in the North Sea.\"", "Two-thirds of people recently infected with the Omicron variant say they had already had Covid previously.\n\nThe findings come from a large, continuing study, React, swab-testing thousands of volunteers in England.\n\nMore work is needed to know how many are true reinfections - but the results reveal the groups that appear to be more likely to catch Covid again.\n\nThey include healthcare workers and households with children or lots of members under one roof.\n\nMore than two million people have been tested in the study.\n\nThe latest findings, for the first two weeks of 2022 - round 17 - are based on about 100,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests posted to volunteers and then returned.\n\nAbout 4,000 were positive, by far the highest rate seen since the pandemic began.\n\nAnd when a selection of them were sequenced to check what type of Covid was to blame, virtually all were Omicron - the highly infectious variant, first identified in South Africa, causing a big winter wave of infections in the UK.\n\nIt is not yet clear how many of the volunteers who tested positive had been fully vaccinated.\n\nTwo shots offer little protection against catching Omicron, although protection against severe disease wanes less.\n\nBut booster doses have been rolled out at speed since Omicron hit, to top up people's protection.\n\nTwo out of every three (65%) of the infected volunteers said they had already previously tested positive for Covid.\n\nMany of these could have been reinfected.\n\nAlthough, in some instances, the latest PCR tests might be picking up old traces of virus.\n\nThe React researchers amended their pre-print to remove these figures after this story was written because of uncertainty over how many were true reinfections.\n\nOther estimates have suggested one in every 10 Omicron cases is a possible reinfection.\n\nCurrently, daily Covid case figures reported by the government - which reflect the number of infections picked up by people coming forward for testing - do not include reinfections for all countries of the UK.\n\nBut that will all change on 31 January, when anyone who has a second positive test - if it has occurred 90 days after the first one - will be added in to the official UK figures.\n\nCoronavirus infections have slowed recently but remain high, particularly among children and young teenagers, the React findings also suggest.\n\nReact programme director Prof Paul Elliott, from Imperial College London, said: \"There is rapidly increasing prevalence among children now they are mixing more following the start of the school term and, compared with December, prevalence in older people, aged 65 plus, has increased... which may lead to increased hospitalisations.\n\n\"It's therefore vital that we continue to monitor the situation closely.\"\n\nUK Health Security Agency chief executive Dr Jenny Harries said although vaccines may not stop every infection, they were doing a great job at protecting lives.\n\n\"Vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself from severe disease and hospitalisation from Omicron, and I would urge anyone who has not done so to come forward for their primary and booster doses as soon as possible,\" she said.\n\n\"The impact the vaccination is having on preventing severe disease and hospitalisations is clear to see.\n\n\"To ensure we continue on the downward trend and protect our communities, it is still important for us all to follow public-health advice, particularly in crowded spaces and areas of poor ventilation.\n\n\"If you are visiting friends and family, make sure to take a test before going out.\"\n\nHealth and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: \"It's reassuring to see Covid-19 infections beginning to slow across the country, as we move back to Plan A.\n\n\"Rates are still high, so as we learn to live with the virus it is vital we continue to be vigilant - wash your hands, let in fresh air, get tested and, if you haven't already, get boosted.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. School test changes help teachers monitor coronavirus, says principal Ralph Magee\n\nSchool principals should ask all pupils in a class where there are a number of Covid cases to take a lateral flow test.\n\nThat is according to updated guidance to schools from the Education Authority (EA) and Public Health Agency (PHA).\n\nThe updated guidance said that principals did not need to contact the PHA before introducing \"extended testing\".\n\nThe new guidance applies to pupils in both primary and post-primary schools.\n\nIn a joint letter to principals, the EA and PHA said that the Omicron variant had \"led to a steep increase in Covid-19 case numbers in Northern Ireland and this is now impacting on all of society including schools\".\n\nThe letter continued: \"Evidence shows, however, that Omicron, whilst more transmissible than previous variants, is also generally less severe in its effects with a reduced risk of serious illness and hospitalisation.\n\n\"As with Delta, the Omicron variant also presents in the vast majority of children as a mild, self-limiting illness.\"\n\nThe new guidance applies to pupils in both primary and post-primary schools\n\nAn accompanying letter from the PHA said: \"With the very high community transmission we are experiencing, we expect to see more cases associated with a school or community setting and this does not necessarily reflect transmission in the class or school.\"\n\nAll school staff and post-primary pupils had previously been advised to take twice-weekly lateral flow tests.\n\nBut the updated guidance from the EA and PHA said primary school children should also be asked to take a lateral flow test at home if they are asymptomatic but in a class where there are a number of positive cases.\n\nIf the test is negative and the child has no symptoms, they can go to school, but if it is positive they should isolate and be treated as a positive case.\n\n\"Only those children and young people who have tested positive for coronavirus and those who are symptomatic awaiting test results should be isolated from the school environment,\" the updated guidance said.\n\n\"High-risk close contacts\" will continue to be identified by the PHA, according to a template letter for schools provided with the new guidance.\n\nRecently-retired teachers have been asked to consider returning to work to cover staff absences\n\nThe PHA letter also said Omicron was expected to peak in the coming weeks and the guidance to schools would be reviewed in mid-February.\n\nMeanwhile, the latest figures from the Department of Education (DE) show that staff absences due to Covid remain relatively high.\n\nOn Monday 24 January, 9% of teachers and 11% of classroom assistants in schools were absent due to Covid - the highest rates since the new term began.\n\nAbsences were highest in primary and special schools.\n\nHowever, about 5% of teachers were off school for non-Covid reasons - and the figure for classroom assistants was similar.\n\nOnly just over a quarter of schools (28%) in Northern Ireland had no teachers absent for Covid-related reasons on Monday 24 January.\n\nSome schools have struggled to find substitute teachers when staff are off and have had to send some year groups home on a temporary basis as a result.", "An FFP3 mask, not the brand being withdrawn by the Department of Health\n\nOne million face masks, described by a confidential government report as counterfeit, were sent out for use in NHS hospitals despite warnings about their authenticity.\n\nAccording to the report, health officials dismissed concerns, instead focusing on getting the masks out rather than considering \"red flags\".\n\nThe masks were sent for use by NHS staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe Department of Health said immediate action was taken when the issue arose.\n\n\"We have strengthened our assurance processes and introduced robust safeguards to prevent this in future,\" a spokesman added.\n\nBBC News first reported last February that more than a million high-grade masks in use in the NHS in England had been withdrawn over safety concerns. The FFP3 face coverings, worn by medics working in intensive care, were branded Fang Tian and marked as \"FT-045A\".\n\nNow a report has revealed that issues with them were dismissed for months. It was only after a nurse contacted the Chinese manufacturer directly and was told they were \"fake goods\" that officials took action.\n\nAfter the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) made its own direct enquiries, the manufacturer told them: \"The masks you got do not have certificate. I am sorry that you got the faked goods from bad guys.\"\n\nA catalogue of errors is laid bare in a highly-critical internal government report, disclosed to BBC News under the Freedom of Information Act.\n\nThe report says before the masks were released into the NHS in September 2020, a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) representative queried why the FT-045A model number did not appear to be covered by the safety certificate provided for the masks.\n\nYet health officials applied \"pressure\" to clear the face coverings for use, saying they had been given assurances they were authentic and fit for purpose.\n\n\"The certificate clearly states FT-045A as a model number and the packaging and picture of the masks states this too,\" wrote one official from the NHS's supply chain body. \"I do not understand why this now cannot be released.\"\n\nThe HSE representative then authorised their use, the report said, but it added that because the mask \"appeared\" to be CE safety marked, it did not need to provide sign-off.\n\nThe HSE told the BBC no authorisation was given for the product.\n\nHowever, that model of mask had not been certified and they were later shown to fail tests to the required standard. They did meet a lower World Health Organisation FFP2 standard.\n\nOfficials then began to receive reports from hospitals using the masks that they were not fit for purpose.\n\nBBC News has been investigating the government's handling of PPE contracts during the pandemic:\n\nIn November 2020, Mid and South Essex University Hospitals Group complained the masks were failing tests to make sure they fit securely. They reported the FT-045As only passed 40% of the time.\n\nOne of the group's hospitals also found filters had fallen out and in some instances seams in the masks had split. A DHSC official replied that this was an \"isolated incident\" and distribution of the masks continued.\n\nThat same month an \"anonymous report\" reached the DHSC claiming the Chinese manufacturer Fangtian was not aware it had sold any FFP3 masks to the NHS, and a police investigation into fraud or counterfeiting was ongoing in the country.\n\nAlthough the UK supplier was asked to investigate, this warning was also ultimately dismissed.\n\nBack in 2020 these masks were being used almost exclusively in the highest risk procedures where the risk for the wearer was the greatest\n\nMore complaints from hospitals followed in December 2020, including one from Medway NHS Foundation Trust, which said a member of staff had displayed \"Covid-like symptoms\" after a faulty mask they were wearing in an infected area failed.\n\nThe investigation says it has not been able to confirm if the individual went on to test positive for Covid-19.\n\nIt was not until February 2021, after a nurse in the Midlands contacted the Chinese manufacturer directly, that the concerns were properly investigated.\n\n\"Back in 2020 these masks were being used almost exclusively in the highest risk procedures where the risk for the wearer was the greatest,\" said Vishal Sharma, chair of the consultants committee at the doctors' union the BMA.\n\n\"That's why it's really worrying to find that actually these masks were not protecting people as they should have done.\"\n\nThe immense pressure to source personal protective equipment during the pandemic \"undoubtedly\" led to some people taking advantage of weaker procurement systems, the report concludes. But it finds no evidence of any criminal activity by individuals in the UK.\n\nThe report says the NHS supplier, Polyco Healthline Ltd, believed the masks it bought from China were being made under licence. It say they were supplied by a reputable producer of PPE that provided evidence of licencing arrangements.\n\nHowever, Fangtian, the Chinese firm that developed the masks, told the investigation it gave no such authorisation to any other manufacturer.\n\nIt is understood Polyco Healthline has serious misgivings about this claim.\n\nThe report says without being able to send an investigator to China, it is unlikely the full facts around the production of the masks will ever be ascertained.\n\nA spokesperson for DHSC said it was \"wrong to suggest the department ignored complaints\". \"As soon as we became aware of the issue with the products, we took immediate action to recall the affected products and commissioned an investigation.\"", "Malik Faisal Akram was from Blackburn in Lancashire\n\nTwo men have been arrested as part of an investigation into an attack on a Texas synagogue which saw a gunman take four people hostage.\n\nMalik Faisal Akram, 44, from Blackburn in Lancashire, was shot dead by the FBI after a 10-hour standoff in the US on 15 January.\n\nGreater Manchester Police said two men were arrested in Manchester earlier.\n\nTwo other men arrested in Birmingham and Manchester on 20 January have been released with no further action.\n\nThe force said officers from Counter Terrorism Policing North West were continuing with their investigation and working closely with US law enforcement.\n\nThe siege began at about 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) when police were called to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, near Dallas.\n\nAkram had entered the place of worship during a morning service by pretending to be homeless, before pulling out a gun.\n\nOne hostage was released after six hours, while the other three - including the synagogue's rabbi - escaped several hours later.\n\nDuring the standoff Akram was heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is serving an 86-year prison sentence in nearby Fort Worth, Texas, over attempts to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan.\n\nSiddiqui has distanced herself from his actions, issuing a statement through a lawyer.\n\nThe incident began at about 11:00 local time at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue\n\nAkram is thought to have arrived in the US via New York's JFK International Airport two weeks prior, according to police sources.\n\nHe is believed to have bought weapons used in the incident \"on the street\" after his arrival.\n\nAkram had been on the British security service's watchlist as a \"subject of interest\" in 2020 and was investigated in the second half of that year.\n\nBut by 2021 Akram, who had a criminal record in the UK, had moved from the active list to the \"former subject of interest\" list and was no longer considered a threat.\n\nIn a now deleted statement published on the Blackburn Muslim Community's Facebook page, Akram's brother Gulbar said his sibling had been suffering from mental health issues.\n\nFriends of Akram in Blackburn said his mental health had been getting worse and expressed surprise that he had been able to travel to the US.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Star Hobson suffered a cardiac arrest as a result of catastrophic injuries and died in September 2020\n\nBradford Council is to be stripped of control of its children's services in the wake of Star Hobson's murder.\n\nThe authority's department will instead be operated by a council-owned trust led by an independent board.\n\nOfsted rated children's services as \"inadequate\" in 2018 and a commissioner was appointed a year after 16-month-old Star was killed in September 2020.\n\nThe trust's creation follows recommendations by the commissioner to Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi.\n\nMr Zahawi said: \"Keeping vulnerable children safe from harm is non-negotiable.\n\n\"Where a council is not meeting its duty to do this, we will take action to protect children and put their needs first.\"\n\nHe said that it was clear from commissioner Steve Walker's recommendations the council needed support to improve.\n\nMr Zahawi added: \"I'm pleased that Bradford council have agreed to establish a new trust that will bring positive change for the council and independent oversight that drives improvements.\"\n\nCommissioner Mr Walker was appointed by the government in September 2021 over the \"slow pace of change\" after Ofsted inspectors had said some children remained \"at risk of serious harm\".\n\nHe began his review a year after Star died following months of \"neglect, cruelty and injury\".\n\nBradford Council was contacted on a number of occasions about the treatment of Star Hobson by Savannah Brockhill (left) and Frankie Smith in the run up to her death\n\nSavannah Brockhill, 28, was jailed for a minimum of 25 years for her murder. Star's mother, Frankie Smith, 20, was sentenced to eight years for causing or allowing her death.\n\nTheir trial heard of at least five occasions when concerned family members and friends made referrals about Star's treatment to the council's social services department.\n\nStar bled to death after suffering \"catastrophic\" injuries at the hands of Brockhill, her mother's \"violent-tempered\" girlfriend, at the couple's home in Keighley.\n\nBradford Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe acknowledged the \"pace of improvement needs to quicken\" but said the trust would enable the authority to focus on \"delivering consistently high-quality care\".\n\n\"Inevitably this will take time and we're acutely conscious that there can be no pause in our improvement journey,\" she said.\n\nMs Hinchcliffe said the Labour-controlled authority was committed to supporting \"front-line staff\".\n\nShe said the new arrangement would give members of the children's services department \"certainty over the future direction\" and an opportunity to draw on resources and expertise nationally.\n\nA whistleblower who works for Bradford Council's children's services department has told BBC Look North about the difficulties faced by people employed by the authority.\n\nThey said staff had raised issues with managers in the department about working conditions due to their high case loads, exacerbated by the number of people leaving.\n\n\"It's unmanageable workloads. Individual social workers are being set up to fail,\" the anonymous employee told the BBC.\n\nThey added that senior colleagues were \"constantly afraid\" of hearing things not being done correctly and \"just wanted to cover it up\".\n\nThe whistleblower said staff in the department were \"overworked, under-trained, unsupported and voiceless because any grievance you raise, it will be shut down and you will be made an example of\".\n\nAn independent review examining how the authorities responded to social services referrals in the months leading to Star's death will be rolled into the national review launched in the wake of the murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, the government also said.\n\nBradford West MP Naz Shah said there had been \"opportunities to get this right\"\n\nRobbie Moore, Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, said children across Bradford had been \"repeatedly\" failed by the council.\n\n\"Vulnerable and looked-after children deserve much better.\n\n\"Our area has been haunted by such failings for far too long which has led to so many tragedies in our area, including cases of neglect, continuous child sexual exploitation and the recent tragic murder of Star Hobson which could have been prevented had Children's Services acted upon repeated warnings,\" said Mr Moore.\n\nHe echoed previous calls for Ms Hinchliffe and authority chief executive Kersten England to resign and said he had \"no confidence\" in their leadership.\n\nStar Hobson suffered a cardiac arrest as a result of catastrophic injuries and died on 22 September 2020\n\nHigh caseloads, high staff turnover and the use of lots of agency staff are among the problems Bradford's children's services has struggled with over past years.\n\nWe don't yet know whether or not those pressures were a factor in the way child protection services responded to the concerns raised by family and friends about Star Hobson. That will be for the official review to decide.\n\nHowever, the government-appointed commissioner is clear in his conclusion that \"the council doesn't have the capacity and capability to improve services at pace on its own\".\n\nThe new arm's-length organisation will be one of about a dozen independent trusts in England set up after local authority children's services have failed to improve quickly enough.\n\nIn some cases, that has led to significant improvement. In others, progress has been much slower.\n\nNot least because changing the structure of services does not in itself deal with underlying problems, such as the difficulty of recruiting and keeping experienced staff.\n\nNaz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West said there was a \"dysfunction across many areas\" of the council related to leadership, organisational culture, and a lack of resources, with the latter causing \"stresses and strains\".\n\n\"But you can only use the issue of resources for so long as a mitigating factor.\n\n\"The truth is it requires leadership, it takes bold and brave leadership especially given that concerns have been raised, I raised them in 2016 and I've been raising them since.\n\nAnne Longfield, the former Children's Commissioner for England, welcomed the government announcement and said she hoped it \"marks the beginning of a period of major reform\" and investment in children's social care, adding: \"We cannot hope to protect vulnerable children on the cheap\".\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson has vowed to fight on as prime minister after facing fresh calls to quit over lockdown parties in Downing Street.\n\nMPs are still waiting to see the findings of civil servant Sue Gray's inquiry into the events, which had been expected on Wednesday.\n\nAt Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir Starmer called on the PM to keep a promise to publish the report in full.\n\nMr Johnson replied that he would \"do exactly what I said\".\n\nDowning Street has said it is their \"intention\" to publish the report in the format in which Mr Johnson receives it.\n\nThe BBC understands that Ms Gray's report is essentially completed, but she has not yet sent it to the prime minister.\n\nIt seems likely MPs may have to wait until Thursday - or beyond - to see the report.\n\nMr Johnson has said he will give the opposition parties time to study its contents before he makes a Commons statement on it.\n\nSeparately, the Metropolitan Police have launched an inquiry into potential Covid-law breaking in Downing Street, after being handed details of parties by Sue Gray.\n\nTory MPs asked supportive questions in the Commons but the PM faced calls to resign from Labour and SNP MPs\n\nAt a stormy Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir said the prime minister had previously told MPs that \"all guidance was followed\" in Downing Street over gatherings during Covid lockdowns.\n\nThe Labour leader added: \"So since he acknowledges the ministerial code [governing standards of behaviour and forbidding ministers from misleading the Commons] applies to him, will he now resign?\"\n\nHe accused Sir Keir of being \"relentlessly opportunistic throughout\" the pandemic by shifting his position on lockdowns, whereas he had got all the big decisions right.\n\nCommons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle had to step in several times to calm shouting MPs down, threatening some with expulsion from the chamber.\n\nAmid continued noise, Sir Keir said: \"The prime minister's continual defence is 'Wait for the Sue Gray report'. On 8 December he told this House, 'I will place a copy of the report in the library of the House of Commons'.\n\n\"His spokesperson has repeatedly stated that means the full report, not parts of the report, not a summary of the report, not an edited copy. So, can the prime minister confirm that he will publish the full Sue Gray report as he receives it?\"\n\nMr Johnson replied: \"We've got to leave the report to the independent investigator, as he knows, of course when I receive it, I will do exactly what I said.\"\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, asked Conservative MPs to \"show the prime minister the door\" by triggering a leadership contest.\n\nMr Johnson has previously apologised for attending a \"bring-your-own-booze\" event in the No 10 garden on 20 May 2020, during the first lockdown, saying he thought it was a \"work event\".\n\nReports of a birthday party held for Mr Johnson in the Cabinet Room in June 2020 have also come to light this week.\n\nSome Tory MPs have already demanded Mr Johnson's resignation, but many others say they are waiting for the Gray report before deciding whether to submit letters of no confidence in him.\n\nAt least 54 of them must write to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, to set up a vote on the prime minister's future.\n\nCurrently, if a vote of confidence in the prime minister is triggered there cannot be another one for 12 months.\n\nThe committee does not have plans to change the rules to allow two confidence votes within a year, despite reports this proposal had been considered.\n\nCommons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, repeated his staunch defence of the PM, insisting the reported gatherings were work events.\n\nHe added: \"If people are working all day, they have got to eat, they have got to have lunch, they must be allowed to have a cup of coffee during the day.\"\n\nAsked whether that needed to be wine and cake, which was said to be served at the events, Mr Rees-Mogg replied: \"This issue about do people have [an alcoholic] drink when they are working is not absolutely set in stone one way of the other.\"", "Kate Wilson said senior officers had been aware of her relationship with Mark Kennedy\n\nAn activist deceived into a relationship with an undercover officer has been awarded £230,000 compensation after a tribunal found the Metropolitan Police breached her human rights.\n\nKate Wilson met Mark Kennedy while he was posing as an environmental campaigner in Nottingham in 2003.\n\nIt later emerged he was married and had sexual relationships with up to 10 other women during his deployment.\n\nThe tribunal said the case revealed \"disturbing and lamentable failings\".\n\nThe officer, who had used the name Mark Stone, had been sent to spy on activists as part of the Met's National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPIOU).\n\nHe was one of half a dozen undercover officers from the NPIOU or its \"sister unit\", the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), who Ms Wilson came into contact with between 1998 and 2010.\n\nOn Monday, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) ordered the Met and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) to pay a total of £229,471.96 to Ms Wilson \"by way of just satisfaction for the breaches\" under the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nHelen Ball, the Met's assistant commissioner for professionalism, said: \"We recognise the gravity of the judgment in this case, which outlined a series of serious failings that allowed Kennedy to remain deployed on a long-term undercover deployment without the appropriate level of supervision and oversight.\n\n\"In entering into a sexual relationship, Kennedy's actions went against the training and guidelines undercover officers received at the time.\n\n\"However, the tribunal found that the training was inadequate and more should have been done to consider the risks of male undercover officers forming relationships with women. We accept these findings.\"\n\nMr Kennedy had a series of relationships with women during his undercover deployment\n\nThe tribunal heard Mr Kennedy had been sent to infiltrate the Sumac Centre in Nottingham in 2003.\n\nShortly after arriving, a relationship between Ms Wilson and Mr Kennedy began, which lasted for two years before an amicable split when she moved to Spain.\n\nIn 2010, she learned his real name and that he was actually a married police officer.\n\nMs Wilson brought legal action against the Met and the NPCC for breaches of her right to freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, her right to privacy and right to freedom of expression.\n\nIn last year's ruling, the tribunal found the Met's claims that undercover officers (UCOs) knew sexual relationships were banned were \"materially undermined by the sheer frequency with which [Mr Kennedy] (and other UCOs) did conduct sexual relationships without either questions being asked or action being taken by senior officers\".\n\nIt concluded the case was not just about a \"renegade police officer who took advantage of his undercover deployment\", but also that authorisations were \"fatally flawed\".\n\nIn a statement issued through the Police Spies Out Of Lives group, Ms Wilson said the compensation was not about the relationship she was deceived into by Mr Kennedy, as that was settled in a civil claim in 2017.\n\nShe said it was related to parts of the claim \"that the police denied right up to the end\", including the role of other officers in \"violating my political rights\".\n\nMs Wilson added: \"The finding that these operations breached the rights to freedom of expression and assembly and were unlawful amounts to a long overdue recognition that spying on the protest movement is political policing and has no place in a democratic society.\n\n\"It is important because it goes beyond the scandal of undercover officers deceiving women into intimate relationships.\n\n\"Violating our political rights was the entire reason for these deployments and thousands of people will have had their political rights violated in this way.\"\n\nThe NPCC said there had been \"significant\" changes to undercover policing since the case came to light.\n\nTheir lead for undercover policing, Chief Constable Alan Pughsley, said training was more rigorous than it had been, and the psychological fitness and wellbeing of undercover officers was \"a key consideration\" during their recruitment, training and deployment.\n\nHe added: \"Significant work has been undertaken to ensure undercover officers and those authorising their deployment understand the legal limits within which they operate, including the core concepts of deployments needing to be necessary and proportionate, and the need to minimise collateral intrusion into the private lives of others.\n\n\"Oversight of undercover deployments is maintained at a senior level. At least those of Assistant Chief Constable rank or equivalent now authorise deployments, and, for deployments exceeding 12 months, this is conducted by a Chief Constable or equivalent. The independent Investigatory Powers Commissioner's Office is informed of and scrutinises undercover deployments.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sainsbury's, John Lewis, Waitrose and Morrisons will continue to ask people in England to wear masks in their shops when Plan B rules end on Thursday.\n\nRail operators also said passengers would be expected to wear masks after the legal requirement for face coverings in public places is dropped.\n\nAll said they would encourage, not force, customers to comply.\n\nPlan B rules, imposed in early December to battle Omicron, are being lifted as infections have peaked nationally.\n\nBut the government is still advising people to wear masks in enclosed or crowded spaces and when meeting strangers.\n\nTrade union Usdaw, which represents 360,000 retail workers, has urged customers to continue to \"observe Covid safety measures\", despite the mandatory requirement for masks ending.\n\nSainsbury's said safety was its \"highest priority\" and that it would ask customers and staff in England to \"continue to wear a face covering in our stores if they are able to\".\n\nIt will use poster campaigns and Tannoy announcements to get the message across.\n\n\"In Scotland and Wales face coverings remain mandatory for those who can wear them in our stores, in line with the latest government restrictions,\" the supermarket added.\n\n\"We continue to have a range of safety measures in all of our stores, including screens and sanitising stations.\"\n\nMeanwhile, John Lewis said it would be \"suggesting people wear masks\" in its department stores and Waitrose shops from Thursday, but added: \"It will be down to individuals to make a personal choice.\"\n\nElectronics retailer Currys said it would urge its staff to continue to wear masks in-store and while delivering products to homes, but wouldn't ask customers.\n\n\"We will continue to assess our approach based on infection rates and colleague feedback,\" the company said.\n\nMandatory mask-wearing has been a contentious issue during the pandemic, with industry bodies calling for customers to \"respect\" the rules.\n\nThere have also been questions about who is responsible for enforcing the measures, after violence against retail staff increased during the crisis.\n\nDespite this, retailers such as Sainsbury's and Tesco asked shoppers to continue wearing face coverings when the previous mask-wearing mandate ended in July 2021.\n\nAt the time, Sainsbury's said it followed supportive feedback from customers and colleagues.\n\nPaddy Lillis, Usdaw general secretary, said it was \"deeply disappointing\" the government had ended mandatory face coverings in shops when \"case numbers remain high\".\n\n\"We hope all retailers will continue to put staff and customer safety first,\" he added. \"Wearing a face covering is an important measure to help protect workers who have no option but to interact with the public.\"\n\nThe government says it is easing Plan B rules because of how well the public has followed the measures and because of the success of the vaccine booster rollout.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs last week scientists believed the Omicron wave has peaked.\n\nElsewhere, the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, said operators will still ask passengers to wear masks after Thursday and said it expected most would comply.\n\nIt comes after TfL said its passengers would be expected to keep wearing face coverings as government rules are relaxed.\n\n\"Travelling by train is as safe, if not safer, than other indoor activities, with ventilation that refreshes the air in carriages every six to nine minutes,\" the Rail Delivery Group said.\n\n\"In line with government guidance, train companies will be asking passengers to wear face coverings out of courtesy to others, unless they're exempt.\"\n\nHelen Dickinson, boss of industry body British Retail Consortium (BRC), said the removal of Plan B measure would \"enable shopping to return to more normal experience for customers, employees and businesses\".\n\n\"Retailers ask customers to be considerate to those around them when choosing whether to wear a face covering and to respect the decision of other customers,\" she added.\n\n\"Retailers continue to implement many other existing safety measures such as hand sanitiser and perspex screens.\"\n\nScientific evidence has suggested coronavirus transmission mainly happens indoors where people are closer together.\n\nCovering the nose and mouth can help reduce the spread of virus droplets from coughs, sneezes and while speaking.\n\nThe main purpose is to protect others although there is some evidence masks offer protection to wearers.", "Chancellor Rishi Sunak has vowed to recover funds defrauded from schemes such as Eat Out to Help Out\n\nMr Sunak said the UK government would \"do everything we can\" to recover loans stolen by fraudsters.\n\nOn Monday, a Conservative minister resigned over the government's \"woeful\" efforts to stop abuse of pandemic support schemes.\n\nThe government last week disputed reports it had written off £4.3bn of loans.\n\nAnnouncing his resignation in the House of Lords, Treasury minister Lord Agnew accused the Treasury of having \"little interest in the consequences of fraud to our society\" and of making \"schoolboy errors\" over the awarding of loans.\n\nIn its annual report, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said funds had been lost to fraud, including 2.5% of the £19.7bn delivered through self-employed support.\n\nLast year, the National Audit Office criticised the government for failing to implement measures to prevent people exploiting Covid schemes.\n\nAt Prime Minister's Questions, Labour MP Kate Osamor asked if the prime minister had agreed to the chancellor \"writing off £4.3 billion of fraud\".\n\n\"That's £154 for every household in the country that went directly into the pockets of fraudsters,\" she added.\n\nIn response, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"No, of course not. We do not support fraudsters or those who steal from the public purse.\"\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman later clarified that Mr Johnson meant he did not condone fraud.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lord Agnew accuses the Treasury of having \"little interest in the consequences of fraud to our society\"\n\nLater, in a Twitter thread, Mr Sunak said people were \"absolutely right to be\" concerned about fraudulently obtained funds.\n\n\"No, I'm not ignoring it, and I'm definitely not 'writing it off',\" Mr Sunak wrote.\n\nHe said the government had invested more than £100m in an anti-fraud taskforce with 1,265 staff. He said 3,000 one-to-one enquiries were opened in 2020/21 and HMRC wrote to 75,000 people.\n\nLast year, the government stopped or recovered nearly £2.2bn in potential fraud from Bounce Back Loans and £743m of overclaimed furlough grants, Mr Sunak said.\n\nHe said businesses were \"on the brink of collapse\" and \"needed support quickly\" when assistance schemes were rolled out.\n\nIn recent days, Mr Sunak has come under increasing pressure to claw back Covid support lost to fraud.\n\nLabour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the scale of Covid funds lost to fraud should be a \"source of enduring shame to the Chancellor\".\n\nThe Liberal Democrats said the government had \"allowed fraudsters to steal billions of taxpayers' money\" and urged the chancellor to explain how he would get the money back.\n• None PM vows to fight on as MPs await Sue Gray report", "Mr Blinken said the US was \"prepared either way\"\n\nThe US has rejected Russia's demand to bar Ukraine from Nato, amid warnings Russia might invade its neighbour.\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken was giving Russia a formal response to its demands to resolve the Ukraine crisis.\n\nMr Blinken gave no concessions but said that he was offering Russia \"a serious diplomatic path forward, should Russia choose it\".\n\nRussia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin would now assess Mr Blinken's response.\n\nWhile the document - delivered by the US in coordination with the Nato military alliance - does not address Russia's \"main concern\" about the alliance's expansion, Mr Lavrov said it \"gives hope for the start of a serious conversation\" on secondary questions.\n\nThe president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov meanwhile told reporters Russia would not \"rush into assessments\", saying it would take \"time to analyse\" the response.\n\nRussia had issued a written list of its concerns about the expansion of Nato and related security issues. Among them was a demand for Nato to rule out the possibility of Ukraine and others ever joining the alliance.\n\nIn recent weeks, Russia has been amassing large numbers of troops on the Ukraine border - something which Western countries have seen as preparation for a possible invasion. Russia denies this.\n\nMr Blinken said the US response made its \"core principles\" clear, including Ukraine's sovereignty and its right to choose to be part of security alliances such as Nato.\n\n\"There should be no doubt about our seriousness of purpose when it comes to diplomacy, and we're acting with equal focus and force to bolster Ukraine's defences and prepare a swift united response to further Russian aggression,\" he said.\n\n\"It remains up to Russia to decide how to respond,\" he added. \"We're ready either way.\"\n\nThe secretary of state said the US had sent three shipments of military \"assistance\" this week - including Javelin missiles and anti-armour weaponry, along with hundreds of tonnes of ammunition and equipment.\n\nMr Blinken also denied any rift or difference of opinion between the US and its European allies. Nato, he said, had prepared its own set of proposals which \"fully reinforces ours and vice versa\".\n\nBut the US document will not be made public.\n\n\"Diplomacy has the best chance to succeed if we provide space for confidential talks,\" the Secretary of State said.\n\nNato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance's document had also been delivered to Moscow, and while he was willing to listen to Russia's concerns, all nations had the right to choose their own security arrangements.\n\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, however, said earlier on Wednesday that Mr Stoltenberg had \"lost touch with reality\", when asked about Nato boosting its presence near Russia's borders.\n\n\"You know, I stopped taking any view of his statements a long time ago,\" Mr Lavrov told the press in Russian parliament, which was broadcast live on social media.\n\nSeparately, diplomats from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany reaffirmed a commitment to the long-standing ceasefire agreement in Ukraine, which had seen Russia-backed rebels seize territory in the eastern Donbas region.\n\nAll four nations continue to support the ceasefire \"regardless of differences on other issues\" related to the 2015 Minsk agreements, a statement published by the French presidency said.\n\nThe Kremlin's deputy chief of staff Dmitri Kozak characterised the eight-hour talks in Paris as \"not simple\", and the group is due to meet again in two weeks in Berlin.\n\nUkrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters on Thursday that the Russian decision to come to talks in Berlin was \"good news\", as it means that \"Russia for the next two weeks is likely to remain on the diplomatic track\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Ukrainian Marta Yuzkiv is preparing to defend her country but says she doesn't want war", "Yasmin Chkaifi has been described by a friend as a good soul with a happy disposition\n\nAn arrest warrant had been issued at the start of January for a man killed when he was hit by the driver of a car who was apparently trying to stop him stabbing his ex-wife.\n\nLeon McCaskie, 41, was run over after killing Yasmin Chkaifi, 43, in Maida Vale, west London, on Monday.\n\nThe warrant, saying he should be held without bail, was issued on 4 January after he failed to appear in court.\n\nMcCaskie was accused of breaching an interim stalking protection order.\n\nMs Chkaifi told a friend two years ago she thought she would die at her ex-husband's hands, it has emerged.\n\nAdele-Sara Richards said Ms Chkaifi, who she knew as Yaz, messaged her in April 2020 to say: \"He's had cameras in my house recording me for months.\"\n\nShe added: \"He's stolen my mail, my phone, has access to all my personal data. I think he will kill me. I've tried everything.\"\n\nWitnesses said they heard shouts of \"stop it, stop it\" and described \"a girl being attacked by a gentleman\"\n\nWestminster Magistrates' Court, which issued the arrest warrant on 4 January, heard the breach related to an alleged physical approach to Ms Chkaifi. McCaskie, who also used the surname McCaskre, was also barred from making contact by phone, email, text or social media.\n\nMcCaskie, who police said had stabbed Ms Chkaifi on Chippenham Road, was hit by a car driven by a 26-year-old man. He was arrested on suspicion of murder and subsequently bailed until late February.\n\nWitnesses said they heard shouts of \"stop it, stop it\" and described \"a girl being attacked by a gentleman\". Det Ch Insp Rawlinson said \"very courageous\" bystanders had \"bravely tried to intervene\" and his team was getting a clearer idea of events from witnesses, the families and CCTV.\n\nThe Met Police, which would not comment on whether McCaskie was ever arrested over the alleged stalking protection order breach, said the force had referred itself to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).\n\nThe Met had already confirmed that the stalking order had been obtained against McCaskie.\n\nThe circumstances of the two deaths in Maida Vale are now subject to multiple investigations\n\nMs Chkaifi, who was a qualified childminder, had worked in a school and was studying for a master's degree.\n\nA vigil was held for her in Maida Vale on Wednesday night, where her family asked for time to grieve.\n\nFlowers and candles were left by well-wishers, with tealights spelling out the mum-of-two's nickname, Wafah.\n\nDozens of bouquets have been left in Maida Vale, where a vigil for Ms Chkaifi was held\n\nMs Richards, who described how she supported her after her mother died, said: \"She was a good soul.\n\n\"It's very rare in life you come across a good soul. She always had a happy disposition. She was just a lovely person.\"\n\nAn IOPC spokesperson said: \"We can confirm that we have received a referral from the Metropolitan Police regarding their contact with Yasmin Chkaifi prior to her tragic death in Maida Vale, London, on 24 January.\n\n\"We are currently assessing the available information, and have requested more, to determine what further action may be required from us.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The photograph of a lone survivor on the hull of an overturned migrant boat in the middle of the sea off Florida has been beamed around the world.\n\nBBC Mundo has learned the man is Juan Esteban Montoya, 22, from Colombia.\n\nMr Montoya, who was rescued on Tuesday after spending hours adrift, said he left the Bahamas at dawn on Sunday with 39 other people.\n\nHe was travelling with his younger sister, María Camila, who disappeared in the shipwreck.\n\nThe US Coast Guard recovered five bodies from the sea before ending its search - across a sea area the size of the US state of New Jersey - at sunset on Thursday.\n\nOfficials were alerted on Tuesday when a commercial vessel spotted a man clinging to the hull of a boat some 45 miles (72km) from Fort Pierce, Florida.\n\nThe vessel may have been part of a \"human smuggling venture\", US officials said.\n\nNone of the 40 passengers were wearing a life vest, said Mr Montoya, who comes from the municipality of Guacarí, in the Cauca Valley region of Colombia.\n\nHe was rescued on Tuesday when the captain of the tugboat, Signet Intruder, saw him in distress.\n\nThe operations manager of the Signet shipping company in Florida told Atahualpa Amerise of BBC Mundo: \"At 8:05 we brought him on board and he was treated immediately, since he was dehydrated, and we gave him water and some soft food. He was very weak and very anguished.\n\n\"He told us there were 40 people in his boat in total, including himself, and that, after leaving Bimini at midnight from Saturday to Sunday, they completed four hours of travel until bad weather caused the ship to capsize.\"\n\nAbout 20 of them would have endured hours clinging to the remains of the hull, Mr Montoya told the crew.\n\nCaptain Jo-Ann Burdian, the commander of the Coast Guard's Miami sector, told a news conference the incident occurred on a \"normal\" human smuggling route from the Bahamas into the southern US.\n\nThe island of Bimini is the western-most district of the Bahamas, and is only 50 miles from Miami.\n\nIncidents involving vessels crowded with people are not uncommon in the waters off Florida. Many of the cases involve migrants from Cuba and Haiti trying to reach the US.\n\nOn Tuesday - the same day as authorities learned of the capsized vessel - the Coast Guard intercepted 191 Haitian nationals in the waters near the Bahamas. In a separate incident just days earlier, 88 Haitians were found in an overloaded ship in the area.\n\n\"Navigating the Florida Straits, Windward and Mona Passages in overloaded and less than seaworthy vessels is extremely dangerous and can result in loss of life,\" the Coast Guard said in a statement.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Risking everything for an American dream", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch the patient's father on the transplant denial, and a doctor on why unvaccinated patients might not get organs\n\nA US hospital has rejected a patient for a heart transplant at least in part because he is not vaccinated against Covid-19.\n\nDJ Ferguson, 31, is in dire need of a new heart, but Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston took him off their list, said his father, David.\n\nHe said the Covid vaccine goes against his son's \"basic principles, he doesn't believe in it\".\n\nThe hospital said it was following policy.\n\nBrigham and Women's Hospital told the BBC in a statement: \"Given the shortage of available organs, we do everything we can to ensure that a patient who receives a transplanted organ has the greatest chance of survival.\"\n\nA spokesman said the hospital requires \"the Covid-19 vaccine, and lifestyle behaviours for transplant candidates to create both the best chance for a successful operation and to optimise the patient's survival after transplantation, given that their immune system is drastically suppressed\".\n\nThe hospital's carefully worded statement may suggest other factors lie behind the man's ineligibility, aside from his unvaccinated status. But it refused to discuss specifics, citing patient privacy.\n\nThe hospital added that most of the 100,000 people on waitlists for organ transplants will not receive an organ within five years because of the shortage of available organs.\n\nMr Ferguson has been in hospital since last Thanksgiving weekend, 26 November 2021, and he suffers from a hereditary heart issue that causes his lungs to fill with blood and fluid, according to a GoFundMe.\n\nThe organiser of the fundraiser said Mr Ferguson was concerned he could experience cardiac inflammation - a potential side effect from coronavirus vaccination that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasises is rare and temporary - and that it might prove dangerous given the weakness of his heart.\n\nThe CDC encourages transplant recipients and those in their immediate circles to get fully vaccinated and boosted.\n\nDr Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told CBS News that after any organ transplant a patient's immune system is all but shut down and even a common cold can prove fatal.\n\n\"The organs are scarce, we are not going to distribute them to someone who has a poor chance of living when others who are vaccinated have a better chance post-surgery of surviving,\" said Dr Caplan.\n\nA father-of-two with a third child on the way, Mr Ferguson remains at the hospital, said his loved ones.\n\nHis family has suggested he is too weak to be transferred to a different hospital and is \"running out of time\".\n\n\"My boy is fighting pretty damn courageously and he has integrity and principles he really believes in and that makes me respect him all the more,\" said David Ferguson.\n\n\"It's his body. It's his choice.\"\n\nIt is not the first time an unvaccinated American has faced healthcare obstacles in recent weeks.\n\nEarlier this month, a Minnesota woman sued her local hospital after doctors tried to take her unvaccinated husband off the ventilator he had been on for two months.\n\nJust over 63% of the US population is double-jabbed and about 40% of Americans have received a third booster dose.", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nEngland captain Owen Farrell will miss the entire Six Nations with an ankle injury that requires surgery.\n\nThe 30-year-old, capped 94 times, had been earmarked by head coach Eddie Jones to guide fly-half Marcus Smith through his first Six Nations campaign.\n\nFarrell, who has not played since limping out of England's win over Australia in November was set to make his comeback for Saracens last weekend.\n\nHowever, he injured his other ankle in a collision while training at Saracens.\n\nFarrell is set to undergo surgery later on Wednesday with Saracens saying they expect him to be out for eight to 10 weeks.\n\n\"It's a massive blow for him personally and for the team it's a blow,\" Jones said.\n\n\"But it's obviously an opportunity for other guys to step up into leadership roles and for other players to play for that 12 jumper.\n\n\"Anyone who is involved in rugby understands it is very rare you have your full strength team in.\n\n\"This is all part and parcel of how rugby is now. We have enormous amount of protocols, Covid on top of that, you just have to be able to adapt and think as quickly as you can on your feet.\"\n\nEngland's first fixture is against Scotland on 5 February and opposition captain Stuart Hogg believes Jones' side are well set to cope with Farrell's absence.\n\n\"The quality England have got behind Owen is just incredible,\" Hogg told BBC Sport.\n\n\"They have got a huge amount of leaders in that squad, Overall it is a miss, but it gives opportunities for other boys step up.\"\n\nEngland's preparations for the tournament have been hit by a series of problems.\n\nCentre Manu Tuilagi is rated as only having a 50% chance of playing any part in the tournament after suffering a set-back in his recovery from a hamstring problem, while wing Jonny May could also be sidelined for the duration with a knee injury.\n\nCourtney Lawes, seen as most likely to be promoted to captaincy in Farrell's absence, has been unable to train as he continues to work his way back from a concussion, while prop Joe Marler is isolating after contracting Covid for the second time in less than three months.\n\nThe team, based in Brighton for a training week, also had to move hotel after an electrical fire that, in Jones' words, caused \"manholes spurting flames three, four foot in the air.\"\n\nJones added that he was \"cautiously optimistic\" that Lawes would be passed fit in time for the Calcutta Cup clash at Murrayfield.\n\nThe loss of Farrell leaves England with inexperienced players and untried combinations in midfield.\n\nExeter's Henry Slade has been a mainstay of the side for the past couple of seasons and has filled in at 12 before, most recently in November 2020's 18-7 win over Ireland.\n\nThe 28-year-old is more commonly an outside centre though. Joe Marchant, Mark Atkinson and Luke Northmore are the other midfield specialists in Jones' squad, but have just eight caps between them.\n\nElliot Daly, drafted into England's squad along with Leicester fly-half George Ford in recent days, could be another option, but Jones has preferred to deploy him at full-back or on the wing.\n\nExeter wing Jack Nowell was also used as a centre against Japan in November 2018, although the experiment has not been repeated since.\n\nIt was only last week that Eddie Jones retained Farrell as captain, putting great faith in him to restore peak form and fitness after a difficult couple of seasons.\n\nBut a freak training ground injury to Farrell's other ankle has scuppered Jones' best-laid plans, and after a few days of conjecture and uncertainty, it's been confirmed Farrell needs surgery and will play no part in the Championship.\n\nIt will be the first Six Nations Farrell has missed in seven years, and will force Jones to rethink both his play-making and leadership plans.\n\nWhile Marcus Smith is the man in possession of the number 10 shirt, there is a lack of experience in the midfield, while Courtney Lawes' expected appointment as stand-in skipper has been delayed by his return from concussion.", "Draco Chapman died in a children's hospice on 23 April 2019, three weeks after he got trapped between two stair gates\n\nA four-year-old boy died after his neck became trapped between two stair gates that had been positioned one above the other, an inquest heard.\n\nDraco Chapman was found unresponsive at his home in Norwich on 2 April 2019, and died three weeks later.\n\nThe inquest heard Draco's neck was trapped as he tried to climb between the stair gates, causing a cardiac arrest and irreversible brain damage.\n\nA serious case review by Norfolk Children Safeguarding Partnership has recommended that all stair gates should come with a mandatory warning for them not to fitted above another one.\n\nThe coroner's court in Norwich heard that Draco's mother, who was 20-weeks pregnant at the time, had been \"finding it hard to manage\" and the house had \"got out of hand\".\n\nIn a statement, she said she fitted a stair gate on top of another as the children would climb over if there was just one.\n\nShe said it was to \"stop them from getting out of the lounge and on to the stairs\", and to \"stop them from hurting themselves\".\n\nShe said the instructions did not suggest one could not go on top of the other, and she had \"seen other people\" do it.\n\nOne stair gate was placed above the other at the family's home in Norwich\n\nOn the day of the incident, she said the children had been to school and nursery, and then went to McDonald's as a \"Tuesday tradition\".\n\nShe said she had gone to a parents' evening and left her eldest child, who is now 19, to look after the younger ones.\n\nWhen she arrived home, she said her eldest was on the phone to the ambulance service and was \"screaming Draco isn't breathing\".\n\nThe four-year-old was taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital before he was transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.\n\nDraco had Noonan syndrome - a genetic condition that can cause a range of health problems. His mother's statement said he had heart abnormalities, was small for his age and had a mental age of a two-year-old.\n\nHe was later taken off life support and transferred to Quidenham Children's Hospice in Norfolk where he died on 23 April 2019.\n\nIn summing up, Norfolk's assistant coroner Ms Thompson said the serious case review referred to videos on YouTube about using double stair gates, adding that \"there may well be an issue that needs to be addressed\".\n\nSpeaking after the inquest, Draco's father said his son was \"mischievous at times, but in a loveable way\" and the family had been \"destroyed\" by his death.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Care home staff and nurses are among key workers facing the prospect of being paid less this year than last, according to the Trades Union Congress.\n\nPay increases are failing to keep up with rising inflation, leading to another year of \"wages gloom\" for public sector workers, the TUC said.\n\nThat could be a \"hammer blow to morale\" prompting staff to quit, it said.\n\nThe Treasury said that public sector wages would be going up for the next three years.\n\nThe TUC is calling on the government to ensure public sector workers receive a \"decent\" pay rise.\n\nThe union umbrella body said public sector workers were already thousands of pounds worse off after suffering a \"lost decade\", during which their pay failed to keep up with price rises.\n\nWith inflation now forecast to reach 6% or higher in 2022, the situation was set to get worse, it said.\n\nFrances O'Grady, the TUC general secretary, said: \"Hard work should pay for everyone.\n\n\"But millions of key workers - on the frontline of the pandemic - face another year of wages gloom. That is not right.\n\n\"The government must stop burying its head and get pay rising across the economy. Ministers cannot abandon families during this cost-of-living crisis.\"\n\nIn real terms - that is, after inflation is taken into account - nurses are £2,700 worse off than in 2010, the TUC has calculated.\n\nCare workers employed by local authorities are more than £1,600 a year worse off, it added.\n\nThe TUC said excessive workloads and a lack of recognition, as well as stagnating wages, was causing a staffing crisis in the NHS and other public services, prompting staff to quit.\n\nThe body called on the government to prioritise key worker pay in 2022 by easing restrictions on pay policy and providing more funding to government departments.\n\nA Treasury spokesperson said: \"We recognise the incredible work that public sector workers have continued to do throughout the pandemic, and the challenges many of them have faced as key workers, and it's right that wages across the public sector will increase for each of the next three years.\n\n\"We have also backed public services with the largest real-terms increase in overall departmental spending for any Parliament this century.\"\n\nThe government is also raising the National Living Wage to £9.50 an hour from April and is providing £12bn this financial year and next to help families with the cost of living, including helping households with their energy bills.\n\nPrices went up at their fastest rate in 30 years in the year to December, with inflation hitting 5.4%.\n\nSoaring food costs and the energy bill crisis were the main factors driving price rises.\n\nIn December, the Bank of England predicted that inflation could hit 6% this year, but some economists expect a 7% rate by April.", "The day so far, and what may come later\n\nIt's been another whirlwind day in Westminster. Let’s take stock of what’s happened and what may come later: A Gray area: The wait continues for the publication of Sue Gray’s highly-anticipated report into alleged parties in Downing Street. The BBC understands that Johnson is yet to receive the report. That has not stopped journalists speculating over when it might be released and whether it will be published in full or partial form. PMQs: Another Wednesday, another rowdy session of Prime Minister’s Questions. Like last week, most questions were dedicated to the partygate controversy. As opposition MPs again called for Johnson to resign, the PM bullishly defended his record on, among other things, the vaccine rollout. On the trigger: One of the main reasons the report matters is because a number of Conservative MPs have suggested they will seek to remove Johnson from office after its findings are published - particularly if they are damning. They can do so by triggering a vote of no confidence that could lead to a leadership contest. Afghan emails: Meanwhile, a parliamentary committee released emails that suggested Johnson authorised the evacuation of animals from Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul. It raises more awkward questions for the PM, who previously dismissed as \"nonsense\" claims he intervened in the evacuation. The waiting game: Don’t switch off just yet, because there may be more developments to come. Johnson has said he will make a statement in parliament after he has received Gray’s report. Again, we don’t know the timing, but watch this space.", "Ofcom has launched an investigation after the BBC's complaints unit partially upheld complaints about its reporting of an alleged anti-Semitic incident in London in November.\n\nThe media watchdog said the BBC's ruling, issued on Wednesday, \"raises issues under our due accuracy rules\".\n\nComplaints were made about the BBC's coverage of abuse directed towards a group of Jewish teenagers on a minibus.\n\nThe Board of Deputies of British Jews welcomed Ofcom's investigation.\n\nIn its ruling, the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) - which is editorially independent of BBC News - said an article about the incident should have been updated.\n\nIt said the broadcaster should have recognised there was \"genuine doubt\" about its report an anti-Muslim slur was heard from the bus.\n\nThe BBC's complaints unit partially upheld complaints about accuracy and impartiality. However, it did not agree that the article amounted to victim-blaming.\n\nThe use of \"alleged\" to describe the abuse was also described as necessary for legal reasons.\n\nThe ECU investigation followed complaints made by individuals and groups including the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the chief rabbi.\n\nThe BBC has accepted the findings of the ECU and apologised \"for not doing more to highlight that these details were contested\".\n\n\"We should have reflected this and acted sooner,\" a spokesperson added in a statement.\n\nThe Board of Deputies of British Jews president Marie van der Zyl said it was \"dismayed that the corporation continues to justify certain erroneous editorial decisions that continue to cloud the issue and will compound the distress faced by the victims.\n\n\"We welcome Ofcom's decision to investigate the incident. We trust that justice will prevail.\"\n\nThe report related to an incident on Oxford Street on 29 November 2021, where Jewish passengers on a privately hired bus were subjected to abuse.\n\nPolice said at the time they were treating the incident as a hate crime. No arrests have yet been made and inquiries are still ongoing.\n\nThe BBC's original online article on 2 December claimed \"some racial slurs about Muslims\" could also be heard in footage of the incident.\n\nThe following day, this line was amended to say \"a slur about Muslims\" could be heard from the bus.\n\nA BBC London TV report on the same story, also said \"you can hear some racial slurs about Muslim people\".\n\nHowever, groups including the Board of Deputies of British Jews disputed this and complained to the BBC about the coverage.\n\nAfter investigating the footage with the help of native Hebrew speakers, the Board of Deputies interpreted the words as a Hebrew phrase - \"Call someone, it's urgent\".\n\nThe ECU's investigation looked at three questions:\n\nOn these three questions, the ECU found:", "Food poverty campaigner and chef Jack Monroe has welcomed changes in the pipeline to how the cost of living is measured.\n\nMs Monroe had complained that everyday essentials were going up in price by more than the official inflation rate, hitting poorer people hardest.\n\nBut she said the official way inflation is calculated failed to reflect this.\n\nOn Wednesday, the official statistics body hit back, saying it was already changing how it measured prices.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics (ONS) agreed that \"one inflation rate doesn't fit all\" but said it would soon be publishing a wider variety of cost-of-living metrics.\n\n\"We will continue to produce our headline inflation statistics, which are long running and follow international best practice,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"[But] we are committed to ensuring that our statistics are relevant and continue to meet user needs. As part of this we are restarting publication of inflation broken down according to how much income you earn.\"\n\nThey added that the agency also had longer-term plans to improve its inflation figures by including data from supermarket checkouts, \"which will help us understand people's experience of inflation in a much more detailed way\".\n\n\"Delighted to be able to tell you that the ONS have just announced that they are going to be changing the way they collect and report on the cost of food prices and inflation to take into consideration a wider range of income levels and household circumstances,\" she said in a tweet.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jack Monroe This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEarlier, she told the BBC: \"People who are buying the 29p pasta, the 17p kidney beans, the 45p bags of rice - those statistics don't exist, so those people aren't represented.\"\n\nThat followed a series of tweets in which she highlighted budget supermarket lines being discontinued.\n\nThe ONS told the BBC it had previously reflected how lower, mid and higher income groups were affected differently by rising prices in its statistics.\n\nBut during the pandemic, supply chain problems and shortages meant there wasn't enough reliable data to publish those breakdowns, it said.\n\nThe statistics body said it was also working on \"radical new plans\" to change the way price rises are monitored.\n\n\"[These will] increase the number of price points dramatically each month from 180,000 to hundreds of millions, using prices sent to us directly from supermarket checkouts,\" ONS head of inflation statistics Mike Hardie said in a blog.\n\nJack Monroe is right that a big increase in the price of the cheapest pasta or the cheapest rice in a store may not be being reflected in the official inflation figures.\n\nHere's why: the ONS sends shoppers to stores around the country to check prices. They go to the big supermarkets, as well as discount retailers such as Aldi and Lidl, and corner shops. The use of Aldi and Lidl are particularly important because some of the bigger chains price-check against them.\n\nIf the item that the shopper bought the previous month has been discontinued, they will look for a replacement product of a similar quality. So, for example, if Morrisons stopped stocking a particular brand of spaghetti, which the shopper had bought last month, they would try to replace it with a similar product.\n\n\"However, if there were a change in quality, for example, from a value brand to premium brand, or from own brand to branded, then we would break the price chain,\" they told Reality Check, which means that they would buy a different product but not include the change in price in the inflation calculation.\n\nSo a shopper looking for the cheapest spaghetti could face a big price increase that would not show up in the statistics.\n\nBy using supermarket \"scanner\" data, that records every purchase, rather than the current method of monitoring the prices of representative products, the ONS hopes to reflect price rises more accurately.\n\nFor example, if the current method monitors the price of one tin of branded baked beans, the new method would reflect every purchase of own brand, or budget beans, mid-range products, as well as premium range baked beans.\n\nThe ONS said it could not provide more granular detail of how inflation affected specific income groups because information was not available on the precise contents of their shopping baskets at that level.\n\nIt added that the process of incorporating the supermarket checkout data into the official statistics would take place over the next year or so.", "Liberal US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire later this year after nearly three decades on the bench.\n\nHis decision ensures President Joe Biden will have an opportunity to nominate a successor who could serve for decades.\n\nBut Justice Breyer's replacement will not shift the court's current 6-3 conservative majority.\n\nIt comes as the court considers several hot-button issues.\n\nJustice Breyer is expected to retire at the end of the current Supreme Court term in June.\n\nThe court plays a key role in American life and is often the final word on highly contentious laws, disputes between states and the federal government, and final appeals to stay executions.\n\nEach of the nine judges - known as justices - serves a lifetime appointment after being nominated by the president and approved by the Senate.\n\nDemocrats have been pressuring Justice Breyer - who, at 83, is the oldest member of the bench - to retire so they can fill the seat with someone younger while they control the White House and Senate.\n\nThe last Supreme Court vacancy came in 2020, when liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at age 87. Former President Donald Trump was able to appoint her successor, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, less than two months before the US presidential election.\n\nProgressives like New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been publicly calling for Justice Breyer to step down.\n\nA van hired by the group Demand Justice and carrying the words \"Breyer Retire\" has also been seen driving around Washington.\n\nAccording to multiple sources, Justice Breyer was \"upset\" over the leaked news because he \"was not planning to announce his retirement today\".\n\nMr Biden has previously pledged to nominate a black woman to the court for the first time if a vacancy opens.\n\nOnly two African Americans - both men - have ever served on the court: Justice Thurgood Marshall from 1967 to 1991 and his successor Justice Clarence Thomas, who now becomes the oldest member on the bench at age 73.\n\nOn Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president would honour his commitment.\n\nKetanji Brown Jackson, 51, a former law clerk to Mr Breyer, is believed to be the top contender for the job.\n\nMs Jackson was confirmed last June to a seat on the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in which she succeeded current Attorney General Merrick Garland.\n\nLeondra Kruger, 45, who serves on the California Supreme Court, is another possibility.\n\nAnother tipped contender is J Michelle Childs, a judge on South Carolina's federal court.\n\nIn a statement, the top Democrat in the Senate called the outgoing Justice Breyer \"a model jurist\".\n\n\"President Biden's nominee will receive a prompt hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will be considered and confirmed by the full United States Senate with all deliberate speed,\" Senator Chuck Schumer said.\n\nAnxious liberals who have endured a string of Supreme Court disappointments in recent years can exhale, at least for a moment. Justice Breyer is going to retire, giving Joe Biden the chance to name a replacement that can be confirmed while Democrats control the US Senate.\n\nThe move won't alter the conservative tilt of the high court, which Donald Trump cemented with three appointments in four years. It will, however, ensure Justice Breyer will be replaced by someone who could conceivably hold the seat for decades.\n\nThe confirmation process to fill the vacancy should provide a welcome respite for a president who has been buffeted by legislative defeats and bad domestic and international news in recent months.\n\nIf all goes smoothly - admittedly, no guarantee - the choice has the potential to remind liberals why having a Democrat in the White House is important and culminate in a Senate vote with a rare (for this president) successful outcome.\n\nA San Francisco native and Harvard Law graduate, Justice Breyer was appointed to his position in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.\n\nOver 27 years, he wrote more than 500 opinions and was among the high court's most consistent liberal voices, delivering notable rulings on topics like gay marriage, healthcare, voting rights and the death penalty.\n\nKnown for his collegiality and prolific penmanship, he has expressed concern in recent years over the increasing politicisation of the court, telling an audience in 2021 that \"it is wrong to think of the court as another political institution\".\n\nIn 1967, Justice Breyer married Joanna Hare, the daughter of John Hugh Hare, a former chairman of the British Conservative Party and the First Viscount of Blakenham. The couple both attended Oxford University as undergraduates.", "The law commissions' report focuses on how to define self-driving\n\nHuman drivers should not be legally accountable for road safety in the era of autonomous cars, a report says.\n\nIn these cars, the driver should be redefined as a \"user-in-charge\", with very different legal responsibilities, according to the law commissions for England and Wales, and Scotland.\n\nIf anything goes wrong, the company behind the driving system would be responsible, rather than the driver.\n\nAnd a new regime should define whether a vehicle qualifies as self-driving.\n\nIn the interim, carmakers must be extremely clear about the difference between self-drive and driver-assist features.\n\nThere should be no sliding scale of driverless capabilities - a car is either autonomous or not.\n\nAnd if any sort of monitoring is required - in extreme weather conditions, for example - it should not be considered autonomous and current driving rules should apply.\n\nThe law commissions were asked in 2018 to come up with a series of reports on the regulatory framework for automated vehicles and their use on public roads.\n\nIn this final report, their recommendations include:\n\nTransport Minister Trudy Harrison said the government would \"fully consider\" the recommendations.\n\nThe Scottish and Welsh governments will also decide whether to introduce legislation.\n\nDrivers using ALKS will not need to monitor the road or keep their hands on the wheel\n\nMatthew Avery, chief research strategy officer at Thatcham Research, which was involved in the consultation, said: \"We applaud the recommendations that compel carmakers to use appropriate terminology when marketing these systems, to prevent motorists from becoming convinced that their car is fully self-driving when it is not.\n\n\"In the next 12 months, we're likely to see the first iterations of self-driving features on cars in the UK.\n\n\"It's significant that the Law Commission report highlights the driver's legal obligations and how they must understand that their vehicle is not yet fully self-driving\"\n\nLast year, the Department for Transport gave the green light to automated lane-keeping systems (ALKS), the first type of hands-free driving to be legalised in the UK.\n\nDrivers using ALKS will not need to monitor the road or keep their hands on the wheel but must stay alert and be able to take over within 10 seconds when requested by the system.\n\nTesla, one of the leading companies developing driverless cars, has faced a barrage of questions over its marketing of Autopilot, which is similar to ALKS and considered level two on the five defined levels of self-driving cars.\n\nLast week, Californian prosecutors filed two counts of vehicular manslaughter against the driver of a Tesla who went through a red light, while using Autopilot, hitting another car and killing two people - the first time someone has been charged with manslaughter when using a partially automated driving system.\n\nPreviously in the US, a driver was killed when playing a video game while using Autopilot.\n\nAnd in 2018, a UK resident was banned from driving after climbing into the passenger seat of his Tesla on the motorway.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Scotland to begin 'phased return' to the office from Monday\n\nGuidance urging people to work from home wherever possible in Scotland is to be relaxed in favour of a \"hybrid\" system of office and remote working.\n\nEmployers have been asked to phase workers back into spending some time in the office from Monday 31 January.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the move was possible due to a \"significant\" fall in Covid-19 cases.\n\nBut she warned that a \"mass return\" to offices overnight could run the risk of pushing infection levels up again.\n\nMeanwhile, the requirement for 2m physical distancing in some indoor settings like churches is to be relaxed, while the rules for schools are being \"kept under close and regular review\".\n\nMs Sturgeon told MSPs that Covid case numbers in Scotland had fallen by \"just over a quarter\" in the past week, from an average of 10,000 infections per day to just over 7,000.\n\nThe number of people being admitted to hospital with the virus has also fallen, as has the number in intensive care.\n\nMonday marked a \"significant return to normality\" with nightclubs reopening, curbs on hospitality businesses being eased and crowd limits for indoor events being dropped.\n\nAnd the first minister said the \"significantly improved situation\" meant that restrictions could be eased further.\n\nScottish employers had been urged to enable home working wherever practical, but from Monday this will be replaced by a \"hybrid\" system.\n\nMs Sturgeon said: \"We would not expect to see a wholesale return to the office next week - indeed, given that the level of infection though falling remains high, a mass return at this stage is likely to set progress back.\n\n\"But we know there are many benefits to both employees and employers, and to the economy as a whole, in at least a partial return to the office at this stage.\"\n\nFinance Secretary Kate Forbes later confirmed there would be no fixed timetable on when all workers should return to the office.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland's Drivetime programme: \"Setting an arbitrary date doesn't particularly help. We know different businesses will be able to use home working to various degrees.\"\n\nShe added: \"As of next Monday, the work from home guidance means that employers should go back to working in a hybrid sense.\n\n\"We know that there are many businesses that are unlikely to go back to working as they used to, pre-pandemic.\n\n\"But, quite obviously, it's really important for our high streets and city centres that employers have that discretion and employees can work from home and work in an office building.\"\n\nFrom Friday, the requirement for physical distancing in settings where certain people are exempt from wearing face coverings - like those leading religious services or carrying out some receptionist duties - will be cut from 2m to 1m.\n\nAnd on the same day, face coverings will no longer be required for any adult taking part in organised activities with children under the age of five.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she hoped people would enjoy returning to concerts, shows and sporting events, and meeting up with larger groups of friends.\n\nHowever she urged them to \"continue to exercise appropriate care and caution\", with the health services still under \"immense pressure\".\n\nBusiness groups welcomed the move, with the Scottish Chambers of Commerce saying it would help \"revive our workplaces and our town and city centres, which have been hit hard by the absence of office workers\".\n\nAnd CBI Scotland said hybrid working \"is here to stay for many firms\", adding: \"It's up to them and their staff to work together to maximise the benefits of a balanced approach\".\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said decisions about home and office working should be \"left to employers and the workers themselves\".\n\nHe said: \"Going forward it is vital that we trust people across Scotland to judge what is best for them and their families.\"\n\nMr Ross also called on the government to relax rules on the use of face coverings in schools.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she knew young people \"want to see the back\" of masks in schools as soon as possible, but said they provide \"important protection\" when case numbers among younger age groups remain high.\n\nShe said she would not \"pluck dates out of mid-air\" and would take decisions responsibly.\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said a new approach to managing the virus was needed in future, saying that \"we cannot expect people to live their lives in perpetual crisis\".\n\nHe said there should be \"clear triggers\" for future restrictions, a framework for financial support for firms and workers, and a robust system for testing and contact tracing.\n\nThe government is to set out a blueprint for dealing with future outbreaks in the coming weeks, with Ms Sturgeon saying the goal was to \"manage the virus less restrictively\".\n\nHowever, she stressed that \"living with this does not simply mean giving the virus a free ride\", and that the response would need to be \"smart\" and \"flexible\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In December, Boris Johnson said it was \"complete nonsense\" he prioritised helping to get a charity's animals out of Kabul\n\nBoris Johnson authorised the evacuation of animals from Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul, according to emails leaked by a whistleblower.\n\nThe PM has previously dismissed as \"nonsense\" claims he intervened in the evacuation of the Nowzad charity, run by former Royal Marine Pen Farthing.\n\nBut an email from an official in minister Zac Goldsmith's office suggests he was personally involved.\n\nIt is one of a number of emails released by a select committee.\n\nThe August 2021 message to another official in the Foreign Office says: \"Charity Nowzad, run by an ex-Royal Marine, has received a lot of publicity and the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated.\"\n\nWhen asked in December if he had prioritised animals over the Afghan people in the evacuation of Kabul, Mr Johnson said: \"That is complete nonsense.\"\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said: \"It remains the case that the PM didn't instruct officials to take any particular course of action.\"\n\nAnd Lord Goldsmith tweeted: \"I did not authorise and do not support anything that would have put animals' lives ahead of peoples'.\n\nHe added that he had never discussed the Nowzad charity \"or their efforts to evacuate animals\" with the prime minister.\n\nNowzad operated an animal clinic, dog and cat shelter and donkey sanctuary in Afghanistan, training and employing Afghans.\n\nWhen the Taliban took control of Kabul, its supporters launched a campaign for evacuation, saying staff were in danger due to their work with foreign organisations and the animals were at risk.\n\nAbout 15,000 people were airlifted out of the country in August, including Mr Farthing and 150 animals. His staff were left behind, but later made it safely to Pakistan.\n\nThe plane evacuating the animals was paid for by donations.\n\nThe UK government sponsored clearance for it, leading to allegations that animals had been prioritised over people in the rescue effort.\n\nRaphael Marshall, who worked for the Foreign Office at the time, told the Foreign Affairs Committee that the animals were evacuated following a direct instruction from Mr Johnson.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Labour MP Chris Bryant: \"On the face of it, the prime minister has lied\" over Afghanistan animal evacuation\n\nAn ally of Mr Farthing, animal rights activist Dominic Dyer, told the BBC he had contacted Mr Johnson's wife Carrie to ask the PM to speak to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace about ensuring Mr Farthing and his animals were evacuated.\n\nMr Wallace has denied being contacted by the prime minister over the case.\n\nHe told the BBC the evacuation of Kabul was \"run under my authority and carried out by the UK military through the joint chief of operations\".\n\nHe added: \"At no point were he or I directed by the prime minister to evacuate Pen Farthing, his workforce or his pets.\n\n\"As I made clear at the time, we were not going to put pets before people and as the actions showed, Pen Farthing left last and his workforce had to leave after the evacuation was concluded via other means.\"\n\nHe said the suggestion that Lord Goldsmith, who he described as a \"Defra minister\", would have had \"any authority or responsibility in the running of the evacuation is ludicrous\".\n\nLord Goldsmith has been a joint Defra and Foreign Office minister since February 2020.\n\nPen Farthing ran the charity in Afghanistan before the Taliban took back Kabul\n\nThis story has plagued the government ever since last summer.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace sounds exasperated. He resented being hounded by Pen Farthing's supporters over his perceived reluctance to help evacuate Nowzad's animals.\n\nHe also resents the suggestion that he was instructed by the prime minister to put pets before people.\n\nAnd there's no evidence that he did.\n\nWhen Mr Wallace tweeted, early on 25 August that \"if he [Mr Farthing] arrives with his animals we will seek a slot for his plane,\" he was not offering any British resources.\n\nIn his own submission to the foreign affairs committee, Mr Farthing says: \"Let me make this abundantly clear; NO HMG capacity was used to transport any animals. None.\"\n\nMr Farthing says he and his animals did not enter Kabul airport through the gate controlled by British soldiers. He also says it was American, not British soldiers, who helped load animals onto a flight that he himself had chartered.\n\nBut a mystery remains. Why did an official in the Foreign Office, on 25 August, think that Boris Johnson had \"authorised\" the evacuation of Nowzad's staff and animals?\n\nIt's a question that won't go away.\n\nThe evidence published by the Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday shows Lord Goldsmith's official in the Foreign Office emailed colleagues working on the \"special cases team Bronze\", saying: \"[animal charity - name redacted] are a [details redacted] animal charity operating in Kabul and seeking to evacuation their [details redacted] members of staff (no animals).\n\n\"Equivalent charity Nowzad, run by an ex-Royal Marine, has received a lot of publicity and the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated, [animal charity - name redacted] are hoping to be treated in the same capacity.\"\n\nIn a written statement to the committee, Mr Farthing denied any UK government involvement in the evacuation.\n\nHe said: \"The tremendous teamwork shown by many volunteers to facilitate the evacuation of the Nowzad staff and their families, myself and the animals should be applauded not used as a deflection for failings across the board in Afghanistan.\"\n\nBut Labour's shadow defence secretary John Healey said the leaked emails proved the prime minister had made misleading statements.\n\n\"Once again, the prime minister has been caught out lying about what he has been doing and deciding. He should never have given priority to flying animals out of Afghanistan while Afghans who worked for our armed forces were left behind.\n\n\"Boris Johnson is unable to make the serious decisions that are needed, at home and for our allies abroad.\"", "The growth in pet ownership during the Covid pandemic has continued with retailer Pets at Home forecasting record sales and profits.\n\nThe company said it had a \"record Christmas\" with strong growth in sales across its 445 UK stores and its 300 vet and grooming outlets.\n\nIt said sales in the third quarter were up 8.7% on 2020 and 28.1% on 2019.\n\nBoss Peter Pritchard said despite the rise in the cost of living, people were unlikely to cut back on pet spending.\n\n\"I think history actually tells us one of the very last things customers do is cut back on their pets, they are much more likely to cut back on a holiday or a big discretionary purchase,\" he told the BBC's Today Programme.\n\n\"Pets are very much part of the family. We expect given the fact there are more pets in the country than ever before we expect revenue to be and continue to be very strong this year.\"\n\nIn its trading statement, Pets at Home said it was experiencing \"a number of inflationary pressures\" across its supply chain, and planned to mitigate them by seeking rent reductions at its shops and \"operational efficiencies\" across its business.\n\nMr Pritchard said he recognised customers were \"under pressure\".\n\n\"We want to keep pet ownership really affordable for our customers,\" he added.\n\nHe said the firm was on track to report \"a record year of sales and profit growth\", adding the company had served more pet owners than \"ever before\" in the 12-week period from 8 October to 30 December 2021.\n\n\"In the month of December alone we actually also groomed 90,000 dogs, 5,500 dogs on Christmas Eve alone, so it was a very busy Christmas for us,\" said Mr Pritchard.\n\nPets at Home sells pet products and some small animals and fish.\n\nIt also provides grooming and veterinary services for cats and dogs, and people can subscribe to its Puppy & Kitten Club which offers discounts.\n\nMr Pritchard confirmed the lockdown-induced craze for buying pets showed no signs of abating, with the company's retail arm welcoming 25,000 new customers a week and more than 9,000 new client registrations for its vet business.\n\n\"There a more pet owners than ever before,\" he said.\n\nIn March 2021, the Pet Food Manufactures' Association said a total of 3.2 million households in the UK had bought a new pet since the start of the pandemic.\n\nMatt Britzman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said there was a continuing trend of \"pet humanisation\", with owners \"passing their own health and food principles on to their pets - even going as far as having their own social media following\".\n\n\"That's more opportunity for those in the business of servicing - it's often the more premium brands that cater for these specific needs, giving a welcomed leg up to sales and margins,\" he said.\n\n\"UK pet ownership shows little signs of slowing down as working from home becomes ever more popular and households favour locations that offer more space,\" he added.", "Ashley John-Baptiste grew up in care believing he was an only child. Then, out of the blue, he received a message from a brother he never knew he had. He set out to explore what being split from siblings means to those who have been in the care system.\n\nAs a toddler, I was placed in the care system. By 18, I had been moved between four foster families and a residential care home in south-east London.\n\nIt's really hard to describe what it was like growing up in so many different homes. It felt like being under a cloud of rejection - no sense of family, no sense of belonging. I did meet my birth mum when I was 10, but never met my dad. I always wondered why I wasn't adopted - was it ever a possibility?\n\nLiving in that residential home with other children gave me my first taste of brotherhood, but we had no control over our relationships in the long term. We would be moved, and disappear from each other's lives.\n\nChildren who are placed in care are given \"life story\" sessions by their local authority - this is where a social worker tells a child what they know about their family background and history. I was around seven when I had mine, and I was told I was an only child.\n\nSo it was a huge shock when, in my mid-20s, a man messaged me on Facebook to tell me he was my older brother. I can still remember the visceral sense of confusion I felt when I first saw his message. I had to re-read it several times.\n\nIt took me a while to respond, but when we spoke we established that we had the same dad but different mothers, that there were more siblings out there and - most overwhelming for me - that we lived in the same area. All this time, my brother had been living close by.\n\nYou can watch Ashley John-Baptiste's documentary Split Up In Care: Life Without Siblings on BBC iPlayer\n\nDespite the intense curiosity of these initial conversations, we never made plans to meet in person. As much as I welcomed the messages from my new-found brother, I never felt ready to meet face-to-face. Eventually, four years ago, we stopped messaging each other.\n\nBut then, in the spring of 2020, as I was taking my new-born baby for a hospital check-up, I bumped into him by chance. I was leaving the hospital, he was making his way in to visit a sick relative. I recognised him instantly.\n\nI called out to him sheepishly and to my relief, he recognised me.\n\nWe spoke for what seemed like ages. Despite it being our first meeting, there was a natural ease to our conversation. It felt like we had known each other all along.\n\nI introduced him to my baby daughter. She met her uncle. We took a photo together in an unexpected \"family\" moment.\n\nEven though we haven't met since, that moment profoundly changed my life.\n\nMeeting my brother made me think how things could have been different if I had been given the chance to get to know my siblings when I was younger. I now know that I've got at least four, all older than me.\n\nEvery time I moved home as a looked-after child, I was forced to assimilate into a new family, to integrate in a different community and make new friends. My sense of childhood identity was fragmented between the homes I lived in. No single person knew me across all of my moves.\n\nMeeting my brother made me imagine how things could have been if I'd had regular contact with my siblings during all the twists and turns of care. Imagine if I'd had someone like that to talk to, someone to see me grow up, it would have been a lifeline.\n\nEven a few meetings a year while I was in care could have been a foundation for a relationship in adulthood.\n\nI left care at 18 and lived alone in a council flat, before starting university. Living independently, where I was forced to make ends meet, brought a sense of abandonment and isolation that I wasn't prepared for.\n\nWhile I had incredible friends who eased the emotional intensity of leaving care, knowing my siblings at that stage of life might have given me a sense of family and belonging. Maybe there would have been a chance to spend Christmas with family, or have somewhere to go back to between terms at university.\n\nDuring our meeting outside the hospital, my brother just seemed to understand everything I was saying. He had an implicit understanding of my journey and outlook. There was a connection.\n\nI am baffled that none of my social workers seemed to know about the existence of my siblings.\n\nWhen I spoke to my old social worker, Rosalyn Payne, who looked after me between the ages of 15-18, she was surprised to hear I had a brother. So why wasn't there any information about my family in my files?\n\nFiles and information gathering have come a long way, Rosalyn told me. \"Back in the day we had paper files, now we have electronic files.\" But that wasn't the only issue, she says. \"Families don't always tell us what we want to know at the time, and that happens quite a lot, where family members withhold information.\"\n\nThen I asked her a question I had never dared ask before - was I ever considered for adoption?\n\nShe told me that I was indeed put up for adoption when I was very young, but the couple who had been planning to adopt me got pregnant and withdrew from the process.\n\nIt was shattering news - realising in that moment that my life could have been completely different.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch the moment Rosalyn tells Ashley if he was ever considered for adoption\n\nHowever tough such questions are, I think they're important. Everybody wants to know who they are, and who they're connected to.\n\nFor the documentary we wanted to get a national perspective on the state of sibling relationships in the care system, but there is a lack of data.\n\nThe BBC sent more than 200 Freedom of Information requests to UK councils - out of all the authorities approached, nearly three-quarters responded. Based on these responses, nearly half of sibling groups in care are split up (45%) with more than 12,000 children separated from at least one of their siblings.\n\nAnd it can have a life-long impact.\n\nI met Saskia, 24, from Manchester who was taken into care with her two brothers after being rescued from their birth family. They were adopted, but their new home was no safe haven.\n\nSaskia and her brothers suffered physical abuse and neglect for a decade in the adoptive home. When the adoption broke down, they went back into council care, where they were soon split up across different placements, in different areas.\n\nSaskia was 11 at the time and contact with her brothers broke down altogether a few years later. She told me that being away from them made her feel like she was \"not strong any more\".\n\n\"I lost such a key part of myself,\" she says. \"It was us three against the world, it always has been. Sometimes siblings are all you have left. If you take those away, you're taking away the last bit of someone's identity.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Saskia and her brothers have reconnected after being separated in care.\n\nSaskia has now trained as a social worker, which has given her a new perspective. In hindsight, she feels they should have been allowed to stay together.\n\nHer younger brother Toby really struggled and even spent time in prison. Although he has a job now, he told me his childhood experiences have made him into quite a resentful person. \"Even if life's going good, I'll still find some way to be negative in it.\"\n\nSince they left care, they have been able to rebuild their relationships. \"My brothers are still in my life. I'm lucky. I see myself as very blessed,\" Saskia says.\n\nAccording to the law across all parts of the UK, siblings should be kept together when it is possible and safe to do so. But with a rise in the number of children in care there simply aren't enough foster carers - especially now children need a room of their own. All of this means councils are struggling.\n\nI spoke to the director of children's social care at Derby City Council, Suanne Lim, who told me that she doesn't have enough resources to fully support the children in her authority's care - even though the government did provide extra funding for vulnerable families during the pandemic.\n\nSuanne Lim pioneered a rapid response team to keep families together\n\n\"We are very, very stretched. There have been year-on-year cuts to services that we are delivering and yet demand is rising,\" she said. \"Local authorities are close to the bone.\"\n\nDuring the pandemic, Derby City council pioneered a rapid response team to support vulnerable families and prevent even more children from entering the system. Over the past 15 months the team say they have helped 60 families to stay together - and prevented 50 sibling groups from being split up.\n\nIt's clear that social workers are under huge pressure. But at the same time, so many looked-after children are separated from their brothers and sisters and don't have the information about their families that they deserve.\n\nIn Scotland, the law has recently been changed to give siblings more control over their relationships.\n\nThe Star Initiative in Fife hosts reunions for split-up sibling groups in care who get the chance to meet on the farm every few months, to hang out and rebuild their bonds.\n\n\"They've been through enough. Let's be a lifeline,\" says Karen Morrison, the foster carer who runs the charity. \"We're not only making a difference now, fast forward to when they leave the care system.\"\n\nThe Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, told the BBC that she would support a new law to keep siblings together. She has today published a new report based on the views of 6,000 children in care.\n\nAn independent review of the England care system is currently underway, with findings and recommendations expected to be published later this year.\n\nFor me, I have been able to answer more of the questions I had about who I am and where I come from. Even though I didn't grow up with my siblings, I now have the chance to get to know them. But perhaps most significantly, I can tell my daughter she has an uncle.\n\nYou can follow Ashley on Instagram or Twitter\n\nWatch Ashley John-Baptiste's documentary Split Up In Care: Life Without Siblings, on BBC iPlayer", "Dr Gary Jenkins died 16 days after the attack last July\n\nA psychiatrist who was \"tortured and left for dead\" in a \"homophobic\" attack in a Cardiff park begged his attackers to stop, a court has heard.\n\nDr Gary Jenkins was heard repeatedly pleading, \"leave me alone, stop it, leave me alone,\" on 20 July, 2021.\n\nAudio played to the jury was from CCTV at Bute Park, but there were no images.\n\nLee Strickland, 36, Jason Edwards, 25, and a girl, 16 at the time, admit manslaughter and robbery, but deny murder, at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.\n\nDuring the 15-minute audio recording, a male voice is heard shouting \"get off him\" and \"what are you doing? Leave him alone, stop\", but the sound of the attack continued.\n\nLee Strickland and Jason Edwards have pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery but deny murder\n\nThe prosecution said the four main voices which can be heard on the recording are the voices of Dr Jenkins and the three defendants.\n\nThe male voices can be heard shouting homophobic abuse, followed by the sound of Dr Jenkins moaning and pleading for the attack to stop.\n\nAt one point Dr Jenkins said: \"Please, please no, please no, stop, nothing left, stop it, stop it, stop it.\"\n\nDuring the attack, the female voice is heard to demand money and a male voice says: \"Hit him. Hit him again.\"\n\nThe voices can be heard describing other violent acts and at the end of the audio, the female voice is heard to say: \"Yeah I needed that.\"\n\nDr Jenkins was attacked near the Summerhouse cafe in Bute Park\n\nThe jury was also shown the bodycam footage of police officers arriving at the scene of the attack, finding Dr Jenkins badly injured with his trousers down.\n\nCCTV footage also showed Mr Strickland buying whisky in a garage on Cathedral Road eight minutes after the prosecution said his voice can be heard on the audio recording of the attack.\n\nThe jury was told he used Dr Jenkins' cards to buy the alcohol.\n\nThe jury was also shown CCTV from North Road, on the other side of Bute Park, where the prosecution said the teenage girl gave Jason Edwards Dr Jenkins' phone, before they embraced and separated.\n\nThe court previously heard Dr Jenkins had been married with two daughters, but had separated from his wife and was openly bisexual when he moved back to his home city of Cardiff about six years ago.\n\nA large area of park was cordoned off after the attack", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA walker who was rescued from a cliff face in Arbroath was \"a finger's grip away\" from death, the Coastguard has said.\n\nThe man was about 10m (32ft) from the top of the cliff and slipping when the rescue crew lifted him to safety.\n\nThe crew had to perform a rope rescue on the cliff face after a helicopter rescue was deemed too dangerous due to the aircraft's downdraft.\n\nThe crew said it found \"a cold and tired man in a desperate situation\".\n\nThey added that the man was \"a finger's grip away from plunging to almost certain death\".\n\nThe crew were called out after the man's companion dialled 999 shortly before 17:00 on Sunday.\n\nA crew with ropes helped the man to safety after a helicopter rescue was deemed too dangerous\n\nThe pair were \"well-prepared with the right gear\" and had fully-charged mobile phones.\n\nDavid Kerr, HM Coastguard senior coastal operations officer said the incident was a \"close call.\"\n\nMr Kerr said: \"He was struggling to hold on, and it was a long way to fall.\n\n\"The teams knew they had to get to him and quickly.\n\n\"It was a tough rope rescue in darkness on a steep and crumbling cliff.\"\n\nTeams from Arbroath, Dundee, and Stonehaven were called to the scene at Dickmont's Den, along with RNLI lifeboats, and a search and rescue helicopter from Inverness.\n\nMr Kerr said: \"It goes to show how quickly a nice winter walk can turn sour, one decision and suddenly the man found himself gripping on for life.\n\n\"It really can happen that easily and to anyone.\"", "Downing Street may have officially \"welcomed\" the police inquiry into the shenanigans behind closed doors in No 10 during lockdown.\n\nBut what is likely to emerge in the next few days may be anything but welcome for Boris Johnson.\n\nIt is only the second time in a century that a serving prime minister has been part of a police investigation.\n\nIt is embarrassing, serious and could end up finding that some of the most powerful people in the country broke the law.\n\nFor a Conservative leader of the party that prides itself on being the guarantor of law and order, that is deeply uncomfortable.\n\nBefore the police inquiry completes its work, Westminster and Whitehall is now braced for the results of the official inquiry into what went on, which could be published as early as Wednesday.\n\nI'm told the report prepared by senior official Sue Gray, who pulls no punches, is essentially complete.\n\nAs I write late on Tuesday night, it is yet to be delivered officially to Downing Street, but Ms Gray is understood to be on the verge of submitting it.\n\nShe is also keen, I'm told, that the inquiry is published in its entirety with no summary, or redactions which could blur or mask some of its more pointed information.\n\nThe report is said to be full and frank, and is not expected to be easy reading either for the government, or the civil service itself.\n\nIt's understood that there has been no shortage of evidence, with photographs and Whatsapp messages passed to her.\n\nMuch of that evidence has over recent days been passed to the police, explaining why the Met concluded on Tuesday that it was important for them to publicly announce that they would also investigate.\n\nA dispute over whether the publication of the inquiry report would have to be delayed caused a frenzy in Westminster on Tuesday.\n\nBut in the end, short of more twists in this bizarre and serious story, the report will be published very soon, quite separately and in advance of the police's conclusions.\n\nPublication could be crunch time politically, because remember, many Tory MPs have been so angered and embarrassed by weeks of allegations that they have been pondering seriously whether it's time to call a halt to Boris Johnson's time in office.\n\nFor some of them, the report will give the cover they seek to make public their view that he ought to go.\n\nFor many others, who might see themselves as the reasonable rump of the party, the findings of the report and how Boris Johnson explains himself immediately after will be the deciding factor into whether they will continue to back him or not.\n\nWhat they are acutely conscious of too is the reason why all the weeks of allegations have been so toxic.\n\nIt's not that Boris Johnson and his staff had a slice of cake, or shared a hunk of Cheddar in the Downing Street back garden.\n\nIt's because the impression has been created that while millions of members of the public were suffering because of the lockdown rules, those who had written and imposed them were not paying attention at all.\n\nThere is a strand of opinion in the Tory party and among the public too, that, as we discussed yesterday, it's ridiculous to consider removing a prime minister over people having a sausage roll or a gin and tonic when they weren't meant to.\n\nYet with the involvement of the police, a potentially bruising official inquiry and the broad public reaction reflected in the polls, there is no question that these are intensely difficult days for Downing Street, and a decisive 48 hours for Boris Johnson.", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "A major UK human rights body has urged the Scottish government to pause its reforms to the gender recognition process for further consideration.\n\nMinisters want to change the system to make it easier for people to change their legally recognised gender, and a bill is expected at Holyrood this year.\n\nBut the Equality and Human Rights Commission has told them that \"more detailed consideration is needed\".\n\nThe government has already conducted two consultations on the plans.\n\nA spokesperson said it would continue \"to seek consensus where possible, and to work to support respectful debate\".\n\nProminent LGBT group the Equality Network accused the EHRC of being \"UK government appointees\" who were \"failing to stand up for equality for trans people\".\n\nThe EHRC is funded by the Government Equalities Office, but insists that it operates independently of ministerial control as a regulator of equality and human rights law.\n\nThe government wants to streamline the current process for obtaining a gender recognition certificate, which it says can be \"traumatic and demeaning\".\n\nProposed changes would mean applicants would no longer have to go before the UK Gender Recognition Panel - instead applying to the Registrar General for Scotland - or produce a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.\n\nThey would have to make a solemn statutory declaration that they have been living in their acquired gender for three months - down from two years - and intend to do so permanently.\n\nA further three-month \"reflection period\" would mean the process would take a minimum of six months.\n\nThere has been controversy over the proposals, with campaigners and politicians including some government ministers questioning how they could affect women-only services.\n\nAnd the EHRC has written to Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison to say that \"more detailed consideration is needed before any change is made\".\n\nCampaigners from both sides of the issue have rallied outside the Scottish Parliament\n\nChairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner highlighted concerns cited ranging from \"those relating to the collection and use of data, participation and drug testing in competitive sport, measures to address barriers facing women and practices within the criminal justice system\".\n\nShe said there needed to be \"urgent improvements to gender identity services throughout Britain\", but further consideration was needed before any change to the law was made.\n\nBaroness Falkner added: \"The established legal concept of sex, together with the existing protections from gender reassignment discrimination for trans people and the ability for them to obtain legal recognition of their gender, collectively provide the correct balanced legal framework that protects everyone.\"\n\nThe Equality Network issued a furious response to the letter, with director Tim Hopkins claiming that the EHRC board was \"directly appointed\" by the UK government and was \"failing to stand up for equality for trans people\".\n\nHe added: \"We do not need UK government appointees telling us in Scotland how to legislate in devolved areas, and we look forward to the Scottish government proceeding with this legislation soon.\"\n\nThe Scottish Greens - which form part of the Scottish government with the SNP - said the EHRC intervention was \"deeply disappointing\".\n\nThe Scottish government has held two consultations on its plans. The first, in 2018, attracted 15,697 responses, while the second spanned 2019 and 2020 and received 17,058 submissions.\n\nA major theme of the second consultation was consensus that \"the debate has become highly polarised\" and toxic, and was underpinned by \"a social media culture in which people are being bullied and harassed by those taking a different view\".\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"Our proposals to reform the current Gender Recognition Act do not introduce any new rights for trans people or change single sex exceptions in the Equality Act.\n\n\"Our support for trans rights does not conflict with our continued strong commitment to advance equality and to protect and uphold women's rights.\"\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon pledged to bring forward legislation in the first year of the current parliamentary term.\n\nShe said she understood that \"some have sincerely held concerns\" about the plans, but said it would \"make the existing process of gender recognition less degrading, intrusive and traumatic\".\n\nShe added: \"In other words, it will make life that bit easier for one of the most stigmatised minorities in our society. What it will not do is remove any of the legal protections that women currently have.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Koshka Duff: \"I've just felt like I've been on trial for eight years\"\n\nA professor who won an apology from police over sexist language during a strip search has said she felt like she had been on trial for eight years.\n\nDr Koshka Duff was arrested in 2013 after trying to help a black teenager who was subject to a stop-and-search.\n\nShe told the BBC it was \"dehumanising\" - and she had experienced a \"barrage of victim blaming and gas lighting\" as she pursued a claim against police.\n\nFor years after she faced flashbacks and panic attacks, she said.\n\nDr Duff - now an assistant professor of politics at the University of Nottingham - was trying to give a \"know your rights\" legal advice card to a 15-year-old boy in London when officers accused her of obstruction and arrested her. The boy was found to have a knife, which Dr Duff had not been aware of when she intervened.\n\nShe was taken to Stoke Newington police station, where she was strip searched by two female officers.\n\nOn CCTV footage, officers can be heard laughing about her hair, clothes and talking about her underwear. In one clip, one officer references a smell and then a different officer says \"Oh, it's her knickers\".\n\nDr Duff - who was 24 at the time - made a civil claim against the Metropolitan Police for the way she was treated and earlier this week, the Met said it had settled her claim and \"sincerely apologised\" for the \"sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language used\".\n\nIn her first broadcast interview since the apology, Dr Duff told the BBC's Woman's Hour that she was \"terrified\" as she was pinned down by three officers, had her hands cuffed behind her back, legs tied together and clothes cut off.\n\n\"While they were doing that they were cracking jokes with each another, for example about the benefits of strapless bras when they were talking about whether to cut off my underwear. The overwhelming feeling of it was physical pain and I was terrified.\n\n\"They were kneeling on me with their full weight and they had my hands in cuffs and they were jerking them around behind my back. My wrists and arms were completely cut up from this, I had quite extensive injuries.\"\n\nThis photo of Dr Duff's injured arm was taken while she was at the police station\n\nShe said she had been told by officers that the strip search was as a way of trying to identify her, as she would not tell officers who she was.\n\nBut she said: \"I don't see how stripping me would reveal my identity in any way apart from they wanted to soften me up, to kind of intimidate me into telling them my details, and to punish me for standing up for a young person's rights.\n\n\"And one of the officers who arrested me called me a 'bleeding heart leftie' and 'some sort of socialist'.\"\n\nSpeaking about CCTV footage she managed to obtain years after the search - that showed officers laughing about her hair, saying her clothes stink and talking about her underwear - Dr Duff said \"it was really clear they were trying to humiliate me\" and the comments were \"a peephole into culture of misogyny\".\n\n\"They called me childish. When I was being arrested I was called a 'very silly girl'.\n\n\"The sexism of the way they were treating me was really obvious at the time. I guess it was very dehumanising language.\"\n\nIn November 2013 she was acquitted of assaulting a police officer and obstructing a police officer. However, Dr Duff continued to make a civil claim against the Met Police for the way she was treated.\n\nAs part of the misconduct proceedings, she said she was \"grilled for hours\".\n\nAsked about the impact of pursuing the complaint for eight years, she said: \"The process of going through this complaints procedure - I've just felt like I've been on trial for eight years... I've just experienced a barrage of victim blaming and gas lighting.\"\n\nShe added: \"One of the things I found particularly distressing over the last eight years is they have continually used the fact that my body tensed up during the strip search as a justification for having used more force. Because they said, 'oh you clenched your fists and you were holding your arms rigid'. I was terrified and my body was kind of seizing up.\"\n\n\"What I've experienced over the past eight years is a legal system which is absolutely set up to protect the police from accountability and to prevent complaints from getting anywhere, to just disappear them into a bureaucratic abyss.\"\n\nShe also referenced the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer in 2021, which led to a discussion on confidence in policing and women's safety.\n\nDr Duff said: \"After the rape and murder of Sarah Everard, the police put out statements saying women should challenge officers they think are behaving in a dodgy way, kind of again putting the onus on women in a victim blaming way, saying you know, if you don't challenge them and stand up for your legal rights then that's the reason you might be raped and murdered.\n\n\"On the other hand if you do stand up for your legal rights and in solidarity with those of others, then I've seen the way you get treated for that.\"\n\nIn a statement after the Woman's Hour interview, the force said: \"In 2018, a police sergeant faced allegations he had breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to the strip search of a woman arrested in Hackney in May 2013.\n\n\"A misconduct hearing led by an independent legally qualified chair found that the officer had made several attempts to engage with the complainant and were satisfied that he had reasonable grounds to justify his actions in authorising the search. The panel found the allegations not proven and the officer retired from the Met in 2019.\n\n\"In November 2021, the Met settled a claim brought by Dr Duff and sincerely and unreservedly apologised to the complainant for the language used while she was in custody and any distress caused.\n\n\"A review was undertaken following the civil claim; this was referred to the Directorate of Professional Standards for assessment. A public complaint was also received and is currently under investigation. We have also made a voluntary referral to the IOPC.\n\n\"The Met takes all complaints incredibly seriously. We have a robust process in place to establish whether any misconduct may have occurred and to determine the appropriate next steps.\"\n\nEarlier this week, Inspector Andy O'Donnell, of the Met Police directorate of professional standards, said: \"I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely and unreservedly apologise for the sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language used about yourself and for any upset and distress this may have caused.\n\n\"There's a hope that this settlement and the recognition of the impact of what happened will enable you to put this incident behind you.\"\n\nDr Duff - who has written a book on abolishing the police - accused the Met of deflecting public scrutiny \"by presenting what they did to me as an exceptional incident\".\n\nBut she said she was \"really happy that the conversation is happening right now about misogyny and normalised sexualised violence in policing\".", "Virginia Giuffre, then Roberts, was pictured with Prince Andrew in London in 2001\n\nLawyers for a US woman who has accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault are seeking proof of the British royal's alleged inability to sweat.\n\nVirginia Giuffre's legal team made the request as part of a civil case against the prince in a New York court.\n\nMs Giuffre, 38, alleges that Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager at the homes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nIn a 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight, he said a \"problem\" with her account was that a medical condition at the time meant he could not have been sweating, as she claims he was.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince Andrew: 'It was almost impossible for me to sweat'\n\nA civil case filed in the US alleges that the prince sexually abused Ms Giuffre - then known as Virginia Roberts - at Maxwell's London home, and at Epstein's homes in Manhattan and Little St James in the Virgin Islands.\n\nEpstein, a convicted sex offender, killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial. British socialite Maxwell was found guilty this week of grooming underage girls to be abused by him.\n\nThe motion filed by Ms Giuffre's lawyers calls on Prince Andrew to supply \"all documents concerning your alleged medical condition of anhidrosis, hypohidrosis, or your inability to sweat\".\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers said he objected to the request \"on the grounds that it is harassing and seeks confidential and private information and documents that are irrelevant, immaterial and not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence\".\n\nThey added that Prince Andrew had no such documents in his possession to hand over.\n\nThe motion also includes requests for details of Prince Andrew's trips on Epstein's planes, and communication he had with Epstein and Maxwell.\n\nIn a separate development, a request by Prince Andrew's lawyers to pause the proceedings against him has been turned down by a US judge.\n\nHis lawyers had wanted Ms Giuffre to take part in a two-hour deposition to discuss her country of residence.\n\nMs Giuffre has been living in Western Australia and Prince Andrew's lawyers had argued that this may disqualify her from filing a lawsuit in a US court. The judge rejected the demand.\n\nMeanwhile Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty on Wednesday of recruiting and trafficking young girls for Epstein, awaits sentencing, a date for which has not yet been set. The verdict could see her spend the rest of her life behind bars.\n\nThe jury's decision was welcomed by the survivors, with Annie Farmer - the only witness to use her real name during testimony - saying she was \"so relieved and grateful\".\n\nMs Giuffre, who was not one of the four women who testified in the case but was referenced on many occasions in court, said she would \"remember this day always\".\n\nMaxwell's brother Ian told the BBC that she would appeal against the verdict \"on legal grounds - both in terms of the pre-trial process and the trial process as well\", but did not give further details.\n\nHe described the victims' testimony as \"heart-rending\" but said he still believed his sister's innocence.\n\nAnother of Epstein and Maxwell's accusers, Sarah Ransome, criticised Mr Maxwell's remarks.\n\n\"This sex trafficking pyramid wouldn't exist without Ghislaine,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"I really think Ghislaine's brother should sit in a room full of Ghislaine's survivors because then he might have a different opinion of what his sister actually has done. She has destroyed hundreds of lives.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Watford\n\nWatford have appointed Roy Hodgson as their new manager.\n\nThe former England and Liverpool boss, 74, returns to the Premier League after leaving Crystal Palace at the end of last season.\n\nThe Hornets sacked Claudio Ranieri on Monday, the 15th managerial change since the Pozzo family took over the club in 2012.\n\nHodgson will be tasked with securing Premier League survival as they sit 19th, two points from safety.\n\nRay Lewington, who managed Watford between 2002 and 2005, will join as assistant, filling the same position he did under Hodgson for England and Palace.\n\nThe club have not announced the length of Hodgson's contract.\n\nWatford acted quickly to find a successor to Ranieri, whose last game in charge was Friday's 3-0 home defeat by relegation-rivals Norwich.\n\nHodgson's first game will be away to Burnley, who are bottom of the table, on 5 February.\n\nHodgson has been in football management for the best part of 50 years and Watford become the 17th club he has managed in eight countries, while he has also had spells in charge of the Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Finland national sides.\n\nHe worked for the Pozzo family during a brief spell in charge of Udinese, and led Fulham to the Europa League final in 2010 before taking over as Liverpool boss that summer.\n\nHaving departed the Reds after only six months, he joined West Brom in February 2011 and guided the Baggies to two mid-table finishes.\n\nHe also guided England to the quarter-finals at Euro 2012 but left following a 2-1 last-16 defeat by Iceland at the 2016 tournament in France having also overseen a group stage exit at the 2014 World Cup.\n\nHodgson, who will extend his own record as the oldest person to manage in the Premier League, spent nearly four years as Crystal Palace boss having replaced Frank de Boer in September 2017 with the club bottom of the table.\n\nDespite losing his first three games in charge, he guided Palace to 11th in the table. They finished 12th and 14th twice in his subsequent three seasons, and recorded their joint-best Premier League points total of 49 in 2018-19, matching the tally from the 42-game season in 1992-93.\n• None Our coverage of Watford is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Watford - go straight to all the best content", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Dame Cressida Dick announce the Met Police's investigation into No 10 lockdown parties\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has launched an investigation into parties held in No 10 during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nOfficers were looking into \"potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations\" in Downing Street and Whitehall since 2020, Commissioner Cressida Dick said.\n\nShe added that the investigation was launched after an internal inquiry led by civil servant Sue Gray passed information to the force.\n\nHis spokesman said the PM did not believe he had broken the law.\n\nBBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said Ms Gray's report is essentially complete, and it was likely to be published on Wednesday.\n\nBut she added No 10 would not see the report on Tuesday evening, meaning it was not expected to be published before Prime Minister's Questions.\n\nFor months, the prime minister has been dogged by reports of staff parties in Downing Street, some attended by him, when lockdown laws preventing social mixing were in force.\n\nThe PM has apologised for attending a \"bring your own booze\" event on 20 May 2020, during the first lockdown, saying he thought it was a \"work event\".\n\nDame Cressida would not say which parties were being investigated by the force, and while breaches of regulations can result in fixed penalty notices, the police inquiry did not mean they would be issued \"in every instance and to every person involved\".\n\nLabour deputy leader Angela Rayner renewed calls for Mr Johnson to resign in light of the inquiry, calling him a \"national distraction\".\n\nIn the Commons, she said \"potential criminality has been found in Downing Street\", and that the need for a police investigation into No 10 parties was \"a truly damning reflection on our nation's very highest office\".\n\nBoris Johnson told the Commons he welcomed the investigation, as it would \"give the public the clarity it needs\" over the allegations.\n\nAnd Paymaster General Michael Ellis called for MPs to \"let the investigation run its course and not pre-empt its conclusions\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Labour's Angela Rayner: \"Potential criminality has been found in Downing Street\"\n\nMr Johnson - who was in the Commons to deliver a statement on the situation in Ukraine - said: \"I welcome the Met's decision to conduct its own investigation because I believe this will help to give the public the clarity it needs and help to draw a line under matters.\n\n\"But I want to reassure the House and the whole country that I and the government are focused 100% on dealing with the people's priorities.\"\n\nThe news comes after fresh allegations of a birthday party being held for the prime minister in June 2020.\n\nDowning Street admitted that staff gathered inside No 10 to celebrate Mr Johnson's birthday when the first Covid lockdown was still in place, but ministers have disputed reports about the number of people attending.\n\nDame Cressida said on Tuesday that she understood the \"deep public concern\" about the allegations of parties inside No 10, along with the \"huge sacrifices\" the public had made during the pandemic.\n\nAnd she said it would \"not normally be a proportionate use of time\" for the force to investigate rule breaches as far back as two years, but police would look at allegations that \"appeared to be the most serious and flagrant breach\" of regulations.\n\nDame Cressida said while the force would not give \"a running commentary\" on the case, it would provide updates at \"significant points\".\n\nMet Police Commissioner Cressida Dick - pictured here with Boris Johnson in 2019 - confirmed the force would look into \"potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations\".\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told the BBC the government was in \"meltdown\", adding: \"We got here because the prime minister can't tell the truth, he's lied continually, he's been dishonest to Parliament and to the British people.\n\n\"He has to go, he should resign.\"\n\nBut Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg told reporters the PM's leadership had been \"brilliant\", and the government had done \"an amazing job\" throughout the pandemic.\n\nAnd Tory MP Sir Edward Leigh told MPs: \"When Europe stands on the brink of war and there is a cost-of-living crisis, can we please have a sense of proportion over the prime minister being given a piece of cake in his own office by his own staff?\"\n\nBoris Johnson says the Met's investigation should bring clarity - but he should perhaps be careful what he wishes for.\n\nWe can't anticipate the findings of that inquiry - but even if the prime minister is not slapped with a fixed penalty notice, if any action were to be taken against staff, then questions about the Downing Street \"culture\" under his leadership will come to the fore.\n\nThe former chief whip Mark Harper was anxious to know if the PM himself would be questioned by officers.\n\nEven if this was as a witness, this would not exactly help rebuild the public trust which has eroded in recent weeks.\n\nAnd the clarity he seeks could take some time to deliver, potentially elongating the political pain.\n\nSome Tory MPs have already openly called for Mr Johnson to go over the alleged parties, but others have said they are waiting to read Ms Gray's conclusions before deciding on the PM's future.\n\nA total of 54 Conservative MPs must write to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, declaring no confidence in the PM, to trigger a leadership contest.\n\nSenior backbench MP David Davis, who called for Mr Johnson to resign at last week's PMQs, said the police investigation meant \"this nightmare gets even worse\", adding: \"We have to be able to get back to dealing with real threats as quickly as possible.\"\n\nAnother senior Tory told the BBC the PM \"can't stay now\" and this latest development \"may trigger a few more to put their letters in\".\n\nBut a former cabinet minister told the BBC he thought the police investigation would delay more letters being written, adding: \"Where it depended on what Sue Gray said, it now depends on what the police will say.\"\n\nThis is a hugely important investigation politically, but as police inquiries go it is actually very straightforward.\n\nIt is what is known as a \"summary\" offence, the maximum penalty is a fine, and if the fine was challenged it would only be dealt with by a magistrates' court.\n\nIt would be disproportionate to carry out a very detailed and intrusive investigation.\n\nNow that the Metropolitan Police has decided which of the alleged parties is potentially in breach of the law, the question is: Who was at them?\n\nMuch of the leg-work will have been done on that by Sue Gray's team in the Cabinet Office.\n\nDetectives will be looking at emails, CCTV, movements of staff passes, and personal accounts given to Sue Gray or to the police.\n\nThey will also be looking at whether anyone who they decide was present at a particular event had a good reason to be there.\n\nIt could be that at some of the events some people had a just about good enough reason to be there, but other people did not.\n\nMaybe it was the workplace for some people, and they were just on the right side of the law on that occasion. For others that may not apply.\n\nThe government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street. Boris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Lisa Rolland said she was pressured to give up her baby\n\nWomen who were historically forced into giving up their children for adoption are being asked to share their experiences. An estimated 60,000 mothers in Scotland had babies adopted simply because they were unmarried.\n\nLisa Rolland was living in Edinburgh in 1982 when she became pregnant at the age of 16.\n\nStill a schoolgirl, she remembers her GP's reaction to her pregnancy was to say: \"Who's been a silly girl then?\"\n\n\"I felt so shamed,\" she said. \"[I thought] I have obviously been bad, I have done something bad. I felt very isolated.\"\n\nShe was unmarried and says the pressure on her to give up her newborn son for adoption was so great, she could not stop it.\n\n\"I didn't choose adoption, it was presented to me as the only available option,\" she said.\n\n\"There was an implication that I wouldn't be able to have a career, it might ruin my life.\"\n\nLisa spent three days with her baby before he was taken away.\n\n\"I handed him over and then I went into the toilets and cried for about two hours. It was just dreadful,\" she said\n\n\"I just felt this massive pain and hole and grief, and just empty really.\"\n\nAsked whether she gave up her baby or whether he was taken, she replied: \"My baby was taken.\"\n\nLisa was finally reunited with her son, Chris, about 10 years ago and they had a \"wonderful relationship\".\n\n\"It was really special, it was like a fairytale,\" Lisa said.\n\n\"At that time the grief was so hard,\" she said.\n\n\"It made me realise that I'd never grieved the baby, I'd kept all of that inside.\n\n\"I felt such shame and guilt that I hadn't fought for him. Would I have been such a bad mother?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Julia Gillard said the \"shameful\" policy had created \"a legacy of pain\"\n\nIn the 1950s, 60s and 70s up to 250,000 women across the UK coerced into handing over their babies. Many were denied access to housing and social benefits which may have allowed them to have kept them.\n\nSome of the women never had more children and said the loss caused them a lifetime of grief.\n\nIn 2013 Australia issued the world's first government formal apology for forced adoption, taking responsibility for the practice.\n\nFour years ago, the Canadian senate recommended the federal government issue an apology to 300,000 Canadian women.\n\nAnd in January last year, the Irish Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, apologised to former residents of mother and baby homes in Ireland for the way they were treated over several decades.\n\nMonths later Labour MSP Monica Lennon tabled a motion on historical forced adoption, calling the Scottish government to say sorry on behalf of the nation. She asked that ministers should speed up the work being done to reach the point of making the apology.\n\nThe UK parliament at Westminster has launched its own separate inquiry into forced adoptions.\n\nThe Joint Human Rights Committee began taking evidence before Christmas and is due to report later this year.\n\nThe Scottish government is calling on families who experienced historic forced adoption to share their stories\n\nScottish ministers have now launched an online questionnaire for those who wish to share their stories and views.\n\nA formal apology has not been issued by the Scottish government, but it said the survey would allow people to share their \"views and insight\" and inform the support process.\n\nA dedicated helpline has also been set up with the mental health charity Health in Mind, with staff who have understanding of trauma.\n\nChildren's Minister Clare Haughey said she offered her sincere sympathies to families with experience of forced adoption and that the issue \"deserves to be looked at properly\".\n\nShe said: \"Listening to these voices will help us to understand what support and action is needed. The last thing I want to do is to ask those affected to revisit the trauma it caused them, but, if they feel able, I would encourage them to give their views and share their experiences.\n\n\"I hope we can work together to explore next steps.\"\n\nHowever, Ms Lennon said the survey would tell the government \"what women have been telling them for years\".\n\nShe said: \"An apology to the women who were historically forced into giving up their babies for adoption is long overdue. Time is running out for many of these mothers and others have already gone to their graves after a lifetime of grief and guilt.\n\n\"Hearing 'we are sorry' from the first minister will help to end the stigma and begin to heal the burden of shame that the women have carried for decades.\n\n\"Nicola Sturgeon was not to blame for this historic injustice but the gift of an apology is in her hands and she should do the right thing.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'This isn't a price blip - this is a resettling of the market' - Utility Regulator\n\nThe Utility Regulator is warning that households and businesses will face gas price hikes of at least 30% in the coming weeks.\n\nConcerns over escalating tensions involving Russia mean further increases are also likely this year.\n\nWholesale energy costs have risen significantly since last July and they account for about 50% of bills.\n\nBoth suppliers are expected to increase prices further in the coming weeks as higher wholesale prices will be passed on to customers.\n\nPrior to Covid, wholesale natural gas was about 50 pence per therm.\n\nSurging prices due to supply issues mean wholesale prices peaked at £4.71 per therm in December in 2021.\n\nReduced supply of gas from Russia (via Ukraine) is having a huge effect on prices.\n\nForecasts expect these higher prices to continue throughout 2022 into 2023.\n\nCustomers will again face higher bills in 2022 and 2023\n\nJohn French, chief executive of the Utility Regulator, said: \"Today we're seeing gas prices at around £2.20 and on the futures market coming into the winter it's significantly more than that.\n\n\"So these prices are a concern - this isn't a price blip, this is a resettling of the market due to the Ukraine and Russian conflict.\n\n\"Historically, you might have seen gas prices rise a couple of pence in a year depending on if the weather was cold - we're seeing price movement of 50 pence within a day, which has never been experienced before.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we're expected to see at least a 30% increase, probably slightly higher, for consumers going forward on the gas price.\"\n\nPeter McClenaghan, from the Consumer Council, said it was bad news across the board.\n\n\"It's bad for gas consumers, but there's bad news out there for all consumers,\" he said.\n\nPeter McClenaghan, from the Consumer Council, said it was bad news across the board for consumers\n\n\"If you're a driver and you drive a petrol or a diesel car, prices on the forecourts look like they're going to increase in the coming months.\n\n\"Similarly, if you use home heating oil to heat your home, prices are on the rise in relation to home heating oil as well.\n\n\"So across the board for consumers these are really worrying times.\"\n\nPower NI, the only regulated supplier in Northern Ireland, put up prices 21% from January.\n\nNo immediate price rise is expected there, it usually takes a bit longer to feed through.\n\nThat will be one to watch in the weeks and months ahead.\n\nIn Great Britain, an energy cap has shielded households from these price rises at about £1,200.\n\nHowever, Ofgem is expected to announce a significant hike on 7 February which will take effect from April, with some warning it could hit £2,000.\n\nThat is why more suppliers in Great Britain have gone bust than in Northern Ireland.", "Elsa felt her school didn't have enough counsellors or staff to give her the help she needed as a teenager\n\nStaff in schools and prisons in England and Wales are for the first time to be included in draft guidance on how to identify people who have self-harmed.\n\nThe experts behind it said everyone was responsible for tackling the growing problem of self-harm - not just mental health professionals.\n\nA mental health charity said the guidance would empower teachers to support young people.\n\nIt warned that more mental health support teams in schools were needed.\n\nThese are the first new guidelines on self-harm produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for 11 years, and a public consultation on the guidance will run until 1 March.\n\nSelf-harm is when somebody intentionally damages or injures their body to try to cope with emotional distress or to feel in control, but there are many reasons why people do it.\n\nOne in five girls and one in 10 boys aged between 17 and 19 have self-harmed or attempted suicide, according to a major survey from 2017. And among 11 to 16-year-olds, 7% of girls and more than 3% of boys are affected - with those with mental disorders more likely to have self-harmed.\n\nBut experts say the figures could be an underestimate because few go to hospital and the problem is often hidden.\n\nElsa and friends campaign for funding for mental health hubs\n\nElsa Arnold, 20, from east London, was 15 when she started self-harming after being bullied at school.\n\n\"I really struggled with being a teenager. It was the combination of the pressure at school, fitting in and constantly being picked on,\" she says.\n\nHer school referred her to adolescent mental health services but she was refused help for not being unwell enough, before she got even worse.\n\n\"You don't believe you deserve help anyway and when you're not given it, you just feel knocked down.\"\n\nShe developed depression and anxiety and, four months later, was referred again. Eventually she opted for private treatment.\n\nYoung people say they are often told they have to reach crisis point before they can qualify for support, but Elsa says this is \"so wrong\".\n\n\"Better support would have changed my whole mental health story as a teenager,\" she says.\n\nElsa is now at university, and says she doesn't feel as trapped or as misunderstood as she was at school. She is campaigning for funding for support hubs for 11 to 25-year-olds across England, which offer support to young people when their mental health problems first emerge.\n\nProf Nav Kapur, an adviser on the guidelines and professor of psychiatry and population health at the University of Manchester, said: \"Self-harm can occur at any age and present to any setting.\n\n\"This new guideline is an opportunity to make things better, particularly from the point of view of assessment and aftercare.\"\n\nThe guidance will be expanded to be relevant to people who work in educational settings and criminal justice settings, as well as non-health and social care professionals.\n\nIt calls for anyone who is not a mental health specialist and spots a case of self-harm, to organise a psychosocial assessment as soon as possible, which should be carried out by a mental health professional.\n\nThese assessments try to understand why that person has self-harmed and ensures they receive the care they need, while giving information to family members about their condition.\n\nDr Paul Chrisp, from NICE, said: \"It is important that our committee has made recommendations for education and criminal justice settings.\n\n\"Data in the past few years has shown that people working within these sectors would benefit from clear guidance about how they should help someone who is self-harming.\n\n\"These guidelines set out a way for every person who self-harms to be able to get the support and treatment they need.\"\n\nEmma Thomas, from young people's mental health charity YoungMinds, said the pandemic \"had a disproportionate impact on this age group\" and more young people were self-harming as a way of coping.\n\n\"Prior to the pandemic, one-third of schools did not provide any in-school mental health support, so we are calling on the government to invest in the further rollout of these teams and other schools-based mental health support.\"", "\"Everyone agrees something has to be done, they'd just rather like someone else to do it.\"\n\nThat wasn't a joke from a former minister tonight, but a pretty accurate summary of the mood across the Tory Party.\n\nThat mood isn't just a barometer of political sentiment in the governing administration, but it's the critical factor in the prime minister's fate.\n\nThere is very deep and widespread concern among the group that has the power to trigger a mechanism to oust Boris Johnson from office if enough of them put their names to letters to call for a contest.\n\nA number of them have already done so, but given the process is confidential it is impossible to tell how many have taken that step. Only one person, Sir Graham Brady, the head of the backbench committee the 1922, has the tally.\n\nSo forget anyone else purporting to be sure how many there really are. One cabinet minister told me confidently having done \"my own sums\" there can't be more than handful, pouring scorn on the notion that the number of official malcontents might have gone higher than a dozen.\n\nBut another member of the government suggested the threshold of 54 could in fact be reached \"by accident\" with many more than No 10 calculate having been handed in already.\n\nBut remember, no one really knows. And again, because it is a confidential process, Tory MPs are perfectly capable of telling each other (and of course journalists) that they have sent a letter when in fact they have done no such thing.\n\nFor Downing Street that uncertainty means they can't feel comfortable with the current state of unease. For members of the cabinet itself they also don't know, and can't be sure that the official report into what happened behind No 10's door in lockdown will spare Boris Johnson from blame.\n\nIndeed, one of their number says there is a \"significant delusion\" at the top table right now in placing any faith that the party isn't angry enough to act, or Sue Gray's report will be vague enough not to put any new pressure on the prime minister personally.\n\nAnd Monday's new broadside from Dominic Cummings shows again that Downing Street is not, and cannot be, in control of what's next.\n\nIt is worth noting that the man who was the chief adviser has made no secret of his desire to see Boris Johnson out of No 10. Mr Cummings might have been the chief adviser but he is now arguably, enemy number one for Downing Street.\n\nBut his latest blog which claims that the prime minister was warned by him about the 20 May 2020 event in the No 10 garden which is only part of the string of accusations, is a reminder to Downing Street that it is not in control of what happens next.\n\nIt is true that there is no consensus among Conservative MPs about the \"something\" that needs to be done. But it is also true that it won't be entirely down to Boris Johnson to define what that is.", "Tonga says it has been hit by an \"unprecedented disaster\" in the government's first update since a volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami.\n\nRescue teams have been sent to some of the outlying islands, including one where all the houses were destroyed and another where just two homes remain.\n\nThere have been three deaths in the disaster - two nationals and a woman from Britain.\n\nAid efforts have been hampered by ash continuing to fall from the volcano.\n\nVolunteers have been sweeping the runway of the main airport to allow planes bringing drinking water and other supplies to land.\n\nOn Wednesday morning in Tonga, a UN representative for the region said that while clearing the ash had proven more difficult than expected, good progress had been made and it was hoped that flights might soon resume.\n\n\"We thought that it would be operational [Tuesday], but it hasn't been fully cleared yet because more ash has been falling,\" Jonathan Veitch told reporters.\n\nMr Veitch praised the quick response of New Zealand and Australia in working to dispatch aid via ships and described a \"very challenging\" situation.\n\nCommunications with the island chain has been majorly disrupted after the single underwater cable connecting Tonga to the rest of the world was severed in the eruption on Saturday.\n\nMany Tongans abroad have since been waiting to hear news from loved ones.\n\nThe Tongan government said on Tuesday that the internet was down, but that some local phone services were available and work was under way to restore full communications.\n\nMeanwhile, the UN said it would try to maintain Tonga's Covid-free status when aid starts arriving.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nTongan officials have expressed concern that deliveries could spread Covid, with the country only recording its first case in October.\n\nThe UN said it was unclear if personnel could be sent to assist, but that supplies like water and food could be delivered as the main island's port remained viable.\n\nThere have been reports of food supplies at shops running low and deliveries have been deemed a priority.\n\nSaturday's volcanic eruption was felt as far away as the US. In Peru, two people drowned in abnormally high waves while beaches near the capital Lima were closed off following an oil spill.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nThe victory against Basilashvili was Murray's first at the Australian Open since 2017, when he was top seed and eventually lost to Mischa Zverev in the last 16 Coverage: Daily radio commentaries on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Sport website and app, with selected live text commentaries online; TV highlights from middle Saturday. Britain's Andy Murray marked his return to the Australian Open - where in 2019 he thought he might have to retire - with a tense five-set win over Georgian 21st seed Nikoloz Basilashvili. Murray cruised to the first set in 23 minutes but any hopes of a routine win disappeared as Basilashvili recovered. Momentum swung both ways before the wildcard won 6-1 3-6 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-4. Murray was one of four Britons to win on Tuesday, with Emma Raducanu, Heather Watson and Dan Evans also progressing. The 34-year-old, a five-time beaten finalist in Melbourne, will play Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel in the second round on Thursday. \"It's amazing,\" Murray said shortly after winning on John Cain Arena, where he lost to Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut in 2019. \"It's been a tough three or four years but I've put in a lot of hard work to get here. \"I've played on this court many times and the atmosphere is always incredible. \"It is where I thought I had potentially played my last match but to win a five-set battle like that, I couldn't have asked any more.\"\n• None A zoo, a boo or Ronaldo's 'siuuu' - the incredible atmosphere of 'the people's court' Three years ago at Melbourne Park, Murray caught everyone by surprise by tearfully announcing he feared his illustrious career was coming to an end. The hip injury that had plagued him since the summer of 2017 was debilitating and the only option left was resurfacing surgery that saw metal inserted into the joint. No player had returned to the singles game after that operation - but Murray did later that year. On Tuesday he played on the same court where a retirement video - featuring messages from his peers - was infamously and prematurely played after he was beaten by Bautista Agut. Another niggling injury stopped Murray going to Melbourne Park in 2020 and last year his hopes were scuppered when a positive test for coronavirus stopped him flying out. The venue's title has changed - renamed from Melbourne Arena in honour of the former Victorian Prime Minister - and the atmosphere was different, with only 50% capacity allowed because of coronavirus restrictions. But the fluctuations of the match - and the associated tension for Murray fans - remained. Murray beat Basilashvili for the third time in the past year, following a dramatic four-set victory at Wimbledon in June and a win last week in Sydney Little troubled Murray as he rattled through the opening set, where Basilashvili's woes were summed up by an extraordinary serve that hit the racquet frame and flew upwards into the stands. Powerful hitting is the Georgian's strength and once he managed to execute his biggest weapon, he regained a foothold in the match. The second set saw Murray's serve broken three times on the way to his opponent levelling. An entertaining third set was edged by Murray at the fourth opportunity, but the Scot was pegged back again when Basilashvili started hitting lines with crunching winners to take control of the tie-break. But, with the crowd behind him, Murray summoned the energy to win the decider. He moved into a 3-0 lead and, although Basilashvili fought back to 4-4, the Briton sealed his place in the last 64 with his third match point. How far can Murray go? Ranked 113th in the world, Murray has repeatedly said he remains confident of going deep into major tournaments once again. Encouraging performances towards the end of 2021 reinforced that belief and he backed that up by reaching the final last week in Sydney, although he was beaten by Russian Aslan Karatsev. Murray needed almost four hours to beat Basilashvili and there were moments after long rallies where he looked exhausted. On his aims in Melbourne, he said: \"Hopefully keep improving - there are things in my game I could do better. \"I would like to have a deep run. It's something I haven't had since I came back from injury - and I hope I can do it in this tournament.\"\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n• None The artist formerly known as evil or genius? The team uncover the truths behind pop legend Prince\n• None The search for the story that drove crowds to storm the US Capitol", "Last updated on .From the section Northern Ireland\n\nIreland's home Six Nations games can be played in front of full houses after the Irish Government lifted restrictions on crowd numbers imposed to help curb the spread of Covid-19.\n\nCapacity inside sports stadiums in the Republic of Ireland had been limited to 50% or 5,000 but this will cease to be the case from 06:00 GMT on Saturday.\n\nRestrictions on numbers able to attend indoor events will also be lifted.\n\nIreland begin their Six Nations campaign against Wales on 5 February.\n\nIn addition to that game in Dublin, the Aviva Stadium will also play host to Ireland's matches against Italy on 27 February and Scotland on 19 March.\n\nThe removal of the restrictions will also benefit GAA's Football and Hurling Leagues which will commence on 29 and 30 January, as well as Munster's Champions Cup clash with Wasps on Sunday.", "The child was having a lesson in the resort of Flaine\n\nA skier who was involved in a fatal collision with a five-year-old British girl in the French Alps has been placed under investigation.\n\nThe girl, named locally as Ophélie, was taking part in a group lesson at the weekend in Flaine in Haute-Savoie.\n\nShe received immediate first aid from the man himself, who is a local volunteer fireman, but she died in the helicopter taking her to hospital.\n\nHer parents are a British couple living across the Swiss border in Geneva.\n\nThe man under investigation - a local in his 40s - faces a possible charge of involuntary manslaughter. The local prosecutor also requested that the man, who she reportedly says is \"in shock\" after the accident, be placed under judicial supervision, which usually means restrictions on the person's movement.\n\nThe little girl was one of a group of five children receiving instruction on Saturday morning from a qualified instructor on an easy slope in the resort of Flaine near Chamonix, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.\n\nAccording to the local state prosecutor, the man skiing downhill collided with her at high speed.\n\n\"The child was in a queue behind the group and was about to make a right turn when she was very violently hit by a skier going at high speed who tried in vain to avoid her,\" according to a statement from the local Bonneville prosecutor's office, quoted by local media outlet France Bleu.\n\nIf the case goes to trial, the man could face up to three years in prison and a fine of €45,000 (£37,600).", "At Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson told MPs that he was technically within the rules when he attended a drinks party in his own back garden on May 20, 2020, during lockdown.\n\nHe set out part of the defence he has put forward to the senior civil servant, Sue Gray, who is investigating the allegations of parties taking place on government property.\n\nOn Wednesday, the prime minister told MPs: \"Number 10 is a big department with the garden as an extension of the office - which has been in constant use because of the role of fresh air in stopping the virus.\n\n\"I believed implicitly that this was a work event.\"\n\nA Downing Street spokesman later provided more of the case for the defence - that the prime minister had not seen the email invite to No 10 staff from civil servant Martin Reynolds, encouraging them to bring their own booze to the event.\n\nBut the building - or buildings - in Downing Street also form part of the defence case.\n\nNo 10 acts as both a home and an office for the prime minister, although the flat where he lives is actually above No 11 Downing Street.\n\nThe higgeldy-piggeldy property is variously a conference centre, a venue for ministerial meetings, a workplace for civil servants and advisers, and - in 2020 - also where press briefings were conducted.\n\nSo it's possible the prime minister may be able to claim that if members of his household happened to \"mix\" with staff when restrictions were in place, that was because they were simply using their own back garden.\n\nAnd when he was \"mixing\" with officials that was because the garden was also an office, and those key employees did not need to work from home.\n\nBut this explanation is rejected by former members of Mr Johnson's own staff.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I offer my heartfelt apologies\": Watch Boris Johnson admit to attending the No 10 party in May 2020\n\nIn a tweet on Wednesday, Dominic Cummings argued that 20 May - given the formal e-mail invitation - was \"no way within the rules\" and was \"obviously social, not work\", which would not have been allowed.\n\nAnother former staffer - who has not, unlike Mr Cummings, been openly critical of the prime minister - told the BBC there were \"no legal grounds\" for the 20 May gathering.\n\nAnd they noted that while there was a reference to good weather in the emailed invitation, there was no mention of work - and the only nod to the pandemic was that the drinks would be \"socially distanced\".\n\nSue Gray will no doubt form her own view - but with more Conservative MPs becoming openly critical of Mr Johnson even before she completes her report, there is little doubt that he is in a tight spot.\n\nFormer government insiders are suggesting the culture that was allowed to flourish at Downing Street from the first lockdown onwards contributed to the prime minister's current predicament.\n\nA regular visitor to Downing Street from another department said that drinks were available on some evenings at post-press conference meetings in the garden.\n\nA former No 10 insider has already said drinks were available regularly on Fridays when people were working late.\n\nDominic Cummings was no stranger to the Downing Street garden\n\nDominic Cummings has insisted that the photograph, published by the Guardian, in the Downing Street garden from 15 May 2020 - showing wine on a table - depicted a work meeting, not a social event.\n\nAnd he added in his blog \"No 10 staff were ENCOURAGED\" [his caps] to have meetings in the garden April-August for the obvious reason that we were in a pandemic with an airborne disease and being outside was safer!'\n\nThis account has been corroborated by others in government at the time who said evidence was emerging of the lower risk of transmission outdoors.\n\nBut a former government adviser told the BBC that because people were getting used to meeting outside, the lines between work and socialising had got blurred.\n\nHe suggested that this may have \"normalised\" the drinking and chatting in the garden that took place on 20 May.\n\nBut he nonetheless agrees with Mr Cummings that this event - with that email invite from Mr Johnson's Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds - was \"blatantly against the rules\".\n\nAnd he said several people who worked in No 10 at the time felt Mr Reynolds' email invitation was \"nutty\".\n\n\"Anyone with political nous would know this was wrong,\" said the former insider.\n\nAs we reported, the event went ahead despite opposition from key political staff, leading some to believe it must therefore have been sanctioned by the prime minister himself.\n\nBut the former government source believes Downing Street's denial of this is credible - again, because of the unusual culture at No 10.\n\nHe said that civil servants who are Principal Private Secretaries, like Mr Reynolds, would normally work closely with their ministers,\n\nAnd it would be assumed that they were speaking with the authority of their political masters.\n\nBut in Boris Johnson's case, added our source, \"he just isn't across the detail\".\n\nSo, he claimed, it was left to others in No 10 to undertake functions usually associated with the prime minister himself.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Sir Keir Starmer asks if the PM will do the decent thing and resign\n\nLabour sources say they haven't asked for Martin Reynolds's resignation as the \"culture inside No 10 was set by the man at the top\".\n\nSo bit by bit, a picture of working life inside No10 during the coronavirus crisis is emerging.\n\nThe prime minister would prefer to talk of the government's achievements in the face of the challenge of Covid - such as the mass vaccination programme.\n\nBut as one of Boris Johnson's MPs put it after Prime Minister's Questions, \"it is just drip, drip, drip. It will continue to be drip, drip, drip\" - and \"partygate\" could continue to be politically corrosive.\n\nThe key question now will be whether the No 10 defence - that while mistakes were made, rules were not technically broken - will wash with Sue Gray, and with the wider public.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch a briefing by an FBI agent after the stand-off in Colleyville, Texas\n\nFour people who were held hostage at a synagogue in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, have been freed unharmed after a 10-hour stand-off with police.\n\nThey were taken hostage during a morning service in Colleyville on Saturday.\n\nPolice deployed special weapons teams, while FBI negotiators spent hours talking to the assailant.\n\nExplosions and gunfire could be heard before the incident ended. The hostage-taker has since died, police say.\n\nThe four people taken hostage included the synagogue's rabbi, according to US media reports.\n\nThe service was being streamed online when the incident began. One of the hostages was released unharmed six hours later, with the other three being led to safety by police several hours after that.\n\nThe rescue team breached the synagogue but it is not yet clear how the hostage-taker died or who he was.\n\nPresident Joe Biden was briefed about the developing situation.\n\nThe incident began at around 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) when police were called to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue. People were evacuated from the area shortly after.\n\nA live stream of the Shabbat morning service on Facebook captured audio of a man talking loudly. He could be heard saying: \"You get my sister on the phone\" and \"I am gonna die\".\n\nHe was also heard saying: \"There's something wrong with America.\" The feed has since been taken down.\n\nThe hostage-taker was also heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is currently serving an 86-year prison term in the US, law enforcement officials told local media.\n\nSiddiqui was convicted of trying to kill US military officers while in custody in Afghanistan.\n\nBarry Klompus, a member of the congregation since it opened in 1999, said he had been told about the incident by another member and had quickly turned to the live feed until it was taken down.\n\n\"It was horrible listening and watching, and it's that much more horrible not knowing,\" he told Reuters news agency.\n\nVictoria Francis told the Associated Press that she heard the man rant against America and claim he had a bomb during the live stream. \"He was pretty irritated and the more irritated he got, he'd make more threats,\" she said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker tells CBS Mornings about being held hostage - and how he escaped\n\nThe rabbi of a Texas synagogue who was taken hostage on Saturday has described how he threw a chair at the gunman in order to escape.\n\nHe and two other hostages were then able to get out \"without a shot being fired\", following a 10-hour siege.\n\nThe hostage-taker, named as British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, was shot dead after a stand-off with police.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has described the hostage-taking incident as \"an act of terror\".\n\nIt began at around 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nRabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker told BBC partner CBS News the group had been praying when he heard a click that turned out to be the hostage-taker's gun, and he and three others were held captive.\n\n\"We were threatened the entire time but fortunately none of us were physically injured,\" he said.\n\nOne hostage was released after six hours, while the other three escaped several hours later.\n\n\"When I saw an opportunity, when he wasn't in a good position, I made sure the gentlemen were still with me, they were ready to go,\" Rabbi Cytron-Walker recalled. \"The exit wasn't too far away, I told them to go.\"\n\nHe then threw a chair at the gunman and headed for the door.\n\n\"It was terrifying. It was overwhelming and we're still processing. It's been a lot,\" Rabbi Cytron-Walker said.\n\nHe added getting back to the synagogue following the incident \"won't be easy but it's an important thing\".\n\nPolice are continuing their investigation at the scene of hostage incident in Colleyville, Texas\n\nThe service was live-streamed and captured the audio of the man demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is currently serving an 86-year prison term in the US, law enforcement officials told local media.\n\nSiddiqui was convicted of trying to kill US military officers while in custody in Afghanistan. Thousands took to the streets in Pakistan to protest against her conviction in 2010.\n\nA brother of Malik Faisal Akram issued a statement apologising to the victims and saying he had been suffering from \"mental health issues\".\n\nFriends of Akram in his home town of Blackburn told the BBC his mental health had been getting worse and said they were surprised that he had been able to travel to the US.\n\nCBS News reported that Akram arrived in the US two weeks before the siege, landing in New York.\n\nMr Biden said on Sunday that the assumption was that \"he got the weapons on the street\" and \"apparently spent the first night in a homeless shelter\".\n\nTwo teenagers have been arrested in England as part of the investigation into the incident. Their ages and genders have not been revealed.\n\nBritish Foreign Secretary Liz Truss described the incident as an \"act of terrorism and anti-Semitism\".\n\n\"We stand with US in defending the rights and freedoms of our citizens against those who spread hate,\" she said.\n\nWhen the FBI said this investigation would have \"a global reach\" they weren't exaggerating.\n\nThe FBI, who are leading it, have deployed their Joint Terrorism Taskforce with teams following up leads in the US, Britain and possibly also in Pakistan.\n\nThe immediate priority is to establish whether or not the hostage-taker had help from anyone else, either here in Britain or during the two weeks he was in the US prior to entering the synagogue.\n\nBritain's Counter Terrorism Police and MI5 will be crucial in uncovering Malik Faisal Akram's so-called \"digital trail\" - the clues left behind on his phone, computer or credit card purchases.", "Dominic Cummings says the ruling is a 'total vindication' of his decision\n\nA government contract given to a firm whose founders were friends of Dominic Cummings has been ruled lawful, overturning an earlier court judgement.\n\nLast year, the High Court ruled that the £550,000 contract awarded to PR firm Public First was unlawful as it gave rise to \"apparent bias\".\n\nThat ruling has now been reversed in a legal victory for the government.\n\nCampaign group the Good Law Project, which challenged the legality of the contract, said it planned to appeal.\n\nPublic First was awarded the contract by the Cabinet Office to carry out focus groups, to test the effectiveness of slogans such as \"Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives\", in June 2020.\n\nThe firm is run by Rachel Wolf, a former adviser to then Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, and James Frayne, a longstanding friend of Dominic Cummings, who was Prime Minister Boris Johnson's top adviser at the time.\n\nIn the original ruling, Mrs Justice O'Farrell found that the \"apparent bias\" in awarding the contract was not due to the existing relationships between Mr Cummings and Public First, but because of a failure to consider any other research agency and record the objective criteria used in the selection.\n\nBut on Tuesday morning, the Court of Appeal overturned that decision.\n\nThe £550,000 contract was awarded to Public First in June 2020\n\nLord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said: \"The fair-minded and reasonably informed observer would not have concluded that a failure to carry out a comparative exercise of the type identified by the judge created a real possibility that the decision-maker was biased.\"\n\nIn a tweet, Dominic Cummings said the Court of Appeal ruling was \"total vindication for my decisions on moving super speedy on procurement to save lives\".\n\nHe added: \"Remember all the ignorant nonsense from pundits/minor social scientists/Remainiacs?\"\n\nIn a disparaging reference to Good Law Project chief Jolyon Maugham, he said: \"Lord Chief Justice crushes kimono-fox-killer.\"\n\nMr Maugham said his group intended to take the case to the Supreme Court.\n\n\"This is the first substantive judgment against us since 2019. We think, with respect, it's wrong and we are asking for permission to go to the Supreme Court,\" the campaigning lawyer tweeted.\n\nMarch 2020 Public First asked to carry out focus groups and other research on recommendation of Dominic Cummings\n\nJune 2020 Cabinet Office awards Public First contract retrospectively and without bids from other suppliers under emergency coronavirus provisions\n\nJune 2021 High Court rules the contract unlawful, after a challenge by campaign group the Good Law Project\n\nJanuary 2022 The Court of Appeal overturns the High Court verdict\n\nThe Cabinet Office said it welcomed the Court of Appeal's ruling.\n\n\"Throughout the pandemic our priority has always been to save lives and the work by Public First helped to improve vitally important health messages,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nPublic First founding partner James Frayne said: \"Our team worked unbelievably hard for seven days a week - from early morning until late at night - during the height of the pandemic, helping to refine key messages that reduced the pressure on the NHS and prevented many casualties.\n\n\"Today's judgment rightly pays tribute to the team's efforts and reaffirms what we have always known: that they should be proud of their work.\"", "The funeral of primary school teacher Ashling Murphy has taken place in County Offaly in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nCrowds, including schoolchildren holding pictures of Ms Murphy, lined the streets as the cortege made its way to St Brigid's Church, Mountbolus.\n\nHer death has shocked the nation and tens of thousands of people have attended vigils in Ireland and further afield in her honour.\n\nMourners came out in force to pay their respects to the talented primary school teacher.\n\nThere has been an outpouring of grief and shock across the island of Ireland since Ms Murphy's death. The 23 year old was killed while out exercising on the towpath of the Grand Canal outside Tullamore on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nPupils from Durrow National School form a guard of honour for their beloved teacher.\n\nMs Murphy's family, including her sister Amy, were pictured comforting one another.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin was among the political dignitaries who came to pay their respects.\n\nRain did not stop the mourners, including these girls in the colours of Ms Murphy's Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club, where she played camogie.\n\nOther Kilcormac Killoughey camogie teammates provided a sea of colour on a dark day.\n\nMs Murphy was a talented fiddle player and her fellow musicians lined the route of the funeral procession and gave her a fitting send-off.\n\nBefore Mass began, Irish President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina hugged Ms Murphy's parents Raymond and Kathleen, her sister Amy, brother Cathal and boyfriend Ryan. The service, which was livestreamed, featured traditional Irish singers and musicians.\n\nDuring the service, mourners were told a \"depraved act of violence\" which deprived Ms Murphy of her life has united the country in grief and support.\n\nOther tributes to Ashling Murphy were held around Ireland - schools held a minute's silence and artist Sean Corcoran created this piece of sand art in Waterford.\n\nAll pictures are subject to copyright.", "A nursery in Edinburgh has been fined £800,000 after a baby boy in its care died after choking on a piece of mango.\n\nFox Goulding began to choke while eating dinner at Bright Horizons Nursery in Corstorphine on 9 July 2019.\n\nA staff member who returned from the toilet eventually realised the 10-month-old was not breathing. He died in hospital the next day.\n\nThe Crown Office said the death could have been preventable if staff had been properly supervised.\n\nThe staff member initially thought the child was sleeping when she returned from the toilet, but then realised he was not breathing.\n\nAn ambulance was called and staff attempted to dislodge the blockage in his airway by slapping him on the back. They also performed CPR.\n\nParamedics were able to remove the obstruction, which was later found to be a piece of mango.\n\nFox was taken to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children but died the following day.\n\nAn investigation found the employer, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Ltd, failed to provide employees at the nursery with suitable instruction and supervision to adequately control the risk of choking during mealtimes.\n\nThe investigation also found a number of other occasions when staff were involved with other tasks and therefore not watching the children eat.\n\nThe Bright Horizons Nursery was believed to be based inside the David Lloyd centre\n\nOn Tuesday the firm admitted failings under Health and Safety at Work legislation at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and was fined £800,000.\n\nSince the child's death the company has reviewed its policies and procedures, and provided additional training to all Scottish staff.\n\nAlistair Duncan, head of the health and safety investigation unit of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: \"This tragic death could have been prevented if staff had been given suitable instruction and supervision in relation to their duties to properly supervise children's mealtimes.\n\n\"Childcare providers have an enormous responsibility to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the children in their care, but in this case, Bright Horizons Family Solutions Ltd failed to live up to that responsibility.\n\n\"This should serve as a warning to others of the devastating consequences of such failures.\"\n\nThe Goulding family was represented by Glen Millar, a senior partner with Thompsons Solicitors, who said they did not take \"even the remotest sense of satisfaction\" from the outcome of the case.\n\nHe said: \"They remain today as they have since 9 July 2019; numb, and frankly disbelieving at the neglect that led to their beloved son Fox losing his young life.\n\n\"Fox was abandoned by professionals who had been entrusted with his care, flying in the face not only of the laws of health and safety but also principles of common sense and decency.\n\n\"The ultimate price was paid for that and, notwithstanding today's conviction, it is the family who continue to have to deal with the aftermath.\"\n\nRos Marshall, the managing director of Bright Horizons, said the company offered \"heartfelt apologies\" to the family and had \"comprehensively\" reviewed its operations, including mealtime safety procedures, staff training and supervision arrangements.\n\nShe said: \"Our acceptance of responsibility makes clear that the mealtime safety procedures we had in place at our Corstorphine Nursery in 2019 were not properly observed, with terrible consequences.\n\n\"Every day we care for children and fully appreciate that keeping children safe is always the first priority.\"\n• None Baby boy dies after choking on food at nursery", "JK Rowling told police her Edinburgh address had been revealed in a photo on Twitter\n\nNo action will be taken against transgender activists who targeted author JK Rowling, police have said.\n\nThe Harry Potter author complained to police after campaigners posted a photo of her Edinburgh home on Twitter.\n\nMs Rowling, who has been criticised for her views on transgender issues, described it as \"doxxing\" - the malicious act of publishing personal information.\n\nPolice Scotland have confirmed that no criminality was established.\n\nMs Rowling claimed her home address was exposed when a photo of the three people outside her home was put online in November.\n\nShe wrote on Twitter that the image depicted the activists in front of her home, \"carefully positioning themselves to ensure\" the address was visible.\n\nShe believed the activists had attempted to \"intimidate\" her out of \"speaking up for women's sex-based rights\".\n\nThe campaigners deleted the photo the day after it was posted.\n\nMs Rowling sparked controversy in June 2020 for posting tweets which took issue with the phrase \"people who menstruate\" - she objected to the avoidance of the use of the word \"women\".\n\nIn a lengthy blog post, the writer said her interest in trans issues stemmed from being a survivor of abuse and having concerns around single-sex spaces.\n\nCritics said her views \"diminished the identity\" of trans people, while stars from the Harry Potter films, including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, distanced themselves from her comments.\n\nA Police Scotland spokeswoman said: \"Inquiries were carried out and no criminality has been established.\"", "Ukrainian army reservists took part in exercises in December as tensions with Russia mounted\n\nBritain is supplying Ukraine with short-range anti-tank missiles for self-defence after Russia amassed about 100,000 troops on its border, the defence secretary said.\n\nBen Wallace told MPs a small team of British troops would also be sent to Ukraine to provide training.\n\nHe said there was \"legitimate and real cause for concern\" the Russian troops could be used for an invasion.\n\nRussia denies any invasion plans and accuses the West of aggression.\n\nDozens of British troops have been in Ukraine since 2015 to help train their armed forces, and the UK has also made a commitment to help rebuild Ukraine's navy following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014.\n\nBut Mr Wallace said the UK would be providing extra help with security in the light of Russia's \"increasingly threatening behaviour\".\n\nThe first batch of light anti-armour weapons was sent on Monday, although the defence secretary did not specify the type.\n\n\"Ukraine has every right to defend its borders and this new package of aid further enhances its ability to do so,\" he told MPs.\n\n\"Let me be clear: this support is for short-range and clearly defensive weapon capabilities; they are not strategic weapons and pose no threat to Russia; they are to use in self-defence.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe said there is \"a package of international sanctions ready to go\" if Russia should take any \"destabilising action\" in Ukraine.\n\nAny invasion would be viewed as an \"occupation\" which \"could lead to a huge loss of life on all sides\", the defence secretary said.\n\nHe said: \"We wish to be friends with the Russian people as we have been for hundreds of years. And there is a world in which we can establish a mutually beneficial relationship with Russia.\n\n\"I still remain hopeful that diplomacy will prevail. It is President Putin's choice whether to choose diplomacy and dialogue, or conflict and the consequences.\"\n\nThe Ukrainian ambassador to the UK welcomed Britain's decision to send weapons and extra troops, but told the BBC the biggest problem was that as they were not a member of Nato.\n\n\"We wanted to be in Nato... we are facing the biggest army in Europe by ourselves,\" said Vadym Prystaiko.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ukraine ambassador Vadym Prystaiko says they are \"facing the biggest army in Europe by ourselves\"\n\nConflict between Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and the Ukrainian military has continued since 2014, although a shaky ceasefire is in place.\n\nWestern and Ukrainian intelligence services have suggested an invasion or incursion could happen some time in early 2022, after Russian forces amassed on the border.\n\nMeanwhile, Russia has accused Nato countries of \"pumping\" Ukraine with weapons and said the US is stoking tensions in the region.\n\nIts main demand is to stop any expansion of Nato to the east, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov saying after recent talks that it is \"absolutely mandatory to ensure that Ukraine never, ever becomes a member of Nato\".", "The volcano erupted for several days. This photo was taken a day before the eruption that caused the tsunami\n\nExperts are trying to assess the impact of volcanic ash and toxic sulphuric gases in the air after a volcano erupted in Tonga on Saturday.\n\nThe eruption showered the Pacific islands with ash and triggered a tsunami.\n\nPeople have been advised to stay away from low-lying areas and beaches.\n\nNow, the priority is to find safe shelter and clean water, and to escape the volcanic smog.\n\nThe plumes of gas and debris from the volcano reached 20km (12 miles) into the sky - but the main health concerns are from ash in the air which people are breathing.\n\nA New Zealand government minister said there were \"high levels of sulphur in the air at the moment and also in the water\". They added that this was a risk to drinking water and fishing, which is vital to the Tongan people, and could lead to a rise in water temperatures.\n\nThe Red Cross says polluted drinking water, caused by volcanic ash and salt water from the tsunami, could affect tens of thousands of people and increase the risk of diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea.\n\nAsh, gases and particles emitted from volcanoes can be a public health risk. They cause problems with breathing and can affect the heart and blood vessels - the cardiovascular system - too.\n\nThey can also irritate the lungs, eyes and skin.\n\nCarol Stewart, associate professor of the College of Health, Massey University, said: \"Ashfall on the ground is not hazardous to breathing, but fine ash in the air can be inhaled.\n\n\"Very fine particles can travel deep into the lungs where, in the short-term, they can cause asthma symptoms to flare up. Slightly larger particles irritate the nose and throat, and cause coughs and sore throats.\"\n\nFresh ash particles typically have an acidic surface coating, and if they get in the eyes they can sting and cause scratching damage, and can irritate skin.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nLocals have been advised to drink bottled water and wear masks if they do go outdoors, to avoid breathing in the ash.\n\nCommunication lines with the affected islands are down, and getting aid to where it is most needed is not yet possible. Other countries are trying to fly in clean drinking water and other supplies, but so far have been unable to land.\n\nWhile some of the islands are unscathed, surveillance flights and satellite images reveal mass destruction on others - on one, an entire village is gone.\n\nThere are fears that communities may not have access to safe and clean drinking water as a result of salt-water inundation caused by the tsunami waves, and ashfall from the volcanic eruption.\n\nThe Red Cross charity has some relief workers on the ground, but has not been able to make contact with them for days. Phone and internet communications are extremely limited, meaning the situation in some areas remains unknown.\n\nSatellite phones are not working because of the ash cloud, and Tonga's main undersea communications cable is broken.\n\nA spokesman for the Red Cross explained: \"The last time we spoke to colleagues was on Saturday. That is a concern. They are trained to provide help and support and will be doing that, but we don't know the extent of need for the 100,000 residents who live in Tonga.\"\n\nThe teams will be supporting evacuations, providing first aid and distributing relief supplies which are already on the islands. \"We have enough to support 1,200 families in Tonga, but there could be many more who need them,\" he said.\n\nThe kits contain essential items such as tarpaulins, blankets, kitchen sets, sanitary products and water purification tablets. Clearing up the debris and repairing all of the damage is a priority, but will take time - and the people doing it will need protecting.\n\nTonga's deputy head of mission in Australia, Curtis Tu'ihalangingie, speaking to the BBC from Canberra, said: \"There will be health concerns as people are breathing it [ash], especially with a huge clean-up mission that is happening in Tonga now.\n\n\"[We have} about 200 volunteers, people coming to sweep the runway for the airport. We have to do it, but we know that there will be a long-term problem because people are breathing this ash, which is very dangerous.\"\n\nWhile aid is urgently needed, Tonga is concerned about the risk of deliveries spreading Covid to the islands, which have avoided the pandemic virus so far.\n\nThe clean-up operation will include ships from Australia and New Zealand to help with pumping out water. Stagnant pools could be a breeding ground for diseases such as cholera.\n\nMost of the people in Tonga are involved in agriculture and farming, meaning the longer-term devastation to lives and livelihoods will be huge.\n\nAre you, or a family member, in Tonga? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The next election for the Northern Ireland Assembly is due to take place on 5 May\n\nSix Stormont parties have signed a joint letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging him to withdraw plans to reintroduce double jobbing in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe practice of double jobbing was banned in Northern Ireland in 2016.\n\nThe government is now proposing to change this by amending a bill currently passing through Parliament.\n\nBut it is coming under pressure to reverse the plan, following criticism from most of the Stormont parties.\n\nThe proposal to re-introduce double jobbing, also known as a dual mandate, would bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK.\n\nIt has already been condemned by four of the five parties in the Stormont Executive as a \"stunt\" ahead of May's assembly election.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis was accused of \"slinging mud\" over the government's proposal to bring back dual mandates.\n\nAlliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood have come out strongly against the plan\n\nThe proposal would also allow Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May, while retaining his seat at Westminster.\n\nWhereas under the existing rules, Sir Jeffrey would have to stand down as an MP if he was elected to Stormont.\n\nIn a letter to Mr Johnson, the leaders of Alliance, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists, SDLP, Green Party and People Before Profit stressed their \"firm opposition\" to the amendment.\n\n\"The roles of MP and MLA are full time roles, and it is not possible for someone to simultaneously do full justice to both,\" they say.\n\n\"There has been no consultation with the Northern Ireland parties regarding this measure and it has been brought forward just months away from an assembly election, which cannot be seen as impartial benefitting as it does only one party.\n\n\"It has also departed from the stated position of the Northern Ireland Office that such amendments would only be considered where \"sufficient consensus\" exists: in fact, all parties with the exception of the DUP are firmly opposed to any return to double jobbing.\"\n\nThe move will allow DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May while retaining his Westminster seat\n\nThe DUP has said other parties should \"stop faking outrage\" over the issue, with Sir Jeffrey denying claims that his party did a deal with the UK government to bring back double jobbing.\n\nThe government is due to bring the amendment before the House of Lords on Wednesday during the latest stage of the Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Bill.\n\nTo defeat it, Labour would need the support of the Liberal Democrats and a number of cross-bench peers.\n\nThe amendment will bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK on the principle of allowing dual mandates, but the mechanics and timeline differ between regions.\n\nIt is time limited to run for the duration of the Parliament session at the time of the assembly election - in this case two years.\n\nThe option will be open for future MPs to avail of the same route, but will be time limited to the next parliamentary election.\n\nSeveral other amendments have also been proposed as part of the bill, which will have to return to the Commons again before the legislation can become law.", "Most experts agree that the data is encouraging. The numbers of Covid patients in hospital looks to have peaked and is starting to level out at around 25% lower than the peak last winter, with far fewer people in intensive care.\n\nBetter treatments and vaccines have helped, but many health boards remain under severe pressure, focusing only on urgent and emergency care.\n\nStaff absences are at their highest since April 2020 when the NHS was directing almost all of its attention to Covid, and today's data shows record waits for people to access care in Emergency Departments.\n\nMedics say there are hopeful signs but it is still too early to say that the corner has been turned.", "More than 12,500 people have died with coronavirus, since the first reported death in Scotland on 13 March 2020.\n\nHere are the stories of some of those who have lost their lives.\n\nIf you would like to pay tribute to a loved one lost to Covid, please use the form below or email newsonline-scotland@bbc.co.uk and ensure you have read our terms and conditions and privacy policy.\n\nJean was born in 1937 Maryhill and spoke often and fondly of her childhood in \"the Butney\". This involved real hardships - including war-time evacuation to Holytown - though Jean's memories were all good and Maryhill became a touchstone when dementia became a factor in recent years.\n\nWorking at Rolls-Royce Hillington, Jean was transferred to its Derby HQ where, as a young woman, she made small component parts for jet engines. Even in her 80s, Jean could still perform all the machinist actions (with sound effects).\n\nShe loved to paint landscapes and had a life-long passion for music, especially jazz (with Frankie and Ella being constants). She was a great singer and dancer, always up for fun and laughs, brightening up any party.\n\nHer family said Jean was a fabulous mum to two daughters, a brilliant friend, and a warm-hearted women with kindness for everyone and anyone. She died on 27 October 2020.\n\nRashelle Baird's family describe her as \"kind, bubbly, and always the life and soul of the party\".\n\nThe 27-year-old mother-of-three from Brechin had put off appointments to get the vaccine because she was busy with her children.\n\nHer family stressed she was not anti-vaccine. \"She wanted to get her vaccine but she put her kids first,\" her father Stephen said.\n\nRashelle, who had asthma, initially thought she had caught a cold from her children, but her symptoms worsened and she was admitted to hospital.\n\nShe died in November 2021 after several days in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, having been placed in an induced coma in the intensive care unit.\n\nDavid Trower worked as a clerical officer in the A&E department of University Hospital Monklands in Airdrie before retiring in 2016.\n\nBut he was committed to the NHS and even in retirement he chose to continue to work shifts, through NHS Lanarkshire's staff bank, right up until February. He died on 9 March 2021, aged 67.\n\nHis colleagues thought highly of him, saying: \"We have many happy memories of shifts together, laughs, nights out, and listening to all his stories of his many holidays abroad. We will miss him.\"\n\nBernadette White, his sister, said he was a caring, gentle and loving man with a wicked sense of humour.\n\nShe added: \"The last seven years, I would say, is when David started to live his life, doing the things that made him happy without having to worry about anyone else.\"\n\nStephen Stewart met his future wife, Heather, at a youth club when he was just 14. They got engaged on his 17th birthday and he had just turned 20 when they married.\n\nThe couple, who lived in Motherwell, came from \"very different\" backgrounds but they grew up together during their 25-year marriage while raising their only child.\n\nStephen took pride in his work for concrete manufacturer FP McCann, latterly as a lab technician working out what strength the concrete needed to be for certain projects.\n\nOutside work, he loved fishing, computer games, gadgets and during the first lockdown he managed to build a hot tub shelter with the help of a series of YouTube videos.\n\nHe died of Covid pneumonia at University Hospital Wishaw on 19 February 2021, aged 45.\n\nNan Douglas worked her way up from shorthand typist to headteacher during a remarkable career.\n\nShe was already a mother of three when she left her job as a school secretary at West Calder High School to enrol at Moray House in Edinburgh where she qualified as a primary school teacher.\n\nAfter losing her husband John when she was just 43, she found solace in working with disabled children and went on to be appointed head of Pinewood Special School in Blackburn, West Lothian.\n\nFollowing a spell living in Cornwall during her retirement, she returned to Scotland where she hosted a \"living wake\" with 80 friends and family on her 90th birthday.\n\nShe lived independently in Milnathort, Kinross, and was admitted to hospital for a minor issue just before Christmas 2020. But she picked up Covid and never left. She died on 19 February 2021, aged 95.\n\nGraeme McGrath's greatest passions were rowing and the River Clyde.\n\nOn the day of his funeral, fellow rowers held oars in a guard of honour at Glasgow Green in a tribute appreciated by his wife Anne and their three sons.\n\nFor 40 years Graeme volunteered with the Glasgow Humane Society and was often called on to row rescue boats on the Clyde, or to help evacuate families during floods.\n\nAfter undergoing a kidney transplant in his 50s, he was unable to get out on the river as much. He retired from his job as a Thomas Cook travel agent and moved to Prestwick in Ayrshire.\n\nBut he still felt the pull of the Clyde and regularly returned to the city to meet friends and row safety boats at regattas.\n\nHe died with Covid on 15 February 2021 at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, aged 66, after being admitted for an infection affecting his heart.\n\nTommy Morrow spent most of his life in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, where he met his partner Jackie and raised their children, Demi and Mark.\n\nHis family described him as a character and not a day went by without them laughing at his jokes.\n\nHe loved camping and fishing in places like Stornoway with his friends but the most important people in his life were his family, including grandchildren, Lacey and Louden.\n\nDuring his career he worked in various well-known hotels and restaurants in Glasgow but he had not worked for some years due to poor health, including COPD.\n\nHe died with Covid on 15 February 2021, aged 53. \"It was so cruel - he was so close to getting the vaccine,\" his family said.\n\nTommy Rooney was a bus driver for 36 years and hugely popular with colleagues at First Bus in Larbert.\n\nOn the day of his funeral they were among dozens of people who lined the streets and applauded as his cortege passed the depot.\n\nFirst Bus operations manager Jason Hackett told the Falkirk Herald that Tommy was the \"heart and soul\" of the Larbert station.\n\nMarried to Margaret, the Bonnybridge man had two daughters and a granddaughter who described him as a \"humble but proud family man who put everyone else's needs before his own\".\n\nAn avid Celtic fan, he spent much of the pandemic driving key workers to their essential duties. He died on 12 February 2021, aged 57.\n\nDavid Gray's first grandchild - a girl called Islay - was born in July 2020. The proud \"papa\" used to say that she was the love of his life and she gave him a reason to wake up in the morning.\n\nTragically, the 62-year-old only got to spend five months with her before falling ill with Covid. He died on 3 February 2021.\n\nDavid lived in Erskine and worked for BAE Systems for 20 years, first as a mechanical fitter then as records manager dealing with secret files for the Ministry of Defence.\n\nHis family describe him as \"music daft\" - he played guitar and he was performing a gig with his band in Glasgow when he met his wife, Joyce, 40 years ago.\n\nThey went on to have two children - Darren and Danielle - as well as his beloved Cocker Spaniels, Buster and Shimmer, who he described as his \"bairns\".\n\nHarry Osborne was a Dunkirk veteran whose life was full of adventures - his daughter said he was still able to recall stories until just a few days before he died.\n\nMr Osborne was deployed to France months after joining the Territorial Army in Glasgow, served with the 77th Highland Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery and later became a surveyor.\n\nFriends recall how upon joining, he promised his mother he would not swear and instead would say \"cricky jings\", which became his nickname in the forces.\n\nHe was also known as a keen golfer with a \"wicked sense of humour\".\n\nMr Osborne died from Covid-19 on 25 January, nine months after celebrating his 100th birthday.\n\nConnie Simpson's grandchildren say she was more like a pal than a granny - she was full of fun and laughter, and was always the first up to dance at a party.\n\nBorn in Kinning Park, Glasgow, she moved to the east end after marrying John who she met at the Barrowlands when they were teenagers.\n\nWhile John was away with the Merchant Navy, she brought up their four children in a house \"surrounded by love\", before taking work as a curtain consultant.\n\nShe was fabulous even in her 80s - she loved getting her hair, eyebrows and manicure done, meeting friends at Mecca Bingo in Parkhead and at a local pensioners' club.\n\nConnie died on 23 January 2021 at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow, aged 82.\n\nSheila Gartly was as \"bright as a button\" and the \"heart of our family\", her loved ones said.\n\nShe was born and brought up in Deskford, Moray, before marrying and moving to Keith in 1954. Widowed in 1975, she remarried but lost her second husband in 2005.\n\nDuring her working life she had jobs in a florist and in a fish shop - both of which she thoroughly enjoyed.\n\nShe loved to watch the birds in her garden, read her daily newspaper, listen to traditional Scottish music, and the spring and summer when the nights were lighter and flowers bloomed.\n\nIn 2019 she had surgery on a broken leg but she was recovering well. She died with Covid on 19 January 2021, aged 86.\n\nAlex Goldie was an electrical engineer who latterly worked as a lecturer at Stow College in Glasgow before his retirement.\n\nHis family said he was a gregarious man, always interested in other people, who took great delight and pride in the antics and education of his two great-grandsons, Charlie and Joe.\n\nDuring his long life he enjoyed skiing, tennis, pottery, sailing, golf, holidays in Europe, Australia and North America, single malts and red wine.\n\nHe had been well cared for by Randolph Hill nursing home in Dunblane for 19 months after developing dementia. Covid restrictions meant he had not seen his family, other than by Skype, for a year.\n\nHe is thought to have contracted the virus on a trip to A&E after a fall. He died on 14 January, aged 100.\n\nVincent Logan became one of the youngest bishops in the world when he was ordained Bishop of Dunkeld in 1981, aged 39.\n\nHe served the Roman Catholic diocese for almost 32 years before his retirement in 2012.\n\nThe Scottish Catholic Church said he was \"dedicated and energetic\" and had \"an energy and zeal in all he did\".\n\nBorn in Bathgate in 1941, he was ordained a priest in Edinburgh in 1964. He died on 14 January, aged 79, the day after his friend the Archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia.\n\n\"Both bishops succumbed to the lethal effects of the coronavirus,\" the current Bishop of Dunkeld, Stephen Robson, added.\n\nThe Archbishop of Glasgow, the Most Reverend Philip Tartaglia, died suddenly at his home in the city on 13 January - the Feast of St Mungo, the Patron Saint of Glasgow.\n\nHe had been self-isolating after testing positive for Covid shortly after Christmas.\n\nBorn in Glasgow in 1951, he was ordained a priest in 1975 and had served as leader of Scotland's largest Catholic community since 2012.\n\nScotland's Catholic bishops described Archbishop Tartaglia as a \"gentle, caring and warm-hearted pastor who combined compassion with a piercing intellect\".\n\nAmong those who paid tribute were First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken, who described the archbishop as \"a true Glaswegian\".\n\nLiz Shingleston was a well-known figure in the village of Dunragit and her death on 13 January had a big impact on the small community near Stranraer.\n\n\"Her hearse passed the bottom of the village and the amount of people who turned out to pay their respects was overwhelming,\" said her daughter, Lisa.\n\nLiz spent her early childhood in New Luce but moved to the railway station cottage in Dunragit where her father worked as a signalman.\n\nDuring a varied working life, Liz left school to work in the laboratory of the nearby Nestle factory and later replaced her own mother as the local school's dinner lady.\n\nThe 73-year-old was devoted to her grandchildren and great-grandson but she also liked to treat herself to afternoon tea (with Prosecco) at Trump Turnberry.\n\nHugh Polland, who was known as Shug to his friends and family, was born and raised in Glasgow's Easterhouse.\n\nHe was well known in the area where he ran the Casbah Pub for many years during the 1980s and early 90s.\n\nA huge Celtic fan, he loved to play golf and took up photography later in life - becoming \"unofficial photographer\" at many friends' weddings, christening and parties.\n\n\"Everyone wanted him at their party not just to take photos but because of his personality,\" said his son, Tony McAllister. \"Everyone loved him because what you seen is what you got.\"\n\nShug died at Glasgow Royal Infirmary on 5 January, aged 70. His sudden death has left his family heartbroken.\n\nFor more than 75 years George Wight lived on his dairy farm in the village of Drumoak in Aberdeenshire.\n\nBut he had more than one string to his bow - as well as being a dairy farmer, for 25 years he was also the publican of his local, the Irvine Arms.\n\nA loyal Aberdeen FC fan, he was one of the lucky ones - he was in Gothenburg in 1983 to see the his beloved Dons lift the European Cup Winners Cup.\n\nHe was devoted to his family, including wife Claire and their four children, and despite suffering a series of bereavements and health setbacks, he always bounced back.\n\n\"He was an inspiration and a hardy soul who kept going no matter what life threw at him,\" they said. George died at a nursing home on 4 January 2021, aged 85.\n\nHugh Bell loved to dance. As a young man, when he doing his national service with the RAF, he was a regular at the dancing at the YMCA in Paisley.\n\nIt was there he met the love of his life, Margaret. They were married for 63 years and had two children Alan and Stuart. Margaret passed away in 2013.\n\nA keen ballroom dancer, Hugh was often first on the dance floor and in his later years he enjoyed dancing to the entertainment at Southerness caravan park, near Dumfries, where Stuart and his friend had a holiday home.\n\nHe was a bright, bubbly sociable man who spent a career in logistics before working as a lollipop man in his retirement.\n\nHugh died on 31 December at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, aged 92.\n\nDavid Warnock was a keen sportsman who loved squash, tennis, rugby, football, cycling and climbing munros.\n\nIn fact, it was on the tennis courts in Aberdeen that he met his teenage sweetheart, Zena. He was 17 and she was 14 - they were married for 62 years.\n\nAn electrical engineer, he worked for Pye Communications, moving first to Cambridge and then Edinburgh.\n\nHe was a quiet man who never complained about anything and was happiest around his family - including four children, 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.\n\nHis second great-grandchild was born shortly after he died in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on 31 December. He was 85.\n\nHenry Anderson, an SNP councillor on Perth and Kinross Council, died with Covid on 27 December.\n\nHe had represented the Almond and Earn ward since 2012 and colleagues said he would be \"hugely missed\".\n\nAmong those who paid tribute to the 68-year-old was Deputy First Minister John Swinney, who described him as \"a good, decent man and a faithful councillor\".\n\nMurray Lyle, the leader of Perth and Kinross Council, said Mr Anderson was an excellent advocate for his ward and \"passionate about local issues\".\n\n\"I had the pleasure of working with Henry for several years on the Local Review Body and always his enjoyed his company, good humour and sense of fun when we were out visiting planning sites.\"\n\nTeenage sweethearts Bryson Mitchell and his wife Irene were due to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary in January,\n\nThey met when he was an 18-year-old apprentice electrician and was assigned to a contract with the company where Irene, who was 16, was working.\n\nAfter marrying in 1961, Bryson spent his adult life in Paisley and 35 years working as an aircraft electrician with British Airways.\n\nThe couple had two children and four grandchildren, who described him as a quiet man with a great sense of humour. \"He was kind and generous, very hardworking, and he lived for his family,\" they said.\n\nHe was in hospital being treated for an acute illness when he contracted Covid. He died on Christmas Eve, aged 82.\n\nAs a child, Sandy Adam survived pioneering surgery to remove his voice box - an operation that left him unable to speak normally.\n\nInstead he learned a different way to communicate - oesophageal speech (swallowing air) - by drinking lots of lemonade. He had a life-long hatred of the fizzy drink after that.\n\nAfter training to be a dentist in Dundee, he returned to his hometown of Aberdeen. In addition to surgeries around the city, at one time he worked at Craiginches Prison one afternoon a week.\n\nA father and a grandfather, he loved tinkering with cars, pranking his two children and sitting in the sun with a glass of red wine.\n\nThe 81-year-old, who had dementia, died on 16 December, shortly after testing positive for Covid.\n\nDavid Barr was born and grew up in Paisley and for more than 40 years he worked in the town's Anchor Mill.\n\nAs well as being a keen bowler, a church elder, and an active member of Martyrs Church Men's Club, he had a gift for carpentry.\n\nThe dolls houses and garages that he made for his children and grandchildren were much loved and they are still treasured.\n\nHis favourite place in the world was the East Neuk of Fife, where he spent many happy holidays.\n\nDavid had an underlying respiratory condition and he was admitted to hospital with shortness of breath in December. He died within days of being diagnosed with Covid on 16 December, aged 86.\n\nAna Lisa Sayson was a nurse who moved from the Philippines to work for the NHS in Scotland.\n\nShe was a staff nurse at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow before she moved to Glasgow Royal Infirmary during the Covid crisis. The mother-of-two died on 15 December after testing positive for the virus.\n\n\"Ana Lisa was a much-loved member of the team and an incredibly compassionate nurse who was devoted to the care of her patients,\" said John Stuart, the chief nurse at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.\n\n\"Ana Lisa came to our country from the Philippines to care for our loved ones and my heart goes out to her family and especially her husband and children.\n\n\"My thoughts, and the thoughts of all of her NHS family here in Glasgow, are with them at this terribly sad time.\"\n\nBilly and May Fannin were married for 62 years after meeting at a ballroom in Glasgow in 1955.\n\nMay was a bookkeeper who gave up her job to look after her grandchildren in the 1980s. \"Her life revolved around her four grandchildren,\" their younger daughter Jennifer told BBC Scotland.\n\nBilly was a joiner by trade but his real passion was singing, performing under the name Scott Allan. And as a member of Equity, he also took on work as an extra on TV programmes like Take the High Road and Taggart.\n\nHe loved being the centre of attention and \"if he was chocolate he would have eaten himself\", Jennifer joked.\n\nWhen the couple from Barrhead caught Covid, their two daughters also fell ill with the virus and had to self-isolate. They were heartbroken they could not be with their 84-year-old mother when she died in hospital on 6 December.\n\nBut they chose not tell their 88-year-old father about her death, as he was also in hospital and had dementia. Jennifer was able to visit him to say goodbye before he slipped away just eight days after the passing of his wife.\n\nShe was president of the city's Bangladesh Association, a civil servant at Glasgow City Council and, according to her family, \"a pillar of the community\".\n\nThey said she was a \"devoted mother, daughter, aunt and friend [but] she would prefer to be remembered as a social activist, volunteer and community advocate\".\n\nBoth Mridula and her husband, Sarwar Hassan, were admitted to hospital with Covid in November. He was discharged but Mridula was moved to Aberdeen for specialist treatment.\n\nHer husband and two sons were able to spend time with her before she died at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on 12 December, aged 50.\n\nBridget Turner and her husband Alan worked for years in the window blinds industry before setting up their own business, A&B Window Blinds, in 1992.\n\nThey lived next door to the shop in Paisley, where Bridget worked in the office and Alan went out to do the measuring. Their years of hard work paid off and the family business remains successful.\n\nThe mother-of-three \"loved a good gab and a good catch-up with friends\", according to her daughter, Lisa. \"She was amazing, such a good friend to lots of people.\"\n\nWhen the children were young, family holidays were spent at the Isle of Whithorn but later the couple, who moved to Greenock, spent winters in Gran Canaria where they made friends from around the world.\n\nBridget was treated for Covid at Inverclyde Royal Hospital, where she received \"amazing care\". She died, aged 71, on 7 December after saying goodbye to her family.\n\nAndrew Slorance was a civil servant in charge of the Scottish government's planning and response to crisis situations - including the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nHe grew up in Hawick and became a journalist before joining the Scotland Office. He led the new Scottish Parliament's media team when it opened in 1999, then became the official spokesman for First Minister Alex Salmond.\n\nA father-of-five, he was diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma in 2015. He documented his experience of the rare cancer - including six rounds of chemotherapy - in a blog he called \"The fight of my life\".\n\nHe relapsed in 2019 and a stem cell transplant scheduled for Easter 2020 was delayed by Covid. While shielding at home in Edinburgh, he spent the first part of the pandemic working on the government's response from a spare room.\n\nMr Slorance was finally admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow for his stem cell transplant in October. He tested positive for Covid shortly after that and died on 5 December, aged 49.\n\nTributes from across the political spectrum, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, have been paid to Mr Slorance. His wife, Louise, told BBC Scotland: \"He was a proud family man who was the life and soul of any party, loving and loyal.\"\n\nAllan Harper was a salesman at Topps Tiles for 23 years, mainly in the Hillington branch.\n\nHe met Caroline through a dating website 21 years ago. They were due to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in July.\n\nA father-of-one, he lived in Craigton, in the south-west of Glasgow, where he enjoyed computer games and playing pool with work colleagues.\n\nCaroline said they would spend their days off and holidays together with their three cats \"who sometimes got more attention than me\".\n\nHe was a kind man, a \"true gentleman\" and her \"forever love\", she added. He died on 1 December 2020, aged 60.\n\nEileen Terry was born and brought up in Renfrew before marrying Bob and moving to Milngavie in 1968.\n\nHe was a keen golfer and when their sons, Robert and David, reached secondary school she decided the time was right to join him on the golf course.\n\nIt led to a lifetime's love of the sport and she became the ladies captain of Clober Golf Club in 2001 - the club's centenary year.\n\nHer family say she was a kind and generous lady who was well-known in her local community, where she worked as a home help until her retirement.\n\nShe spent her final years in Mavisbank Nursing Home in Bishopbriggs after developing vascular dementia. She died in hospital on 25 November 2020, aged 84.\n\nDavie Burgess was one of 10 siblings born in the Townhead area of Glasgow, but he had a lifelong love of the fresh air and the scenery of the Scottish countryside.\n\nAs a young man, he worked as a fireman on the steam train to Crianlarich - a trip which included a two-hour stopover allowing him to explore the hills.\n\nLater in life he loved driving up to Acharacle to visit his son and his family, where he could go for long walks with his grandchildren and their dog, Mac.\n\nMarried for 60 years to May, the father-of-three worked for the Milk Marketing Board at Hogganfield Loch. He was a hard worker who even after he \"retired\" took on three jobs, including running a caravan park.\n\nHis family described him as a \"gentleman\" and a \"man of pride\". He died on 25 November, aged 86.\n\nRod Moore spent 40 years with the ambulance service, working as a technician, a paramedic, a trainer and then in managerial roles before returning to the front line and the job he loved.\n\nThe football fan from Falkirk was married to Clare for 31 years and they had a son, Craig.\n\n\"He was my best friend, he was always happy, joking around all the time, he was so funny... he made me laugh every day,\" Clare told BBC Scotland.\n\nAnd he was so close to their son \"you wouldn't have got a sheet of paper between them\", she added.\n\nAlthough they were not able to see Rod for four weeks while he was treated in hospital for Covid, they we allowed one final visit to say goodbye before he died on 21 November, aged 63.\n\nTom Kenmure was a manager at the Tesco distribution centre in Livingston, where he had worked for 28 years.\n\nThe 51-year-old was a friendly, sociable man and in normal times he liked nothing better than driving around the country exploring \"any little shop he could find\".\n\nAfter the restrictions came into force, the father-of-two from Carluke did everything he could to keep himself and his family safe from Covid.\n\nBut on the 6 October he felt a tightness in his chest on his way to work and had to get tested. It came back positive the next day.\n\nHe spent two weeks in Wishaw General before being transferred to an ECMO machine at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He died on 17 November.\n\nAndrew, or \"Andra\", Kettrick was a porter at Stirling Royal Infirmary for 28 years.\n\nHe would take patients out on \"mystery tours\" in a \"big blue hospital ambulance bus\" his son, also Andrew, told BBC Scotland.\n\n\"The old people loved my dad as he would often stop and buy them all fish and chips or ice cream - all this was paid for out of his pocket,\" he said.\n\nMr Kettrick's work was recognised by hospital bosses and they put him forward for a British Empire Medal which he received in 1991.\n\nThe father-of-three, from Cowie, Stirling, died at Caledonia Court care home in Larbert on 17 November. He was 86.\n\nJim - Flocky - Flockhart was the public face of the firefighters' strike in Glasgow in 1973.\n\nA leading figure in the Fire Brigade Union, he regularly appeared on TV and in newspapers during the controversial 10-day strike over pay.\n\nFirefighting was a dangerous - sometimes fatal - job in the \"tinderbox city\" and Jim was hailed a hero by colleagues after the dispute ended with a famous victory for the strikers.\n\nHe retired to Darvel in Ayrshire where he enjoyed a pint in the Black Bull and spent many years driving friends and local elderly men on trips around Scotland and to Ireland.\n\nA father and grandfather, he died with Covid on 13 November with his daughters Yvonne and Julie by his side. He was 77.\n\nTom Maley never wanted for anything, but after enduring months of Covid restrictions this year the 73-year-old retired joiner set his heart on a big Christmas tree.\n\nIt had been a tough year for the normally sociable pensioner who was renowned for his jokes (good and bad) and was devoted to his wife of 53 years, Georgina, and their family.\n\nThey usually decorate a small table-top tree for the festive season, but this year Mr Maley ordered a 5ft showstopper illuminated with multi-coloured stars to fill the window of their Grangemouth home.\n\nThe great-grandfather will never get to see the tree in its full glory. He died at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert on 12 November, shortly after falling ill with Covid-19.\n\nHis granddaughter Claire Taylor told BBC Scotland, said: \"My gran has made sure that the tree he ordered will go up and it will shine bright for Granda.\"\n\nTracey Donnelly was born and brought up in Edinburgh but she moved to the north-east of England after meeting her husband, George.\n\n\"I loved her the first time I saw her, and I always will,\" he said. \"She was so loving and kind - just an extra-special person in every way.\"\n\nTracey had four children, three step-children and eight grandchildren, and she worked as a support worker for the North East Autism Society.\n\nCare manager Michael Ross, said: \"She loved her family, and she loved the service-users in her care. This tragic news has ripped the heart out of the team and her colleagues are absolutely devastated.\"\n\nShe died at Sunderland General Hospital in mid-November after testing positive for coronavirus. She was 53.\n\nJim Grant was originally from Bo'ness but he spent most of his life in Grangemouth where he brought up two daughters, Margaret and Senga, with his wife Mary.\n\nHe worked as a labourer at BP before taking early retirement when he was 60.\n\nThe 88-year-old great-grandfather spent his last months at the Caledonian Court care home in Larbert before his death on 8 November. He was one of 20 residents who died in the space of a month after testing positive for Covid-19.\n\nHis granddaughter, Nicole Ritchie, said he was a gentleman who always had a huge smile on his face, and his death had had a huge impact on the family.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland \"As a family, we would like to thank Caledonian Court from the bottom of our hearts. They looked after my grandad for the last 11 months of his life and they couldn't have done a better job, he was so happy and very well looked after.\"\n\nFor more than 20 years until her retirement in February 2020, Liz Khan was a support worker for adults with learning and physical disabilities.\n\nShe also ran a drama group for them - it was always more than a job to her, her family said.\n\nLiz was also an elder at her local church, St Margaret's Parish Church in the Muirhouse area of Motherwell, North Lanarkshire.\n\n\"She devoted her life to her work, church and family,\" her children Stephen, Sonia and Lorraine told BBC Scotland.\n\nLiz died in hospital with Covid on 26 October 2020, aged 67 - eight months into her retirement.\n\nWhen Marie Ward broke her wrist in 2019, she asked her consultant whether she would be able to play the piano once it had healed.\n\nHe assured her she would, but when she replied \"that's great because I couldn't before\", the previously serious and solemn medic cracked up.\n\nShe was always laughing and joking, according to her granddaughter, Abby McNicol, and she enjoyed nothing more than knitting, shopping and a \"good blether\".\n\nMarried to Robert for 53 years, they started life together in a single-end tenement in Househillwood in Glasgow. Moving to a three-bedroom council house in Johnstone was \"like winning the lottery\".\n\nThe mother-of-three and grandmother-of-11 died on 18 October 2020, aged 83.\n\nFrances Brown spent lockdown shielding in her room in the Glasgow care home where she had lived for almost 10 years.\n\nAfter months of keeping in touch via video calls, the 76-year-old was finally able to meet up with her sister, Anne Turnbull, in August.\n\nMs Turnbull said her sister, who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and bi-polar disorder, had a special bond with staff at the David Cargill care home.\n\nAnd she praised the home which remained Covid-free until a staff member tested positive on 4 October. Frances contracted the virus and died in hospital on 13 October.\n\nIn a statement, the care home described Frances as \"the most incredible woman, a real character, and an absolute pleasure to know and care for\".\n\nAfter a long battle against illness throughout the year, great grandfather Charlie Armstrong died on 10 October.\n\nThe 82-year-old retired property manager from Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, had been allowed home after receiving treatment at Glasgow Royal Infirmary for chest problems.\n\nEight days later he was readmitted to the hospital and tested positive for coronavirus. The family say they were told he must have contracted Covid during his earlier stay at the Infirmary.\n\nHis wife, Joyce, who was also treated in hospital for the virus, said: \"He was very generous, very loving and very funny and he hated seeing anybody being put down. He didn't like to see injustice. He would stand up for people.\n\n\"We were together for 40 years and he was a very good father and a very good husband to me.\"\n\nMargaret Kerrigan was a \"force to be reckoned with\", according to her family - a matriarch who commanded respect.\n\nShe was born in Plymouth but her family moved to Glasgow when she was young. Growing up in Govan in the 1950s, she learned to be a \"tough cookie\".\n\nIt meant she must have been perfectly suited to her job as bar manager at Curlers in Byres Road in the 1960s. And it was there she met Joe, a customer at the pub, who she married in 1970.\n\nHe worked as a school janitor during many of their 50 years of marriage, and they had four sons, 12 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.\n\nClydebank Bowling Club provided Joe with a good social life, while Margaret loved having her family around her and going to the bingo.\n\nJoe had dementia and he died at Hill View care home in Dalmuir on 19 April 2020, aged 78. Margaret fell ill during the second wave and died in hospital on 8 October, aged 73.\n\nFormer ambulance technician George Cairns was a resident at LittleInch Care Home in Inchinnan, Renfrewshire.\n\nHis family said the move from his Renfrew flat to the home in January had reinvigorated him and brought out his mischievous sense of humour.\n\nDuring the lockdown period Mr Cairns, who was bipolar, even joked about topping up his tan in the garden.\n\nThe 71-year-old tested positive for Covid-19 on 8 May despite displaying no symptoms, but his condition deteriorated and he died in the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley nine days later.\n\nHis daughter, Gillian, paid tribute to his caring nature, saying: \"Even if you only met him once he would tell you a story, a terrible joke or offer a supportive ear when you needed it the most.\"\n\nRetired farmer Jock Brown was a keen ice hockey player in his youth, and he represented Scotland for six years in the 1950s.\n\nHe told his family that he was selected for the team because he was the only Scotsman who played as goal tender (goalkeeper) at the time. They insist this is not true.\n\nMarried to Mary for 48 years, they had two children and four grandchildren.\n\nHe farmed near Falkirk - on land next to what is now home to The Kelpies - until his retirement in the 1980s.\n\nMr Brown's family said he was a quiet man with a great sense of humour. He had dementia and he died with Covid-19 at Burnbrae care home in Falkirk on 14 May. He was 89.\n\nIna Beaton was a well-known figure on the Isle of Skye and she lived in her own home in Balmaqueen until two years ago.\n\nShe died on 11 May aged 103, the seventh resident of Home Farm care home in Portree to die after contracting Covid-19.\n\nIna lived through the Great War and the 1919 Spanish Flu outbreak. During World War Two she moved to Glasgow to work as a conductress on the trams and survived the Clydebank blitz.\n\nHer grandson, Ailean Beaton, said his loss was shared across the island, especially the north end \"where she was mum, granny, friend to more than just the Beatons.\n\n\"Her crystal memory and broad experience of life in Skye over several generations meant that she contributed to our shared knowledge of the place we're from, its language and culture,\" he added.\n\nBetty Steele grew up in Paisley but later moved to Corby, Northamptonshire - the town known as \"little Scotland\".\n\nShe had seven children, 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, and she lived for her family, according to her granddaughter, Debbie Smiley.\n\nHer house was always the meeting point, and she was the life and soul of the party.\n\n\"She had such a zest for life, and anything she did it was done with care and love for others,\" Debbie added.\n\nJohn Angus Gordon, 83, spent the last few years of his life at the Home Farm care home in Portree on Skye.\n\nHe had dementia and the sense of touch reassured him - he liked to shake a hand or hold the hand of the person he was talking to.\n\nUnable to visit the home, his family spoke to him for the last time in a video-call a few hours before he died on 5 May.\n\nAs he listened to their voices, he reached out to the hand of the carer sitting with him, dressed in full personal protective equipment.\n\n\"We found it quite poignant that my dad put out his hand to hers and she was wearing these blue protective gloves,\" said his son, John.\n\nPaul McCaffrey was an \"amazing dad\" of two children and two step-children who was always busy, according to his partner Caroline McNultry.\n\n\"He was always helping someone, whether he was in someone's house helping them out or just on-the-go in work all the time,\" she said.\n\nThe healthy 49-year-old from Glasgow fell ill after returning home from work at a care home where he was a highly-regarded maintenance manager.\n\nRather than the traditional coronavirus symptoms, he complained of a headache and aching limbs but he was eventually admitted to hospital in Glasgow where he tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nHe was transferred to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where he could be hooked up to an ECMO machine, which performs the tasks of the lungs. After three weeks, he died on 4 May.\n\nHGV driver Jim Russell kept his lorries so spotlessly clean he was known as \"Big Gorgeous\" by colleagues who joked that he must have worn his slippers in his cab.\n\nHe was a big character who loved cars, trucks, motorbikes, lorries and going to Truckfest with his fiancée Connie McCready, who he affectionately nicknamed \"Isa\" after the Still Game character.\n\nThis photograph was taken at the last concert the couple attended together on 8 March 2020.\n\nThey met online in 2014 and were due to get married last summer but Mr Russell fell ill with Covid three weeks after the concert. He died on 4 May, aged 51.\n\n\"Everyone is talking about life getting back to normal when coming out of lockdown, however for myself and many many others we are terrified as our lives will never be normal again,\" Connie said.\n\nClive Andrews was born in Trinidad and in 1967 he moved to Edinburgh where he \"immediately felt like he belonged\", according to his daughter, Nadine.\n\nThe father-of-six worked as a senior lecturer in ergonomics at Napier College, but he was also committed to the arts.\n\nDevoted to promoting and supporting artists and musicians, he held committee roles with groups including Theatre Alba and the Scottish Arts Council.\n\nHe helped establish the Edinburgh International Harp Festival and volunteered every year for decades with the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival.\n\nClive was a lover of life (and of salsa dancing), his family said. He died at The Elms Care Home in Edinburgh on 3 May 2020, aged 86.\n\nRobert Black was a paramedic but he was also a talented musician and part of the team behind Argyll FM.\n\nPaying tribute to him on social media, the community radio station said he was \"a genuine good guy... everyone was his pal\".\n\nThe Mull of Kintyre Music Festival described him as \"one of our pals\" and a \"true gent, wonderful musician\".\n\nHe was a well-known and loved character in Campbeltown, according to Kintyre Community Resilience Group.\n\nThe father-of-two died in hospital in Glasgow on 2 May.\n\nKaren Hutton was a \"much-loved\" care home nurse who died with coronavirus days after her granddaughter was born.\n\nThe 58-year-old was a staff nurse in the dementia unit at Lochleven Care Home in Broughty Ferry, Dundee.\n\nHer only daughter, Lauren, gave birth to a girl just two weeks ago, according to care home operators Thistle Healthcare.\n\nCare home manager Andrew Chalmers-Gall said: \"Karen was a tenacious advocate for her residents and she always put their needs first.\"\n\nShe died at home in Carnoustie, Angus, on 28 April after testing positive for Covid-19.\n\nMark McCarron Gillan bought his wife, Jan, flowers every Friday - a small gesture but something that she still misses following his death on 27 April.\n\nThey were married for 23 years, after first meeting as teenagers, and they have three daughters - twins Ebony and Hope, who are 20, and Brenna, 19.\n\nWhen his colleagues at a soap factory in Queenslie, Glasgow, learned of his death, they stopped production for the first time since opening.\n\nThey were among dozens of people - including friends and neighbours - who lined the streets on the day of his funeral to say a final farewell to the 53-year-old.\n\nMark loved golf, football and hill walking but he was also a family man. \"There is a such a void left in each of us and every life that he touched,\" his wife said.\n\nAlastair Sinclair split his younger years between Reay in Caithness and Lanark before being called up for national service.\n\nBut his army career was cut short when he stood on a mine in Korea and lost a foot.\n\nHis son told BBC Scotland that he was persuaded to pursue a career in developing artificial limbs as he was being fitted for his own prosthetic.\n\nIn retirement, the father-of-three moved with his wife from Newtown Mearns in East Renfrewshire to Wishaw in North Lanarkshire.\n\nHe moved into Erskine Park care home in Bishopton shortly before lockdown and died, aged 87, five weeks later on 27 April.\n\nPearl Paterson grew up in Dennistoun in the east end of Glasgow and was just 10 years old when World War II broke out.\n\nShe was a teenager when she joined the Women's Land Army but it wasn't until she was in her 80s that she received official recognition - and a badge - for her efforts from the UK government.\n\nPearl spent much of her working life employed as a domestic assistant in hotels across Scotland, before settling in Largs, Ayrshire, with her daughter, Fiona.\n\nAn animal lover, she had a special Chihuahua called Flash, and she read the People's Friend magazine every week.\n\nOn her 91st birthday in March, her family was able wave to her in the conservatory at her care home in Glasgow. She died with Covid-19 on 26 April.\n\nAnnie Munro's home was always filled with people - her husband, six children and many nieces and nephews who would often come to visit.\n\nHer family used to joke that the house in Eaglesham must have \"rubber walls\" and they often had to share beds and would \"wake up with somebody's feet up their nose\".\n\nShe was a real homemaker who could as easily run up a set of curtains as make a batch of jam from fruit she had grown in her own garden. She never turned anyone away who needed help.\n\nA mild-mannered woman, she never had any need to raise her voice - a look over the top of her spectacles was enough to keep her children under control.\n\nIn later life she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and her daughter, Linda, became her main carer before she moved into a care home. Annie died on 25 April, aged 84.\n\nKnown to all as Gogs, Gordon Reid was a taxi driver from Edinburgh who loved football, played golf, enjoyed a pint and doted on his grandchildren.\n\nHe stopped working as a precaution four days before the lockdown came into force but within a week had fallen ill with Covid-19.\n\nHis wife, Elaine, and daughter Leemo Goudie, were able to spend some time with him in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary before he died on 24 April, aged 68.\n\nLeemo said: \"My dad was a normal guy, no health issues, a non-smoker, fairly fit. It can happen to anyone.\"\n\nAs only a small number of mourners could attend his funeral, people stood and applauded as his hearse passed some of his favourite places in the city.\n\nDavid Allan joined a local running club in Edinburgh in retirement, after spending 36 years as a science technician at the city's Trinity Academy.\n\nThe fit and healthy 64-year-old was training for a half marathon and was planning to take part in some Park Runs in Sydney during a trip to visit his nephew in Australia this year.\n\nWhen the holiday - including a trip to Fiji - was cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions, David was pragmatic and told his wife, Glenda, they could rearrange for a later date.\n\nIt was a shock when he tested positive for Covid-19 after being admitted to hospital with a chest infection. He died on 24 April after more than four weeks in ICU.\n\nGlenda took comfort from the funeral, when neighbours lined the streets, running club friends and former colleagues stood outside the crematorium, and hundreds watched the service online.\n\nAngie Cunningham worked for NHS Borders for more than 30 years before her death.\n\nThe 60-year-old from Tweedbank was a much-respected and valued colleague who provided \"amazing care\" to her patients, the health board said.\n\nAs well as being a much-loved mother, sister, granny and great-granny, she was proud to be a nurse, her family added.\n\nShe died in the intensive care unit at Borders General Hospital from Covid-19 on 22 April, NHS Borders confirmed.\n\nKirsty Jones, a healthcare support worker with NHS Lanarkshire, was a bubbly, larger than life character, according to her colleagues.\n\nShe joined the health board after leaving school at 17 and spent much of her career working with older patients.\n\nBut the 41-year-old recently took up a role on the frontline of the pandemic, working at an assessment centre in Airdrie.\n\nHer husband, Nigel, said she devoted her life to caring for others and was a wonderful wife and mother to their two sons.\n\nAndy McGinley used to say he didn't need to win the lottery - his family meant he was already a millionaire.\n\nHe was brought up by adoptive parents in Glasgow's Maryhill area during World War Two and went on to become a carpenter at John Brown's Shipyard.\n\nAlthough he first met his wife, Margaret, at primary school they lost touch and got together after meeting at the Barrowland Ballroom years later.\n\nThey spent almost all of their 62 years of married life in the same house in Barmulloch, where they had five children. They also had 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.\n\nHe loved his garden, bowls, and a sing-song at family gatherings - his party piece was \"I'm glad that I was born in Glasgow\". He died on 29 April 2020, aged 84.\n\nEvelyn Brown dedicated her life to her family and her community. Born and bred in Peterhead, she was married to Charles for 50 years and they had two children.\n\nShe gave up her job as a bank manager to care for her son Craig after he was born with Down's syndrome in the 1970s.\n\nHer daughter Emma, who was born two years later, said her mother was a selfless woman who loved spoiling her grandchildren with \"gifts and love\".\n\nMrs Brown was an adult Guide leader and later a district commissioner, she volunteered with Barnardo's and was an active member of the Church of Scotland.\n\nAfter her death at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on 19 April, aged 75, her family raised £3,000 in her name for the hospital's staff garden.\n\nWaqar Hussain Choudhry was a popular shopkeeper in the north of Glasgow.\n\nThe 65-year-old ran a convenience store on Skerray Street in Milton where he was affectionately known as Wacca.\n\nFollowing his death on 17 April 2020, well-wishers left flowers outside the shop he ran for almost 40 years.\n\nThey told The Glasgow Times that the father-of-three served generations of school children and put an extra sweet in their bags.\n\nHis son Zeeshan Chaudhry told the BBC: \"My beloved father was the most amazing hardworking human and parent.\"\n\nJane Murphy was known as \"Mama Murphy\" by close friends and colleagues at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.\n\nShe worked at the city hospital for almost 30 years, first as a cleaner before retraining as a clinical support worker.\n\nThe 73-year-old, from Bonnyrigg, was placed on sick leave due to her age when the pandemic broke out.\n\nIt's understood the mother-of-two died on 16 April.\n\nHer friend Gerry Taylor said: \"She wasn't afraid to tell nurses, doctors or consultants if they were not pulling their weight and they loved her for it.\"\n\nMary McCann, 70, was a \"strong, wonderful woman\" who was dedicated to her family, according to her son, David.\n\nShe spent the last three months of her life in an East Kilbride care home, having being diagnosed with cancer last year.\n\nThe grandmother was doing well in the Whitehills home, where she was putting on weight and smiling again, David said.\n\nBut in early April she developed a urinary tract infection. Her condition deteriorated quickly and within days she was struggling to breathe.\n\nShe died in the care home on 16 April with her son, Derek, by her side.\n\nVerity Watson met her husband Adam (Adie) in a bible class and together they raised three sons, Alan, Gordon and Adam.\n\nThey lived in South Africa for a few years but returned to their beloved home of Rutherglen in 1970.\n\nShe worked at the local Coulls Bakers until retiring aged 72 but in her spare time she enjoyed bowls, knitting and - best of all - a cream cake with a cup of tea.\n\nHer family were unable to be with her when she died at Roger Park Care Home on 15 April 2020, after a short stay in hospital.\n\nHer son Adam said he couldn't thank staff enough for their \"invaluable support\", sitting with his mother in her final moments. She was 98.\n\nDavid Whittick joined the Royal Navy as a pilot on his 18th birthday in the midst of World War Two. Aged 19, as part of 835 Naval Air Squadron, he was flying off aircraft carrier HMS Nairana in the Arctic.\n\nAlmost 70 years later he received the Arctic Star for his role in Arctic Convoys - described by Sir Winston Churchill as \"the worst journey in the world\".\n\nHe survived two serious accidents during his long civilian career with Scottish Airways and later British Airways, before dedicating himself to supporting the Riding for the Disabled charity in his retirement.\n\nHis work - including helping to raise funds for a purpose-built facility at Summerston in Glasgow - led to him being appointed an OBE by the Queen for his services to charity.\n\nHe was married to Joyce for more than 60 years and they had four children. His son, Peter, said he lived a full and active life, even enjoying a trip on a seaplane in January this year. He died at Erskine care home in Bishopton on 14 April, aged 95, after falling ill with coronavirus.\n\nHer daughter Linda, a lawyer for the BBC, had hoped she would survive the virus as she was from \"strong stock\".\n\nShe last saw her mother in March when she travelled from London to warn her they may not be able to visit her during the pandemic.\n\nThe pensioner had been \"extremely distressed\" afterwards, Ms Duncan said.\n\nShe was taken to Edinburgh's Western General Hospital on 12 April and died three days later.\n\nDerek Wilkie worked for 27 years as a firefighter before retiring in December 2017.\n\nHe had senior roles in Badenoch and Strathspey, and Shetland before becoming station commander for Inverness and Nairn District.\n\nColleagues said he was a \"diligent and capable firefighter... with a larger than life personality\".\n\nHis wife and two sons - who all work for the NHS - thanked those who cared for Mr Wilkie and urged people to stay at home.\n\nHe died at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness on 12 April.\n\nFormer Merchant Navy engineer Bill Campbell died of suspected Covid-19 at Erskine Park care home in Bishopton.\n\nThe 86-year-old had dementia and carers initially thought he had a chest infection but he developed a cough and a high temperature.\n\nHis condition deteriorated and he died on Easter Sunday, with his daughter, Linda Verlaque - in full protective clothing - by his side.\n\nShe praised the work of carers at the home but she said his death was \"horrific\" as undertakers came to take away his body in full hazmat gear and goggles.\n\n\"Instead of having people surrounding me and giving me a hug to say everything was all right, everyone was just standing there and we were watching my dad being taken away, which was traumatic,\" she said.\n\nProud Welshman Glyn Edwards did not learn to speak English until he was five years old, but in adulthood he made Edinburgh his home.\n\nA contemporary of Neil Kinnock at Cardiff University, he worked as a civil servant in London before marrying and moving to Scotland.\n\nHe was a regular at Robbie's Bar on Leith Walk where he was known as \"McTaffy\" but he could be a solitary character who could easily lose himself in a book or a concert.\n\nClassical music, politics and poetry were his passions - as a teenager he won a major Welsh poetry contest and his daughter, Mhairi Jarvie, treasures a ring-binder full of his poems.\n\nShe affectionately described her father as a cross between Coronation Street's Ken Barlow and Victor Meldrew - \"intelligent, opinionated, political, but grumpy and a tad anti-social\".\n\nMaths teacher Gerry McHugh was a \"true gentleman\", able to inspire every single student who walked through his door.\n\nHis death would have a \"devastating effect\" on the Notre Dame High School community in Greenock, head teacher Katie Couttie said.\n\nUnable to attend his funeral due to the lockdown, past and current pupils found a unique way to pay tribute to the 58-year-old.\n\nThey wore red and posted images on social media in memory of the lifelong Manchester United fan.\n\nEileen McCarron died in Glasgow Royal Infirmary less than 24 hours after falling ill. She had no underlying health concerns.\n\nA mother of three daughters, she spent 18 years working as a nursery teacher at Save the Children's Charles Street playgroup in Glasgow's Germiston.\n\nShe gave up the job to look after her only grandson, Patrick. Her husband of more than 35 years, also Patrick, died suddenly in 1997, aged just 57.\n\nAs well as volunteering at a Barnardo's charity shop, she liked shopping, knitting, going out for coffees and lunches, and holidays with her family.\n\nShe was 79 when she died on 9 April, leaving her family devastated and unable to comfort each other during lockdown. They had still not been able to hold a memorial service nine months later.\n\nHelen McMillan was 10 days short of her 85th birthday when she died at Almond Court care home in Glasgow's Drumchapel on 9 April.\n\nShe spent most of her life in Summerston, where she widely known as \"Auntie Ellen\" - even to those she wasn't related to.\n\n\"Everybody loved my mum,\" her daughter, Jackie Marlow, told BBC Scotland. \"She knew everybody in the community and was the life and soul of the party.\"\n\nHelen worked in McLellan's rubber factory in Maryhill until she was in her 50s.\n\nA grandmother to Hayley and Josh, she developed dementia in later life but she was still \"pretty agile and loving life\", her daughter said.\n\nMary Martin and her husband, Alex, were keen ballroom dancers.\n\nAlthough their roots were firmly in Glasgow, they spent seven years in Dunblane where they were tasked with encouraging people on to the dancefloor at the Dunblane Hydro.\n\nBefore that, Mrs Martin brought up her family in Mount Vernon, later moving to Bearsden. She had three children, six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a great-great grandchild.\n\nHer daughter, Sandra O'Neill, told BBC Scotland she was \"just a wonderful person - gentle and kind\".\n\nIn her later years she had vascular dementia and she lived at the Almond Court care home in Drumchapel. She died there on 8 April, aged 88.\n\nVic and Maureen Sharp, who were both 74, had been together since they were teenagers.\n\nUnderlying health conditions meant the couple from Oakley in Fife were both asked to shield themselves during lockdown.\n\nBut their daughter, Yvonne Sharp, believes the letter came too late and they caught the virus during a weekly trip to the supermarket.\n\nMaureen died in hospital on 8 April and then, Yvonne said, her father \"just gave up\". He died the following day.\n\nOnly six members of the family could attend their funeral but a piper led the funeral cortege through Oakley, where locals lined the streets.\n\nWhen Ann Tonner left the Nazareth House orphanage in Glasgow as teenager, she was one of the few women of colour in the city, according to her son, Tony McCaffery.\n\nShe was \"exotic-looking and quite glamourous\" and was soon in demand as a model for local shops and boutiques before working as a celebrated hot-dog girl in an Odeon cinema.\n\nHer first husband tragically died and her second was largely absent, leaving her to bring up six children and - at times - hold down five jobs at once.\n\nShe was a \"remarkable, formidable woman with a strong work ethic\", Mr McCaffery told BBC Scotland, but she was also a \"gentle soul with an incredibly child-like sense of humour\".\n\nA grandmother and great-grandmother, Mrs Tonner died at a nursing home in Glasgow where she was living with Alzheimer's, on 8 April. She was 84.\n\nMary Nixon was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was just 18 but she was determined to never let it hold her back.\n\nBorn and raised in Greenock, she was a lone parent to four children who described her as a \"strong, independent woman who lived life to the full\".\n\n\"My mum made being a single parent look easy\", her daughter Alexis said. \"We were very happy kids growing up. Everyone loved her and always said she was a 'wee gem'.\"\n\nWhen she fell seriously ill in 2014, her family was told to prepare for the worst, but their \"invincible\" mum rallied, though she lost her mobility.\n\nShe died with Covid on 7 April 2020, aged 66. After everything she had been through in life, her family said they felt \"robbed... that this awful virus has taken her from us\".\n\nJanice Graham was the first NHS worker to die with coronavirus in Scotland.\n\nThe health care support worker and district nurse died at Inverclyde Royal Hospital on 6 April.\n\nOne colleague said she had a \"bright and engaging personality and razor sharp wit\".\n\nAnother said the 58-year-old was the \"most kind, caring and compassionate HCA I have had the privilege to work with\".\n\nHer son, Craig, told STV News he would miss everything about her.\n\nNewly-wed Andy Wyness developed a high temperature and a cough following a trip to Wales.\n\nWhen his symptoms worsened the 53-year-old drove himself from his Wishaw home to an appointment at an assessment centre.\n\nThat was the last time his wife, Sandra, saw him.\n\nThe grandfather, who was a keen bowler, was taken straight to hospital by ambulance. He died on 6 April.\n\n\"Even walking out the house that night, although I knew he wasn't well, I never imagined he would never walk back in,\" Sandra said.\n\nRita Hawthorn spent the first 35 years of her life in Hamilton, where she was born, grew up and had her own family.\n\nBut when her husband, Robert, lost his job as a miner the couple and their three children re-located from the west of Scotland to the far north in 1973.\n\nWhile Robert took up a new job at the Scottish Instruments Factory in Wick, she worked as a cleaner at a nearby job centre and became secretary of the Highlands and Islands Civil Service Union.\n\nShe was sadly widowed at 51 but she was \"fiercely independent\" and went on to fulfil her dreams of travelling - a trip up the Nile, a safari in South Africa, and solo bus tours to Austria and Paris.\n\nRita, who was a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, fell ill during the first week of lockdown. She died at Caithness General Hospital on 6 April, aged 82.\n\nBill Paul grew up in Giffnock on the south side of Glasgow and did his national service as a radar operator with the RAF in Malta.\n\nIn his youth he was an extremely accomplished tennis player and it was through the sport that he met his first wife, Frances, who died in 1984.\n\nWith his second wife, Liz, he loved to play golf and travel - hobbies that he continued after her death in 2012.\n\nAn extremely active man, he loved to go on cruises with a group of like-minded friends. However his last cruise to the Caribbean was cut short by the pandemic in March.\n\nHe returned home to Arran and fell ill with Covid within a week. He died at Lamlash Hospital on 5 April, aged 81.\n\nMofizul Islam was beginning a new life in Scotland after relocating from Bangladesh when he fell ill with coronavirus.\n\nHis family believe the 49-year-old caught the virus on his daily three-hour journeys between their Edinburgh home and his job at a pizza outlet in Midlothian.\n\nHe died on 5 April and was buried in the Muslim section of a city cemetery but his wife and children were in isolation and unable to attend.\n\nHis death has left the family \"completely helpless\", according to a family friend as they have no documents, no bank account and they are struggling for money.\n\n\"We are very worried about our future because we don't have our father,\" said Mofizul's 19-year-old son, Azahural. \"He was everything for us. And now we are just hopeless.\"\n\nCatherine Sweeney was a \"wonderful mother, sister and beloved aunty\", her family said after her death on 4 April.\n\nBorn and raised in Dumbarton, she worked as a home carer for more than 20 years.\n\nHer family said she would be sorely missed after a \"lifetime of service\" to the community.\n\nAnd they praised the medics at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley who \"heroically\" looked after her in her final days.\n\nJimmy Andrews was 17 years old when began his career in Glasgow Corporation's finance department in 1955.\n\nBy the turn of the century, he had risen to become chief executive of Glasgow City Council and in 2001 he was appointed CBE for services to local government - a \"career highlight\".\n\nHe was born in Kilsyth but spent much of his life living in Strathblane, Stirlingshire, with his wife of 52 years, Mary.\n\nIn retirement, he \"enjoyed life to the full\", spending time with his three children and six grandchildren, and visiting horse racing courses throughout the country.\n\nA gentle, intelligent man with a great sense of humour, he died at Glasgow Royal Infirmary on 3 April 2020, aged 81.\n\nLord Gordon of Strathblane was a former political editor of STV and he founded Radio Clyde.\n\nHe died at Glasgow Royal Infirmary on 31 March after contracting coronavirus, Radio Clyde reported. He was 83.\n\nHis family paid tribute to his \"generosity, his kindness and his enthusiasm for life\".\n\nFormer First Minister Jack McConnell said Lord Gordon had \"an outstanding career in business and public service\".\n\nRyan Storrie was in Scotland to celebrate his 40th birthday with a trip to a Rangers match when he fell ill.\n\nThe father-of-two was from Ardrossan but lived in Dubai.\n\nWhen he developed symptoms, the asthmatic isolated in his hotel room and waited for the virus to run its course.\n\nHis condition deteriorated but he wouldn't let his wife, Hilary, phone 999 as he was convinced he would recover and didn't want to bother the NHS.\n\nShe found him dead in his room on 31 March.\n\nMary and Andy Leaman began self-isolating at the end of March after falling ill with flu-like symptoms.\n\nTheir son, Andy, told the Glasgow Evening Times the couple were married 50 years and doted on their only granddaughter, nine-year-old Anna.\n\nMrs Leaman died at home in Castlemilk on 30 March - four days after the death of Anna's maternal grandfather, Dougie Chambers.\n\nThe schoolgirl lost her third grandparent almost three weeks later when Mr Leaman died in hospital on 19 April.\n\nHer mother, Lynsey Chalmers, told BBC Scotland: \"For a nine-year-old girl whose three grandparents were her world... why does a wee girl need to get punished like that over and over again?\"\n\nRobert Tarbet was \"self-opinionated and witty\", according to his daughter, Paula Karoly, but also \"hardworking, loyal and beautiful\".\n\nHe spent his working life as a plumber with Glasgow City Council before retiring in the early 2000s.\n\nIn his spare time, the sociable man was a mason who was a keen follower of Rangers FC. He loved country and western music and watching musicals in the theatre.\n\nA father and a grandfather-of-three, he was being treated for cancer when he contracted coronavirus.\n\nHe died on 29 March at Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, aged 76.\n\nSchool janitor Ian Wilson was at home in Coatbridge for two weeks with a high temperature and delirium before being admitted to hospital.\n\nDespite his worsening condition, doctors initially told his wife, Sandra, she would not be able to visit the 72-year-old who had a heart condition and diabetes.\n\nStaff eventually granted access provided she wore protective equipment - a decision which meant she could be at her husband's side when he died on 29 March.\n\nAlthough nurses were unable to comfort her with a hug due to social distancing protocols, Mrs Wilson is grateful they allowed her to be with her partner at the end.\n\n\"I was able to talk to him and just say goodbye. I've got strength from that,\" she said.\n\nDougie Chambers was one of several people who fell ill after the 40th birthday party of his daughter, Wendy, on 7 March.\n\nWithin days, the 66-year-old, who had an underlying health condition, went into hospital and tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nMr Chambers, who was from Castlemilk in Glasgow, died two weeks later, on 26 March.\n\nTwo other members of his extended family - Andy and Mary Leaman - also contracted the virus and later died.\n\nWendy said: \"If we knew then what we know now, we wouldn't have had the party. It wouldn't have happened.\"\n\nDanny Cairns was a healthy 68-year-old before he fell ill with coronavirus, according to his brother, Hugh.\n\nWhen he developed a cough and sore throat at the end of March, he isolated at home in Greenock.\n\nBut within days he was so ill he had to be taken to hospital by ambulance.\n\nIn a video call from his hospital bed, his last words to his brother were: \"I'm on my way out, mate\".\n\nHe died on 26 March, three days after arriving in hospital.\n\nMargaret Innes lived with her daughter, Sally McNaught, in Edinburgh for four years before her death at the very beginning of the pandemic.\n\nShe was housebound and very frail but she loved sitting with their pet cat and dog, doing crosswords and watching quiz shows.\n\nHer favourite soap was Neighbours and she used to say \"I'm off to Australia now\".\n\nMs McNaught said they stopped visitors coming to the house a week before lockdown, they washed their hands, cleaned everything and thought they would be safe.\n\nBut Ms Innes woke up on Mother's Day with severe breathing difficulties. She died on 25 March, three days after going into hospital. She was 93.\n\nHas one of your loved ones died recently after contracting Covid? We would like to pay tribute to some of them on the BBC Scotland website.\n\nIf you would like to see your relative or friend featured, use the form below to send us your details and we could be in touch.\n\nIn some cases your details will be published, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "The 10 biggest US airlines have warned that the impending switch-on of 5G mobile phone services will cause \"major disruption\" to flights.\n\nThey said the start of Verizon and AT&T 5G mobile phone services, planned for Wednesday, would cause a \"completely avoidable economic calamity\".\n\nAirlines fear C-band 5G signals will disrupt planes' navigation systems, particularly those used in bad weather.\n\nThe warning was issued in a letter sent to US aviation authorities.\n\nThe chief executives of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines were joined by others in saying: \"Immediate intervention is needed to avoid significant operational disruption to air passengers, shippers, supply chain and delivery of needed medical supplies\", including vaccine distribution.\n\nThe BBC has seen the letter outlining their urgent concerns. It was sent to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, as well as the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the chair of the Federal Communications Commission and the director of the National Economic Council.\n\nThe BBC understands that negotiations are continuing at the highest levels of the US government about what has been described as a \"very fluid situation\".\n\nThe airlines want 5G signals to be excluded from \"the approximate two miles of airport runways at affected airports as defined by the FAA on 19 January 2022\".\n\n\"This will allow 5G to be deployed while avoiding harmful impacts on the aviation industry, travelling public, supply chain, vaccine distribution, our workforce and broader economy.\n\n\"We further ask that the FAA immediately identify those base stations closest to key airport runways that need to be addressed to ensure safety and avoid disruption,\" they added.\n\nThese concerns were recently highlighted by the two big planemakers, Airbus and Boeing, in a rare joint warning.\n\nThe group of airlines said: \"Airplane manufacturers have informed us that there are huge swathes of the operating fleet that may need to be indefinitely grounded.\n\n\"In addition to the chaos caused domestically, this lack of usable wide-body aircraft could potentially strand tens of thousands of Americans overseas.\"\n\nIn an update on Sunday, the FAA, which oversees aviation safety across the US, said it had cleared \"an estimated 45% of the US commercial fleet to perform low-visibility landings at many of the airports where 5G C-band will be deployed\".\n\nThe FAA added that it had approved \"two radio altimeter models that are installed in a wide variety of Boeing and Airbus planes\".\n\n\"Even with these new approvals, flights at some airports may still be affected,\" the regulator said.\n\n\"The FAA also continues to work with manufacturers to understand how radar altimeter data is used in other flight control systems. Passengers should check with their airlines if weather is forecast at a destination where 5G interference is possible.\"\n\nPhone companies have spent tens of billions of dollars on upgrading their networks to deploy the 5G technology, which brings much faster internet services and greater connectivity.\n\nThere have been several delays already because of the aviation concerns, with launch dates in December and earlier this month both being pushed back.\n\nUS wireless industry group CTIA has previously said 5G is safe and accused the aviation industry of fearmongering and distorting facts.\n\n\"A delay will cause real harm. Pushing back deployment one year would subtract $50bn in economic growth, just as our nation recovers and rebuilds from the pandemic,\" said CTIA chief executive Meredith Attwell Baker in a blog post in November.", "Irish police have arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of the murder of primary school teacher Ashling Murphy.\n\nThe 23-year-old was attacked while out exercising beside a canal in Tullamore, County Offaly, last Wednesday.\n\nThe arrested man is being held at Tullamore Garda Station.\n\nEarlier, mourners including Irish President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach (PM) Micheál Martin, attended an emotional funeral service Mass at St Brigid's Church in Mount Bolus.\n\nHer death has shocked the nation and tens of thousands of people have attended vigils in Ireland and further afield in her honour.\n\nThe suspect, who can be detained for up to 24 hours, was arrested after he was deemed medically fit to be discharged from St James's Hospital in Dublin earlier on Tuesday, RTÉ reports.\n\nHe had presented himself to the hospital last Thursday night with serious and suspicious injuries, says the Irish broadcaster.\n\nGardaí (Irish police) were alerted, having contacted hospitals after Ashling's killing, asking medical officials to contact them if they had suspicions in relation to a wounded patient.\n\nPolice said on Monday \"significant progress\" was being made in the murder investigation, as they renewed an appeal for information.\n\nEvidence has been gathered from the post-mortem examination, the forensic examination of the scene, information from public appeals and interviews with witnesses, RTÉ reports.\n\nAt Ms Murphy's funeral, her parish priest, Fr Michael Meade, told mourners her family was robbed of their \"most precious gift\".\n\nSymbols of her life were brought to the altar during her funeral, including a fiddle, a Kilcormac/Killoughey camogie jersey, a family picture, a school book and her photo.\n\nMourners came out in force to pay their respects to the popular primary school teacher\n\nOne beacon of light in last week's darkness was the outpouring of support and sympathy, he added.\n\nPupils from Durrow National School formed a guard of honour for their teacher, and held photographs of Ms Murphy.\n\nA number of the children also held fiddles and tin whistles in honour of the keen musician.\n\nThe message next to Ms Murphy's image read: \"Fly high in the sky, our shining light.\"\n\nMusicians lined the route of the funeral procession to play emotional tributes to Ashling Murphy\n\nRepresentatives from Ms Murphy's local Gaelic football club, as well as from her old school, attended the parish church of Saint Brigid.\n\nOther tributes to Ashling Murphy were held around Ireland, while schools held a minute's silence.\n• None In pictures: Mourners line the streets for Ashling Murphy", "Criminals motivated by misogyny - hatred of women - must be given tougher punishments under new laws passing through Parliament, campaigners say.\n\nThe government voted against such a move in the House of Lords on Monday.\n\nBut they were defeated by opposition peers, who also backed police in England and Wales making a record of crimes motivated by sex and gender.\n\nThe government must now decide whether to order its MPs to vote down the measures in the Commons.\n\nLast month, a review carried out for the government rejected the idea of including misogyny in laws covering \"hate crimes\" - where victims are targeted because of one or more \"protected characteristics\".\n\nIn the report, the Law Commission said the move risked creating \"hierarchies\" of victims, and would be \"the wrong solution to a very real problem.\"\n\nIt also expressed concern that it could make crimes such as sexual offences and domestic abuse harder to prosecute.\n\nBut peers voted in favour of the idea during a series of votes to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill late on Monday night.\n\nThey backed an amendment by crossbench - or independent - peer Baroness Newlove, which would enable judges to impose stronger penalties for crimes motivated by a victim's \"sex and gender\".\n\nCurrently, this is only possible for crimes motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity.\n\nSpeaking in the Lords, the peer, a former victims' commissioner, said it would close a \"loophole\" in current sentencing laws and \"ensure that the law is on the side of women\".\n\nShe added that her amendment would not apply to sexual or domestic abuse cases, in order to address concerns from the Commission.\n\nIn response, Home Office Minister Baroness Trafford said the Commission found excluding certain crimes would make the legal situation more complex.\n\nShe also said it would be a problem for sex and gender to have a different status to the other protected characteristics.\n\nAnd speaking on Tuesday, deputy PM and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the Commission found that including sex and gender in hate crime laws would prove \"counter-productive in practice\".\n\nHe told the BBC that the government was \"looking at every effective measure\" to increase women's confidence in the justice system, including by giving domestic violence victims more time to report a crime.\n\nBut the Fawcett Society charity urged ministers not to vote down Baroness Newlove's amendment when the bill returns to the Commons in the coming weeks.\n\nThe charity's chief executive Jemima Olchawksi said it was \"about time\" that offences driven by misogyny were recorded as hate crimes, and it was important the issue is not \"kicked into the long grass\".\n\n\"This isn't a silver bullet and categorising misogyny as a hate crime won't end violence against women, but if we can challenge normalisation of toxic attitudes on our streets and in public life then I hope we can challenge violence against women and girls in wider society,\" she added.\n\nDomestic violence charity Refuge said it was \"delighted\" the amendment had been approved and called on ministers to keep it in the bill.\n\nIts chief executive Ruth Davison it would help bring about the \"radical culture change that is needed in order to better protect women and girls\".\n• None Why is misogyny not a hate crime?", "People arrived by boat into Dungeness, Kent on Tuesday\n\nMPs have criticised plans for the armed forces to take over English Channel operations to limit migration, with one describing them as a \"dog's dinner\".\n\nBackbenchers said detail is lacking, while adding it could incentivise people traffickers, helping the Border Force to be used as a \"taxi service\".\n\nDefence minister James Heappey said the navy would not be intercepting boats.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence (MoD) is due to take over command of the operation in the Channel at the end of the month.\n\nMr Heappey, speaking in the House of Commons, said naval ships would not push back small boats in the Channel, or use sonic weapons - devices that deter people with loud noise - against them.\n\nHe did not rule out Border Force - the civilian law enforcement agency from which the MoD will be taking over - using the weapons.\n\nBut that led to some backbenchers asking exactly what the Royal Navy would be doing, saying their presence would be an incentive rather than the deterrent intended.\n\nConservative former minister Sir Edward Leigh asked what the point was of \"appointing a Royal Naval admiral to help Border Force to be a more efficient taxi service\".\n\nHe said people would feel they would be picked up and \"taken safely to the UK\" - calling it \"an embarrassment\".\n\nMr Heappey said military involvement is part of a wider plan from the government which will be announced in coming weeks.\n\nThe navy will have control \"from a command and control perspective\" rather than \"from an interdiction or interception perspective\", he said.\n\nHe had been asked for a statement on the move by Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood after it was confirmed by Home Secretary Priti Patel on Monday.\n\nMr Ellwood, who chairs the defence committee, said: \"This tactic may on the face of it look popular, with 28,000 migrants now crossing every year - send in the navy to sort it out - but it is not the strategy that will solve the movement of migrants.\"\n\nHe later announced the committee would hold a session next week to find out more about how the military will be used in the Channel, saying the decision for the Royal Navy to take over \"has taken Parliament - and it seems the MoD - by surprise\".\n\nMr Ellwood said it was clear \"the mission is still in the planning phase\".\n\nSome MPs claimed the announcement on the armed forces' involvement was one of a series of policies dubbed \"operation red meat\", aimed at distracting from the government's political problems amid allegations about parties held during lockdown.\n\nShadow defence secretary John Healey said \"the military are there to protect the nation, not to protect Tory ministers\".\n\nPhilip Hollobone, Conservative MP, said instead of red meat it was \"operation dog's dinner\" as no details have been given.\n\nThe defence minister said more information would be revealed later this month by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nMr Hollobone also said he would support the move if its mission statement was to reduce the level of illegal people trafficking.\n\n\"But the mission statement as far as I understand it is to lower the number of people landing on their own terms on UK beaches,\" he said.\n\n\"So what the minister has effectively announced with the deployment of Royal Navy vessels is asylum seekers only need to get halfway across the Channel before being intercepted by the Royal Navy.\n\n\"This is going to incentivise people traffickers, they'll see the Royal Navy ship on the horizon and they'll say 'point your dinghy in that direction, you only need to get halfway' and the Royal Navy will pick them up.\"\n\nInstead, he said the Royal Navy had to intercept asylum seekers and return them to France. Mr Heappey said that would be impossible without French permission however, which has not been given.\n\nHe added that the MoD had to make sure no one could arrive in the UK without being intercepted, either at sea or as they land.\n\nIt is \"perfectly appropriate\" to use armed forces \"to ensure our borders are robust\", said the defence minister, who added: \"Nobody's pretending that the presence of a rear admiral and a few extra Royal Navy ships solves this as an issue.\"\n\nMs Patel said on Monday that the MoD had been commissioned as a \"crucial operational partner to protect our Channel against illegal migration\".\n\nRear Admiral Mike Utley, the commander of the UK strike force, has been appointed to co-ordinate the plans.\n\nThe number of people who made the crossing last year was treble that of 2020. Over the past two weeks, 773 people have reached the UK by boat - which is more than the total for the first two months of last year.\n\nOn 24 November at least 27 people died after their boat sank, in the largest single loss of life in the Channel since records began in 2014.", "Barnaby the cat had been missing for eight months\n\nA cat missing for eight months has been reunited with its owner after she recognised his familiar meow on the other end of the telephone while on a call to her vet.\n\nRachael Lawrence, from Braintree, Essex, was talking to the vet about her other cat when she heard Barnaby's distinctive cry in the background.\n\nShe was told it was a stray but phoned back later and asked for details of the cat as \"it was bugging me\", she said.\n\nBarnaby is now back with his family.\n\nMs Lawrence said she was so sure she could recognise her cat's meow that she called the vet again asking if the \"stray\" she had heard over the phone was black, with a white patch on one of his back feet.\n\nWhen the surgery confirmed the description she took in photographs of Barnaby to show to staff.\n\nShe said she \"knew it was him\" as soon as he was brought into the room.\n\n\"I cried,\" she said. \"We hadn't seen him for eight months.\"\n\nHer three children had nicknamed Barnaby \"Fatman\", but when he was brought in he had \"loads of scabs\" and was \"all skinny and missing fur\", Ms Lawrence said.\n\nHowever, the family's wayward pet was \"more than happy to be picked up and cuddled\".\n\nShe added: \"We just need to fatten him up to get him back to Fatman.\"\n\nMs Lawrence said she had paid to have Barnaby chipped before he went missing but questioned whether the procedure had been \"done properly\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion please email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Watch as Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker speaks to CBS Mornings about being held hostage at a Texas synagogue on Saturday.\n\nHe and three other hostages escaped unharmed.\n\nBritish citizen Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from Blackburn, was shot dead after a stand-off with police in Colleyville.\n\nMore on this story: Two teens held in UK over Texas synagogue siege", "A disabled woman is calling for greater understanding of female safety after she \"begged\" a bus driver to let her travel home when her pass did not work.\n\nRachel Davies's pass was declined when she tried to take the first of two buses home, in Northampton. The Stagecoach driver let her travel to her first stop but could not help further.\n\nShe said a \"transition plan\" was needed to ensure journeys were completed.\n\nStagecoach said the driver had been \"following the rules\".\n\nMs Davies, 27, has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that causes dislocations in her hands and knees.\n\nShe also has nerve damage in her left leg and uses a stick to make walking easier.\n\nAnd at 4ft 6in, she feels \"anxious\" travelling alone.\n\n\"I'm very aware that I can easily be attacked and I can't do anything about it,\" Ms Davies says.\n\nOn the evening she was travelling, Ms Davies had only her phone and bus pass with her.\n\nPasses are provided by the council and after the driver tried scanning it three times, it came up as \"hot-listed\", meaning no longer valid for travel, and he had to confiscate it.\n\nAt the time, Ms Davies did not understand why it was not working.\n\nShe tried to explain that without it she could not travel on her second bus, operated by Britannia Bus, as it did not have contactless payment technology and she had no other way to pay.\n\nThe driver looked \"really conflicted\", Ms Davies says, but said he could not return her pass - because it would be caught on CCTV.\n\n\"That overrode my safety,\" she says.\n\nThe Stagecoach driver let her travel free to her first stop - the city centre - and advised her to call the council about the situation, even though it was after office hours.\n\n\"I kept begging and pleading, 'I don't want to walk home alone,'\" Ms Davies says.\n\n\"I would have been happy with him taking it [the pass] if he made sure I got home.\"\n\nFortunately, Ms Davies, who volunteers with young people at The Yard: Community Courtyard, was able to contact her boss, who arranged and paid for a taxi to take her home, but she was left feeling vulnerable.\n\n\"Women are scared of walking home at night,\" she says.\n\n\"No-one should be less important than procedure policies.\"\n\nMs Davies says she felt \"frustrated\" by the \"lack of duty of care\", especially following the murder of Sarah Everard, when the police urged women to \"wave a bus down if they feel vulnerable and distressed\".\n\n\"The best approach would have been for him to say, 'We are not going to leave you in this situation, we will take you to the next bus service and explain and then they will get you home,'\" she says.\n\n\"There needs to be a transition plan, instead of being left to fend for yourself.\"\n\nMs Davies later discovered her pass had been rejected because she had used an old card.\n\n\"I am human, people make mistakes,\" she says.\n\n\"But it doesn't mean that in a time when someone is close to tears and begging to get home, they should be sent away.\"\n\nStagecoach said: \"Our driver was following these rules.\n\n\"He carried the passenger free of charge to the town centre arriving at 17:00.\"\n\nBritannia Bus has also been contacted.\n• None I would have got into Couzens' car - Jess Phillips\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Universal Basic Income provides a set amount of money to everyone in a specified area\n\nPlans for a universal basic income pilot in Wales are too small, a cross-party report has found.\n\nUBI is where a government pays all individuals a set salary, regardless of their means.\n\nThe Welsh government plans a three-year pilot this April with about 250 care leavers, but a Senedd committee said the scheme would provide only \"limited information\" on the UBI concept.\n\nThe Welsh government said the scheme would provide \"valuable information\".\n\nThe UBI idea, where individuals are paid a regular sum of money, has sparked debate across the world.\n\nAdvocates say a basic income could help reduce poverty, and could be easier and less stressful to navigate than more complex means-tested benefits.\n\nOpponents say it would be extremely costly, and is not targeted at those who need it.\n\nThe Welsh proposal for a pilot, in choosing to focus on a specific group, has been criticised for not being universal.\n\nInformation on how the pilot will work has so far been limited, but the Welsh Parliament's petitions committee report, which is not produced by ministers but a body of the Senedd, outlines some details.\n\nIt says the project would involve 250 care leavers, planned to run for about three years, and be \"pitched at the living wage\".\n\nThe committee's inquiry was prompted by a petition signed by 1,051 people, calling for a geography-based UBI.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. An experiment in Finland saw 2,000 people paid €560 (£490) a month, instead of their unemployment benefit.\n\nMembers of the Senedd on the committee, which includes two from Labour, one Plaid and one Conservative, said a larger group would provide more \"robust results.\"\n\n\"A basic income pilot for care leavers - as currently proposed by the Welsh government - will provide valuable feedback on the potential of such a scheme to improve the support to a group which faces significant challenges,\" the committee said.\n\n\"However, a three-year pilot of only 250 people will offer limited information. And applying a basic income only to care leavers, will tell us little about universal basic income.\"\n\nIt said payments should be guaranteed, unconditional and paid to the individual.\n\nBenefits are not devolved in Wales and the UK government has opposed the UBI concept.\n\nThe report said the pilot will \"be richer and produce more robust evidence if all relevant agencies are engaged in the enterprise\".\n\n\"The Welsh government should make every effort to persuade UK government departments to support the widest possible pilot scheme,\" it said.\n\nThe report warned the project would be undermined \"if participants lost entitlements they currently claim as a direct result of a failure to communicate\" between the UK and Welsh governments.\n\nImplementing UBI in Wales would be \"far easier\" if welfare was devolved, the committee argued.\n\nCommittee chairman Jack Sargeant said: \"The Welsh government should investigate increasing the number of proposed recipients and include care leavers from as diverse as possible a range of backgrounds, locations, and circumstances to give us the evidence we need to properly evaluate this scheme.\n\n\"While not all members of the committee support UBI, we all believe that a wider pilot scheme has the potential to produce richer, more persuasive evidence for the Welsh government to consider.\"\n\nHe added the evidence \"may prove that UBI is an inefficient way to target those in the greatest need - or it may prove my own view that the benefits attributed to other experiments, in terms of wellbeing and economic outcomes, are achievable here in Wales\".\n\nSwansea, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Gwynedd have called for pilots to take place in their areas.\n\nExperiments have been held in Finland with 2,000 people who were paid €560 (£467).\n\nThe Senedd report says recipients were found to be \"more satisfied with their lives and experience less mental strain\".\n\nA Welsh government spokesman said: \"The provision of a basic income to young people leaving our care system should help to reduce the challenges care leavers face. In addition, evaluation of the pilot scheme will provide valuable information about how a basic income could apply more widely.\n\n\"The minister will make a statement in the coming weeks to provide an update on the pilot.\"", "As we talked about here on Monday night, Tory MPs can take steps to get rid of their leader without having to tell anyone about it other than Sir Graham Brady, the head honcho of the backbenches.\n\nSo it is always impossible to know how many of them at any one time really mean it when they say they are involved in trying to make a change.\n\nBut it most definitely is the case that conversations about doing so are on the rise.\n\nA group of around 20 MPs that were first elected in 2019 are said to have met on Tuesday, after two other meetings recently, to talk about what to do.\n\nAnd it's suggested there's a notion that they will as, a group, submit their letters to Sir Graham after Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nA couple that have spoken privately seem determined to do so.\n\nBut it is not clear at this stage how many of them will go through with it when the moment comes.\n\nAnd we don't know that if they did, how close that tranche would take the number of letters to the threshold of 54, that could trigger a leadership contest.\n\nIt is clear though, worryingly for No 10, that their grouping has been in touch with other disaffected MPs.\n\nLinks across political generations, and across ideological groups, could form a dangerous circle for Mr Johnson.\n\nYet a member of the cabinet dismissed this potential move as being run by \"idiots\", who don't pose a serious threat to the PM, joking that their efforts were a \"pork pie plot\" because one of the group is Alicia Kearns, the MP for Rutland and Melton (home of the pork pie).\n\nFor her part, colleagues say Ms Kearns has been unfairly targeted and that she's not leading any rebellion.\n\nAnd a member of the government also sounded a note of caution, saying: \"Are we really going to get rid of a prime minister with a huge majority over a drinks party?\"\n\nMany Conservative MPs believe that it's better to wait at least to see what Sue Gray's official report into the No 10 shenanigans concludes.\n\nYet it seems tonight not all Tory members are willing to wait.", "Former senior civil servant Sue Gray, who became a household name as the Partygate investigator, has been cleared to take up a job with Labour from September.\n\nMs Gray's critical report into lockdown gatherings in Downing Street prompted numerous Conservative MPs to call on Boris Johnson to resign and contributed to his downfall last year.\n\nSome Tory MPs have expressed anger at the job offer to Ms Gray, with allies of the former prime minister saying it undermines her report.\n\nThe independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) has recommended a six-month break from when she quit as an official in March.\n\nBut the government is expected to rule Ms Gray broke civil service rules by failing to declare her contact with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer while still in her former role.\n\nHaving worked in the civil service since 1970s, Ms Gray has vast experience of government and would be useful to Sir Keir, who along with many in his shadow cabinet, has never held a ministerial position.\n\nIn his memoir, Liberal Democrat former minister David Laws recalls being told by a colleague: \"It took me precisely two years before I realised who it is that runs Britain.\n\n\"Our great United Kingdom is actually entirely run by a lady called Sue Gray, the head of ethics or something in the Cabinet Office - unless she agrees, things just don't happen.\"\n\nMs Gray joined the civil service straight from school and worked her way up to the Cabinet Office where, for six years, she led the government's Propriety and Ethics team, which provides advice to departments on standards issues.\n\nPolly Mackenzie - who worked as a special adviser in the Cabinet Office - told the BBC's Profile programme in 2017: \"Sue has been there for so long, she knows everything that anybody has ever done wrong.\"\n\nA photo released with the Partygate report of Mr Johnson at a gathering in No 10 Downing Street\n\nGus O'Donnell, a former head of the civil service, said: \"If there is any one person in the civil service who could write their memoirs, hers would be the most valuable, the most priceless and the most sensational.\n\n\"I am extremely confident that such a memoir will never be written - her secrets will go to the grave.\"\n\nIn 2017, one of her investigations forced Damian Green - then one of Theresa May's most senior ministers - to step down after he was found to have made \"inaccurate\" statements over what he knew about claims pornography had been found on his office computer in 2008.\n\nShe also investigated claims of sexual misconduct by the minister towards journalist Kate Maltby, ruling that her claims had been \"plausible\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Ms Maltby said: \"What impressed me most about Sue Gray was how seriously she took her duty of care to complainants... she was determined to listen to junior people, and not let senior staff off the hook.\n\n\"I found her profoundly moral in a way that isn't normally seen in Westminster.\"\n\nMs Gray's knowledge of ministers' private interests is said to have been useful to prime ministers carrying out rejigs of their team.\n\nChris Cook - an ex-BBC journalist who now works for news website Tortoise - said one sign of a forthcoming reshuffle would be when Sue Gray's office furniture had been re-arranged.\n\nAfter 20 years, she left the Cabinet Office on secondment to work at the finance department in Northern Ireland's government.\n\nWhen a job to lead the Northern Ireland civil service became available she applied, but did not get it.\n\nMs Gray has spent much of her career in the government buildings of Whitehall\n\nUnusually for a normally private individual, she gave an interview to the BBC admitting she was \"disappointed\" she did not get the top job and suggested she may have been seen as \"too much of a challenger, or a disrupter\".\n\nIn 2021, she returned to the Cabinet Office leading on matters related to the Union and the constitution.\n\nShe may have spent the bulk of her career in the civil service, but in the late 1980s she did take a career break to run a pub near Newry in County Down, called the Cove Bar, along with her husband, country and western singer Bill Conlon.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"I loved it, loved it at the time, I'd never do it again.\"\n\nIn 2021, Ms Gray was catapulted into the limelight when she was given the task of investigating whether Covid rules had been followed in government during the pandemic.\n\nHer final report concluded that staff had partied in Downing Street while the rest of the UK was in lockdown, with the approval of their bosses.\n\nShe said many events \"should not have been allowed\", and then-Prime Minister Mr Johnson \"must bear responsibility\".\n\nMs Gray made headlines again when, on 1 March, reports emerged that Labour leader Sir Keir was considering appointing Ms Gray to be his chief of staff.\n\nThe following day, Ms Gray quit her job at the levelling up department and Labour subsequently confirmed it had made her a job offer.\n\nCabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin has suggested this could have breached rules which say civil servants should \"act in a way which deserves and retrains the confidence of ministers\".\n\nHe also said talks between Labour and Ms Gray could potentially have conflicted with a requirement for civil servants to clear with ministers contact with opposition parties.", "Average pay rises are failing to keep up with the rise in the cost of living, the latest official statistics show.\n\nWhile wages rose in the year to November, they did not rise as fast as prices over the same period.\n\nThis meant that average weekly earnings - adjusted for price rises - fell for the first time since July 2020.\n\n\"Salaries are growing reasonably strongly, but some people are saying they are not feeling much better due to rising prices,\" the ONS told the BBC.\n\nRegular pay, excluding bonuses and adjusted for inflation, fell 1% in November compared to the same month in the previous year.\n\nIn November, the inflation rate rose to 5.1% and is expected to reach at least 6% in spring, according to the Bank of England.\n\nHow have you adapted to rising prices? Are you shopping or living your life differently as a result? Share your experiences.\n\nThe Resolution Foundation think tank said: \"Real wages officially began to fall in November, and the current period of shrinking pay packets is likely to get worse before it starts to ease in the second half of 2022.\"\n\nEleanor Deeley, joint managing director at Midlands-based construction firm Deeley Group, said: \"Rising labour costs are an issue for us, and the construction industry as a whole, where labour can be 50% of a project cost.\n\n\"In an industry where margins are already slim, we're seeing bricklayers suddenly demanding 20% [pay] increases.\"\n\nSalaries, however, are still above pre-pandemic levels. Average weekly pay, excluding bonuses, rose to £550 in November compared with £510 in March 2020.\n\nOver the longer three-month period, between September and November, wages rose at an annual rate of 3.8%, the ONS said. That was slower than the 4.3% recorded in the three-month period between August and October.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said that wage growth was \"relatively healthy by historical standards but of course we are seeing challenges with inflation\".\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said UK wage growth was \"relatively healthy\"\n\nBut he said: \"It is important to remember that we are not alone in that. There's a global phenomenon because the causes of inflation - whether it is supply chains or energy prices - are of course global in nature. But we are taking action to support people as best we can.\"\n\nToday's figures showed that pay increases failed to match the accelerating cost of living for the first time in over a year in November.\n\nHowever, with the jobs market heating up, economists say that may be short-lived.\n\nThe latest numbers suggest that not only have the vast majority of livelihoods survived the end of the furlough scheme, but - with vacancies at a record high of 1.24 million - many employers are grappling with a shortage of skilled workers.\n\nThat's been heightened by the departure of more than 400,000 people from the labour market since the pandemic started - typically those who have become students, taken early retirement or are long-term sick.\n\nThose factors are likely to give workers the upper hand when it comes to seeking - and getting - bigger pay rises this year.\n\nOverall, the Office for National Statistics said that the unemployment rate fell to 4.1% - close to pre-pandemic levels.\n\nBut Shane O'Neill, from Validus Risk Management, said: \"This number, though positive, will be taken with a pinch of salt - it predates both the Bank of England rate hike and the onset of Omicron, which caused significant economic scarring.\"\n\nMeanwhile, companies added 184,000 people to their payrolls between November and December, taking the total to 29.5 million.\n\nUK job vacancies soared to a record high of 1.24 million between October and December, the ONS data showed, with vacancies 462,000 higher compared with the three months before the pandemic.\n\nDarren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said the total number of people on payrolls was \"now well above pre-pandemic levels\".\n\nHe added: \"New survey figures show that in the three months to November, the unemployment rate fell back almost to where it was before Covid-19 hit.\"\n\nHowever, he said that while job vacancies had reached a new record, \"they are now growing more slowly than they were last summer\".\n\nAlso, the percentage of \"economically inactive\" people - which is those neither looking for or available for work - rose to 21.3%.\n\nDanni Hewson, financial analyst at AJ Bell. said this increase \"could well be tied to the return to education for many young people looking to better their prospects and nervous of setting out on their career during such an unpredictable time\".\n\n\"Nerves may also be playing a part in the number of over 60s choosing to stay in the workplace, some deciding to take early retirement, others perhaps waiting until the spring and summer to take on additional hours.\"\n\nWith job vacancies rising and the number of economically inactive growing, companies such as the insurer Phoenix Group are tailoring their job adverts to attract older applicants - by banning words such as \"energetic\" and \"enthusiastic\".\n\nPhoenix Group, which is led by Andy Briggs - who is also the government's \"business champion for older workers\", believes using \"younger-age stereotypical words\" could deter people aged over-50 from applying for a job, according to the Daily Telegraph.\n\nGary Palmer is the the local GMB Union organiser in Eastbourne\n\nAs the cost of living rises, refuse workers across the South East want a pay boost.\n\nThey argue that HGV drivers, who are in short supply and great demand, are better paid than the lorry drivers who work in rubbish.\n\nRefuse truck drivers in Eastbourne went on strike after the local council offered a 7% pay rise which officials described as \"very generous\".\n\nBut, in what the GMB union is calling a \"massive win\", its members have now accepted an improved offer. This includes a minimum rise this year of 11% and a guarantee the pay rate will reach a minimum of £13.50 per hour in April 2023 - a 19% rise in total, the GMB says.\n\nGary Palmer, an HGV driver and local GMB union organiser, says: \"It's not only the cost of living, people are understanding that the poor are going to work and in-work poverty is growing.\n\n\"All those points have come together and GMB members here have said: 'No, enough. Pay me what I'm worth and recognise my true value'.\"", "Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was in London last week with Lord Dodds who spoke in support of the proposal in the House of Lords\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has denied his party did a deal with the UK government to bring back double jobbing.\n\nThe plan would allow MPs to be elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly but keep their seat in Westminster.\n\nSir Jeffrey told BBC News NI he put his name forward to stand in the May poll in Lagan Valley last autumn.\n\nBut he declined to name the second DUP MP understood to have expressed interest in contesting the election.\n\nDetails of the plan were outlined in a letter from peer Lord Caine to fellow lords on Friday.\n\nIt is proposed to last until the next Westminster election, due in 2024.\n\nDouble jobbing, also known as a dual mandate, was banned in Northern Ireland in 2016, when a number of MPs were forced to give up their seats in the assembly.\n\nFour of the five Stormont Executive parties are strongly against the move, with the DUP responding that the other parties should \"stop faking outrage\" over the issue.\n\nAlliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood have come out strongly against the plan\n\nSome had accused the UK government of pushing a plan that helps the DUP ahead of the Stormont election.\n\nHowever, Sir Jeffrey told the Good Morning Ulster programme the move was \"categorically not\" the result of a deal with Westminster.\n\n\"There is no agreement on this between the DUP and the government, we are very clear where we stand on a range of issues.\n\n\"I have made those views absolutely crystal clear. This doesn't alter our stance on any particular issue.\"\n\nHe also said most of the DUP's eight MPs would not run for Stormont but when asked about reports of a second DUP MP standing in the election, Sir Jeffrey said the party had not finalised candidates.\n\nSir Jeffrey added he believed it was possible to \"do both jobs\" and denied he was trying to avoid a by-election in Lagan Valley.\n\n\"I think there is a case to be made at this particular time in the current circumstances of Northern Ireland that it's important for unionism to have a strong voice in the parliament of the union.\"\n\nShadow Northern Ireland secretary Peter Kyle said the government should withdraw the amendment and if not Labour would oppose the measure.\n\nHe said forcing it through would \"risk further destabilising an already fragile political landscape in the approach to elections\".\n\nThe SDLP and Alliance Party have said their three MPs would vote against the move when it comes to the House of Commons.\n\nSDLP MP Claire Hanna said the plan was a \"cynical use of musical chairs\" that would underserve the electorate.\n\n\"The two parliaments run at the same time so you are by definition having worse government and you can't do justice to both roles,\" she told Good Morning Ulster.\n\n\"This feels very much like a stroke and it's a stroke to benefit Jeffrey Donaldson.\n\n\"The reason Jeffrey Donaldson wants this safety net is because he is dangling the future of the institutions by a thread.\"\n\nClaire Hanna says it's not possible to do justice to both roles\n\nUlster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Doug Beattie said somebody had \"moved the goalposts\" ahead of the assembly election by giving a \"leg up to one political party and not to any other political party\".\n\nMr Beattie said he had been told by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) there was no consensus for a change to the rules.\n\n\"Yet here we are, an amendment that has been put forward which has not got party consensus and will only benefit the DUP and the NIO are allowing it to go through,\" he explained.\n\n\"I think that's a scam, I think it's a subversion of our democracy.\"\n\nAlliance MP Stephen Farry said it would be impossible for Sir Jeffrey to do both jobs well.\n\n\"He can't be in two places at the one time, especially as we're now going back to full sittings at the assembly and Westminster.\n\n\"There will be crucial votes to be cast in both of these places and in both regards, you are seeking to present and cast votes on behalf of the people you represent.\n\n\"There's no practical reason why this gives any advantage to any elected representative.\"\n\nOn Sunday, the DUP said the move would \"encourage stability at a time when devolution is deeply unstable because of a one-sided and undemocratic (Northern Ireland) Protocol\".\n\nThe text of government amendment provides more details.\n\nThe amendment will bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK on the principle of allowing dual mandates, but the mechanics and time line differ between regions.\n\nThe amendment is time limited to run for the duration of the Parliament session at the time of the assembly election - in this case two years.\n\nThe option will be open for future MPs to avail of the same route but will be time limited to the next parliamentary election.\n\nThe plan was proposed by former Alliance Party leader Lord Alderdice during a committee stage reading of the NI (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Bill on Wednesday.\n\nLord Alderdice, who is now a Liberal Democrat peer, argued dual mandates would encourage easier transitions between serving in London and Belfast, and benefit the Northern Ireland Assembly.\n\nFormer UUP leader Lord Trimble and former DUP deputy leader Lord Dodds spoke in favour of the move in the House of Lords.\n\nHowever, former SDLP leader Baroness Ritchie said while there was a case to be made for the amendment, she was strongly opposed to double jobbing.\n\nThe Lords are due to consider the amended proposal this week.", "We've been hearing today how hospital admissions are flat or falling across the UK. Cases are plummeting. Things are moving in the right direction.\n\nWe’re better protected now: it takes a fortnight for boosters to really work their magic, so the massive numbers of jabs just before Christmas started to do some heavy lifting just as we shook off the new year hangovers and went back to work.\n\nAnd it looks like the return to work and school – which might be expected to feed into the figures by now – is not leading to a spike in cases.\n\nOne big but. We don’t know how much last week’s rules in who gets tested are affecting the case numbers.\n\nSo we don’t yet know whether we’re heading towards low levels of Covid or are still stuck with high levels of infections.\n\nWe’ll have a better sense on Wednesday, when we get weekly figures on infections for last week that are less influenced by testing policy.\n\nLast week, they showed a slowdown in the growth of infections overall and a fall in London for the first week of the New Year. Here’s hoping for flat figures, or even more falls, tomorrow.\n\nDeaths are still rising. It’s worth remembering that deaths today started as infections nearly a month ago. They might keep rising for a little while since, a month ago, infections were rising quickly.", "Billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya is under fire for saying that he - and most Americans - \"don't care\" about abuses against the Uyghur minority in China.\n\nMr Palihapitiya, a part-owner of San Francisco's basketball team, made the comments during a podcast discussion of whether President Joe Biden's action on the issue had helped him politically.\n\nMr Palihapitiya later admitted that his comments \"lacked empathy\".\n\nIn a statement intended to clarify his stance, he said \"important issues deserve important discussions\".\n\n\"I believe that human rights matter, whether in China, the United States, or elsewhere,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chamath Palihapitiya This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMany people following the issue were not satisfied.\n\n\"When people apologise, they deserve a second chance. I don't view this as an apology when Chamath can not even acknowledge how his comment was hurtful to the Uyghur community,\" human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat wrote on Twitter. \"China takes comfort knowing that corporate executives have their back and will continue this genocide.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Rayhan E. Asat This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe US has accused China of genocide in its repression of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region - a charge that China has repeatedly rejected.\n\nLast year, Mr Biden signed into law new rules that require companies to prove that goods imported from the area were not made with \"forced labour\".\n\nMr Palihapitiya, an early executive at Facebook and now a prominent venture capitalist, is co-host of the \"All-in\" podcast on which he made the remarks. He was responding to his co-host's observation that Mr Biden's stance on the issue had not helped him in the polls.\n\n\"Let's be honest, nobody, nobody cares about what's happening to the Uyghurs, okay? You bring it up because you really care. And I think that's really nice that you care but .... The rest of us don't care. I'm just telling you a very hard truth,\" he said.\n\nBoston Celtics Forward Enes Kanter, who has been outspoken about human rights issues and campaigned on behalf of the forced labour law, was among those condemning the comments.\n\n\"When genocides happen, it is people like this that let it happen,\" he wrote.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Enes Kanter FREEDOM This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn a statement, the Golden State Warriors basketball team distanced itself from Mr Palihapitiya, who owns 10% of the team, calling him a \"limited investor with no day-to-day operating functions\".\n\n\"Mr Palihapitiya does not speak on behalf of our franchise and his views certainly don't reflect those of our organization\", the team said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Warriors PR This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Scottish government has been urged to ease its Covid-19 restrictions more quickly, with Nicola Sturgeon due to update MSPs on the latest plans.\n\nSome rules have already begun to change, with the limit on crowds at large outdoor events lifted on Monday.\n\nBut hospitality bosses and opposition MSPs have called for the \"stranglehold of restrictions\" to be ended swiftly.\n\nThe first minister has said she hopes to reduce curbs on indoor events and venues from 24 January.\n\nOn Monday, she said she was \"cautiously optimistic that we're turning the corner\" of the Omicron wave of the virus, while warning that there is still \"acute\" pressure on health services.\n\nThe Scottish government is taking a phased approach to lifting virus restrictions, with limits on attendance at outdoor events already having been dropped.\n\nHowever, there are still crowd limits on indoor events and rules enforcing physical distancing and table service within hospitality venues, with ministers saying they want to monitor the latest data before confirming wider changes.\n\nThe Scottish Hospitality Group pointed to Scottish government research which suggested that the number of people visiting bars and restaurants has fallen while the number mixing in each other's homes has risen.\n\nSpokesman Stephen Montgomery said \"completely pointless\" curbs on hospitality were \"driving people to socialise at home\" in an \"uncontrolled environment\".\n\nHe said: \"It's incredible that yet again, hospitality is the last sector to open. We are facing a catastrophic future that will impact thousands of jobs.\n\n\"We ask that the Scottish government concentrates on working collaboratively with industry to protect our long-term economy, which will be essential to providing employment opportunities post-pandemic.\"\n\nPublic health expert Prof Linda Bauld told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland said the current situation is encouraging.\n\nShe said: \"We have got enough data now to see what the true picture is and I think that the reduction in infection in the community appears genuine.\"\n\nBut the University of Edinburgh academic warned that a \"big strain\" remains on the NHS\n\nShe added: \"It is important for us to recognise that we have as many people in hospital now with Covid - although not all there because of Covid - as we did in the spring of 2020. So we don't want that pressure to increase any more.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon will convene a meeting of her cabinet on Tuesday morning before informing MSPs of the latest plans in the afternoon.\n\nShe said: \"Looking at the data right now, we've got reasons to continue to be cautiously optimistic that we're turning the corner in this Omicron wave.\n\n\"That's because people have responded magnificently, they've behaved in a way that's helped stem to some extent the transmission of Omicron and we took sensible, balanced, proportionate steps.\n\n\"So we're in a better position than I feared we would be before Christmas. But there's still a need for caution because the health service, for example, continues to be under very, very acute pressure.\"\n\nThe first minister has previously said that countries \"cannot continually rely on restrictive measures to manage the virus\", saying the government is looking for ways of working which are \"much less disruptive to our lives\".\n\nHowever, she has also said that ministers have to consider whether measures like the vaccine passport scheme should be extended as a \"necessary protection\".\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives want almost all restrictions dropped from the end of January, calling for work from home guidance to be axed and self-isolation rules to be \"gradually phased out\".\n\nLeader Douglas Ross has also called for an end to the vaccine certification scheme, saying that \"protecting mental health, physical health and Scottish jobs is every bit as important as slowing the spread of Covid\".\n\nHe added: \"We believe the balance must now tip in favour of trusting the Scottish public to do the right thing and keep themselves and their families safe, as they have done throughout this pandemic.\n\n\"People across Scotland have learned to live with Covid. The success of Scotland and the UK's vaccine scheme means the public can now tackle Covid through their own actions, without the need for so many government restrictions.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Scottish Labour have urged Ms Sturgeon to provide further support for the health service and small businesses.\n\nDeputy leader Jackie Baillie said with case numbers \"starting to stabilise\" the government could \"address the long running problems in the NHS and social care that have reached crisis point\".\n\nShe said: \"As Scotland starts to learn to live with Covid in the long term, we need both our NHS and our economy to be up to full strength.\n\n\"It is time for the SNP to end its 'sticking plaster' policy culture and listen to the concerns of both businesses, the NHS and social care.\"", "There are just over 1,000 primary, post-primary and special schools in Northern Ireland\n\nMore than half of schools in Northern Ireland had teachers absent due to Covid-19 or self-isolation during the first full week of term.\n\nBut the impact on schools was uneven with about one in 20 teachers off for Covid-related reasons in post-primaries.\n\nThe absence rates were higher across primary and special schools.\n\nThe figures for the week from 10-14 January have been compiled by the Department of Education (DE).\n\nThey are based on information provided by hundreds of schools across Northern Ireland.\n\nSome schools have reported difficulty getting substitute teachers when staff are off.\n\nSome post-primaries have also reported problems in getting \"subject-specific\" cover for pupils taking GCSEs, AS and A-Levels.\n\nThe education minister, seen here visiting a school in September, said more that 150 retired teachers have registered as subs\n\nBut the Department of Education workforce survey of schools shows that about two-thirds of teacher absences in schools during the week were covered by a substitute.\n\nThe rates of cover were highest in special schools where about eight in ten absences were covered by a substitute on Thursday and Friday.\n\nThe department's figures also do not indicate when staff absences were covered by a teacher already employed in the school.\n\nEducation Minister Michelle McIlveen wrote to schools on Thursday and said that more than 150 retired teachers had registered as substitutes following an appeal by the department just before Christmas.\n\nSome student teachers may also be allowed to teach classes unsupervised during school placements this term.\n\nA minority of schools have, however, had to send some classes home for remote learning on specific days due to staff absences.\n\nThe department's data shows that about one in every 13 teachers in primary and special schools was absent for Covid-related reasons during the week from 10-14 January.\n\nThe rate of absence for classroom assistants was slightly higher, but had fallen by the end of the week.\n\nHowever, more than half of primary schools said they had no teachers absent for Covid-related reasons during the first full week of term.\n\nBut just under one in 10 primaries said that more than a quarter of their teachers had been absent at some point during the week.\n\nMost post-primary schools said they had been affected by teacher absences.\n\nAbout one in eight said they had no Covid-related teacher absences during the week.\n\nBut just under half of post-primaries said that the number of staff off was relatively minor - with fewer than 5% of teachers absent for Covid-related reasons.\n\nBy Friday, only about one in 25 post-primaries reported more than 15% of teachers off because of Covid.\n\nHowever, the department's figures do not show how many teachers or staff are off for other reasons, which are not to do with Covid.\n\nThat will have increased the rates of staff absence in some schools.\n\nThere are just over 1,000 primary, post-primary and special schools in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe department's workforce data is based on information from about 550 schools across all sectors.", "The safety of women as they go about their daily business has once again been thrust into the spotlight. And once again it's because a woman has been killed in apparently \"safe\" conditions.\n\nSabina Nessa, a 28-year-old primary school teacher, was on her way to meet a friend for a Friday evening drink. She set out on what should have been a five-minute walk through a well-used public park at about 20:30 BST and never reached her destination. She was discovered by a member of the public the following evening.\n\nSpeaking at a news conference in relation to Ms Nessa's death, Det Ch Supt Trevor Lawry from the Met Police said: \"The streets are safe for women - people should be free to walk around free from fear\".\n\nLater, a community group handed out information sheets printed from the Met's website, giving \"tips for staying safe on the street\". Women are told not to wear headphones. We are told to stick to busy places, to hide our valuables. We must walk where there is good lighting and pre-book our taxi home.\n\nSix months ago, Sarah Everard was abducted, raped and murdered by a stranger. She followed a number of the protocols with which women are often issued: she walked along a main road, at the relatively early hour of 21:00, wearing sensible clothes.\n\nAnd she trusted a police officer. One of the people we are told to seek out if we feel we are in danger.\n\nNine months before that, sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were murdered by a stranger. The theory of \"safety in numbers\" did not save the sisters, who were together when they were stabbed multiple times in a public park. Staying in contact with partners via text and organising a cab to pick them up did not stop a man deciding to kill them in a so-called deal with a so-called devil.\n\nTheir friends found them in undergrowth two days later.\n\nAs Det Ch Supt Lawry says, of course women \"should\" be able to walk around free from fear. And of course the problem is with the men who murder them rather than the women wearing headphones. And of course women should not have to modify their behaviour in order to not be attacked or abducted or raped or killed.\n\nBut \"worrying about our safety is an integral part of our existence as women,\" said Kelly Grehan, a director of 50:50 Parliament, a cross-party campaign group promoting gender equality.\n\n\"It is drummed into us from a young age that our actions determine our safety: when we were only allowed to go in public toilets in pairs, given rape alarms at secondary school and told we were 'asking for it' or 'jailbait' when we tried to dress like the pop stars we idolised before some of us had even started menstruating.\"\n\nThe killings of Ms Nessa, Ms Everard, Ms Henry and Ms Smallman create an extra frisson of fear because their randomness indicates all women are at risk. If Ms Nessa arranged to meet her friend at a different bar or at a different time; if Ms Everard had left her friend's house 10 minutes earlier or later; if Ms Henry and Ms Smallman had chosen a different part of the park to have their picnic, it could have been different women facing the final few hours of their lives. It could be any woman - even if she had followed the rules.\n\nAcademic studies have examined the ways in which women and girls trade their freedom to feel safer. One of the largest studies conducted on sexual harassment in Europe found that almost half of the 42,000 women surveyed had restricted their freedom of movement based on the fear of gender-based violence.\n\nProf Liz Kelly, the director of the child and woman abuse studies unit at London Metropolitan University, coined the term \"safety work\", to describe the strategies women develop in response to their experiences in public. Often done without thinking, these precautions become ingrained as habit, or \"common sense\".\n\nAnd we all do it. We all make sure we have a fully-charged phone and do that spikey weapon-grip with our door keys at the same time as checking nobody is following us inside. We text when we are \"home safe\" and wait up until we hear the same from our companions. This is normal. This is accepted. This is part of being a woman.\n\nThe tips offered by police and other organisations perpetuate the idea of safety work: take a longer route if it's busier and better lit; search for a Tube carriage with other women in; wear flat shoes for the walk home (in case you have to run).\n\nSarah Everard had been walking to her home in Brixton when she disappeared\n\nAs Prof Kelly says, the \"necessity of safety work steals our time and our energy - being vigilant means it is seldom possible to just be in public space, to feel joy in exercise or notice the changing seasons\".\n\nAfter Sarah Everard went missing, Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick tried to reassure women that incidences of abduction and murder were \"incredibly rare\".\n\nAnd it's true - women account for about a third of all murders and of those, only 13% are killed by a stranger. Most are victims of a partner or ex-partner. It is far more likely that we will be killed at home than in a park.\n\nSo it's a balancing act - women have to take the precautions society deems reasonable while also trying not to overreact to dangers we're told are uncommon enough to be negligible.\n\nDr Fiona Vera-Gray, an assistant professor at Durham University, uses the term \"the right amount of panic\".\n\n\"This won't ever happen to you. Except if it does, because for some of us it will, it will be your fault for not being scared enough. Don't panic enough and it's your fault, but panic too much and you're hysterical.\"\n\nBibaa Henry, 46, and 27-year-old Nicole Smallman were stabbed to death in a Wembley park\n\nAnna Birley, a co-founder of campaign group Reclaim These Streets, said: \"We often get told when the worst happens that the murder of a woman by a stranger in a public place is very rare and we are very safe.\n\n\"But the thing is, our lived experience of street harassment - cat-calling, a man exposing himself to us - tells us we're not safe, and murder is rarely the first crime someone commits.\n\n\"We shouldn't be looking to solutions that require women to change their behaviour.\n\n\"Women should be able to walk five minutes across a park at any time of day or night without fear of violence.\"\n\nIn an ideal world, everyone would live their lives unmolested. It would be safe to amble down dark alleys or across parks, whether sporting a diamond-encrusted miniskirt and platinum noise-cancelling headphones or a sackcloth boiler suit and an air of high alert.\n\nBut until we get to that utopia, if it is even achievable, is the advice offered by police and various safety charities actually something that protects women? If we disregard the hugely problematic narrative of victim-blaming, are they pragmatic - if unpalatable - tips that would keep us safe from stranger danger?\n\nThe deaths of Ms Nessa, Ms Everard, Ms Henry and Ms Smallman would suggest not.\n\nThey followed the \"rules\" and still got murdered. Ms Everard's killer wasn't put off by a brightly-lit busy road and plenty of CCTV cameras. The man who murdered Ms Henry and Ms Smallman was untroubled by the women not being alone and defenceless.\n\nThe cases above are the high-profile ones. There will have been a strata of incidents in which women were attacked but not fatally. In which someone tried to pull or persuade them into a car but were shaken off. In which a man said something sexually aggressive that didn't lead to a physical assault but did leave the woman upset and frightened and angry.\n\nThe women affected would have stuck to the guidelines, would have done their safety work. Very few women actively decide to put themselves in situations they are repeatedly told are dangerous.\n\nA report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) was commissioned by Home Secretary Priti Patel after the murder of Ms Everard.\n\nIt was published the day Ms Nessa was killed.\n\nMayor of London Sadiq Khan said there should be a \"fully joined-up policy to address this issue, from school with boys being taught to respect girls; and proper healthy relationship education\". He urged the government to \"outlaw misogyny\" and \"make the harassment of women in a public place a criminal offence\".\n\nEven if all those policies were put into place tomorrow, how long would it take to see real change? Until we get to the point that the concept of a \"healthy relationship\" is the norm, not something to be taught squeezed in between double maths and lunch?\n\nWomen are not attacked because of our route home; we are not attacked because our walk was not \"purposeful\" enough, or because of what we were wearing. If a woman is murdered by a man she doesn't know, it is because he wanted to murder her. There is no other reason.\n\nSociety as a whole - and women as individuals - owes him no excuse. No matter how well-meant, perhaps safety hints for women run the risk of offering one.\n\nAnd in the words of Prof Kelly - what will it take to move the conversation from protecting women's safety to protecting their freedom?\n\nHave you been affected by this story? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The two-year-old boy was found wandering on Maxwellton Street in Paisley\n\nA man has been arrested after a toddler was reported to be alone at night on a Renfrewshire street - wearing just a nappy and a t-shirt.\n\nOfficers were called to Maxwellton Street in Paisley after the two-year-old boy was spotted by locals at around 20:45 on Sunday evening.\n\nPolice Scotland said that a 55-year-old man had been charged over the incident.\n\nA spokesman for the force said: \"Officers attended and a two-year-old boy was traced safe and well.\"\n\nThe man is due to appear at Paisley Sheriff Court at a later date. A full report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "US mobile networks AT&T and Verizon have agreed to postpone the rollout of their new 5G service at some airports.\n\nThe C-band service, which offers faster speeds and broader coverage, was due to be turned on tomorrow.\n\nBut airlines in the US have pushed to delay the start, warning that the signals could interfere with aeroplane navigation systems.\n\nThe telecoms firms expressed frustration as they bowed to pressure to limit their rollout.\n\nAT&T said it was \"temporarily\" deferring the rollout at a \"limited number of towers around certain airport runways\". Regulators had had \"two years\" to plan for the start of 5G service, it added.\n\n\"We are frustrated by the Federal Aviation Administration's inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge it do so in a timely manner,\" AT&T said in a statement.\n\n\"We are launching our advanced 5G services everywhere else as planned with the temporary exception of this limited number of towers.\"\n\nVerizon also said it had \"voluntarily decided to limit our 5G network around airports\".\n\nThis third postponement came as the White House and aviation authorities rushed to work out a solution to an issue that airlines have warned could cause major disruption, forcing them to ground some of their fleets and cancel flights.\n\nIn a statement, President Joe Biden thanked Verizon and AT&T for agreeing the delay, which he said would affect only about 10% of wireless tower locations.\n\n\"This agreement protects flight safety and allows aviation operations to continue without significant disruption and will bring more high-speed internet options to millions of Americans,\" he said, adding that officials would continue talks to find a \"permanent, workable solution around these key airports\".\n\nPhone companies have spent tens of billions of dollars to upgrade their networks to deploy the 5G technology, which brings much faster internet services and greater connectivity.\n\nBut airlines fear C-band 5G signals will disrupt planes' navigation systems, particularly those used in bad weather. Two major plane makers, Airbus and Boeing, have also voiced concerns.\n\nIn a recent letter to regulators, the 10 biggest US airlines said they wanted 5G signals to be excluded from \"the approximate two miles of airport runways at affected airports as defined by the FAA on 19 January 2022\".\n\n\"This will allow 5G to be deployed while avoiding harmful impacts on the aviation industry, travelling public, supply chain, vaccine distribution, our workforce and broader economy.\n\n\"We further ask that the FAA immediately identify those base stations closest to key airport runways that need to be addressed to ensure safety and avoid disruption,\" they added.\n\nThere have been several delays already because of the aviation concerns, with launch dates in December and earlier this month both being pushed back. Wireless industry groups say airlines are distorting the risks.\n\nDespite Tuesday's deal, some airlines including Air India and Japan's biggest airline, ANA Holdings said they had cancelled some US-bound flights because of possible 5G interference.\n\nThe much-hyped expansion of 5G networks in the US has been chaotic, to say the least.\n\nThe rollout has been delayed twice - and now AT&T and Verizon have bowed to intense pressure, agreeing to defer opening some parts of the network near airports.\n\nThis happened because of concerns about the safety of aircraft. To mitigate those concerns, airlines would have had to operate under restrictions they clearly found intolerable.\n\nBut those safety issues have been well publicised for more than a year. There was clearly time to come up with a mitigation plan - and other countries have been able to do just that.\n\nThe question is, why were US regulators, telecoms operators, airlines and airports apparently unable to come up with a workable solution?\n\nIn other countries, telecoms companies have been required to reduce 5G signals around airports by taking steps such as pointing antennae away from control towers.\n\nBut US firms were not expecting those types of limits to be imposed when they spent billions on 5G infrastructure, said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a professor of transportation economics at George Washington University and a former deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of Transportation.\n\n\"They want to get the most out of their investment,\" she said. \"What they should have been told beforehand is that they would not have free rein to use it because it could interfere with the planes but they were not given that information in advance.\"\n\nIn an update on Sunday, the FAA, which oversees aviation safety across the US, said it had cleared \"an estimated 45% of the US commercial fleet to perform low-visibility landings at many of the airports where 5G C-band will be deployed\".\n\nThe FAA added that it had approved \"two radio altimeter models that are installed in a wide variety of Boeing and Airbus planes\".\n\n\"Even with these new approvals, flights at some airports may still be affected,\" the regulator said.\n\n\"The FAA also continues to work with manufacturers to understand how radar altimeter data is used in other flight control systems. Passengers should check with their airlines if weather is forecast at a destination where 5G interference is possible.\"", "A hostage situation at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, was \"not related\" to the Jewish community, according to the FBI's Matt DeSarno.\n\nFour people were taken hostage by a man at the synagogue on Saturday, and were released safely after an 11 hour stand-off. The suspect died at the scene.\n\nUpdate: The FBI's director, Christopher Wray, later said on 20 January that the FBI \"is, and has been, treating the event as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.\"", "Far-right French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour has been fined €10,000 (£8,350) by a Paris court for hate speech.\n\nThe case was launched over a TV appearance, where he described unaccompanied migrant children as \"thieves\", \"rapists\" and \"murderers\".\n\nFormer broadcaster Zemmour is known for his anti-Islam and anti-immigration views.\n\nHis lawyer said he would appeal against the court's decision.\n\nReacting to the verdict on social media, Zemmour complained that his freedom of speech was being restricted, and said there was an \"urgent need to drive ideology out of the courts\".\n\nHe made the comments in September 2020 on the CNews television channel, where he used to work as a pundit.\n\nAnswering a question about a recent knife attack by a young radicalised Pakistani immigrant, he said: \"They have nothing to do here. They are thieves, they are murderers, they are rapists, that's all they are. They must be sent back and they must not even come.\"\n\nAt his trial in November last year, which Zemmour did not attend, prosecutors argued that his comments were \"contemptuous\" and \"outrageous\", and that \"the limits of freedom of expression have been crossed\".\n\nZemmour has two previous convictions for hate speech.\n\nFor several weeks last year, polls suggested that he could come second in April's presidential election in France, facing a run-off with current President Emmanuel Macron. However, his support has since slipped.\n\nPolls now suggest he could get around 11% of the first-round vote.\n\nAlthough Zemmour has announced his intention to run for president, it is not yet clear if his name will be on the ballot paper.\n\nLike all candidates, he needs to gather 500 endorsements from elected officials around France by the middle of March. He has admitted that he could struggle to get enough backing, complaining that the system is biased against political outsiders.\n\nThis conviction changes nothing for Zemmour. Over the years he's had a dozen run-ins with the law - some of which he's won, some lost - and his argument about being persecuted by a left-wing justice system is by now well oiled.\n\nEssentially he says that publicly funded anti-racist groups help to frame \"hate speech\" laws, and then trigger criminal investigations against people they believe to have breached them. In other words, that pressure groups have become both legislator and prosecutor.\n\nSo for Zemmour, being convicted is merely more proof of his original point, that people who speak inconvenient truths about crime are silenced.\n\nDo voters agree? Presumably the 11% who say they'll vote for him do.\n\nBut in the last few weeks, Zemmour's star, which shone so brightly in the autumn, has shown distinct signs of fading. This verdict will entrench some in their support for the man. But it may also convince others that he is indeed beyond the pale.\n\nEric Zemmour was grabbed round the neck at his first campaign rally last month. Security officers intervened.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Eric Zemmour was grabbed at his first political rally", "Ireland's president and taoiseach (prime minister) were among the mourners at Tuesday's funeral mass\n\nThe children, neat and sombre in their navy school uniforms, strained to catch a glimpse as the flashing blue lights of the police motorcycles heralded the arrival of the funeral cortege.\n\nEach clutched a graduation photo of Ashling Murphy and a single red rose, their innocence contrasted with the tragic backdrop.\n\nThey were there to pay tribute to a beloved young primary school teacher and talented musician, attacked and killed as she exercised along a nearby canal in the small, rural Irish community less than a week earlier.\n\nHer death has sparked anger, shock and revulsion across these islands and further afield, prompting a national discussion on how to end violence against women.\n\nDave Plunkett walks every day on the canal path.\n\n\"Everyone feels a real connection to her. It just feels like nothing is going to be the same again,\" he said.\n\nAnd for the many, many people who knew and loved Ms Murphy in this County Offaly community, that is the case.\n\nFor them, this is raw and visceral. They're confronting the unimaginable. In the six days since the killing, they have struggled to comprehend the violence that has been brought to their quiet community.\n\nHours after Ms Murphy's funeral, Irish police said they had arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of her murder.\n\nThe night before the funeral, local resident Mary Givan brought fresh batteries for the fairy lights on a makeshift memorial to Ms Murphy along the Grand Canal, and cleared spent tea lights.\n\nHer daughter was in the same year as Ashling at school.\n\n\"This is a mother's fear now,\" she said. \"If you let your daughters out, they can't go out on their own. We can't either.\n\n\"To keep the light burning for her, that's all we can do.\"\n\nAshling Murphy's boyfriend Ryan Casey was hugged by Irish President Michael D Higgins outside the church\n\nThe area is not accustomed to public expressions of heartbreak and sorrow, although there were elements of both outside St Brigid's Church in Mount Bolus on Tuesday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jessica Black This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFr Michael Meade, chief celebrant at the funeral Mass, talked of how Ashling's family had been \"robbed\" of a precious gift - a term that succinctly summed up the callous nature of the 23-year-old's death.\n\nPupils from Ashling Murphy's class held photographs and roses outside St Brigid's Church in Mountbolus\n\nThe rural, local nature of the area was encapsulated by the farmer who opened his fields to mourners in cars and buses, as gardaí (Irish police) marshalled them in.\n\nHis fields have held the overflow from funerals before, but never for one like this.\n\nAhead of the funeral, Fr Meade spoke of the fact that \"something powerful\" would come out of this, reflecting on the outpouring of grief and support from around the world.\n\nBishop Tom Deenihan, Bishop of Meath, told mourners that the \"chink of light\" was that wave of sympathy, manifested by the vigils in Ashling's honour and the support to her family over recent days.\n\n\"Community is needed to overcome evils such as this,\" he said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries: \"This government is committed to supporting families as much as possible\"\n\nCulture Secretary Nadine Dorries has confirmed the BBC licence fee is to be frozen at £159 for two years.\n\nSpeaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Ms Dorries said the government could \"not justify extra pressure on the wallets of hardworking households\".\n\nFollowing the two-year freeze, she said the fee will rise in line with inflation for the following four years.\n\nDirector general Tim Davie said the freeze would mean \"tougher choices which will impact licence fee payers\".\n\nThe licence fee pays for BBC services including TV, radio, the BBC website, podcasts, iPlayer and apps.\n\nIts existence is guaranteed until at least 31 December 2027 by the BBC's royal charter, which sets out its funding and purpose.\n\nMs Dorries said: \"The BBC must support people at a time when their finances are strained, make savings and efficiencies, and use the billions in public funding it receives to deliver for viewers, listeners and users.\"\n\nBBC director general Tim Davie: \"We will do everything to ensure the BBC continues to punch above its weight for Britain\"\n\nIn a joint statement, Mr Davie and BBC chairman Richard Sharp said the settlement would mean the BBC \"will now have to absorb inflation\".\n\n\"That is disappointing,\" they said, \"not just for licence fee payers, but also for the cultural industries who rely on the BBC for the important work they do across the UK.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Press Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThey noted the corporation's income for UK services is already 30% lower in real terms than it was 10 years ago.\n\n\"We will continue to drive an ambitious programme of reform moving more of our output across the UK, transitioning the organisation to a digital future and delivering distinctive and impartial content,\" they added.\n\nThe Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said the BBC is expected to receive about £3.7bn in licence fee funding in 2022 and £23bn over the duration of the settlement period.\n\nIt added the BBC also receives more than £90m per year from the government to support the BBC World Service.\n\nMs Dorries also announced that Welsh language broadcaster S4C will also be allocated an extra £7.5m a year to develop its digital offering, to help it reach more Welsh language speakers including younger audiences.\n\nThe culture secretary tweeted over the weekend that this announcement about the BBC licence fee will be the last - and it was time to discuss new ways to fund and sell \"great British content\".\n\nShe said \"the days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors\" were over.\n\nFollowing the announcement of the freeze, Ms Dorries said attention would in due course turn to the BBC's funding model in the longer term.\n\nThe culture secretary has effectively kickstarted a public debate on the future of the BBC, pitting those who say she wants to destroy a national treasure against those who argue, in a world of Netflix and Disney Plus, the licence fee model is outdated.\n\nShe was reprimanded by the House of Commons Speaker for indicating her decision to freeze the licence fee on Twitter a day before she brought it to Parliament. And her measured tone today felt very different to yesterday's tweet in which she dramatically claimed this announcement on the licence fee would be \"the last\".\n\nShe says this is about helping struggling families who are feeling the pinch of rising prices - but her critics says it's ideological.\n\nToday, Nadine Dorries wouldn't commit to offering up any alternatives to the way the BBC is funded right now - and many, even BBC detractors, say the technology may not be in place to allow a change by the end of 2027 when the BBC charter is up for renewal.\n\nThe BBC Board met last night, highly unusual on a Sunday, in response to the culture secretary's unexpected tweet. What will be axed is still unknown. What is certain is that more cuts are on the way and audiences will see a difference in the years ahead.\n\nOn Monday, Ms Dorries referred to the changing broadcasting landscape, which has been heavily impacted by the huge popularity of streaming services.\n\nShe told parliament: \"We need a BBC that is ready to meet the challenges of modern broadcasting.\n\n\"We have five or six years, that is plenty of time to decide what a future funding model will look like.\n\n\"In 2027/2028, when it starts, many of us [MPs] many not even be here. We're talking six years away.\"\n\nBefore she spoke on Monday, the speaker of the House of Commons, Linsday Hoyle, reprimanded her for tweeting about the licence fee announcement before first addressing parliament.\n\n\"Any substantial policy developments should have been made to this house before they were made to the media,\" he said.\n\nShe responded by saying: \"I give you my apologies,\" adding she had \"refused every invitation for media yesterday and today\".\n\nWhen asked in Parliament about her comments on Twitter, she replied: \"I cannot see a world in 2028 where individual households are paying an outdated fee established in 1922 to fund an organisation.\n\n\"I don't think anyone would have foreseen what the digital landscape would be like today… or the digital habits of young people today.\"\n\nShe also spoke about the importance of discussing a future funding model, asking: \"How do we have a BBC that is funded for the future in order to protect it?\"\n\nJulian Knight MP, the chair of the DCMS committee, welcomed Ms Dorries' statement, and said the BBC \"plays a fundamental role in our culture and demonstrates the richness of this country's broadcasting landscape\".\n\nHe said that in order to preserve the BBC for audiences, it was \"critical that the government provides clarity on how future funding will be provided, given the current levels of broadband coverage which cast doubt on the success of a subscription model\".\n\n\"An alternative source of funding must deliver the stability necessary to enable the corporation to compete effectively on a global stage,\" he added.\n\nLengthy negotiations have already taken place between BBC bosses and the government over a future funding settlement, with the idea of freezing the licence fee discussed back in October.\n\nThe annual fee is set by the government, which announced in 2016 that it would rise in line with inflation for five years from April 2017.\n\nDr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a presenter on long-running astronomy show The Sky at Night\n\nLabour's shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell has accused the prime minister and Ms Dorries of seeming \"hell-bent on attacking this great British institution because they don't like its journalism\".\n\nLiberal Democrat culture spokesperson Jamie Stone has said freezing the licence fee would be a \"stealth cut of almost £2bn\" that would put services at risk.\n\n\"The government must stop this reckless ideological crusade and back off our BBC,\" he added.\n\nPreviously, Ms Dorries, who was appointed culture secretary last September, said she thought the BBC should exist, but it needed to be able to take on competitors such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.\n\nAt the Conservative party conference in October, Ms Dorries said the broadcaster needed \"real change\" in order to represent the entire UK and accused it of \"groupthink\".\n\nIn 2020, people over 75 began paying for their TV licences, which they previously received for free.\n\nThe BBC newsroom is a familiar sight during the TV News bulletins\n\nFunding for this had come from the government, but responsibility for this policy was handed to the BBC after the last funding settlement.\n\nIn 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the BBC should \"cough up\" and pay for TV licences for all over-75s but the BBC said doing so would force \"unprecedented closures\" of services. Now, only over-75s on pension credit are eligible for a free licence, paid for by the BBC.\n\nTV licence evasion itself is not an imprisonable offence. However, the government says non-payment of the fine, following a criminal conviction, could lead to a risk of imprisonment - \"a last resort\" after other methods of enforcement have failed.\n\nLast year, the government decided not to move ahead with plans to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee, but said it would \"remain under active consideration\".", "One of the UK's largest insurance groups is to replace the words \"energetic\" and \"enthusiastic\" in its job adverts, saying they put off older applicants.\n\nPhoenix Group, which owns Standard Life, said this was not because people's enthusiasm waned with age.\n\nInstead, older workers often ruled themselves out of applying if they felt unwanted, it said.\n\nIt comes as firms scramble for workers with job vacancies at record highs.\n\nPhoenix said it wanted to take an inclusive approach in its recruitment, as first reported by The Telegraph - but it denied that it was banning certain words from job adverts.\n\nIt said it wanted to replace words such as \"innovative\" in job ads to try to avoid discouraging older applicants.\n\nInstead it will say it is looking for competencies such as \"contributing new ideas\" or \"problem solving\".\n\nPhoenix Group chief executive Andy Briggs, who is the government's \"business champion\" for older workers, warned in February 2021 that some workers had been disproportionately hit by the pandemic.\n\nThe insurer employs more than 7,000 people in the UK and is currently advertising 83 vacancies. The percentage of Phoenix employees aged 45 or over is 44%.\n\nThe employment rate for people aged between 50 and 64 has been increasing steadily since the mid-1990s, and in April to June 2021 stood at 71.2%, according to official figures. However, that increase has lagged behind younger age groups in the pandemic.\n\nJob vacancies in the UK have been running at record highs, and between October and December hit 1.24 million.\n\nSectors that have been scrambling to recruit staff include health and hospitality.", "Shama Amin will leave the competition on Thursday's show\n\nThe Apprentice contestant Shama Amin has quit the hit BBC show due to health reasons, it has been announced.\n\nMs Amin, who has rheumatoid arthritis, said the competition, in which the winner takes home a £250,000 investment from Lord Alan Sugar, was \"physically demanding\".\n\nAhead of the series, the Bradford nursery owner said she wanted to \"be a living example\" for Asian women.\n\nShe said the decision to leave was \"difficult\".\n\nHer departure means 13 entrepreneurs remain in the running to become Lord Sugar's next business partner.\n\nOn the show on Thursday, the mother-of-five will say: \"Because of medical reasons, due to this process being so physically demanding, despite all the efforts the whole team has made to support me, I have had to make a difficult decision to leave the process.\n\n\"I would just like to thank you so much for this opportunity.\"\n\nBaroness Karren Brady and previous contest winner Tim Campbell have joined Lord Sugar (centre) for this year\"s competition\n\nRheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints and usually affects the hands, feet and wrists.\n\nMs Amin, 41, added that \"being a lady of colour, wearing a headscarf\" meant she understood the challenges Asian women faced.\n\nThe first episode of the new series was watched by 4.6 million people, making it the show's most popular launch since 2017.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Former Apprentice winner 'honoured' to cover for Claude", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "A photo released by the New Zealand Defence Force showed a part of Tonga blanketed in ash\n\nAsh cloaking a runway has hampered relief efforts to Tonga, as the scale of the damage from a volcanic eruption and a tsunami becomes clear.\n\nNew Zealand is trying to send clean drinking water and other supplies but planes cannot land at the main airport.\n\nSome of Tonga's small outlying islands have suffered substantial damage, aid agencies say.\n\nTwo people have been reported dead, but with communications limited there are fears the true toll could be higher.\n\nAn underwater volcano erupted on Saturday, showering Tonga with ash and triggering a tsunami.\n\nTonga is made up of more than 170 islands scattered over an area of the South Pacific roughly the size of Japan. Just over 100,000 people live in Tonga, the bulk of them on the main island of Tongatapu.\n\nThe UN reported extensive damage to property on western beaches of Tongatapu. In the capital Nukuʻalofa, the New Zealand High Commission said aside from the waterfront, the area is largely undamaged.\n\nBut there are concerns about the Ha'apai group of islands, which lies north of Tongatapu.\n\nSurveillance flights showed an entire village destroyed on one island and buildings flattened on another.\n\nTonga's deputy head of mission in Australia, Curtis Tu'ihalangingie, told Reuters the pictures were \"alarming\".\n\n\"Possibly there will be more deaths and we just pray that is not the case,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Tuesday New Zealand foreign affairs minister Nanaia Mahuta said that \"water is among the highest priorities for Tonga at this stage\". Aid agencies say it is likely that volcanic dust and the tsunami had contaminated Tonga's water supplies.\n\nBut the ash, that has turned Tonga's normally lush green landscape into a muddy brown, needs to be cleared before New Zealand's planes can land.\n\nA group of Tongans have been sweeping the ash off the runway, 1News reported. It is likely to take at least until Wednesday before the runway is clear.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nCommunications with the island chain have been disrupted after the single underwater cable connecting Tonga to the rest of the world was severed in the eruption.\n\nTongans living abroad have been anxiously waiting for news from relatives and loved ones back home. It could take up to two weeks to restore phone and internet lines.\n\nThe World Health Organization said a lone official had been channelling information between UN agencies and the Tongan government using a satellite phone.\n\nThe eruption was felt as far away as in the US. In Peru, two people drowned in abnormally high waves while beaches near the capital Lima were closed off following an oil spill.\n\nAre you, or a family member, in Tonga? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA knifeman who stabbed five people at random in a shopping centre has been detained under the Mental Health Act.\n\nShoppers ran for their lives and dived for cover when Raphael Chevelleau caused \"widespread panic\" in Manchester Arndale in October 2019.\n\nA court heard he injured three people and attempted to hurt two more as he dashed through the shopping centre.\n\nChevelleau, 43, previously pleaded guilty to three counts of wounding with intent and two of attempted wounding.\n\nHe was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court to an indeterminate hospital order, meaning he will be detained in a secure hospital and will only be released with Home Office approval.\n\nChevelleau suffers from a schizophrenic illness which has been resistant to treatment, the court heard.\n\nHe was admitted to hospital in 2006 for psychiatric reasons, while his mother said he was diagnosed in prison with schizophrenia when he was 21.\n\nThe court heard Chevelleau caught a bus to the Arndale after buying a kitchen knife for £1.50 from a shop near his flat in Rochdale Road, Blackley, on the morning of 11 October 2019.\n\n\"With no warning he broke into a run, wielding the knife and randomly stabbed five members of the public,\" prosecutor Andrew Ford said.\n\n\"He caused widespread fear and panic among the general public visiting the Arndale centre that day and a sense of pandemonium as people fled.\"\n\nRaphael Chevelleau admitted charges of wounding with intent and attempted wounding\n\nThe court heard Chevelleau dumped the knife in a bin on the street after his spree, which lasted one minute and 27 seconds.\n\nHis first victim was a 61-year-old engineer who was stabbed in the back, before he then attacked a 35-year-old woman walking with her husband who was grazed.\n\nThe woman later recalled how Chevelleau had a \"wide cheesy smile\" as he attacked her.\n\nHe next targeted a 45-year-old woman pushing her baby in a pram, who had a lucky escape as the knife came close to her ribs.\n\nChevelleau also stabbed a 21-year-old woman, who was visiting the city from Ireland with friends for an 18th birthday celebration, in her right shoulder and right bicep.\n\nIn a statement, she said: \"The man was looking right through me and looking as if he really wanted to hurt me.\"\n\nChevelleau attacked his final victim, a 52-year-old female department store worker, as he ran out of the Arndale.\n\nMr Ford said only the layers of her clothing, including a bubble coat, meant she was not more seriously wounded.\n\nPolice said none of the injuries were life-threatening but the man has since had the use of his right-hand severely affected and all the victims have been offered support for psychological harm caused as a result of the attacks.\n\nThe attacks happened at the Arndale Centre on a busy Friday morning\n\nChevelleau was initially held under the Terrorism Act but counter-terrorism detectives found no ideological motive for the attacks.\n\nHe was deemed by medical specialists to be initially unfit for interview and has been in a secure hospital ever since.\n\nConsultant forensic psychiatrist Martin Lock told the court he thought it was \"highly unlikely\" Chevelleau would have committed the offences if he had not been suffering from schizophrenia.\n\nHe said there was \"a wealth of evidence\" that - unknown to medical practitioners and family members - his mental state deteriorated ahead of the stabbings.\n\nThe judge said that if Chevelleau did not suffer from mental health problems, he would have received a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years.\n\nDet Ch Insp Clare Devlin said: \"The shock, fright, and pain - both mentally and physically - that Raphael Chevelleau inflicted on the five victims that day cannot be understated, and I'm sure the majority of those who were in the city centre that day vividly remember how they felt when these attacks were taking place.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Two teenagers arrested in England as part of the investigation into a hostage-taking at a synagogue in Texas have been released without charge, police say.\n\nBritish citizen Malik Faisal Akram, 44, was shot dead after a standoff with police on Saturday.\n\nThe siege at the synagogue in Colleyville near Dallas ended after 10 hours, with all four hostages unharmed.\n\nDetails of the ages and genders of the teenagers were not released.\n\nThey were arrested in south Manchester on Sunday evening.\n\nGreater Manchester Police said officers from Counter Terrorism Policing North West had been \"in constant contact with US authorities\" to help with their investigation.\n\nAn address in north Manchester has been searched as part of their enquiries, the police force said.\n\nIt has emerged Akram, from Blackburn, Lancashire, was investigated by MI5 but by the time he flew to the US about two weeks ago, he was assessed as no longer being a risk.\n\nHe had been on the British security service's watchlist as a \"subject of interest\" in 2020 and was investigated in the second half of that year.\n\nBut by 2021 Akram, who had a criminal record in the UK, had moved from the active list to the \"former subject of interest\" list and was no longer considered a threat.\n\nOn Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters Akram had been checked \"multiple times\" against US government databases, which did not contain any \"derogatory information\" about him at the time he entered the country.\n\nAkram is believed to have arrived via New York's JFK International Airport two weeks ago, according to police sources, and he is thought to have bought weapons \"on the street\" after arrival.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker tells CBS Mornings about being held hostage - and how he escaped\n\nThe siege began at around 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT) on Saturday, and police were then called to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue.\n\nRabbi Charlie Cytron-White told BBC partner CBS the group had been praying when he heard a click that turned out to be the hostage-taker's gun.\n\nAkram gained initial access to the synagogue during the service by claiming to be a homeless man, according to a police source quoted by CBS.\n\nOne hostage was released after six hours, while the other three - including the rabbi - escaped several hours later.\n\nRabbi Cytron-White said he and two other hostages were able to get out \"without a shot being fired\" after he threw a chair at the hostage-taker.\n\nDuring the standoff Akram was heard on a live stream demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is serving an 86-year prison sentence in nearby Fort Worth, Texas, over attempts to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan.\n\nSiddiqui has distanced herself from his actions, issuing a statement through a lawyer.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel has offered \"the full support\" of the UK police and security services to her US counterpart.\n\nForeign Secretary Liz Truss has described the incident as an \"act of terrorism and anti-Semitism\", a view echoed by the Muslim Council of Britain, which called it a hate crime and expressed its solidarity with the Jewish community.\n\nTemporary Assistant Chief Constable Dominic Scally, of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said: \"CTP North West is continuing to assist with the investigation which is being led by US authorities.\n\n\"Overnight, constructive meetings with colleagues from the United States have taken place.\"\n\nThe confirmation that Malik Faisal Akram was already known to MI5 will inevitably prompt the question: why wasn't he stopped?\n\nAkram, who had a criminal record, was the subject of a brief, four-week investigation in 2020. MI5 officers concluded that he was not of sufficient concern to justify elevating him to a higher priority. He was put onto a list of former subjects of interest, which includes over 40,000 individuals.\n\nBy the time he flew to the US, MI5 were unaware of his intentions - but here there is a second question.\n\nHow was someone with his record able to get on a plane to the US, enter the country unchallenged without declaring his past, and obtain a gun in just two weeks?\n\nIn some cases British police officers have stopped suspect individuals from flying out of UK airports but since Akram's file was effectively closed, this action would not have been considered proportionate on national security grounds.\n\nThere is also a further angle concerning his deteriorating mental state. MI5 does have an in-house behavioural science unit but it's not clear if Akram's case was brought to their attention after his investigation was concluded in 2020.", "The body of a British woman swept away by the tsunami in Tonga has been found, her brother says.\n\nNick Eleini told broadcasters the family was \"devastated\" after Angela Glover died trying to rescue her dogs.\n\nIt is the first known death in the disaster, caused when an underwater volcano erupted, sending a tsunami towards the Pacific island nation.\n\nBut communications have been badly damaged, making it hard to establish the scale of the destruction.\n\nThe Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano, which erupted on Saturday, was about 40 miles (65km) north of Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa, where Angela and her husband James had made their home.\n\nSpeaking outside their mother's home in Hove, Mr Eleini said he understood Angela's body was found by her husband.\n\nBrighton-born Angela, 50, had been living in Tonga since marrying James, he said, and they became \"well-loved by locals and expats alike\".\n\n\"Angela and James loved their life in Tonga and adored the Tongan people. In particular, they loved the Tongan love of family and Tongan culture,\" he said.\n\nMr Eleini said his sister was \"a beautiful woman\" who \"would walk into a room and just light it up with her presence\".\n\n\"Angela was the heart of our family, she was the emotional heart of our family,\" he said. \"I will miss her and I will think of her every day until the day I die. My mother is just broken at the moment, she is just absolutely shattered.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Angela Glover's brother Nick Eleini: \"I don't think we'll ever get over this\"\n\nAfter they married in 2015 and moved to Tonga, James began running a tattoo parlour called the Happy Sailor, employing and training Tongans, while Angela founded the Tongan Animal Welfare Society, Mr Eleini said.\n\nShe had \"a deep love of dogs\" and her organisation sheltered and rehabilitated stray animals before trying to find homes for them, he added.\n\n\"The uglier the dog, the more she loved it. She just loved them all, she was totally dedicated to it.\"\n\nShe had worked in London in the advertising industry before starting a new life in the south Pacific.\n\nAngela is known in Tonga for her work on animal welfare\n\nMr Eleini said she loved the ocean and had been drawn to live in Tonga by a childhood dream of swimming with whales.\n\n\"It was Tonga that allowed her to fulfil these dreams.\"\n\nHe brother said that despite the image of idyllic island life, it could be \"pretty tough\" there, with cyclones common at this time of year.\n\n\"But it's also a beautiful life. She was living her dream. She always wanted to live in a place like Tonga. We are so proud she was able to fulfil that.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Tongans overseas have been left for two days unable to reach family and friends back home following the disaster.\n\nSurveillance flights sent by New Zealand revealed \"significant damage\" along the western coast of Tongatapu, the country's main island.\n\nTelevision New Zealand's Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver said it was expected to take at least two weeks before international phones and internet links were restored, due to damage inflicted on a crucial undersea cable.\n\nThe Red Cross estimates 80,000 people may have been affected by the tsunami, and dust from the volcano could contaminate water supplies.\n\nSome officials have also voiced concern that relief efforts could spread Covid in the country, which only recorded its first coronavirus cases in October.", "Carwyn Roberts pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour at an earlier hearing\n\nA man who pretended to be a lawyer, doctor and council official to control his girlfriend's life has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence.\n\nThe 29-year-old used fake email accounts to lie, including saying his partner had been drugged and abused.\n\nCarwyn Roberts, from Bangor, had previously pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour at Mold Crown Court.\n\nHe was also ordered to carry out 150 hours community service.\n\nThe court was told Roberts met his girlfriend on website Plenty of Fish before they moved into her flat together.\n\nThe leisure centre worker told her he was getting an inheritance of £300,000 and suggested they begin looking at houses.\n\nBut there was no inheritance.\n\nEmails she had supposedly been getting from a solicitor about the house buy were from Roberts.\n\nThe 'solicitor' also asked about her sexual history, suggested there were cameras in her flat which had recorded her being unfaithful.\n\nRoberts met his girlfriend on dating website Plenty of Fish\n\nStill pretending to be a lawyer, Roberts told her there were ongoing criminal proceedings against men who had sexually abused her.\n\nHe then convinced his girlfriend to quit her job after telling her about a position at Gwynedd Council. She then received fake local authority emails appeared to offering her employment.\n\nPosing as a doctor, Roberts sent missives telling his girlfriend she was pregnant.\n\nOne of her relatives raised the alarm as they believed there was something not right about a scan picture they were shown.\n\nIt had been found by Roberts online.\n\nIn a victim impact statement the woman, who had a history of anxiety and depression, said Roberts had \"manipulated her, knowing what to say to make her feel special and safe\".\n\nShe said she felt ashamed when she thought of him watching her packing their things to move to a new home that did not exist.\n\nHe made her jobless and financially dependent on him and humiliated her, she said.\n\n\"He exploited all my insecurities,\" she said.\n\nSentencing him to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, Judge Niclas Parry said he accepted Carwyn Roberts struggled with his own \"vulnerabilities\", but said his behaviour had been \"cruel and despicable\".\n\nHe said the case would be bizarre were it not so serious.\n\n\"She wanted to believe these things,\" Judge Parry said.\n\n\"The whole experience led her to anxiety and desperation.\"\n\nRoberts was ordered to pay more than £3,000 court costs.\n\nA restraining order, banning him from contacting his victim or her daughter was made.\n\nIn a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service's Rhian Jones, dubbed the manipulation \"staggering\".\n\nShe said: \"The CPS were able to build a strong case showing the number of fake accounts and emails could be traced back to him, demonstrating he had told lie after lie.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The prime minister announces plans to end Plan B measures in England\n\nEngland's Plan B measures are to end from next Thursday, with mandatory face coverings in public places and Covid passports both dropped, Boris Johnson has announced.\n\nThe prime minister also said the government would immediately drop its advice for people to work from home.\n\nThe PM said England was reverting to \"Plan A\" due to boosters and how people had followed Plan B measures.\n\nHe told MPs scientists believed the Omicron wave had peaked nationally.\n\nAt a Downing Street press conference, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: \"This is a moment we can all be proud of.\n\n\"It's a reminder of what this country can accomplish when we all work together.\"\n\nBut, he said, this should not be seen as the \"finish line\" because the virus and future variants cannot be eradicated - instead \"we must learn to live with Covid in the same way we live with flu\".\n\nHe urged people to continue taking steps to keep the virus at bay, including hand washing, ventilating rooms and self-isolating if positive - and pressed those who were unvaccinated to come forward to get their jabs.\n\nEarlier, in a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, the prime minister said:\n\nFurther announcements on the easing of travel rules and restrictions on care home visits in England are expected in the coming days, Boris Johnson added.\n\nThe prime minister also said the government intended to end the legal requirement for people who test positive for Covid to self-isolate - and replace it with advice and guidance.\n\nThe current regulations around self-isolation expire on 24 March. Mr Johnson said he expected not to renew them then - and suggested that date could be brought forward if the data allows.\n\nCiting the latest infection study by the Office for National Statistics, Mr Johnson said its data showed that infections levels were falling in England. He also said hospital admissions had stabilised and scientists believed \"it is likely that the Omicron wave has now peaked nationally\".\n\nHowever, he said he did expect cases to continue rising in primary schools and pointed to significant pressures on the NHS in north-east and north-west England.\n\nLooking ahead, Mr Johnson said the government would set out its long-term strategy for living with coronavirus.\n\nHe urged people to \"remain cautious\" during the last weeks of winter as there were still \"significant pressures\" on the NHS and the pandemic was \"not over\".\n\nIn response, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he would back lifting Plan B measures \"as long as the science says it is safe\" and accused the prime minister of being \"too distracted\" to have a \"robust plan to live well with Covid\".\n\nSchool leaders' unions said Covid remained a challenge for schools, with high numbers of staff and pupils absent.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the end of face coverings in classrooms, but warned the government risked giving the impression the crisis was over when there was still huge disruption in education.\n\nAnd the Royal College of Nursing said dropping Plan B would do \"nothing to ease the pressure on the NHS\".\n\n\"We can't rely on the vaccine alone when the situation is still so precariously balanced,\" its chief executive Pat Cullen said.\n\nBut for the hospitality sector, which suffered as people worked from home and were cautious over Omicron, there was relief. Industry group UKHospitality said businesses could now begin their revival and recovery.\n\nThe whole of Plan B is going. But is it too soon?\n\nInfections levels, while falling, are still well above what they were last winter. And hospital admissions have only just started coming down.\n\nThe fact remains that England - and the rest of the UK for that matter - is one of the best protected nations when you combine the immunity built up by vaccination and previous infection.\n\nThis does not mean people will not catch the virus in the future, but it does limit how many will become seriously ill.\n\nWhat's more, this Omicron wave appears to have peaked at just over 2,000 hospital admissions a day - very much best-case scenario territory.\n\nThis has given both ministers and the scientists advising them confidence that it's at least time to ease restrictions.\n\nOthers will argue this is going too far, too quickly.\n\nBut in the end it comes down to a judgement about what is proportionate.\n\nAnd certainly you have to wonder what impact the politics involved in this has had - the Tory backbenchers were unlikely to vote to keep any part of Plan B.\n\nBut in the end it also comes down to a judgement about what is proportionate.\n\nThere is a trade-off that has to be made between the costs of such restrictions and the benefits they bring.\n\nWith the worst of the Omicron wave almost certainly over, the benefits were reducing.\n\nThe latest Covid restrictions were first introduced in December to try to slow the spread of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant and allow time for the booster vaccine rollout.\n\nUK daily infections remain high but are falling - on Wednesday, the UK recorded 108,069 new cases.\n\nDr Susan Hopkins, the UK Health Security Agency's chief medical adviser, said case rates would largely decline but \"may plateau at some point\".\n\nVaccine uptake and mask wearing around strangers would determine how quickly that happens, she added.\n\nHospital admissions also appear to be decreasing. However, there is a lag between people catching the virus and becoming seriously ill so deaths are continuing to rise - and are up 14.7% on last week.\n\nOn Wednesday, 359 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded.\n\nNearly 37 million boosters have been given across the UK so far.\n\nThe UK's devolved nations set their own Covid restrictions and have moved at different speeds in introducing and easing them throughout the pandemic.\n\nIn Scotland, some restrictions will be lifted from Monday, including allowing nightclubs to reopen and removing limits on indoor events.\n\nIn Wales, crowds will return to sporting events from Friday and nightclubs can reopen the following week. In Northern Ireland, nightclubs remain closed and indoor standing events are not allowed.", "Peter Swailes had denied modern slavery but changed his plea on the first day of his trial\n\nA man has admitted exploiting a vulnerable worker who was kept in a freezing 6ft (2m) shed for 40 years.\n\nPeter Swailes, 56, denied conspiring to facilitate travel of another with a view to exploitation, but changed his plea at Carlisle Crown Court.\n\nThe defendant's father, also Peter Swailes, 81, was accused of the same offence but died in September 2021.\n\nThe Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) said the case in Carlisle had been \"traumatic\".\n\nThe shed the man was kept in for 40 years had no lights or heating\n\nIt rescued the victim, then 58, from the shed in October 2018 after receiving a tip-off to a confidential helpline.\n\nThe hearing heard he had been sleeping on the floor with a soiled duvet next to a metered TV.\n\nThere was only one window which could not be fully closed and it was in complete darkness when the doors were shut.\n\nAn old electric heater with damaged wiring had been left in the corner of the shed, and there was no other heating inside.\n\nConditions inside the shed were awful, the GLAA said\n\nThe GLAA officers noted that another shed on site used for the family dog to sleep in was in a far better condition.\n\nThe court was also told he was made to carry out work on farms from about the age of 16, painting, slating and tarmacking. He said he was paid as little as £10 per day.\n\nSwailes, of Low Harker, Carlisle, was bailed and will be sentenced on 4 February.\n\nThe court heard he changed his plea on the agreed basis of his \"limited\" involvement with the victim and that he had not been made aware of his living conditions.\n\nThe raid at the caravan park took place in 2018\n\nFrom time to time, Swailes senior would make contact and arrange for his son to work with the man, the hearing was told.\n\nHowever, Swailes junior accepted that, on occasion, he paid the man he had known for many years \"less than his minimum entitlement\".\n\nInvestigators from GLAA were supported by Cumbria Police and the National Crime Agency (NCA) in rescuing the victim.\n\nA search warrant was executed at the Hadrian's Caravan Park near Carlisle on 3 October and Peter Swailes senior was arrested in his static caravan on suspicion of offences under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.\n\nWhen the GLAA told him he was under arrest he said: \"Not all this slavery thing again.\"\n\nThe GLAA said the victim had been sleeping in conditions \"that no human being should live in\".\n\nProviding an update on the victim, prosecutor Barbara Webster said: \"He has accommodation that he is extremely happy with. He is in regular contact. He has a carer who comes in and checks him.\n\n\"He will be cared for until the end of his life.\"\n\nGLAA senior investigating officer Martin Plimmer said it had been \"a really harrowing investigation\".\n\n\"In all my years in law enforcement, I have never known a modern slavery case where the exploitation has taken place over such a long period of time,\" he said.\n\n\"First and foremost in my mind at this time though is the victim. Let's remember that he has been exploited for all his adult life up until just a few years ago.\n\n\"He is now in his early 60s. This is something that even now I struggle to comprehend. For four decades, he was in effect kept as a slave.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "MI5 issued an alert about Christine Lee on Thursday\n\nThe shockwaves are still being felt from MI5's interference alert to Parliament last week but the signs are it will not be the last.\n\nMI5 said Christine Lee, a well known lawyer in the UK Chinese community, was working covertly on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party to further its interests.\n\nMs Lee is not accused of being engaged in espionage - stealing secrets - but interference.\n\nMinisters and officials say that there will be more alerts in the future as the security services seek to disrupt those covertly influencing public life.\n\nBut there are questions about whether enough has been done to counter foreign interference and why new laws have yet to be passed.\n\nWhitehall sources say the decision to issue the alert was taken months ago and after a long running investigation. The view was that the only way to disrupt the threat was to effectively go public, issuing a warning to Parliament that everyone knew would immediately gain huge publicity - only the second time this has been done.\n\nAnd future alerts may be issued even beyond Parliament to reflect the fact this is not the only area of public life believed to be at risk.\n\nChristine Lee is not being prosecuted and has not yet responded to the allegations.\n\nThe alert alleged that she had facilitated donations designed to look as if they came from within the UK but actually came from China and Hong Kong.\n\nLabour MP Barry Gardiner received more than £400,000 of funding for his office over five years and looks to have been the largest recipient of money - although the effort to gain influence is alleged to have crossed party lines.\n\nHe told Parliament the issuing of the alert was not based on the donations to his office, which stopped in 2020, raising the question of whether it was new funding to others that generated the concern. It is notable the warning refers to aspiring as well as existing parliamentarians, and the accusation seems to be that the Chinese Communist Party may have been trying to cultivate a new set of politicians.\n\nSpeaking in Parliament on Monday, Home Secretary Priti Patel denied the government had been complacent about the threat of foreign influence. But there have been questions about whether enough has been done on the issue.\n\nThe Russia Report of July 2020 highlighted concerns over Moscow's interference in public life. It criticised the security services and politicians for not doing enough to counter the issue.\n\nOne problem is that the security services are nervous of getting too involved in politics. Even though Parliament has long been a target for espionage (and some past MPs have even been spies themselves), MI5 has been cautious about being drawn into being used as a tool to target political opponents. Some inside feared this was happening in the 1980s when the Conservative government pushed it to investigate alleged foreign backing for striking miners and peace campaigners.\n\nBut events such as Russian trolls intervening in the US 2016 election forced the issue of interference back up the national security agenda. And in recent years, China has also risen up that agenda with concerns it is using its economic power - often with the offer of business deals or money - to secure influence.\n\nThe worry is that states like Russia and China are not just openly lobbying in the way many other states operate, but using covert techniques to influence politics in their favour. This might mean deploying undercover agents, providing funding or creating dependency through business deals to do things like soften foreign policy, approve business takeovers or investments decisions, or prevent criticism on human rights.\n\nBut a challenge has been that even when foreign interference is uncovered, it is not always breaking existing laws. That is why there has been growing pressure to close down loopholes and introduce new powers. One that has been looked at is a foreign agent registration act - the US has a law which allows individuals to be prosecuted if they have failed to register that they are working on behalf of another country.\n\nThe British government consulted on new powers to \"counter hostile state activity\" last year which are designed to offer new tools. But they have still not yet come before Parliament.\n\nThere are also calls to do more to clamp down on political donations - for instance those through shell companies which might be used to mask foreign cash.\n\nThe government is now promising action on many of these areas but there is still no timetable for those new powers and in the meantime, the security services may well feel the only option they have to disrupt foreign interference is to issue more alerts.", "Pollution from plastics is a global emergency in need of a robust UN treaty, according to a report.\n\nThe Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) says there's a cascade of evidence of harm from plastics.\n\nIt argues that the plastic pollution threat is almost equivalent to climate change.\n\nThe air we breathe now contains plastic micro particles, there’s plastic in Arctic snow, plastic in soils and plastic in our food.\n\nIt's reported, for instance, that about 20 elephants in Thailand have died after eating plastic waste from a rubbish dump.\n\nThe authors urge nations to agree a UN treaty with binding targets for reducing both plastic production and waste.\n\n\"There is a deadly ticking clock counting swiftly down,\" said the EIA’s Tom Gammage.\n\n\"If this tidal wave of pollution continues unchecked, the anticipated plastics in the seas by 2040 could exceed the collective weight of all fish in the ocean.\"\n\nThe United Nations has identified three existential environmental threats - climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution - and concluded that they must be addressed together.\n\nMultilateral agreements on biodiversity loss and climate have existed for nearly 30 years (although they have failed to halt CO2 emissions or protect the natural world).\n\nThe idea of a dedicated plastics treaty has been opposed by some nations in recent years.\n\nBut more than 100 countries, including the UK, are said to favour a treaty being proposed at the next UN Environment Assembly in February and March.\n\nSources say outright opposition is weakening, although there's a dispute as to how strict the treaty should be, and whether it should be legally binding or voluntary.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has announced that the US now supports a global agreement, previously resisted by former President Donald Trump.\n\nIt’s not clear, though, whether he can win approval from Congress, as most plastics are made from oil and gas - and they're both produced in the US.\n\nJapan is said to be trying to diminish the ambition of the treaty. The Arab Gulf states and China have been silent so far. China produces most \"virgin plastic\", although the US and UK are said to be the biggest producers of waste per person.\n\nLaunching the EIA report, Mr Gammage said: \"The visible nature of plastic pollution has generated huge public concern but the vast majority of plastic pollution impacts are invisible.\n\n\"The damage done by rampant overproduction of virgin plastics and their lifecycle is irreversible - this is a threat to human civilisation and the planet’s basic ability to maintain a habitable environment. It’s becoming almost as serious as the threat from climate change.\"\n\nProf Richard Thompson from Plymouth University, an authority on plastics, told BBC News a UN treaty should focus on the full life-cycle analysis of plastics.\n\nHe said: \"The underlying cause of the problem is rooted in unsustainable levels of production and consumption.\n\n\"Advocating policies that merely promote the use of plastics that are 'recyclable' won’t be effective unless there’s a local infrastructure to collect, separate, and viably recycle those plastics.\n\n\"Polices to promote the use of 'compostable' plastics will only be effective if there is appropriate local infrastructure to handle that waste stream.\"\n\nA spokesman for the British Plastics Federation told BBC News: \"Plastic is a lightweight, safe, and energy-efficient material, and simply replacing it with alternatives can often have negative environmental consequences, as well as ramifications for health and safety.\n\n\"The unfortunate scenes of plastic waste washing up in oceans around the world are a direct result of improperly managed plastic waste in many areas, and if we want to make a difference, this is where the focus should be.\"\n\nRecycling can be part of the solution, but consumption is “unsustainable“, according to one of the authors\n\nPlastics researcher Trisia Farrelly, from Massey University in New Zealand, told BBC News that oil and gas firms, which produce the feedstock for most plastics, were striving to focus attention on plastic waste, rather than the production of plastic altogether.\n\nShe said: \"The question now is, what will that treaty look like? Will there be a weak form that focuses on marine litter and waste management? Or will there be a resolution that includes the full life cycle of plastics including extraction and production right through to remediation of legacy pollution?\"\n\nShe agreed that more science was needed to determine the toxicity of plastics, but argued that delay was dangerous.\n\n\"The science is relatively new on a number of plastics pollution impacts and some of the science is complex,\" she said.\n\n\"But there is more than enough evidence to know that we have to act with urgency to prevent further irredeemable damage caused by plastics pollution.\"\n\nHans Peter Arp, chemistry professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, agreed there are many unknowns, but he maintained that plastic pollution was already breaching what’s known as a planetary boundary - a threshold that should not be crossed because of the risk to humankind.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"My colleagues and I have argued that plastic pollution fills the three criteria of a planetary boundary threat: 1) increasing exposure, 2) irreversible presence in the global ecosystem, 3) evidence that it is causing ecological harm, and that this harm will increase with plastic emissions.\n\n\"The rational response to the global threat posed by accumulating and poorly reversible plastic pollution is to rapidly reduce consumption of virgin plastic materials, along with internationally coordinated strategies for waste management.\"\n\nAlthough same large firms are resisting tough global rules, others are in support. One group, plasticpollutiontreaty.org, invites firms to sign up to strict standards to ensure a level playing field for plastic business.", "Last updated on .From the section African\n\nGhana suffered a humiliating group-stage exit at the Africa Cup of Nations after the four-time champions were beaten by debutants Comoros.\n\nEl Fardou Ben Nabouhane put the islanders ahead early on, and Ghana then went down to 10 men when Andre Ayew was shown a straight red card.\n\nAhmed Mogni doubled the lead before the Black Stars fought back to make it 2-2.\n\nHowever, Mogni tapped in his second in the 85th minute to inflict Ghana's first group-stage exit since 2006.\n\nThe result in Group C will go down as one of the biggest shocks in Nations Cup history as Comoros scored at the finals for the first time and then went on to record their maiden victory.\n\nIncredibly, the side ranked 132nd in the world now have a chance to reach the knockout stages as one of four best-ranked third-placed sides even though the Coelacanths lost their first two games in Cameroon.\n\nThe tiny island nation with just under a million inhabitants - and more famous for its history of political coups than its football - had only won its first Nations Cup or World Cup qualifier in 2016 at the 20th attempt.\n\nA squad bolstered by members of the diaspora, with many plying their trade in the lower leagues in France, lost just once to achieve a maiden qualification and Comoros have now beaten one of the continent's giants.\n\nGhana had put in disjointed displays in their first two games, a 1-0 defeat by Morocco and a niggly 1-1 draw with Gabon, and finish bottom of the group table despite putting in a spirited display following Ayew's 25th-minute sending off.\n\nTheir fans in the Roumde Adjia Stadium in Garoua looked stunned at the full-time whistle, being left to contemplate a rollercoaster second half which ended their bid for a first Nations Cup title since 1982.\n\nTheir exit will increase the pressure on coach Milovan Rajevac, who returned for a second spell in charge in September.\n\nThe Serb led the Black Stars to the Nations Cup final in 2010 and the World Cup quarter-finals the same year, and guided the West Africans through to Africa's play-offs for this year's World Cup.\n\nHowever, Ghana only won their qualifying group ahead of South Africa on goals scored and are unseeded for the play-off draw - where they will face one of Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Nigeria for a place in Qatar.\n\nComoros, meanwhile, celebrated their three points heartily and now await the final round of matches in the remaining three groups to see if their stunning victory can extend their stay at the tournament.\n\nGhana had needed a win to have a chance of a spot in the last 16 and made the worst possible start by conceding in the fourth minute.\n\nIbroihim Youssouf was released down the right before finding Ben Nabouhane in the middle, and the Comoros skipper sent a low left-footed shot into the bottom right-hand corner from the edge of the area.\n\nKamaldeen Sulemana tested Comoros keeper Salim Ben Boina with two shots from outside the area, the second of which provided another turning point in the contest.\n\nBen Boina spilled the winger's shot and Ayew went in strongly in an attempt to win the loose ball.\n\nThe coming together injured the keeper and the Ghana captain looked surprised to be shown red following a video assistant referee review, with replays showing he went in with studs up and made contact with Ben Boina's upper arm.\n\nThe Comoros keeper was injured in the clash and forced off, leading to the introduction of Ali Ahamada, who came into the tournament without a club side.\n\nThe islanders made it 2-0 just after the hour mark as Mogni twisted and turned the Ghana defence on the edge of the area before sending a low shot past Jojo Wollacott and into the bottom right-hand corner.\n\nThe strike sparked a group celebration down by the corner-flag involving substitutes - but Ghana immediately stirred.\n\nRichmond Boakye looped in a header from a corner and, after Ahamada had clawed away two threatening balls in from Daniel-Kofi Kyereh, Ghana levelled in the 77th minute from another set piece.\n\nArsenal midfielder Thomas Partey flicked on a corner and Alexander Djiku was on hand to convert from close range to give the Black Stars renewed hopes of going through.\n\nBut those dreams were dashed five minutes from time when Bendjaloud Youssouf cut the ball back for Mogni to seal a famous win for Comoros.\n\nGhana, who appear to lack leaders of the calibre of Asamoah Gyan, the striker who led them to the last eight at the World Cup 12 years ago, now face the challenge of regrouping before March's World Cup play-offs.\n• None Attempt missed. Daniel-Kofi Kyereh (Ghana) right footed shot from a difficult angle and long range on the left is too high from a direct free kick.\n• None Attempt missed. Alexander Djiku (Ghana) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.\n• None Goal! Ghana 2, Comoros 3. Ahmed Mogni (Comoros) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Bendjaloud Youssouf.\n• None Offside, Comoros. Faïz Selemani tries a through ball, but El Fardou Ben Nabouhane is caught offside.\n• None Offside, Comoros. Youssouf M'Changama tries a through ball, but Ahmed Mogni is caught offside. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Dutch police discovered Dean Verberckmoes' body on Neeltje Jans, an artificial island popular with tourists in Zeeland province\n\nThe body of a four-year-old Belgian boy who disappeared last week has been found in the Netherlands, Dutch police have announced.\n\nHours earlier, police had issued an alert that Dean Verberckmoes had been abducted.\n\nHe had been reported missing by his family after his babysitter failed to drop him off at his grandparents' house.\n\nDutch police said they had detained a 34-year-old Belgian man.\n\nThey said the suspect, identified in the Netherlands as Dave De K, was arrested in the Dutch town of Meerkerk, around 120km (75 miles) north-east of where the boy's body was found.\n\nBelgian prosecutors said he had previously been given a 10-year jail sentence for abuse of a two-year-old boy leading to his death. His sentence ended in December 2018.\n\nThe man was last seen with the boy on Wednesday in the Belgian city of Sint Niklaas, near Antwerp.\n\nDean Verberckmoes's mother, Elke, had made an appeal for her boy's safe return. She told Belgian TV earlier that Dave de K had regularly looked after her two children: \"When Dave was baby-sitting for them they always said they'd mucked about and played games with him.\"\n\nA mammoth search operation was launched in the Netherlands after Dutch officials were warned the pair could have crossed the border.\n\nThe boy's body was discovered on Neeltje Jans, an artificial island in Zeeland province, late on Monday night.\n\nA police statement said a police helicopter had taken part in the search, and investigators had found a \"possible crime scene\". Around 22:00 local time (21:00 GMT) officers found \"the lifeless body of a child\", the statement said.\n\nIn a short message posted to Twitter, police confirmed that the missing toddler's body had been found and thanked those involved in the search, as well as sending their \"condolences\" to the family.", "A demonstration against the bill was held outside Parliament as peers debated the proposed law\n\nThe government has suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords over its plans to clamp down on disruptive and noisy protesters.\n\nOpposition peers voted against a range of measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, with Labour calling some of the plans \"outrageous\".\n\nPeers also voted to make misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales.\n\nNo 10 said it was disappointed peers voted against measures to combat the \"guerilla tactics\" of some protesters.\n\nThe bill now faces going back and forth between the Commons and Lords. The government is likely to continue fighting for its proposals.\n\nThe bill is a huge piece of legislation that covers major proposed changes on crime and justice in England and Wales.\n\nThe most controversial part of it is on the planned changes to protests - which the government proposed in response to environmental activists who have blocked roads, glued themselves to trains and stopped printing presses in recent years.\n\nThe government was hoping to get the Lords to support its proposals, but in a series of votes lasting until the early hours of Tuesday morning, peers repeatedly voted against the government.\n\nMinisters were defeated, by 261 votes to 166, over plans to give the police new powers to stop protests in England and Wales if they are deemed to be too noisy and disruptive.\n\nAnd the Lords also backed, by 238 votes to 171, a Liberal Democrat amendment to strip out the power to impose conditions on protests on noise grounds.\n\nAsked if measures against noisy protests would be reintroduced in the Commons, Mr Raab told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"We'll look very carefully at all of that, but, yes, absolutely.\n\n\"In relation to noise, of course we support the right of peaceful and rambunctious protest, but it cannot be allowed to interfere with the lives of the law-abiding majority.\"\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said it would \"reflect\" on the votes before the bill returned to the Commons.\n\nHe added: \"It is disappointing the Lords did not back the public order measures that will ensure the everyday lives of the overwhelming majority are not disrupted by a selfish minority of protesters whose actions endanger lives and cost the public millions of pounds.\"\n\nThe government lost 14 votes in the House of Lords on the detail of the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill on Monday night, to add to the five previous defeats in earlier debates.\n\nMost of these are reversible in the Commons because they represent changes to the bill, but the government was also trying to add in some changes of its own, introducing a series of new public order offences aimed at preventing a recurrence of last year's Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion protests.\n\nBecause the Lords blocked these from becoming part of the bill, they won't be sent back to the Commons.\n\nLabour had approached this issue warily, conscious that they could be accused of allowing the rights of protesters to trump the rights of ordinary people to go about their lives, so they proposed what they regarded as a more focused alternative - but ended up helping vote down the government's new clauses as unacceptable on civil liberties grounds.\n\nMy best guess is that the government's proposals will resurface as a free standing public order bill, when the new Parliamentary year begins in April.\n\nOther amendments on subjects like misogyny, noise at demonstrations, drink-spiking, the Police duty of candour, the repeal of the Vagrancy Act and many more, will have to be agreed by MPs.\n\nThis is what's known as \"Parliamentary ping pong\", in which a bill bounces between the Commons and the Lords until both have agreed on its final form, and it can run on for quite a while.\n\nIt will have to be completed before the end of the current parliamentary session, expected in late March or April.\n\nPeers also voted against measures which would make it illegal for protesters to lock themselves to things and to give police officers powers to stop and search people in an attempt to prevent them taking part in illegal protests.\n\nGreen peer Baroness Jones described the government's plans as \"oppressive\" and \"plain nasty\".\n\n\"How do you seriously think a protest is going to happen without noise?\" she asked.\n\nThe drumming outside Parliament of protesters opposed to the bill could be heard inside the chamber\n\nLabour's Lord Hain called the move \"the biggest threat to the right to dissent and the right to protest in my lifetime\" adding that it would have \"throttled\" protests by the suffragettes.\n\nBut the government's Home Office minister in the Lords, Baroness Williams, defended the plans, telling peers that the police would only use the powers where \"necessary\" and \"appropriate\".\n\nShe urged peers to consider the different contexts in which a noisy protest could take place.\n\nThroughout the debate, drum noises from a demonstration outside Parliament against the bill could be heard in the Lords' chamber, but the minister said no-one would try to stop that.\n\nHowever, she said noisy anti-vaccination protests outside a school or nursing home were a different matter - and that police should have the powers to intervene if necessary.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Several hundred people marched in London chanting \"kill the Bill\"\n\nThe government also suffered a defeat over a separate issue when peers voted to make misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales - a move that would enable judges to impose stronger penalties if prejudice against women is proved to be the motivation.\n\nThe proposal was added to the bill as an amendment against the government's wishes and led by Conservative peer Baroness Newlove - a former victims' commissioner.\n\nBaroness Newlove said: \"As a society we have rightly taken steps to acknowledge the severity of racist or homophobic crimes, but have not yet acted on crimes driven by hatred of women.\"\n\nCrossbench peer Baroness Fox, the former Brexit Party MEP, argued against the proposal, saying the data collected would be \"almost entirely based on subjective perceptions\" of what constituted misogyny.\n\nShe warned that police resources would be wasted if they got \"tangled up in the reporting and monitoring of stats and data which I do not think is reliable\".\n\nHome Office Minister Baroness Williams pointed to a report by the Law Commission last year which concluded that making misogyny a hate crime would not solve the problem of hostility towards women.\n\nThe amendment had support from Labour and the Liberal Democrats and it was backed by 242 votes to 185.\n\nPeers voted against the government's plans to:\n\nPeers voted for new amendments to the bill that would:", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBBC services and shows will have to be cut as a result of a funding gap arising from the latest licence fee deal, its director general has said.\n\nTim Davie said the settlement, which will see the cost of a TV licence frozen for the next two years, \"will affect our frontline output\".\n\nAsked what might be cut, he said \"everything's on the agenda\".\n\nOn Monday, the culture secretary said the freeze would help people who are struggling with rising household costs.\n\nNadine Dorries told the House of Commons: \"The BBC must support people at a time when their finances are strained, make savings and efficiencies, and use the billions in public funding it receives to deliver for viewers, listeners and users.\"\n\nA TV licence currently costs £159, with the BBC receiving £3.7bn a year to fund services like TV, radio, the BBC website, podcasts, iPlayer and apps.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries: \"This government is committed to supporting families as much as possible\"\n\nMs Dorries said that, after the two-year freeze, the fee will rise in line with inflation until 2027, when the broadcaster's current royal charter expires.\n\nShe suggested in a tweet on Sunday that the licence fee will be abolished after that, although in the Commons on Monday, she said the future funding of the corporation was up for discussion and a review on its future would start shortly.\n\nThe BBC wanted the charge to rise with inflation for the remainder of the charter. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday, Mr Davie said the resulting funding gap would be £285m in the final year. There are also expected to be shortfalls in the years before that.\n\n\"Inevitably, if you don't have £285m, you will get less services and less programmes. Now, I still think the BBC can offer extraordinary value for £13 a month,\" he said.\n\nHe said the corporation, which turns 100 this year, has made \"very good progress in terms of cutting costs that don't affect the licence fee payers\" in recent years.\n\n\"We go first to those cuts where we don't affect our output... We are not at the place where you can never make cuts, but this will affect our frontline output. There's no doubt about that.\"\n\nThe BBC has said the corporation's income for UK services is already 30% lower in real terms than it was 10 years ago.\n\nLast year, BBC chairman Richard Sharp warned about \"super inflation\" in production because of competition from global giants, saying: \"The cost of some of our biggest series has more than doubled.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Davie acknowledged that \"we need to reshape ourselves for a digital age\".\n\n\"The media market is moving extremely rapidly,\" he said. \"I'm excited about re-engineering the BBC. I think we're in a good place. We had an excellent Christmas, iPlayer is doing brilliant business for us in terms of the numbers we're getting through to our digital services.\n\n\"So we're not just going to put aspic around linear services or say we're going to keep doing exactly the same thing. We need to reshape the business.\"\n\nMr Davie said the BBC would change radically if it became a subscription service, which is one of the suggestions to replace the licence fee system.\n\n\"Once you're trying to serve a subscription base and a commercial agenda - and, believe me, I've run commercial businesses - it is a completely different situation, because suddenly you are doing things that are there to make profit and make a return to a specific audience,\" he said.\n\nMs Dorries said the UK needs \"a BBC that can thrive alongside Netflix and Amazon Prime and all of its other challenges which attract younger viewers\".\n\nFollowing the announcement of the freeze, the culture secretary said attention would turn to the BBC's long-term funding model.\n\nFormer Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore wrote that the culture secretary \"is choosing this moment because of the BBC's coverage of the revelations about Downing Street parties during Covid\".\n\nBut he added: \"The problem is that the BBC has made it easy for her.\" The corporation has not lived up to its obligation to be impartial, he said, and was \"not far off being a Fox News of the Left\".\n\nThe Guardian said the Conservative government was using the corporation \"as a punchbag\" and that major changes \"cannot be decided by ministerial whim\".\n\nThe paper suggested the BBC \"might do very well\" with a Netflix-style subscription model, but \"it would not be the BBC as it exists today\".\n\nWriting in the Telegraph, Robin Aitken, author of Can We Trust the BBC?, said the corporation needs to show \"evidence of genuine reform\" if it is to \"survive and prosper into a second century\".\n\nFormer Channel 4 News boss Dorothy Byrne told BBC Two's Newsnight on Monday: \"By all means, discuss getting rid of the licence fee.\n\n\"But for decades, people have looked at what would be a better alternative, and they couldn't come up with one. So don't announce the end of the one that we've got that works, until you have another one.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Newsnight This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEx-media minister Lord Vaizey told the same programme that finding a better system was \"complicated\". On the funding, he said: \"The BBC can't simply write itself a blank cheque.\n\n\"But having said that, I do feel very strongly that, with all the streaming platforms owned by US companies, with most of our broadcasters now owned by US companies, there is a place for a British Broadcasting Corporation in which we all have a stake.\"\n\nPresenter and campaigner Esther Rantzen told BBC Hereford & Worcester that the licence fee \"means that the BBC is answerable to the audience, not answerable to shareholders, not answerable to advertisers, and that makes a real difference\".\n\nShe added that existing subscription services were \"much more limited than what the BBC offers\".\n\nBut The Times columnist Melanie Phillips said \"the quality of BBC programming is replicated elsewhere, as the public can now see through streaming outlets and changing patterns of viewing\".\n\nCat Lewis, chief executive of production company Nine Lives Media, which makes Songs of Praise among other programmes, told BBC Radio 5 Live's Wake Up To Money that cuts to BBC budgets will mean \"we're going to have to make more cuts, that we can create fewer jobs\".", "Lissa has struggled with her mental health since childhood\n\nThere are serious concerns over the standards of specialist care being provided to patients with the most complex mental health needs, a BBC investigation has found.\n\nPatients sent by the NHS to stay in mental health rehabilitation units say they have been placed in unsafe environments, often far from home, with untrained staff.\n\nExperts say not enough is being done to regulate the sector, which costs the NHS half a billion pounds a year.\n\nThe units, run by both NHS and independent providers, treat at least 3,500 patients each year considered too challenging for standard hospital settings.\n\nThey aim to offer a specialised approach, enabling patients to recover with skills to manage their conditions and re-enter the community. But some have remained there for 10 or more years, the BBC's File on 4 programme has found.\n\nBy 2019, Lissa had spent years struggling with her mental health, having experienced traumatic life events. She was diagnosed with mixed personality disorder and depression.\n\nSo when the NHS sent her to a unit in Coventry run by Cygnet Health Care for a specialist talking therapy, she agreed.\n\nLissa was sent by the NHS to a rehabilitation unit that was in special measures at the time\n\nThe hospital, however, was in special measures. There had been two deaths in the previous 20 months. In both cases there was found to be a failure to follow the patient's care plan and carry out observations correctly.\n\nLissa, then aged 35, questioned why she was being sent there, but was \"desperate\" for help.\n\nShe says staff failed to treat her with dignity and respect. Her mental health deteriorated and after two weeks she was detained under the Mental Health Act for her own protection. She tried to take her own life 32 times within her first six months there.\n\nLissa says one of the toughest elements was the use of physical restraint, and she still suffers flashbacks.\n\nPersonality disorder specialist Keir Harding, founder of Beam Consultancy, says such environments \"recreate a lot of the trauma [patients] have lived through\".\n\nAt other times, Lissa was placed on one-to-one observations, where patients are constantly watched to ensure they don't cause themselves serious harm.\n\nBut she says on several occasions staff fell asleep. \"I could have done anything.\"\n\nLissa was admitted to the unit for a specialist talking therapy known as DBT (Dialectical behaviour therapy)\n\nCygnet Health Care said it always aims to promote a culture that supports recovery, and uses restraint \"only as a last resort\".\n\nLissa's NHS team, Coventry and Warwickshire CCG, said it worked closely with commissioners, the regulator and NHS England to ensure patients were placed in safe and effective care.\n\nThe system in England is regulated by the Care Quality Commission, (CQC). Some rehabilitation wards haven't been inspected for four or more years.\n\nJohn Chacksfield, who was a CQC inspector until late 2020, says greater scrutiny is needed.\n\n\"Sometimes the private sector provides really excellent service, but there are certain units that really do need regular inspections just to make sure staff are being trained enough, or are having enough clinical supervision. It does worry me,\" he says.\n\nThere are also concerns the CQC is failing to sufficiently examine the claims of wards that promote themselves as a specialist service.\n\n\"Anna,\" who worked at a \"centre of excellence\" for patients with personality and eating disorders says she does not think anyone adequately assessed their specialism.\n\nShe said there was a \"complete lack of a training programme\" around caring for the specific needs of the patient group, that there was a reliance on agency staff, and that most of the personnel joining didn't have an understanding of the patients.\n\nThe CQC said it continuously monitors services using a range of intelligence, while inspections \"check that services are providing a range of care and treatment interventions\".\n\nCygnet Health Care - which ran Anna's unit - said at that time it had recently opened and was dealing with early challenges, adding that safe staffing levels were always maintained and improvements had been made.\n\nEmma says she did not receive the specialist care she needed\n\nEmma from Derbyshire was 30 when she went to a specialist service run by the charity St Andrew's Healthcare.\n\nShe says it failed to meet its promises as a ward for patients with eating and personality disorders, and was without a dietician.\n\n\"I was asking questions about my meal plan and staff were like, 'I don't know, we've not trained on this'. I didn't feel safe.\"\n\nShe complained to the CQC and the unit was placed in special measures following an inspection.\n\nThe ward in Northampton was also 85 miles (137km) away from Emma's home.\n\nIt was a difficult time at home. \"My mum had a terminal diagnosis. I kept saying, 'How can I concentrate when I know my mum is literally dying at home and I can't see her?'.\"\n\nSt Andrew's Healthcare said Emma was admitted at the start of the pandemic, when pressure on beds was intense. It said its programme had proven successful for patients who had engaged with it and that it came under the care of a knowledgeable clinician with years of experience in eating disorders.\n\nJoined Up Care Derbyshire, who were responsible for Emma's care, said due to demand \"occasionally and regrettably\" patients' care is delivered further from home \"than is ideal\".\n\nEmma complained to the regulator, the CQC, about the quality of care she says she received\n\nBeing placed far from home, however, is not unusual.\n\nExperts say the situation has worsened due to a fall in the number of specialist NHS mental health beds.\n\nSome 40% of patients in \"locked\" rehabilitation wards, like those Emma and Lissa experienced, are placed outside their local area, according to 2019 CQC research.\n\nThe government has aimed to end \"inappropriate out-of-area placements\" within acute wards, but not within rehabilitation wards - despite individuals potentially being placed there for much longer.\n\nThere are calls for this to change.\n\n\"People being further from home dislocates them not just from their family, but also from their [NHS] community team,\" says Helen Killaspy, a professor of rehabilitation psychiatry at University College London.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said it was \"rolling out integrated community mental health teams which will give 370,000 people with severe mental illness greater choice over their care\".\n\n\"We know that around half a billion pounds is spent on this cohort of people. When people are supported in the community, it is less expensive.\n\nThere are also fears over the length of stay of some patients.\n\nCQC research from 2019 found that on wards run by independent providers in England, the median length of stay was 359 days, compared to 197 days on NHS wards.\n\nAnd data collated by the BBC's File on 4 programme - through Freedom of Information requests to local health bodies across the UK - found at least 425 patients have been on their current ward for more than 12 months, including five for more than a decade.\n\nDr Sri Kalidindi, who is leading a report into mental health rehabilitation provision for NHS England and NHS Improvement, says there must be a greater focus on providing care in the community.\n\n\"We know that around half a billion pounds is spent on this cohort of people. [But] when people are supported in the community, it is less expensive. And obviously people want to live in the community.\"\n\nBut some areas do not have any such community provision, which she says is being addressed by the NHS long-term plan.\n\nLissa left in the summer of 2020 after nine months, but only after a mental health tribunal decided she could be discharged.\n\nShe has still never received the full course of talking therapy. But her mental health has improved and she is at university, hoping become a solicitor.\n\nEmma left her ward in August 2020, after three months - she had been in rehabilitation units for around four years in total.\n\n\"I'm in a very different place,\" she says. \"I went on my first holiday abroad in 10 years.\"\n\nEmma and her sister Amy have taken part in charity fundraisers in memory of their mum\n\nEmma lost her mum shortly after she left the system, but says she would be \"so proud\" of her sharing her experiences.\n\n\"I know how close I was to not making it through. Now I channel that energy into trying to fight for other people.\"\n\nInformation and support for those affected by mental health issues or self-harm is available via the BBC's Action Line.\n\nHear the full File on 4 investigation into the mental health rehabilitation system from 20:00 GMT on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC Sounds app.", "Authorities in Hong Kong have swooped in on a pet shop, seizing a number of hamsters to be euthanised following a Covid outbreak.\n\nCrowds gathered outside the shop as the animals were carried away in boxes.\n\nFamilies who have bought a hamster from the Little Boss pet store since 22 December have been told to hand over their pet for euthanasia.\n\nSome 2,000 hamsters and other small mammals are set to be culled because of the outbreak linked to the shop.\n\nThousands of people have signed a petition against the move.\n\nUnlike many other places, Hong Kong has maintained a \"zero Covid\" strategy focused on eliminating the disease.\n\nAuthorities announced the decision on Tuesday after an outbreak of the Delta variant linked to a worker in the shop prompted officials to test hundreds of animals there - with 11 hamsters positive.\n\nOfficials say it may be an example of animal-to-human Covid transmission.\n\nOnly hamsters at the Little Boss pet shop in Causeway Bay seemed to be affected, with negative results for other animals there such as rabbits and chinchillas.\n\nBut as a \"preventative measure\", 2,000 hamsters and other small mammals in the city will be killed. The animals are spread across 34 different pet shops and animal storage centres.\n\nWorkers wearing hazmat suits were seen removing animals from the pet store\n\nA telephone hamster hotline is being set up, and a ban on the import and sale of hamsters and other small mammals will also be enacted, agriculture officials said.\n\nA pet shop employee, a customer, and the customer's spouse have now tested positive or provisionally positive, health authorities said.\n\nThe virus that causes Covid-19 - Sars-Cov-2 - can be caught by animals including dogs, cats, ferrets and rodents, all commonly kept as pets. But there is no clear evidence that pets can easily pass the infection to humans.\n\n\"Pet owners should keep a good hygiene practice, including washing hands after touching the animals, handling their food or other items, and avoid kissing the animals,\" Hong Kong's agriculture department director Leung Siu-fai told reporters at a news conference.\n\nHamster owners in particular \"should keep them at home\", she said.\n\nShe also promised that the 2,000 animals scheduled for culling would be put down \"humanely\".\n\nMore than 14,000 people have signed a petition calling for authorities to stop the cull of hamsters.\n\n\"A pet is an owner's best friend, and due to the government's orders, thousands of people could unjustifiably lose their dearest companions,\" the petition says.\n\nIn late 2020, millions of farmed mink in Denmark were culled amid fears around mutations to the virus potentially occurring within the animals.", "A British man who took four people hostage at a synagogue in Texas had been investigated by MI5.\n\nMalik Faisal Akram, from Blackburn in Lancashire, was the subject of an investigation in late 2020 but by the time he flew to the US he was assessed to be no longer a risk.\n\nThe siege at the synagogue in Colleyville near Dallas ended after 10 hours, with the four hostages unharmed.\n\nHe had been on the British security service's watchlist as a \"subject of interest\" in 2020 and was investigated in the second half of that year.\n\nBut by 2021 Akram, who had a criminal record in the UK, had moved from the active list to the \"former subject of interest\" list and was no longer considered a threat.\n\nTwo teenagers remain in custody after being arrested in England as part of the investigation into what US President Joe Biden described as \"an act of terror\", but their ages and genders have not been released.\n\nThe siege began at around 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT) on Saturday, when police were called to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue.\n\nAkram gained initial access to the synagogue during the service by claiming to be a homeless man, according to a police source quoted by CBS.\n\nOne hostage was released after six hours, while the other three - including the synagogue's rabbi - escaped several hours later.\n\nRabbi Charlie Cytron-White told BBC partner CBS how he and two other hostages were able to get out \"without a shot being fired\" after he threw a chair at the hostage-taker.\n\nHe said the group had been praying when he heard a click that turned out to be the hostage-taker's gun, beginning an ordeal he described as \"terrifying\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker tells CBS Mornings about being held hostage - and how he escaped\n\nBoth Greater Manchester Police and the Metropolitan Police have said they are in contact with the US authorities and Counter Terrorism Policing North West is leading the investigation in the UK.\n\nAkram is thought to have arrived in the US via New York's JFK International Airport two weeks ago, according to police sources, and he is believed to have bought weapons used in the incident \"on the street\" after his arrival.\n\nWhile he had been considered a subject of interest (SOI) in 2020 he had been downgraded by the time he travelled to the US.\n\nHe had been the subject of a four-week \"short lead investigation\" but nothing was found which justified putting him on a higher-priority list.\n\nMI5 investigates around 3,000 to 4,000 active SOIs, people which it is concerned about right now.\n\nBut there are also around 40,000 \"closed\" SOIs - those who have been looked into previously - and the security service only investigates SOIs when it believes the individual may pose a threat.\n\nDuring the standoff Akram was heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is serving an 86-year prison sentence in nearby Fort Worth, Texas, over attempts to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan.\n\nSiddiqui has distanced herself from his actions, issuing a statement through a lawyer.\n\nOn Monday, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said she had offered \"the full support\" of the UK police and security services to her US counterpart.\n\nForeign Secretary Liz Truss has described the incident as an \"act of terrorism and anti-Semitism\", a view echoed by the Muslim Council of Britain, which called it a hate crime and expressed its solidarity with the Jewish community.\n\nAkram's brother Gulbar confirmed his death in a now deleted statement carried on the Blackburn Muslim Community's Facebook page. He apologised to the victims and said his brother had been suffering from mental health issues.\n\nFriends of Akram in Blackburn said his mental health had been getting worse and expressed surprise that he had been able to travel to the US.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch how Boris Johnson reacts when asked if apologising to the Queen was a moment of shame\n\nBoris Johnson has \"categorically\" denied he was warned a drinks party in the No 10 garden risked breaking lockdown rules.\n\n\"Nobody warned me that it was against the rules,\" the prime minister said, adding: \"I would have remembered that.\"\n\nFormer aide Dominic Cummings says he warned Mr Johnson at the time, and has accused him of misleading MPs about it.\n\nAsked if he would resign if he was found to have misled MPs, Mr Johnson said: \"Let's see what the report says.\"\n\nSenior civil servant Sue Gray is due to publish a report into alleged Covid rule-breaking at lockdown get-togethers in Downing Street and government departments.\n\nMs Gray's team has approached Mr Cummings as part of their inquiry, the BBC has been told. He has said he is willing to answer any questions they may have.\n\nSix MPs have publicly revealed they have submitted letters of no confidence in Mr Johnson, and the BBC has been told a seventh, Bury South MP Christian Wakeford, has also written to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee.\n\nThe BBC's Laura Kuenssberg says a group of about 20 Conservative MPs who were first elected in 2019 have also been meeting to discuss submitting letters to Sir Graham.\n\nIf 54 MPs send letters to Sir Graham expressing no confidence in the prime minister, it will trigger a leadership contest.\n\nOne MP trying to remove the prime minister told the BBC they thought the threshold could be reached saying: \"I think we've done it, difficult to tell though.\"\n\nOur political editor said it was not clear how many of the 2019 intake MPs talking about submitting letters on Wednesday, would go ahead and do it.\n\nA senior MP told the BBC it could be \"a matter of hours\" before things move.\n\nBut a cabinet member denied there was a big threat to the prime minister, telling the BBC: \"It will be bumpy, but we'll get through.\"\n\nThey dubbed the meeting of 2019 MPs the \"pork pie plot\", because one of the attendees was Alicia Kearns, who represents Rutland and Melton (home of Melton Mowbray pies).\n\nHowever, colleagues of Ms Kearns say she is not leading a rebellion.\n\nIt comes as Mr Johnson made a public apology to the Queen over No 10 parties on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral in April last year.\n\nAppearing to be distressed as he was quizzed about the parties, he said: \"I deeply and bitterly regret that that happened.\n\n\"I can only renew my apologies both to Her Majesty and to the country for misjudgements that were made, and for which I take full responsibility.\"\n\nOn Friday, Downing Street apologised to Buckingham Palace over the two staff parties - which were not attended by Mr Johnson - on 16 April, 2021.\n\nThe following day, the Queen sat alone - socially distanced from her family - as she mourned her husband.\n\nThe Queen sat alone at her husband's funeral\n\nIn his blog, Dominic Cummings, who was still working in Downing Street at the time of the drinks party on 20 May 2020, claimed the PM had waved aside his warnings.\n\nMr Cummings said the idea that a senior aide - the PM's Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds - would not have checked with Mr Johnson, after he was warned his invitation to drinks in the Number 10 garden broke the rules, \"is not credible\".\n\nTwo other former Downing Street officials told the BBC they remembered Mr Cummings telling them on that day he had advised the prime minister not to allow the drinks to go ahead.\n\nAsked about Mr Cummings' claims on a visit to a North London hospital, Mr Johnson said: \"I can tell you categorically that nobody said that this was something that was against the rules, that was in breach of the Covid rules.\"\n\nYou might call it the \"nobody told me\" defence.\n\nBut will a mixture of pleading ignorance and showing contrition be enough for the prime minister?\n\nHe was, of course, the person in charge, who decided how we all had to limit our behaviour during the pandemic, so this line of defence opens him up to new attacks.\n\nDid he understand the rules? Should he have needed someone to point out a breach?\n\nEven if he thought this was a work event, is that enough? - because work events were also prohibited in May 2020.\n\nSue Gray's inquiry may well find there's no incontrovertible evidence he was, explicitly, told the drinks event in his garden was a breach of the rules.\n\nBut what will voters think?\n\nThat will shape what Tory MPs think of their leader. It's a delicate position for a prime minister with already slipping poll ratings.\n\nIn his interview, Mr Johnson repeated the apology he made to MPs last week for \"mistakes\" made over the May 2020 get-together.\n\n\"As I said in the House of Commons, when I went out into that garden I thought that I was attending a work event.\"\n\nHe said he had not seen the email sent by Mr Reynolds inviting staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\".\n\n\"I only saw it the other day. I only saw it when it emerged,\" said the PM.\n\n\"What I remember is going out into that garden for a short time and for 25 minutes thanking staff who'd worked on Covid, who were continuing to work on Covid, and then going back to the office.\n\n\"If I had my time again, I would not have allowed things to develop in that way.\"\n\nAsked if he had lied to Parliament over the parties, he said: \"No. I want to begin by repeating my apologies to everybody for the misjudgements that I've made, that we may have made in No 10 and beyond, whether in Downing Street or throughout the pandemic.\"\n\nResponding to his latest statement, Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said: \"Boris Johnson clearly knows it's the end of the road.\n\n\"He's the prime minister, he set the rules, he didn't need anyone to tell him that the party he attended broke them.\n\n\"If he had any respect for the British public, he would do the decent thing and resign.\"\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the prime minister was \"just making it worse for himself\" with his \"empty excuses\" and \"transparent lies\".\n\nThe SNP's deputy Westminster leader Kirsten Oswald said it was \"clear the prime minister was not being frank\" about events in the Downing Street garden.\n\nCabinet minister have rallied round the prime minister, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak saying \"of course\" he believed Mr Johnson's version of events.\n\nDeputy PM Dominic Raab said prime ministers would normally be expected to resign if they had been found to have misled MPs, but he believed Mr Johnson would remain in power for \"many years\".\n\nThe government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street. Boris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Indoor events such as concerts and nightclubs will be able to open again from next Monday\n\nScotland's Covid-19 restrictions are to be eased, with nightclubs reopening, large indoor events resuming and social distancing rules dropped.\n\nThe changes will take effect from Monday 24 January after a \"significant fall\" in new case numbers.\n\nHowever, people are still being asked to work from home and to take lateral flow tests before meeting with others.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs that Scotland had \"turned the corner on the Omicron wave\".\n\nGuidance advising adults against meeting up with more than three households at a time will also be scrapped, along with curbs on indoor contact sports.\n\nAnd ministers have decided against extending the vaccine passport scheme to more hospitality settings \"at this stage\".\n\nMs Sturgeon said that while Omicron is still infecting \"large numbers of people\", there had been a significant fall in the number of new infections over the past two weeks.\n\nA total of 20,268 positive cases have been reported over the past three days, compared to 36,526 over the same three days last week.\n\nThe percentage of tests coming back positive has dropped from almost 30% in early January to under 20% now.\n\nIt is now thought that the Omicron wave peaked in the first week of January, and the number of people being admitted to hospital with the virus is also falling.\n\nHospitality venues such as pubs and restaurants will no longer need to operate on a table service only basis\n\nRestrictions introduced over the festive period are being phased out, with limits on crowds at outdoor events such as football matches having been lifted on Monday of this week.\n\nFrom next Monday, the limits on attendance at indoor public events, the requirement for 1m physical distancing and table service in hospitality venues, and the requirement for nightclubs to close will also be removed.\n\nHowever longer-running measures such as the use of face coverings on public transport and indoor public places will continue, while Ms Sturgeon said people were advised to continue to keep gatherings \"small\" to reduce the risk of infection.\n\nPeople should also continue to work from home wherever possible for now, but Ms Sturgeon said talks would be held with businesses about \"a return to a more hybrid approach from the start of February\".\n\nThe first minister said that Scotland was \"once again entering a calmer phase of the pandemic\", but warned there was still \"significant pressure\" on health services.\n\nShe said: \"Although we can be increasingly optimistic at this stage, we must all still play our part in helping further slow the spread of the virus.\"\n\nWhisper it but this really should be the beginning of the end of lockdown-style Covid restrictions in Scotland.\n\nAs the current Omicron measures are eased, the Scottish government certainly has no intention of bringing any of them back.\n\nIn fact, they are working on a new strategy for living with Covid without major restrictions in future.\n\nThat does not mean pretending coronavirus has gone away or abandoning all attempts to limit its spread.\n\nFor instance, the first minister has already said that some continued mask wearing in public is likely.\n\nBut the hope is that the continued use of vaccination and the exercise of personal responsibility can take more of the strain in future.\n\nOpposition parties are anxious for more details of this revised approach which, of course, depends on Covid not mutating into a more dangerous strain.\n\nThe changes were broadly welcomed by business groups, with CBI Scotland saying the easing of rules for hospitality was \"a huge relief to firms desperate to start trading their way to recovery after a difficult festive period\".\n\nThe Scottish Chambers of Commerce echoed this, and welcomed the decision not to extend vaccine passports to more venues - while calling on ministers to \"remove the shackles from offices as urgently as possible\".\n\nAnd the Federation of Small Businesses said withdrawing restrictions \"doesn't mean that local economies will necessarily bounce back\", calling for the government to \"work hard to build business and consumer confidence\".\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives also welcomed the easing of Covid measures, with health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane saying there had been a \"sea change\" in government policy \"towards trusting the Scottish public\".\n\nHowever the party called for the vaccine passport scheme to be scrapped altogether, and for a \"credible plan\" to tackle waiting times in the NHS.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the decision on vaccine passports was \"finely balanced\", but that if case numbers were to rise again then extending the scheme to all licensed hospitality venues \"may well be a more proportionate alternative to other, more restrictive measures\".\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the changes would \"offer hope to a lot of people who can once again look forward to getting some more normality back in their lives\".\n\nHowever he said businesses were \"teetering on the brink\", and called on the government to go further in getting promised financial support to firms.", "Boris Johnson was warned about No 10 holding a drinks party in the garden during lockdown, the prime minister's former top aide Dominic Cummings says.\n\nMr Cummings - who has been strongly critical of Mr Johnson since he left No 10 - says the PM \"waved aside\" concerns about the gathering.\n\nMr Johnson has admitted he attended the event on 20 May 2020, but says he believed it was work-related.\n\nNo 10 said it was \"untrue\" to say Mr Johnson was \"warned about the event\".\n\nA Downing Street spokesman added: \"As he said earlier this week, he believed implicitly that this was a work event. He has apologised to the House and is committed to making a further statement once the investigation concludes.\"\n\nLast week, Mr Johnson told the Commons he went to the gathering in the Downing Street garden and stayed at the drinks for 25 minutes to thank staff for their hard work.\n\nHowever, Mr Cummings, who worked in No 10 at the time of the party, has insisted Mr Johnson \"knew he was at a drinks party cos he was told it was a drinks party and it was actually a drinks party\".\n\nWriting in his blog, Mr Cummings added further detail about his account of the discussions leading up to the party on 20 May and said it showed \"the PM lied to Parliament about parties\".\n\nDominic Cummings and Boris Johnson worked together during the EU referendum\n\nThe former adviser wrote that the day in 2020 was a \"particularly intense shambles\" of a day.\n\nHe alleged that Mr Johnson's principal private secretary (PPS), Martin Reynolds, had sent out the email inviting 100 staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\", but \"a very senior official replied by email saying the invite broke the rules\".\n\n\"The PPS went to the official's office where they discussed it. The PPS declined to withdraw the invite. I told the PPS the invite broke the rules.\"\n\nAfter discussing it, Mr Cummings claimed the PPS said he would \"check with the PM if he's happy for it to go ahead\", adding: \"I am sure he did check with the PM.\"\n\nMr Cummings said he then challenged Mr Johnson himself. \"I said to the PM something like, 'Martin's invited the building to a drinks party, this is what I'm talking about, you've got to grip this madhouse.'\"\n\nBut he added: \"The PM waved it aside.\"\n\n\"Not only me but other eyewitnesses who discussed this at the time would swear under oath this is what happened,\" he wrote.\n\nTwo other former Downing Street officials told the BBC they remember Mr Cummings telling them that day he had warned the prime minister not to go ahead, before the drinks gathering took place in the garden.\n\nBut Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told BBC Breakfast the PM had been clear Mr Cummings' account was \"not true\", adding that he had acted in \"good faith\" and previously expressed \"contrition and has apologised in front of the House of Commons for some of the practices that went on at Downing Street\".\n\nMr Raab conceded that the accounts from Mr Cummings and the PM \"cannot be reconciled\" but refused to speculate further while Sue Gray's investigation was still ongoing.\n\nWhen questioned on Mr Johnson's stability as leader, Mr Raab said he was confident the PM would \"carry on for many years and into the next election\".\n\nHowever, Labour's shadow policing minister Sarah Jones said the claims were \"extraordinary\", and accused the government of being in chaos.\n\nSNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said Mr Cummings was \"a key witness\" and should be interviewed by Ms Gray, the senior civil servant investigating gatherings on government premises during Covid restrictions.\n\nMr Cummings' intervention comes after Conservative MPs spent the weekend canvassing public opinion on the prime minister.\n\nOn Monday, Conservative MP Steve Baker told reporters: \"My constituents at the moment are about 60 to one against the prime minister.\n\n\"I've listened very carefully to members of my [Conservative Party] association, too. There are some very strident voices in my constituency demanding that I support the prime minister.\n\n\"What I would say is I made my view very clear at the beginning of December: that there must be one rule for all.\"\n\nHe later added \"it was impossible to say\" if Mr Johnson would lead his party into the next general election.\n\nThe former minister is an influential voice among Conservative MPs, having previously led a powerful pro-Brexit group within the parliamentary party.\n\nHe supported Mr Johnson to become leader of the party in 2019, but has recently been critical over some of his decisions on coronavirus.\n\nTory MP Andrew Bridgen - who has publicly said he has no confidence in the PM - told BBC Newsnight he had received more than 1,000 emails in one day from voters, and \"the overwhelming majority said that the prime minister should consider his position\".\n\nHe said Ms Gray must question all witnesses including Mr Cummings and \"get to the truth\". \"If it does transpire that she judges that the prime minister has misled parliament then clearly that's a very, very serious matter and I think it's probably career ending,\" he said.\n\nAnother Conservative MP, Damian Collins, said he had received hundreds of letters from constituents, adding: \"A lot of people are very angry.\"\n\nHe told BBC Hardtalk that \"by far the clear view\" from party members in his constituency of Folkestone and Hythe was that \"we should give the PM the benefit of the doubt until we see what's in Sue Gray's report\".\n\nBut Tory MP Peter Bone said he had encountered a different reaction when canvassing constituents. \"They were wholly supportive of the prime minister,\" he said. \"Many of them were saying, 'well hang on a minute, look he's delivered Brexit, he's got us the vaccination, he's got us through Covid... Why on earth would we want to change the prime minister?'\"\n\nFor a Conservative Party leadership contest to be triggered, 54 Conservative MPs must write to the chairman of the 1922 committee - a group made up of all backbench Tory MPs - to say they no longer have confidence in the prime minister.\n\nOn Sunday, former minister Tim Loughton became the sixth Tory MP to call on Mr Johnson to resign, saying his position was \"untenable\".\n\nIt is reported that those around Mr Johnson have started \"Operation Save Big Dog\", which could include an overhaul of his top team, following criticisms of the culture within Downing Street.\n\nBut Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told BBC Breakfast: \"Honestly, I don't recognise that at all.\"\n\nMr Johnson's official spokesman also dismissed reports of \"Operation Red Meat\" - rushing out policies popular within the party to bolster the PM - saying: \"None of these issues are things that we have not been seeking to address for some time.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer told LBC radio Mr Johnson was \"too weak to lead... he has lost all authority and that matters, whatever party you are in,\" he added.\n\nSir Keir has said a picture of him drinking beer in an office last spring did not show a breach of Covid rules in place at the time.\n\nThe Labour leader said the photograph, which first emerged last year, was of him in a constituency office in the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election.\n\n\"There is simply no comparison\" to the culture within Downing Street, Sir Keir said, adding that Conservatives bringing it up were trying \"to take everyone into the gutter with them\".\n\nBut Mr Zahawi said he hoped Sir Keir \"finds [it] within himself to apologise\" over the image.\n\nThe government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street. Boris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Joss Whedon took over the reins of Justice League after original director Zack Snyder withdrew\n\nUS director Joss Whedon has denied allegations of misconduct on the sets of productions like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Justice League.\n\nActors Gal Gadot and Ray Fisher previously claimed Whedon behaved badly towards them on the 2017 superhero movie.\n\nIn a lengthy New York magazine article published on Monday, Whedon denied having \"threatened\" Gadot's career.\n\n\"I don't threaten people. Who does that?\" said the 57-year-old.\n\n\"English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech,\" added the film-maker, who took over the reins after original director Zack Snyder withdrew following a family tragedy.\n\nHe told the publication the pair argued over a scene that Gadot, who played Wonder Woman in the film, wanted cut.\n\nHe said he jokingly told her she would have to tie his body to a railway track and do it over his dead body, and that the Israeli actress had misunderstood that to mean he was threatening to tie her to a track.\n\nBut Gadot told New York Magazine there was no such misunderstanding. \"I understood perfectly,\" she told the publication.\n\nGal Gadot and Ray Fisher during Comic-Con International 2017 in San Diego\n\nHer Justice League co-star Ray Fisher first alleged in 2020 that Whedon's behaviour on the film had been \"gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable\".\n\nIn a Forbes interview, Fisher claimed he'd been told Whedon had used colour correction to change an actor of colour's complexion because he didn't like the actor's skin tone.\n\nBut that allegation was removed from the interview because the magazine said it was primarily based on third-person information. The entire article was updated after Forbes editors found \"it lacked journalistic rigour and fairness\".\n\nWhedon has now told New York magazine he brightened the entire movie, including all the actors' faces, and that he had talked about his changes with Fisher for hours.\n\nHe said the conversations were friendly and respectful, and denied Fisher's allegations, saying none were \"true or merited discussing\".\n\n\"We're talking about a malevolent force,\" Whedon said of Fisher. The director, who cut Fisher's role considerably in his edit of the film, added: \"We're talking about a bad actor in both senses.\"\n\nFisher took to Twitter on Monday to hit back at the director's latest comments, describing them as \"lies and buffoonery\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ray Fisher This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhedon's 2017 version of the film was widely panned by critics, before original director Zack Snyder returned to release an extended cut last year.\n\nLast February, a string of Buffy stars also accused Whedon of \"toxic\", \"cruel\" and \"very not appropriate\" behaviour.\n\nCharisma Carpenter claimed Whedon had \"abused his power\" and \"created hostile and toxic work environments\".\n\nMichelle Trachtenberg (left) and Amber Benson (right) have spoken out about Joss Whedon\n\nCarpenter, who played Cordelia Chase, posted messages saying the show's creator had \"abused his power on numerous occasions\" while working on Buffy and spin-off Angel.\n\nShe claimed he had \"a history of being casually cruel\", such as with \"ongoing\" threats to fire her and calling her fat when she was pregnant, before \"unceremoniously\" firing her after she had given birth.\n\nWhedon told New York magazine he was \"not mannerly\" with Carpenter when she told him she was pregnant, but denied having ever called her fat. \"Most of my experiences with Charisma were delightful and charming,\" he said.\n\nCarpenter's co-stars Amber Benson and Michelle Trachtenberg backed her up, while Sarah Michelle Gellar said she was \"proud of them for speaking out\".\n\nOn Instagram last year, Trachtenberg accused Whedon of \"not appropriate behaviour....very. Not. Appropriate.\"\n\nWhedon told New York magazine he had no idea what the actress was talking about.\n\nThe director, who told the publication he has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from events in his childhood, admitted in the article that he could have handled his job and his marriage better - he had numerous affairs with colleagues and fans - but still believes he's \"one of the greatest showrunners ever\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The slate landscape of north west Wales became the UK's 33rd World Heritage Site last year\n\nThe success of a slate region given Unesco heritage status must be felt in all communities, a councillor has warned.\n\nThe slate landscape of north-west Wales became the UK's 33rd World Heritage Site last year.\n\nBut there are fears some communities will get too much tourism, while others could miss out.\n\nGwynedd council said it was developing a sustainable tourism framework with Snowdonia National Park.\n\nWith overseas travel being severely disrupted during the Covid pandemic, Snowdonia National Park said it had witnessed a significant increase in tourists.\n\nWhile many see the benefits of a boost in trade, there have been pressures on infrastructure such as parking issues and a lack of facilities to make such tourism work in smaller communities.\n\n\"The frustrations are that people are refusing to pay for parking\", said Llanberis councillor Kevin Morris Jones.\n\n\"They park in our streets - imagine going to the shops for five minutes and then you come back home and there's a car there for the next eight hours.\"\n\nLlanberis councillor Kevin Morris Jones says more villages should benefit from the success of the heritage site\n\nWith the area having welcomed more visitors since the beginning of the pandemic, there are fears that a combination of factors, including the newly-designated Unesco site, could lead to an even greater influx.\n\nThere are calls for the benefits brought by the Unesco status to be shared beyond the honey pot of Llanberis, including Dyffryn Nantlle, Dyffryn Ogwen Ffestiniog and Abergynolwyn.\n\n\"They need to remember that other villages are in the project as well and we need to share these people about,\" said Mr Jones.\n\n\"Other villages could benefit a lot from this. If people only come here, the village and the community is in for some hard years.\"\n\nSnowdonia has attracted more tourists since the pandemic\n\nDuring the pandemic there have been many issues due to a lack of infrastructure to deal with more tourists, with locals complaining of severe traffic jams and dangerous parking near Snowdon.\n\nGwynedd Council and the Snowdonia National Park Authority are holding public consultations and developing a framework to create a sustainable tourism model that will be announced later this year.\n\nHelen Pye, head of engagement for Snowdonia National Park, said: \"When you get people around the table - the combination of the public sector, private and community voices - that's when we get innovative ideas.\"\n\nHelen Pye, from Snowdonia National Park, says getting people around the table generates ideas on how tourism can be sustainable\n\nMs Pye said Unesco heritage status could protect communities as well as offer opportunities.\n\n\"Like our national park status, the area gets a lot more support because of the status in managing visitors to the area.\n\n\"We see the Unesco status as a way to tackle those challenges and to bring forward those important elements of culture and supporting local communities.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The slate landscape of north-west Wales is said to have \"roofed the 19th Century world\"\n\nMs Pye stressed she had confidence all areas within the Unesco area would benefit over the coming years.\n\nCouncillor Gareth Thomas, responsible for economic development at Gwynedd council, said he hoped Unesco status would increase tourism during off-peak times and alleviate pressure.\n\n\"The benefit of Unesco is that we can move people around Gwynedd if you like so that Llanberis and places like that won't see such high numbers,\" he said.\n\n\"So we're trying to promote these other areas too.\"\n\nSpeaking about the council's plans for a sustainable tourism model, Mr Thomas said it would be based on the principles of respect for \"culture and language\".\n\n\"What it means is that we make sure that people respect and understand our area - we must sort issues like rubbish and parking too with the national park, so there's much work happening.\"", "Ireland's president and taoiseach (prime minister) were among the mourners at Tuesday's funeral mass\n\nThe children, neat and sombre in their navy school uniforms, strained to catch a glimpse as the flashing blue lights of the police motorcycles heralded the arrival of the funeral cortege.\n\nEach clutched a graduation photo of Ashling Murphy and a single red rose, their innocence contrasted with the tragic backdrop.\n\nThey were there to pay tribute to a beloved young primary school teacher and talented musician, attacked and killed as she exercised along a nearby canal in the small, rural Irish community less than a week earlier.\n\nHer death has sparked anger, shock and revulsion across these islands and further afield, prompting a national discussion on how to end violence against women.\n\nDave Plunkett walks every day on the canal path.\n\n\"Everyone feels a real connection to her. It just feels like nothing is going to be the same again,\" he said.\n\nAnd for the many, many people who knew and loved Ms Murphy in this County Offaly community, that is the case.\n\nFor them, this is raw and visceral. They're confronting the unimaginable. In the six days since the killing, they have struggled to comprehend the violence that has been brought to their quiet community.\n\nHours after Ms Murphy's funeral, Irish police said they had arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of her murder.\n\nThe night before the funeral, local resident Mary Givan brought fresh batteries for the fairy lights on a makeshift memorial to Ms Murphy along the Grand Canal, and cleared spent tea lights.\n\nHer daughter was in the same year as Ashling at school.\n\n\"This is a mother's fear now,\" she said. \"If you let your daughters out, they can't go out on their own. We can't either.\n\n\"To keep the light burning for her, that's all we can do.\"\n\nAshling Murphy's boyfriend Ryan Casey was hugged by Irish President Michael D Higgins outside the church\n\nThe area is not accustomed to public expressions of heartbreak and sorrow, although there were elements of both outside St Brigid's Church in Mount Bolus on Tuesday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jessica Black This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFr Michael Meade, chief celebrant at the funeral Mass, talked of how Ashling's family had been \"robbed\" of a precious gift - a term that succinctly summed up the callous nature of the 23-year-old's death.\n\nPupils from Ashling Murphy's class held photographs and roses outside St Brigid's Church in Mountbolus\n\nThe rural, local nature of the area was encapsulated by the farmer who opened his fields to mourners in cars and buses, as gardaí (Irish police) marshalled them in.\n\nHis fields have held the overflow from funerals before, but never for one like this.\n\nAhead of the funeral, Fr Meade spoke of the fact that \"something powerful\" would come out of this, reflecting on the outpouring of grief and support from around the world.\n\nBishop Tom Deenihan, Bishop of Meath, told mourners that the \"chink of light\" was that wave of sympathy, manifested by the vigils in Ashling's honour and the support to her family over recent days.\n\n\"Community is needed to overcome evils such as this,\" he said.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nEmma Raducanu became Britain's first female Grand Slam single's champion in 44 years when she won the US Open in September Coverage: Daily radio commentaries on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Sport website and app, with selected live text commentaries online; TV highlights from middle Saturday. Britain's Emma Raducanu showed quality and resilience to beat American Sloane Stephens in three sets for a spot in the Australian Open second round. On her senior debut in Melbourne, the US Open champion won 6-0 2-6 6-1 against Stephens, another previous winner in New York. Raducanu, seeded 17th, was sharp as she wrapped up the first set in 17 minutes before errors crept into her game. Stephens took advantage to level but Raducanu reasserted control to win. The 19-year-old will face Montenegro's Danka Kovinic in the second round on Thursday. Raducanu cupped her head and dropped the racquet in what is becoming a trademark celebration, illustrating how much it meant to win in her first Grand Slam match since Flushing Meadows. \"Both me and Sloane put everything out there and it was a very good match,\" said Raducanu, who wrapped up victory shortly before midnight and thanked an excited crowd for staying. \"We had some great rallies and I'm happy to come through against such a great champion.\"\n• None A zoo, a boo or Ronaldo's 'siuuu' - the incredible atmosphere of 'the people's court' Intrigue has surrounded Raducanu going into the 2022 season as everyone wonders how she will follow her stunning ascent to the US Open title. Eyebrows were raised when her opening match of the year ended in a 6-0 6-1 defeat by Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina in Sydney. Wins have been hard to come by since her stunning victory in New York, but she showed again in Melbourne how much she thrives on the big stage. With her pre-season preparation limited by contracting Covid-19, Raducanu lost to Rybakina in 55 minutes. Against 68th-ranked Stephens, it looked like Raducanu might be wrapped up even earlier a week on - this time for wildly different reasons. Stephens, who won the 2017 US Open, had not played for two months and only arrived in Australia recently after getting married on New Year's Day in the US. Her lack of on-court time showed as she won only four points in an error-strewn opening set. The second set completely switched. Raducanu was the one who started to make mistakes - racking up 19 unforced errors compared to only two in the first - and 28-year-old Stephens took advantage to level. Raducanu, who had never played a deciding set in a Grand Slam main-draw match, broke serve twice to race 5-0 in front in the final set. Three match points quickly arrived in the seventh game and, after a brief delay caused by an intruding moth on the baseline, Raducanu took the final match point when Stephens flicked into the net. \"It was a tough match-up for a first round,\" said Raducanu. \"I knew there would some long rallies because her athleticism is right up there. I had to work extremely hard for those points. \"Coming out for the first set, I played very good tennis, but of course there was always going to be some adversity. I'm happy to have regrouped in the third set. \"I don't think the scoreline reflected what happened in the third set.\"\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone The Emma Raducanu of the first set looked every inch the player who had steamed through the US Open draw without dropping a set. The 19-year-old, bursting with confidence, allowed Sloane Stephens only four points. She was decisive, aggressive and utterly dominant. Back came Stephens, though, to leave Raducanu in unchartered territory - a first deciding set in a Grand Slam match. That final set was closer than the scoreline suggests, but Raducanu took all her chances and then showed great delight at the moment of victory. Grand Slam wins should always be a big deal when you are a teenager, and given the thrashing she received by Elena Rybakina in Sydney last week, this was a win full of character by the US Open champion.\n• None The artist formerly known as evil or genius? The team uncover the truths behind pop legend Prince\n• None The search for the story that drove crowds to storm the US Capitol", "Fr Michael Meade pauses after being asked what his message will be to mourners at the funeral of young teacher Ashling Murphy, who was murdered in County Offaly five days ago.\n\n\"Be courageous,\" he replies, after a brief moment.\n\n\"Don't be afraid to speak up, and do not be afraid to continue living as we are called to live, showing respect for all people.\"\n\nThe parish priest of Kilcormac, in rural County Offaly in the Republic of Ireland, will be the celebrant at Ms Murphy's funeral Mass on Tuesday, at St Brigid's Church, Mountbolus.\n\n\"Everybody [in the local community] speaks about it with shock and horror, but they are coping very well together,\" he tells BBC News NI.\n\n\"There is a great community spirit here and it is a real example of how we are called to live, to care for each other as best we can and that has been given physical evidence.\"\n\nThe murder of the 23-year-old primary school teacher and musician, along the banks of the Grand Canal just outside Tullamore last Wednesday, has sparked shock, revulsion and anger, not just on the island of Ireland but further afield.\n\nThousands have attended vigils in Ms Murphy's memory across Ireland but also in London, New York and Dubai.\n\nThe nature, timing and setting of the killing - late afternoon in a quiet, rural area - has sparked calls for more to be done to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence towards women.\n\nAshling Murphy's mother Kathleen, father Raymond and sister Amy comforted each other at a candle-lit vigil near the scene of her murder\n\nIreland's National Women's Council has said this must be a \"watershed moment in ending men's violence against women\".\n\nThe country's justice minister, Helen McEntee, said she intended to publish a new national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence at the start of March.\n\nLocally, though, for a community reeling from such horror, the focus at this stage is not so much on that wider discussion, although vitally important, but more on rallying around and caring for Ms Murphy's family and friends as they grieve, says Fr Meade.\n\nMs Murphy was murdered just outside Tullamore, County Offaly\n\nHe adds there is awareness in the locality of the global attention but in their own minds, \"they haven't got that far yet\".\n\n\"It's personal. It's local, it will evolve into what all the politicians are talking about,\" he adds.\n\n\"It will evolve into something and hopefully it will only be for the good.\"\n\nMs Murphy was at the heart of her community.\n\nA former pupil of Sacred Heart School in Tullamore, she taught First Class (age six to seven) in nearby Durrow National School.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Scoil Cholmcille This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSacred Heart School principal Pauline McKenna says the community has always been proud of her.\n\n\"This is a terrible tragedy for her family, our community and our school.\n\n\"She will be greatly missed.\"\n\nMs Murphy was involved with the local GAA club, and she was also a talented musician, having played the fiddle and concertina.\n\nHer father, Raymond, is a well-known banjo player and her sister, Amy, also plays the concertina and button accordion.\n\nMourners have attended vigils in a number of cities, including at the Irish Centre in London\n\nBoth Ashling and Amy taught music to many young students in their local branch of traditional music group Comhaltas, and Ashling also played in the Comhaltas National Folk Orchestra at many national events, including the visit to Ireland of Pope Francis in 2018.\n\n\"There is a sense of numbness here, and a sense of disbelief that this could happen,\" says family friend Paddy Burke, chairman of the local Comhaltas branch.\n\n\"Worldwide, it's violence against women that is the big issue, but here it's a local person that has been murdered.\n\n\"It's the loss of her from her family and her music and GAA friends. She was an intricate part of the whole area.\"\n\nTeachers' unions in the Irish Republic are urging all schools and colleges to join in a tribute to Ms Murphy at 11:00 local time on Tuesday.\n\nStormont assembly members gathered outside parliament buildings to pay tribute to Ashling Murphy\n\nOn Monday, Northern Ireland's First Minister Paul Givan and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill joined other assembly members and party leaders on the steps of Stormont in a vigil to pay their respects.\n\nMs O'Neill said the murder was a \"watershed moment\" and called for anger to be turned into action.\n\nBut what next? Will this, as the National Women's Council has said, be a watershed moment for ending violence against women?\n\n\"In the wake of the senseless killing of Ashling Murphy, women across Ireland have been sharing their stories of abuse and harassment, and how they curtail their lives so that they feel safer,\" said National Women's Council director Orla O'Connor.\n\n\"Ultimately, we know there is no behaviour change women can make that will keep them safe from men's violence.\n\n\"So we need to talk about what we can do.\"\n\nChief executive of Safe Ireland Mary McDermott has called for an all-of-government response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.\n\nBack in County Offaly, Fr Meade says \"everybody is praying and they are united throughout the whole world, all these vigils\".\n\n\"Only something powerful can come out of this.\"\n• None 'What happened to her could have happened to me'", "Ten people have been killed after part of a cliff collapsed onto leisure boats on a Brazilian lake.\n\nAnother 32 were injured in the accident in the south-east of the country.\n\nVideo circulating online shows the moment the rock detaches from the cliff face as onlookers try to yell warnings to the boats beneath.\n\nAt least one of the boats appears to have sunk, while others managed to escape from the huge wave the falling rock created.\n\nThe collapse at 11:00 local time (14:00 GMT) followed days of rain in Minas Gerais state, which had made the cliffs more susceptible to collapse, local fire officials told reporters.\n\n\"That piece will fall out,\" a woman can be heard saying in a video of the accident. \"Get out of there,\" warns another, before the cliff collapses onto the boats.\n\nThree vessels were hit by falling rock, Lieutenant Pedro Aihara told reporters. Out of the 32 injured, nine people were in hospital.\n\nTwenty people were initially reported missing, but Lt Aihara said most were accounted for after checking hospital lists.\n\nAlessandra Barbosa told news outlet EPTV that she is seeking news of her uncles, who were spending the weekend at the site and decided to take a boat tour of the cliff.\n\n\"I called local hospitals. So far I haven't had any information about them. We are distressed, very concerned,\" she said.\n\n\"We get nervous because we have no information and it's family, right? Family is everything to us.\"\n\nAuthorities are now trying to identify those killed, with their bodies badly damaged in the collapse.", "A memorial wall near St Thomas' Hospital in London remembers those who have died with Covid\n\nMore than 150,000 people in the UK have now died within 28 days of a positive Covid test since the pandemic began.\n\nA further 313 deaths were reported in the government's daily figures on Saturday, taking the total to 150,057.\n\nThe UK is the seventh country to pass 150,000 reported deaths, after the US, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico and Peru.\n\nThe prime minister said every death \"is a profound loss to the friends and communities affected and my thoughts and condolences are with them\".\n\nBoris Johnson added that coronavirus had taken a \"terrible toll on our country\" and \"our way out of this pandemic is for everyone to get their booster or their first or second dose if they haven't yet\".\n\nSome 146,390 new cases have been recorded in the UK, with the more transmissible Omicron variant driving a surge in infections.\n\nThe number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test has also begun to rise, with the total of 1,271 in the past seven days up 38.3% on the previous week.\n\nThe impact of vaccinations means Covid hospital admissions and deaths are not rising as quickly as during previous waves.\n\nHowever, hospitals remain under pressure due to rising admissions and Covid-related staff absences.\n\nIn Scotland the number of people in hospital with Covid has increased by more than 50% in the last week, according to new figures.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCamilla Claridge, from Oxfordshire, lost her grandmother to Covid in February last year and on the night of her funeral, she learned that her father was also dying with the virus.\n\n\"We buried nan and we came home from the funeral and then we were woken at one o'clock in the morning from a phone call to say that it was time to think about saying our goodbyes,\" she said.\n\n\"It was horrendous. The ICU, you walk in and there's just beds of people lined up with machines breathing for them…. I didn't even recognise [my dad] because of all the tubes.\"\n\n\"It's hard to even imagine 150,000 people, families who have gone through what we're going through,\" she added.\n\nProf Andrew Hayward, who is a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said the death toll was \"absolutely tragic\".\n\n\"I think we could have done better,\" he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. \"I think some of the deaths are even more tragic for the fact that many of them were avoidable if we had acted earlier in the first and second wave.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the news as \"a dark milestone for our country\".\n\n\"Our thoughts are with all those who have lost someone, and we thank everyone supporting the vaccination effort,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"We must ensure the public inquiry provides answers and that lessons are learned.\"\n\nThe prime minister has promised to launch an independent public inquiry into the government's handling of the pandemic in the spring of this year.\n\nJo Goodman, co-founder of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign, said the \"country needs answers as to why we have suffered one of the highest global death tolls\".\n\n\"This is ever more urgent as deaths from the Omicron variant continue to surge, with little apparently being done to address this. The public inquiry cannot begin its work soon enough,\" she added.\n\nOfficial figures count coronavirus deaths in different ways.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics records the number of deaths where Covid-19 is mentioned as a cause on the death certificate, even if the person had not been tested for the virus, with a total of 173,248 deaths recorded up to 24 December.\n\nIn January 2021, the UK was the first European nation and fifth country to pass 100,000 reported Covid deaths.\n\nSix weeks later the UK had seen another 25,000 deaths.\n\nBut the combined effect of vaccine rollout and lockdown slowed the growth of the death toll throughout the rest of the year.\n\nThe UK's reported Covid death rate is 225 deaths per 100,000 people. By this measure, it has the 28th highest reported figure of any country, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nIt's almost a year since the UK recorded 100,000 deaths. Most of those came in two waves - a sharp sudden surge in the spring followed by a slow, sustained rise in the autumn and winter of 2020 into 2021, largely before vaccines were available.\n\nOn 8 December 2020, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan made history by being the first person to receive a Covid jab as part of the UK's national rollout.\n\nVaccines have been the real success story of the pandemic, weakening the link between infections and serious illness and deaths from the virus. But some fatalities are still inevitable.\n\nToday, the total number of deaths in the UK stands at more than 150,000. It is a sobering reminder of why societies cannot ignore Covid. It hasn't gone away.\n\nA government spokesman said: \"Every death from this virus is a tragedy and our sympathies are with everyone who has lost loved ones.\n\n\"We are thankful for the collective national effort and the hard work of frontline health and social care staff and volunteers for administering vaccines to tens of millions of people and keeping people safe. Their tireless efforts have saved thousands of lives.\"\n\nHowever, he added \"the pandemic is not over\" and urged people to \"play their part\" by getting vaccinated.\n\nIt comes after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said a fourth Covid jab was not needed for most people yet.\n\nData suggests that three months after getting a booster dose, protection against hospital admission remains at about 90% for people aged 65 and over.\n\nThe JCVI said the priority therefore remained to get first, second and third doses to people who have not already had them.\n\nThe prime minister has said he hopes England can \"ride out\" the current wave of infections without further restrictions, although he acknowledged parts of the NHS would feel \"temporarily overwhelmed\".\n\nEngland is currently under Plan B restrictions, which includes mandatory face masks in most public indoor spaces, Covid passes for entry to some large venues and advice to work from home where possible.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have already introduced tougher measures for hospitality venues.\n\nWe have gathered tributes to more than 770 of those who have died with coronavirus. Below are words of remembrance from friends, family and colleagues.\n\nThe tributes are displayed at random, which means that you will see different faces each time you visit this page.\n\nPlease enable JavaScript or upgrade your browser to see this interactive", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nPolice are investigating racist abuse that was directed at ex-England defender Ashley Cole at Swindon's FA Cup clash with Manchester City.\n\nSwindon have apologised to Cole, who was part of ITV's presentation team at the County Ground on Friday\n\n\"We are absolutely saddened and deeply disgusted by this,\" said Swindon owner Clem Morfuni.\n\n\"We cannot stress strongly enough that racial abuse of any kind will not be tolerated.\"\n\nHe added: \"Racism has no place in the world and it is incredibly heart-breaking that this still has a place in our game.\n\n\"We are working with Wiltshire Police on gathering evidence but those responsible will be punished accordingly.\n\n\"On behalf of everyone at Swindon Town Football Club, we send out our heartfelt apologies to Ashley Cole and it is with our deepest regret that you had to experience that.\n\n\"Those few individuals do not represent Swindon Town and will not be welcome at The County Ground.\"\n\nSwindon, from League Two, lost 4-1 to the Premier League leaders in the tie which opened the weekend of third round action.\n\n\"We are aware that one person was subject to racial abuse at the County Ground following the Swindon Town v Manchester City game last night,\" said a statement from Wiltshire Police.\n\n\"We have already commenced an investigation, obtaining statements and securing CCTV. Further enquiries in relation to this incident are ongoing,.\n\n\"Behaviour of this nature is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Anyone with information should call 101 and quote crime reference number 54220002136.\"\n\nSwindon Town Supporters Trust said it was \"deeply saddened and disgusted\", adding: \"This does not represent our club or fanbase, and there should be no place in the game or society for this type of behaviour.\"\n• None Watch all of the latest FA Cup highlights and reaction here", "Watch this incredible video showing a truck that was left dangling over a cliff edge in China for three days.\n\nThe driver and passenger managed to escape, and the vehicle was eventually hauled to safety.", "Novak Djokovic often has to cup his ear to encourage a crowd to cheer for him.\n\nHe has won a record-equalling 20 men's Grand Slam titles and is a world number one with jaw-dropping athleticism - but he is also one of his sport's most polarising figures.\n\nThe 34-year-old Serb is waiting for his latest controversy to play out after having his visa revoked in Melbourne when he arrived to defend his Australian Open title.\n\nAfter Djokovic spent the weekend in a government detention hotel, the judge hearing his challenge dramatically overturned the decision, but Immigration Minister Alex Hawke could still cancel his visa.\n\nWhether or not that happens, the events of the past week have made him an even more divisive player.\n\nJust how has a boy who sheltered during the Nato bombing of Belgrade in 1999 become a player who has struggled to warm the hearts of so many?\n• None The Sports Desk podcast: Djokovic's latest Australian victory - from courtroom to practice cour\n\n'You cannot make people love you'\n\nWhen Djokovic faced Roger Federer in the 2019 Wimbledon final, an epic encounter was marred by booing of the Serb.\n\nHis misses were clapped and he was jeered in a partisan atmosphere more likely found at football stadiums than on Centre Court.\n\nDjokovic saved match points and went on to win a classic final, with pundits urging fans to show more respect to a great player.\n\nIt is hard to know exactly why they did not - yes, the hugely popular Federer has a fanbase like no other, but Djokovic is also one of the sport's greats.\n\n\"You cannot make people love you and that's been the situation a little bit,\" his former coach Boris Becker told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast.\n\n\"He's a fine young sportsman with the right attitude and the right character, he just has a different view on life. He has a different view how he eats, how he drinks, how he sleeps. That's where you can't criticise him. Maybe that's the reason he's so successful, but he's not for everybody - I get it.\"\n\nDoes his way of celebrating wind people up? He does an extravagant gesture to the four corners of the court in gratitude - does that grate when you have been booing?\n\nOr is it past on-court behaviour? He has repeatedly been accused by players of exaggerating injuries, including at last year's Australian Open when Taylor Fritz said the Serb would have retired from their match if his abdomen problem was \"really, really bad\".\n\nBack in 2008, Andy Roddick poked fun at Djokovic by suggesting that among the many ailments bothering the Serb at the US Open might be bird flu, anthrax and SARS.\n\nOr is it his flashes of anger on court? The most infamous of those ended with a default from the 2020 US Open when he accidentally hit a ball at a line judge.\n\nHis rants at umpires and ball kids over the years have also contrasted with the calmer demeanours of his nearest rivals Federer and Nadal, and the word \"arrogant\" is never far from the lips of his critics.\n\nIt may be a mixture of all of it, but it is also worth considering what has happened off the court too.\n\nDjokovic drew much criticism early in the pandemic when he was among several players who tested positive for Covid-19 at his Adria Tour event, where players did not have to social distance and were seen hugging at the net.\n\nWhile lockdown rules in Croatia had relaxed at this point, there was still no vaccine. Britain's Dan Evans said it was \"a poor example to set\" and Australian Nick Kyrgios described it as a \"bone-headed decision\" to play.\n\nDjokovic later apologised, saying it had been \"too soon\" to hold the event but that the move had been driven by \"a pure heart\" and \"good intentions\".\n\nHe again provoked frustration a year ago when he asked Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley to relax quarantine rules, including suggestions such as reducing isolation periods and having players in quarantine moved to private houses with tennis courts.\n\nAgain, Djokovic pointed to \"good intentions\" and said his letter had been \"misconstrued as being selfish, difficult and ungrateful\".\n\nA spiritual and passionate Serb who wants to be liked\n\nGood intentions are the principle behind his Novak Djokovic Foundation, which builds pre-schools and supports teacher training in Serbia to give \"children from impoverished areas the chance to learn and play in a safe, creative and nurturing environment\", and is inspired by his war-torn childhood.\n\nHis country is at the heart of his motivation, having put playing for his national team alongside Grand Slams as his most important sporting aims, and he also loves handing out racquets to young fans in the crowd.\n\nDjokovic fans - and you only need to be at a Serbia Davis Cup tie to know there are a lot of them and they are very vocal - celebrate the fact he has achieved huge success in an era where two other greats have also been playing - Federer and Nadal.\n\nA highly spiritual person who practises yoga and meditation and follows a plant-based diet, Djokovic once put a revival in form down to a five-day mountain trek with his wife that resulted in back-to-back Grand Slam titles.\n\nNicknamed 'The Joker' early in his career when he used to do humorous impersonations of his fellow players, he is also desperate to be liked.\n\nDjokovic has never had the level of support enjoyed by Swiss great Federer and Spain's Nadal, especially at Grand Slams, and particularly at the US Open where it has sometimes been hostile.\n\nWhile he has often brushed off the boos, he could not hide the tears at last year's US Open final when he said that even though he had lost the match he was \"the happiest man alive\" because of the love he felt from the crowd.\n\nSerbian journalist Sasa Ozmo told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast there had been \"unfair treatment\" of Djokovic over the years, and that he \"often made mistakes that gave ammo to the criticism\".\n\n\"But sometimes the things he has done that are very positive just don't get mentioned often enough,\" he said.\n\nWhat love he may have gained in New York has evaporated in Australia, when many locals were infuriated that Djokovic, who has said he is opposed to vaccination against Covid-19, had been granted medical exemption by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia and Victoria state.\n\nAustralians have had to endure some of the world's strictest restrictions - many still cannot travel between states or internationally - and viewed the situation as him being given special treatment.\n\nDjokovic was held in Melbourne Airport for several hours before border officials announced he had not met entry rules relating to the exemption, and his Australian Open participation remains out of his hands.\n\nThe 'will he, won't he be in Australia' debate had dominated pre-season and while many have questioned his opposition to vaccination, the way in which he announced that he was on his way has been seen arguably as damaging.\n\nPosting on social media to say he had been granted a medical exemption without giving the reasons has left fans, locals, politicians and fellow players wanting answers.\n\nIf he can bid for a record-extending 10th Australian Open and record 21st men's Grand Slam title, he will most likely be booed by home fans who have dubbed him 'Novax', and cheered by those who waved signs of support outside the hotel where he was held.\n\nAnd if he can't, he is still likely to be cupping that ear again at his next event.\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n• None Watch the trailer for an epic final series now\n• None Was it the season to go sober? Find out why many opted for no or low alcohol this festive period", "Artwork: Webb is now in the designed configuration to view the cosmos\n\nIt's done. The biggest astronomical mirror ever sent into space is assembled and ready for focusing.\n\nThe golden reflector, the centrepiece of the new James Webb telescope, was straightened out on Saturday into its full, 6.5m-wide, concave shape.\n\nThe mirror had been folded like a drop-leaf table for the mission's Christmas Day launch.\n\nJames Webb is set now to become a transformative tool in the study of all parts of the cosmos.\n\nScientists intend to use the $10bn observatory and its remarkable mirror to capture events that occurred just a couple of hundred million years after the Big Bang. They want to see the very first stars to light up the Universe.\n\nThey'll also train the telescope's big \"eye\" on the atmospheres of distant planets to see if those worlds might be habitable.\n\n\"Webb has the potential to blow people away, even people who are used to the pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope - and I know that's hard to imagine,\" said Lee Feinberg, who's led the Webb mirror development team at the US space agency (Nasa).\n\n\"Webb is so powerful, almost anywhere we look we're going to be breaking new ground in a huge way,\" he told BBC News.\n\nWebb was sent up with the sides of its main mirror folded like a drop-leaf table\n\nThe telescope is a joint project of the American, European and Canadian space agencies. It has taken 30 years to design and build, and will continue the revelatory science of Hubble, which is now nearing the end of its operational life.\n\nWebb carries next-generation technologies. It's also much bigger. It's so big, it had to be flat-packed to fit inside the nosecone of the European Ariane rocket that took it to orbit on 25 December.\n\nThe subsequent unwrapping over the past fortnight has had everyone holding their breath. But the complex series of deployments, which included the unfurling of a tennis-court-sized sun shield, passed off with no drama.\n\nIt will go down in space exploration history as an astonishing accomplishment.\n\nIt's time for astronomers to breathe a sigh of relief.\n\nUsually it's the launch that's the most nail-biting part of a mission but the last two weeks have been even more nerve-wracking. Unfolding a telescope of such colossal proportions has been one of the most challenging deployments ever attempted in space.\n\nBut team Webb has done it. And, in fact, it's gone so smoothly, they've made the task look easy. The decades of work on the telescope's design and its innovative engineering have clearly paid off.\n\nThe real proof of the observatory's power though won't come until this summer when the first images are captured and beamed back to Earth. And expectations are sky-high - the views should not only be spectacular but they could also answer some of the biggest questions - like how did our Universe begin and does life exist beyond the Earth?\n\nWebb has a lot of promise to live up to.\n\nControllers, based at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, completed the rearrangement sequence by rotating the main mirror's two \"wings\" through 90 degrees.\n\nTelemetry beamed down from Webb confirmed the second of these side panels had been latched and locked in place at 18:16 GMT.\n\n\"We have a fully deployed JWST observatory,\" Carl Starr, the mission operations manager at STScI, announced.\n\n\"The last two weeks have been totally amazing,\" added Bill Ochs, the Nasa Webb programme manager. \"Thousands of people have worked on JWST to get us to this point. I will tell you every single day that I am honoured and humbled to be associated with this team.\"\n\nAnd addressing controllers, Thomas Zurbuchen, the director of science at Nasa, said: \"We have a deployed telescope on orbit, a magnificent telescope the likes of which the world has never seen. So, how does it feel to make history everybody?\"\n\nThere is still much to do to get James Webb ready to image the Universe. The initial task is simply to let it get very cold.\n\nThe telescope is designed to work in the infrared. It's at this longer wavelength of light (longer than we can see with our eyes) that the pioneer stars will be observed to shine. But unless Webb is taken down to a super-low temperature, its own heat energy will swamp the faintest of signals.\n\n\"We'd be blotting out the very thing we want to see; it would be like trying to look at a lighted match in front of a burning haystack. You'd be lost,\" said Gillian Wright, one of Webb's principal investigators.\n\nHubble's pictures transformed our view of the cosmos. Webb's should be no less impressive\n\nThe big shield will produce a shadow from the Sun that will eventually put Webb below -230C.\n\nOnly in this frigid condition will the four scientific instruments onboard have the required sensitivity.\n\nEngineers will begin checking over their function and performance shortly. They'll also have to align all 18 hexagonal segments in the main mirror to make them behave like a single monolithic reflecting surface.\n\nEach of the segments has motors at the rear that can move them up and down, tip them sideways, rotate them, and even slightly bend them to give them exactly the right curvature.\n\nAll of this preparatory work will fill the next five months or so. The first public release of pictures from Webb is not expected until the end of June at the earliest. But we should be prepared to be wowed, say space agency officials.\n\n\"Webb is an engineering marvel, but it also has this beauty to it,\" enthused Lee Feinberg.\n\n\"One of my favourite things was to watch people's faces when they walked up and looked at it. There is a feeling of awe that humans created this thing. It's just the size and the scale, and the gold coatings. It really lifts you up,\" he told BBC News.\n\nWebb was funded for an initial five years of operations with an expectation it could work for about 10. The life-limiting factor has always been considered to be the amount of fuel onboard the telescope to maintain positioning in space. But such was the accuracy of the launch rocket in putting Webb in just the right part of the sky, astronomers can now look forward to a much longer lived observatory.\n\n\"We have quite a bit of fuel margin right now relative to 10 years. Roughly speaking, it's around 20 years of propellant,\" said Mike Menzel, Nasa's Webb mission systems engineer.\n\n\"There is a feeling of awe that humans created this thing\"", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nFourth Ashes Test, Sydney (day four of five) England need 358 more runs to win\n\nAustralia's Usman Khawaja hit another classy century to leave England needing to bat out the final day to save the fourth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).\n\nKhawaja made an unbeaten 101 from 138 balls, to follow his 137 in the first innings, as Australia set England an unlikely 388 to win.\n\nWith dark storm clouds closing in, England openers Zak Crawley and Haseeb Hameed survived a tricky 11 over and 50 minute period to reach 30-0 at stumps.\n\nCrawley will resume on 22 and Hameed eight when play resumes at 23:00 GMT on Saturday, with 98 overs scheduled on the final day, when the forecast is mixed.\n\nKhawaja shared a partnership of 179 with Cameron Green (74) for the fifth wicket as the hosts recovered from 86-4 to keep Australia's hopes of a 5-0 series clean sweep alive.\n\nEarlier in the day, England added 36 runs to their overnight 258-7, with Jonny Bairstow only able to add 10 more runs before feathering Scott Boland behind to fall for 113.\n\nThat left a first-innings deficit of 122 and continued a dismal series with the bat, with the tourists yet to reach 300.\n\nSubstitute Ollie Pope kept wicket for England - and did an excellent job, taking four catches - with Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow both spending the day off the field with hand injuries.\n\nThey - along with Ben Stokes, who did field despite ongoing troubles with a left side strain - have had scans and will continue to be assessed before the fifth Test, which starts in Hobart on 14 January.\n\nKhawaja's innings was another masterclass and one that England's batters could do far worse than watch and learn from.\n\nThe 35-year-old right-hander was hit by a venomous Mark Wood bouncer first ball and he started slowly and did not look fluent in his strokeplay, but importantly he was able to protect his wicket and guide the inexperienced Green, who was ragged for large parts of his innings, through a sticky period.\n\nAustralia were always in control of the game, but at 86-4 the door was slightly ajar for England, who had bowled well and were controlling the scoring rate.\n\nThe stand between Khawaja and Green firmly closed it again, and double padlocked it for good measure.\n\nKhawaja, who has now scored more runs than any England batter other than Joe Root in the series, reverse swept, pulled and drove through the covers with an elegant grace for a well-deserved 10th Test century.\n\nIt marked a dream return to the Test fold for Australia and he was visibly emotional as he composed himself after the celebrations.\n\nBefore the Test he spoke about Travis Head - who tested positive for Covid-19 - reclaiming his place for the final Test, but Khawaja must surely now feature in Hobart.\n\nTest Match Special commentator Geoff Lemon joked \"there will be fights on the streets\" if Australia try and drop him now.\n\nThe fact Crawley and Hameed's unbroken partnership of 30 is England's highest opening stand of the series summarises a challenging four weeks.\n\nThey had to battle, with the weather closing in and the light deteriorating, but there were very few scares.\n\nHameed edged well short of the slip cordon, while a rising Boland delivery hit the shoulder of Crawley's bat and flew over the close catchers, but the openers have given England a chance of saving the Test.\n\nIn the field, England were excellent in the morning session and in the first hour after lunch to restrict Australia and create an opening, but as has often the case, they were unable to capitalise.\n\nWood again bowled well, taking 2-65, while Jack Leach had his best day of the series, in taking 4-84.\n\nEngland set better, more attacking fields, for the left-arm spinner, who was denied a chance to take a hat-trick when Pat Cummins declared after Green and Alex Carey fell in successive balls.\n\n'England do have a chance' - what they said\n\nEngland caretaker coach Graham Thorpe on TMS: \"I'm confident [that we can draw] that if we have the right approach and if we don't go into our bunkers as well because I think when you're playing for the draw you must keep that intent because it makes you move better and allows you to make better decisions.\n\n\"I want the guys to enjoy the contest tomorrow - Australia will come hard and tonight was a good example of our players' temperament and technique being good.\"\n\nAustralia batter Usman Khawaja: \"I couldn't stop smiling. I was grateful with one hundred, but I'll take the second one too.\n\n\"It reminds me of an old-school SCG wicket. Hopefully it will be a dry day and we can get some reverse swing. Nathan Lyon will hopefully come into the game.\"\n\nBBC Cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew on TMS: \"England do have a chance to save this game and people will be expecting them to. It would mean so much to them if they can.\"\n\nFormer Australia captain Ian Chappell on TMS: \"I've been really impressed with Ollie Pope's wicketkeeping - he's been far and away above Jos Buttler. His footwork in particular has been impressive.\"", "A US teacher has been arrested after allegedly locking her Covid-positive son in a car boot to protect herself from exposure to the virus as she drove to a testing site, say local media.\n\nA witness called police after hearing someone in the vehicle's trunk on 3 January at the site in Harris County, Texas, according to click2Houston.com.\n\nThe teacher reportedly opened the boot to reveal the boy lying inside.\n\nMs Beam said her 13-year-old son had tested positive for Covid-19 and she was taking him to the Pridgeon Stadium location for another test to confirm the result, according to local media.\n\nShe reportedly said she had placed the teenager in the car boot because she did not want to be infected herself.\n\nA health worker told her there would be no coronavirus test until the boy was allowed to sit in the back seat of the car, reports ABC affiliate KTRK-TV.\n\nMs Beam has been working as a teacher at Cypress Falls High School since 2011, but is now on administrative leave, according to local media.\n\nCy-Fair ISD Police Department said: \"CFPD was alerted that a child was in the trunk of a car at a drive-thru Covid-19 testing site earlier this week.\n\n\"Law enforcement conducted a full investigation, resulting in a warrant for arrest. Thankfully, the child was not harmed.\"\n\nSgt Richard Standifer, of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told local TV station KHOU 11 that the boy could have been seriously hurt if the vehicle had ended up in a collision.\n\n\"I have never heard of somebody being put in a trunk because they tested positive for anything,\" said Sgt Standifer.", "Djokovic's lawyers said the Serbian had shown no Covid symptoms two weeks after testing postive\n\nTennis star Novak Djokovic had a vaccine exemption to enter Australia after a Covid infection on 16 December, his lawyers say in court documents.\n\nDjokovic was denied entry to Australia after landing in Melbourne this week to play in the Australian Open.\n\nThe world's top ranked tennis player is currently in an immigration detention centre ahead of a court case on Monday.\n\nHis case has caused a huge outcry in Australia and made headlines around the world.\n\nMeanwhile photos have emerged of Djokovic apparently attending events in the Serbian capital Belgrade at around the time he tested positive.\n\nA second Australian Open hopeful, Renata Voracova from the Czech Republic, has now left the country after having her visa cancelled.\n\nThe Czech government had argued the 38-year-old, ranked 81 in the world, had entered Australia on a valid exemption, because she too had had Covid recently.\n\nDjokovic, 34, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted a medical exemption to play in the tournament in a decision that infuriated many ordinary Australians who have been living under some of the world's strictest Covid rules.\n\nBut upon landing, the Serbian was then denied entry into the country.\n\nHis lawyers said he was kept at the immigration control point at Melbourne Airport for about eight hours after he arrived, and that he had little communication with them during that period.\n\nAustralian Border Force (ABF) officials said the player had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" because a prior infection was not a valid reason to enter without a vaccination.\n\nBut in court documents released on Saturday, Djokovic's lawyers argue the player had been granted a temporary visa by Tennis Australia because of his recent infection. It appears they will effectively tell the court that the decision to revoke the visa was affected by a variety of \"jurisdictional errors\".\n\nThere had been no prior announcement of Djokovic's Covid infection, which was confirmed by a PCR test on 16 December.\n\nBut on 17 December, Djokovic posted images to Twitter of his maskless appearance at a ceremony in which he was honoured with his own Serbian postage stamps in recognition for his achievements.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Novak Djokovic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAlso on 17 December, he posed maskless with young players at the Novak tennis centre.\n\nIt is unclear whether he knew he had Covid when the photos were taken.\n\nOne Serbian sports journalist told the BBC that the issue should not affect the player's appeal against deportation from Australia. But he could face a fine on return to Serbia if he knew he was positive when he attended the awards ceremony.\n\nWhile he awaits a final decision, Djokovic's lawyers have asked he be moved from the immigration detention hotel that has often been criticised by refugees for its poor conditions where he is currently being held, to \"a more suitable place of detention\" that would allow him to train ahead of the Australian Open.\n\nFellow tennis player Voracova was held at the same immigration detention hotel as Djokovic, the Park Hotel, and has described it as being \"like in prison\".\n\nHowever, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said Djokovic would remain at the Park Hotel until a final decision was made.\n\n\"We've managed to make sure gluten-free food is delivered to him, as well as exercising tools, a laptop and a SIM card so that he is able to be in contact with his family,\" she told reporters - adding that talks behind the scene had been constructive.\n\n\"It's a positive tone from the Australian side,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shaimaa Khalil reports from Melbourne's Park Hotel on the latest twist in the Djokovic visa row\n\nAustralia's pandemic border rules ban foreigners from entering the country if they are not either double vaccinated or have a medical exemption from having the jabs.\n\nWhile foreigners can fly in to Australia on a visa applied for online, they must still clear immigration customs on arrival at the airport.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne.", "Complaints about how the BBC reported on an alleged anti-Semitic incident on a bus will be dealt with \"as swiftly as possible\", the corporation has said.\n\nA police investigation was launched after Jewish passengers were subjected to abuse in London on 29 November.\n\nThe Board of Deputies of British Jews has since complained about how the BBC covered this story.\n\nCulture Secretary Nadine Dorries has written to the broadcaster asking how it will resolve this.\n\nFollowing the incident last year, police appealed for help in tracing a group of men over alleged anti-Semitic abuse directed towards Jewish people celebrating Hanukkah on a privately hired bus in Oxford Street.\n\nThe BBC said in its reporting of this story that a slur about Muslims could be heard from inside the bus - which the Board of Deputies of British Jews has disputed.\n\nPolice said at the time they were treating the incident, which had been filmed, as a hate crime and were investigating it in its entirety. No arrests have yet been made and enquiries are still ongoing.\n\nResponding to the criticism of its reporting, a BBC spokeswoman said: \"Anti-Semitism is abhorrent. We strive to serve the Jewish community, and all communities across our country, fairly. As we have stated previously, our story was a factual report that overwhelmingly focused on the individuals the police want to identify; those who directed abuse at the bus.\n\n\"We know that there are some strong views about this report. We take complaints very seriously and they are being taken through our complaints process.\n\n\"[Director general] Tim Davie has instructed that this process is accelerated to the Executive Complaints Unit, which is editorially independent from news, and will ensure the complaints are fully responded to as swiftly as possible.\"", "The mother of Ahmaud Arbery delivered an emotional court statement as her son's killers were sentenced.\n\nA father, son and neighbour were sentenced to life for shooting dead the 25-year-old black jogger.\n\nArbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said the verdict won't bring her son back.", "Data for England is shown by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. Data for Wales and Scotland is shown by Health Board and in Northern Ireland by Health and Social Care Trust.\n\nWhen you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board and by Health and Social Care trust in Northern Ireland.\n\nComparative data is shown for a previous year where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Earlier data is not available for all measures, so comparisons between years are not always possible.\n\nA&E attendances include all emergency departments in that trust or health board, not just major A&E departments, for example, those who attend minor injury units.\n\nEach nation has different target times for some of the measures shown, therefore comparisons between them may not be possible.", "Sidney Poitier was a trailblazing actor who broke through Hollywood's racial barriers\n\nSidney Poitier, the first black man to win a best actor Oscar, has died at 94.\n\nThe Hollywood star's death was confirmed to the BBC by the office of Fred Mitchell, the Bahamas' minister of foreign affairs.\n\nPoitier was a trailblazing actor and a respected humanitarian and diplomat. He won the Academy Award for best actor for Lilies of the Field in 1963.\n\nFormer US President Barack Obama said Poitier \"epitomised dignity and grace\" and had \"singular talent\".\n\nHe added that the actor revealed \"the power of movies to bring us closer together\" and \"opened doors for a generation of actors\".\n\nUS broadcaster and journalist Oprah Winfrey also paid tribute, saying: \"For me the greatest of the 'Great Trees' has fallen,\" adding the actor \"had an enormous soul I will forever cherish\".\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd the actor and Academy Award winner, Denzel Washington, said: \"It was a privilege to call Sidney Poitier my friend. He was a gentle man and opened doors for all of us that had been closed for years. God bless him and his family.\"\n\nBorn in Miami, Poitier grew up on a tomato farm in the Bahamas and moved to New York aged 16.\n\nHe signed up for a short stint in the army and did several odd jobs while taking acting lessons, en route to becoming a star of the stage and screen in the 1950s and 60s.\n\nPoitier broke racial barriers in Hollywood. His appearance in The Defiant Ones in 1958 earned him his first Oscar nomination - in itself a historic achievement for a black man in a lead category at the time.\n\nFive years later he went one better, taking the glory for Lilies of the Field, in which he played a handyman who helps German nuns to build a chapel in the desert.\n\nSpeaking on a live Facebook stream on Friday, The Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis said: \"Our whole Bahamas grieves. But even as we mourn, we celebrate the life of a great Bahamian.\"\n\nHe added: \"His strength of character, his willingness to stand up and be counted and the way he plotted and navigated his life's journey.\n\n\"The boy who moved from the tomato farm to become a waiter in the United States, a young man who not only taught himself to read and write, but who made the expression of words and thoughts and feelings central to his career.\"\n\nOne of his most powerful roles was Virgil Tibbs in the film In the Heat of the Night\n\nThe actor was a regular on the big screen at a time of racial segregation in the US, appearing in a Patch of Blue in 1965, and then Heat of the Night the year after, followed by Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, playing a black man with a white fiancée.\n\nIn Heat of the Night he portrayed Virgil Tibbs, a black police officer confronting racism during a murder investigation.\n\nHis other classic films included The Blackboard Jungle and A Raisin in the Sun, which he also performed on Broadway.\n\nHe went on to direct a raft of films, and a Broadway play about life and career was announced last month.\n\nEmpire magazine's Amon Warmann told the BBC: \"He was a pioneer, he's so influential and paved the way for so many in the industry to make their own mark, not least Denzel Washington, who paid tribute to him when he won an Oscar.\"\n\nWashington, who won an Oscar in 2002 on the same night Poitier won an honorary Oscar, joked as he said: \"Forty years I've been chasing Sidney and what do they do - they go and give it to him in the same night.\"\n\nWarmann added that Poitier \"tackled racism head on\" in his work but was also \"so versatile\".\n\n\"He really helped change the game for how black actors were viewed at that time [of his Oscar win]. He was one of the biggest stars during that period.\"\n\nViola Davis, the first black American to win an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony Award, said: \"No words can describe how your work radically shifted my life.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by violadavis This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Oscar winning director Spike Lee took to Instagram to celebrate Poitier's legacy, calling him \"A Proud, Dignified, Handsome And Strong Black Man That We See In Our Communities All The Time But Now Burst And Burnt Through The Silver Screens Of Hollywood\".\n\nStar Trek actor George Takei paid tribute, calling the actor \"a trailblazer who will be mourned by so many for whom he opened the very doors of Hollywood\".\n\nJames Bond and Westworld actor Jeffrey Wright added that Poitier was a \"landmark actor\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jeffrey Wright This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd the director, Sir Steve McQueen, called Poitier \"an icon to the Black diaspora\".\n\nActress Whoopi Goldberg quoted the lyrics to the song To Sir With Love, which soundtracked Poitier's 1967 film. \"He showed us how to reach for the stars,\" she noted, while actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt called him an \"an absolute legend\".\n\nIn an interview in 2000, Winfrey put it to Poitier that, as producer Quincy Jones had noted, he had \"created and defined the African-American in film\".\n\n\"It's been an enormous responsibility,\" Poitier replied. \"And I accepted it, and I lived in a way that showed how I respected that responsibility.\n\n\"I had to. In order for others to come behind me, there were certain things I had to do.\"\n\nAuthor and historian Donald Bogle spoke in a Turner Classic Movies YouTube film about the heights the actor reached during his career.\n\n\"Poitier in the 60s is this big star and he's the only dramatic black actor who works continually in these leading roles and he has big films,\" he said.\n\nScreenwriter Richard Wesley added: \"At that time, there was a social need for a character like Sidney Poitier. The social changes that were being wrought by the civil rights movement were demanding a different kind of conversation, interaction and introspection on the part of black and white people in America at that time.\n\n\"Sidney Poitier's characterisations on screen were part of that conversation - and they were a necessary part of that conversation.\"\n\nUS filmmaker Ava DuVernay also paid her respects online.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Ava DuVernay This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMeanwhile, the former Disney CEO, Bob Iger, paid tribute to Poitier as \"the most dignified man I've ever met\". Poitier served on Disney's board of directors from 1995 to 2003.\n\nPoitier became the first black actor to receive a life achievement award from the American Film Institute in 1992.\n\nFive years later, he was appointed the Bahamas' ambassador to Japan and he received a knighthood from the Queen in 1974.\n\nAs a Bahamian citizen he was eligible for a substantive knighthood, but given he was a US resident and Bahamian by descent the Bahamian authorities preferred it to be an honorary award.\n\nHe was married twice and had six children.\n• None The trailblazer who broke down Hollywood's racial barriers", "The former teacher is said to have handed over thousands of pounds to suspected terrorists\n\nA woman who supported terrorism has been banned from teaching for life.\n\nMiriam Sebbagh, who worked at Hunwick Primary School in Crook, County Durham, was found to have given money to people she knew were involved in terrorism.\n\nA teacher misconduct panel also heard she tried to radicalise a friend.\n\nMs Sebbagh was arrested in 2017 and investigated by police but the Crown Prosecution Service concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges, the panel heard.\n\nCounter Terrorism Policing North East (CTPNE) \"maintained a high level of concern regarding Ms Sebbagh's state of mind, the opinions which she espoused and her actions within the teaching arena\", its report said.\n\nThe panel heard CTPNE had received information that Ms Sebbagh had given £2,500 to an individual linked to a proscribed terrorist organisation.\n\nShe had made \"numerous\" other payments to individuals, charities, overseas accounts and crowd-funded donation sites.\n\nThe panel heard CTPNE was concerned Ms Sebbagh was funding travel from the UK for people wanting to join ISIS or other extremist groups.\n\nIt told the Teaching Regulation Authority that some of the payments were made to people who had been investigated or arrested for suspected terrorism related offences.\n\nThe misconduct panel report said Ms Sebbagh believed violent jihad was the correct interpretation of Islamic teaching but lied about her beliefs and actions.\n\nShe claimed not to know ISIS was a terrorist organisation and not to know a video she sent to one person promoted jihad, it said.\n\nShe also claimed not to have known another individual was involved in encouraging hate against the West when she sent him money when in fact she shared his views.\n\nMs Sebbagh provided the panel with no formal response or evidence to be considered and did not attend the hearing.\n\nThe panel heard a court order had been made requiring her to forfeit £4,670 seized from her safe in June 2018 which she intended to donate to people she knew were involved in terrorism.\n\nShe was also ordered to pay costs of £12,654.\n\nThe teacher was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute and was prohibited from teaching indefinitely.\n\nHunwick Primary School headteacher Stuart Joyce said none of the allegations concerned her employment there.\n\nShe had been suspended as soon as the school was informed of the allegations and then formally dismissed in October 2018, he said.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The headlines were terrifying. Hospitals facing intolerable pressures with patients left dying in corridors, the BBC reported.\n\nIt got so bad that 68 leading A&E doctors wrote to the prime minister to spell out their concerns.\n\nThis is not now though. It was the winter of 2017-18 - the last bad flu season when more than 300 people a day were dying from that virus at one point.\n\nAnd that was not even a one-off. In January 2016 hospitals were cancelling routine operations, telling patients to stay away from A&E if they could, and emergency treatment areas were being set up outside some units - just as they are now.\n\nThe truth is the past decade has been a story of lengthening waits and declining performance.\n\nA&E waits are the best barometer of this. The proportion of patients waiting less than four hours - a key metric in measuring NHS effectiveness - has been gradually eroded.\n\nIt is a similar story elsewhere in the UK - with performance even worse in Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThis should not come as a surprise, as NHS spending has been squeezed.\n\nBetween 2010 and 2019 the annual rises for health were well below those traditionally given since the birth of the NHS, making it difficult to keep up with the needs of the ageing population.\n\nDuring that period, the Tories have been in power - albeit with the Lib Dems for the first five years.\n\nBut it is worth noting, in its 2010 and 2015 election manifestos, Labour was not proposing any tangibly higher increases in spending either.\n\nThe financial crash of 2008 meant all the main political parties were signed up to the idea that spending had to be curtailed.\n\nThis parliament has seen a change - annual rises are now planned to be close to 4% and will end up higher once the pandemic spending is taken into account.\n\nBut the result of the squeeze in the 2010s is fewer doctors and nurses per head of population than our Western European neighbours.\n\nThe turn of the year is always the hardest time. And with the latest data for A&E only covering November, we need to look elsewhere to judge how alarming the current pressures driven by the Omicron variant are.\n\nSince Christmas there have been reports of hospitals declaring critical incidents. At one point on Wednesday evening, one in seven hospital trusts in England were in this situation.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How is the NHS in your area coping this winter? This trust does not currently supply A&E waiting time figures. When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data. Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted. This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available. If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed. In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data. Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board. Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.\n\nIt is, however, very hard to judge exactly what these declarations tell us. They are not normally made public and instead are there to alert local health systems that a service needs help. We have nothing to compare them to.\n\nIf we look at the delays ambulances face when dropping off patients at A&E - this data is available in England up to last weekend - we can see the current difficulties are worse than the last winter before the pandemic hit.\n\nBut it is also fair to say this does not represent the collapse of the NHS, despite all the headlines.\n\nThe truth is the health service will not suddenly become overwhelmed. Instead, what is happening is that care is deteriorating bit by bit.\n\nThe heart attack patients are waiting longer for an ambulance, more elderly patients are spending nights on a trolley in A&E and growing numbers of people are waiting for hip and knee replacements.\n\nThe challenges are, of course, different from winters past. It is a pandemic after all.\n\nA mass vaccination campaign is underway, while the level of staff absence from Covid is bringing another added complexity - it is nearly twice what you would expect - and explains why the army has had to be brought in.\n\nHospitals have also had to completely reconfigure their wards to create Covid and non-Covid areas.\n\nAnd the sheer numbers coming in are a problem. Traditionally winter would see around 1,000 admissions a day for all types of respiratory infections.\n\nCurrently the NHS is seeing more than double that for Covid alone - although a chunk admittedly are people who are ill with something else, such as broken arms, strokes and cancer for example, and may well have come in anyway.\n\nBut even if you discount these patients, you are still well above the 1,000 threshold.\n\nHowever, the NHS has been helped by lower pressures elsewhere. Flu is at rock-bottom levels. There are fewer than 50 patients in hospital with the virus in England.\n\nSo what can we conclude? The challenges are certainly worse and that is translating into poorer quality services.\n\nBut this is not the first year care has been compromised. What matters now is when Covid infections peak - that will determine just how bad this winter will be.\n\nHas your NHS treatment been delayed? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The authorities appear to be back in control but the city is reeling from the violence\n\nKazakhstan's biggest city Almaty looks like something from an apocalypse film.\n\nDriving around early on Friday morning, the smell of burnt vehicles was still in the air. Few people were about, many too afraid to come out into the streets.\n\nThe army and police are blocking key sites in the city, which has been the focal point of nationwide protests against the government.\n\nWhen we approached soldiers at the main square they shouted at us and fired warning shots in the air, warning us not to come close.\n\nI've been coming to Almaty for years. It's normally a bustling city, with lots of greenery and places to eat out and drink.\n\nNow though shops and banks have been looted or destroyed. It will take some time for them to recover.\n\nMuch of the damage is around the big main square that protesters first went to when the demonstrations began.\n\nMedia buildings nearby were attacked and the mayor's office burnt down. It is pitch black now, having been engulfed by black smoke.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Abdujalil Abdurasulov hears gunfire as he visits the scene of clashes in Almaty\n\nWe saw no signs of protests on Friday, just a small group of people gathering near the destroyed buildings to take photos on their phones. But we could still hear shooting and explosions, which may have been be stun grenades. When I first arrived I thought there was fog then realised it was more likely to be smoke from the grenades and fireworks.\n\nSeveral residents I spoke to were shocked and angry. These protests are unprecedented in Kazakhstan, and many here are surprised that they spread and turned violent so quickly.\n\nSome of those I spoke to are glad to see forces arrive from Russia and other neighbouring countries, hopeful they will restore order.\n\nOne woman told me the government should have been firmer from the start.\n\n\"If they had used force in the very beginning, this unrest wouldn't have happened,\" she said. \"Maybe they were worried about condemnation, that they used weapons but you see now what this approach led to.\"\n\nBut amid the anger at the violence, there was sympathy for the protesters too. Many of the demonstrators come from rural areas, where pay is low and life is tough.\n\n\"I understand the demands of the protesters,\" said one man, a 22-year-old cook. \"We can see that our salaries are not growing and most of the population is struggling. But this is now looting and hooliganism, ordinary people are suffering now. It must be stopped.\"\n\nAlmaty residents now face food shortages, with the big supermarkets closed. Shops that are open only take cash, but it is difficult to find somewhere to withdraw money. There's no internet and even getting a taxi seems too risky.\n\nOne of the looted shops in Almaty\n\nWith the internet hit and phones not working properly, it is hard to find out what's happening outside the city. There are all sorts of rumours being shared that are impossible to check out.\n\nKazakhstan has never seen protests of this scale. There's been unrest before, but largely localised. None of them resulted in the main airport being attacked.\n\nPlans to raise fuel prices triggered these demonstrations, but there is also widespread discontent about the government.\n\nAfter the resignation of Kazakhstan's first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who held office from independence up to 2019, people hoped the new leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev would bring change.\n\nThese expectations were thwarted. In particular, the renaming of the capital Astana to Nur-Sultan, in honour of the former leader, was proof for many the old is elite is still in charge.\n\nFor now, things are calming down and the authorities appear to be in control.\n\nBut even if these protests have ended for now, the discontent will remain. Perhaps there will be another spark that fuels new ones.\n\nWhere is it? Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia to the north and China to the east. It is a huge country the size of Western Europe.\n\nWhy does it matter? A former Soviet republic which is mainly Muslim with a large Russian minority, it has vast mineral resources, with 3% of global oil reserves and important coal and gas sectors.\n\nWhy is it making the news? Fuel riots, which have escalated to become broader protests against the government, have resulted in resignations at the top and a bloody crackdown on protesters.", "150,000 people in the UK have now died with Covid-19.\n\nIt is a bleak, sobering figure after nearly two years of daily coronavirus statistics.\n\nBut the problem with statistics, is that a person can forget that behind every number is a person.\n\nHere, Health and Science Correspondent Laura Foster tries to help us understand the impact Covid-19 has had on the UK.", "Cladding being removed from building in Manchester in 2017\n\nHousing Secretary Michael Gove is vowing to \"expose and pursue\" firms responsible for safety problems caused by cladding, the BBC has learned.\n\nOn Monday, he will pledge to ease the \"unfair burden\" placed on leaseholders by issues exposed by the Grenfell fire.\n\nHe will set out measures aimed at forcing developers to pay for cladding removal from lower-height buildings, telling them \"we are coming for you\".\n\nChanges to make it easier for owners to sell their homes will also be unveiled.\n\nBBC Newsnight revealed on Friday that those who live in buildings between 11 and 18.5 metres high will not have to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding under the plans devised by Mr Gove.\n\nIn place of loans taken out by leaseholders, the government will attempt to secure up to £4bn from developers towards the costs.\n\nIn a statement to MPs on Monday, Mr Gove will say taxpayers should not be forced to cough up more money to pay for building defects like the removal of cladding.\n\nHe will set up a roundtable with developers to allow them to \"do the right thing\" before Easter but if that does not lead to a solution, Mr Gove will promise to \"impose a solution upon them in law\".\n\nLabour said the reported proposals were \"less significant than they sound\" and called for leaseholders to be \"fully protected in law from the costs of fixing all historic defects\".\n\nIn the wake of the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in hundreds of blocks of flats across the UK.\n\nRemoving cladding can cost millions of pounds per block, with the cost in lower-height buildings often being borne by individual flat owners, under the leasehold system in England and Wales.\n\nThe government had already promised to pay to remove cladding in taller buildings.\n\nBut hundreds of thousands of people are still living in dangerous blocks more than four years on from Grenfell - while many flat owners have been left with spiralling insurance costs, service charges, and requirements for expensive 24-hour \"waking watch\" patrols in case of fire.\n\nOthers have been left unable to insure or remortgage their homes.\n\nFirms will be threatened with legislation if they do not pick up the bill for safety issues uncovered since Grenfell and a dedicated team will be set up to pursue companies over defects.\n\n\"Those who profited and continue to profit from the sale of unsafe buildings and construction products must take full responsibility for their actions and pay to put things right,\" Mr Gove is expected to say.\n\nStatutory legal protections for leaseholders will be introduced and Mr Gove will pledge \"nothing will be off the table\".\n\nHe will declare medium sized buildings are safe unless there is evidence to the contrary and pledge to restore a more \"common sense\" approach to assessing building safety.\n\nThe consolidated advice notice - which many have complained makes it difficult to sell homes unless they can prove a perfect bill of health - is being withdrawn immediately.\n\nMr Gove will say the notices which the current government introduced, have been wrongly interpreted and and go beyond \"what is necessary\".\n\nNew guidance for assessors will be published in the coming days.\n\nSeveral Tory MPs had been lobbying the government to address the issues. It is understood key figures are happy with what Mr Gove has promised them.\n\nLabour welcomed the measures but said the proposals did not go far enough.\n\nShadow housing minister Matthew Pennycook called on the government to amend the Building Safety Bill, adding leaseholders should be \"fully protected in law from the costs of fixing all historic defects\".\n\nLiberal Democrats deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: \"Leaseholders still need and deserve a public inquiry into the government's handling of this crisis and why it has got it so wrong for so long.\"", "Alan and Marilyn Bergman wrote songs for Hollywood legends for more than half a century\n\nMarilyn Bergman, the Oscar winning lyricist who collaborated with her husband Alan on The Way We Were and hundreds more songs, has died aged 93.\n\nThe song-writing duo worked together on numerous shows for stage and screen and were known as ballad specialists.\n\nThey wrote hits for Hollywood stars including Barbra Streisand, Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra.\n\nShe died on Saturday at her Los Angeles home with Alan and her daughter by her side, her agent said.\n\nBergman's cause of death has been reported as respiratory failure, and is not Covid related. She is survived by her husband, 96.\n\nThe Bergmans were nominated for 16 Academy Award nominations, winning three times - for The Way We Were from the 1973 Barbra Streisand film of that name, Windmills of Your Mind from The Thomas Crown Affair in 1968 and for their score for Streisand's Yentl in 1983.\n\nThey also won several Grammy and Emmy awards, and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980.\n\nBergman was a trailblazer for women in the industry and in 1985 was the first woman to be elected president and chairman of the board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).\n\nAmong those paying tribute was US producer Quincy Jones, who called her death \"crushing\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Quincy Jones This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBorn in Brooklyn, New York City on 10 November 1928 in the same hospital as her husband, Bergman studied music from a young age.\n\nWhile at New York's High School of Music & Art, she often played piano for lyricist Bob Russell, who encouraged her to consider becoming a professional songwriter.\n\nBut her entry into writing lyrics was also a painful one - while in college, Bergman fell down a flight of stairs and broke both of her shoulders. Unable to write or play piano, she started speaking song lyrics into a tape recorder.\n\nEven though she and Alan grew up living close to each other, they did not meet until they both moved to Los Angeles. For Bergman, that was in the mid-1950s, and she started writing lyrics for composer Lew Spence, with whom Alan was also working with.\n\nMarilyn and Alan wed two years later in 1958. They had one daughter together, Julie Bergman Sender, who is a film producer.", "Alice Byrne was last seen on New Year's Day\n\nThe family of a woman who has been missing since New Year's Day have said they are \"shocked and distressed\" by her disappearance.\n\nAlice Byrne, 28, was last seen leaving a friend's flat in Marlborough Street, Portobello, Edinburgh, between 08:00 and 10:00 last Saturday.\n\nDetectives believe she potentially headed in the direction of the promenade and beach.\n\nBut extensive searches have failed to find any trace of Ms Byrne.\n\nIn a statement, released though Police Scotland, her family said: \"Alice has been missing for one week now and we are shocked and distressed by her disappearance.\n\n\"She always keeps in contact with us so we are extremely worried because we have not heard from her. We are desperate to know where she is.\n\n\"If Alice sees this, we want her to know how much we miss her. We just want her home safe and well.\"\n\nPolice say Alice was wearing similar clothes to those seen in this picture when she was last seen\n\nThe family urged anyone who has seen Ms Byrne or who has any information to come forward.\n\nThe statement concluded: \"We are very grateful for the support we have received during this upsetting time.\n\n\"We would like to thank everyone who has shared appeals to find her, the police for their professionalism and especially the local community for all the support they've given.\"\n\nChief Insp Kieran Dougal said no one has heard from Alice since she went missing.\n\nHe added: \"As time passes we have become increasingly concerned for her wellbeing and safety.\"\n\nSearches of the Portobello area have involved specialist resources including air support, police dogs and the marine unit.\n\nOfficers carried out a fresh search along Portobello beach on Saturday\n\nChief Insp Dougal added: \"We are aware that the beach and promenade area was busy on New Year's morning so appeal to anyone to review photos and call if they have any information that may assist in tracing Alice.\n\n\"Naturally Alice's friends and family are extremely concerned and we just want to trace her as soon as possible to ensure she is safe.\n\n\"Again, I would urge anyone who has seen Alice since Saturday, 1 January, or who has any information that may be relevant to our investigation to contact us as soon as possible. If Alice reads this appeal, please phone your family, friends or the police.\"\n\nPolice have also urged anyone who was in the area at the time to check any dash cam devices.\n\nAlice is described as white, about 5ft 6in, of medium build with short black hair.\n\nShe was last seen wearing a black top, black ripped jeans ripped and white trainers.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The glass has been broken for some time, but is the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) now getting ready to push the emergency stop button at Stormont?\n\nFour months after he first issued the threat, is Sir Jeffrey Donaldson going pull his ministers out of the Northern Ireland Executive?\n\nIn a last throw of the dice, the DUP leader demanded a deadline be set by the UK's Brexit negotiator Liz Truss for an end to the protocol negotiations with Brussels.\n\nBut he hasn't set a deadline for his deadline demand to be met, instead he has indicated the end of the month will be critical.\n\nHe may get his answer next week when he meets Ms Truss and we may know then if his threat is real.\n\nBut collapsing the government at a time when Covid-19 Omicron cases are expected to peak is a massive gamble.\n\nIn a speech last September Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the DUP could quit Stormont \"within weeks\"\n\nThat is why he insists whatever happens there will be \"continuity\" in responding to the pandemic.\n\nThat could mean removing Paul Givan as first minister and leaving the other DUP ministers in place which would allow Stormont departments to continue to operate.\n\nBut some may ask what would that achieve apart from also removing the Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill from office.\n\nRemoving the entire DUP ministerial team would also be more problematic.\n\nBut the threat remains and was repeated this week by the party leader in response to speculation Irish language legislation may be moved through Westminster within weeks.\n\nSuch a move he said would place Stormont at \"risk\".\n\nYet another in a series of threats which, if not acted upon, could weaken the DUP leader in the countdown to an election.\n\nThe roles of first and deputy first minister can not operate in isolation, if one goes so must the other\n\nBut the party did move this week to take its own \"decisive action\".\n\nAgriculture Minister Edwin Poots has vowed to halt Irish Sea border checks if he is blocked from bringing a paper to the executive at the end of the month.\n\nHe insists the executive has the legal authority to stop or continue the checks based on a court challenge being brought by loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson.\n\nThis was also part of the strategy laid out by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson in his speech last September.\n\nIf Sinn Féin stands by its threat to block the paper appearing on the executive agenda, Mr Poots has vowed to act.\n\nThat may put him on a collision course with UK Agriculture Secretary George Eustice who has in the past challenged the actions of a DUP minister.\n\nLast April he instructed department officials here to fulfil their legal obligations and progress the border control posts \"without delay\" after the stand-in DUP Agriculture Minister Gordon Lyons ordered work to stop in February.\n\nWe could be set for another showdown with London, but politically a DUP minister halting Irish Sea border checks would be a key card to play in the election campaign.\n\nEqually a DUP minister in charge of a department enforcing Irish Sea border checks would be a key card to play for the party's opponents.\n\nPushing the emergency stop button on an executive winding down within weeks ahead of the election may be easily dismissed as a tactical move.\n\nThe real challenge to the future of the power-sharing executive will come when the votes are counted.\n\nDUP First Minister Paul Givan has already made clear his party will set a series of post-election tests which will have to be met before they return to the executive.\n\nFirst on the list is likely to be dismantling the Northern Ireland Protocol and scrapping the Irish Sea border.\n\nThere may also be little appetite within the DUP to return to Stormont if Sinn Féin is in line to hold the post of first minister.\n\nA Stormont stand-off at that point is likely.\n\nThe next election for the Northern Ireland Assembly is due to take place on 5 May\n\nBut there is safety net currently being stitched together at Westminster.\n\nLegislation to protect the institutions from immediate collapse in a crisis.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Ministers Elections and Petitions of Concern Bill is currently passing through the Lords and will be debated on 19 January.\n\nIt is likely to be in place before the election and would allow the current NI Executive to continue in office post the May poll if a new first and deputy first ministers are not installed.\n\nBut that arrangement could only survive for between six and nine months before the secretary of state for Northern Ireland would be legally bound to call an election in the absence of political agreement.\n\nThat could see the Stormont institutions placed once again in cold storage.\n\nAll of this is not inevitable as we can expect many more political twists and turns pre and post-election.\n\nBut it does feel a course has been set and it is too late when the glass is broken.", "Flat owners will not have to pay to remove dangerous cladding from lower-height buildings under new government plans, BBC Newsnight understands.\n\nIt means leaseholders in buildings of between 11 and 18.5m will no longer be expected to take out personal loans to cover the cost of the work.\n\nInstead, the government will try to secure up to £4bn from developers towards the costs.\n\nIt had already promised to pay to remove cladding in taller buildings.\n\nIf ministers are unable to secure the funding from developers it may come out of the housing department's budget.\n\nIn the wake of the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in hundreds of blocks of flats across the UK.\n\nRemoving cladding can cost millions of pounds per block, with the cost often being borne by individual flat owners, under the leasehold system in England and Wales.\n\nHundreds of thousands of people are still living in dangerous blocks more than four years on from Grenfell - while many flat owners have been left with spiralling insurance costs, service charges, and requirements for expensive 24-hour \"waking watch\" patrols in case of fire.\n\nIn a new package of measures to be announced next week, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, will tell the Commons that if developers choose not to pay for cladding removals voluntarily the government will threaten them with legal compulsion.\n\nThe BBC understands Mr Gove will warn them next week that he is putting them \"on notice\".\n\nPreviously, the government had committed up to £5bn for the removal of dangerous cladding for buildings taller than 18.5m.\n\nCladding campaigners have long asked that the government accept both the principle that buildings under 18.5m ought to be covered and that leaseholders should not have to pay.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I didn't choose any cladding and now I'm going to be skint forever\"\n\nNewsnight has seen documents from Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke to Mr Gove where he says:\n\nExperts question whether £4bn will be sufficient to cover cladding in buildings under 18.5m.\n\nAnd cladding is not the only or even main problem in thousands of buildings across the country.\n\nNeighbours Darren Matthews and Mandy Sandhu are two of those who could be helped by the changes, as their building is 13.5m tall.\n\nMr Matthews told BBC Breakfast they faced bills of £101,500 per apartment and described the move as a \"step forward\", saying he was \"cautiously optimistic\" but that there was \"no absolute clarity about how developers are going to pay\".\n\n\"With the best will in the world this issue isn't going to be on a voluntary basis, it has to be enshrined in law with a legal obligation with proper stipulations to the building industry,\" he said. \"Leaseholders are the only innocent parties in this.\"\n\nMs Sandhu said she did not eat or sleep because of the stress and said despite the news they still needed clarification of what would be done.\n\n\"I won't believe it until I see it\", she added.\n\nIt is unclear how those leaseholders will pay their bills, and how quickly any money that does come from developers will appear.\n\nDevelopers have largely insisted that their developments were built to regulations and that they are therefore not liable.\n\nWithout immediate compulsion this process threatens to continue to be drawn out with leaseholders stuck in properties they cannot sell.\n\nStewart Baseley, chairman of the Home Builders Federation - which represents developers, said the largest house builders had already spent or committed to spending £1bn to remediate affected buildings and said the most urgent action was for the government to define guidance on what work actually needed to be done to resolve issues for residents.\n\nHe said while house builders were \"committed to playing their part\" there were other organisations involved in the construction of affected buildings which should also be involved in remediation costs, \"not least material manufacturers who designed, tested and sold materials that developers purchased in good faith that were later proved to not be fit for purpose\".\n\nHundreds of thousands of leaseholders have already received bills for fire remediation works or will in the coming months.\n\nIt is also not clear whether these measures will be enough to restore market and lender confidence in new-build properties.\n\nCampaigner Steve Day told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he and his neighbours were facing a £31,000 per flat bill for cladding costs, as well as about £5,000 per flat in non-cladding costs and an extra £3,000 a year service charge, which he said was huge for south-east London.\n\n\"People are facing arrears, and high levels of stress,\" he said.\n\nHe said he was concerned voluntary contributions will \"just not be deliverable\", and called for a scheme where the government made developers pay if they breached regulations.\n\nFollowing the Grenfell fire flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in flat blocks across the UK\n\nConservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley, chairman of the all party parliamentary group on leasehold and commonhold reform, said the government needed to tell the insurance companies to \"come to the table\" with £8bn - \"then innocent leaseholders will live in homes which are safe and saleable\".\n\nMatthew Pennycook, Labour's shadow housing minister, tweeted the new measures \"appear far less significant than they sound\", with \"nothing on non-cladding defects, no new developer levy and the position on leaseholder liability unchanged\".\n\nMany leaseholders have found their properties effectively worthless and unmortgageable.\n\nIn November, Mr Gove questioned why flat owners should have to pay anything for dangerous cladding to be removed from their buildings.\n\nHe said the government had a responsibility to help leaseholders - who were \"innocent parties\" - with the huge costs.\n\nThe Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities declined to comment.", "Jack Dromey \"was a man of the people\", Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said in his tribute\n\nBirmingham has \"lost a dedicated servant\" with the death of Jack Dromey and \"will not be the same without him\", politicians have said as tributes pour in for the veteran Labour politician.\n\nThe MP for Erdington died suddenly in his flat on Friday, the shadow minister's family said.\n\nPoliticians from across the political spectrum in the West Midlands have paid tribute to the 73-year-old.\n\n\"Jack was a man of the people,\" Perry Barr's Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said.\n\nHe added Mr Dromey was selected to stand for the Erdington seat in 2010 \"purely because of his record for helping working people\", winning him the respect of people across the country, from both sides of the political divide.\n\nFellow Birmingham MPs echoed the view of Yardley's Labour MP Jess Phillips, who tweeted his death had been a shock, adding the city would \"not be the same without him\".\n\nHis death came just hours after Mr Dromey had spoken in a Commons debate on Afghan refugees and soon after he had attended a speech on Tuesday by Sir Keir Starmer.\n\n\"He was a bundle of energy, he was always on to the next thing, he always had an idea,\" Selly Oak's Steve McCabe told BBC Radio WM, adding that Dromey had always \"loved\" his constituency.\n\nMr Dromey's passion and dedication to Birmingham was a theme of many tributes paid to him\n\n\"A true Labour man,\" the leader of Birmingham City Council, Labour's Ian Ward tweeted, \"who served the people of Erdington with passion and dedication\".\n\nThe shadow minister is survived by his wife, fellow Labour MP Harriet Harman, and his three children.\n\nHe made his name in politics in the union movement before winning the Erdington seat nearly 12 years ago and going on to serve in several senior Labour Party roles.\n\nJack Dromey represented everything good about a serving MP. He campaigned steadfastly for his constituents, whether they voted for him or not.\n\nHe happily worked alongside colleagues from other parties when they shared a common goal, whether to promote Erdington, Birmingham or the West Midlands.\n\nContrary to the general view that politicians are in it for themselves, he was not untypical. When I covered stories in which he was involved he was always honest, straightforward and helpful.\n\nHe was also a pro. When in need of a clip for an imminent news item, you could say, \"Jack, could you sum that all up in 20 seconds?\" - and after a brief pause he would, in exactly 20 seconds.\n\nAndy Street, the Conservative West Midlands Mayor, described him as a \"dedicated servant\" of Birmingham and tweeted a statement describing Mr Dromey as \"a true democrat\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Andy Street This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOther Tory politicians in the West Midlands shared their tributes with Health Secretary and Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid calling him \"an incredibly compassionate, caring colleague\".\n\nMr Dromey's passion for Birmingham and the West Midlands was remembered by The Wrekin's Conservative MP Mark Pritchard, who added he was \"very popular across the House\".\n\nTributes have also been paid by other figures in the region including the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, Sir Dave Thompson, who called him \"a good friend to policing\".\n\nQueensbury School in Erdington, which caters for pupils with special educational needs, tweeted: \"Thank you for being such a voice for all Special School Students in the city over the years and especially Queensbury School. Giving a voice to those without.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Health Secretary Sajid Javid says he is concerned by rising Covid hospital admissions, particularly in older age groups.\n\nOne in 15 people in the UK had Covid in the last week of 2021, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates, with numbers rising in the over-70s.\n\nThe data suggests London's Omicron wave may be slowing but infections are rising quickly in the north of England.\n\nStaff absences in the NHS are growing and causing mounting pressure.\n\nOn a visit to King's College Hospital London, the health secretary said the UK was in a better position than it was at the same time last year, pointing to vaccinations, antiviral treatments and testing.\n\nBut he added: \"Despite all of that we are still seeing rising hospitalisations, particularly with the case rate rising with older age groups - that is of concern.\n\n\"And I think we have to be honest when we look at the NHS and say it will be a rocky few weeks ahead.\"\n\nHe once again called on people to get vaccinated, adding that staff at the hospital estimated about 70% of Covid patients in the ICU critical care unit were unvaccinated.\n\nGetting boosted, he said, meant your chance of ending up in hospital was \"almost 90% less than it was with Delta\".\n\nA further 178,250 new confirmed coronavirus infections have been recorded in the UK on Friday, according to the government's daily figures - a similar figure to a week ago.\n\nMore than 2,000 people a day are being admitted to hospital with Covid, although about a third are being treated for something else. The total number of patients in UK hospitals has now gone over 18,000.\n\nOn Friday, there were 229 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result, the data shows.\n\nBut these figures mask the numbers infected with Covid but not showing symptoms or those not testing or reporting positive tests. The ONS estimates that a total of 3.7 million people in the UK had Covid in the week ending 31 December by the ONS.\n\nAccording to their survey, which tests thousands of people in households with and without symptoms, in that same week:\n\nIn London, where one in 10 had Covid, \"there were early signs in the last few days of 2021 that infections may no longer be increasing\", the ONS said, but it added it was too early to work out if this trend would continue.\n\nIn northern England, it found infections were rising at a faster rate than in other regions, at least doubling in the North East, North West and Yorkshire and The Humber to between one in 15 and one in 20 affected.\n\nAll age groups are seeing increases in infections, but they could be flattening in children aged 11 to 16.\n\nThe ONS says this can only be confirmed after seeing the effects of children returning to school after the Christmas holidays.\n\nIt estimates that about 2% of the over-70s and 4% of 50 to 69-year-olds tested positive in the last week of December, rising from a low level. The virus spilling into these age groups, who are the most vulnerable to Covid illness, is expected but the impact is yet to be seen.\n\nThe ZOE Covid symptom app also found cases were rising in the over-75s. It estimates that half of people with cold-like symptoms are likely to have Covid.\n\nSir David Spiegelhalter, from the University of Cambridge, told the BBC that in London, the numbers entering hospital seem to be stable and may even be declining, but admissions are rising in other parts of the country.\n\n\"There's still no sign of a serious increase in intensive care ventilation and deaths, and we would have expected to see that by now,\" he said.\n\nHe said the priority was now managing the disruption to the NHS caused by Covid-19.\n\nStaff absences due to Covid at hospital trusts in England have trebled since the beginning of December.\n\nAbout 4% of staff, or nearly 35,600 workers, at hospital trusts in England were absent due to Covid every day last week - a 41% rise on the week before. In total, 9% of staff were off sick for any reason, or isolating.\n\nProf Stephen Powis, NHS England national medical director, said rising Covid-19 cases were \"piling even more pressure\" on hospital trust workers.\n\n\"Omicron means more patients to treat and fewer staff to treat them.\"\n\nCorrection 9 February 2022: This article was amended to make clear that the 70% of Covid patients who were unvaccinated referred to those in the ICU critical care unit, not the hospital as a whole.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Around 1,000 cars stranded after travelling to see heavy snow in Murree\n\nAt least 21 people have died after heavy snow trapped them in their vehicles in northern Pakistan.\n\nAs many as 1,000 vehicles became stranded as would-be tourists reportedly rushed to view the winter snowfall in the hilltop town of Murree.\n\nA policeman, his wife and their six children, as well as another family-of-five, are among the dead, according to local emergency services Rescue 1122.\n\nThe military says it has rescued more than 300 people stranded by the snow.\n\nAn army spokesperson added that military engineers and troops had also started to clear roads leading to Murree.\n\nInterior Minister Sheikh Rashid said the crisis had been caused by the number of people travelling to the area, north of the capital Islamabad. More than 100,000 cars had arrived in the colonial-era town in recent days, with social media in Pakistan flooded with pictures of people enjoying the snow.\n\nBut by Friday, local media reported that tourists were getting stranded. On Saturday, the heavy snow and increase in vehicles prompted authorities to declare the region a disaster zone.\n\nPictures and video on social media show cars trapped bumper to bumper, snow piled onto their roofs.\n\nAmong those who perished were 10 children, according to emergency services. Police said at least six had frozen to death in their cars. Asphyxiation after inhaling fumes has been given as a possible reason for the others.\n\n\"People are facing a terrible situation,\" Usman Abbasi, a tourist stuck in the town where heavy snow was still falling, told AFP news agency by phone.\n\n\"It's not only the tourists, but the local population is also facing severe problems,\" he added, saying there were gas and water shortages.\n\nLocals have provided blankets and food to the trapped, while those who could make it up to the town - which sits at 2,300 metres (7,500 feet) above sea level - have been given shelter in government and school buildings.\n\nPrime Minister Imran Khan expressed shock over the \"tragic deaths\" of the tourists, noting how the snowfall and the \"rush of [people] proceeding without checking weather conditions caught district admin unprepared\".\n\n\"Have ordered inquiry and putting in place strong regulations to ensure prevention of such tragedies,\" Mr Khan said in a tweet.\n\nMurree was built by the British in the 19th century as a medical base for its colonial troops.", "Mourners lined part of the route of the funeral cortege\n\nThe funeral has taken place of a nine-year-old girl who died after years of treatment for a brain tumour.\n\nThe service for Freya Bevan, who died last month, took place at Margam Crematorium, Neath Port Talbot, with people paying tribute along the route.\n\nFreya, from Neath, had been undergoing treatment in the US after it returned, prompting a £200,000 fundraising drive last year.\n\nHer family said heaven had gained the \"sweetest and most beautiful warrior\".\n\nFreya was first diagnosed with a brain tumour in May 2014\n\nIn a Facebook statement, they asked people to wear pink in her memory.\n\nFreya was first diagnosed with a brain tumour in May 2014, at 22 months old.\n\nShe underwent two major brain surgery operations, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.\n\nAnd in February 2015, she travelled with her family for the first time to Oklahoma for proton beam therapy.\n\nThey returned to Wales in May that year but in October 2020 a routine scan showed a tumour had returned.\n\nPeople paid their respects prior to the service on Saturday\n\nFreya had to then undergo a nine-hour operation to remove it and her family decided they would return to the US for more proton beam therapy.\n\nHowever, she died on 27 December.\n\n\"No more pokes, or pills or hospital visits, you are free now our beautiful angel,\" her family said in a tribute last month.\n\n\"Our hearts are completely broken, as we share the news with you, that heaven has gained the most sweetest and most beautiful warrior there ever was.\n\n\"Our brave, beautiful, precious Freya is now healed from cancer and getting big cwtches in heaven from her beloved great grandmother.\"\n\nIn a tweet on Saturday, Swansea Rugby Club said: \"On this extremely difficult day, the boys will wearing pink bows on their jerseys in celebration and as a tribute to Freya.\"\n• None Mum 'so scared' of losing daughter, 8, to cancer", "Former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings has alleged a social event which took place in No 10 on 20 May 2020 may have broken Covid rules.\n\nIn his blog, he said a \"senior No 10 official\" invited people to \"socially distanced drinks\" in the garden.\n\nMr Cummings said he and another adviser had warned that this could be against the rules but were told the event had gone ahead.\n\nDowning Street has been approached for comment.\n\nBut the BBC understands the alleged event will be investigated by a senior civil servant.\n\nThe first coronavirus lockdown was introduced in England in late March and were slowly relaxed in May 2020, but it was not until 1 June that people were allowed to meet outside in groups of up to six people.\n\nIn December, Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked Simon Case, the UK's top civil servant, to investigate after a series of allegations about events taking place in government buildings despite coronavirus restrictions.\n\nMr Case later stepped down after suggestions one of the parties took place in his own office and the investigation was passed to Sue Gray, another senior civil servant.\n\nMr Cummings has now urged Ms Gray to \"dig up\" the email invitations to the event on 20 May - and his email to colleagues warning against it.\n\nHe also said the senior civil servant should look in to his claim that a party took place in Mr Johnson's Downing Street flat on 13 November - something No 10 has previously denied.\n\nIt is understood Ms Gray will examine the alleged event in May 2020, as well as another gathering five days earlier, which was revealed last month.\n\nThe Guardian published a photo of the prime minister with his wife and 17 other staff members - including Mr Cummings - in the Downing Street garden on 15 May 2020, with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard.\n\nHowever, Mr Cummings argued that event did not break any rules.\n\nWriting on his blog, the former chief advisor, who was forced out of Downing Street at the end of 2020 after an internal power struggle, said \"the scene on the terrace was in no sense a 'party' or 'organised drinks'\".\n\n\"Many meetings had been taking place in the garden all day... those on the terrace nearest me in the photo had been having a meeting.\n\n\"No 10 staff were encouraged to have meetings in the garden April-August for the obvious reason that we were in a pandemic with an airborne disease and being outside was safer!\"", "About 18,000 people attended the protest in the capital Paris\n\nFrench authorities say more than 105,000 people have taken part in protests across the country against the introduction of a new coronavirus pass.\n\nA new draft law would in effect ban unvaccinated people from public life.\n\nDemonstrators in the capital, Paris, held placards emblazoned with phrases like \"no to vaccine passes\".\n\nInterior Ministry officials said 34 people were arrested and some 10 police officers were injured after the protests turned violent in some places.\n\nThe bill, which passed its first reading in the lower house of France's parliament on Thursday, would remove the option of showing a negative Covid-19 test to gain access to a host of public venues.\n\nInstead, people would have to be fully vaccinated to visit a range of spaces, including bars and restaurants.\n\nThe government says it expects the new rules to come into force on 15 January, although the opposition-dominated Senate could delay the process.\n\nBut demonstrators on Saturday accused the government of trampling on their freedoms and treating citizens unequally.\n\nOthers targeted their anger at the president, Emmanuel Macron, over comments he made earlier this week in relation to unvaccinated citizens, telling Le Parisian newspaper that he wanted to \"piss them off\".\n\nOne protester, hospital administrator Virginie Houget, told the Reuters news agency that Mr Macron's remarks were \"the last straw\".\n\nAnd in Paris, where some 18,000 people marched against the new law, demonstrators responded to his coarse language by chanting: \"We'll piss you off\".\n\nTV images showed altercations between protesters and police turning violent in some places. In Montpellier officers used teargas during clashes with the demonstrators.\n\nTurnout for the protests was estimated to be about four times higher than the last major demonstrations on 18 December, when some 25,500 people marched across the country.\n\nBut despite the vocal protests, opposition to the new measures is not widespread and recent polling suggests the vast majority of people back the vaccine pass.\n\nFrance is one of the most highly vaccinated countries in Europe, with more than 90% of over-12s eligible for the shot fully vaccinated.\n\nMeanwhile, new coronavirus infections are rising rapidly across France as the new Omicron variant takes hold.\n\nThe country recorded more than 300,000 new cases for the second time in a week on Friday and admissions to intensive care wards are rising steadily, putting healthcare systems under strain.\n\nSome hospitals have reported that some 85% of ICU patients are not vaccinated against Covid-19.", "Tennis star Novak Djokovic has thanked people \"around the world\" for their support as he awaits a decision on his deportation from Australia.\n\nDjokovic landed this week to play in the Australian Open, having controversially been given an exemption to Australia's vaccination rules.\n\nBut he was dramatically denied entry on landing.\n\nDjokovic is currently in immigration detention in Melbourne with a court challenge due on Monday.\n\nIn his statement, the men's world number one tennis player thanked people \"around the world for your continuous support\".\n\n\"I can feel it and it is greatly appreciated,\" he said in a message posted on Instagram.\n\nDjokovic, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted a medical exemption to play in the tournament for unspecified reasons, in a decision that infuriated many Australians.\n\nMore than 90% of the country's adult population are fully vaccinated, but they still face restrictions as cases of infection rise.\n\nDjokovic's exemption was given by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia, the body that runs the event, and Victoria state.\n\nBut on Wednesday, Australian Border Force (ABF) officials said the 34-year-old player had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" at Melbourne Airport.\n\nIn an interview with Channel 9 on Friday, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews denied Djokovic is being held captive, adding that the tennis star \"is free to leave at anytime that he chooses to do so and Border Force will actually facilitate that\".\n\nIt is not yet clear how long Djokovic will remain in the immigration detention hotel that has often been criticised by refugees for its poor conditions. Serbia has demanded Australia move him to a nicer hotel.\n\nDjokovic's father, Srdjan, said his son had been held in a room guarded by police at the airport, adding that it was \"not just a fight for Novak, but a fight for the whole world\".\n\nThe Australian Open is due to start on 17 January. Djokovic was bidding to win the tournament for the tenth time, which would make him the men's most successful player, with 21 Grand Slams.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Shaimaa Khalil reports from outside hotel where Djokovic is being detained\n\nAnother player - the Czech Renata Voracova - has also had her Australian visa cancelled, the Czech government said.\n\nThe foreign ministry said she was being held in the same facility as Djokovic but would drop out of the Australian Open and leave the country.", "Princess Basma - seen here in 2016 - has been a prominent advocate for constitutional reform\n\nA Saudi princess and her daughter have been released from a high-security jail after being held for nearly three years without charge, campaigners say.\n\nPrincess Basma bint Saud was detained in March 2019 as she prepared to fly to Switzerland for medical treatment.\n\nIt is not known why she was detained, and neither she nor her daughter Suhoud were charged with any crime.\n\nSome have speculated it may have been related to her advocacy on humanitarian issues and constitutional reform.\n\nHer family told the United Nations in a written statement in 2020 that it was likely due in large part to her \"record as an outspoken critic of abuses\", news agency AFP reports.\n\nOther supporters suggest that it was her close links to former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is reported to have been placed under house arrest.\n\nPrincess Basma, 57, appealed to Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to release her last April, saying she had done nothing wrong and that her health was suffering.\n\nIt is not known what treatment she was seeking abroad when she was detained in 2019.\n\nAnnouncing her released on Twitter, the ALQST for Human Rights said she had been \"denied the medical care she needed for a potentially life threatening condition\" during her time in the Al-Ha'ir prison, on the outskirts of the capital.\n\nThe Saudi rights group added. \"At no point during her detention has any charge been levelled against her.\"\n\nPrincess Basma is the youngest daughter of King Saud, who ruled Saudi Arabia between 1953 and 1964.", "Westminster Council said it missed \"clear and repeated warnings\" about overspending\n\nA tourist attraction that opened incomplete, over budget and led to resignations is set to close.\n\nThe Marble Arch Mound, which was supposed to attract people back into the heart of the city, charged visitors up to £8 when it opened in July.\n\nHowever, the £6m artificial hill was forced to close temporarily when plants and grass began to die on the structure surrounded by scaffolding.\n\nScheduled to run until January, it shuts for the final time on Sunday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Peter Whittle This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIt was branded a \"monstrosity\" and a \"disgrace\" on social media while a New York Times headline read: \"Londoners Were Promised a Hill With a View. They Got a Pile of Scaffolding.\"\n\nWestminster Council's deputy leader Melvyn Caplan, who was responsible for the project, resigned from his role after total costs nearly tripled from an initial forecast of £2m.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe mound was mocked on social media and in the press as plants dislodged and cascaded down the slopes while its young trees struggled in the summer heat.\n\nJuly's ticketholders, who paid between £4.50 and £8, were offered refunds for the artificial viewing platform, which dropped its entry fee after reopening in August.\n\nThe Tory-led council review to \"understand what went wrong and ensure it never happens again\" described the soaring costs of the scheme as \"devastating\" and \"avoidable\".\n\nSenior council officers hid details and lied about how much money the mound would make and there was a basic lack of project management, the report found.\n\nWestminster Council admitted the mound had opened too early\n\nLabour councillors branded the project, which was always expected to close this month, \"a disaster from start to finish\".\n\nOne of them, Paul Dimoldenberg, said: \"The Conservative councillors responsible for the Marble Arch Mound should hang their heads in shame and apologise to the people of Westminster for wasting so much public money.\"\n\nOrganisers claim the man-made mound boosted footfall to the West End and helped the area recover from the financial damage caused by the pandemic.\n\nA council spokesperson said: \"The Mound has done what it was built to do - drawn crowds and supported the recovery in this part of London.\n\n\"We're really pleased that over 242,000 people have visited to see the Mound and the terrific light exhibition inside.\"", "A child receives care at a hospital in the town of Dedebit, following a reported airstrike\n\nFifty-six people have been killed and dozens more injured in an airstrike on a camp for the displaced in northern Ethiopia, aid workers say.\n\nImages on social media purportedly show people receiving treatment after the strike on a school in the town of Dedebit, in Ethiopia's Tigray region.\n\nThere has been no independent confirmation of the attack.\n\nGovernment forces have been fighting rebels in Tigray for over a year in a war that has ended thousands of lives.\n\nWhile clashes on the ground between the Ethiopian military and a rebel alliance - led by Tigrayans - have temporarily stopped, airstrikes against rebel positions have continued.\n\nOn Saturday, aid workers told Reuters news agency that the number of casualties had been confirmed by local authorities.\n\nThe aid workers, who were not named, also provided photographs of people wounded in hospital, including a number of children.\n\nIt is unclear how or why the school was hit. The Ethiopian government has previously denied targeting civilians.\n\nOn Friday, the government announced the release of several high-profile opposition figures, including leaders of the rebel Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF).\n\nPrime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the move was aimed at achieving national reconciliation and promoting \"unity\".\n\nThe Tigray conflict broke out in November 2020 after Mr Abiy ordered a military offensive against regional forces in the area. He said he did so in response to an attack on a military base housing government troops there.\n\nThe escalation came after months of feuding between Mr Abiy's government and leaders of the TPLF.\n\nMany people have been displaced in the conflict and the UN has warned that the region is in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including medical supplies.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The group was stranded in Cancun, Mexico, after airlines refused to fly them back to Canada\n\nCanadian officials say a group of influencers whose rowdy behaviour on a flight led to their stranding in Mexico have flown home to face an inquiry.\n\nIn a briefing, a top health official said that 27 had returned and were screened at the airport. Some of the group could face stiff punishments.\n\nVideo shows a party on their charter plane without masks. Some were passing around bottles and vaping.\n\nTheir behaviour caused the airline to refuse to fly them home.\n\nSunwing Airlines cancelled a 5 January return trip for group of about 130 from Cancun and carriers Air Transat and Air Canada also said they would refuse to fly them.\n\nCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the group's behaviour a \"slap in the face\" to citizens who have been following proper social distancing measures, as well as airline workers.\n\nIn French, Mr Trudeau referred to them as \"idiots\" and \"barbarians\".\n\nCanadian Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos said in a briefing on Friday: \"We know that this issue of Sunwing travellers having behaved irresponsibly, inexcusably, and unacceptably on a flight to Mexico [has] raised a lot of anger and frustration.\"\n\nThe 27 who have returned were tested for the virus, and \"were checked with regards to whether they had obeyed and followed all of the health regulations they were supposed to follow throughout their trip\".\n\nThey had to provide proof of vaccination against Covid-19, a negative PCR test, and a quarantine plan.\n\nMr Duclos said the Quebec police department was investigating the travellers.\n\nTransport Canada is also investigating the group - they could issue fines of up to C$5,000 (£2,900) per offence.\n\nRebecca St Pierre, a 19-year-old student from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, told the Canadian Press she had won the trip on Instagram.\n\nShe said she had tested positive for Covid on Wednesday, and was not sure how to pay for her hotel stay. She estimated that about 30 people from the plane had tested positive.\n\n\"I was expecting a relaxing week, where I was going to be careful,″ she said. \"But this turns out to be an expensive trip for something that was supposed to be free.\" She is isolating in Tulum, south of Cancun, reports the Canadian Press.\n\nMs St Pierre added that some travellers had planned to put Vaseline up their nose for their return trip, in an effort to thwart Covid testing.\n\nThe trip organiser, identified as James William Awad, said in a statement on Thursday that Sunwing was being unreasonable over a \"simple party\".\n\n\"I will take a moment to sit down and rethink everything,″ he said on Twitter. \"Especially how I can do things better next time.\"", "A number of green energy products are funded through charges on consumers' bills\n\nA group of green-minded Tory MPs says the government should fund environmental and social energy policies from the Treasury, instead of from consumer bills.\n\nThe Conservative Environment Network (CEN), which includes 116 MPs, says the temporary measure would ease the surge in household costs.\n\nBut the group opposes a separate proposal to abolish the 5% VAT on energy bills, saying it would effectively provide a subsidy for fossil fuels.\n\nThe CEN is urging ministers to reduce bills and emissions in the long term by ensuring the UK's homes are better insulated.\n\nThe plea is endorsed by the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group - an alliance of businesses and charities who will write to the prime minister on Monday, arguing better insulation for people in sub-standard housing could cut bills by £500 a year.\n\nBut the current crisis over energy bills has revealed divisions among Conservative backbenchers.\n\nThe plan to scrap VAT on energy has been pushed by the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) of Tory MPs and peers.\n\nThe caucus, with around 20 followers, has been linked to the anti-green pressure group formerly known as the Global Warming Policy Forum, which was founded by the former Chancellor Nigel Lawson.\n\nAlthough its numbers are small, it is well connected in Conservative media.\n\nIts leader, the Tory MP for South Thanet, Craig Mackinlay has regularly voted against measures to tackle climate change.\n\nHe doesn't deny climate change science, but believes the costs of climate policies are falling unfairly on the UK.\n\nIn December, Mr Mackinlay tweeted that he blamed \"the rush to Net Zero\" for creating the \"madness in the energy market\".\n\nBut this view is disputed by the industry body Energy UK, which says the rise in gas prices has caused the crisis, not Net Zero policies.\n\nCraig Mackinlay leads the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Tory MPs and peers\n\nSam Hall, director of the environmental CEN, pointed out that his organisation had almost six times more members than the sceptic NZSG.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"A clear majority of Conservative backbenchers supports the government's Net Zero agenda - the PM should know that we've got his back.\"\n\nThe director added: \"Last year, no Conservative MP voted against the government's sixth carbon budget, which aims to cut emissions by 78% by 2035.\n\n\"Although a small minority of MPs are raising concerns about the cost of achieving the target, it is perfectly possible to deliver Net Zero in a way that is fair and keeps down energy costs for consumers and businesses.\"\n\nMr Hall insisted the solution to the global gas crisis \"was not to deepen our dependence on gas by removing VAT\".\n\nInstead, he said the Treasury must urgently devise policies to fund environmental and social energy projects for the long term.\n\nThe government has accepted that its current system of loading levies onto the cleaner fuel - namely electricity - is perverse.\n\nMr Hall said when the price of gas settles, the levies should be shifted on to the dirtier home heating fuel, gas.\n\n\"Because of the government's Net Zero policy, the UK is set to reduce its gas demand significantly over coming decades,\" he said.\n\n\"This will protect UK consumers from future gas price shocks by making us less dependent on volatile international gas prices.\"\n\nBut Mr Mackinlay told BBC News he did not see any \"conflict\" between his group and the CEN, \"nor anything to be gained by an 'ours are bigger than yours' approach\".\n\nHe added: \"We all want to leave the planet in a better place than we found it.\n\n\"The key difference is our perception of how best to achieve a lower carbon UK and to inject some realism when the UK is responsible for 1% of global CO2 whilst China, India, Indonesia go gangbusters for new coal.\"\n\nMr Hall said: \"Every country will need to hit Net Zero - and the UK should lead on this to gain the benefit of going first to develop new technology and services.\"\n\nThe government is urgently seeking solutions for the cost of living crisis, which is seeing bills and price tags rising in the UK.\n\nThe idea of targeted financial support for fuel bills - along the lines of the current Warm Homes Discount scheme - is emerging as a frontrunner to tackle a cost of living squeeze, which could see households £1,200 a year worse off as a higher energy cap comes in at whilst taxes rise for workers and employers.", "Vulnerable primary school children should be offered a low-dose Covid vaccine, government vaccine advisers have said.\n\nSome older children should also be offered a booster in response to the Omicron variant, they have said.\n\nA low-dose version of a Covid vaccine for five to 11-year-olds has just been approved for use in the UK after being deemed safe and effective.\n\nBut a decision on vaccinating all five to 11-year-olds has not yet been made.\n\nThe recommendations by the scientific experts have to be officially approved by ministers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - but this is normally a formality.\n\nIt is not clear when children will actually get these vaccine doses. The priority for the NHS is expected to remain on giving adults their third or booster dose in the face of the Omicron wave.\n\nThe low-dose vaccine by Pfizer-BioNTech contains one-third of the adult dose and immunisations should be given eight weeks apart. It is widely used in other countries and more than five million children have been given it in the US alone.\n\nThe drugs regulator - the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) - has licensed the vaccine for use.\n\nDr June Raine, chief executive of the MHRA, said: \"Parents and carers can be reassured that no new vaccine for children would have been approved unless the expected standards of safety, quality and effectiveness have been met.\"\n\nShe said the overwhelming majority of side effects were mild, such as a sore arm or a flu-like illness.\n\nThe government's vaccine experts, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, then decided who would get it.\n\nIt said the vaccine should be limited, for now, to those who are clinically vulnerable due to conditions such as severe neuro-disability, heart and lung diseases and cancer. About 330,000 children would be eligible. Children who live with clinically vulnerable adults will also be offered it.\n\nIt is thought that 113 visits to paediatric intensive care would be prevented for every million vulnerable young children immunised.\n\nHowever, only two admissions to intensive care would be prevented for every million healthy children given the same vaccine.\n\nA decision on a wider roll out will be made in the New Year. Children are less severely affected by the virus and the UK only decided to immunise healthy children aged over 12 to help keep schools open.\n\nThe JCVI also recommended the normal booster dose should be offered to:\n\nProf Wei Shen Lim, from the JCVI said: \"Some five to 11 year olds have underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk, and we advise these children to be vaccinated in the first instance.\n\n\"For children and young people who have completed a primary course of vaccination, a booster dose will provide added protection against the Omicron variant.\"\n\nIn other developments on Wednesday:", "Jack Dromey had been an MP since 2010, but was already a leading figure in the trade union movement\n\nVeteran Labour politician Jack Dromey has died aged 73, his family has confirmed.\n\nThe shadow minister, who had held the seat of Birmingham Erdington since 2010, is understood to have passed away in his constituency on Friday morning.\n\nHe is survived by his wife, fellow Labour MP Harriet Harman, and his three children.\n\nHis family said he was a \"much loved husband, father and grandfather\" who would be \"greatly missed\".\n\nAnd his son Joe also paid tribute on Twitter, confirming Mr Dromey had died suddenly and adding: \"We loved him so, so much. Rest in peace big man.\"\n\nCurrent and former prime ministers were among those paying their respects, with Boris Johnson saying he was \"deeply saddened\" by the news.\n\nTony Blair called Mr Dromey a \"stalwart of the Labour and trade union movement, while Gordon Brown said he had lost \"a friend, colleague and great humanitarian who never stopped fighting for social justice\".\n\nThe flags of Parliament were lowered to half-mast, with House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle saying MPs were \"all in disbelief that the life-force that was Jack Dromey has died\", adding that it was \"another sad day for the House and a bad start to the year\".\n\nBorn in London in 1948, Mr Dromey made his name in politics through the union movement, as a leading figure in the Transport and General Workers' Union, which later became Unite.\n\nHe married Ms Harman in 1982, fathering two sons and a daughter, and held senior roles in the Labour Party before winning his seat in Parliament nearly 12 years ago.\n\nHe was quickly promoted to the front bench, serving under several leaders, most recently as Sir Keir Starmer's shadow immigration minister.\n\nHe spoke in a Commons debate on Afghan refugees just 24 hours ago, as well as attending a speech by Sir Keir on Tuesday.\n\nJack Dromey married Harriet Harman in 1982 and had three children, including their son Harry\n\nSir Keir said Mr Dromey had \"dedicated his life to standing up for working people through the Labour movement\".\n\nThe Labour leader added: \"Jack was recognised for his determination to stand up for his constituents and he was highly respected and warmly regarded across Parliament.\n\n\"My thoughts and those of the whole Labour movement are with Harriet, their children and all those who knew and loved Jack.\"\n\nThe party's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, also described him as a \"great mentor and supporter to me, but above all a friend for many years\".\n\nJack Dromey and Harriet Harman - pictured here at a Labour conference - worked side-by-side\n\nShadow foreign secretary David Lammy, who said he sat next to him in the Commons on Thursday, said Mr Dromey was a \"Labour man to his bones and proud champion for his constituents and for working people.\"\n\nAnother frontbench colleague, shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell, said she was \"floored\" by the news, calling him \"one of the best\", while shadow business secretary John Reynolds called him \"a man of such integrity and kindness\".\n\nConservative politicians also spoke about the loss to Parliament, with Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries calling him \"a kind gentleman\" whose politics \"never stood in the way of his gentle nature, kind words and good manners with his always, always happy smile\".\n\nJack Dromey was a regular speaker in the Commons chamber\n\nTrade Minister Penny Mordaunt said, \"Parliament has lost a giant\", while fellow MP Tracey Crouch said she \"felt sick\" hearing the news, adding: \"He was one of the kindest colleagues who didn't define people by party.\"\n\nTributes also came from the trade union movement, with the TUC's general secretary Frances O'Grady saying it was \"devastating to lose such a champion of working people.\"\n\nAnd Unite's general secretary, Sharon Graham, called Mr Dromey \"our dear friend and comrade\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Wales' first minister said England was a “global outlier” when it came to coronavirus\n\nMark Drakeford has accused Boris Johnson of failing to take the necessary action to protect people in England from Covid.\n\n\"The one country that stands up as not taking action to protect its population is England,\" said the first minister.\n\nThe comments come as Mr Drakeford announced Covid restrictions would not be relaxed in Wales.\n\nHe added that England was the \"outlier\" in the UK when it came to Covid. The UK government has been asked to comment.\n\nEarlier this week, the prime minister said he hoped England could \"ride out\" the Omicron wave without further restrictions.\n\nHowever, defending keeping tighter restrictions in Wales, Mr Drakeford criticised Mr Johnson's approach, saying: \"Wales is taking action as is Scotland, as is Northern Ireland and are countries right across Europe and right across the globe.\n\n\"In England, we have a government that is politically paralysed with a prime minister is unable to secure an agreement through his cabinet to take the actions that his advisors have been telling him ought to be taken.\"\n\nMr Drakeford said the peak of the Omicron wave was likely to be \"about 10 to 14 days away\", and insisted those calling for Covid restrictions to be eased were \"factually wrong\".\n\nThe comments came after a senior epidemiologist, who has advised the Welsh and UK governments, called for restrictions to be dropped to pre-Omicron levels.\n\nHowever, the first minister said the idea that Omicron is an illness we can afford to \"take lightly\" does not \"bear any connection to the actual position we are facing\".\n\nThe first minister warned \"the storm of Omicron\" had arrived as Wales sees \"astronomically high\" positivity rates.\n\n\"We have a tough few weeks ahead and we are not in a position to withdraw any of the protections,\" he added.\n\nWelsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies said: \"This is a first minister who isn't prepared to have an independent public inquiry into his handling of the Covid crisis here in Wales.\n\n\"And it is a Labour first minister here in Wales who has presided over the highest death rate, unfortunately, of any part of the United Kingdom, so it's a little bit rich of him to be offering criticism of the prime minister.\"\n\nIn Wales nightclubs are closed, with limits on hospitality businesses, sporting events and who people can meet indoors and outdoors.\n\nThe decision to limit outdoor gatherings, including organised exercise groups, has previously been criticised by the UK health minister, and there have been concerns that hospitality rules could see people head across the border to England to socialise.\n\nPublic Health Wales has reported 7,915 new Covid cases and 21 further deaths.\n\nThe seven day rolling case rate per 100,000 has continued to climb to 2,324, compared to 2,228 reported on Thursday.\n\nThe testing positivity rate - the percentage of Covid test returning a positive result - has fallen very slightly to 51.2%.\n\nThere was a daily average of 662 patients with confirmed Covid in hospital beds - a 77% increase on a week ago - although there were two and a half times as many people in hospital at the same point in 2021.\n\nHowever, NHS bosses have said this includes \"a lot\" of \"incidental\" Covid patients, who are in hospital for non-Covid reasons but test positive for Covid.\n\nBut Mr Drakeford said this \"doesn't make any difference to the hospitals\" as they must still \"treat every one of those patients as a coronavirus patient\".\n\nSpeaking at Friday's Welsh government Covid press conference the first minister said it would not be right to say the Welsh NHS is \"being overwhelmed\" but it is \"certainly facing very challenging circumstances\".\n\nHe said Omicron was \"driving more people to fall ill and then to need hospital treatment\" and also making more health staff ill.\n\n\"The latest figures suggest staff absences from illness and isolation across the NHS is 8.3% but it is as high as 16.5% in some NHS organisations.\"\n\nHe urged people to limit the number of people they meet, take lateral flow tests before going out, and make getting a booster vaccine a priority.\n\nOn those eligible for a vaccine that have chosen not to receive one, Mr Drakeford said they are \"expecting someone else to put themselves in harms way to look after them, and it simply isn't fair.\"\n\nOne senior doctor says restrictions are needed as hospitals are at \"bursting point\"\n\nDr Rowena Christmas, head of the Royal College of GPs in Wales, told BBC Radio Wales that while the rules were difficult hospitals were at \"bursting point\".\n\n\"The numbers are absolutely huge, so I think we have to continue as we are at least for the time being,\" she said.\n\nUK Hospitality Cymru warned this week that without extra money and lighter restrictions businesses would be left in \"peril\", with ministers responding that a emergency financial support package will be available from 10 January.\n\nA government spokesman said they would continue to consider whether additional emergency business support funding was needed.\n\nGary Lulham, boss of Sin City nightclub in Swansea, said while he did not expect any changes the news was \"devastating\" for an industry that was already at a \"critical breaking point\".\n\nHe added that without significant financial support there would be \"hundreds of thousands\" of people at the end of the month who \"won't be able to pay their rent, or be able to put food on the table for themselves or their kids\".\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives urged ministers to provide urgent support for businesses, and said restrictions on outdoor sporting events should be relaxed.\n\nAndrew RT Davies, Welsh Tory leader in the Senedd, called for \"greater flexibility\" on restrictions for hospitality settings.\n\n\"I think all people have done is move that socialising indoors into house party environments which are unregulated environments,\" he said.\n\n\"I do think there is scope to lift some of the restrictions in that particular area.\"\n\nHe also called for Welsh ministers to scrap \"ridiculous\" fines for workers who go into the workplace when they could work at home.\n\nMr Drakeford had previously defended the fines saying they were in place the last time there was a work from home obligation, that \"no fines were issued at all\" during that period and \"they are designed to protect workers, not to penalise them\".", "The victim lived in a residential block of flats in the Lichtenberg district of Berlin\n\nA German court has sentenced an ex-teacher to life in prison for murdering a man he met on an online dating site and desecrating his body.\n\nThe judge in Berlin said Stefan R, 42, had killed the electrical engineer to \"act out his fantasies of cannibalism\".\n\nThe former teacher was detained in November 2020 when some of the victim's bones were found by people strolling in a park in northern Berlin.\n\nThe 43-year-old victim's mother had reported him missing weeks earlier.\n\nThe two men had arranged to meet up for sex at Stefan R's apartment in the Pankow district, where the killer taught maths at a private school. Berlin media said he had called himself CanOpener79 on the dating forum.\n\nThe killer had previously visited online chatrooms where people discussed cannibalism. Investigators said his victim had died hours after they met and they found a bone saw and a butcher's knife in their search of his flat.\n\nDuring the trial Stefan R told the court he had found the man dead in his living room the morning after they had sex and in a panic decided to dispose of his body.\n\nBody parts were found by walkers in a park in November 2020\n\nHe used a rental car to scatter the body in several places around the northern part of Pankow. Only the victim's sexual organs were missing.\n\n\"Sexual fantasies or butchery fantasies aren't a crime,\" his defence lawyers told the trial, calling for his acquittal. They argued the engineer could have been killed by the cocktail of drugs he had taken.\n\nBut prosecutors said the criteria for murder had been met, in that the victim had been lured into a trap and the killer had acted to satisfy his sexual urges and enable a further crime.\n\nThe case is reminiscent of a notorious German cannibal, Armin Meiwes, who was jailed for life in 2006.\n\nHowever, there was a significant difference in that Meiwes's victim was himself interested in cannibalism.", "Fully vaccinated passengers and under-18s no longer need to take a pre-departure test or self-isolate when they come to Northern Ireland.\n\nBut they will still have to fill out a passenger locator form and take a test on or before day two of their arrival.\n\nFrom Sunday, this can be either a lateral flow or PCR test.\n\nFree NHS lateral flow kits cannot be used for international travel so the lateral flow test must come from a private provider.\n\nThe move is a relaxation of rules introduced in December to curb the spread of the Omicron variant.\n\nArrivals who have not received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine must still take a pre-departure test, have a PCR day two and eight test and isolate for 10 days.\n\nThey also have to fill in a passenger locator form.\n\nFully vaccinated arrivals who receive a positive lateral flow test must book a PCR test and isolate.\n\nIf the PCR is negative, isolation can end.\n\nIt comes after Stormont ministers opted not to introduce any more Covid restrictions on Thursday.\n\nFirst Minister Paul Givan also said a plan to tighten controls around face coverings had been scrapped, although Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill denied it had been completely axed.\n\nOn the same day the number of coronavirus-linked deaths in Northern Ireland passed 3,000.\n\nMinisters have been told Covid transmission has reached an all-time high, which has pushed testing limits to capacity and put pressure on the health service, schools and businesses due to staff members self-isolating.\n\nLast week, ministers agreed to cut self-isolation rules in a bid to relieve workforce pressures.", "Fashion photographer Paolo Roversi said taking a portrait of the duchess was a \"true honour\" and \"a moment of pure joy\"\n\nThe Duchess of Cambridge has marked her 40th birthday by releasing three new photographs.\n\nThe glamorous portraits, taken by fashion photographer Paolo Roversi, show her wearing Alexander McQueen dresses, as well as earrings that belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales, and others loaned by the Queen.\n\nCatherine thanked people for their \"very kind birthday wishes\" and Roversi for \"these three special portraits\".\n\nA big birthday is always a good excuse for nostalgia and reflection - and for the duchess there is plenty to ponder.\n\nMuch has changed for her since her marriage into the Royal Family - not just the prince, their three children and her role as future Queen.\n\nShe has also had to find her feet as a public figure.\n\nMoving from the private Kate Middleton to the public, royal Duchess of Cambridge has had its challenges.\n\nShe has had to navigate the particular and peculiar stresses that come with joining the Royal Family, of which there are many.\n\nThe three portraits were taken at Kew Gardens in November\n\nBuckingham Palace, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were among those to wish her a happy birthday on social media, sharing pictures of Catherine with the Queen, Prince Charles and Camilla.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The Royal Family This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The Royal Family\n\nThe three new photos released of the duchess to mark her big birthday are revealing. They show how she wants to present herself at 40 and they ooze glossy, old fashioned glamour.\n\nThe images were taken at Kew Gardens back in November and will form part of a project from the National Portrait Gallery where the duchess is patron.\n\nThey will go on display in three locations that she has chosen and have special meaning for her.\n\nBerkshire is the county of her childhood and where she was brought up. St Andrews is where she went to university and began her relationship with her husband. Anglesey is where the couple lived together just before and in the early part of their marriage.\n\nThe photos will then be housed in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery.\n\nCatherine wears earrings that belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales, in the two black and white pictures and earrings loaned by the Queen in the other\n\nThese are not royal choices. They are personal ones for a duchess whose happy and settled childhood has provided the blueprint for how she manages the life she now lives.\n\nAnd at 40 she increasingly seems at peace with the path she's on.\n\nI was at her first ever engagement on Anglesey in 2011.\n\nDespite being in a relationship with William throughout most of her 20s, this was the first time we had seen her on official duty. The crowds were big and the spotlight intense but on the surface she seemed unfazed.\n\nIn the years that followed, that calm, sometimes shy, exterior has not gone away but it now includes a growing sense of self confidence in her public work.\n\nThe then Kate Middleton in 2005 at her university graduation in St Andrews - the town is one of the locations where the new portraits will go on display\n\nThe duchess in Ipswich in March 2012, where she gave her first public speech\n\n...and on a more recent visit to a school in London last November\n\nI looked back at her first ever speech in 2012 for East Anglia's Children's Hospices - a cause still close to her heart. She looked and sounded nervous. This wasn't her comfort zone. But fast forward to 2021 and a speech for Action on Addiction and there is an ease and directness in her words.\n\n\"Addiction is not a choice. No one chooses to become an addict. But it can happen to any of us. None of us are immune.\"\n\nAdjusting to the scrutiny has come perhaps most sharply with how she looks.\n\nThe clothes remain a mix of High Street and high end and the duchess has learnt when to pull out all the stops. I give you the James Bond premiere back in September and the Jenny Packham-designed gold dress.\n\nThe duchess wore a gold Jenny Packham dress at the premiere of No Time To Die last September\n\nHer 40s will be another decade of significant change.\n\nAs the Queen does less and works differently due to her age, so the Cambridges will do more.\n\nFor the duchess, that will mean a focus on raising issues around mental health, addiction and early childhood.\n\nShe will also continue to protect the privacy of her own children - Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, six, and Prince Louis, three - managing when we are able to see them.\n\nAt 40 years old, life is now a juggle between the private and the public for the duchess who will one day be queen.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with Prince George and Princess Charlotte in Poland in 2017. Their third child, Prince Louis, was born the following year\n\nIn April 2020 the whole family were pictured taking part in a \"clap for carers\" for BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief", "Russian officials say the 2,500 strong force will only remain in Kazakhstan temporarily\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken has questioned Kazakhstan's decision to seek Russian military aid to deal with an ongoing wave of violent unrest.\n\nDozens of people have been killed in protests triggered by a rise in fuel prices, but Mr Blinken said the US believes that the Kazakh government can deal with the protests itself.\n\nHe told reporters that it was unclear why the deployment was happening.\n\nThe first of about 2,500 Russian-led troops have arrived in Kazakhstan.\n\nOfficials in Moscow have emphasised that the deployment of its forces under the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Eurasian military alliance of five former Soviet republics and Russia, is temporary.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Abdujalil Abdurasulov hears gunfire as he visits the scene of clashes in Almaty\n\nPresident Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made the request for assistance after protesters stormed the mayor's office in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, and overran the city's airport.\n\nBut addressing reporters at a State Department briefing, Mr Blinken warned that \"one lesson of recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it's sometimes very difficult to get them to leave\".\n\n\"It would seem to me that the Kazakh authorities and government certainly have the capacity to deal appropriately with protests to do so in a way that respects the rights of protesters while maintaining law and order,\" Mr Blinken said.\n\n\"So it's not clear why they feel the need for any outside assistance. So we're trying to learn more about it.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the US has authorised the departure of some non-essential staff from its consulate in Almaty amid safety concerns over the ongoing protests.\n\nSome Russian paratrooper units have already arrived in the country, and on Friday assisted Kazakh forces in retaking the airport from protesters.\n\nKazakh troops have also taken firm action to regain control in Almaty. On Thursday, local media published videos showing government troops opening fire on protesters.\n\nThe Interior Ministry says 26 \"armed criminals\" and 18 security officers have been killed so far in the clashes and President Tokayev blamed what he called foreign \"terrorists\" for the unrest.\n\nMass protests broke out on Sunday when the cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - which many people in Kazakhstan use to fuel their cars - doubled.\n\nThe government has since said that fuel price caps will be restored for six months. But the announcement has failed to end the protests, which have broadened to include other political grievances.\n\nThere is no effective political opposition in Kazakhstan and most elections are won by the ruling party with almost 100% of the vote. The country's previous president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, ruled the country for 29 years and retained significant power since leaving office.\n\nMr Tokayev has now removed him as head of the country's security council.\n\nIt was also announced on Saturday that a former prime minister and security chief, Karim Massimov, had been arrested on Thursday on suspicion of treason, along with other officials.\n\nNo further details of the arrests have been given.\n\nWhere is it? Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia to the north and China to the east. It is a huge country the size of Western Europe.\n\nWhy does it matter? A former Soviet republic which is mainly Muslim with a large Russian minority, it has vast mineral resources, with 3% of global oil reserves and important coal and gas sectors.\n\nWhy is it making the news? Fuel riots, which have escalated to become broader protests against the government, have resulted in resignations at the top and a bloody crackdown on protesters.", "Angela Rayner will fill in for Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer has tested positive for Covid for a second time and is now isolating.\n\nHis deputy, Angela Rayner, filled in for him at the first 2022 session of Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.\n\nSir Keir also tested positive for Covid last October and had to miss the Budget as a result.\n\nAnd he has previously had to self-isolate four times after coming into contact with others testing positive.\n\nSir Keir's latest positive test comes after the UK reported its highest number of daily cases since the start of the pandemic, with 218,724 announced on Tuesday.\n\nHe will have to isolate for seven days, assuming he tests negative on days six and seven.\n\nSir Keir is not thought to have experienced any Covid symptoms and the infection was picked up as part of his regular testing routine.\n\nHis positive test follows a speech on Tuesday in which he promised Labour would agree a new \"contract with the British people\", offering \"security, prosperity and respect\".\n\nHis audience of around 20 at Birmingham's Millennium Point conference centre included Labour MPs Jess Phillips, Khalid Mahmood, Jack Dromey, Stephen McCabe and Preet Gill, as well as journalists and party advisers.\n\nSeveral Labour MPs attended Sir Keir Starmer's speech in Birmingham on Tuesday\n\nSir Keir's positive test also comes as his party leads the Conservatives in the opinion polls, and he is keen to continue his attacks on the government after recent stories of alleged coronavirus rule-breaking in Downing Street in 2020.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson was hospitalised by Covid in spring 2020, spending three nights in intensive care.\n\nAnd Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey self-isolated last December after testing positive.", "Data for England is shown by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. Data for Wales and Scotland is shown by Health Board and in Northern Ireland by Health and Social Care Trust.\n\nWhen you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board and by Health and Social Care trust in Northern Ireland.\n\nComparative data is shown for a previous year where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Earlier data is not available for all measures, so comparisons between years are not always possible.\n\nA&E attendances include all emergency departments in that trust or health board, not just major A&E departments, for example, those who attend minor injury units.\n\nEach nation has different target times for some of the measures shown, therefore comparisons between them may not be possible.", "Harvey Parker was last seen leaving Heaven nightclub in Charing Cross on 17 December\n\nPolice searching for a student who went missing after leaving a central London nightclub have found a body in the River Thames.\n\nHarvey Parker, 20, from Lambeth, south London, was last seen leaving Heaven by Charing Cross station in Westminster at about 02:15 GMT on 17 December.\n\nThe Met's Marine Support Unit recovered the body and detectives involved in the search for Mr Parker have informed his family of developments.\n\nThe death is unexplained, police said.\n\nHarvey Parker was last seen near Embankment\n\nOfficers recovered the body near to Embankment, Westminster, after being alerted by the RNLI at 11:51 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nImages released after Mr Parker's disappearance showed him on Craven Street, before he walked south towards Embankment.\n\nMr Parker's body has now been recovered after being spotted near Embankment\n\nDet Ch Insp Lucy O'Connor said: \"Sadly a body has been recovered from the Thames near where Harvey was last seen.\n\n\"We are providing Harvey's family with all the available information. We are also asking for media to please respect the family's privacy at this challenging and difficult time.\"\n\nA report will be compiled for the coroner.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nWorld number one men's tennis player Novak Djokovic has had his visa to enter Australia dramatically revoked on his arrival in Melbourne, amid a huge backlash over a vaccine exemption.\n\nDjokovic was held in the airport for several hours before border officials announced he had not met entry rules.\n\nHe was then taken to a government detention hotel. A court will decide on his deportation on Monday.\n\nThe row is around an exemption he had to play in the Australian Open.\n\nTournament organisers said the Serbian player, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted medical exemption by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia, the body that runs the event, and Victoria state.\n\nThe decision infuriated many in a country that has seen a surge in Covid-19 cases, and where over 90% of those over 16 are fully vaccinated. People have also had to endure some of the world's strictest restrictions and some still cannot travel between states or internationally.\n\nOn Wednesday, border officials said the 34-year-old had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" for entry after arriving from Dubai. He is now being held at a hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton which is used for immigration detention.\n\n\"Non-citizens who do not hold a valid visa on entry or who have had their visa cancelled will be detained and removed from Australia,\" the Australian Border Force (ABF) said in a statement.\n\nDjokovic's team challenged ABF's decision, and a hearing at the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia has been scheduled for Monday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAustralia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied Djokovic was being singled out and said no-one was above the country's rules. But he added that Djokovic's stance on vaccination had drawn attention.\n\n\"When you get people making public statements - of what they say they have, and what they are going to do, and what their claims are - well they draw significant attention to themselves,\" Mr Morrison told reporters.\n\nThough Djokovic's reason for an exemption has not been disclosed, Mr Morrison said contracting Covid-19 in the past six months was not among federal criteria for one.\n\nMr Morrison, who had initially said he would support the Victoria state's decision about the exemption, is now being accused of politicising the issue. The prime minister himself is under pressure amid the Covid-19 surge, and a federal election is scheduled for May.\n\nSeparately the country's deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, said Djokovic should be deported if he had not told the truth.\n\n\"Then he's taking the sovereign capacity of another nation for a joke,\" Mr Joyce told the BBC. \"You can't just wander around the world thinking that because you're really rich you're really above the laws of other nations\".\n\nThe row prompted Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to say Djokovic was a victim of \"harassment\" and that \"the whole of Serbia\" supported him. Mr Morrison denied the visa cancellation was because of \"any particular position in relation to Serbia\", describing the nation as \"a good friend of Australia\".\n\nOutside the hotel where Djokovic was being held, supporters of the tennis player expressed anger at his treatment. The player's father, Srdjan, said his son had been held in a room guarded by police at the airport. \"This is not just a fight for Novak, but a fight for the whole world,\" he said in a statement.\n\nFor hours, Novak Djokovic's supporters made their way outside the Melbourne quarantine hotel where he's believed to be staying, many from the Serbian community here. The strength of feeling was palpable as songs about freedom played and some danced. \"This is a disgrace,\" Kristina told me, draped in the Serbian flag. \"I'm ashamed to be an Australian today. If he's not playing - I'm not going.\"\n\nJelena wore a white cap with Djokovic's signature that she got two years ago when he was here for the tournament. She carries a sign that says \"Thank you\". \"He represents a connection to my home country. The Australian government needs to fix this mess. It's an international scandal and the world is watching,\" Jelena said, her disappointment that he may not be competing evident.\n\nDjokovic has landed in the middle of a controversy that's gone beyond tennis and is now at the heart of a political tussle - between the state and the federal authorities.\n\nAnd while the player and his legal team wait for the court hearing to resume on Monday, anger and confusion are the overarching sentiments here - whether from those who say he shouldn't have been allowed in or those furious at the thought of him being deported.\n\nThe world number one has dominated the Australian Open, winning it nine times. But his attempt to defend his title and go for a 10th may be over before the tournament begins.\n\nSpanish tennis start Rafael Nadal, who is in Melbourne to prepare for the Australian Open, said it was \"normal\" for Australians to get \"very frustrated with the case\".\n\n\"The only for me clear thing is if you are vaccinated, you can play in the Australian Open,\" he said, adding: \"Of course after a lot of people had been dying for two years, my feeling is [that] the vaccine is the only way to stop this pandemic.\"\n\nBut former Australian Open tournament director Paul McNamee told local media the visa U-turn was unprecedented, saying it \"smells\" of politics.\n\nMany Australians had previously accused the government of allowing the rich and famous to do as they please while ordinary people remained separated from sick and dying loved ones.\n\nTwo other people were now having their medical exemptions reviewed, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. Mr Morrison said the ABF had previously advised Tennis Australia on visa expectations.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne. Djokovic has previously won the tournament nine times.", "Best new artist nominees Billie Eilish, Lizzo and Lil Nas X, with Finneas O'Connell\n\nThe 64th annual Grammy Awards Show due to be held in the US later this month has been postponed due to coronavirus, organisers have said.\n\nUncertainty around the Omicron variant means going ahead \"simply contains too many risks\", according to a statement from the Recording Academy and CBS.\n\nThe event, which is regarded as music's biggest night, was scheduled to take place on 31 January in Los Angeles.\n\nIt will happen on a future date to be announced soon, organisers said.\n\nThe health and safety of the music community, the live audience and hundreds of employees remained their top priority, they added.\n\nJazz keyboardist Jon Batiste has the most nominations with 11, while Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber and Doja Cat are all up for the main awards.\n\nIt comes after the Sundance film festival cancelled all in-person events in Utah citing the rapid spread of Omicron.\n\nAll its independent movie premieres and events will take place online, organisers said in a statement.\n\nThe 2021 Grammy Awards was a hybrid in-person and online event after rising infection numbers in Los Angeles and the state of California saw it postponed until March.", "The Omicron variant accounts for almost two-thirds of US cases\n\nThe US has recorded more than one million new Covid cases as officials warn the peak of a fast-spreading Omicron surge is still to come.\n\nA record 1,080,211 cases were reported on Monday - the highest one-day tally of new cases anywhere in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nThe Omicron variant accounts for the majority of cases in the US.\n\nPresident Joe Biden, who is facing criticism over his response, called for schools to stay open despite the surge.\n\nWhile rates of death and hospital admissions in the US have been far lower in recent weeks than in previous infection spikes, the number of hospital admissions has been steadily rising.\n\nThe country is now facing \"almost a vertical increase\" in cases, said top US pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci, adding that the peak may be weeks away.\n\nMr Biden acknowledged on Tuesday that there has been \"concern and some considerable confusion about the rising cases\", but reiterated that the majority of hospital admissions and deaths from Covid are among the unvaccinated, and that the US has enough vaccines to fully jab every eligible citizen.\n\n\"We know kids can be safe while they're in school. That's why I believe schools should remain open,\" he said.\n\nOmicron has also led to school districts across the country postponing the return of students to classrooms following the Christmas break due to the rapid spread of the variant and subsequent staffing shortages. There are also concerns over challenges in securing rapid tests for students and teachers.\n\nIn Detroit, Michigan, for example - which is experiencing an all-time high infection rate of 36% - city school officials announced that schools will remain closed until Thursday.\n\nA number of other major school systems, including Atlanta, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Newark, have announced postponements or a return to virtual classes.\n\nIn New York City, the largest school district in the US, schools remained open. On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams said that school is \"the safest place for our children\".\n\nThe New York Times reported, however, that approximately one third of parents kept their children at home over Covid-19 fears.\n\nAcross the country, more than 450,000 children returned to temporary remote learning in the past week due to the variants, the Times reported.\n\nThe surge has led increased criticism of Mr Biden, who came into office vowing to \"shut down the virus.\" In recent weeks he has sought to place the onus of responsibility on state and local governments, saying that they must do more to encourage vaccination, mask use and adherence to social distancing measures.\n\nIn his remarks on Tuesday, Mr Biden announced that the US order of Pfizer pills, which treat Covid infection, had been doubled from 10m to 20m pills.\n\nBut the pills take months to manufacture, meaning the US will not see the additional order for at least six months, warns Dr Krishna Udayakumar, a health professor at Duke University.\n\n\"We need to have testing in place, and we know we don't have adequate, timely testing,\" he told BBC World News America, adding that treatment must begin early in order to have a positive outcome.\n\n\"Even though we have some of the technical tools, like vaccines and diagnostic tests and treatments, we haven't built a system that's strong enough to put it all in place,\" said Dr Udayakumar.\n\nDr Fauci meanwhile told ABC on Monday that \"a fair number\" of the tens of millions of Americans who are unvaccinated will contract severe disease.\n\nSome 8,652 people are reported to have died from coronavirus in the past week, according to Johns Hopkins.\n\nThe previous US record of infection cases was 590,000, reported four days ago.\n\nThe highest number outside the US came during India's Delta surge, when more than 414,188 people were confirmed as having the disease in May 2021.\n\nStudies suggest that Omicron is milder than the previously dominant Delta variant but fears remain that the sheer number of cases stemming from the highly infectious Omicron could overwhelm hospitals.", "Last updated on .From the section League Cup\n\nChelsea deservedly beat Tottenham in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final, but had so many chances they should have already sealed their place at Wembley.\n\nKai Havertz gave Chelsea an early lead when he ran onto Marcos Alonso's through ball and fired home with Davinson Sanchez unable to keep the shot out on the line.\n\nThe Blues' second was a comedy own goal as Japhet Tanganga headed the ball into team-mate Ben Davies' shoulder and it flew into the net.\n\nRomelu Lukaku, back in the team after a one-game exile for comments he made in an interview, had several chances and headed wide from close range.\n\nSpurs, who changed to a back four after a torrid first half, had to wait until the 50th minute for a shot, with Harry Kane's free-kick saved by Kepa.\n\nBut the chances continued to come for Chelsea with Hugo Lloris denying Lukaku, Hakim Ziyech and the returning Timo Werner.\n\nSpurs will need to be much better in a week's time in the second leg to have any chance of reaching Wembley.\n\nLiverpool and Arsenal play in the other semi-final, with their games on 13 and 20 January after the first leg was rearranged because of Covid cases in the Liverpool camp.\n\nConte's Spurs some way off still\n\nTottenham have looked much improved since former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte replaced Nuno Espirito Santo, only losing once in 11 games before this.\n\nBut the wait for a first trophy since the 2008 League Cup will surely go on - with many problems of their own making at Stamford Bridge.\n\nEmerson Royal did not control a pass from Tanganga and Alonso nipped in to set up the opener.\n\nAnd the second saw Ziyech swing in a free-kick with Spurs' defenders doing the rest for him.\n\nMost of the pre-match chat had been about Lukaku, who has apologised for an interview which saw him dropped for Chelsea's draw with Liverpool.\n\nHe was involved on plenty of occasions, with several shots - including an effort straight at Lloris in injury time - and a good pass to Ziyech which the Moroccan should have finished.\n\nEncouraging too was the return of Werner after injury, although he replaced Havertz, who broke his finger while scoring the opening goal, at half-time.\n\nThe only real downside for Thomas Tuchel's side, who played 4-4-2 because of a lack of defensive options, is that they did not score with more of their 19 efforts to wrap up the tie.\n\nFormer Chelsea winger Karen Carney: \"Chelsea controlled everything tonight. They were back to their usual Chelsea self. It was a really good performance.\n\n\"Thomas Tuchel will be happy right now with the clean sheet and win but tomorrow when he reflects on it he'll think 'we've still left them in the tie'. It should have been done and dusted.\n\n\"With how poor Spurs were, they should have really gone for them. They should have put the whole semi-final to bed.\"\n\nEx-Republic of Ireland striker Clinton Morrison: \"Spurs aren't out of it but it was comfortable for Chelsea. They were in second gear. It didn't look like a semi-final for Spurs.\n\n\"It looked like they were going through the motions. They're still in it if they can get the first goal next week.\n\n\"It was a flat performance. Who really thinks this is a big cup competition to win? Harry Kane was chasing things down but I didn't see many others. You want to get to a final and lift some silverware.\n\n\"If Chelsea wanted to go to that next level, they could have. There was a lot left in the tank. 2-0 flattered Spurs.\"\n• None Attempt saved. Romelu Lukaku (Chelsea) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Timo Werner.\n• None Substitution, Chelsea. Harvey Vale replaces César Azpilicueta because of an injury.\n• None Attempt saved. Giovani Lo Celso (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Bryan Gil.\n• None Attempt blocked. Marcos Alonso (Chelsea) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Japhet Tanganga (Tottenham Hotspur) header from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Giovani Lo Celso with a cross following a set piece situation.\n• None Emerson Royal (Tottenham Hotspur) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001\n\nA US judge will decide \"soon\" whether a civil sex assault case against the Duke of York will be dismissed, following the latest hearing in New York.\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyer told Judge Lewis A Kaplan that the duke could be covered by a 2009 deal his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, made with Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nMs Giuffre is suing the prince claiming he sexually assaulted her - when she was 17 and a minor in some US states.\n\nAt a virtual hearing in Manhattan on Tuesday, Judge Kaplan said he appreciated the \"arguments and the passion\" over the 2009 agreement.\n\nHe said he would give a decision on the case \"pretty soon\" but declined to say exactly when.\n\nMs Giuffre's central allegation is that Epstein, and the now-convicted Ghislaine Maxwell, trafficked her into sexual abuse and exploitation - including incidents in which she said she was expected to engage in sexual activity with Prince Andrew in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands.\n\nThe 2009 settlement agreement, released yesterday, revealed that now-dead financier Epstein paid Ms Giuffre $500,000 to end a claim for damages - and she agreed not to bring any future cases against other \"potential defendants\".\n\nIt does not mention Prince Andrew, now 61, by name, and his lawyers argue the deal means Ms Giuffre, now 38, cannot sue him. Her lawyers contest that.\n\nJudge Kaplan used Tuesday's hearing to closely question lawyers for both sides as to whether the Epstein-Giuffre damages settlement could be used at all by Prince Andrew to stop the case.\n\nThe 2009 deal shows both Epstein and Virginia Giuffre agreed that neither of them would disclose the deal to other parties - unless ordered to do so by a court.\n\nSecondly, both of them accepted that the agreement could not be used in any other court case that was not directly related to enforcing its terms.\n\nJudge Kaplan said that the wording could mean that both Epstein and Ms Giuffre had to jointly agree on whether or not the settlement could be used to release other potential defendants from facing court.\n\nHe said: \"If someone got sued and Jeffrey Epstein said this person was within the release, and it was okay with Ms Giuffre, then [the deal] could be made available and Epstein could enforce it - but not otherwise.\"\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyer, Andrew B Brettler, objected, - saying that US law made clear that a third party - such as his client - had rights to rely on the settlement to prevent them being unfairly taken to court.\n\nIf Judge Lewis Kaplan had been minded to rule swiftly in Prince Andrew's favour to stop the case, he could have done two things immediately today.\n\nFirst, he could have indicated in court his direction of travel - and secondly he could have torn up the currently tight timetable he has set for the duke to meet Ms Giuffre's requests for documentary evidence - the next important stage in a damages case that's heading for trial.\n\nHe did neither. But what he did do, in the dying minutes, is closely question both sides over part of the Epstein deal that had gone unnoticed in the hours since its publication.\n\nEven if Prince Andrew could be properly classed as a \"potential defendant\" to Ms Giuffre's 2009 Florida claims, her settlement with Epstein says that third parties - meaning someone whose signature was not on the agreement - could not use that agreement in another court without their permission.\n\nGiven that Epstein is dead and Ms Giuffre doesn't want the prince to benefit from the agreement's terms, a strict reading of that paragraph would mean the agreement is irrelevant to her damages case.\n\nThe duke's lawyer disputed this - but when Judge Kaplan soon rules on the future of the case, this might just be the most important part of today's hearing.\n\nEarlier in the virtual hearing, Mr Brettler told Judge Kaplan that a potential defendant was \"someone who was not named as a defendant but could have been\".\n\nHe said that a potential defendant would be someone Ms Giuffre knew that she had \"claims against at the time that she filed the lawsuit\" in 2009.\n\nJudge Kaplan said \"potential\" was a phrase that neither he nor Mr Brettler could \"find any meaning at all\" in.\n\nMr Brettler told Judge Kaplan that Prince Andrew \"could have been sued\" at the time but was not, and added that he wanted Ms Giuffre to \"lock herself into a story now\" and provide further and more precise details of her allegations.\n\n\"She does not articulate what supposedly happened to her at the hands of Prince Andrew,\" he said.\n\nBut Judge Kaplan replied: \"That's not a dog that is going to hunt here. It's not going to happen.\" That information was not required at this stage of proceedings, he added.\n\nMr Brettler concluded by saying the case should \"absolutely be dismissed\".\n\nDavid Boies, acting for Ms Giuffre, told Tuesday's hearing the prince would not be a \"potential defendant\" as referred to in the civil case documents released on Monday.\n\n\"The only claim that is asserted that was made in Florida in the 2009 action that covered Prince Andrew was the third count, which was to transport somebody for the purpose of illegal sexual activity,\" he said.\n\n\"There is no allegation that Prince Andrew was the person transporting. There is no allegation that Prince Andrew fell into the category of people who were doing the trafficking.\n\n\"He was somebody to whom the girls were trafficked.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince Andrew tells BBC Newsnight in 2019 he cannot recall any incident involving Virginia Giuffre\n\nThe prince has consistently denied Ms Giuffre's allegations, telling BBC Newsnight in 2019: \"It didn't happen. I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened. I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever.\"\n\nIn her 2009 claim against Epstein, lawyers for Ms Giuffre said that as well as being exploited by Epstein, Ms Giuffre \"was also required to be sexually exploited by defendant's adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academics, businessmen and or other professional and personal acquaintances\".\n\nThat case never went to trial because on 17 November 2009, Epstein agreed to pay her $500,000 to stop it in its tracks. That deal had been confidential but has now been made public because of its potential importance to the Andrew case.\n\nEpstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.", "The DUP's Sammy Wilson also uses his question to ask the prime minister whether he will exercise his \"Brexit freedom\" and cut VAT on fuel bills.\n\nHe also asks for a review of green levies, which he argues could also help prevent bills reaching \"unsustainable\" levels.\n\nBoris Johnson says the energy price cap provides protection for consumers and the government is determined to \"do what we can\" to help through its payments and allowances.\n\nBut he says there is a need for the UK to have a \"better supply of cheap and renewable energy\" - and says Labour failed to do this when in power.", "Concerns have been raised about NHS staff being left exhausted\n\nSome non-urgent surgery is being halted at Greater Manchester hospitals as the \"rising impact\" of Covid-19 and staffing shortages continues to affect NHS trusts.\n\nMore than 20 English NHS trusts have declared critical incidents, according to Downing Street.\n\nTwo trusts in Bristol declared the highest level of alert earlier.\n\nHealth bosses in Greater Manchester said about 15% of their workforce were either ill with Covid or isolating.\n\nHealth minister Gillian Keegan said the government knew \"this was going to be one of the most pressurised winters\" for the NHS and that extra investment had been given to help the service cope.\n\nShe said declaring critical incidents was part of \"our NHS contingency and resilience plans\" that are \"tried and tested\" and in place every winter.\n\nGreater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership said the decision affecting 17 hospitals was \"a temporary measure\" and that cancer care, cardiac and vascular surgery and transplantation would not be affected.\n\nBut it said Covid admissions were also rising sharply, with more than one in five patients in some of the region's hospitals testing positive.\n\nThey said the \"challenges may get worse\" in the next fortnight.\n\nFiona Noden, chief executive of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said the suspension of surgery had been \"a very difficult decision\" which was taken to ensure \"we can keep people safe, maintain infection control, deploy staff where they are needed most [and] keep looking after people who need urgent and emergency care\".\n\nGreater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said social care was also hit hard by staff absences with around half of care homes in the region are unable to accept new residents.\n\nHe said there were about 650 people in hospital beds who are medically fit to be discharged but a shortage of care homes to take them.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How is the NHS in your area coping this winter? This trust does not currently supply A&E waiting time figures. When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data. Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted. This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available. If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed. In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data. Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board. Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.\n\nChris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said a critical incident was \"an indication of very serious pressure\" at a trust which may \"not be able to provide\" a range of priority services.\n\nOther NHS trusts that have announced critical incidents since Christmas across England include:\n\nElsewhere, North East Ambulance Service has asked people with suspected strokes or heart attacks to get a lift to hospital because of staff shortages.\n\nPatients were waiting on average for an hour to be seen and medical director Dr Mathew Beattie said there had been an 80% increase in Covid-related absences over the last six days.\n\nMs Keegan asked NHS England to review the situation and said people could \"rely on getting to hospital if you are in an emergency like a heart attack\".\n\nThe NHS is always under pressure at this time of year.\n\nIn previous winters critical incidents have been declared and non-urgent surgery cancelled. Compromised care is nothing new.\n\nThat's not to say the health service isn't facing a unique set of pressures this year.\n\nAdmissions for Covid are already twice what would normally be seen for all types of respiratory infections. Staff absences are also double what they traditionally would be. And on both measures the situation is getting worse.\n\nWhat will be crucial is how much worse things get. The hope is infections will peak soon - and pressure on hospitals quickly afterwards.\n\nMuch though depends on whether there is more spread among older age groups, who are at most risk of serious illness.\n\nMinisters are banking on the boosters limiting this. It will be at least a week maybe two before we have the answer.\n\nMeanwhile, Covid testing rules are to be eased for people without symptoms, who will no longer need to confirm a positive lateral flow test with a PCR.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency said the rule change will apply from 11 January and apply to England only for now.\n\nMatthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: \"In many parts of the health service, we are currently in a state of crisis.\n\n\"Some hospitals are making urgent calls to exhausted staff to give up rest days and leave to enable them to sustain core services.\n\n\"Community and social care services, which were already massively overstretched, are at breaking point. In many areas, ambulance services are unable to meet their target response times.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Boris Johnson said he hoped England could \"ride out\" the current wave without further restrictions but acknowledged parts of the NHS would feel \"temporarily overwhelmed\".\n\nHas your surgery been postponed? Share your experiences haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The Covid pandemic triggered a 71% drop in international flights in and out of the UK in 2021, says a new report.\n\nAbout 406,060 international flights operated from the UK this year, compared with 1,399,170 in 2019 before travel was restricted.\n\nUK domestic flights also fell by nearly 60%, said aviation analytics firm Cirium.\n\nBudget airline Ryanair remained the largest carrier in the UK, with more than 100,000 UK flights in 2021.\n\nRival airline easyJet followed closely behind, with more than 82,000 flights in total, according to data collected by Cirium.\n\nThe busiest international route was between London's Heathrow and New York's JFK.\n\nThis was despite the US only opening its borders to UK travellers in November.\n\nShort-haul flights proved to be the most popular, with eight out of the 10 most popular routes being to Europe.\n\nLondon Heathrow to Amsterdam, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt came in third, fourth and fifth place respectively.\n\nMeanwhile, the UK's busiest domestic route was between Land's End to St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly.\n\nThe 31-mile route saw about 2,330 one-way flights between January and December 2021.\n\nFollowing a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases throughout the UK due to the Omicron variant, the outlook for 2022 remains uncertain.\n\nThe uncertainty has already sparked a rise in cancellations over the festive period because of concerns over potential further restrictions.", "Ghislaine Maxwell is seen during the trial in a court sketch\n\nLawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell say she deserves a new trial after a juror told media that he used his own experience of being sexually abused to persuade other jurors who doubted witnesses.\n\nProsecutors also asked the judge to open an inquiry into the statements.\n\nMaxwell was found guilty last week of grooming underage girls to be abused by Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nThe juror said he told fellow jurors that, like some of Epstein's victims, he had been abused as a child.\n\nThe man, who asked to be identified by his first and middle name, Scotty David, told reporters that he shared his experiences with jurors after some had questioned the recollections from two of Maxwell's accusers.\n\n\"I know what happened when I was sexually abused. I remember the colour of the carpet, the walls. Some of it can be replayed like a video,\" he said he told the jury, according to The Independent. \"But I can't remember all the details, there are some things that run together.\"\n\n\"When I shared that, they were able to sort of come around on, they were able to come around on the memory aspect of the sexual abuse,\" Scotty David said, referring to other jurors, according to the Reuters news agency.\n\nHe also said that he \"flew through\" the juror questionnaire used before trial to ascertain whether prospective jurors could judge Maxwell fairly, and did not recall being asked about his experiences with sexual abuse. He added that he would have answered honestly.\n\nIn a letter to US District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan, who presided over Maxwell's trial, the lawyer for the British socialite said there were \"incontrovertible grounds\" for a new trial to serve the interest of justice.\n\nThe letter was filed shortly after prosecutors said the reports \"merit attention by the Court\".\n\nNeama Rahmani, a lawyer and legal commentator who co-founded West Coast Trial Lawyers, told the BBC that if Scotty David \"lied on his prospective juror questionnaire and denied being the victim of sexual abuse, that would be both perjury and potential grounds for a mistrial\".\n\n\"This is why prosecutors cringe when jurors talk to the media after a guilty verdict: because jurors may say something that may overturn the conviction,\" he said.\n\nMaxwell, 60, was convicted on five of the six counts she faced, including the most serious charge - that of sex-trafficking a minor. Her lawyers have already said they will appeal against the verdict.\n\nA long-time associate of convicted child sex offender Epstein, Maxwell has been in jail since July 2020 when she was charged with involvement in the financier's abuse of teenage girls. Some of the victims were as young as 14.\n\nEpstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.\n\nA date for her sentencing has not yet been set.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The secret lives of Maxwell and Epstein", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'It felt so wrong we were violated this way'\n\nTaking photos of breastfeeding mothers in public without their consent is to be made a crime in England and Wales.\n\nJustice Secretary Dominic Raab said the move would stop women being \"pestered, whether it's for self-gratification or for harassment purposes\".\n\nCampaigners welcomed the decision, calling it \"a victory for breastfeeding mothers\".\n\nThe law will form part of the the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill going through Parliament.\n\nMr Raab also confirmed another amendment to the bill to give victims of domestic abuse more time to report crimes to police, and \"plug gaps\" in the law that risks offenders escaping justice.\n\nHe confirmed the six-month time limit in cases of common assaults involving domestic abuse will be extended, after the BBC revealed almost 13,000 such cases in England and Wales had been dropped in the past five years.\n\nManchester-based designer Julia Cooper began the campaign to make taking pictures of breastfeeding mothers illegal after her own experience in a local park last April.\n\n\"I sat down to breastfeed my daughter and I noticed a man on another bench staring at us,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"I stared back to let him know that I had clocked his gaze, but undeterred he got out his digital camera, attached a zoom lens and started photographing us.\"\n\nMs Cooper said she was \"completely shocked and devastated\" by the incident, but her troubles continued after Greater Manchester Police told her no crime had been committed and there was nothing they could do.\n\n\"I just felt that was so wrong that we had been violated in this way and there was nothing the police could do to help,\" she added.\n\n\"I was angry he felt just this right to capture what I was doing. It was disgusting. And I just felt so helpless, so I thought I need to do something about this.\"\n\nMs Cooper contacted her local Labour MP Jeff Smith, and his colleague Stella Creasy, who had her own experience of being photographed by a teenager on a train when feeding her child - telling the BBC it was a \"horrible experience\" that made her feel \"so self-conscious\".\n\nThe pair took the campaign to the Commons and put forward an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in June, calling for a change in the law.\n\nBut while Home Office minister Victoria Atkins called taking such photos \"unacceptable, creepy and disgusting behaviour\", she said the government was waiting for a review from the Law Commission on how best to act.\n\nNow there has been a change of heart in the Ministry of Justice, with government minister Lord Wolfson putting forward his own an amendment to the bill in the Lords.\n\nIt will make a new offence of \"recording images of, or otherwise observing, breastfeeding without consent or a reasonable belief as to consent\" and to be found guilty, the perpetrator \"must be acting for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification or of humiliating, alarming or distressing the victim\".\n\nStella Creasy - pictured here with her son in the Commons - was also photographed when breastfeeding her child\n\nMs Cooper said she was \"delighted\" by the move, despite what she described as \"too-ing and fro-ing from government\" on the issue.\n\n\"It is a victory for breastfeeding mothers and it will provide the reassurance that we can breastfeed in public without strangers freely photographing and filming us as they wish.\n\n\"The law is on their side, the law is going to protect them and I am so pleased.\"\n\nMs Creasy also welcomed the change, saying it \"shows the law needs to keep up with the times, with people having phones and being able to take pictures and share them so easily\".\n\nBut the Labour MP also said it showed the importance of having more mothers in Parliament - another campaign she is leading - to make sure their voices were heard on the issues that affected them.\n\nThe other amendment being made to the same bill focuses on extending the six-month time limit victims of common assault face in England and Wales when it comes to reporting the crime.\n\nThe clock currently starts from the date of the incident, and within the next six months, a victim needs to have come forward and the police have to have carried out their work to secure a charge against the alleged perpetrator, or the case will be dropped.\n\nBut victims of domestic common assault - which includes things like a push, threatening words or being spat at - are sometimes reluctant to report incidents and the cases can be complex.\n\nIn October last year, the BBC exclusively revealed that 13,000 cases had been dropped in five years because of the time limit being breached, with campaigners calling for the police to be given more time before having to bring charges.\n\nAt the time, the BBC was told Home Secretary Priti Patel backed increasing the time limit to two years, but nothing official was announced.\n\nNow, her cabinet colleague, Mr Raab, has confirmed the starting point for the sixth month time limit will change - from the point of the offence to when the crime is reported to police - and a new overall time limit of two years will be introduced from the date of the offence to bringing a prosecution.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"The reason is that if you've been the victim of domestic abuse, it takes time to physically recover, to emotionally recover, and then to muster the confidence, the courage to come forward,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"We want to make sure that the perpetrators of abuse cannot evade justice by being timed out.\"\n\nShadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the change, which she had also campaigned for, but insisted she would \"keep up the pressure for more action\" from the government when it came to tackling violence against women and girls.\n\nMr Raab admitted bringing successful prosecutions for domestic abuse and other violent crimes was a \"huge challenge\", but said the government had a \"rigorous and robust\" package in place to support women who'd been subject to abuse or violence, but was \"constantly looking for ways to do better\".", "Children under 12 can receive the vaccine in several European countries\n\nA mother has driven her nine-year-old daughter hundreds of miles to Italy so she can be vaccinated against Covid-19.\n\nUnlike some European countries, the vaccine is currently only available to under-12s in the UK if they are classed as clinically vulnerable.\n\nBut Alice Colombo headed to Milan from Maidstone, Kent, so her daughter, who has Italian citizenship, could be jabbed regardless.\n\nShe said she did it to protect \"the most precious thing in the world\".\n\nThe UK government said further advice regarding vaccination for five to 11-year-olds would be issued in due course following consideration of additional data, but that the majority of children in that age group were at very low risk of becoming seriously ill due to the coronavirus.\n\nMs Colombo said: \"I'd rather risk a vaccine we know a fair amount about than take pot luck with a virus about which we know very little.\"\n\nShe added she was particularly concerned about the effects of long Covid.\n\nShe said: \"Why would I not give protection to the most precious thing in the world to me, my daughter, rather than run the risk of her turning round to me in five, 10, 15 years' time, saying 'Mum, I've got heart problems, I've got brain problems, I've got lung problems, why didn't you do all you could at the time to protect me'?\"\n\nMs Colombo said the pair made the journey to Italy in a 13-hour road trip to minimise the risk of mixing with others in planes and airports.\n\nAdding she would like to see the UK roll out vaccinations for under-12s, she explained: \"I feel incredibly, incredibly sorry for all those other parents who share my opinion and would like to get their children vaccinated.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "More than 700,000 people have signed a petition calling for former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair to have his knighthood removed.\n\nThe ex-Labour leader, who was in power from 1997 to 2007, was given the title as the New Year's Honours were awarded.\n\nBut the petition complains that his role in the Iraq war makes him \"personally responsible\" for many deaths and accuses him of \"war crimes\".\n\nAnd a government minister said it was \"only right\" to reward the former prime minister, who had done \"many good things\" for the UK.\n\nOn 1 January, Sir Tony became a member of the Order of the Garter, England's oldest and most senior order of chivalry.\n\nThe appointment was the personal choice of the Queen, who has up to 24 \"knight and lady companions\", with current Prime Minister Boris Johnson not involved in the decision.\n\nBut a petition posted on the change.org website by actor and presenter Angus Scott says Sir Tony \"caused irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation's society\" while in office.\n\n\"He was personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent, civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts. For this alone he should be held accountable for war crimes,\" it adds.\n\n\"Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen.\"\n\nAngus Scott had a role in TV drama The Crown\n\nAngus Scott was watching the news on New Year's Eve when he found out Tony Blair was getting a knighthood.\n\n\"I just thought it was an appalling decision, so I decided to do something,\" he tells the BBC. \"I've never done a petition before in my life. It took me quite a while to work out how to get it set up.\"\n\nMr Scott, 55, a voice-over artist and actor, who describes himself as largely apolitical, says: \"I thought it might pick up a few hundred signatures, but obviously it taps into a deep feeling that's pretty obvious around the country. The honours system itself - people are starting to question if it's appropriate.\"\n\nThe petition has received enthusiastic backing on social media from left-wing activists and Stop the War campaigners.\n\nMr Scott, who had a small role in the first season of Netflix drama The Crown, says that even though the petition has attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures, \"realistically, it's unlikely to end up in the rescinding of the knighthood order by the Queen\".\n\n\"It would do almost more damage to the reputation of the Palace by rescinding it,\" Mr Scott, from Norfolk, says. \"The Palace has got itself into a bit of muddle.\n\n\"But if I get enough signatures on the petition, it will give a clear message that this country is a democracy and that the establishment has to start listening to people.\n\n\"He's been out of office for more than 14 years, but an awful lot of people have very strong feelings about Tony Blair's record, and they have to be heeded.\"\n\nUnlike the New Year's Honours list, which is drawn up by the government for the Queen's approval, the Order of the Garter is bestowed as a personal gift by the Queen.\n\nThe Honours Forfeiture Committee cannot recommend the removal of knighthoods handed out in this way.\n\nSir Keir, a former director of public prosecutions who received his own knighthood for services to law and criminal justice in 2014, said: \"I don't think [Boris Johnson] has earned the right to a have an honour. I do think Tony Blair has.\"\n\nConservative minister Maggie Throup told LBC radio: \"[Tony Blair] did lots of good things and it's only right that we do honour our previous prime ministers.\"\n\nCould Theresa May be in line for a damehood following Sir Tony's honour?\n\nOf the other four living former prime ministers, only Sir John Major has received a knighthood-level honour, with Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May as yet missing out.\n\nBut Ms Throup, the vaccines minister, said Sir Tony's award \"now opens the doors for others to be recognised in the same way\".\n\nLabour MP Peter Kyle, a supporter of Sir Tony, told BBC Radio 4's World at One: \"I'm happy about the knighthood. I'm talking to you as a gay man. Almost all the freedoms I enjoy as such were granted by the Blair government.\n\n\"Do I think he deserve a knighthood? I think he deserves a knighthood for that alone\".\n\nIn 2009, US President George W Bush presented Sir Tony with the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest US civilian honour - for \"efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad\".\n\nBut the 2016 Chilcot report into the UK's involvement in the Iraq war found Sir Tony's government had chosen to join the US-led invasion before all peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted.\n\nIt also said planning and preparations for the country after the deposing of Saddam Hussein had been \"wholly inadequate\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Australian PM Scott Morrison: \"There should be no special rules for Novak Djokovic\"\n\nWorld number one tennis player Novak Djokovic's entry to Australia has been delayed over an issue with his visa.\n\nThe player arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday, where authorities noticed that his team had made a mistake on his application.\n\nDjokovic is due to play in the Australian Open, after being exempted from vaccination rules.\n\nBut his team had not requested a visa that permits medical exemptions for being unvaccinated.\n\nAll players and staff at the tournament must be vaccinated or have an exemption granted by an expert independent panel.\n\nThe tennis star has been quizzed for hours about his visa status and exemption evidence in a room in Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport and is still awaiting a decision. He has not spoken about his vaccination status, but last year he said he was \"opposed to vaccination\".\n\nThe country's border force had sought clarification from the Victorian state government about his visa application, the Melbourne-based Age newspaper reports.\n\nBut state government Minister Jaala Pulford tweeted that his application would not be supported. Visa approvals were a matter for the federal government, she added.\n\nMeanwhile, Djokovic's father, Srdjan Djokovic said his son was being held in a room guarded by police.\n\n\"I have no idea what's going on, they're holding my son captive for five hours.\n\n\"This is not just a fight for Novak, but a fight for the whole world. If they don't let him go in half an hour, we will gather on the street\" he said in a statement released to the media.\n\nDjokovic's coach and fellow Grand Slam champion Goran Ivanisevic posted a photo of himself on Instagram from a room in Melbourne, along with the caption: \"Not the most usual trip Down Under.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by goranivanisevicofficial This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEarlier, Australia's prime minister said Djokovic would be refused entry to the country unless he provided evidence that he could not be vaccinated for medical reasons.\n\nScott Morrison said the tennis player \"could be on the next plane home\" if the proof was insufficient.\n\nThe tournament's organisers say the defending champion has not been given special treatment, but the decision has infuriated many Australians. The country is seeing tens of thousands of Covid-19 cases for the first time after enduring some of the world's strictest restrictions.\n\nMr Morrison said the Serbian player would be required to present evidence upon arrival that he has a genuine medical exemption from vaccination. The Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne.\n\n\"If that evidence is insufficient, then he won't be treated any different to anyone else,\" the prime minister told reporters. \"There should be no special rules for Novak Djokovic at all. None whatsoever.\"\n\nThe comments seemed to represent a change in his position, after he said on Tuesday that Victoria's state government had provided the player with an exemption to enter the country and that officials would act \"in accordance with that decision\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMore than 90% of Australia's over-16 population is fully vaccinated, but some people still cannot travel interstate or globally because of current measures.\n\nMany Australians had previously accused the government of allowing the rich and famous to do as they please while ordinary people remained separated from sick and dying loved ones.\n\n\"I think it's a disgrace,\" Melbourne resident Christine Wharton told ABC. \"We've all done the right thing, we've all gone out and got our jabs and our boosters and we have someone that has come from overseas and all of a sudden he's been exempt and can play.\"\n\nNovak Djokovic has been granted permission to defend his Australian Open title\n\nThe decision raised eyebrows with some other tennis players too. \"I just think it's very interesting. That's all I'm going to say,\" Australian Alex de Minaur said.\n\nBritain's Jamie Murray added: \"I think if it was me that wasn't vaccinated I wouldn't be getting an exemption. You know, but well done to him for getting clear to come to Australia and compete.\"\n\nThe tournament's chief executive, Craig Tiley, said 26 athletes had applied for medical exemptions. \"A handful\" had been granted, he said, under guidelines set by federal regulators.\n\n\"We made it extra difficult for anyone applying for an application to ensure it was the right process and to make sure the medical experts deal with it independently,\" he told Channel 9.\n\nNovak Djokovic's announcement has made him an enemy to some and a hero to others. Whilst the tennis champion has never openly confirmed whether he has been vaccinated, what we do know is that he has previously tested positive for the virus and discussed his opposition to vaccines.\n\nDuring a Facebook live in April 2020 he explained how he \"wouldn't want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine\" should that be necessary to travel or compete in tournaments.\n\nThese comments were widely shared and praised in Facebook groups and Telegram channels promoting outlandish conspiracies that the vaccines are part of a sinister plot to control and harm the world's population.\n\nAnd previous comments like this have added fuel to the fire when it comes to the latest row over why he has been granted an exemption to travel.\n\nIn Telegram channels promoting Covid-19 conspiracies, the exemption has given rise to incorrect theories that the vaccine is experimental. It has also led to outspoken vaccine sceptics, such as US tennis player Tennys Sandgren, to come out in support of Djokovic.\n\nApplications for medical exemptions are being assessed anonymously by two separate panels, with inflammatory cardiac illness or another acute condition listed as valid reasons.\n\nBut it is also possible Djokovic has recently tested positive for the virus, which would allow him to defer taking the vaccine.\n\nA spokeswoman for the event told the BBC they could not comment on the reasons behind the player's exemption.", "The growth in the number of cases of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland was exponential at the end of 2021.\n\nIn the week prior to Christmas, the rolling seven-day average for daily cases in Northern Ireland hit a new high and started to creep towards 2,000.\n\nIn the final week of 2021, this new peak itself was dwarfed.\n\nThe rolling seven-day average exceeded 5,000 - a level never before seen in Northern Ireland.\n\nGiven the Christmas and new year holidays, the Department of Health (DoH) dashboard has not been updated as frequently.\n\nBut the updates that have been given have made one thing clear - the omicron variant has been spreading at an exceptional pace.\n\nAccording to the latest figures from the UK government, Northern Ireland's infection stands at 1,619.8 per 100,00 people.\n\nThat is for the seven days up until 27 December and it is the highest in the UK.\n\nThe equivalent number for the same period in the Republic of Ireland was 1,116.\n\nThe majority of new cases have been among young adults.\n\nAbout half of all cases over the past week have been in people aged 20-39.\n\nUntil schools finished for Christmas, infections were driven mainly by young people under the age of 20.\n\nSince Christmas Eve, there has been an increase in the number of inpatients in Northern Ireland's hospitals with the virus - latest figures indicate 314.\n\nThis is about 10% of Northern Ireland's hospital capacity.\n\nThe same figures show there are 34 Covid-positive patients in intensive care, with 25 ventilated.\n\nThese numbers are consistent with what was seen during the rest of December.\n\nThis indicates that Omicron, so far, has not contributed to any noticeable increase in people suffering from the virus requiring intensive care.\n\nThe Covid-19 death rate - as reported by the DoH - fell slightly at the start of December and has been relatively consistent since.", "The Mail on Sunday published a letter the duchess sent to her father Thomas Markle in 2018\n\nThe Duchess of Sussex will receive £1 in damages from Associated Newspapers after the Mail on Sunday was found to have invaded her privacy.\n\nThe nominal sum was set out in court documents which formally confirm the newspaper has accepted defeat.\n\nThe Mail on Sunday published a handwritten letter that Meghan sent to her father Thomas Markle in 2018.\n\nThe media company will also pay an unspecified sum for a separate case of infringing her copyright.\n\nAssociated Newspapers previously indicated it was considering a further appeal to the Supreme Court, but the company has now accepted defeat in the long-running case.\n\nLast February, the High Court had ruled against the newspaper group on the issue of privacy and copyright - saying the issues in the case were so clear cut that there was no need for a full hearing.\n\nAssociated Newspapers was refused permission to appeal against the decision but went to the Court of Appeal in an attempt to get the original ruling overturned.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nHowever, in December, the Court of Appeal rejected Associated Newspapers' attempt to have a trial.\n\nJudges at the appeal said it was hard to see what evidence at a trial would have altered the situation.\n\nThey added: \"The judge had correctly decided that, whilst it might have been proportionate to publish a very small part of the letter... it was not necessary to publish half the contents of the letter.\"\n\nA spokesman for Associated Newspapers said at the time: \"It is our strong view that judgment should be given only on the basis of evidence tested at trial, and not on a summary basis in a heavily contested case.\"\n\nIn her own statement issued after the ruling, the duchess urged people to be \"brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that... profits from the lies and pain that they create\".\n\nAssociated Newspapers will also pay a confidential sum for copyright infringement, while the Mail on Sunday also faces having to cover a substantial part of Meghan's legal costs, which could be more than £1m.\n\nThe £1 might sound like small change, but Meghan's big ambition was about the principle rather than the pay-off.\n\nHer lawyers had already signalled, before the Mail on Sunday's appeal was heard, that they only sought nominal damages over the privacy breach.\n\nThere had been legal exchanges about whether it should be £1 or £5, so maybe the paper got one bargain out of it.\n\nBecause if those amounts seem rather frugal, it was alongside a wrangle over a hefty £1.5m in legal costs.\n\nAnd the token privacy payment was balanced by a much higher confidential amount over the copyright claim.\n\nPlus the newspaper had to publish a front page statement about her courtroom success.\n\nIt was much further reaching than a poundshop win.\n\nMedia lawyer Mark Stephens told the Guardian the nominal £1 settlement suggested a weakness in the privacy aspect of the duchess's case.\n\n\"Normally for that kind of invasion of privacy you would expect £75,000 to £125,000,\" he said. \"It does show that the curation of her reputation was an area where she had effectively invaded her own privacy.\"\n\nHowever, libel lawyer David Hooper told The Daily Beast: \"Accepting the £1 will likely have avoided a tremendous argument about the extent of the damage she suffered.\n\n\"She just wanted to establish a principle and get her legal costs paid, although she may well still be a half a million pounds out of pocket as a result of this process.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) assembly member Diane Dodds has described online abuse mocking her late son as \"callous and malicious\".\n\nThe Upper Bann representative's son Andrew was born with spina bifida and died in 1998, aged eight.\n\nPolice are investigating after she was targeted by an anonymous Twitter account, which has since been removed.\n\n\"In politics you expect the rough and tumble, but you probably don't expect that level of brutality,\" she said.\n\nA spokesperson for Twitter said the company wanted to \"reiterate our commitment to ensuring that Twitter doesn't become a forum that facilitates abuse\".\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Nolan Show, Mrs Dodds said online trolling could be both harmful and dangerous, adding that those involved set out to \"strike the core of your very being\".\n\nShe said she had received messages of support from members of the public and other politicians following the incident on New Year's Eve.\n\n\"People are shell-shocked that there can be this much cruelty and callousness,\" she said.\n\nMrs Dodds said the anonymous Twitter account involved has also been trolling victims of terrorism on the platform.\n\nPolice Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers attended her constituency office on Tuesday.\n\nPolice officers visited Diane Dodds at her constituency office on Tuesday\n\nThe former economy minister welcomed Westminster's plans to introduce an online harm bill but she said what is being proposed won't be effective enough.\n\n\"People in the public eye seem to be seen as fair game,\" Mrs Dodds said.\n\n\"I don't see anything in the new bill that will actually deal with this feature that people on social media can hide behind a cloak of anonymity.\n\n\"It is really time the government got a grip on the situation.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Twitter said: \"Protecting the health of the public conversation on Twitter is important to us, and we'll continue to enforce our policies across violative content.\n\n\"We acknowledge and want to reiterate our commitment to ensuring that Twitter doesn't become a forum that facilitates abuse and we continue to examine our own policy approaches and ways we can enforce our rules at speed and scale.\"", "A 28-year-old man has died following a stabbing incident in Downpatrick, County Down.\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland has begun a murder investigation after the attack in Church Street on Monday.\n\nIt happened at about 11:00 GMT and the victim was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.\n\nA man in his 30s has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) said it sent several crews to the incident after it received a 999 call about an assault in Church Street.\n\nIt deployed an air ambulance crew, three emergency crews and a rapid response paramedic to the scene.\n\n\"Following assessment and initial treatment at the scene, no patients were taken to hospital,\" an NIAS spokesman said.\n\nAssembly member Colin McGrath, from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), told BBC News NI it was the second stabbing to take place on Church Street in recent days.\n\nHe condemned the incident and said \"the local community will be understandably shocked\".\n\nSinn Féin councillor Cathy Mason described reports of the stabbing as disturbing and urged anyone with information to contact police.\n\n\"My thoughts and prayers with family and friends of the victim,\" she added.\n\nHouse of Lords member Baroness Margaret Ritchie also sent her deepest sympathies to the dead man's family and friends.\n\n\"I totally condemn this murder which will be abhorred by all the population in Downpatrick and further afield,\" she said.\n\n\"This follows on from the stabbing incident in the town a few days ago,\" the peer added.\n\n\"Both incidents are not characteristic of life, society and our community in Downpatrick and understandably the local population in Church Street and the wider town area will be traumatised and appalled by this incident.\"\n\nThe earlier stabbing took place at a bar in Church Street on Saturday morning, 1 January.\n\nHowever, it is understood police are not investigating a link at this time between Saturday's stabbing and the murder on Monday.", "The GMB accused the council of \"playing Russian roulette with the safety of Carmarthenshire residents\"\n\nCouncil gritters began the first of 12 days of industrial action on Wednesday over pay and conditions.\n\nFurther action is planned by staff in Carmarthenshire on Thursday, 6 January; from January 17 to 21 and from January 24 to 28.\n\nThe GMB union accused the council of \"playing Russian roulette with the safety of Carmarthenshire residents\".\n\nThe authority said arrangements were in place to ensure travellers remained safe.\n\nThe GMB said the action was over members not being stood down from work in the expected manner after being put on call.\n\nGMB organiser Peter Hill said: \"Our members are also Carmarthenshire residents and we're advising our families and friends to avoid the roads over the next 48 hours as many will not be gritted.\"\n\nUnison said the council had been \"chipping away at the agreement by not standing down workers\" and that responsibility for the dispute lay \"squarely with the council\".\n\nIt accused the council of \"spending significant amounts of taxpayer money maintaining an inferior winter gritting service\".\n\n\"Councillors should get involved and give commitments to stick with an agreement their senior management signed,\" a spokesman said.\n\nCarmarthenshire council said contingency plans were in place to help drivers stay safe\n\nThe council's environment member, Hazel Evans, said the council made an agreement with the trade unions in 2020 to cover winter maintenance duties which \"provided them with a remuneration package which is one of the highest in Wales\".\n\nMs Evans said the council had adhered to the agreement's terms and conditions.\n\n\"An increased offer was put to the trade unions to help secure the winter maintenance service,\" she said.\n\n\"The offer is considered very reasonable and at the level of what the council can afford.\n\n\"Unfortunately, trade union colleagues have chosen not to present this offer to their members but have decided to ballot and implement a period of industrial action at this difficult time.\"\n\nIt said its offer remained on the table.\n\n\"In the interim the council will implement its contingency plan to undertake gritting on a reduced resilient network,\" Ms Evans said.\n\nThe Unite union declined to comment as only as only a small number of its members were involved.", "Artwork: The secondary mirror is in position, but the main mirror's \"wings\" still need to come out\n\nMission controllers are ticking off the final major deployments needed to set up the new James Webb Space Telescope.\n\nWednesday saw the observatory's secondary mirror locked into position on the end of three 8m-long booms.\n\nIt sets the stage for the all-important unpacking of Webb's giant primary mirror - the biggest reflecting surface ever sent into orbit.\n\nAt 6.5m across, this segmented feature will pick up the light from the very first stars to ignite in the cosmos.\n\nThe mirror's great size will enable it to gather the faintest signals in the most exquisite detail.\n\nBut the reflector will be useless if the light it collects cannot be directed into the telescope's instruments. This is the role of the 74cm-wide secondary mirror. Sitting out in front, it will bounce back into the heart of the observatory whatever the main mirror sees.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch the moment Webb moves away from its launch rocket to begin its mission\n\nLike many of the James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) components, the secondary mirror had to be folded to fit inside the mission's 25-December launch rocket.\n\nIt was actually flat-packed up against the main mirror, with one of its three booms given a hinge joint to make sure everything was tucked in tight.\n\nControllers at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Maryland, US, sent the commands on Wednesday to drive the booms into their proper, stretched-out configuration.\n\nThis occurred in two carefully controlled movements, which ended with the tripod frame being latched and locked at 16:52 GMT to prevent any future displacement.\n\n\"Another banner day for JWST. In particular, the secondary mirror deployment folks - you guys did a heck of a job. This is unbelievable,\" said Bill Ochs, the US space agency's (Nasa) Webb programme manager. \"We are now at a point where we're about 600,000 miles from Earth, and we actually have a telescope. Congratulations to everybody.\"\n\nNext up for Webb is the main mirror itself. Its deployment should occur over the next couple of days.\n\nAt launch, this mirror looked a bit like a drop-leaf table with two edges swept back.\n\nThese \"wings\" must now be rotated through 90 degrees to achieve the desired 6.5m-wide concave shape.\n\nAll 18 segments have been made from the metal beryllium, which is light-weight and holds its shape at very low temperatures. The gold coating makes for near-perfect reflection in the infrared - the wavelength of light in which the pioneer stars will be seen to shine.\n\nTaken during assembly, this image shows the fully deployed primary and secondary mirrors\n\nWebb succeeds the Hubble Space Telescope, which, when it was launched in 1990, had a major defect in its primary mirror.\n\nScientists realised very quickly on receiving the first pictures that the reflector hadn't been polished correctly.\n\nIt wasn't until astronauts could take up some corrective optics that Hubble started to see the cosmos with clarity.\n\n\"The segments on the primary mirror have actuators behind them that allow us to move them around, to even change their curvature,\" explained Lee Feinberg, the Nasa engineer in charge of Webb's mirror system.\n\n\"When first deployed in space, those segments will be misaligned. But all those actuators will take us from a misalignment measured in millimetres, all the way down to just nanometres. A factor of a million improvement.\"\n\nIn other words, Webb will be focused in space, a task that will begin in about a month's time.\n\nAn engineer sits in front of the main mirror \"wings\" that must now swing through 90 degrees\n\nThe new observatory has been designed to look deeper into the Universe than Hubble and, as a consequence, detect events occurring further back in time - more than 13.5 billion years ago.\n\nAs well as looking for the earliest stars and galaxies, scientists also expect to use Webb's more advanced capabilities to study the atmospheres of distant planets in the hope that signs of life might be detected.\n\nWebb is currently moving out to a position 1.5 million km from Earth on the planet's \"midnight\" side. It's from this location that it will study the Universe.\n\nJames Webb is a joint venture between the American, European and Canadian space agencies.", "Mr Macron says he wants to limit \"as much as possible\" access to activities for the unvaccinated\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron has been accused of using divisive, vulgar language after he used a slang term to say he wanted to make life difficult for unvaccinated people.\n\n\"I really want to piss them off, and we'll carry on doing this - to the end,\" he told Le Parisien newspaper.\n\nThree months ahead of a presidential election, opponents of Mr Macron said his words were unworthy of a president.\n\nMPs halted debate on a law barring the unvaccinated from much of public life.\n\nThe session in the National Assembly was brought to a standstill for a second night running on Tuesday as opposition delegates complained about the president's language, with one leading figure describing it as \"unworthy, irresponsible and premeditated\".\n\nThe legislation is expected to be approved in a vote this week, but it has angered vaccine opponents and several French MPs have said they have received death threats over the issue.\n\nMandatory vaccinations are being introduced in several European countries, with Austria leading the way for over-14s from next month and Germany planning a similar move for adults. Italy's government meanwhile said on Wednesday it would make vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory from 15 February for everyone over the age of 50.\n\nIn his interview with Le Parisien on Tuesday, Mr Macron used the vulgar term emmerder to say how he wanted to stir up the unvaccinated. He would not \"vaccinate by force\" the remaining five million who had not had a dose, but hoped to encourage people to get the vaccines by \"limiting as much as possible their access to activities in social life\".\n\n\"I won't send [unvaccinated people] to prison,\" he said. \"So we need to tell them, from 15 January, you will no longer be able to go to the restaurant. You will no longer be able to go for a coffee, you will no longer be able to go to the theatre. You will no longer be able to go to the cinema.\"\n\nThe debate in parliament has drawn protests from opponents of the Covid pass\n\nAhead of a presidential election campaign in which Mr Macron is yet to announce his intention to run, his remarks prompted a strong reaction from opposition figures.\n\nRight-wing Republicans candidate Valérie Pécresse said she was outraged that the president had accused unvaccinated people of not being citizens. \"You have to accept them as they are - lead them, bring them together and not insult them,\" she told CNews.\n\nParty colleague Bruno Retailleau said pointedly: \"Emmanuel Macron says he has learned to love the French, but it seems he especially likes to despise them.\"\n\nFar-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen tweeted: \"A president shouldn't say that... Emmanuel Macron is unworthy of his office.\"\n\nMeanwhile, leftist politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon described the remarks as an astonishing confession: \"It's clear, the vaccination pass is a collective punishment against individual freedom.\"\n\nThe airwaves in France are shrill this morning with the sound of angry politicians. From left and right, moderate and extreme, opponents are outbidding each other in condemnation of President Macron's emmerder.\n\nIn a pre-election period, it's an opportunity too good to miss to accuse him of all his old faults: arrogance, flippancy, detachment, ignorance of the concerns of ordinary folk.\n\nBut as this is indeed a pre-election period, we can also be certain the president knew precisely what he was doing when he uttered those provocative words in Le Parisien. This was no uncalculated outburst.\n\nWhat he wants to do is flush out his enemies on the right. The left he's not so bothered about. But Valérie Pécresse's Republicans party (LR) has become - since her nomination as candidate - his main political preoccupation.\n\nBy taking such a strong and coercive position against the unvaccinated, Mr Macron is inviting the LR to choose their side. Are they with him, doing everything possible to boost the number of vaccinated? Or are they siding with the minority, the five million instead of the 50 million, and the anti-vaxxers?\n\nBecause if it's the second, that's actually quite an awkward place to be ahead of a presidential election.\n\nThe latest opinion gave Mr Macron the edge over his rivals on Wednesday, with 27% of votes in the first round on 10 April, ahead of Valérie Pécresse and Marine Le Pen both on 16%. The poll for Le Figaro/LCI also gave him a run-off victory, with the closest margin of 55%-45% with the Republican candidate.\n\nMr Macron's choice of language is not unprecedented for a French leader.\n\nThe same word was used by Georges Pompidou in 1966 when he said it was time to stop annoying the French. Like him, Mr Macron said his role was not to irritate the French, but the unvaccinated was a different story.\n\nMacron ally Christophe Castaner said on Wednesday \"the phrase didn't shock anyone when it came out of Pompidou's mouth\".\n\nPrime Minister Jean Castex told parliament later that people everywhere were saying the same as the president. \"Our citizens have a sense of exasperation seeing a whole kind of restrictions imposed while others choose to break free of them.\"\n\nFrance has one of the highest Covid vaccination rates in the EU, with more than 90% of the adult population double-jabbed.\n\nFor months France has asked people to show either proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test to access many public venues.\n\nBut the French government wants to remove the option to show a negative test in response to record increases in infections, driven by the highly contagious Omicron and Delta variants of Covid.\n\nOn Wednesday, France reported 332,252 new daily Covid cases - the highest number of daily infections recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic.\n\nWhile Mr Macron is yet to formally declare he is standing for a second term, he said on Tuesday he wanted to run and would clarify his decision \"once the health situation allows it\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Experts answer your questions about the Omicron variant", "Scrapping plans to upgrade the Warrior armoured vehicle wasted £595m, the report says\n\nLabour has accused the Ministry of Defence of \"wasting\" £13bn of taxpayers' money since 2010.\n\nThe party used independently-collated data to identify 67 cases of \"waste\" - which it defines as when costs could have been reasonably avoided or reduced by better management.\n\nThese include cancelled contracts and programmes that went over budget.\n\nThe MoD said it had to take \"tough decisions\" to ensure the country was fully equipped to face threats.\n\nBut Labour said its audit of the department's finances showed ministers were \"failing British troops and British taxpayers\".\n\nThe MoD has an annual budget of more than £40bn a year - with nearly half that money spent on equipment. It manages a fifth of all the government's major projects.\n\nHowever, so far none of its 36 major projects is rated green - defined as the project being on time and within the original budget.\n\nLabour's report examined all MoD spending since 2010, covering the years of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coaltion and then the Cameron, May and Johnson-led governments.\n\nIt said that the \"wasted\" £13bn included £4.8bn was from cancelled contracts and £5.6bn of overspending on existing projects.\n\nMany of the examples over the years have already been highlighted by the National Audit Office and the Commons Public Accounts Committee.\n\nThe report gives several examples of projects which have already gone significantly over budget, including:\n\nCancelled projects have also cost the MoD millions of pounds.\n\nThey include the loss of £595m after it scrapped plans to upgrade the Warrior armoured vehicle.\n\nSome £4m was lost on a new IT system which was abandoned. According to the MoD \"the project was paused while other options were investigated and it was ultimately decided not to pursue the project further due to the rapid pace and change in technology\".\n\nPlans to build seven Astute Class attack submarines have gone over budget\n\nThe MoD has also scrapped or sold off some equipment earlier than originally planned.\n\nHundreds of armoured vehicles, purchased for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been disposed of. MoD accounts valued the \"write-off\" at £213m.\n\nThe MoD has been fined £32.6m by the Treasury for breaching its own accounting rules. The Department of Health is the only other government department to have been fined.\n\nLabour suggested the money lost could have paid for more tanks, aircraft and warships - and avoided some of the cuts announced in the recent Integrated Defence Review.\n\nShadow defence secretary John Healey warned that \"without a revolution\" in the way the MoD controls costs there is a \"serious risk that extra funding for defence will be swallowed by a black hole\" in its finances.\n\nHe said a Labour government would make reform of the MoD a priority - first by commissioning a National Audit Office investigation into waste and then by making the MoD the first department subject to a new \"Office for Value of Money\".\n\nHowever, BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said that, in reality, successive governments of all political persuasions have struggled to control defence spending.\n\nAnd the last Labour government was itself accused by the Conservatives opposition of creating a £40bn \"black hole\" in the MoD's budget, which led to significant defence cuts in 2010.\n\nAn MoD statement said: \"This government is serious about investing in defence modernisation to ensure the UK armed forces have the relevant capabilities to face today's threats. That means taking tough decisions to replace old equipment and halt programmes that no longer fit requirements.\n\n\"The government has provided £24bn extra investment, with a fully-funded equipment plan alongside a new Defence and Security Industrial Strategy to maximise the benefits of investments for both the armed forces and UK prosperity.\"", "Lateral flow tests now instruct users to only swab the nose, and not the throat\n\nThe self isolation period for people in Wales who have Covid will be cut from 10 days to seven.\n\nIt only applies to people who have two negative lateral flow tests on days six and seven of their isolation.\n\nThe change comes into effect from New Year's Eve rather than 5 January, as was first planned.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said it was based on \"the balance of harm\", as staff absences place \"huge pressure\" on services.\n\nScotland still has a 10-day self isolation period.\n\nThe change also applies to people who are already self isolating, as well as new cases.\n\nThe lateral flow tests on days six and seven of self isolation must be taken 24 hours apart and if either are positive, then people have to keep isolating.\n\nThese tests, which are for people who are asymptomatic, will now only include a swab of the nose instead of both nose and throat.\n\nStaff are struggling with workloads made worse by high sickness levels\n\nMr Drakeford said services were under \"huge pressure\", adding \"the rising number of cases risks our ability to deliver critical services\".\n\n\"The health service has been doing so much to try to catch up on work that it wasn't able to do earlier in the pandemic, and run a booster campaign and now to deal with more people falling ill,\" he said.\n\n\"Staff in those services are also falling ill because of the new Omicron variant and it's not just in the health service - it's in things like public transport or refuse collection and all the other things that we rely on.\"\n\nRecycling services in Ceredigion have already been affected, the council said, adding it may struggle to provide \"the full range of services\" as it deals with high levels of staff who are off work self isolating.\n\nAnd staff sickness levels in Betsi Cadwaladr health board, in north Wales, \"are rising above levels expected in winter\", according to chief executive Jo Whitehead, who added NHS staff absence was at about 7% in Wales.\n\n\"We are expecting this to increase as we go through this Omicron wave and Welsh government modelling is looking at various possibilities, including staff absence rates as high as 17%,\" she added.\n\nRubbish piled up in some areas earlier this year as staff went off sick or were isolating because of Covid\n\nAnd businesses are also starting to feel the pinch of staff absence, according to Ian Price, director of CBI Wales.\n\nHe said the Welsh government's decision to cut the isolation period was \"a pragmatic choice that can help keep the economy moving\".\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives' health spokesman, Russell George MS, said reducing self isolation by three days would help to \"keep the economy turning and to maintain staff levels in the NHS\".\n\nStricter rules came into effect in Wales on 26 December, meaning groups of no more than six people can meet in pubs, cinemas and restaurants.\n\nOutdoor events are limited to 50, with 30 people allowed indoors, including in private homes.\n\nMr Drakeford confirmed in his statement that Wales would remain at alert level two following the latest review of the Covid restrictions.\n\nMark Drakeford said the public health situation remains very volatile\n\n\"The public health situation remains very volatile and the Christmas period is always one when collecting and analysing data is challenging,\" he said.\n\n\"Against this background, the outcome of the review is that we will continue with the current arrangements for alert level two protections in Wales, while continuing to closely monitor the situation.\"\n\nThe announcement comes as Public Health Wales reported 21,051 new cases of Covid-19 and three more deaths.\n\nThe number of cases covers the 48 hours up to 09:00 GMT on 29 December, whereas the deaths are for a 24-hour period.\n\nThe leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, Andrew RT Davies, tweeted his approval of the move, saying it was a \"good decision\" but should have been made sooner.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Andrew RT Davies This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Shoppers opted to pick up food for festive feasts in-store rather than online in 2021, research suggests.\n\nIn-store visits to supermarkets hit their highest level since March 2020 as consumer confidence returned, according to market research firm Kantar.\n\nOnline sales, however, fell in December by 3.7% against 2020 and accounted for 12.2% of sales.\n\nOverall, spending on groceries hit £11.7bn over the four weeks to 26 December as people splurged on treats.\n\nThat marks a 0.2% decrease from the record-breaking figures in 2020, when strict coronavirus restrictions were in place.\n\nFraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: \"People seized the chance to enjoy Christmas with friends and family after last year's muted festivities.\"\n\nAlthough formal rules restricting festivities weren't in place this last Christmas, shopping data suggests some opted to stock up and celebrate at home again, rather than in a pub or a restaurant, Mr McKevitt said.\n\nThe most popular shopping day took place on 23 December.\n\n\"Shoppers clearly trusted that supermarket shelves would remain well stocked and they didn't feel the need to rush out much earlier to get their favourite festive treats,\" he added.\n\nTotal UK grocery sales reached £31.7bn over the 12-week period, down 3% versus 2020 but up 8% against pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019.\n\nSpending on Christmas dinner items was broadly flat, while people spent more on festive goodies, the new figures show.\n\nSales of mince pies, for example, hit £62m - up 7% on 2020. About £61m was spent on Christmas chocolates, marking a jump of 21%.\n\nThe research also suggests some consumers were slightly nervous about over-indulging, with an 8% rise in the sale of indigestion remedies.\n\nAnd while the healthier sprout saw sales dented, chilled and frozen vegetarian options increased in popularity.\n\nSupermarkets' premium own-brand ranges also fared better than usual as shoppers splashed out. Asda's Extra Special and Iceland's Luxury ranges saw the fastest growth.\n\nBut Kantar pointed out that rising costs have also added to customers' bills.\n\nIt said that grocery price inflation, which tracks how quickly the cost of food items increases over time, reached 3.5% in December, adding nearly £15 to shoppers' average monthly grocery bill.\n\nThe official UK figures showed that inflation hit a 10-year high as the cost of energy, fuel and clothing jumped.\n\nIt came after food and drink industry figures warned that the soaring cost of raw materials and ingredients was having a \"terrifying\" impact on consumer prices.", "Vodafone is delaying the reintroduction of roaming charges in Europe by three weeks.\n\nThe phone network had planned to bring in post-Brexit roaming fees on 6 January, matching other networks that plan to do so in 2022.\n\nBut it said more time was needed for testing, and the change will now come in at the end of January.\n\nEE has also delayed resuming its roaming charges, which were planned for January, until March.\n\nBefore the UK left the EU, users were able to use their calls, texts, and data allowance in their mobile plans in any EU country. But the EU trade deal of December 2020 gave mobile operators the option of reintroducing charges.\n\nThe Three network has also said it will bring in roaming charges between the UK and Europe, though their change is planned for May 2022.\n\nThat means that of the largest mobile networks, only O2 has not announced any plans for the reintroduction of roaming fees.\n\nExplaining the reason for delaying its planned changes, Vodafone said it was not ready to bring in the new system.\n\n\"We have pushed back the introduction of roaming charges to the end of January, giving time for further testing to ensure the best possible experience for customers purchasing our £1 per day bundles. Until then, customers will continue to be able to roam without charges.\"\n\nThe £1 a day charge is Vodafone's best price, and only applies when bought in an eight or 15-day bundle. The usual planned price is £2 per day in fees, matching EE and Three's planned pricing.\n\nEE said the shift in its plans was caused by unspecified technical delays.\n\n\"Making big changes to billing systems in mobile phone networks is always risky,\" said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight and founder of the Mobile Phone Museum.\n\n\"The backlash and negative publicity for any network operator that does not get it right would be immense if a customer ended up with an eye-watering roaming bill.\n\n\"My guess is that rather than rushing out a change, the operators are delaying the introduction to be absolutely sure everything is working.\n\n\"Given the current Covid situation it's not like lots of people are travelling, so the operators are not going to be massively exposed on unexpected roaming costs.\"", "US car giant General Motors has lost its title as America's top car seller for the first time in 90 years.\n\nJapan's Toyota claimed the top spot, selling more than 2.3 million vehicles last year, up 10%.\n\nGM said its sales, which fell 13%, were hurt by the widespread shortage of semiconductor parts that has been affecting the car industry.\n\nThe Detroit company had ranked as the number one US car seller since 1931 and vowed it would bounce back.\n\n\"I wouldn't rush out if I were (Toyota) and get a 'We're No 1' tattoo,\" spokesman Jim Cain said, according to Reuters.\n\nOverall, analysts expect the number of new cars sold in the US to have increased roughly 2% in 2021 compared to 2020, when buyers were reeling from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nBut purchases remain depressed compared to their pre-pandemic levels, as companies grapple with supply chain woes, problems that have also pushed prices higher for consumers.\n\n\"The key constraint for sales continues to be reduced inventory levels as a result of the semiconductor shortage,\" GM chief economist Elaine Buckberg said in a statement discussing the firm's sales and outlook for 2022.\n\nGM sold roughly 2.2 million vehicles last year down from 2.5 million in 2020, relying on its profitable pick-up trucks and SUVs to boost its bottom line.\n\nToyota, which saw strong sales of its hybrids and other models, has been less affected than some other car makers by the shortage of chips, thanks to its decision to build up a stockpile after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. But it has also been forced to cut production amid the shortages.\n\nBut America's top car companies have been ceding ground to international rivals well before the pandemic-related snarls.\n\nFord, General Motors and Chrysler once accounted for as much as 90% of all US car sales and still claimed more than half as recently as 2008. But that has slid lower.\n\nToyota's Camry has been the top-selling passenger car in the US for 20 years, while its Rav4 has ranked as the best-selling SUV for five years.", "Ryan O'Connor, 26, from Alway in Newport died after being attacked last summer\n\nA man was stabbed in the heart and both lungs for his designer Gucci bag, a court has been told.\n\nRyan O'Connor, 26, died after being attacked and robbed on Balfe Road, Newport, on 10 June last year.\n\nOn Wednesday, a jury heard how witnesses claimed they heard the men mocking the father, from Newport, as they left him unconscious in the street.\n\nFour men and one teenager have denied his murder.\n\nLewis Aquilina, 20, Ethan Strickland, 19, Kyle Rasis, 18, from Cardiff and Elliot Fiteni, 20, of no fixed abode, and Joseph Jeremy, 17, are also charged with manslaughter and robbery. They deny all charges.\n\nDuring a trial at Newport Crown Court, Michael Brady QC, prosecuting, said the five men had travelled from Cardiff to Newport in a Ford Fiesta, which had been stolen earlier that day.\n\nHe told the jury they saw Mr O'Connor, from Alway, Newport, wearing the Gucci bag and decided to rob him in a \"swift and brutal\" attack that resulted in significant blood loss.\n\n\"At least two of the defendants left the car, two of who, were armed with very large knives that were used to attack and kill Mr O' Connor,\" he said.\n\n\"They returned to the car with the Gucci bag having robbed him.\"\n\nFlowers line the railings along Balfe Road in memory of Ryan O'Connor last year\n\nThe jury was told that the driver of the stolen car was unfamiliar with the area because after the attack he drove the getaway car into a cul-de-sac named Vaughan Williams Drive.\n\nThe car then had to be driven back past the fatally wounded Mr O'Connor who was being helped by members of the public.\n\nHe was being tended to after being spotted staggering into railings and collapsing.\n\nOn lifting up Mr O'Connor's shirt it was seen he had been stabbed and 999 was dialled.\n\nThe court heard the driver of the car slowed down as he passed Mr O'Connor to mock and ridicule him, and a woman who was trying to help him heard the men laughing as they went past.\n\nAbout 45 minutes later Mr Brady said police spotted the Fiesta in Cardiff's Pentwyn Road.\n\nThe court heard there was a high speed chase before police used a stinger to blow the car's tyres.\n\nA police car then forced the stolen car into railings bringing the pursuit to an end.\n\nThe court was told a knife with Mr O'Connor's blood on was discovered in the vehicle and the Gucci bag was discovered at the home of Mr Rasis.\n\nThe court also heard the youngest defendant, Mr Jeremy, live-streamed his arrest.\n\nThe trial is expected to last between six to eight weeks.", "More than 30 million copies of Nevermind have been sold worldwide\n\nA judge in California has dismissed a lawsuit against Nirvana made by Spencer Elden, who appeared as a naked baby on the cover of their album Nevermind.\n\nElden sued the band last year, alleging sexual exploitation, and that the artwork constituted child sexual abuse.\n\nNow 30, he said the infamous image had caused him \"extreme and permanent emotional distress\" as well as loss of wages and \"enjoyment of life\".\n\nNirvana filed to dismiss last month, saying Elden's arguments lacked merit.\n\n\"Elden's claim that the photograph on the Nevermind album cover is 'child pornography' is, on its face, not serious,\" their lawyers said, noting that anyone who owned a copy of the record would \"on Elden's theory [be] guilty of felony possession of child pornography\".\n\nThey continued by noting that, until recently, Elden had seemed to enjoy the notoriety of being the \"Nirvana baby\".\n\n\"He has re-enacted the photograph in exchange for a fee, many times; he has had the album title... tattooed across his chest; he has appeared on a talk show wearing a self-parodying, nude-colored onesie; he has autographed copies of the album cover for sale on eBay; and he has used the connection to try to pick up women.\"\n\nElden has re-created the photo several times\n\nThe motion was filed by lawyers representing surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic; Kurt Cobain's widow Courtney Love; and Kirk Weddle, the photographer of the cover image.\n\nRegardless of the merits of Elden's case, they argued, the statute of limitations on his claims had expired in 2011, meaning he was too late to sue.\n\nHis lawyers have argued that the statute of limitations does not apply, as long as Nevermind continues to be sold in its current form.\n\n\"Child pornography is a forever crime,\" Marsh Law told Variety in a statement last year. \"Any distribution of or profits earned from any sexually explicit image of a child not only creates longstanding liability but it also breeds lifelong trauma. This is common for all of our clients who are victims of actively traded child pornography, regardless of how long ago the image was created.\"\n\nElden's team had until 30 December to respond to Nirvana's motion to dismiss, but missed the deadline.\n\nAs a result, Judge Fernando M Olguin dismissed the case \"with leave to amend\" - meaning his team have until 13 January to refile the case with appropriate changes.\n\nIn a statement to AFP on Tuesday, Elden's lawyer Robert Lewis said they would do so \"very soon.\"\n\n\"We are confident that Spencer will be allowed to move forward with his case,\" Lewis said.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "All targets for Northern Ireland's cancer waiting times have been missed, latest figures show.\n\nIn September, 75.5% of breast cancer patients were seen within 14 days. The target is that all urgent breast cancer referrals should be seen within that time.\n\nThe target for 95% of patients to begin treatment within 62 days after an urgent GP referral was also missed.\n\nOnly 42.5% got treatment within that time during September.\n\nThat figure rose slightly to 43.9% in August and 52.4% in July.\n\nThe targets for waiting times for a first definitive treatment following a decision to treat were also missed.\n\nDuring September 2021, there were 2,583 new referrals for suspect breast cancer - this compares to 2,042 the year before.\n\nThe chief executive officer of Cancer Focus NI, Richard Spratt, described the latest waiting time figures as \"extremely disappointing\".\n\n\"Yet again, large numbers of local cancer patients have not been seen within the department's own target dates,\" he said.\n\n\"This has been a consistent failure ever since these targets were set.\n\n\"These statistics are not just numbers; they represent real people.\n\n\"When patients are waiting so long for a diagnostic test or treatment, the impact on them is devastating on top of all the other stresses associated with Covid-19.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby\n\nThe Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of Covid crowd restrictions in Wales.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford imposed restrictions on sporting events in Wales, effectively meaning professional games are behind closed doors.\n\nThere is no date set for when measures could be eased, with the next review scheduled for 7 January.\n\nWales are due to host Scotland in Cardiff on 12 February.\n• None Faletau expected to be fit for start of Six Nations\n• None Sturgeon hopes Scotland's Six Nations matches can 'go ahead to crowds'\n\nWayne Pivac's side are also scheduled to meet France on 11 March and Italy eight days later at the Principality Stadium, meaning Wales could face the prospect of playing over half the competition on home soil with no fans.\n\nAs things stand, sporting events in England have no restrictions, so Wales' visit to Twickenham on 26 February will be played before a full house of 82,000, provided spectators can prove full vaccination status or show a negative lateral flow test.\n\nWales launch the defence of their Six Nations title against Ireland in Dublin on 5 February, with current restrictions of 5,000 fans there.\n\nScotland also has restrictions on spectator numbers of 500, France has a limit of 5,000 fans and Italy has a Covid pass system in place after tightening restrictions in December.\n\nThe WRU lost £13.5m in matchday revenue during the 2021 Six Nations after home games against England and Ireland were played behind closed doors.\n\nThe WRU's preference is to play home fixtures this year in front of full crowds in Cardiff and the union hopes restrictions will be lifted in time.\n\nThere are major logistical issues in relocating matches including tickets already sold for the games, availability of stadiums and public health concerns, with the prospect of thousands of Welsh fans travelling to England and back.\n\nThe WRU has also stressed throughout the pandemic it will abide by and support Welsh government's policy on public health. The governing body will also rely on future financial assistance from the Welsh government.\n\nThis is the second time the WRU has considered moving games to England after exploring the possibility for the Autumn Nations Cup in November 2020, when the Principality Stadium was used as a field hospital.\n\nOn that occasion Wales ended up playing their matches at Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli with no spectators.\n\nWembley Stadium will not be able to host any Welsh Six Nations games this year because of preparations for England international football games in March.\n\nOther venues with the capacity required would be West Ham's London Stadium, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium or the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which WRU officials visited in late 2020.\n\nThat venue would prove troublesome this time around because two of the three weekends clash with Tottenham home matches in the Premier League.\n\nEngland's home ground Twickenham would also be another option.\n\nSix Nations organisers are monitoring the situation with meetings this week which they hope will offer more clarity on the situation in each of the countries.\n\n'Welsh pound should be spent in Cardiff not London'\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan says the Welsh Government would be disappointed if matches were staged outside of Wales and warned of financial consequences for the WRU.\n\n\"There would be a Welsh government understanding we would have to step in to support them financially if they did have to postpone those matches or cancel them in some way,\" said Ms Morgan.\n\n\"If they decide to go to England that would be more difficult for us to come up with that financial support.\"\n\nUnder Covid-19 restrictions imposed by the Welsh government, only 50 spectators are permitted to view outdoor events.\n\nThe guidelines are reviewed weekly and Mr Drakeford has so far refused to give public assurances fans will be allowed to return in time for the Six Nations as case numbers for the Omicron variant continue to surge.\n\nWales wing Louis Rees-Zammit, who plays for English club Gloucester, says fans must be allowed to watch the games, even if it means matches being moved.\n\nAndrew Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, says lifting crowd restrictions should be considered.\n\n\"Many people in Wales will tell you that the current restrictions do not make sense,\" he said.\n\n\"I am cautiously optimistic the initial fear over Omicron is not coming to pass and the Labour government needs to have a long hard think about if these restrictions are completely necessary on Friday [7 January].\n\n\"It would be another blow to the Welsh economy if more of the Welsh pound is spent in London and not Cardiff.\"\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"As a result of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant, Wales is currently at alert level two. The cabinet is reviewing the situation on a weekly basis.\"\n• None Shake off festive fatigue with a playlist that will help you relax and reset\n• None Can formulas really pick better teams?", "The Scottish government says the reporting of many test results has been delayed by the high number of PCRs being processed by labs\n\nScotland's Covid testing system faces \"congestion\" as schools and businesses reopen after the holidays, the deputy first minister has warned.\n\nJohn Swinney told BBC Scotland there were likely to be \"challenges\" in some places as the demand for lateral flow and PCR tests rises in the coming days.\n\nPupils are being urged to take a test before returning to school.\n\nCovid infections in Scotland hit another record high on Monday, with 20,217 people testing positive.\n\nReported cases fell slightly on Tuesday to 17,259, according to Scottish government figures. More than 35% of the tests carried out were positive.\n\nThe Scottish government also continued to warn that the reporting of many results has been delayed as labs have been processing a much higher volume of tests.\n\nHowever, Deputy First Minister John Swinney told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme he believed Scotland's testing system could cope with the return to school.\n\n\"I think it can. Obviously it's important that individuals undertake those lateral flow tests, that is a critical part of our defence against Omicron,\" he said.\n\n\"I think what's encouraging is that the level of lateral flow device testing is high, many individuals are participating. The most recent data I've seen indicates that, in the last seven days, 85% of the population took part in lateral flow tests, which is very, very good.\n\n\"But obviously, as people return to school, staff, pupils, as people return to the workplace, it's important that they do that before they embark on it and then, of course, if they're positive, to take the necessary steps to receive a PCR test.\"\n\nAsked whether there was enough PCR testing capacity to cope with demand, he said: \"I think there will be congestion at different points.\n\n\"It's impossible for me to give you a guarantee that at individual test sites there will not be challenges in particular geographies, but I'm confident that we have got a strong testing proposition.\"\n\nThe seven-day average of cases rose from 6,671 on 21 December to 10,387 on 28 December in Scotland, according to the Scottish government.\n\nPublic health expert Dr Christine Tait-Burkard, of the University of Edinburgh, said it was \"almost inevitable\" that Omicron cases would rise still further when pupils returned to school, given the transmissibility of the new variant.\n\nDr Tait-Burkard, a research fellow at the university's Roslin Institute, said cases were likely to increase, even with mitigating measures.\n\nShe told Good Morning Scotland: \"It's almost without a doubt that, when schools return, our numbers will increase further.\n\n\"The virus is very, very prominent in the population at the moment.\n\n\"The week before last, one in 40 people in Scotland had the virus, and that means as soon as schools return, with such a high transmissibility of Omicron, the numbers will rise further, that is almost inevitable.\"\n\nAsked whether this would happen even with mitigations such as mask-wearing and increased ventilation, she said: \"Even with mitigations. As we've seen in the past they help to slow things down... but it's both children returning to school, parents returning to workplaces, which will help the virus spread further than it has before.\"\n\nFigures published by the Scottish government on Tuesday show that the number of people in hospital with Covid is also continuing to rise, going up from 1,031 to 1,147, with 42 people being treated in intensive care.\n\nHowever, Jillian Evans, the head of health intelligence for NHS Grampian, said there were indications that fewer people infected with the Omicron strain required hospital treatment and that hospital stays were getting shorter.\n\n\"The length of stay certainly seems to be lower and that would indicate that people aren't as ill as they were with other variants of Covid,\" she told BBC Radio Scotland's Lunchtime Live.\n\n\"Another thing to look at is the hospitalisation rate... That's been coming down and it's continuing to come down, so I think the number of people who are converting from being infected to being hospitalised is really quite low now and much lower in the last month or so.\n\n\"Those two things give you some cause for optimism.\"", "Vaccinating everyone on the planet against Covid-19 regularly is not sustainable or affordable, a UK vaccine scientist has said.\n\nProf Sir Andrew Pollard, who helped develop the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, said the most at risk should be identified and prioritised instead.\n\nHe said the vaccine rollout had gone \"extremely well\" in the UK but other parts of the world were falling behind.\n\nBooster jabs have been offered to all eligible adults in the UK.\n\nThere has been a surge of Omicron cases in the UK, with a record 218,724 cases reported on Tuesday.\n\nHowever, this figure includes a backlog of two days worth of cases from Wales and four days of cases from Northern Ireland, due to the holiday weekend.\n\nBut Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said the government \"doesn't see any data to suggest that further restrictions would be the right approach\" in England.\n\nHe said the public should be \"in no doubt\" it would be a difficult time for the NHS but there were mitigations in place to help them through a \"challenging winter\".\n\nA number of hospital trusts have declared critical incidents, with coronavirus cases leading to staff shortages and increased pressure on services.\n\nPlan B measures currently in place - including mask wearing in some indoor settings and guidance to work from home where possible - are \"the correct course\", the spokesman added.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the government was not looking at cutting the self-isolation period for those who test positive to five days.\n\nSpeaking after visiting a vaccination centre in south London, he said the current rules allowing people to leave their 10 days isolation early if they test negative on days six and seven was the \"right, balanced, proportionate approach\".\n\nThe prime minister will host a Downing Street news conference later. He will be joined by chief medical officer for England Prof Sir Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.\n\nProf Pollard told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"It really is not affordable, sustainable or probably even needed to vaccinate everyone on the planet every four to six months.\n\n\"We haven't even managed to vaccinate everyone in Africa with one dose so we're certainly not going to get to a point where fourth doses for everyone is manageable.\"\n\nThere is not \"full certainty\" on whether another booster might be needed in the UK, added Prof Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group.\n\nHe said the UK would be in a good position if variants continued to lead to milder disease, as has been the case with Omicron.\n\n\"We may well need to have boosters for the vulnerable in the population but I think it's highly unlikely that we'll have programmes going forwards regularly of boosting everyone over the age of 12,\" he added.\n\nProf Pollard said those who would need further boosters were likely to be older adults or those with health conditions.\n\n\"There will be new variants after Omicron,\" he added. \"We don't yet know how they're going to behave - and that may completely change the view on what the right thing to do is.\"\n\nProf Pollard is chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises the government on vaccines, but he has no involvement in decision-making on Covid-19 vaccinations in the UK.\n\nMaggie Throup, minister for vaccines and public health, told the BBC the government would take advice from the JCVI about a fourth Covid vaccine dose programme and then \"decide whether it's appropriate\".\n\nShe said it was important for people to have their boosters now, or first or second doses if they had not yet done so.\n\nInfectious disease expert Prof Neil Ferguson said he was \"cautiously optimistic\" that Covid cases were starting to plateau in London in the 18-50 age group, which had been seeing especially high numbers.\n\nThe epidemiologist said case numbers should start to fall in the next week in the English capital, and in other regions from a week to three weeks' time.\n\nHe also said current case data was not giving the full picture, with test kits in short supply over Christmas and re-infections not being counted in the official figures - some 10-15% of Omicron cases are re-infections, he added.\n\nBut it is too early to tell what happens next, especially because of \"current mixing trends\" and the \"effect of open schools\" - with pupils returning to classrooms from Tuesday.\n\nCovid-related staff and pupil absences are expected this term with teaching unions saying it is likely some will be sent home to learn remotely at times. Face-to-face teaching will remain the norm, says England's Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi.\n\nProf Ferguson said it was likely there would be \"quite high infection levels\" in school-aged children - albeit with mild illness.\n\nThe fact Omicron is less severe than previous variants is \"good news\" and vaccines are \"holding up against severe disease and against severe outcomes well\", he added.\n\nBut \"that doesn't mean it's not going to be, as the prime minister said, a difficult few weeks for the NHS\".", "Covid cases in Scotland have reached record levels in Scotland over the past week\n\nThe first minister is due to address Holyrood later as Covid case numbers in Scotland continue to rise sharply.\n\nA further 17,259 cases were reported on Tuesday following a record high of 20,217 positive tests on Monday.\n\nNicola Sturgeon said last week she hoped to be able to give an update on changes to the self-isolation period.\n\nThe Scottish government has been urged to cut it from 10 days to seven with negative tests, as has been done in other parts of the UK.\n\nMore than 16,000 new Covid cases are currently being reported a day on average - up from an average of about 6,000 over Christmas - as the highly infectious Omicron variant sweeps across the country.\n\nThe percentage of positive cases has also hit record highs, with 35.3% of tests reported on Tuesday found to be positive.\n\nScotRail has been forced to introduce a slimmed-down timetable for much of January after staffing levels were hit by Covid, and CalMac has had to reduce some ferry services.\n\nScottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross is among those who have called for the self-isolation period to be cut to seven days, if two negative tests are returned in the final two days, and for household contacts to be allowed to leave isolation if they test negative.\n\n\"Scotland has the strictest self-isolation rules anywhere in the United Kingdom,\" Mr Ross said.\n\n\"We understand the need for caution, but Nicola Sturgeon's dithering and delaying is continuing to have a major impact on frontline services and the wider economy, due to the sheer numbers having to isolate.\"\n\nChanges to self-isolation rules have been made by Wales and Northern Ireland in the past week.\n\nMs Baillie, who is also the party's health spokeswoman, said: \"The SNP must use this update to confirm whether they will change self-isolation requirements in line with the latest evidence, to stop staff absences piling yet more pressure on businesses and services this winter.\"\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said on Tuesday the government was still \"actively considering\" the move, adding that \"further details\" would be shared in the Scottish Parliament's virtual session on Wednesday.\n\nHe added: \"We are obviously looking at the clinical advice that is crucial in the handling of this because... we do not in any way, shape or form serve anybody's interest if we ignore the clinical dimension of this issue, and the risk of transmissibility of allowing individuals to return to the workplace if they're still carrying the virus.\"\n\nPublic health expert Dr Christine Tait-Burkard, of the University of Edinburgh, has warned it is \"almost inevitable\" that Omicron cases will rise still further when pupils return to school, given the transmissibility of the new variant.\n\nDr Tait-Burkard told BBC Scotland cases were likely to increase, even with mitigating measures.\n\n\"It's almost without a doubt that, when schools return, our numbers will increase further,\" she said.\n\n\"The virus is very, very prominent in the population at the moment.\n\n\"The week before last, one in 40 people in Scotland had the virus, and that means as soon as schools return, with such a high transmissibility of Omicron, the numbers will rise further, that is almost inevitable.\"", "Amber Gibson's body was discovered in Hamilton on 28 November\n\nA second man has been charged in connection with the death of 16-year-old Amber Gibson.\n\nAmber's body was discovered near Cadzow Glen in Hamilton at about 10:10 on 28 November. She had been reported missing two days earlier.\n\nConnor Gibson, 19, understood to be her brother, has already appeared in court charged with her murder.\n\nPolice said the 43-year-old arrested man is due to appear at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Wednesday.\n\nMr Gibson was also charged with offences relating to the Sexual Offences Act 2009 and with attempting to pervert the course of justice.\n\nHe made no plea when he appeared in court in December.\n\nA police watchdog has been ordered to examine Police Scotland's handling of the case, which is understood to relate to the missing person investigation.\n• None Brother of Amber Gibson charged with her murder", "The launch would be the first by leader Kim Jong-un in 2022\n\nNorth Korea has fired a suspected ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast, in its first such launch since October.\n\nThe missile landed in water between the Korean peninsula and Japan, bringing condemnation from Seoul and Tokyo.\n\nThe UN prohibits North Korea from ballistic and nuclear weapons tests.\n\nLeader Kim Jong-un has vowed to bolster the North's defences. It tested a variety of missiles last year amid stalled talks with the South and US.\n\nThe latest launch - the first since a New Year speech in which Mr Kim set out policy priorities for 2022 - was first reported by the Japanese coast guard early on Wednesday, before being confirmed by defence authorities in Seoul.\n\n\"South Korean and US intelligence are closely analysing for further detail,\" South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.\n\nJapan's Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said the suspected ballistic missile had flown about 500 km (310 miles), Reuters reported.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why does North Korea keep launching missiles?\n\nAccording to one expert however, there was no way to confirm the full striking range of the missile.\n\n\"There's no way to assess whether this might have been a longer-range missile flown on a shortened trajectory,\" Ankit Panda of the Nuclear Policy Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told BBC News.\n\nIn 2017, North Korea tested the Hwasong-15, a missile that peaked at an estimated altitude of 4,500km, putting US military bases on the Pacific island of Guam well within striking distance.\n\nThe launch comes days after Mr Kim said that Pyongyang would continue to strengthen its defence capabilities due to an increasingly unstable military environment on the Korean peninsula - a stance Mr Panda warned could see 2022 \"littered with similar North Korean missiles\".\n\nMr Kim made the remarks during a key end-of-year meeting of North Korea's ruling party.\n\nJapanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called the latest launch \"very regrettable\", pointing to North Korea's repeated testing of missiles since 2021.\n\nIn 2021, North Korea continued the advancement of its weapons programme, conducting what state media reported as the testing of a new hypersonic missile, as well as a train-based ballistic missile and a new long-range cruise missile.\n\nBallistic missiles are considered more threatening than cruise missiles because they can carry more powerful payloads, have a longer range and can fly faster.\n\nThe tests come as Pyongyang struggles with food shortages due to a coronavirus blockade that has severely affected its economy.\n\nAt the end-of-year meeting, Mr Kim said the country was facing a \"great life-and-death struggle\", adding that increasing development and improving people's living standards were among this year's goals.\n\nUnited Nations officials had earlier warned that vulnerable children and elderly people in North Korea were at risk of starvation.\n\nHowever, Mr Panda said this was unlikely to deter North Korea from pursuing its weapons programme.\n\n\"[Mr] Kim has maintained his emphasis on self-reliance in national defence in recent years even as he has been open about economic difficulties in the country,\" Mr Panda said.\n\n\"For [Mr] Kim and the Workers' Party, sustaining these weapons programmes is a top national priority for both internal and external reasons.\"\n\nThe US has been calling for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, and Pyongyang's relationship with President Joe Biden's administration has so far been fraught with tension.\n\nNorth Korea has also repeatedly accused South Korea of double standards over military activities.\n\nSouth Korea recently tested its first submarine-launched ballistic missile, which it said was needed as deterrence against North Korea's \"provocations\".", "A New York school teacher with no formal medical qualification has been arrested for allegedly giving a Covid vaccine to a student, say officials.\n\nPolice say Laura Russo administered the dose at her home despite having no legal authorisation to give jabs, or consent from the boy's parents.\n\nMs Russo, 54, who teaches biology, was held on New Year's Eve and could face four years in prison if convicted.\n\nThe 17-year-old boy had reportedly wanted the vaccine.\n\nInjections can be dangerous if administered incorrectly. Doctors and licensed medical workers have to verify that a vaccine is not counterfeit or expired. Patients should also be asked about their medical history and have their reaction monitored after a jab.\n\nPolice say it is unclear how Ms Russo obtained the alleged Covid vaccine, or what brand it is. Currently, the Pfizer-BioNTech jab is the only one authorised for Americans under 18 years old.\n\nVideo of the incident in Long Island appears to show Ms Russo telling the teenager: \"You'll be fine, I hope.\"\n\n\"Here you go. At-home vaccine,\" he says.\n\nOfficials say the boy's parents called Nassau police after he came home and told them what had happened.\n\n\"She had obtained a vaccine,\" said Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder. \"That's still under investigation on how she got it.\"\n\nThe superintendent of Herricks High School, where Ms Russo has been working, said in a statement that the teacher \"is a district employee who has been removed from the classroom and reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation\", reports CBS News, the BBC's partner in the US.\n\nMs Russo is charged with unauthorised practice of a profession.\n\nA court hearing has been scheduled for 21 January.\n• None US reports 1m Covid cases with peak still to come", "All women in Wales are invited for smear tests from the age of 25\n\nPublic Health Wales (PHW) has apologised for causing \"concern\" over how it explained changes to cervical screenings.\n\nWomen and people with a cervix, aged 25 to 49, will now be routinely screened every five years instead of three.\n\nIt follows a recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee.\n\nHowever, following concerns that cancers could be missed, a petition calling for a rethink has gained over 350,000 signatures.\n\nThe petition reads: \"On average 3,197 cases of cervical cancer are discovered each year with 854 deaths between 2016 and 2018, with only 51% surviving this type of cancer for more than 10 years.\n\n\"99.8% of cervical cancer cases are preventable, according to Cancer Research UK.\"\n\nIn a tweet, PHW said: \"We are sorry. We haven't done enough to explain the changes to cervical screening and have caused concern.\n\n\"We are working to make this clearer and more information will be available as soon as we can today and in the coming days.\"\n\nWomen and people with a cervix under 50 will now be screened every five years instead of three\n\nPHW's screening division director Dr Sharon Hillier said they \"weren't really clear exactly why we've made the change\" to a system that \"saves more lives\".\n\nPeople with a cervix will now need to get routinely tested less often because of the success of Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing.\n\nIt was introduced in Wales in 2018 and almost nine out of 10 results show no high-risk.\n\nEvery UK country apart from Northern Ireland also uses the method which identifies those at greater risk of cancer earlier.\n\nAs a result, the UK National Screening Committee recommended testing every five years.\n\nDr Hillier explained: \"There are three routes now with our cervical screening pathway.\n\n\"If you have HPV high-risk found in your sample but no cell changes, we will bring you back for cervical screening in a year's time and if that carries on, we will keep looking at you every year for three years, so we are very much looking at those women and making sure that we're monitoring them.\"\n\nShe said it will help specialists find those at greater risk of developing cell changes and cervical cancer.\n\n\"What we're doing is we're making sure that we have all the benefit of the screening and identifying those at higher risk, but we're not bringing back women or individuals with a cervix, when we don't need to bring them back,\" Dr Hillier added.\n\nPHW's Head of Programme for Cervical Screening Louise Dunk described it as \"a really positive development\".\n\nHPV is a very common virus that most people will come into contact with at some time during their lives, with one or more high-risk types of HPV present in over 99.8% of cervical cancers.\n\nThere are about 160 cases of cervical cancer diagnosed every year in Wales and it is the most common cancer in women under the age of 35.", "Preet Chandi set off on her challenge in November\n\nAn Army officer is thought to have become the first woman of colour to complete a solo expedition across Antarctica.\n\nPreet Chandi trekked 700 miles in 40 days, facing temperatures of -50C, poor visibility and fatigue along the way.\n\nThe 32-year-old, from Derby, said she set the challenge because she wanted to inspire others to \"push boundaries\".\n\nAnnouncing her achievement on social media she wrote: \"It feels so surreal to finally be here\".\n\nCapt Chandi, an Army physiotherapist, who goes under the name \"Polar Preet\" spent two years planning and training for the expedition.\n\nSome of her training included pulling a tyre along Derby streets and a 27-day trip to Greenland to help become accustomed to the extreme weather conditions.\n\nPolar Preet completed the mission days earlier than she had originally planned\n\nCapt Chandi travelled a daily average of 17 miles and used specialist communications equipment to send audio and photos to family during her mission.\n\nDuring the trek, she had to tackle 60mph winds while pulling a 90kg sled and suffered from exhaustion towards the end of the journey, as well as a persistent cough and sickness.\n\nOn finishing she sent back a message saying: \"I made it to the South Pole where it's snowing.\n\n\"Feeling so many emotions right now. I knew nothing about the polar world three years ago and it feels so surreal to finally be here.\n\n\"It was tough getting here and I want to thank everybody for their support.\n\n\"This expedition was always about so much more than me.\n\n\"I wanted to encourage people to push boundaries and believe in themselves.\"\n\nPreet is thought to be the first Asian woman to complete the solo expedition\n\nCapt Chandi has previously spoken about how her challenge was \"considered out of the norm for an Asian woman\".\n\n\"That's part of the reason why I wanted to do this - for people who don't fit a certain image,\" she said.\n\nThe expedition had been expected to take between 45 and 48 days.\n\nBrig Lizzie Faithfull-Davies, commander of the 102nd Logistic Brigade, said: \"I have been watching Polar Preet's Antarctic endeavours with admiration and awe as I have seen her maintain incredible distances and pace every single day of her expedition.\n\n\"Her engaging podcasts on her website have brought to life the arduous conditions and her extreme endurance. She is a truly remarkable woman.\n\n\"I am absolutely delighted to hear she has achieved her ambition of reaching the South Pole and so proud she has demonstrated how much we can all achieve if we set our minds to it.\"\n\nMs Chandi is now the third fastest woman to trek across the continent, and the first person to reach the South Pole on foot in two years.\n\nShe narrowly missed out on the time set by Johanna Davidsson from Sweden, the fastest female to complete a solo expedition of the continent, who finished in 38 days, 23 hours and 55 minutes in 2016, the British Army said.\n\nJoining other well wishers, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"What an extraordinary achievement. Congratulations Captain Preet Chandi.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The postcards feature images of the hotel the couple were staying in at the time\n\nFour postcards sent from Lanzarote, the Canary Islands, have been delivered to their intended destination in Devon, seven years late.\n\nJan and Terry Chudley, from Whipton, Exeter, sent the postcards while on holiday in December 2014.\n\nThey were surprised to receive calls from their relatives this December to ask if they were on holiday.\n\nRoyal Mail said it was likely the postcards were put back into the postal system recently.\n\n\"We had a phone call on Christmas Eve from my sister in Colchester to say she'd just received a postcard from us in Lanzarote,\" Mrs Chudley said.\n\nHer sister had asked if the couple were on holiday, confused as to why they had not told her.\n\n\"I told her that was in 2014,\" Mrs Chudley said, adding that it was \"a bit of a mystery\".\n\nThen her other sister called asking the same question, as well as the couple's daughters, all having received delayed postcards.\n\nMr and Mrs Chudley said it was \"strange\" the postcards had arrived seven years' late to the month\n\nMr Chudley said he thinks they would have sent about nine postcards at the time, telling their family about their hotel, the weather and the activities they had undertaken.\n\nOut of the batch of cards they sent on that holiday, only one arrived in 2014 - to its intended address in Germany, the couple said.\n\n\"It's a mystery as to where they've been - what postbox or mailbag they've been in, it's just really strange,\" Mrs Chudley said.\n\nFriends and family have moved over the last six years, so they are unsure if the remaining postcards have also been delivered recently.\n\nA Royal Mail spokesperson said: \"Every single item of mail is important to us and it is likely that these postcards have been put back into the postal system recently, rather than being lost or stuck in the post.\n\n\"Royal Mail regularly checks all its delivery offices and clears its sorting machines daily. Once an item is in the postal system it will be delivered to the address on the postcard, parcel or envelope.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Banksy's 'Season's greetings' appeared in Port Talbot on steel worker Ian Lewis' garage in 2018\n\nA man tried to destroy a Banksy mural after hearing it was being moved from Wales to England, a court heard.\n\nMichael Thomas, 42, tried to break his way into a Port Talbot building to spray the £500,000 artwork with white paint on 26 November last year.\n\nSwansea Crown Court heard Thomas was angry the piece had been sold to a fan of the graffiti artist in London.\n\nThomas was given a 14 month suspended sentence after admitting attempted burglary and criminal damage.\n\nThe image, depicting a child enjoying snow falling - the other side revealing it was from a fire emitting ash - sparked a frenzy after it appeared on a steel worker's garage in 2018, and was later sold to art collector John Brandler.\n\nThe court heard how Thomas, of Mayfield Road, Port Talbot, tried to break into the building just days after it was revealed the piece was set to leave Wales.\n\nProsecutor Sian Cotter told the court neighbours called the police after hearing him breaking a window at 05:30 GMT.\n\n\"Witnesses heard him saying, 'It's the only thing in Port Talbot and they are taking it away',\" she said.\n\n\"Thomas intended to destroy the painting so no-one else could have it.\n\n\"A couple and their five-year-old child heard the defendant shouting, 'It's for us. They're taking it away, some rich man has it'.\n\n\"Another witness heard Thomas shouting, 'I'm going to kill it'.\"\n\nThe court heard how Season's Greetings was valued at half-a-million pounds.\n\nPort Talbot council put up a temporary structure around the Banksy after it appeared on the side of a garage in 2018.\n\nMr Lewis said at the time he was relieved to sell the Banksy artwork to John Brandler\n\nMs Cotter said: \"Thomas called police to say he'd committed the damage in anger because he didn't want the painting to leave Port Talbot.\n\n\"He said the work was being moved to England and that made him angry so he decided to destroy it.\"\n\nJonathan Tarrant, defending, said it was more of a protest than an act of criminal intent and it was unlikely Thomas would reoffend.\n\nThomas was given a 14-month suspended prison sentence, suspended for two years.\n\nJudge Geraint Walters told him: \"There was an intention to move the Banksy artwork out of Port Talbot to the London area, and that angered you.\n\n\"It may well be that it was not Banksy's intention that the painting should ever leave Port Talbot.\n\n\"I am aware the decision to remove the work has caused consternation in some quarters.\"\n\nThe judge said Thomas reacted \"bizarrely\" by breaking into the building with the intention of destroying the Banksy.\n\nHe added: \"This work does now belong to an individual who has had to pay for it.\n\nBanksy's 'Season's greetings' appeared in Port Talbot on steel worker Ian Lewis' garage in 2018\n\n\"The commercial reality is that it is a work of art of great value and now it's in private ownership.\"\n\nThomas was ordered to pay £1,058 compensation and has to wear an electronic tag for 12 weeks.", "BBC News NI outlines the latest data on coronavirus and Covid-19 vaccinations across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Department of Health has reported 15 more Covid-19-related deaths on Tuesday.\n\nIt is the department's first statistical release since 30 December, meaning the statistics cover a four-day period.\n\nDeaths are measured by recording those who died within 28 days of receiving a positive result in a test for coronavirus.\n\nThe total number of deaths linked to Covid-19 in Northern Ireland since the start of the pandemic is 2,995.\n\nFrom midnight 30 December to midnight 3 January, a further 30,423 cases of coronavirus were reported.\n\nThe data includes cases confirmed from samples taken in previous days, not necessarily just in the latest reporting period.\n\nThe previous number issued on Thursday was for an additional 4,701 cases in a 24-hour reporting period.\n\nAs of Tuesday, the number of positive cases confirmed in the past seven days was 50,627 - more than 10% of the total number of positive cases since start of pandemic (432,492).\n\nOn Tuesday, there were 348 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals in Northern Ireland, up from 303 on Thursday.\n\nThere are 31 patients with Covid-19 in hospital intensive care units, compared to 32 on Thursday.\n\nA total of 3,530,777 vaccines for Covid-19 had been administered in Northern Ireland as of Tuesday.\n\nOf that total, 1,399,866 were first doses, 1,297,302 were second doses and the remaining were third doses.\n\nThe total number of deaths related to Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland since the start of the pandemic is 5,912.\n\nThis figure, which is subject to revision, is updated weekly and includes \"probable and possible\" Covid-19-linked deaths.\n\nAnother 21,302 cases of coronavirus were reported in the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday, compared to 16,986 cases on Monday.\n\nOn Tuesday morning, there were 884 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals in the Republic of Ireland, up from 804 on Monday.\n\nOf those patients, 90 were being treated in intensive care units, three fewer than were in ICU on Monday.\n\nA total of 7,497,045 vaccines for Covid-19 (excluding boosters) had been administered in the Republic of Ireland as of Monday.\n\nA total of 3,657,589 people have had their first dose and 3,602,370 have had their second dose, while 237,086 single-dose vaccines have been administered.\n\nA total of 2,204,047 booster jabs had been administered as of Monday.", "The boss of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital says it is an \"incredibly pressured time\" for everyone working in health and social care\n\nA county's health care system has been placed on the highest state of alert.\n\nNorfolk and Waveney's care system, covering three hospitals, the ambulance service, community and social services, has declared a critical incident.\n\nHospital trusts elsewhere have also declared critical incidents amid staff shortages and pressures from Covid-19.\n\nUniversity Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals and Great Western Hospitals in Wiltshire have all raised the alarm.\n\nDerriford hospital in Plymouth has problems offloading ambulances, and has recorded nearly 500 staff absences.\n\nCritical incidents are declared when health bosses are concerned they cannot provide priority services.\n\nThis includes treatment for cancer or heart disease patients.\n\nSpeaking in a Downing Street press conference earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the NHS was facing \"huge pressures\".\n\nHe said some services would be disrupted by staff absences but pledged to \"fortify\" the health service to withstand the pressures and protect supply chains.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty also acknowledged some hospitals would come under \"very substantial pressure over the next couple of weeks\" with high numbers of staff absences compounding typical winter pressures.\n\nHospitals in Lincoln, Boston and Grantham are among those where general visiting has been suspended\n\nMeanwhile the highest number of people have tested positive or Covid in the UK with a total of 218,724, the latest figures show.\n\nHowever, that does include tests recorded on some previous days, with not all cases being reported over Christmas.\n\nThere were 15,044 patients with Covid in hospital on Tuesday morning including 797 requiring mechanical ventilation.\n\nNHS England confirmed to the BBC that the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System - which covers part of north Suffolk - was in the highest state of alert.\n\nHealth services in the area said seasonal flu and the winter vomiting bug had placed extra demands on services.\n\nThe county's biggest hospital - the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) - said its number of patients with Covid had almost doubled, from 50 to 91, since Friday.\n\nIt said many wards were prepared to further expand capacity beyond the usual practice as a short-term response.\n\nIn a statement, NNUH medical director Erika Denton said: \"Our hospital is extremely busy and it is an incredibly pressured time for everyone working in health and social care.\n\n\"The hospital is full and we have already taken steps to increase bed capacity in response to high emergency demand and a record number of Covid-19 infections that has led to a surge in admissions.\"\n\nIt said its staff sickness rate was about 6%, which which was higher than average for the time of year due to staff having to isolate due to Covid and other factors such as seasonal illnesses.\n\nFamilies of patients fit for discharge have been asked if they can help with care so they can be discharged before social services care is arranged.\n\nEarlier The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust's chief executive confirmed it had declared a critical incident.\n\nThe trust serves patients in Lancashire and south Cumbria where some non-urgent operations and procedures have been suspended.\n\nNatalie Hudson, chief operating officer at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said there was \"very high demand\" for services and \"long waits\" in emergency and urgency care departments.\n\nShe said very high levels of bed occupancy were being \"exacerbated by rapidly rising rates of Covid-19 in the community and rising rates of admissions and staff absences\".\n\nIn Wiltshire, the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Great Western Hospital in Swindon, declared a critical incident after experiencing \"sustained high levels of demand\" and concerns over the \"availability of beds\".\n\nIt said Covid inpatient numbers had risen 81% since 24 December.\n\nConcerns have been raised about NHS staff being left exhausted\n\nDr Colin Farquharson, medical director of United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said on Monday there were \"significant staffing pressures\" due to Covid-related absences, though essential services were still operating.\n\nA critical incident was also declared at Plymouth's Derriford hospital with 99 positive cases there and at its three community hospitals.\n\nMeanwhile the number of hospital staff off sick across North East and north Cumbria has increased 135% due to Covid since 24 December.\n\nNeil Halford, medical director for the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System, said: \"Hospital trusts are continually reviewing their planned operations and procedures alongside caring for the sickest patients and ensuring infection prevention control measures can be adhered to.\n\n\"This a difficult balancing act and regrettably some planned operations and procedures may need to be postponed.\"\n\nDr Sakthi Karunanithi, public health director for Lancashire, warned his county was braced \"for a tsunami of Omicron cases\" with a noticeable shift in infections in people under 50 \"to a more 60-plus age group being affected\".\n\nChris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said a critical incident was \"an indication of very serious pressure\" at a trust which may \"not be able to provide\" a range of priority services.\n\nThe chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, said that \"in many parts of the health service, we are currently in a state of crisis\".", "Grichka and Igor Bogdanoff had tried in recent years to relaunch their media careers\n\nGrichka and Igor Bogdanoff became France's most famous twins, hosting a TV science and science-fiction show in the 1980s on a spaceship set.\n\nThey died of coronavirus within days of each other in hospital, Grichka on 28 December and his brother on Monday.\n\nAged 72, the brothers had not been vaccinated against Covid-19.\n\nTheir friends said they were convinced their healthy lifestyle would protect them and they were admitted to hospital in mid-December.\n\nAlthough their families did not specify the cause of their deaths, their lawyer Edouard de Lamaze confirmed they had both contracted the virus.\n\nFamily friend Pierre-Jean Chalençon said they had left it too late to seek hospital treatment, deciding it was similar to flu. \"People have said they were anti-vaxxers but they absolutely weren't,\" he told BFMTV. \"Several friends told them to get themselves vaccinated but they felt because of their lifestyle and their [lack of] comorbidity, they weren't at risk of Covid.\"\n\nThe Bogdanoff brothers were a pair of eccentrics, descended from Austrian nobility.\n\nFeted for their initial Saturday afternoon TV programme Temps X which ran from 1979, they were synonymous for years with popular science and were part of public life for the rest of their lives.\n\nTheir programme on TF1 was for years seen in some ways as highlighting cutting-edge technology, according to Le Monde, which described them as icons from a kitsch period of culture. Temps X showcased other TV shows such as Doctor Who, The Prisoner and Star Trek, with guests including electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre.\n\nThe twins presented their hit TV series from 1979-1987\n\nHowever, when the TV channel went private in 1987, they were dropped.\n\nDuring the 1990s their facial features changed dramatically, leaving them with odd-looking chins, lips and cheek-bones. \"We are proud of having faces like extra-terrestrials,\" they once said.\n\nGrichka Bogdanoff was adamant that they had never had \"what people call cosmetic surgery\", insisting that he and his brother were experimental by nature and had tried out very advanced technology.\n\nThat was contradicted by their friend, former education minister Luc Ferry, who said they had both had Botox injections.\n\nThe brothers later tried their hands at academic work, writing doctoral theses in mathematics and theoretical physics which were both panned by their peers.\n\nRidiculed by sections of French media, they won a 2014 court case for defamation before losing a lawsuit against the French National Centre for Scientific Research.\n\nAsked why they had chosen not to have the Covid vaccines if they were not themselves anti-vaxxers, Luc Ferry said on Monday: \"Like Igor, Grichka wasn't antivax, he was just antivax for himself.\n\n\"They were both athletic, with not an inch of fat, and they thought the vaccine was more dangerous than the virus.\"\n\nBefore they were admitted to hospital, the twins had been working on a pilot project to resurrect their old TV show, again set on a spaceship and planned for broadcast on another channel in the near future.\n\nIn a statement on Monday, Igor Bogdanoff's family said he had \"gone towards the light\", surrounded by his children and family.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Experts answer your questions about the Omicron variant", "Scottish Conservative MSP Maurice Golden says the restrictions on large gatherings, which are currently in place until 17 January, are \"perilously close\" to the Six Nations rugby tournament.\n\nHe asks if fans can book tickets and whether the hospitality industry can prepare for the tournament.\n\nThe first minister says everything has to be monitored on a \"closer-time basis\" and adds: \"It is really difficult, particularly at this phase of the virus, to be certain about the future.\"\n\nBut Ms Sturgeon goes on to say that she hopes the restrictions will not be in place beyond 17 January and that the matches will go ahead in front of supporters.", "Barry Bennell was resident football coach at the Butlin's resort in Pwllheli in the last 70s\n\nA man groomed by paedophile Barry Bennell while on holiday at Butlin's has secured a five-figure settlement from the company's previous owners.\n\nThe former football coach groomed David Lean, 52, after meeting him at the Pwllheli resort, in Gwynedd, in 1979.\n\nMr Lean, who was 11 at the time, said Bennell had \"worked his charm\" on him and his father.\n\nA spokesman for Hard Rock Cafe Limited, which owned Butlin's at the time, declined to comment.\n\nAfter the holiday they exchanged addresses, and Bennell and Mr Lean became pen pals.\n\nBennell, now serving a 34-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexual offences against young boys, went on to invite Mr Lean to stay at his home for two nights to attend an FA-endorsed training session.\n\nWhile staying at his house, Mr Lean was sexually abused by the coach.\n\nA civil case was brought on behalf of Mr Lean against Hard Rock Cafe (Edinburgh) Limited, formerly known as Butlin's Limited, which alleged the company was vicariously responsible for the abuse.\n\nMr Lean said: \"I have fought for many years to seek justice for what happened to me as a child by that monster.\"\n\n\"It also became extremely important to me to ensure that all those who had a part to play in making it possible for Bennell to perpetrate his abuse on young boys should also be held to account,\" Mr Lean added.\n\n\"Lessons must be learnt to prevent the abuse of further generations; nobody should have the right to turn a blind eye and not face the consequences.\n\n\"While my sexual abuse never took place at Butlin's, they gave my abuser the gateway to groom both myself and my parents into later access of me when I was abused.\"\n\nKim Harrison, lead lawyer for Mr Lean, said she was \"delighted\" to have secured a five-figure settlement for him.\n\nShe said: \"Barry Bennell was a prolific paedophile who used his position at Butlin's to groom and then go on to abuse our client.\"", "Some hopeful news buried in the staggering growth of Omicron infections.\n\nThere's a hint that growth in London, the leading edge of the Omicron wave, may have been slightly slower over the Christmas break.\n\nHaving doubled in the week before Christmas, infections grew by less - roughly from 7.5% to 9% - in the week up to 31 December.\n\nWe have to hope this slowdown continues once everyone returns to work in the coming week.\n\nThe growth this week was driven by infections in the north of the country: the North West has almost caught up with London and infections more than doubled in the North East and in Yorkshire and the Humber.\n\nThe unfortunate news is that infections are doubling each week in the over 70s, growing faster than any other age group.\n\nThey still have a much lower rate of infection than anyone else, but this is the group where the boosters will be doing the most work to prevent infection turning into serious illness.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Rhian Graham outside Bristol Crown Court after the four were acquitted\n\nFour people accused of illegally removing a statue of Edward Colston have been cleared of criminal damage.\n\nSage Willoughby, Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford and Jake Skuse were charged after a monument to the 17th Century slave trader was pulled down and thrown into Bristol's harbourside last June.\n\nIt happened during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city.\n\nLoud cheers erupted in the public gallery of Bristol Crown Court as the verdicts were returned.\n\nThe defendants, who are all from Bristol apart from Mr Ponsford, 26, who is based in Hampshire, laughed and hugged supporters who were waiting outside after they were released.\n\nThe four defendants celebrated outside court after being found not guilty\n\nSage Willoughby took the knee as he left court following his acquittal\n\nMr Willoughby, 22, was seen taking the knee - a symbolic gesture of the BLM movement - outside court.\n\nThree of the four defendants also wore T-shirts designed by Banksy which featured a stencil of the toppled statue's plinth.\n\nSpeaking outside court after being acquitted, Ms Graham said: \"We just want to say thank you to so many people because we have never been alone in this journey.\n\n\"We have been so supported and we are such a small part of this.\n\n\"There were so many people that day. So many people reverberating across the world in response to it [the statue's toppling].\"\n\nMr Willoughby denied they were trying to edit history, but said others were \"whitewashing history\" by calling Colston a \"virtuous man\".\n\n\"We didn't change history, we rectified it,\" he said.\n\n\"This is a victory for Bristol, this is a victory for racial equality and it's a victory for anybody who wants to be on the right side of history.\"\n\nPeople supported the defendants throughout the trial\n\nThe public gallery erupted into screams and cheers of joy as the four defendants - who have been named the Colston Four - were cleared of wrongdoing.\n\nOutside, supporters gathered with banners and Rhian Graham tearfully thanked them. The thanks also extended to street artist Banksy whose T-shirt sale raised funds for them.\n\nWhile there were many supporters outside the court delighted the four were acquitted, others were not so impressed.\n\nOne came up to supporters of the Colston Four and said the result was \"disgusting\".\n\nThis is something that has divided opinion in Bristol and beyond, and the verdict will lead to more debate about which statues should remain standing across the UK.\n\nRaj Chada, who represented Mr Skuse, said the \"defendants should never have been prosecuted\".\n\nHe added: \"It is shameful that Bristol City Council did not take down the statue of slaver Edward Colston that had caused such offence to people in Bristol and equally shameful that they then supported the prosecution of these defendants.\"\n\nBlinne Ni Ghralaigh, for Ms Graham, 30, said the case \"demonstrates the fundamental importance of trial by jury\".\n\n\"In this case, they determined that a conviction for the removal of this statue - that glorified a slave trader involved in the enslavement of over 84,000 black men, women and children as a 'most virtuous and wise' man - would not be proportionate.\"\n\nDuring a highly publicised trial, the court heard the statue was ripped down before being thrown into the harbour during a wave of protests triggered by the murder of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer.\n\nThe four defendants, together with \"others unknown\", were accused of damaging the Colston statue and plinth of a value unknown without lawful excuse.\n\nThe statue was stamped on after it was pulled down\n\nDuring the trial, Mr Skuse, 33, said he took part in rolling the statue to the docks to stage a symbolic \"sentencing\" of the slave trader.\n\nMr Willoughby argued the statue was an \"insult\".\n\nAppearing in the dock, he said: \"Imagine having a Hitler statue in front of a Holocaust survivor - I believe they are similar.\n\n\"Having a statue of someone of that calibre in the middle of the city I believe is an insult, and I will continue to believe that whatever the outcome of this.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "Covid-19 transmission has reached \"extraordinary levels\" in Northern Ireland, the chief scientific adviser has said.\n\nProf Ian Young told BBC News NI that about one in 10 people in some parts of Northern Ireland has the virus.\n\nHe said he expected a peak in the next two to three weeks.\n\nAlmost 12% of the total number of positive cases recorded since the start of the pandemic were reported in the past seven days.\n\nNorthern Ireland has recorded a total of 432,492 coronavirus cases, 50,627 of them in the past week.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann said the Omicron variant had brought an \"unprecedent surge\", after more than 30,000 cases were recorded in the past four days.\n\nProf Young said he hoped pressure on hospitals would be less than they were last January, when Northern Ireland was under lockdown measures.\n\nHe said case numbers were expected to peak early to mid-January, while hospital pressures were likely to peak in late January to early February.\n\nProf Young added that evidence suggested Omicron is less severe than the Delta variant.\n\n\"That is going to be what keeps hospital pressures from rising to very high levels.\n\n\"I hope if we all play our part that hospital pressures might be able to stay below the pressures we observed last January.\n\n\"There does remain a significant threat and we all have a role to play in trying to minimise the pressures that hospitals are going to be under.\"\n\nMr Swann said the risk of getting Covid was now \"considerably higher\" than it had ever been and urged people to get a booster dose of the vaccine.\n\n\"Faced with this very real threat, getting your booster dose right now is the single most important step you can take,\" he said.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann said a booster dose was \"the single most important step\" people can take\n\nSince 24 December, the number of patients with Covid in Northern Ireland hospitals has risen from 336 to 348.\n\nAs of Tuesday there are 31 Covid-positive patients in intensive care, 25 of whom are ventilated.\n\nThese figures are consistent with those recorded during the rest of December.\n\nNorthern Ireland's infection rate is the highest in the UK, according to the latest UK government figures.\n\nIn the seven days up until 30 December, 2,252 in 100,000 people here had the virus.\n\nThe pandemic and related pressure on hospital services is also continuing to have an impact on surgical services for cancer.\n\nIn total, 162 red flag suspected or confirmed cancer procedures have been cancelled across all health trusts since 26 November, according to figures from the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB).\n\nIt said trusts are actively working to offer new dates as soon as possible.\n\nDr Frances O'Hagan, the deputy chair of the British Medical Association's Northern Ireland GPs committee has said anyone with cold-like symptoms should book a PCR test.\n\n\"A sore throat is probably one of the most prominent symptoms for Omicron, so it's really important that people do get tested, especially if you do have any other associated symptoms as well, in particular a temperature.\"\n\n\"It is important to go ahead and get a PCR booked as it is so difficult now to know what the symptoms are.\"\n\nHowever the Northern Ireland Executive's advice remains that people should only book a PCR test if they have a high temperature, a new, continuous cough or a loss or change in sense of smell or taste.\n\nClose contacts who are fully vaccinated should take daily lateral flow tests for 10 days following their exposure to the virus.\n\nThey should only book a PCR if a lateral flow is positive.\n\nThe measures taken to contain the Omicron variant in Northern Ireland were tightened at the end of December.\n\nThis includes the closure of nightclubs, table service only at hospitality venues and a limit on the number of people from different households that can sit together.\n\nProof of Covid status remains a requirement to enter some hospitality premises and some other indoor settings.\n\nLaws surrounding the wearing of face coverings were also strengthened.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, people who test positive can leave self-isolation after seven days if they produce negative lateral flow results on days six and seven.\n\nMeanwhile, the Irish government will ask the country's chief medical officer to consider relaxing the self-isolation rules for fully vaccinated close contacts of confirmed Covid cases.\n\nTánaiste Leo Varadkar said the rules were causing problems across public services, industry and critical infrastructure.\n\nOn Tuesday, Boris Johnson announced about 100,000 critical workers will take daily Covid tests to reduce the spread of the virus to colleagues.\n\nThe testing, set to begin form 10 January, will include workers in food processing, transport and the border force,", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon: Scottish coronavirus self-isolation period cut from 10 days to seven.\n\nPeople who test positive for Covid in Scotland will be allowed to exit self-isolation after seven days if they have no fever and record two negative lateral flow tests.\n\nThe move brings Scotland into line with England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nHousehold contacts of people with the virus will be allowed to take tests rather than going into quarantine, so long as they have had a booster shot.\n\nThe changes took effect from midnight.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs that no other changes will be made to Scotland's pandemic restrictions for at least another week.\n\nA further 16,103 cases were reported on Tuesday, and the first minister said there had been \"rapid and very widespread transmission\" of the Omicron variant of the virus over the festive period.\n\nOfficial surveys suggested that in the week to 23 December, one in every 40 people in Scotland had Covid - and within a week, this had risen to one in every 20.\n\nMs Sturgeon told MSPs that the virus was \"more widespread now than at any point in the pandemic so far\", something which has had \"extremely serious implications\" for the NHS and other key services.\n\nThe number of people in hospital with the virus has increased by 80% over the past week, from 679 to 1,223 - although the number of people in intensive care has been broadly stable, with 42 recorded yesterday.\n\nSelf-isolation rules are being changed in a bid to ease staff shortages in key sectors, with Ms Sturgeon saying ministers had considered the issue very carefully.\n\nPeople who test positive for the virus will be allowed to exit quarantine after seven days as long as they have no fever and record two negative lateral flow tests, one on day six of isolation and another 24 hours later.\n\nMeanwhile close contacts of positive cases will no longer need to self-isolate as long as they are fully vaccinated - which means two doses and a booster - and take a lateral flow test daily for a week.\n\nAnd people who have no symptoms but record a positive lateral flow test result will no longer have to go for a PCR test, mirroring changes made in England.\n\nWednesday is the first day we've been able to get a clear picture of just how fast Covid infections have spread over the Christmas and new year period.\n\nPublic Health Scotland publishes daily case counts by the date of the PCR test and from these figures we can see that 21,397 people tested positive on 29 December - the highest daily total of the pandemic so far.\n\nOn New Year's Eve, the average number of cases being confirmed a day almost hit 15,000. Two weeks previously this average stood at just over 5,000, which is one of the sharpest rises in case numbers we've seen in Scotland.\n\nThe dominance of the Omicron variant is now almost total, likely accounting for more than 91% of cases in Scotland, less than six weeks after it was first detected here.\n\nThe number of people in hospital with Covid has also been going up over the last three weeks, rising from 494 on 18 December to 1,223 on Wednesday.\n\nHowever, the number of patients always lags behind changes in infection levels, so the full impact of the current high case levels will only be felt in the next week or so.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the changes \"strike an appropriate balance\" between breaking chains of transmission and reducing the disruption of self-isolation to the economy and critical services.\n\nOpposition parties had been calling for changes to the isolation rules for weeks.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the government's initial reluctance to follow the rest of the UK was \"not sustainable\" from the outset and had seen Scotland \"left as an outlier\".\n\nHe also called on the government to show what had changed in the clinical advice it had received.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she would publish as much data as possible, but said the decision had involved the \"application of judgement\" by ministers.\n\nShe said: \"Last week I did not think it was the case that the benefits of changing self-isolation would outweigh the risks.\n\n\"The higher transmission now and the bigger burden of self-isolation on the economy has changed that judgement.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon defended her decision not to change the isolation rules sooner\n\nBusiness groups welcomed the changes, along with further detail of financial support for the worst-affected sectors.\n\nThe Scottish Chambers of Commerce said the move \"should have a positive impact on businesses ability to operate and allow employees to return to work safely, while also safeguarding public health\".\n\nThe Scottish Retail Consortium said staffing levels were \"manageable for the time being\", adding that Wednesday's changes \"should help ease the level of staff absences in retail and its wider supply chain\".\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also backed the changes, saying \"they will be a relief to public services and businesses who were feeling the impact of restrictions\".\n\nScotland's other Covid restrictions are to remain in place for at least another week, with ministers to review the situation again on 11 January.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she expected that restrictions on large gatherings and the requirement for physical distancing and table service in hospitality venues will remain in force until 17 January at the earliest.\n\nPeople in Scotland have been urged to reduce their social contacts as much as possible, with guidance not to meet up in groups of more than three households.\n\nMs Sturgeon also said Scotland would need to find ways of adapting its response to the ongoing challenge of the virus, warning that Omicron is \"unlikely to be the last new variant we encounter\".\n\nShe said the government would not be \"giving up on trying to control Covid entirely\", but would be \"seeking ways of doing so that are more proportionate, more sustainable and less restrictive\".", "The Banffshire and Buchan Coast representative, who was elected last year, had faced a backlash for a tweet about paedophiles last week.\n\nMs Adam said abusers were not \"Mac wearing flashers in the street\" but \"our family, friends and colleagues\".\n\nShe added: \"It's uncomfortable to humanise them because we then have to face the horrors in plain sight.\"\n\nFollowing the post, the MSP - who said she was a survivor of child sexual exploitation - added that she had received death threats, including a threat to put her through a woodchipper.\n\nThe post was interpreted by some, including Alba Party general secretary Chris McEleny, as an attempt to humanise those who abuse children - something the MSP firmly rejected.\n\nMs Adam said she was attempting to make clear that abusers were normal people who often \"go under cover as 'respectable'\".\n\nOn Monday, in a tweet posted just after 03:00, Ms Adam said she had received death threats as a result of her original tweet and suggested she could pursue legal action.\n\n\"Can't sleep, not eaten. I'm worried for mine and my families safety after I was just told my personal details are now being shared,\" she wrote.\n\n\"Death threats, vile abuse, told to kill myself. Told I'd be put through a wood chipper. Grateful for litigation advice. I'm off for a wee bit.\"\n\nA Police Scotland spokeswoman said: \"We can confirm that a complaint has been made regarding online threats and police inquiries are ongoing.\"", "One-year-old Maggie was left at a rescue centre as a \"fake stray\"\n\nA dog shelter is braced for a £30,000 monthly veterinary bill because of an \"explosion\" in unscrupulous breeders.\n\nSuch \"fake strays\" can have complex medical problems because of irresponsible sellers uninterested in animal welfare.\n\nThe problem has been made worse by millions of people buying pandemic pets they no longer want.\n\nHope Rescue staff said an \"explosion in backyard breeders\" helped create \"a perfect storm\".\n\nMost \"fake strays\" arriving at the Welsh charity's door now had medical problems, staff said.\n\nDogs are known as fake strays when their owners pretend their pets are stray, in order for rescue centres to take them.\n\nIn one morning the centre took in an American bulldog abandoned on Bwlch mountain, near Treorchy, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and two puppies dumped in a bin in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan.\n\nThe former had spinal problems, the latter skin trouble.\n\nHope Rescue's Sara Rosser said January was always their busiest time\n\nThe charity's Sara Rosser said January was always their busiest month.\n\n\"More people get into financial difficulty and then struggle to pay their vets bills,\" she said.\n\nShe added: \"This year that's just going to be compounded even further by the issues we are already facing with dogs post-pandemic.\"\n\nMore than three million UK homes have bought pets since the pandemic began, according to the Pet Food Manufacturers Association.\n\nMs Rosser said: \"Our vet bills at the moment are averaging around £20,000 a month, the majority of fake strays coming into us are coming in with medical problems, and that bill does add up.\"\n\nThe Pontyclun centre has been running at capacity since last summer, with more than 130 dogs in their kennels.\n\nMeg Williams said demand for dogs went up in the pandemic\n\nMs Rosser said: \"I can see us reaching £30,000 a month next year, the number of dogs requiring referrals, specialist treatment, these aren't just simple medical problems.\"\n\nThe canine charity's Meg Williams said: \"There was such a demand for dogs during Covid, that created a lot more people breeding who had not bred before, and don't necessarily understand the welfare issues.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: PM confirms Plan B will stay, as England sees fastest growth in Covid cases\n\nEngland's current Plan B rules will continue for now, Boris Johnson has confirmed - as new figures show a record one in 15 people had Covid on New Year's Eve.\n\nIn an update to MPs, the prime minister said the Covid measures will be reviewed again by 26 January.\n\nThe rules cannot be scrapped completely because hospital admissions are rising rapidly, he added.\n\nOmicron continues to spread widely, with some hospitals struggling to cope.\n\nA record 3.7 million people in the UK had Covid in the week to New Year's Eve - an extra million more than the week before - according to estimates from the Office for National Statistics.\n\nThis equates to one in 15 people in England, one in 20 people in Scotland and Wales, and one in 25 in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe estimate was highest for London, where one in 10 people were believed to have Covid - although the ONS said there were some \"early signs\" cases were no longer increasing in the capital.\n\nThe figures are part of the ONS weekly infection survey which tracks the pandemic by sampling the population. It does not include people in hospitals and care homes.\n\nMaking an announcement in the House of Commons earlier, Mr Johnson said the government would not be bringing in new measures.\n\n\"In response to the latest data the cabinet agreed this morning that we should stick with Plan B for another three weeks with a further review before the regulations expire on 26 January,\" he said.\n\n\"I know some might therefore ask whether this means we can now do away with measures altogether, but I'm sorry to report that hospital admissions are rising rapidly, doubling around every nine days, with already more than 15,000 Covid patients in hospital in England alone.\n\n\"We're experiencing the fastest growth in Covid cases we've ever known,\" he said - citing the record 218,724 daily confirmed cases on Tuesday, although that included some delayed reporting from over the festive period.\n\nAnd Mr Johnson warned case rates are now rising rapidly among older and more vulnerable people - with infections doubling every week in over-60s.\n\nMore than 20 English NHS trusts have declared critical incidents - according to Downing Street - and some non-urgent surgery is being cancelled due to staff shortages.\n\nOne ambulance service is asking people with suspected strokes or heart attacks to get relatives or friends to drive them to hospital because of staff shortages.\n\nFront-line NHS services and businesses have told the BBC how they are coping with staff being off work with Covid, with one doctor at a surgery in Cambridgeshire saying people are \"falling like flies\".\n\nThe UK announced a further 194,747 cases on Wednesday, as well as 334 deaths within 28 days of a positive test - although the death figures include a backlog from NHS England between 1 and 4 January. A total of 17,276 people are in UK hospitals with Covid, the figures show.\n\nOther changes to Covid measures have also been announced:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Labour's Angela Rayner gives her response to the PM's statement on Plan B\n\nUnder England's Plan B measures, people are told to continue working from home wherever they can, wear face coverings on public transport and in public places, and show their Covid status to get into nightclubs and large events.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are in charge of their own Covid rules - and all brought in stricter measures after Christmas.\n\nIn Scotland, pubs and bars are operating with table service only, and people are being asked to limit social contact to two other households, while in Wales gatherings are limited to six people in public premises, large events are not allowed and nightclubs are closed. In Northern Ireland, nightclubs are also closed and a maximum of six people are allowed at a table in hospitality venues.\n\nScotland also cut its self-isolation period to seven days for people who record two negative lateral flow tests, which brings it in line with the rest of the UK.\n\nIn a Commons statement on Wednesday, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said about 8% of school staff were absent at the end of 2021, and that was \"likely to rise\" as Omicron continues to spread.\n\nCovid measures taken in schools, such as mandatory face coverings for secondary school children, were part of the government's plan to do \"everything in our power to keep children in our classrooms\", he said.\n\nA Department for Education study has found that in 123 schools where face coverings had been in use in the autumn term, there were fewer children absent because of Covid than in schools that were not using masks, Mr Zahawi added.\n\nHe accepted face coverings could be \"distracting\" and \"not great\" for children's wellbeing or education, and said he had commissioned further research into the negative impact of them.", "Covid testing rules for people who do not have symptoms are set to be relaxed in Wales.\n\nFrom Thursday, anyone who has a positive lateral flow test, but does not have symptoms, will no longer need to take a PCR test to confirm they have Covid.\n\nIt comes as Health Minister Eluned Morgan said demand for PCR tests had reached \"unprecedented levels\".\n\nThe move is in line with the rest of the UK, Ms Morgan said.\n\nIn a written statement to Senedd members, she said demand for PCR testing had reached \"unprecedented levels across the UK\" as a result of the spread of the Omicron variant.\n\nDaily bookings at PCR test sites across Wales have risen to 28,000 since Christmas Day, \"a record high\", she added.\n\nUnvaccinated people who have been in contact with a positive case are also now being advised to take lateral flow tests on days two and eight of their ten-day isolation rather than PCR tests.\n\nPCR tests - which are processed in laboratories - have been considered to be more reliable than lateral flow tests.\n\nHowever the minister said: \"As the prevalence of coronavirus is above 1%, the risk of false positives from lateral flow devices decreases.\n\n\"This means there is less value in having a follow-up PCR test to confirm the result.\"\n\nMs Morgan said she estimated the change would \"reduce the demand for PCR tests by between 5% and 15%\".\n\nThose in a clinically vulnerable group who have no symptoms but have had a positive lateral flow test result are still being advised to book a follow-up PCR test.\n\nMs Morgan urged everyone to report the result of every lateral flow test they do and to self-isolate \"as soon as they test positive\".\n\nMs Morgan said the change could increase demand for lateral flow tests\n\nShe added that: \"We recognise these changes will potentially increase demand for lateral flow tests.\n\n\"There are no current issues with supplies but we are aware of issues with distribution for people to access tests at some collection points including pharmacies.\n\n\"UKHSA [UK Health Security Agency] manage the logistics and deliveries across the UK and we are working closely with them to improve the situation.\n\n\"More than four million tests were distributed to workplaces, people's homes and collection points in Wales last week.\"\n\nThe rule change was welcomed by Welsh Conservatives.\n\nParty health spokesman Russell George said it would \"preserve an increasingly precious supply of PCR tests\" and maintain \"consistency across the United Kingdom\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAustralians have reacted angrily to news that tennis player Novak Djokovic will play in the Australian Open, after being exempted from vaccination rules.\n\nAll players and staff at the tournament must be vaccinated or have an exemption granted by an expert independent panel.\n\nDjokovic has not spoken about his vaccination status, but last year said he was \"opposed to vaccination\".\n\nPrime Minister Scott Morrison said if the player's evidence was insufficient he would be on the \"next plane home\".\n\nOrganisers say the defending champion has not been given special treatment, but the decision has infuriated many Australians. The country is seeing tens of thousands of Covid-19 cases for the first time after enduring some of the world's strictest restrictions.\n\nOver 90% of Australia's over-16 population is fully vaccinated, but some people still cannot travel interstate or globally because of current measures.\n\nAmid the controversy, Mr Morrison said the Serbian player would be required to present evidence upon arrival that he has a genuine medical exemption from vaccination. The Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne.\n\n\"If that evidence is insufficient, then he won't be treated any different to anyone else,\" the prime minister told reporters. \"There should be no special rules for Novak Djokovic at all. None whatsoever.\"\n\nThe comments seemed to represent a change in his position, after he said on Tuesday that the Victoria state government had provided the player with an exemption to enter the country and that officials would act \"in accordance with that decision\".\n\nMany Australians had previously accused the government of allowing the rich and famous to do as they please while ordinary people remained separated from sick and dying loved ones.\n\n\"I think it's a disgrace,\" Melbourne resident Christine Wharton told ABC. \"We've all done the right thing, we've all gone out and got our jabs and our boosters and we have someone that has come from overseas and all of a sudden he's been exempt and can play.\"\n\nA&E doctor Stephen Parnis tweeted: \"I don't care how good a tennis player he is. If he's refusing to get vaccinated, he shouldn't be allowed in.\"\n\nNovak Djokovic has been granted permission to defend his Australian Open title\n\nThe decision raised eyebrows with some other tennis players too. \"I just think it's very interesting. That's all I'm going to say,\" Australian Alex de Minaur said.\n\nBritain's Jamie Murray added: \"I think if it was me that wasn't vaccinated I wouldn't be getting an exemption. You know, but well done to him for getting clear to come to Australia and compete.\"\n\nAustralian former player Rod Laver said the reason for the exemption should be made public, saying the situation \"might get ugly\".\n\n\"Yes, you're a great player and you've performed and won so many tournaments, so it can't be physical,\" he said. \"So what is the problem?\"\n\nThe tournament's chief executive, Craig Tiley, said 26 athletes had applied for medical exemptions. \"A handful\" had been granted, he said, under guidelines set by federal regulators.\n\n\"We made it extra difficult for anyone applying for an application to ensure it was the right process and to make sure the medical experts deal with it independently,\" he told Channel 9.\n\nNovak Djokovic's announcement has made him an enemy to some and a hero to others. Whilst the tennis champion has never openly confirmed whether he has been vaccinated, what we do know is that he has previously tested positive for the virus and discussed his opposition to vaccines.\n\nDuring a Facebook live in April 2020 he explained how he \"wouldn't want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine\" should that be necessary to travel or compete in tournaments.\n\nThese comments were widely shared and praised in Facebook groups and Telegram channels promoting outlandish conspiracies that the vaccines are part of a sinister plot to control and harm the world's population.\n\nAnd previous comments like this have added fuel to the fire when it comes to the latest row over why he has been granted an exemption to travel.\n\nIn Telegram channels promoting Covid-19 conspiracies, the exemption has given rise to incorrect theories that the vaccine is experimental. It has also led to outspoken vaccine sceptics, such as US tennis player Tennys Sandgren, to come out in support of Djokovic.\n\nAnd it is not just Djokovic who has been accused of fuelling disinformation on social media. His wife has promoted false claims that 5G technology is somehow linked to Covid-19 on her own Instagram feed - posts labelled as false by the social media site.\n\nApplications for medical exemptions are being assessed anonymously by two separate panels, with inflammatory cardiac illness or another acute condition listed as valid reasons.\n\nBut it is also possible Djokovic has recently tested positive for the virus, which would allow him to defer taking the vaccine.\n\nA spokeswoman for the event told the BBC they could not comment on the reasons behind the player's exemption.\n\nOn Tuesday Djokovic said on Instagram: \"I've spent fantastic quality time with my loved ones over the break and today I'm heading down under with an exemption permission. Let's go 2022. I am ready to live and breathe tennis in the next few weeks of competition.\"\n\nVictoria state government minister Jaala Pulford acknowledged the decision was \"frustrating and upsetting\", but also denied that Djokovic had received special treatment. Both she and Mr Tiley urged Djokovic to give more information to the public.\n\n\"It'll certainly be helpful if Novak was to explain the conditions in which he's sought an exemption and granted an exemption but ultimately it's up to him,\" Mr Tiley said.", "Lord Ahmed, pictured arriving at court in late November, resigned from the House of Lords in November 2020\n\nA former Labour peer has been found guilty of sexual offences against two children in the 1970s.\n\nLord Ahmed of Rotherham was convicted of a serious sexual assault against a boy and the attempted rape of a young girl.\n\nSheffield Crown Court heard the repeated sexual abuse happened in Rotherham when he was a teenager.\n\nThe 64-year-old, who appeared under his real name of Nazir Ahmed, had denied the charges.\n\nDuring trial, prosecutor Tom Little QC told the court Lord Ahmed had attempted to rape the girl in the early 1970s, when the defendant was aged 16 or 17 but she was much younger.\n\nThe attack on the boy, who was aged under 11 at the time, also happened during the same period.\n\nMr Little said Lord Ahmed claimed the allegations were a \"malicious fiction\" but a phone recording of a 2016 conversation between the two victims showed they were not \"made-up or concocted\".\n\nThe woman's call was prompted by an email from the male victim saying: \"I have evidence against that paedophile,\" the jury previously heard.\n\nHe was convicted of two counts of attempting to rape a girl and a serious sexual assault against a boy\n\nLord Ahmed was charged along with his two older brothers, Mohammed Farouq, 71, and Mohammed Tariq, 65, but both were deemed unfit to stand trial.\n\nBoth had faced charges of indecent assault against the same boy abused by Lord Ahmed.\n\nThough the men did not face a criminal trial, jurors concluded that they did commit the alleged acts after hearing evidence in the case.\n\nLord Ahmed, who was convicted following a retrial, resigned from the House of Lords in November 2020 after a conduct committee report concluded he had sexually and emotionally exploited a vulnerable woman who sought his help.\n\nThe inquiry into his behaviour followed a BBC Newsnight investigation.\n\nFollowing the trial, held at Sheffield Crown Court, sentencing will take place in early February\n\nThe report made him the first peer to be recommended for expulsion but he resigned before this could be implemented.\n\nRosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's special crime division, said: \"By these verdicts the jury has clearly decided that no matter the delay between the offences and the trial, and the defences raised, they could be sure that the accounts of the victims were credible and true.\n\n\"One of these defendants held a position of power, influence and responsibility for some time in the House of Lords but this case clearly illustrates that where there is sufficient evidence, even in challenging cases, the CPS will bring a prosecution, put evidence before a jury and see rightful convictions.\"\n\nThe judge, Mr Justice Lavender, bailed Lord Ahmed to appear at the same court for sentencing on 4 February.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Prince Andrew was interviewed by BBC Newsnight's Emily Maitlis in 2019\n\nIt is more than two years since I sat down with Prince Andrew in a Buckingham Palace ballroom and posed questions that seemed almost too surreal to ask.\n\nIt is two years since the world heard his defence - about a birthday party in Woking, a trip to Pizza Express, and his inability to sweat - and shook a collective head, trying to work out what any of it meant. At the time, the specifics seemed almost comical. They spawned memes and riffs, quiz-show questions and stand-up routines. But now, suddenly, they feel deadly serious.\n\nRight now a New York judge is deciding whether to allow Virginia Giuffre, the Jeffrey Epstein trafficking victim, to pursue her civil case against the prince. The answers the duke gave Newsnight in 2019, and the rest of his testimony to me that day, form a critical part of this landmark legal case. Ms Giuffre is suing the prince, claiming he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 - and a minor under US law. The duke denies the allegations.\n\nIn a hearing by teleconference on Tuesday, Prince Andrew's lawyer argued a 2009 settlement - between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein - made it impossible for Ms Giuffre to take the case against the duke any further. Her lawyers argued the allegations against the prince were not covered by the 2009 deal. The judge, who said he appreciated the \"arguments and passion\" over the settlement - whatever that means - did not deliver his decision on whether the case should be thrown out or proceed, promising only to give that \"pretty soon\".\n\nPrince Andrew came to Newsnight that day because he wanted to clear his name. He believed things had been said about him that he could disprove. And he had his defence ready.\n\nThe answers he gave me on camera may have seemed astonishing, jaw-dropping, even, in places. But bizarrely, I had been expecting them. We had talked through the things he wanted to say earlier, so part of my job that day was just to let him speak. To let him explain to the world his own version of events.\n\nWe went into that interview knowing that we would have one chance to get it right. One chance to provide a record of testimony, one chance to offer up a first-person account\n\nWe met the duke in the days before the interview took place. We were invited right into the heart of Buckingham Palace - his office rooms in what felt like the eaves of the palace. It was there - under a sloping roof, around a mahogany table - that we were treated to tea in dainty bone-china cups with the royal crest on them.\n\nIt was there the duke shook my hand, sat down, and explained he was going to tell us why he believed the photograph of him and Ms Giuffre - showing Prince Andrew with his arm around her - was likely a doctored fake.\n\nIt was Prince Andrew who volunteered the information to me in that early meeting that he was \"unable to sweat\". His Falkland Islands wartime experiences, he claimed, had produced a glut of adrenalin that meant he hadn't been able to sweat properly since being shot at.\n\nI remember him asking me very directly if we thought that would be interesting to hear. And I said yes - I was fascinated by adrenalin - and that we wanted to hear as much detail of his account as we could.\n\nThere were phone calls between the palace and several of my producers. We had asked him to explain his whereabouts on the night Ms Giuffre alleged he had danced with her in Tramp nightclub, in London. His office had checked the date, and told us he couldn't have been with her because he had been at a children's birthday party that same evening.\n\nI'm not sure we knew about Woking, but we did know about Pizza Express. The prince, in other words, had his alibi ready. He wanted to get that across in the interview. Of course, a children's birthday tea party and a late night in a club are not chronologically incompatible: it would have been more than possible to do both.\n\nBut the point of the interview was not to catch him out - I can't stress this enough. The point of the interview was just to have a record of Prince Andrew's own version of events. He wanted to set his own record straight. He offered minutiae and anecdote, detail and description, and we were ready to hear it all.\n\nPrince Andrew, Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001\n\nWe went into that interview knowing that we would have one chance to get it right. One chance to provide a record of testimony, one chance to offer up a first-person account if the case ever went to court. One chance to let a senior royal face questions of the utmost seriousness and give us what he assured us were straight answers.\n\nWhen I listen back to the questions I posed that day there is a directness to them that even now makes me catch my breath. I can't quite believe that the words came out in the order I intended. But they had to. Because we had just one chance.\n\nAnd we had to be very, very sure - not of the answers - but of the things we needed to find out. Virginia Giuffre alleged she had dined and danced with a sweating Prince Andrew in that London club. And that afterwards she was made to have sex with him in Ghislaine Maxwell's house.\n\nI was already prepared for much of what he was going to say - although never the exact manner in which he said it. But I had to ask those questions in the way I did - to hear and to capture those answers on tape - for wherever the story would take us next.", "Memory capsules made by families of those who died are embedded into the memorial\n\nThe mother of Martyn Hett, who was killed in the Manchester Arena bombing, has described a memorial to the 22 victims as \"a beautiful tribute\".\n\nThe white marble \"halo\", entitled Glade of Light, which has officially opened to the public, bears the names of those killed in the 2017 atrocity.\n\nRelatives of the victims made memory capsules containing mementos and messages to be embedded inside.\n\nFigen Murray said the memorial was \"really important\" for the families.\n\nTwenty-two people died and hundreds more were injured when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017.\n\nMs Murray told BBC Newsbeat: \"To have a memorial after what happened is really important, particularly for the 22 families but also for the injured, for people who have been psychologically damaged... and the whole city of Manchester.\n\n\"What happened was an attack not just on the 22 killed, it was an attack on our city and our democracy so to mark that is something special.\"\n\nPeople walk around the newly opened Glade of Light memorial\n\nShe also tweeted it was \"heart-warming to see everyone being remembered in a space together\".\n\n\"Martyn's space is under a big old tree and I want to sit underneath it and remember him,\" she wrote.\n\nMs Murray, who was appointed OBE in the New Year Honours for her work in counter-terrorism following the attack, said families were allowed to visit the site in December and put their loved one's time capsules in.\n\n\"I was apprehensive... but it is quite a beautiful memorial and I really liked it and I feel really comfortable in it,\" she said.\n\nShe said her family had put a memory stick inside her 29-year-old son's capsule containing videos and photographs but they wondered whether the technology would work in future if it was ever opened.\n\n\"We had a bit of a laugh and Martyn would have joined in because he had a good sense of humour,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Manchester bomb: Memorial 'a place to remember and come together'\n\nAdam Lawler, whose friend Olivia Campbell-Hardy, 15, from Bury, died in the bombing, visited the memorial earlier.\n\nHe was also injured in the attack and told BBC North West Tonight it was a \"gentle place for reflection and remembering\" and somewhere \"to sit and come together\".\n\n\"I think it's somewhere I will always stop when I'm in town,\" he said.\n\n\"I'll pass through just to take a moment and remember.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Figen Murray This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe tribute features plants which grow naturally in the UK countryside and have been selected to provide year-round colour and echo the changing seasons.\n\nAround the anniversary of 22 May, the white flowers of a hawthorn tree planted at its centre will bloom every year.\n\nThe memorial site will be a place of peace and comfort, says the leader of Manchester City Council\n\nFlowers were left next to the name of Megan Hurley, one of the 22 people killed in the bombing\n\nManchester City Council leader Bev Craig said: \"We will never forget those whose lives were lost on 22 May 2017.\n\n\"They already had a permanent place in the hearts of Manchester people. Now they have a lasting memorial in the heart of our city.\n\n\"The Glade of Light is a beautiful tribute to them and somewhere which will also have profound meaning for everyone affected by the attack.\n\n\"We hope the memorial site will be a place of peace and comfort, standing as a reminder that love is stronger than hate.\"\n\nTwenty-two people were killed in the May 2017 bombing\n\nAn official opening event has been planned for spring.\n\nThe memorial is located between Manchester Cathedral and Chetham's School of Music, at the foot of Fennel Street where it meets Victoria Street.\n\nLast month, families whose relatives died in the explosion said they were \"disgusted\" after the memorial site was trespassed on.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section League Cup\n\nLiverpool have made a formal request to postpone Thursday's Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at Arsenal because of an increase in Covid-19 cases at the club.\n\nPlayers Alisson, Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino also missed the game while three members of staff tested positive.\n\nThe Reds' squad has been further stretched by the departure of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita for the Africa Cup of Nations.\n\nThe request has been made to the English Football League (EFL) with the match at Emirates Stadium scheduled to take place at 19:45 GMT on Thursday.\n\nA Liverpool statement said: \"Among the considerations which led to today's application to the EFL is the need for travelling supporters to be given as much notice as possible of any potential postponement.\n\n\"With no prospect of the current situation improving ahead of Thursday's fixture and the potential for it to worsen, the club considers it both prudent and reasonable to ask for the fixture to be rescheduled.\n\n\"Liverpool FC will offer a further update on the application process, as well as the resumption of training, in due course.\"\n\nAn EFL spokesperson said Liverpool's request \"will now be considered in accordance with the competition rules as set out at the start of the season alongside information submitted by the club\".\n\nThe EFL added: \"We will look to confirm the League's position as soon as possible once the circumstances have been fully reviewed.\"\n\nLiverpool are due to host Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup third round on Sunday (14:00) before the second leg against Arsenal at home on 13 January.\n\nChelsea host Tottenham in the other Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday (19:45 GMT).\n\nThe latest round of Premier League testing showed a first week-by-week decrease in positive Covid tests for eight weeks.\n\nThere were 94 new cases among Premier League players and staff from a total of 14,250 tests in the seven days up to and including 2 January - down from a record 103 cases over the previous seven days.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Aidan Mann, 28, was originally from Bangor but had recently moved to Downpatrick\n\nA 36-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Aidan Mann in Downpatrick, County Down, on Monday morning.\n\nThe 28-year-old tattoo artist was attacked in Church Street at about 11:00 GMT.\n\nThe victim was given treatment by paramedics but died at the scene.\n\nBarry Donnelly, of Church Street in Downpatrick, appeared at Newtownards Magistrates' Court on Wednesday morning via video-link.\n\nHe is charged with murder and possessing two large kitchen knives in a public place.\n\nThe court heard Mr Donnelly confirm he understood the charges against him.\n\nA defence solicitor said no bail application was being made.\n\nThe case was adjourned to 27 January when the defendant is due to appear at Downpatrick Magistrates' Court via video-link.\n\nAidan Mann was originally from Bangor, but had moved to Downpatrick in late 2021.", "Ukrainian soldiers are facing some 100,000 Russian soldiers massed on their borders\n\nThe US has threatened to halt the opening of a key pipeline that would send Russian gas to Western Europe, if Russia invades Ukraine.\n\nNord Stream 2 would run from Russia to Germany, and on Thursday officials in Berlin said the project could face sanctions if Russia attacks.\n\nWestern allies say they will target Russia's economy if it invades, and the latest comments signal a hardening of their stance on the lucrative pipeline.\n\nRussia denies it is planning an attack.\n\nBut the build-up of tens of thousands of Russian troops on Ukraine's borders in recent weeks has stoked tensions and escalated fears of an invasion.\n\n\"I want to be very clear: if Russia invades Ukraine one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward,\" US state department spokesman Ned Price told NPR.\n\nBut he added that he was \"not going to get into the specifics\" of how it would be stopped, and questions remain over whether the US would have the power to cancel the project.\n\n\"We will work with Germany to ensure it does not move forward,\" Mr Price said.\n\nWhile the US insisted that it would stop the opening of the pipeline completely, Germany only said it would not rule out imposing sanctions on the project.\n\nThe country's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, told parliament that Western allies were \"working on a strong package of sanctions\" covering aspects \"including Nord Stream 2\".\n\nBut she added that she would prefer to \"continue the dialogue\" with Moscow.\n\nHer comments came after the German ambassador to the US Emily Haber tweeted that \"nothing will be off the table, including Nord Stream 2\" if Russia violated \"Ukraine's sovereignty\".\n\nThe 1,225km (760-mile) pipeline took five years to build and cost $11bn (£8bn). The energy project, which would run under the Baltic Sea, is designed to double Russia's gas exports to Germany.\n\nBut as yet it has not started operating, as regulators said in November it does not comply with German law and suspended its approval.\n\nMajor European businesses have invested heavily in Nord Stream 2, which is run by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. But many groups object to the plan.\n\nEnvironmentalists question how it will fit in with German efforts to cut emissions and tackle man-made climate change, while politicians at home and abroad fear it could increase Europe's dependence on Russian energy.\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously described the pipeline as a \"dangerous geopolitical weapon\".\n\nFor years, the German government's official line about Nord Stream 2 has been that the pipeline is a private non-political business project.\n\nDespite massive American pressure, including threatened sanctions against European companies involved in the project, Berlin refused to back down. Some accused Washington of meddling in Germany's independent energy policy.\n\nThat changed last week, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was asked whether Nord Stream 2 would be used to respond to Russian aggression. \"Everything is up for discussion if there is a military intervention against Ukraine,\" he said.\n\nThat might not sound hawkish, but given the huge cost of cancelling the project it can be viewed as a major threat.\n\nThe pipeline is controversial in Germany. The Green Party in particular has always opposed it, partly for environmental reasons. But the chancellor's centre-left SPD party traditionally backs the pipeline, believing it crucial for German energy supplies.\n\nThe Russian military build-up on Ukraine's border has achieved what years of American pressure never could: it has made Germany rethink Nord Stream 2.\n\nThe threats over Nord Stream 2 followed a day of diplomatic manoeuvring on Wednesday.\n\nThe US rejected Russia's key demand to bar Ukraine from joining the Nato military alliance, while offering what it called a \"serious diplomatic path forward\" to Moscow.\n\nPresident Vladimir Putin is currently assessing the proposals, his spokesman said.\n\nThe proposals will not be made public, but US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the document made their \"core principles\" clear, including Ukraine's sovereignty and its right to choose to be part of security alliances such as Nato.\n\nRussia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the formal response does not address Russia's \"main concern\" about the alliance's expansion. But he did say that it \"gives hope for the start of a serious conversation\" on secondary questions, adding that President Putin will decide how to respond.\n\nSeparately, diplomats from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany reaffirmed a commitment to the long-standing ceasefire agreement in Ukraine, which had seen Russia-backed rebels seize territory in the eastern Donbas region.\n\nAll four nations continue to support the ceasefire \"regardless of differences on other issues\" related to the 2015 Minsk agreements, a statement published by the French presidency said. The group is due to meet again in two weeks in Berlin.\n\nOn Thursday, President Joe Biden spoke to Ukraine's president by phone. \"[We] discussed recent diplomatic efforts on de-escalation and... [I] thanked President Biden for the ongoing military assistance,\" Mr Zelensky said shortly after.\n\nPresident Biden will also meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on 7 February to discuss the Ukraine situation, the White House says.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Ukrainian Marta Yuzkiv is preparing to defend her country but says she doesn't want war", "Prince Andrew has denied being a close friend of convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, in a legal response to the woman who is suing him in the US for sexual assault.\n\nLawyers for the prince also say he wants to go before a jury to contest the claim brought by Virginia Giuffre.\n\nThe Duke of York has consistently denied all the allegations against him.\n\nMs Giuffre alleges he assaulted her when she was 17 at homes owned by Maxwell and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nBut in the 11-page court document, filed on Wednesday, Prince Andrew's legal team list a number of reasons why they believe her civil lawsuit should be dismissed.\n\nOne factor they ask the court to consider is the issue of consent.\n\nThe document says: \"Assuming, without admitting, that Giuffre has suffered any injury or damage alleged in the complaint, Giuffre's claims are barred by the doctrine of consent.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From November 2019: Prince Andrew said he was \"not aware\" of the arrest warrant for Jeffrey Epstein when he was invited to Princess Beatrice's birthday party\n\nThe document also states that Prince Andrew \"admits that he met Epstein in or around 1999\", but denies that he participated in any abuse with the late financier.\n\nOn the matter of a photograph of the prince with his arm around Ms Giuffre, with Maxwell in the background, his lawyers say they do not have enough information to admit or deny its existence.\n\nElsewhere, the document \"denies\" Ms Guiffre's claim that Prince Andrew was a close friend of Maxwell.\n\nWriting to a US judge, his lawyers state: \"Prince Andrew hereby demands a trial by jury on all causes of action asserted in the complaint.\"\n\nUS lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represents a number of Maxwell's and Epstein's accusers, called this demand a \"PR move\", saying Ms Giuffre had already asked for a jury trial.\n\nShe said Prince Andrew's request was \"meaningless\" as it was Ms Giuffre's constitutional right to have a jury trial if she asked for one.\n\nThis is a wide-ranging set of denials which is specific about the denial of the sexual abuse.\n\nPrince Andrew is denying even that he was a close friend of Ghislaine Maxwell and frequent visitor of Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nI think Buckingham Palace, which has pushed Prince Andrew and this whole case as far away as it possibly can, will be viewing this with suppressed horror.\n\nThey will realise the capacity this story has to dominate headlines and we are just 10 days away from the start of the Platinum Jubilee.\n\nIn terms of the strategy, I think Prince Andrew's lawyers are trying to give the impression that Virginia Giuffre's reputation will be damaged if this does come to court.\n\nThey will attempt to assert that her conduct was sufficiently wrong in itself that she has forfeited the right to benefit in any way from this situation..\n\nThough one has to wonder how that argument will play in front of a New York jury - a British prince trying to blame Virginia Giuffre.\n\nIt's a great final line in this document that Prince Andrew demands the right to be tried by a jury. But as I understand it he gets a jury trial anyway.\n\nCould this all be part of a softening up process in the hope that, as the other side recognises the sort of defence that will be mounted, perhaps they will be more inclined to consider an out of court settlement?\n\nThough at the moment, everything that Virginia Giuffre and her lawyers are saying is indicating that they do want to push this to a trial and they do want their day in court.\n\nIn the papers, Prince Andrew's lawyers further argue that Ms Giuffre has no legal basis to bring the case since she is a permanent resident of Australia.\n\nThey also refer to a 2009 settlement agreement between Ms Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein, a long-time associate of Prince Andrew.\n\nEpstein, a convicted sex offender, killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial. British socialite Maxwell was found guilty last month of grooming underage girls to be abused by him.\n\nMs Giuffre is suing the Queen's son for allegedly sexually assaulting her in London, New York and the Virgin Islands when she was a teenager.\n\nShe is seeking unspecified damages, but there is speculation the sum could be in the millions of dollars.\n\nEarlier in the month, a judge ruled that the case could proceed.\n\nBuckingham Palace later stripped Prince Andrew of his military titles and patronages, and said he would contest the case as a private individual.\n\nThe new court documents describe the Queen's second son as \"Prince Andrew, Duke of York aka Andrew Albert Christian Edward, in his personal capacity\".\n\nIn a statement, David Boies - who is representing Ms Giuffre - said his client and legal team \"look forward to confronting Prince Andrew with his denials and attempts to blame Ms Giuffre for her own abuse at his deposition and at trial\".", "Covid restrictions on adult social care will be eased in England from Monday, the government has announced.\n\nThere will be no limit on the number of visitors allowed at care homes, self-isolation periods will be cut and care homes will only have to follow outbreak management rules for 14 days, not 28.\n\nThe change is the latest rolling back of Plan B curbs in England.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the move meant people could see more of their loved ones.\n\n\"I know how vital companionship is to those living in care homes and the positive difference visits make,\" he said.\n\nEach of the UK nations sets its own rules on care homes, with Scotland easing its restrictions last week.\n\nThe Welsh government said there was \"no prescribed limit\" on the number of indoor visitors and care homes should mange them based on risk assessments.\n\nIn England, by 16 February care workers will be asked to take lateral flow tests before their shifts, replacing the current system which includes weekly asymptomatic PCR tests.\n\nSelf-isolation periods will be reduced from 14 to 10 days for those who test positive, with further reductions if they test negative on days five and six.\n\nIsolation periods for those in care following an emergency hospital visit will be reduced from 14 days to a maximum of 10 days.\n\nAnd requirements for testing or self-isolation following normal visits out will be removed.\n\nThe Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the new measures would ensure there were \"still robust protections in place\".\n\nCare minister Gillian Keegan said the changes were thanks to the success of the vaccine rollout and were backed by scientists.\n\nThe government said 86.5% of all care home residents have now had their booster jab.\n\nOn Thursday, the UK reported 96,871 Covid cases and 338 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to the latest figures. Cases over the last seven days have dropped by 2% on the previous week and deaths by 1%.\n\nThere were also 1,651 new hospital admissions of people with Covid. Figures show hospitalisations over the last seven days fell by 15.3% on the previous week.\n\nWith the rest of society opening up, the refrain I've heard from families of care home residents and from care staff has often been \"they've forgotten us,\" so Thursday's early morning announcement of the easing of visiting restrictions will be a huge relief.\n\nThe difficulty throughout the pandemic has been getting the balance right when it comes to protecting residents.\n\nAt the start, with so many deaths in care homes, only end-of-life visits were allowed, then there were visits behind screens and more recently just named visitors. Many families believe the restrictions themselves have taken a huge toll on the health and wellbeing of the people they love.\n\nTo prevent families and friends being completely shut out at any point in the future, campaigners want it to be a legal right for each resident to have unrestricted support from someone who is important to them.\n\nNadra Ahmed, head of the National Care Association, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that, while care providers would aim to allow unlimited visits, the changes would come with some challenges, such as staff shortages and infection control measures.\n\n\"As long as we can do things safely then we should be able to do all of the above with the visiting and I think nothing should compromise the wellbeing of the individuals physically and mentally,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lorren Rea says she cannot wait to visit her mum in a care home when the rules change\n\nDiane Mayhew, co-founder of the Rights for Residents campaign group, said she \"could not be happier\" following the announcement but said the devil would be in the detail.\n\nShe told BBC Breakfast there was no reason why it could not have happened sooner, adding that the majority of care home residents had received their booster jabs.\n\nOne of those who has been separated from their loved one is Suzy MacPherson, who last saw her 96-year-old mother before Christmas.\n\nAn outbreak at her home meant it was closed to all but essential care givers, she said but she hoped that the rule changes would improve things.\n\n\"I believe that if families are able to go back in that will support the staff. If I can sit with my mum for a few hours, hold her hand and talk to her then she is not going to be ringing her bell and asking for help from the carers,\" she said.\n\nTrish Lock, whose mother has dementia and is in a care home in Taunton, Somerset, said that, while the restrictions may have eased, the impact it had had on vulnerable people who had lost contact with their loved ones would remain.\n\n\"You can't just get that back and that is the heartbreak of it all,\" she said.\n\nSome people have said they have been unable to see relatives for weeks due to cycles of outbreaks and outbreak management measures.\n\nMike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group which represents independent care providers in Yorkshire and North Yorkshire, said care home providers were caught between not following guidance - potentially invalidating insurance - and using common sense.\n\nIt will be up to individual care homes whether to implement the rule changes and Mr Padgham told Today that the majority of care homes would want visitors to come but asked for a bit of patience while they got measures in place.\n\nLorren Rea, whose 83-year-old mother is in a care home, told BBC News she \"absolutely cannot wait\" to visit properly. She said that, at her mother's care home, only two named visitors were allowed but often there were very few appointments available - meaning visits took place once a week or sometimes once every fortnight.\n\nEven then visits were held in a garden room with a glass partition and intercom which made it hard to communicate with her deaf mother, she said.", "Face coverings and Covid passes are no longer legally required in England, after the relaxation of Plan B rules came into effect on Thursday.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the measures could be lifted due to the vaccine rollout's success and a better understanding of Covid treatments.\n\nThe PM's official spokesman said mask wearing would now be \"a matter of personal judgment\".\n\nBut some shops have said they will continue to ask people to wear them.\n\nRail operators also said passengers would be expected to wear face coverings. But all said they would encourage, not force, customers to comply.\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan has said masks will remain mandatory on Transport for London services, calling on people to \"do the right thing\".\n\nPublic health guidance urging people to wear a face covering in crowded and enclosed spaces when coming into contact with strangers will remain, the government said.\n\nOrganisations will also be able to choose if they require Covid passes from those visiting their venues.\n\nOther measures brought in to tackle the spread of the Omicron variant - including work-from-home guidance and advice on facemasks in secondary school classrooms - have already been dropped.\n\nFrom Thursday, guidance on the use of face coverings in communal areas of educational settings has also been removed by the government.\n\nThe Department of Health said the changes followed a review of data last week, including infections, vaccine efficacy, Covid pressures on the NHS, workforce absences, public behaviours, and views from the scientific community.\n\nMr Javid said: \"Our vaccines, testing and antivirals ensure we have some of the strongest defences in Europe and are allowing us to cautiously return to Plan A, restoring more freedoms to this country.\n\n\"As we learn to live with Covid, we need to be clear-eyed that this virus is not going away, so if you haven't already, please come forward for your first, second or booster jab.\"\n\nCases of coronavirus across the UK appear to be plateauing, after falling sharply from a high peak at the turn of the year.\n\nSome 346 more people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive test, bringing the total number of deaths by this measure to 154,702.\n\nMore than 37 million people have now had their booster or third jab - 64% of the population - with another 51,097 doses given out in the latest 24-hour period.\n\nMeanwhile, a study in England found that two-thirds of people recently infected with the Omicron variant said they had already had Covid previously. More work is needed to know how many are true reinfections.\n\nElsewhere in the UK, Covid passes were scrapped for pubs, restaurants and cinemas in Northern Ireland earlier this week - although they are still required for nightclubs and large events.\n\nHospitality will be back to normal and nightclubs will be able to reopen in Wales on Friday 28 January, but Covid passes will still be required on entry. They will also be necessary for large events, cinemas and theatres.\n\nIn Scotland, some Covid restrictions on indoor events and venues were lifted on 24 January, including the need for table service in hospitality venues.\n\nThe ending of mandatory Covid passes in some settings in England has been welcomed by the hospitality industry.\n\nMichael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, said requiring passes had been a \"debilitating and divisive mitigation\". Businesses across the night-time economy will celebrate the change, he said.", "Data for England is shown by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. Data for Wales and Scotland is shown by Health Board and in Northern Ireland by Health and Social Care Trust.\n\nWhen you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board and by Health and Social Care trust in Northern Ireland.\n\nComparative data is shown for a previous year where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Earlier data is not available for all measures, so comparisons between years are not always possible.\n\nA&E attendances include all emergency departments in that trust or health board, not just major A&E departments, for example, those who attend minor injury units.\n\nEach nation has different target times for some of the measures shown, therefore comparisons between them may not be possible.", "An FFP3 mask, not the brand being withdrawn by the Department of Health\n\nOne million face masks, described by a confidential government report as counterfeit, were sent out for use in NHS hospitals despite warnings about their authenticity.\n\nAccording to the report, health officials dismissed concerns, instead focusing on getting the masks out rather than considering \"red flags\".\n\nThe masks were sent for use by NHS staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe Department of Health said immediate action was taken when the issue arose.\n\n\"We have strengthened our assurance processes and introduced robust safeguards to prevent this in future,\" a spokesman added.\n\nBBC News first reported last February that more than a million high-grade masks in use in the NHS in England had been withdrawn over safety concerns. The FFP3 face coverings, worn by medics working in intensive care, were branded Fang Tian and marked as \"FT-045A\".\n\nNow a report has revealed that issues with them were dismissed for months. It was only after a nurse contacted the Chinese manufacturer directly and was told they were \"fake goods\" that officials took action.\n\nAfter the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) made its own direct enquiries, the manufacturer told them: \"The masks you got do not have certificate. I am sorry that you got the faked goods from bad guys.\"\n\nA catalogue of errors is laid bare in a highly-critical internal government report, disclosed to BBC News under the Freedom of Information Act.\n\nThe report says before the masks were released into the NHS in September 2020, a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) representative queried why the FT-045A model number did not appear to be covered by the safety certificate provided for the masks.\n\nYet health officials applied \"pressure\" to clear the face coverings for use, saying they had been given assurances they were authentic and fit for purpose.\n\n\"The certificate clearly states FT-045A as a model number and the packaging and picture of the masks states this too,\" wrote one official from the NHS's supply chain body. \"I do not understand why this now cannot be released.\"\n\nThe HSE representative then authorised their use, the report said, but it added that because the mask \"appeared\" to be CE safety marked, it did not need to provide sign-off.\n\nThe HSE told the BBC no authorisation was given for the product.\n\nHowever, that model of mask had not been certified and they were later shown to fail tests to the required standard. They did meet a lower World Health Organisation FFP2 standard.\n\nOfficials then began to receive reports from hospitals using the masks that they were not fit for purpose.\n\nBBC News has been investigating the government's handling of PPE contracts during the pandemic:\n\nIn November 2020, Mid and South Essex University Hospitals Group complained the masks were failing tests to make sure they fit securely. They reported the FT-045As only passed 40% of the time.\n\nOne of the group's hospitals also found filters had fallen out and in some instances seams in the masks had split. A DHSC official replied that this was an \"isolated incident\" and distribution of the masks continued.\n\nThat same month an \"anonymous report\" reached the DHSC claiming the Chinese manufacturer Fangtian was not aware it had sold any FFP3 masks to the NHS, and a police investigation into fraud or counterfeiting was ongoing in the country.\n\nAlthough the UK supplier was asked to investigate, this warning was also ultimately dismissed.\n\nBack in 2020 these masks were being used almost exclusively in the highest risk procedures where the risk for the wearer was the greatest\n\nMore complaints from hospitals followed in December 2020, including one from Medway NHS Foundation Trust, which said a member of staff had displayed \"Covid-like symptoms\" after a faulty mask they were wearing in an infected area failed.\n\nThe investigation says it has not been able to confirm if the individual went on to test positive for Covid-19.\n\nIt was not until February 2021, after a nurse in the Midlands contacted the Chinese manufacturer directly, that the concerns were properly investigated.\n\n\"Back in 2020 these masks were being used almost exclusively in the highest risk procedures where the risk for the wearer was the greatest,\" said Vishal Sharma, chair of the consultants committee at the doctors' union the BMA.\n\n\"That's why it's really worrying to find that actually these masks were not protecting people as they should have done.\"\n\nThe immense pressure to source personal protective equipment during the pandemic \"undoubtedly\" led to some people taking advantage of weaker procurement systems, the report concludes. But it finds no evidence of any criminal activity by individuals in the UK.\n\nThe report says the NHS supplier, Polyco Healthline Ltd, believed the masks it bought from China were being made under licence. It say they were supplied by a reputable producer of PPE that provided evidence of licencing arrangements.\n\nHowever, Fangtian, the Chinese firm that developed the masks, told the investigation it gave no such authorisation to any other manufacturer.\n\nIt is understood Polyco Healthline has serious misgivings about this claim.\n\nThe report says without being able to send an investigator to China, it is unlikely the full facts around the production of the masks will ever be ascertained.\n\nA spokesperson for DHSC said it was \"wrong to suggest the department ignored complaints\". \"As soon as we became aware of the issue with the products, we took immediate action to recall the affected products and commissioned an investigation.\"", "Small changes to periods can follow a Covid vaccine but they quickly return to normal, a leading UK menstruation expert has said.\n\nDr Victoria Male, from Imperial College London, called studies from the US and Norway which tracked women's cycles \"reassuring\".\n\nAnd she blamed misinformation for fuelling concerns over infertility.\n\nThe UK regulator says there is no evidence Covid vaccines affect the ability to have children.\n\nThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has received more than 37,000 reports of unexpected vaginal bleeding, heavier and delayed periods after a Covid jab.\n\nIt has always said there is no evidence of a link to the vaccine, because women's cycles vary naturally - but scientists called for more research.\n\nIn a British Medical Journal editorial, Dr Male - a lecturer in reproductive immunology - points to two studies.\n\nA US study of nearly 4,000 women using a menstrual-cycle tracking app found their next period was delayed by half a day after a second vaccine dose, but there was no delay after the first.\n\nThose who had two doses in the same cycle had a two-day delay but, Dr Male said, that was unlikely among women in the UK, where the gap between doses is at least eight weeks.\n\nThe cycle length of one in 10 of the women changed by more than eight days - compared with one in 25 unvaccinated women - but after just two cycles, their periods returned to normal.\n\nAnother study, of more than 5,600 people in Norway, shows how much periods can vary naturally.\n\nNearly 40% saw at least one change, even before being vaccinated - with the most common complaint heavier than normal bleeding.\n\nDr Male said: \"Changes to the menstrual cycle do occur following vaccination - but they are small compared with natural variation and quickly reverse.\"\n\nWomen's concerns arose \"from misinformation that Covid-19 vaccines cause female infertility\", she said.\n\nAnd more studies of pregnancy rates in couples trying to conceive were needed to make it clear they do not.\n\nA Covid infection, however, \"may reduce sperm count and quality\" - and understanding more about that would mean patients could be given the right advice.\n\nA study of UK users of the same menstrual-cycle tracking app is expected soon.\n\nThe \"low priority\" of menstrual and reproductive health meant it had taken a long time to reach this point, Dr Male added.\n\nAbout 51 million doses of Covid vaccine have been given to women in the UK.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sainsbury's, John Lewis, Waitrose and Morrisons will continue to ask people in England to wear masks in their shops when Plan B rules end on Thursday.\n\nRail operators also said passengers would be expected to wear masks after the legal requirement for face coverings in public places is dropped.\n\nAll said they would encourage, not force, customers to comply.\n\nPlan B rules, imposed in early December to battle Omicron, are being lifted as infections have peaked nationally.\n\nBut the government is still advising people to wear masks in enclosed or crowded spaces and when meeting strangers.\n\nTrade union Usdaw, which represents 360,000 retail workers, has urged customers to continue to \"observe Covid safety measures\", despite the mandatory requirement for masks ending.\n\nSainsbury's said safety was its \"highest priority\" and that it would ask customers and staff in England to \"continue to wear a face covering in our stores if they are able to\".\n\nIt will use poster campaigns and Tannoy announcements to get the message across.\n\n\"In Scotland and Wales face coverings remain mandatory for those who can wear them in our stores, in line with the latest government restrictions,\" the supermarket added.\n\n\"We continue to have a range of safety measures in all of our stores, including screens and sanitising stations.\"\n\nMeanwhile, John Lewis said it would be \"suggesting people wear masks\" in its department stores and Waitrose shops from Thursday, but added: \"It will be down to individuals to make a personal choice.\"\n\nElectronics retailer Currys said it would urge its staff to continue to wear masks in-store and while delivering products to homes, but wouldn't ask customers.\n\n\"We will continue to assess our approach based on infection rates and colleague feedback,\" the company said.\n\nMandatory mask-wearing has been a contentious issue during the pandemic, with industry bodies calling for customers to \"respect\" the rules.\n\nThere have also been questions about who is responsible for enforcing the measures, after violence against retail staff increased during the crisis.\n\nDespite this, retailers such as Sainsbury's and Tesco asked shoppers to continue wearing face coverings when the previous mask-wearing mandate ended in July 2021.\n\nAt the time, Sainsbury's said it followed supportive feedback from customers and colleagues.\n\nPaddy Lillis, Usdaw general secretary, said it was \"deeply disappointing\" the government had ended mandatory face coverings in shops when \"case numbers remain high\".\n\n\"We hope all retailers will continue to put staff and customer safety first,\" he added. \"Wearing a face covering is an important measure to help protect workers who have no option but to interact with the public.\"\n\nThe government says it is easing Plan B rules because of how well the public has followed the measures and because of the success of the vaccine booster rollout.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs last week scientists believed the Omicron wave has peaked.\n\nElsewhere, the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, said operators will still ask passengers to wear masks after Thursday and said it expected most would comply.\n\nIt comes after TfL said its passengers would be expected to keep wearing face coverings as government rules are relaxed.\n\n\"Travelling by train is as safe, if not safer, than other indoor activities, with ventilation that refreshes the air in carriages every six to nine minutes,\" the Rail Delivery Group said.\n\n\"In line with government guidance, train companies will be asking passengers to wear face coverings out of courtesy to others, unless they're exempt.\"\n\nHelen Dickinson, boss of industry body British Retail Consortium (BRC), said the removal of Plan B measure would \"enable shopping to return to more normal experience for customers, employees and businesses\".\n\n\"Retailers ask customers to be considerate to those around them when choosing whether to wear a face covering and to respect the decision of other customers,\" she added.\n\n\"Retailers continue to implement many other existing safety measures such as hand sanitiser and perspex screens.\"\n\nScientific evidence has suggested coronavirus transmission mainly happens indoors where people are closer together.\n\nCovering the nose and mouth can help reduce the spread of virus droplets from coughs, sneezes and while speaking.\n\nThe main purpose is to protect others although there is some evidence masks offer protection to wearers.", "Mr Blinken said the US was \"prepared either way\"\n\nThe US has rejected Russia's demand to bar Ukraine from Nato, amid warnings Russia might invade its neighbour.\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken was giving Russia a formal response to its demands to resolve the Ukraine crisis.\n\nMr Blinken gave no concessions but said that he was offering Russia \"a serious diplomatic path forward, should Russia choose it\".\n\nRussia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin would now assess Mr Blinken's response.\n\nWhile the document - delivered by the US in coordination with the Nato military alliance - does not address Russia's \"main concern\" about the alliance's expansion, Mr Lavrov said it \"gives hope for the start of a serious conversation\" on secondary questions.\n\nThe president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov meanwhile told reporters Russia would not \"rush into assessments\", saying it would take \"time to analyse\" the response.\n\nRussia had issued a written list of its concerns about the expansion of Nato and related security issues. Among them was a demand for Nato to rule out the possibility of Ukraine and others ever joining the alliance.\n\nIn recent weeks, Russia has been amassing large numbers of troops on the Ukraine border - something which Western countries have seen as preparation for a possible invasion. Russia denies this.\n\nMr Blinken said the US response made its \"core principles\" clear, including Ukraine's sovereignty and its right to choose to be part of security alliances such as Nato.\n\n\"There should be no doubt about our seriousness of purpose when it comes to diplomacy, and we're acting with equal focus and force to bolster Ukraine's defences and prepare a swift united response to further Russian aggression,\" he said.\n\n\"It remains up to Russia to decide how to respond,\" he added. \"We're ready either way.\"\n\nThe secretary of state said the US had sent three shipments of military \"assistance\" this week - including Javelin missiles and anti-armour weaponry, along with hundreds of tonnes of ammunition and equipment.\n\nMr Blinken also denied any rift or difference of opinion between the US and its European allies. Nato, he said, had prepared its own set of proposals which \"fully reinforces ours and vice versa\".\n\nBut the US document will not be made public.\n\n\"Diplomacy has the best chance to succeed if we provide space for confidential talks,\" the Secretary of State said.\n\nNato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance's document had also been delivered to Moscow, and while he was willing to listen to Russia's concerns, all nations had the right to choose their own security arrangements.\n\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, however, said earlier on Wednesday that Mr Stoltenberg had \"lost touch with reality\", when asked about Nato boosting its presence near Russia's borders.\n\n\"You know, I stopped taking any view of his statements a long time ago,\" Mr Lavrov told the press in Russian parliament, which was broadcast live on social media.\n\nSeparately, diplomats from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany reaffirmed a commitment to the long-standing ceasefire agreement in Ukraine, which had seen Russia-backed rebels seize territory in the eastern Donbas region.\n\nAll four nations continue to support the ceasefire \"regardless of differences on other issues\" related to the 2015 Minsk agreements, a statement published by the French presidency said.\n\nThe Kremlin's deputy chief of staff Dmitri Kozak characterised the eight-hour talks in Paris as \"not simple\", and the group is due to meet again in two weeks in Berlin.\n\nUkrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters on Thursday that the Russian decision to come to talks in Berlin was \"good news\", as it means that \"Russia for the next two weeks is likely to remain on the diplomatic track\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Ukrainian Marta Yuzkiv is preparing to defend her country but says she doesn't want war", "The US economy expanded at its fastest rate in decades last year as it roared back from pandemic lockdowns.\n\nOfficial figures from the Commerce Department showed the economy grew by 5.7% - its best performance since 1984.\n\nBut analysts are expecting growth to slow this year, as the government scales back stimulus spending and the Federal Reserve raises interest rates.\n\nOther risks include high inflation and threats from new Covid variants, such as Omicron.\n\nThe World Bank is predicting the US economy will grow by 3.7% this year, in line with other forecasts.\n\n\"The Omicron wave means the economy is starting 2022 on a much weaker footing and we expect growth to disappoint over the rest of this year too,\" said Andrew Hunter, senior US economist at Capital Economics.\n\nConsumer spending and government stimulus helped power the rebound from 2020, when gross domestic product contracted by 3.4% as the pandemic struck.\n\nThe labour market has now regained some 19 million of the 22 million jobs lost amid shutdowns that year.\n\nOutput remained robust in the final three months of the year, when it grew at a better-than-expected annual rate of 6.9%.\n\nPresident Joe Biden hailed the figures, saying they were \"no accident\" but rather driven by the government's recovery efforts.\n\nAs pandemic stimulus winds down, he urged Congress to move forward with additional spending plans focused on areas such as renewable energy, manufacturing and child care.\n\nBut with Mr Biden's agenda currently stalled in Congress, the economy is likely to have to perform without that boost - and with less help from America's central bank.\n\nOn Wednesday, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell signalled officials were planning to raise its key interest rate in March for the first time since 2018, saying the economy no longer needed extra-low borrowing costs put in place in 2020 to help it along.\n\n\"The defining challenge for the economy in the next year or two will be how well we can sustain growth not just in the absence of fiscal policy, but in the face of tightening monetary policy,\" Wells Fargo economists wrote in a research note.\n\nFederal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is under pressure to tackle inflation\n\nThe Fed is under pressure to tackle inflation as the US sees prices rise at their fastest rate in nearly 40 years.\n\nBank officials had initially said the pressures would be transitory and fade as the world moved past supply chain problems triggered by the virus - something that has proved to be far more difficult than hoped.\n\nSome analysts say the Fed has already moved too slowly to respond to the issue, while others fear the bank will move too aggressively, and the higher borrowing costs will reduce demand by more than expected.\n\nUS stock markets have seen three consecutive weeks of declines amid the concerns, as well as more recent data suggesting a slowdown as Omicron hit at the end of December and January.\n\n\"Today's figures measure GDP up until the end of December 2021, excluding some of the recent surges in Covid-19 cases,\" said Richard Flynn, managing director at Charles Schwab UK.\n\n\"Indeed, there's been weakness across US stock indices in the first weeks of 2022, as investors digest some of the risks facing the economy: receding monetary and fiscal liquidity, persistent effects from the pandemic, and a rise in inflationary pressures.\"", "Paramedic Matt Taylor says he is prepared to lose his job because he has not had a coronavirus vaccine\n\nMatt Taylor is a specialist paramedic who has worked through the pandemic treating elderly and vulnerable people in their homes. He hasn't had a Covid-19 vaccination and says he's prepared to lose his job over it.\n\nHe's one of around 80,000 unvaccinated NHS staff in England being told if they work with patients and don't get a jab by next week they could be moved to a different role or even sacked.\n\n\"There's nothing that says 'thank you' more than an email three days before Christmas telling you that if you don't do what they tell you to do you're not going to have a job,\" he says.\n\nUnder the government's current rules, NHS England staff must have a first jab by 3 February to allow time to be fully vaccinated by 1 April to continue in frontline roles.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid has said the policy is \"under review\". Pressed on whether that meant the government was considering scrapping the plan he added: \"We're reflecting on it because we do have to accept that the virus has changed.\"\n\nBut he said it was still \"absolutely right\" that health and social care staff \"carry out their professional duty, which is to do all that they can to put patient safety first, and that means getting vaccinated.\"\n\nMr Taylor, 42, works in primary care in Cumbria and says he feels like NHS staff are being used as political pawns.\n\n\"The government says as healthcare workers we should want to protect our patients by getting vaccinated.\n\n\"But you can argue that it won't protect them any more whether I have it or not. We all know people who are triple jabbed and they've still got Covid or they've not been jabbed and they haven't got it.\n\n\"It's not like the vaccine has eradicated Covid like some vaccines have done in the past so I find the argument for the science a bit weak.\"\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency says vaccines significantly reduce the risk of getting seriously ill or dying from Covid-19, and help cut the risk of catching or spreading the virus.\n\nDr Nikki Kanani, medical director of primary care for NHS England, says health care professionals have \"a duty\" to make sure they are protected.\n\nThe Department for Health and Social Care said there were no plans to delay the deadline and it was \"the right thing to do to protect patients\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Breakfast This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnne-Marie Chappell is an NHS administrator working with school nurses and health visitors in Lancashire.\n\n\"I am not patient facing, but if I were, I would be willing to lose my job on principle,\" she says.\n\n\"Nursing staff and doctors have been taught throughout their careers not to force medical treatments on patients who don't want them,\" she adds, but she feels \"the government is now trying to shame them into accepting\" a jab she believes is still experimental.\n\nMs Chappell says she is concerned about the impact the mandate could have on workers' mental health and the way they feel about working for the NHS.\n\n\"There will be people who don't want to have the vaccine but their partner might want them to because they are worried about how they will manage if they lose their job,\" she says. \"It's putting relationships, families, homes under pressure - there will be people whose families are split up over this.\"\n\nNHS England staff must have their first dose by 3 February and their second by 1 April under government rules\n\nPsychotherapist Anna says she feels stressed and pressured by NHS emails, meetings and webinars encouraging her to get a Covid jab.\n\n\"I feel like I don't even get a moment to breathe without being softly interrogated, by staff I may or may not even know,\" she says. \"I am thinking about taking it. I have no intention to resign or change my job. I just want to do it in my own time.\"\n\nShe is the only unvaccinated member of her team, but Anna says she does not consider herself to be \"an anti-vaxxer\" as she has had other jabs.\n\nThe NHS worker from London has had several meetings with her boss about the mandatory vaccination deadline.\n\n\"I was asked if I'd had a conversation with my family yet, had I booked an appointment yet. It felt like incessant coaching or surveillance on whether or not I'll be vaccinated.\n\n\"I feel they [the NHS] want me to say as soon as possible that I'm not getting it, so they can start thinking of how to fire me.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSome 5.1% of staff had not received any vaccine as of 23 January - the equivalent of 77,591 people, although not all will be in frontline jobs.\n\nThe DHSC's impact assessment warns 73,000 NHS staff in England could be lost due to the government's mandatory vaccination policy.\n\nPat Cullen, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, is calling for a delay to the 3 February deadline. She said: \"To dismiss valued nursing staff during this crisis would be an act of self-sabotage.\"\n\nScotland and Wales have not made any proposals to make Covid jabs compulsory for NHS workers or care home staff. Northern Ireland will hold a public consultation.\n\nAsa Granger says six to 10 colleagues are unvaccinated and face losing their jobs\n\nAsa Granger is a paramedic for South East Coast Ambulance Service who says he has also received an email about the mandatory vaccination deadline.\n\n\"They've put unless you're exempt for clinical reasons if you haven't had your first jab by 3 February you'll be redeployed or lose your job.\"\n\nMr Granger says there are six to 10 staff at his ambulance station in the same situation. \"I cannot treat any one of my patients without their consent, yet they're asking me to get vaccinated against my will,\" he says.\n\n\"Back in 2020 we were all being clapped and come 2022 they're saying we are sacking you, it's an absolute disgrace.\"\n\nThe 35-year-old says: \"I'm relatively young, fit and well. There have been lots of adverse effects linked to the vaccine. If I don't take the vaccine I'm 100% safe from the side-effects. I'm pretty happy with those odds.\"\n\nResearch has found side-effects from the vaccines are rare. Last year, feedback from about 40,000 people found about one in three reported some side-effects. None were serious and a common one was some soreness around the injection site.\n\nDr June Raine, the chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), says the benefits of vaccination continue to outweigh the risks for the \"vast majority of people\".\n\nMr Granger says he is holding out hope that the government will scrap the mandatory vaccination policy but does not know what he will do if it doesn't.\n\n\"I have a wife and young baby,\" he says. \"A colleague has said he's done it under duress because he has a family to support. I'm not judging people who have a vaccine, it's their choice but I'm not being given a choice.\"\n\nAre you unvaccinated against Covid-19 and an NHS employee? Share your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Food poverty campaigner and chef Jack Monroe has welcomed changes in the pipeline to how the cost of living is measured.\n\nMs Monroe had complained that everyday essentials were going up in price by more than the official inflation rate, hitting poorer people hardest.\n\nBut she said the official way inflation is calculated failed to reflect this.\n\nOn Wednesday, the official statistics body hit back, saying it was already changing how it measured prices.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics (ONS) agreed that \"one inflation rate doesn't fit all\" but said it would soon be publishing a wider variety of cost-of-living metrics.\n\n\"We will continue to produce our headline inflation statistics, which are long running and follow international best practice,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"[But] we are committed to ensuring that our statistics are relevant and continue to meet user needs. As part of this we are restarting publication of inflation broken down according to how much income you earn.\"\n\nThey added that the agency also had longer-term plans to improve its inflation figures by including data from supermarket checkouts, \"which will help us understand people's experience of inflation in a much more detailed way\".\n\n\"Delighted to be able to tell you that the ONS have just announced that they are going to be changing the way they collect and report on the cost of food prices and inflation to take into consideration a wider range of income levels and household circumstances,\" she said in a tweet.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jack Monroe This article contains content provided by Twitter. 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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEarlier, she told the BBC: \"People who are buying the 29p pasta, the 17p kidney beans, the 45p bags of rice - those statistics don't exist, so those people aren't represented.\"\n\nThat followed a series of tweets in which she highlighted budget supermarket lines being discontinued.\n\nThe ONS told the BBC it had previously reflected how lower, mid and higher income groups were affected differently by rising prices in its statistics.\n\nBut during the pandemic, supply chain problems and shortages meant there wasn't enough reliable data to publish those breakdowns, it said.\n\nThe statistics body said it was also working on \"radical new plans\" to change the way price rises are monitored.\n\n\"[These will] increase the number of price points dramatically each month from 180,000 to hundreds of millions, using prices sent to us directly from supermarket checkouts,\" ONS head of inflation statistics Mike Hardie said in a blog.\n\nJack Monroe is right that a big increase in the price of the cheapest pasta or the cheapest rice in a store may not be being reflected in the official inflation figures.\n\nHere's why: the ONS sends shoppers to stores around the country to check prices. They go to the big supermarkets, as well as discount retailers such as Aldi and Lidl, and corner shops. The use of Aldi and Lidl are particularly important because some of the bigger chains price-check against them.\n\nIf the item that the shopper bought the previous month has been discontinued, they will look for a replacement product of a similar quality. So, for example, if Morrisons stopped stocking a particular brand of spaghetti, which the shopper had bought last month, they would try to replace it with a similar product.\n\n\"However, if there were a change in quality, for example, from a value brand to premium brand, or from own brand to branded, then we would break the price chain,\" they told Reality Check, which means that they would buy a different product but not include the change in price in the inflation calculation.\n\nSo a shopper looking for the cheapest spaghetti could face a big price increase that would not show up in the statistics.\n\nBy using supermarket \"scanner\" data, that records every purchase, rather than the current method of monitoring the prices of representative products, the ONS hopes to reflect price rises more accurately.\n\nFor example, if the current method monitors the price of one tin of branded baked beans, the new method would reflect every purchase of own brand, or budget beans, mid-range products, as well as premium range baked beans.\n\nThe ONS said it could not provide more granular detail of how inflation affected specific income groups because information was not available on the precise contents of their shopping baskets at that level.\n\nIt added that the process of incorporating the supermarket checkout data into the official statistics would take place over the next year or so.", "A major UK human rights body has urged the Scottish government to pause its reforms to the gender recognition process for further consideration.\n\nMinisters want to change the system to make it easier for people to change their legally recognised gender, and a bill is expected at Holyrood this year.\n\nBut the Equality and Human Rights Commission has told them that \"more detailed consideration is needed\".\n\nThe government has already conducted two consultations on the plans.\n\nA spokesperson said it would continue \"to seek consensus where possible, and to work to support respectful debate\".\n\nProminent LGBT group the Equality Network accused the EHRC of being \"UK government appointees\" who were \"failing to stand up for equality for trans people\".\n\nThe EHRC is funded by the Government Equalities Office, but insists that it operates independently of ministerial control as a regulator of equality and human rights law.\n\nThe government wants to streamline the current process for obtaining a gender recognition certificate, which it says can be \"traumatic and demeaning\".\n\nProposed changes would mean applicants would no longer have to go before the UK Gender Recognition Panel - instead applying to the Registrar General for Scotland - or produce a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.\n\nThey would have to make a solemn statutory declaration that they have been living in their acquired gender for three months - down from two years - and intend to do so permanently.\n\nA further three-month \"reflection period\" would mean the process would take a minimum of six months.\n\nThere has been controversy over the proposals, with campaigners and politicians including some government ministers questioning how they could affect women-only services.\n\nAnd the EHRC has written to Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison to say that \"more detailed consideration is needed before any change is made\".\n\nCampaigners from both sides of the issue have rallied outside the Scottish Parliament\n\nChairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner highlighted concerns cited ranging from \"those relating to the collection and use of data, participation and drug testing in competitive sport, measures to address barriers facing women and practices within the criminal justice system\".\n\nShe said there needed to be \"urgent improvements to gender identity services throughout Britain\", but further consideration was needed before any change to the law was made.\n\nBaroness Falkner added: \"The established legal concept of sex, together with the existing protections from gender reassignment discrimination for trans people and the ability for them to obtain legal recognition of their gender, collectively provide the correct balanced legal framework that protects everyone.\"\n\nThe Equality Network issued a furious response to the letter, with director Tim Hopkins claiming that the EHRC board was \"directly appointed\" by the UK government and was \"failing to stand up for equality for trans people\".\n\nHe added: \"We do not need UK government appointees telling us in Scotland how to legislate in devolved areas, and we look forward to the Scottish government proceeding with this legislation soon.\"\n\nThe Scottish Greens - which form part of the Scottish government with the SNP - said the EHRC intervention was \"deeply disappointing\".\n\nThe Scottish government has held two consultations on its plans. The first, in 2018, attracted 15,697 responses, while the second spanned 2019 and 2020 and received 17,058 submissions.\n\nA major theme of the second consultation was consensus that \"the debate has become highly polarised\" and toxic, and was underpinned by \"a social media culture in which people are being bullied and harassed by those taking a different view\".\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"Our proposals to reform the current Gender Recognition Act do not introduce any new rights for trans people or change single sex exceptions in the Equality Act.\n\n\"Our support for trans rights does not conflict with our continued strong commitment to advance equality and to protect and uphold women's rights.\"\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon pledged to bring forward legislation in the first year of the current parliamentary term.\n\nShe said she understood that \"some have sincerely held concerns\" about the plans, but said it would \"make the existing process of gender recognition less degrading, intrusive and traumatic\".\n\nShe added: \"In other words, it will make life that bit easier for one of the most stigmatised minorities in our society. What it will not do is remove any of the legal protections that women currently have.\"", "Virginia Giuffre, then Roberts, was pictured with Prince Andrew in London in 2001\n\nLawyers for a US woman who has accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault are seeking proof of the British royal's alleged inability to sweat.\n\nVirginia Giuffre's legal team made the request as part of a civil case against the prince in a New York court.\n\nMs Giuffre, 38, alleges that Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager at the homes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nIn a 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight, he said a \"problem\" with her account was that a medical condition at the time meant he could not have been sweating, as she claims he was.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince Andrew: 'It was almost impossible for me to sweat'\n\nA civil case filed in the US alleges that the prince sexually abused Ms Giuffre - then known as Virginia Roberts - at Maxwell's London home, and at Epstein's homes in Manhattan and Little St James in the Virgin Islands.\n\nEpstein, a convicted sex offender, killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial. British socialite Maxwell was found guilty this week of grooming underage girls to be abused by him.\n\nThe motion filed by Ms Giuffre's lawyers calls on Prince Andrew to supply \"all documents concerning your alleged medical condition of anhidrosis, hypohidrosis, or your inability to sweat\".\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers said he objected to the request \"on the grounds that it is harassing and seeks confidential and private information and documents that are irrelevant, immaterial and not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence\".\n\nThey added that Prince Andrew had no such documents in his possession to hand over.\n\nThe motion also includes requests for details of Prince Andrew's trips on Epstein's planes, and communication he had with Epstein and Maxwell.\n\nIn a separate development, a request by Prince Andrew's lawyers to pause the proceedings against him has been turned down by a US judge.\n\nHis lawyers had wanted Ms Giuffre to take part in a two-hour deposition to discuss her country of residence.\n\nMs Giuffre has been living in Western Australia and Prince Andrew's lawyers had argued that this may disqualify her from filing a lawsuit in a US court. The judge rejected the demand.\n\nMeanwhile Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty on Wednesday of recruiting and trafficking young girls for Epstein, awaits sentencing, a date for which has not yet been set. The verdict could see her spend the rest of her life behind bars.\n\nThe jury's decision was welcomed by the survivors, with Annie Farmer - the only witness to use her real name during testimony - saying she was \"so relieved and grateful\".\n\nMs Giuffre, who was not one of the four women who testified in the case but was referenced on many occasions in court, said she would \"remember this day always\".\n\nMaxwell's brother Ian told the BBC that she would appeal against the verdict \"on legal grounds - both in terms of the pre-trial process and the trial process as well\", but did not give further details.\n\nHe described the victims' testimony as \"heart-rending\" but said he still believed his sister's innocence.\n\nAnother of Epstein and Maxwell's accusers, Sarah Ransome, criticised Mr Maxwell's remarks.\n\n\"This sex trafficking pyramid wouldn't exist without Ghislaine,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"I really think Ghislaine's brother should sit in a room full of Ghislaine's survivors because then he might have a different opinion of what his sister actually has done. She has destroyed hundreds of lives.\"", "A total of 351 people died in Northern Ireland last year from health conditions that were \"a direct consequence of alcohol misuse\"\n\nA Stormont report into addiction services has said harms caused by drug and alcohol use are \"significant and likely to get worse\".\n\nThe report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also highlights consistent increases in drug-related deaths over the past decade.\n\nThe number of alcohol-specific deaths in Northern Ireland in 2020 was the highest on record.\n\nThere were 351 such deaths last year - an average of almost one a day.\n\nThe figure was first reported by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) in December, but further details on the local situation were published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) on Thursday.\n\nNisra describes alcohol-specific deaths as \"deaths resulting from health conditions that are a direct consequence of alcohol misuse\".\n\nThe agency has been publishing alcohol-related death statistics since 2001 and said there had been a \"general upward trend\" in such deaths over that period.\n\nThe total of 351 Nisra-recorded deaths in 2020 was more than a third higher than the 260 recorded in 2010.\n\nOf those 351 people who died last year, two-thirds were male and one third female.\n\nMost of them were in the 45-54 or 55-64 age groups.\n\nMeanwhile, the just-published PAC report into addiction services also details a doubling of drug-related deaths over the past decade.\n\nThere were 191 drug-related deaths in 2019, compared to 92 in 2010.\n\nStormont politicians said they were \"alarmed\" by the prevalence of prescription drug use\n\nThe PAC report does not contain figures for 2020, but Stormont assembly members said that \"the impact of the pandemic\" would make it \"more challenging\" to reverse the increases in alcohol-specific and drug-related deaths.\n\nThe report said that the level of harm caused by substance use was \"significant and growing, and the pressures on services, and the wider public sector are becoming unsustainable\".\n\nThe assembly members (MLAs) on the committee said they were \"alarmed\" by the prevalence of prescription drug use in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"High prescribing rates of some prescription drugs are a significant cause for concern, particularly as these drugs are now involved in the majority of drug-related deaths in Northern Ireland,\" the report said.\n\nThey drew particular attention to a drug called Pregablin - also known by the brand name Lyrica - which has been linked to a number of deaths.\n\nThe committee called for the Department of Health (DoH) to have a \"clear objective of reducing drug and alcohol related deaths\".\n\nBut they also said that there was a need for joined-up action across government and a need to ensure there were more services for those suffering from addiction, including more residential rehabilitation.\n\nThe report also said there were long waiting lists for alternative therapies like counselling.\n\nThe department produced a new strategy on substance use in September 2021.\n\nBut the PAC said that implementation of that would need more than £6m a year of additional funding, which has not yet been secured.\n\n\"Without this funding the department will have hard choices to make about which elements of the strategy cannot be fully implemented,\" the report said.\n\nThey urged the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure that the budget for the strategy was provided.", "Emergency surgery will be delivered at Craigavon Area Hospital in the interim\n\nEmergency general surgery is to be temporarily withdrawn at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry from the end of February.\n\nA Southern Health Trust board meeting was told it was an \"interim\" measure due to ongoing recruitment challenges.\n\nIt is the first time this has occurred at the hospital, with services to be delivered at Craigavon instead.\n\nThe trust said Daisy Hill's Emergency Department will continue to operate a 24/7 service.\n\nOnly two out of six general surgical consultant posts at Daisy Hill have been filled, despite repeated recruitment processes.\n\nDirector of Acute Services Melanie McClements said the trust's \"hand had been forced\" because one of those two consultants would shortly be leaving their post.\n\nDirector of Acute Service Melanie McClements says an interim model was required to deliver a safe service\n\n\"That is not sufficient for us to deliver a safe service in Daisy Hill and therefore we have had to come up with an interim model that will allow us to actually move how we deliver our emergency surgical services from the 28th February,\" she said.\n\n\"All emergency surgical patients at that stage, we will be required to have them as inpatients at Craigavon hospital.\n\n\"In parallel, we will have a planning group that progresses the future service model and moving towards the public consultation of what a sustainable model will look like going forward.\"\n\nSouthern Trust chief executive Shane Devlin said it was a short-term plan designed to keep patients safe.\n\n\"I think without fail this is the right thing to do, the only thing to do to sustain services in the Southern Trust but more importantly to keep our patients safe, which we can all agree on this screen is a fundamental reason to have a health and social care trust, is to keep our patients safe.\"\n\nIn a statement, the trust said that Daisy Hill's Emergency Department remains \"absolutely essential\" in meeting the unscheduled care needs of the local population, with the team seeing more than 4,000 patients a month.\n\nMs McClements added: \"I want to assure local people that Daisy Hill remains an essential part of the Southern Trust hospital network.\n\n\"We aim to maintain the acute status of Daisy Hill through this process, whilst securing and enhancing its elective capacity.\"\n\nSDLP assembly member for Newry and Armagh, Justin McNulty, who attended the board meeting, said frontline staff at Daisy Hill and patients would be \"fearful\" that services could be downgraded at the hospital.\n\n\"If we are talking about rationalising our health service, then cross-border solutions with Daisy Hill front and centre, must be part of that discussion,\" he added.\n\nThe trade union Unite said it planned to \"fight a stronger fight\" to protect services at the hospital after previous campaigns to protect accident and emergency provisions.\n\n\"Emergency surgery is what it says, an emergency,\" it continued.\n\n\"How can traipsing over an hour (in some places) be the safest option?\"", "There was a significant rise in top degree grades in the two academic years affected by the coronavirus pandemic\n\nNorthern Ireland's universities awarded top degree grades to about one third of students in 2021, a rise of about 50% since 2016/17.\n\nThe proportion of students achieving first-class degrees in 2020/21 was 33%, compared to fewer than one in four, five years ago.\n\nThe figures have been released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).\n\nThe trends in Northern Ireland echo those across the UK.\n\nThere was a significant rise in top degree grades in the two academic years affected by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nIt is suggested by the HESA that measures introduced by universities \"to take into consideration the ongoing difficulties faced by students\" and changes to exams may be among the reasons for the rise.\n\nMany students have faced significant disruption since March 2020, with many degree courses being taught entirely online until on-campus teaching resumed in September 2021.\n\nThe figures released by the HESA show that just under 3,500 students in Northern Ireland taking their first degrees were awarded first-class honours in 2020/21.\n\nBut the most common classification was still an upper second class, achieved by 5,320 students - just over half of those awarded a first degree qualification in 2020/21.\n\nAbout 1,600 students received a lower second class or pass degree.\n\nUniversities are their own degree-awarding bodies, so can decide their own levels of degree grades.\n\nThe HESA statistics also show a rise in the number of students entering university in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK in 2020/21.\n\nThe number of undergraduate students starting a full or part-time degree course in Northern Ireland rose by about 12%\n\nThe number of undergraduate students starting a full or part-time degree in Northern Ireland rose by about 12% from 12,210 in 2019/20 to 13,685 in 2020/21.\n\nThere was also a rise in the number of students starting postgraduate qualifications.\n\nThere were concerns the pandemic would lead increasing numbers of students to defer entering university, but that does not seem to have been the case.\n\nThe figures also reveal more than a quarter of Northern Irish students were studying at universities elsewhere in the UK in 2020/21.\n\nThe HESA statistics show that around 16,500 students whose home address was in Northern Ireland were in higher education in England, Scotland or Wales.\n\nAbout 49,000 Northern Irish students were at Queen's University, Ulster University, St Mary's University College, Stranmillis University College or studying through the Open University.\n\nHowever, separate figures recently released by the Department for the Economy show there has been a sharp fall in the number of students in further education colleges in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe HESA statistics also show universities in Northern Ireland attract significant numbers of international students from India and China.", "More than 150,000 people use British Sign Language across the UK, with around 87,000 relying on it.\n\nBut it's not recognised as an official language in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. That means it's not protected in law in the same way that Welsh and Gaelic are, so public bodies aren't required to promote and facilitate the use of BSL.\n\nLabour MP Rosie Cooper is bringing a private member's bill in an effort to get that changed - with actress and Strictly Come Dancing winner Rose Ayling-Ellis among those backing the move.", "Kingspan has been the principal sponsor of Ulster rugby for several years\n\nUlster Rugby players should remember the \"pain and anguish\" of Grenfell fire victims when wearing shirts sponsored by Kingspan, a campaigner has said.\n\nKarim Mussilhy, whose uncle was among 72 people killed in the London tower block fire in 2017, wants the team to cuts its ties with the insulation firm.\n\nKingspan said its products made up only 5% of the insulation on Grenfell and was used without its recommendation.\n\nIt continues to sponsor Ulster jerseys and the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast.\n\nMr Mussilhy and other bereaved relatives have been campaigning for some time in an attempt to get the team to end the sponsorship deal and remove Kingspan's branding from its stadium and its shirts.\n\nUlster Rugby has said it has been engaging with Grenfell United, a group representing the victims' families.\n\nA public inquiry into the fire is examining how the building was covered in flammable materials, which contributed to the spread of flames that took hold of the tower.\n\nDuring the inquiry hearings, there had been criticism of Kingspan's business practices.\n\nThis included allegations that the firm misleadingly marketed an insulation product as being generally suitable for use on high-rise buildings, when it had only been approved for use as part of a specific cladding set-up.\n\nKingspan has said it has apologised for the \"unacceptable actions of a small group of former employees\".\n\nMr Mussilhy's uncle Hesham Rahman died in the fire which engulfed Grenfell tower on the night of 14 June 2017.\n\nIn an interview with BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster programme, the campaigner urged the team to sever its shirt and stadium sponsorship links with Kingspan.\n\n\"I believe that once the fans know the ins and outs of Kingspan's involvement with not only the fire but everything that's happened afterwards, I don't think they want to be affiliated with them,\" he said.\n\nProtesters opposing the sponsorship deal gathered outside Ulster's Kingspan Stadium last weekend\n\nIn 2014 Kingspan agreed a 10-year naming rights deal with Ulster Rugby, meaning the team's rugby grounds at Ravenhill in Belfast would be called the Kingspan Stadium.\n\nFour years later the company signed a deal to remain as principal sponsor of Ulster Rugby until 2023, meaning it would continue as the senior team's main jersey sponsor.\n\nLast month Housing Secretary Michael Gove wrote to Ulster Rugby, asking it to reconsider the sponsorship deal.\n\nThat followed Kingspan's sponsorship deal with the Mercedes Formula 1 team being terminated by mutual agreement after criticism from the victims' families.\n\nBBC News NI understands that Grenfell United has tried on a number of occasions to meet Ulster Rugby's chief executive Jonny Petrie to discuss the deal with Kingspan.\n\nCorrespondence provided to Good Morning Ulster shows that Grenfell United first contacted Ulster Rugby in January last year, asking it to take \"urgent action to sever sponsorship with the insulation firm\".\n\nMr Petrie responded in March, offering his condolences but adding that Ulster Rugby was \"limited in what we can say whilst the inquiry continues\".\n\nGrenfell United followed up with Ulster Rugby this year to request a meeting but Mr Petrie told the group: \"In all honesty, I don't feel that right now is the right time for me to be sitting down for a meeting.\"\n\nHe said he had to wait until the Grenfell Inquiry had concluded, adding: \"It may be, after that point, I would be in a position to meet with you to listen and discuss but I don't feel that's it's right for me to do that as this particular stage.\"\n\nKarim Mussilhy wants Ulster players to learn about Kingspan's role in the Grenfell Inquiry\n\nMr Mussilhy said he was disappointed that Ulster Rugby would not meet the group.\n\n\"We want to have open conversation and give him the opportunity to learn more but he turned us down,\" he said.\n\n\"Out of all the investors and shareholders that we've spoken to throughout this process he's been the only one to shut us out.\n\n\"We believe that Jonny Petrie has a duty to the reputation of his club and to its fans to do the right thing and ensure that companies that sponsor Ulster Rugby are ethical companies.\"\n\nMr Mussilhy also made a direct appeal to Ulster captain Iain Henderson and his teammates, saying they had to ask themselves \"deep questions\".\n\n\"They have a right to know the name that's on their chest, that they're going out and playing with in their stadium has ties to something so horrific,\" he said.\n\n\"I urge you to learn in more detail about what this company did to our families.\n\n\"Once you understand the pain and anguish that they continue to inflict on us are you comfortable walking out into their stadium, wearing their logo on your chest, playing the game that you and your fans so proudly love?\"\n\nIn a statement issued to BBC News NI, Ulster Rugby said it offered its \"deepest sympathies to all those affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy\".\n\n\"We do not take lightly the role our club plays in representing our community,\" it said.\n\nJonny Petrie told Grenfell United that he did not think it was the right time to meet the group\n\n\"We continue to actively assess the information regarding Kingspan, sent to us by Grenfell United, together with the letter we received from... [Mr] Gove, as we closely follow the latest developments in the ongoing inquiry.\n\n\"This is part of an external review that we have commissioned.\n\n\"As part of our engagement with Grenfell United, we gave assurances to the group that we would further engage with them in the new year and we remain committed to doing that.\"\n\nKingspan told BBC News NI that it was \"fully supportive\" of the public inquiry into \"this terrible tragedy\".\n\nIt added: \"The inquiry has stated that 'the principal reason' for rapid fire spread on Grenfell was the polyethylene-cored ACM cladding used on the exterior of the building.\n\n\"This was not made by Kingspan.\n\n\"We have sincerely apologised for the unacceptable actions of a small group of former employees which emerged through the inquiry, which in no way reflect Kingspan's culture or values.\"", "Harry Clarke was unconscious at the wheel when the bin lorry went out of control, killing six people\n\nGlasgow City Council's legal bid to recover £6.5m from First Bus, the former employer of bin lorry driver Harry Clarke, has been thrown out.\n\nSix pedestrians died after Mr Clarke collapsed at the wheel of the lorry in the city centre in December 2014.\n\nLawyers for the council claimed the bus company acted negligently by failing to provide an accurate reference.\n\nHowever, a judge threw the action out as evidence showed the council failed to chase up the firm's HR department.\n\nThe court heard claims that First Glasgow failed to disclose that Mr Clarke had lost consciousness at the wheel of a bus in 2010.\n\nMr Clarke went on to drive the bin lorry which he lost control of moments before it struck and killed six people and injured 15 others.\n\nErin McQuade, 18, and her grandparents Jack Sweeney, 68, and Lorraine Sweeney, 69, from Dumbarton; Stephenie Tait, 29, and Jacqueline Morton, 51, both from Glasgow; and Gillian Ewing, 52, from Edinburgh, died in the crash.\n\n(Clockwise from top left) Jack Sweeney, Lorraine Sweeney, Erin McQuade, Jacqueline Morton, Stephenie Tait and Gillian Ewing were killed in the bin lorry crash\n\nThe council's lawyers also claimed the alleged failure to disclose the information about Mr Clarke passing out meant the firm breached a duty of care to the crash victims.\n\nThe £6.5m sum sought would have compensated the council for the money it paid to relatives of those who lost their lives.\n\nHowever, in a judgement issued at the court on Thursday, Lord Ericht said the evidence showed that a former manager of Mr Clarke's at First Glasgow called Frank McCann told him that an HR employee called Darryl Turner was the person responsible for writing references.\n\nThe lorry mounted the kerb before coming to a stop at the Millennium Hotel\n\nMr Clarke told his prospective employers about the need to contact Mr Turner, but nobody from the local authority followed up on the information.\n\nLord Ericht concluded that the action must fail as the council had not proven the bus company had acted negligently.\n\nHe wrote: \"There was no evidence from… emails or any other source that anyone from the pursuer had acted on the information received from Mr Clarke that a reference would require to be requested from Mr Turner rather than Mr McCann, and emailed or otherwise contacted Mr Turner requesting a reference.\n\n\"There was no evidence of a reference having been received from Mr Turner.\n\n\"I find that no reference was received from Mr Turner.\"\n\nCrown lawyers previously decided not to prosecute Mr Clarke on the basis that there was \"insufficient evidence in law\" to bring proceedings.\n\nThe families of those who lost their lives tried to raise a private prosecution against him, however senior judges did not allow the prosecution to proceed.", "Foreign Secretary Liz Truss flew to Australia last week for meetings with government officials\n\nLiz Truss has defended using a government plane instead of commercial flights for a recent trip to Australia.\n\nThe foreign secretary took the long-haul trip last week for an annual meeting with government officials in the country.\n\nMs Truss insisted \"every government decision is based on value for money\", including using the plane for her trip.\n\nBut Labour's Angela Rayner accused the Tories of \"wasting disgusting amounts of public money on their own vanity\".\n\nThe Foreign Office said the use of the plane was within the rules set by the ministerial code.\n\nAsked about the report when she was on a visit to Northern Ireland, Ms Truss confirmed she had used the government's private plane for last week's trip.\n\nThe foreign secretary added: \"That is why we have a government plane to enable government ministers to conduct government business.\"\n\nPushed on whether it was a good use of taxpayers' money, she said: \"Well, we have a government plane precisely so government ministers can travel.\n\n\"Every government decision is based on value for money. We have a government plane specifically so ministers like me in my role as foreign secretary can go and do the work overseas, which is ultimately delivering for the British people.\"\n\nGovernment officials said using the government plane meant the UK delegation could travel together, as commercial flights were almost fully booked and would have separated Ms Truss from her team and security detail.\n\nThey also said using the jet would allow private discussions on sensitive security matters, and give the foreign secretary the option of returning to the UK early if needed.\n\nThe ministerial code says ministers can authorise non-scheduled flights \"when a scheduled service is not available, or when it is essential to travel by air, but the requirements of official or parliamentary business or security considerations preclude the journey being made by a scheduled service\".\n\nBut Labour's deputy leader, Ms Rayner said the use of the jet showed the public \"exactly quite how little respect this Conservative government has for taxpayers' money\".\n\nShe added: \"It is obscene that government ministers are jet setting yet are hiking taxes and refusing to do anything to help working families when they are feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis.\n\n\"Tories waste disgusting amounts of public money on their own vanity and comfort, Labour wants to see families see a cut to energy bills, that is the difference.\"\n\nA Foreign Office spokesman said it was \"necessary\" for Ms Truss to travel abroad \"to pursue UK interests around security, trade and technology, as she did during this visit to Australia\".\n\nThey added: \"Travelling this way allows ministers to have private discussions on sensitive security matters and flexibility to respond to rapidly changing global events.\"", "Dr Gary Jenkins died 16 days after the attack last July\n\nA psychiatrist was \"tortured and left for dead\" in a \"homophobic\" attack at a city park, a jury heard.\n\nLee Strickland, 36, Jason Edwards, 25, and a girl, 16 at the time, have admitted the manslaughter of Dr Gary Jenkins and robbery, but deny murder.\n\nDr Jenkins, 54, died 16 days after the attack in Bute Park, Cardiff, on 20 July, Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard.\n\nHe had \"encountered the worst traits of human kind\", according to Dafydd Enoch QC, opening the prosecution's case.\n\nMr Enoch said Dr Jenkins had been \"viciously beaten, robbed, tortured and left for dead by the three defendants in the dock\".\n\nHe said they were motivated by \"greed, homophobia and a straightforward liking of violence\".\n\nMr Enoch told the court the three defendants had been \"in search of vulnerable gay men who were in the park\" to rob.\n\nThe teen was described by witness Lewis Williams, who tried to intervene to stop the beating, as \"evil\" and \"sadistic\", Mr Enoch said.\n\nThe court heard Dr Jenkins pleaded for his life but the defendants laughed as they carried out the attack.\n\nThe jury was told Dr Jenkins had been married and had two daughters but separated from his wife and was openly bisexual when he moved back to his home city of Cardiff about six years ago.\n\nLee Strickland and Jason Edwards have pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery but deny murder\n\nHe used to go to Bute Park in the early hours, \"looking for sexual contact with like-minded men\", said Mr Enoch.\n\nHe told jurors that his \"sexual predilection would be his undoing\" and he was an \"easy target\" as he wandered around the park.\n\nThe court heard that three defendants had met on Queen Street and eventually made their way to Bute Park, to a place near the Summerhouse cafe, known to be where gay men met to have sex.\n\nThey engaged in conversation with one man but eventually left him alone.\n\nMr Enoch told the court the attack on Dr Jenkins was witnessed by another man who said he saw two men and a girl shouting at and kicking a man on the floor.\n\nThe man had said they were pulling at Dr Jenkins' bag and laughing saying, \"take his bag, get his bag\".\n\nHe ran to get help and returned to find the attack ongoing with Dr Jenkins \"beaten senseless\".\n\nDr Jenkins was attacked near the Summerhouse cafe in Bute Park\n\nJurors were told they would see various CCTV footage showing the defendants, including Jason Edwards, from Cardiff, and the girl hugging as they left each other after the attack.\n\nThe girl, now 17, cannot be identified due to legal reasons.\n\nDr Jenkins' injuries included fractures to his skull, bleeding on the brain and severe bruising.\n\nJurors were told to prepare themselves as they looked at photos of the injuries, with Mr Enoch telling them \"it's important that you see how these people left this man\".\n\nA post-mortem examination gave his cause of death as blunt head injury, including bleeding on the brain.\n\nMr Enoch told the jury they would hear \"chilling\" evidence from the audio of a CCTV camera at the cafe where Dr Jenkins could be heard begging for the attack to stop.\n\nThe teenage defendant, Mr Enoch said, could be heard shouting \"money\" at Dr Jenkins.\n\n\"He pleads over and over and again until he can speak no more. He then moans and grunts as he's cruelly beaten and the life is kicked out of him.\"\n\nA large area of park was cordoned off after the attack\n\nHe added: \"Edwards says, 'Stamp on his head, stamp on his head'. There's homophobic abuse.\n\n\"[The youth] at the end is heard saying, 'Yes, I needed that'.\"\n\nMr Enoch said the defendants were \"indulging in sport\" and that Mr Strickland, of no fixed address, left the park following the attack and went to a garage and used Dr Jenkins' debit card to buy alcohol.", "A man has been jailed for eight weeks after he accosted Prof Sir Chris Whitty in a central London park.\n\nJonathan Chew, 24, and Lewis Hughes, 24, approached England's chief medical officer in St James's Park in June 2021.\n\nAppearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, Chew, from Chelmsford, Essex, pleaded guilty to a charge of intending to cause harassment, alarm or distress.\n\nHughes was previously sentenced for assault by beating.\n\nChew was also given a two-week jail term having pleaded guilty to wilful obstruction of a police officer, to run concurrently, and ordered to pay £1,058 in costs and compensation.\n\nDuring sentencing, district judge Paul Goldspring said Sir Chris had responded to \"an unprecedented crisis\" throughout the pandemic with \"great dignity and great professionalism\", and was entitled to go about his daily life.\n\n\"You had a significant, I go as far as to say, an appalling criminal record,\" he told Chew.\n\nMr Goldspring said he also wanted to create a \"deterrent\" to stop people accosting those who do not choose to be in the public eye.\n\nSir Chris was not injured in the assault\n\nHe told the defendant - who responded to the costs announcement by saying \"that's peanuts\" - he had been given full credit for pleading guilty.\n\nHe also said he accepted that Chew had not initially intended to be hostile and understood he suffered from learning difficulties, mental health issues and autism.\n\nWhile sentencing was taking place, Mr Goldspring had to interrupt proceedings to ask him to stop vaping.\n\n\"Your contempt for these proceedings and this court have been breath-taking throughout the process,\" the district judge said.\n\nAs Chew was led out of the dock, he began to sing \"West Ham 'til I die\" loudly.\n\nProsecution barrister Iestyn Morgan earlier told the court Chew started filming Sir Chris on his phone while Hughes grabbed him in a headlock.\n\nThe footage, lasting about 20 seconds, was widely shared on social media and showed the pair jeering as Sir Chris attempted to break free.\n\nEngland's chief medical officer was not injured in the attack which happened on 27 June 2021.\n\nThe court was also told Chew gave the name and old address of his brother Aaron Chew to PC Steven Ozden.\n\n\"This did cause a waste of police resources,\" Mr Morgan said.\n\nHe said police attended the address on 1 July to discover a man called Harry now lived at the property. Officers were later able to identify that Jonathan Chew was the suspect after he provided comments about the incident to The Sun newspaper.\n\nThe court also heard Chew had at least 26 previous convictions including public order offences.\n\nMr Morgan said the defendant had been on licence having been released from custody in July 2020 and argued that this was an aggravating factor.\n\nRabah Kherbane, defending, told the court Chew had not been at a demonstration but \"was simply out with a friend and it was just a chance encounter\". He added that Sir Chris had not been targeted for his views on the pandemic.\n\nBut the district judge said prosecutors now accepted that Sir Chris was not targeted because of his views, but \"Mr Whitty was targeted because he was someone in the public eye\".\n\nMr Kherbane said Chew was \"happy and smiley\" in the video, showing he was \"genuinely excited\" and was not intending to humiliate Sir Chris at the time.\n\nHe also argued that the 24-year-old had learning difficulties, \"intellectual difficulties\" and \"delayed maturity\", and that he often became \"frustrated\" when trying to communicate with others.\n\n\"He understands that what he has done is wrong and unacceptable,\" he added.\n\nHughes, from Wigton Way in Romford, east London, was sentenced in July 2021 to an eight-week suspended jail sentence and £100 fine.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Liberal US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire later this year after nearly three decades on the bench.\n\nHis decision ensures President Joe Biden will have an opportunity to nominate a successor who could serve for decades.\n\nBut Justice Breyer's replacement will not shift the court's current 6-3 conservative majority.\n\nIt comes as the court considers several hot-button issues.\n\nJustice Breyer is expected to retire at the end of the current Supreme Court term in June.\n\nThe court plays a key role in American life and is often the final word on highly contentious laws, disputes between states and the federal government, and final appeals to stay executions.\n\nEach of the nine judges - known as justices - serves a lifetime appointment after being nominated by the president and approved by the Senate.\n\nDemocrats have been pressuring Justice Breyer - who, at 83, is the oldest member of the bench - to retire so they can fill the seat with someone younger while they control the White House and Senate.\n\nThe last Supreme Court vacancy came in 2020, when liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at age 87. Former President Donald Trump was able to appoint her successor, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, less than two months before the US presidential election.\n\nProgressives like New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been publicly calling for Justice Breyer to step down.\n\nA van hired by the group Demand Justice and carrying the words \"Breyer Retire\" has also been seen driving around Washington.\n\nAccording to multiple sources, Justice Breyer was \"upset\" over the leaked news because he \"was not planning to announce his retirement today\".\n\nMr Biden has previously pledged to nominate a black woman to the court for the first time if a vacancy opens.\n\nOnly two African Americans - both men - have ever served on the court: Justice Thurgood Marshall from 1967 to 1991 and his successor Justice Clarence Thomas, who now becomes the oldest member on the bench at age 73.\n\nOn Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president would honour his commitment.\n\nKetanji Brown Jackson, 51, a former law clerk to Mr Breyer, is believed to be the top contender for the job.\n\nMs Jackson was confirmed last June to a seat on the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in which she succeeded current Attorney General Merrick Garland.\n\nLeondra Kruger, 45, who serves on the California Supreme Court, is another possibility.\n\nAnother tipped contender is J Michelle Childs, a judge on South Carolina's federal court.\n\nIn a statement, the top Democrat in the Senate called the outgoing Justice Breyer \"a model jurist\".\n\n\"President Biden's nominee will receive a prompt hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will be considered and confirmed by the full United States Senate with all deliberate speed,\" Senator Chuck Schumer said.\n\nAnxious liberals who have endured a string of Supreme Court disappointments in recent years can exhale, at least for a moment. Justice Breyer is going to retire, giving Joe Biden the chance to name a replacement that can be confirmed while Democrats control the US Senate.\n\nThe move won't alter the conservative tilt of the high court, which Donald Trump cemented with three appointments in four years. It will, however, ensure Justice Breyer will be replaced by someone who could conceivably hold the seat for decades.\n\nThe confirmation process to fill the vacancy should provide a welcome respite for a president who has been buffeted by legislative defeats and bad domestic and international news in recent months.\n\nIf all goes smoothly - admittedly, no guarantee - the choice has the potential to remind liberals why having a Democrat in the White House is important and culminate in a Senate vote with a rare (for this president) successful outcome.\n\nA San Francisco native and Harvard Law graduate, Justice Breyer was appointed to his position in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.\n\nOver 27 years, he wrote more than 500 opinions and was among the high court's most consistent liberal voices, delivering notable rulings on topics like gay marriage, healthcare, voting rights and the death penalty.\n\nKnown for his collegiality and prolific penmanship, he has expressed concern in recent years over the increasing politicisation of the court, telling an audience in 2021 that \"it is wrong to think of the court as another political institution\".\n\nIn 1967, Justice Breyer married Joanna Hare, the daughter of John Hugh Hare, a former chairman of the British Conservative Party and the First Viscount of Blakenham. The couple both attended Oxford University as undergraduates.", "There's a police investigation and an official inquiry into rule breaking under Boris Johnson's roof is coming any day - Monday seems most likely now, since you ask, although you'd be forgiven for giving up trying to set your watch by it.\n\nThe report is likely to be grisly, acutely embarrassing for No 10 and for the civil service, with the expectation that the subsequent Met investigation will lead to a fair number of people who worked in No 10 receiving fixed penalty notices for flouting the regulations they designed and set themselves.\n\nThe Conservatives have slipped in the polls, many dozens of Tory MPs are deeply fed up and there has been, for weeks, open discussion of whether or not it might be time for the party to move him on.\n\nAnd whatever you think of the saga, whether it's silly frippery, or whether it enrages you and brings back terrible memories of suffering during lockdown, the fact that No 10 is having to spend so much time and focus on battling through means inevitably, other important decisions or debates are getting squeezed out.\n\nOne Tory figure working with the government on various policies says: \"Government is totally gummed up - it's horrible, nothing gets done or signed off.\"\n\nWhy then, as another bumpy week draws to a close, are Boris Johnson's closest supporters not at their wits' end?\n\nAfter weeks of allegations and claims and political mess, a band of his longstanding political friends now have what they seem to believe is a decent operation in place to shore him up.\n\nThe prime minister has been seeing \"possibles\" and \"undecideds\" in Parliament - MPs who might be tempted to withdraw their support, or haven't yet made up their minds.\n\nBoris Johnson himself is said to be \"not in a bad place\" about what's going on, buoyed by a feisty outing at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.\n\nWhat his former adviser and old friend Guto Hari told us on BBC Newscast: \"What he did was remind not only the opposition of what they are up against when he is on form, but reminded anyone sitting behind him or alongside that front bench what they would be up against if they try to take the leadership of him.\n\n\"It was a display of the alpha male gorilla in the jungle.\"\n\nThere was no sign whatsoever of the contrite or apologetic impression Boris Johnson has sometimes given in the last few days - a display perhaps designed to show those who want him gone that he will fight and fight.\n\nIt's hardly the first time he's had to wriggle through controversies. Here he was confessing to his strategy many years ago:\n\n\"I've got a brilliant new strategy, which is to make so many gaffes that nobody knows which one to concentrate on,\" he told the BBC's Booktalk in 2006.\n\n\"They cease to be newsworthy, you completely out-general the media in that way, and they despair.\"\n\nHe added: \"You shell them, you pepper the media... you've got to pepper their positions with so many gaffes that they're confused.\n\n\"It's like a helicopter throwing out chaff, and then you steal on quietly and drop your depth charges wherever you want to drop them.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Johnson in 2006: \"Make so many gaffes that nobody knows which one to concentrate on.\"\n\nBut the odds are so different now.\n\nHe's the PM, not the London mayor or a backbench MP, and his leadership has been significantly damaged in the past couple of months.\n\nGetting through this is not just going to be about wisecracks here and there.\n\nThere's an expectation too that the government will finally publish its plans for \"levelling up\" next week.\n\nThe white paper has long been pencilled in for the start of February and ministers may use it to show that they are, to use a phrase beloved by Boris Johnson, \"getting on with the job\".\n\nHis allies also find comfort in the fact that the rebels are not centrally coordinated. Ministers have confronted them with questions about what their plan really is, accusing them of \"student politics\".\n\nThe Brexiteers who worked together to bring down Theresa May had a plan to install Boris Johnson.\n\nThey were largely bound by ideology and the notion that Mr Johnson should take over.\n\nThe groups this time are scattered, and don't have one idea, or one candidate, to rally around.\n\nYet the disparate nature of the discontent doesn't mean that the prime minister can be remotely sure he'll get safely through, because it makes it harder for anyone in the Tory Party to see what's in the undergrowth.\n\nIt's not clear how many secret letters calling for a leadership vote have been submitted.\n\nOne Johnson ally, Conor Burns, jokes that the Royal Mail couldn't bank on making any money if they're relying on Tory MPs sending them in.\n\nBut if it hits the threshold of 54 and it comes to a confidence vote, the estimates of what might happen are wild.\n\nOne of Johnson's camp suggested to reporters they might have the support of as many as 300 Tory MPs out of 359.\n\nRight now that seems extraordinarily optimistic.\n\nAnother member of the government who has done the numbers calculated there could be more than 160 votes against, so he'd just scrape through.\n\nBut some government ministers say privately they wouldn't back him, and he could even lose.\n\nIn other words, bluntly, no-one really has a clue.\n\nIn the last few days, Boris Johnson has tried to show that he is still the biggest beast in the political jungle.\n\nBut the threats to him are still very real, and as one former minister says, the \"assassins are lurking in the bushes\" now.", "The journey to work is set to be a whole lot more relaxing than before for commuters hopping back on the train.\n\nThat at least is the plan: the rail industry is offering free hot drinks, access to a mindfulness app and other perks to lure people back on board.\n\nIt's part of a new industry rewards scheme, aimed at reviving passenger numbers which slumped in the pandemic.\n\nBut some question whether it will work at a time when many operators are still running reduced timetables.\n\nTrain firms, who have faced high levels of staff absence due to Covid, say services will increase in the coming weeks, but passengers have complained of crowded services.\n\n\"Currently sat on an utterly crammed SWR service due to the reduced timetable,\" one tweeted on Thursday.\n\n\"I don't need coffee and books, I just need a reliable, frequent, comfortable and affordable service.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by laura This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIndependent watchdog Transport Focus said the rewards scheme - which also offers passengers free bacon rolls, audiobooks and music streaming services - was a good idea.\n\nBut it added that enticing passengers back meant delivering their priorities, \"including punctual and reliable services, enough space on board and improved value for money tickets\".\n\nLast week the government scrapped its work-from-home guidance in England, along with other measures aimed at curbing the pandemic. But so far workers are proving reluctant to return to the daily commute.\n\nOn Monday passenger numbers were still only at 53% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the Department for Transport.\n\nDemand for peak-time trains has increased by just 5% since the guidance changed, according to the industry body the Rail Delivery Group.\n\nThe industry is betting its online rewards scheme will stoke new enthusiasm, by subtly replacing recollections of crowded commuter journeys with images of a more leisurely experience.\n\nPassengers who log on to backontrack.nationalrail.co.uk/commuter can select rewards from complimentary breakfast food from Greggs, free audiobooks, access to a mindfulness app, and coffees from London-based café chain Pure.\n\nIt is the latest attempt to make rail travel more pleasant, after the Department for Transport last week promised that rail operators would get rid of unnecessary announcements to make journeys quieter.\n\n\"Taking the train is more than just a journey, it benefits the environment, economy and local businesses,\" said Jacqueline Starr, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group.\n\nThe range of free offerings would \"help enhance customers' on-train and at-destination experiences\", she added.\n\nSpencer Craig, boss of the Pure coffee chain, said they had seen their customer base drop by more than 50% while commuters worked from home.\n\nHe said they were \"delighted\" to be part of the rewards platform that might help to tempt them back.\n• None Trains told to get rid of torrent of 'Tannoy spam'", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In December, Boris Johnson said it was \"complete nonsense\" he prioritised helping to get a charity's animals out of Kabul\n\nBoris Johnson authorised the evacuation of animals from Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul, according to emails leaked by a whistleblower.\n\nThe PM has previously dismissed as \"nonsense\" claims he intervened in the evacuation of the Nowzad charity, run by former Royal Marine Pen Farthing.\n\nBut an email from an official in minister Zac Goldsmith's office suggests he was personally involved.\n\nIt is one of a number of emails released by a select committee.\n\nThe August 2021 message to another official in the Foreign Office says: \"Charity Nowzad, run by an ex-Royal Marine, has received a lot of publicity and the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated.\"\n\nWhen asked in December if he had prioritised animals over the Afghan people in the evacuation of Kabul, Mr Johnson said: \"That is complete nonsense.\"\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said: \"It remains the case that the PM didn't instruct officials to take any particular course of action.\"\n\nAnd Lord Goldsmith tweeted: \"I did not authorise and do not support anything that would have put animals' lives ahead of peoples'.\n\nHe added that he had never discussed the Nowzad charity \"or their efforts to evacuate animals\" with the prime minister.\n\nNowzad operated an animal clinic, dog and cat shelter and donkey sanctuary in Afghanistan, training and employing Afghans.\n\nWhen the Taliban took control of Kabul, its supporters launched a campaign for evacuation, saying staff were in danger due to their work with foreign organisations and the animals were at risk.\n\nAbout 15,000 people were airlifted out of the country in August, including Mr Farthing and 150 animals. His staff were left behind, but later made it safely to Pakistan.\n\nThe plane evacuating the animals was paid for by donations.\n\nThe UK government sponsored clearance for it, leading to allegations that animals had been prioritised over people in the rescue effort.\n\nRaphael Marshall, who worked for the Foreign Office at the time, told the Foreign Affairs Committee that the animals were evacuated following a direct instruction from Mr Johnson.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Labour MP Chris Bryant: \"On the face of it, the prime minister has lied\" over Afghanistan animal evacuation\n\nAn ally of Mr Farthing, animal rights activist Dominic Dyer, told the BBC he had contacted Mr Johnson's wife Carrie to ask the PM to speak to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace about ensuring Mr Farthing and his animals were evacuated.\n\nMr Wallace has denied being contacted by the prime minister over the case.\n\nHe told the BBC the evacuation of Kabul was \"run under my authority and carried out by the UK military through the joint chief of operations\".\n\nHe added: \"At no point were he or I directed by the prime minister to evacuate Pen Farthing, his workforce or his pets.\n\n\"As I made clear at the time, we were not going to put pets before people and as the actions showed, Pen Farthing left last and his workforce had to leave after the evacuation was concluded via other means.\"\n\nHe said the suggestion that Lord Goldsmith, who he described as a \"Defra minister\", would have had \"any authority or responsibility in the running of the evacuation is ludicrous\".\n\nLord Goldsmith has been a joint Defra and Foreign Office minister since February 2020.\n\nPen Farthing ran the charity in Afghanistan before the Taliban took back Kabul\n\nThis story has plagued the government ever since last summer.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace sounds exasperated. He resented being hounded by Pen Farthing's supporters over his perceived reluctance to help evacuate Nowzad's animals.\n\nHe also resents the suggestion that he was instructed by the prime minister to put pets before people.\n\nAnd there's no evidence that he did.\n\nWhen Mr Wallace tweeted, early on 25 August that \"if he [Mr Farthing] arrives with his animals we will seek a slot for his plane,\" he was not offering any British resources.\n\nIn his own submission to the foreign affairs committee, Mr Farthing says: \"Let me make this abundantly clear; NO HMG capacity was used to transport any animals. None.\"\n\nMr Farthing says he and his animals did not enter Kabul airport through the gate controlled by British soldiers. He also says it was American, not British soldiers, who helped load animals onto a flight that he himself had chartered.\n\nBut a mystery remains. Why did an official in the Foreign Office, on 25 August, think that Boris Johnson had \"authorised\" the evacuation of Nowzad's staff and animals?\n\nIt's a question that won't go away.\n\nThe evidence published by the Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday shows Lord Goldsmith's official in the Foreign Office emailed colleagues working on the \"special cases team Bronze\", saying: \"[animal charity - name redacted] are a [details redacted] animal charity operating in Kabul and seeking to evacuation their [details redacted] members of staff (no animals).\n\n\"Equivalent charity Nowzad, run by an ex-Royal Marine, has received a lot of publicity and the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated, [animal charity - name redacted] are hoping to be treated in the same capacity.\"\n\nIn a written statement to the committee, Mr Farthing denied any UK government involvement in the evacuation.\n\nHe said: \"The tremendous teamwork shown by many volunteers to facilitate the evacuation of the Nowzad staff and their families, myself and the animals should be applauded not used as a deflection for failings across the board in Afghanistan.\"\n\nBut Labour's shadow defence secretary John Healey said the leaked emails proved the prime minister had made misleading statements.\n\n\"Once again, the prime minister has been caught out lying about what he has been doing and deciding. He should never have given priority to flying animals out of Afghanistan while Afghans who worked for our armed forces were left behind.\n\n\"Boris Johnson is unable to make the serious decisions that are needed, at home and for our allies abroad.\"", "An intruder who was seen wearing a \"Camp Auschwitz\" sweatshirt during the US Capitol riot last year has pleaded guilty to entering the building.\n\nRobert Packer's shirt referred to the Nazi death camp where more than 1.1m people, mostly Jews, were murdered during World War Two.\n\nOn Wednesday he admitted to parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol - a misdemeanour charge.\n\nPacker, 57, now faces up to six months in jail when he is sentenced in April.\n\nHowever, other defendants who have pleaded to the same charge were spared prison time.\n\nThe sweatshirt worn by Packer included a graphic of a skull and crossbones, and bore an English translation of the Nazi slogan that appeared on the gates of the concentration camp.\n\nProsecutors say Packer travelled from Virginia to attend a pro-Trump rally on 6 January 2021 that ended in rioters invading Congress as lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden's election victory.\n\nPacker entered the building as the mob fought with law enforcement, and was near the area where protester Ashli Babbitt was shot by police. He left the building after 20 minutes.\n\nA search of Packer's home turned up other anti-Semitic and racist materials, including more Nazi imagery.\n\nMore than 200 people have pleaded guilty to participating in the riot.\n\nMost have been given relatively lenient sentences so far, for minor offences such as trespassing.\n\nHowever, felony prosecutions - including seditious conspiracy charges against 11 alleged militia members - have also been filed. Most of the 225 defendants accused of violence at the Capitol have yet to see trial.\n\nMore than 725 suspects have been arrested so far.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. When a mob stormed the US capitol", "Ashley John-Baptiste grew up in care believing he was an only child. Then, out of the blue, he received a message from a brother he never knew he had. He set out to explore what being split from siblings means to those who have been in the care system.\n\nAs a toddler, I was placed in the care system. By 18, I had been moved between four foster families and a residential care home in south-east London.\n\nIt's really hard to describe what it was like growing up in so many different homes. It felt like being under a cloud of rejection - no sense of family, no sense of belonging. I did meet my birth mum when I was 10, but never met my dad. I always wondered why I wasn't adopted - was it ever a possibility?\n\nLiving in that residential home with other children gave me my first taste of brotherhood, but we had no control over our relationships in the long term. We would be moved, and disappear from each other's lives.\n\nChildren who are placed in care are given \"life story\" sessions by their local authority - this is where a social worker tells a child what they know about their family background and history. I was around seven when I had mine, and I was told I was an only child.\n\nSo it was a huge shock when, in my mid-20s, a man messaged me on Facebook to tell me he was my older brother. I can still remember the visceral sense of confusion I felt when I first saw his message. I had to re-read it several times.\n\nIt took me a while to respond, but when we spoke we established that we had the same dad but different mothers, that there were more siblings out there and - most overwhelming for me - that we lived in the same area. All this time, my brother had been living close by.\n\nYou can watch Ashley John-Baptiste's documentary Split Up In Care: Life Without Siblings on BBC iPlayer\n\nDespite the intense curiosity of these initial conversations, we never made plans to meet in person. As much as I welcomed the messages from my new-found brother, I never felt ready to meet face-to-face. Eventually, four years ago, we stopped messaging each other.\n\nBut then, in the spring of 2020, as I was taking my new-born baby for a hospital check-up, I bumped into him by chance. I was leaving the hospital, he was making his way in to visit a sick relative. I recognised him instantly.\n\nI called out to him sheepishly and to my relief, he recognised me.\n\nWe spoke for what seemed like ages. Despite it being our first meeting, there was a natural ease to our conversation. It felt like we had known each other all along.\n\nI introduced him to my baby daughter. She met her uncle. We took a photo together in an unexpected \"family\" moment.\n\nEven though we haven't met since, that moment profoundly changed my life.\n\nMeeting my brother made me think how things could have been different if I had been given the chance to get to know my siblings when I was younger. I now know that I've got at least four, all older than me.\n\nEvery time I moved home as a looked-after child, I was forced to assimilate into a new family, to integrate in a different community and make new friends. My sense of childhood identity was fragmented between the homes I lived in. No single person knew me across all of my moves.\n\nMeeting my brother made me imagine how things could have been if I'd had regular contact with my siblings during all the twists and turns of care. Imagine if I'd had someone like that to talk to, someone to see me grow up, it would have been a lifeline.\n\nEven a few meetings a year while I was in care could have been a foundation for a relationship in adulthood.\n\nI left care at 18 and lived alone in a council flat, before starting university. Living independently, where I was forced to make ends meet, brought a sense of abandonment and isolation that I wasn't prepared for.\n\nWhile I had incredible friends who eased the emotional intensity of leaving care, knowing my siblings at that stage of life might have given me a sense of family and belonging. Maybe there would have been a chance to spend Christmas with family, or have somewhere to go back to between terms at university.\n\nDuring our meeting outside the hospital, my brother just seemed to understand everything I was saying. He had an implicit understanding of my journey and outlook. There was a connection.\n\nI am baffled that none of my social workers seemed to know about the existence of my siblings.\n\nWhen I spoke to my old social worker, Rosalyn Payne, who looked after me between the ages of 15-18, she was surprised to hear I had a brother. So why wasn't there any information about my family in my files?\n\nFiles and information gathering have come a long way, Rosalyn told me. \"Back in the day we had paper files, now we have electronic files.\" But that wasn't the only issue, she says. \"Families don't always tell us what we want to know at the time, and that happens quite a lot, where family members withhold information.\"\n\nThen I asked her a question I had never dared ask before - was I ever considered for adoption?\n\nShe told me that I was indeed put up for adoption when I was very young, but the couple who had been planning to adopt me got pregnant and withdrew from the process.\n\nIt was shattering news - realising in that moment that my life could have been completely different.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch the moment Rosalyn tells Ashley if he was ever considered for adoption\n\nHowever tough such questions are, I think they're important. Everybody wants to know who they are, and who they're connected to.\n\nFor the documentary we wanted to get a national perspective on the state of sibling relationships in the care system, but there is a lack of data.\n\nThe BBC sent more than 200 Freedom of Information requests to UK councils - out of all the authorities approached, nearly three-quarters responded. Based on these responses, nearly half of sibling groups in care are split up (45%) with more than 12,000 children separated from at least one of their siblings.\n\nAnd it can have a life-long impact.\n\nI met Saskia, 24, from Manchester who was taken into care with her two brothers after being rescued from their birth family. They were adopted, but their new home was no safe haven.\n\nSaskia and her brothers suffered physical abuse and neglect for a decade in the adoptive home. When the adoption broke down, they went back into council care, where they were soon split up across different placements, in different areas.\n\nSaskia was 11 at the time and contact with her brothers broke down altogether a few years later. She told me that being away from them made her feel like she was \"not strong any more\".\n\n\"I lost such a key part of myself,\" she says. \"It was us three against the world, it always has been. Sometimes siblings are all you have left. If you take those away, you're taking away the last bit of someone's identity.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Saskia and her brothers have reconnected after being separated in care.\n\nSaskia has now trained as a social worker, which has given her a new perspective. In hindsight, she feels they should have been allowed to stay together.\n\nHer younger brother Toby really struggled and even spent time in prison. Although he has a job now, he told me his childhood experiences have made him into quite a resentful person. \"Even if life's going good, I'll still find some way to be negative in it.\"\n\nSince they left care, they have been able to rebuild their relationships. \"My brothers are still in my life. I'm lucky. I see myself as very blessed,\" Saskia says.\n\nAccording to the law across all parts of the UK, siblings should be kept together when it is possible and safe to do so. But with a rise in the number of children in care there simply aren't enough foster carers - especially now children need a room of their own. All of this means councils are struggling.\n\nI spoke to the director of children's social care at Derby City Council, Suanne Lim, who told me that she doesn't have enough resources to fully support the children in her authority's care - even though the government did provide extra funding for vulnerable families during the pandemic.\n\nSuanne Lim pioneered a rapid response team to keep families together\n\n\"We are very, very stretched. There have been year-on-year cuts to services that we are delivering and yet demand is rising,\" she said. \"Local authorities are close to the bone.\"\n\nDuring the pandemic, Derby City council pioneered a rapid response team to support vulnerable families and prevent even more children from entering the system. Over the past 15 months the team say they have helped 60 families to stay together - and prevented 50 sibling groups from being split up.\n\nIt's clear that social workers are under huge pressure. But at the same time, so many looked-after children are separated from their brothers and sisters and don't have the information about their families that they deserve.\n\nIn Scotland, the law has recently been changed to give siblings more control over their relationships.\n\nThe Star Initiative in Fife hosts reunions for split-up sibling groups in care who get the chance to meet on the farm every few months, to hang out and rebuild their bonds.\n\n\"They've been through enough. Let's be a lifeline,\" says Karen Morrison, the foster carer who runs the charity. \"We're not only making a difference now, fast forward to when they leave the care system.\"\n\nThe Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, told the BBC that she would support a new law to keep siblings together. She has today published a new report based on the views of 6,000 children in care.\n\nAn independent review of the England care system is currently underway, with findings and recommendations expected to be published later this year.\n\nFor me, I have been able to answer more of the questions I had about who I am and where I come from. Even though I didn't grow up with my siblings, I now have the chance to get to know them. But perhaps most significantly, I can tell my daughter she has an uncle.\n\nYou can follow Ashley on Instagram or Twitter\n\nWatch Ashley John-Baptiste's documentary Split Up In Care: Life Without Siblings, on BBC iPlayer", "Dorset Police said there were no suspicious circumstances and the coroner had been notified\n\nTwo teenagers have been found dead near a town in Dorset.\n\nThe male and female, said to be in their late teens, were found near Bridport shortly after 10:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nDorset Police said there were no suspicious circumstances and the coroner had been notified.\n\nThe force, which said it was unable to provide the ages of the people involved, has referred itself to the police watchdog over the deaths.\n\nThe families of the deceased are being supported by specialist officers, police added.\n\nNo details surrounding the circumstances of the deaths have been released.\n\nIn a statement, Mayor of Bridport Ian Bark said: \"This awful news is heartbreaking for the whole community, and I cannot imagine the pain and grief being felt by family and friends.\n\n\"We share their loss and we are thinking of them.\"\n\nDorset Police said it had made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) \"in line with procedures related to the death or serious injury of an individual\".\n\nThe force added: \"We await further guidance from the IOPC on the matter.\"\n\nAn IOPC spokesperson confirmed they had received a mandatory referral from Dorset Police \"relating to prior police contact with two teenagers\".\n\nThey added: \"We are currently assessing the available information, to determine what further action may be required from us.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A rocket launched by Elon Musk's space exploration company is on course to crash into the Moon and explode.\n\nThe Falcon 9 booster was launched in 2015 but after completing its mission, the second stage did not have enough fuel to return towards Earth and instead remained in space.\n\nAstronomer Jonathan McDowell told BBC News it will be the first known uncontrolled rocket collision with the Moon.\n\nBut the effects will be minor, he says.\n\nThe rocket was abandoned in high orbit seven years ago after it completed a mission to send a space weather satellite on a million-mile journey.\n\nIt was part of Mr Musk's space exploration programme SpaceX, a commercial company that ultimately aims to get humans living on other planets.\n\nSince 2015 the rocket has been pulled by different gravitational forces of the Earth, Moon and Sun, making its path somewhat \"chaotic\", explains Prof McDowell from the US-based Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.\n\n\"It's been dead - just following the laws of gravity.\"\n\nIt's joined millions of other pieces of space junk - machinery discarded in space after completing missions without enough energy to return to Earth.\n\n\"Over the decades there have been maybe 50 large objects that we've totally lost track of. This may have happened a bunch of times before, we just didn't notice. This would be the first confirmed case,\" Prof McDowell says.\n\nFalcon 9's projected demise was identified by journalist Eric Berger on the space website Ars Technica and by data analyst Bill Gray in his blog.\n\nThe collision is due to happen on 4 March when the rocket will explode as it makes contact.\n\n\"It's basically a four-tonne empty metal tank, with a rocket engine on the back. And so if you imagine throwing that at a rock at 5,000 miles an hour, it's not going to be happy,\" Prof McDowell says.\n\nIt will leave a small artificial crater on the Moon's surface.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. SpaceX launch: What is SpaceX and why is it working with Nasa?\n\nBill Gray, who uses software to track near-Earth space objects, projects that it made a close fly-by on 5 January. On 4 March it's likely to hit the Moon's far side, he says.\n\nIn 2009 Prof McDowell and other astronomers performed an experiment in which a similar-sized rocket was crashed into the Moon. Sensors gathered evidence of the collision so they could study the crater.\n\nThat means scientists are unlikely to learn anything new from this crash, Prof McDowell explains.\n\nHe adds that while there are no consequences now to space debris left to drift and occasionally crash, there could be in the future.\n\n\"If we get into the future where there are cities and bases on the Moon, we want to know what's out there. It's much easier to get that organised when there is slow traffic in space, rather than waiting until it's a problem.\"\n\nAnd what happens between now and 4 March? Well the rocket will continue to follow the laws of gravity, careering through space, before it ends its days smashing into the Moon.", "The Scottish government is to give local government an extra £120m next year in a bid to ward off big increases in council tax bills.\n\nCouncil bosses had warned rises were inevitable in light of the financial settlement on offer from Holyrood.\n\nFinance Secretary Kate Forbes said she now had some \"additional flexibility\" due to funding from the UK government.\n\nShe told MSPs that the extra cash was equivalent to a 4% rise in local taxes, meaning there was no need for hikes.\n\nMs Forbes was speaking as the Scottish government's budget for the coming year faced its first vote at Holyrood, although it is sure to pass with SNP and Green votes.\n\nCouncils also need to set their tax and spending plans in the coming weeks, and leaders had hit out at the \"totally unacceptable\" settlement on offer from the Scottish government.\n\nThere has been dispute over the exact figures involved, with the government pointing to an increase in the core settlement in cash terms while councils said that this does not account for inflation or ring-fenced funds.\n\nAlison Evison, who heads council umbrella body Cosla, previously warned there would be tax increases and that it was \"probably inevitable\" that some local services would face cuts too.\n\nAddressing MSPs, Ms Forbes said the 2022-23 budget was fully allocated, but said \"new information\" from the UK government meant there was extra cash in the current year's books.\n\nShe said she would be able to carry forward \"sufficient funding from this year to next year to allocate a further £120m of resource to local government\".\n\nKate Forbes said she did not believe there was any need for \"inflation-busting increases\" in council tax\n\nCouncils have been given complete control over local tax rates for the first time since the SNP came to power in 2007, but Ms Forbes said she hoped the extra funding would allow them to avoid big increases.\n\nShe said: \"Councils asked for an additional £100m to deal with additional pressures. We have heard them and listened and we are going to go further.\n\n\"That will allow them to deal with the most pressing issues they face, and at a time when people are understandably worried about the cost of living I would point out that this increase in funding would be equivalent to a 4% increase in council tax next year.\n\n\"While councils have full flexibility in setting local council tax rates, I don't believe there is a requirement for any inflation-busting increases next year.\"\n\nAn extra £120m is not to be sniffed at, but it will not solve all local government's funding problems.\n\nCouncillors have more cash to spend than ever, but they say inflation and the widespread use of ring-fenced funding for national schemes leaves them short.\n\nBecause today's additional money is a one-off payment it cannot be relied on to meet ongoing commitments like pay rises.\n\nKate Forbes said it was equivalent to a 4% rise in council tax and that inflation-busting increases should not be necessary.\n\nBut that does not mean that council tax won't go up at all. That will be for individual local authorities to decide.\n\nIn previous years, SNP ministers have used capping or a council tax freeze to protect households from big rises.\n\nIronically, they have restored the freedom of councillors to decide at a time when rising energy prices are driving up the cost of living.\n\nCouncillors know tax increases will not be popular - an important consideration ahead of local elections in May - but for some the alternative is service cuts that could be just as controversial.\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives backed the extra funding, with finance spokeswoman Liz Smith \"warmly welcoming the actions of the UK government in assisting with this budget\".\n\nHowever she said her party would be voting against the package as a whole, as the government had \"created many more problems within this budget than it has actually solved\".\n\nLabour's Daniel Johnson said it was welcome that Ms Forbes had \"found a few pennies down the back of her armchair\", but said the allocation would still leave councils short.\n\n\"This is no way to conduct a budget in a serious and rational way,\" he added.\n\nAnd Lib Dem MSP Willie Rennie said that local councils would not be \"grateful that the cabinet secretary has just taken her foot off their neck a little bit\", saying there were still \"massive cuts\" coming in local government.\n\nWhile the three opposition parties voted against the budget plans, they passed their first parliamentary hurdle by a vote of 69 to 54.", "Sizewell C (lighter grey on the right) would be built next to Sizewell B\n\nThe government is putting up £100m to support the planned Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk, Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has announced.\n\nThe investment marks the latest stage in efforts to build the £20bn reactor on the east coast of England.\n\nHowever, it does not commit the government to approving the project, which is still subject to negotiations.\n\nTalks between the government and project developer EDF have been under way since December 2020.\n\nThe Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said the funding commitment would be used to continue the development of the project.\n\nThe £100m, described as an option fee, \"will be invested by EDF into the project to help bring it to maturity, attract investors and advance to the next phase in negotiations\", BEIS said.\n\n\"In return, the government will take certain rights over the land of the Sizewell C site and EDF's shares in the Sizewell C company, providing opportunities to continue to develop nuclear or alternative low-carbon energy infrastructure on the site, should the project not ultimately be successful.\"\n\nIf Sizewell C does eventually get the green light, the government will get the £100m back, plus a return on its money, either in cash or as a stake in the project.\n\nIt emerged last month that the official decision on whether to build the reactor, originally expected in April, could be delayed.\n\nThe Sizewell C site could generate 3.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to provide 7% of the UK's needs.\n\nIf work goes ahead, it is expected to take about nine years to build.\n\nBut it has proved controversial, with campaigners saying it is \"ridiculously expensive\" and that taxpayers will have to foot the bill for extra costs.\n\n\"In light of high global gas prices, we need to ensure Britain's future energy supply is bolstered by reliable, affordable, low-carbon power that is generated in this country,\" said Mr Kwarteng.\n\n\"New nuclear is not only an important part of our plans to ensure greater energy independence, but to create high-quality jobs and drive economic growth.\n\n\"The funding announced today will further support the development of Sizewell C during this important phase of negotiations as we seek to maximise investor confidence in this nationally significant project.\"\n\nSizewell C is not yet a done deal but this investment is further evidence that Sizewell C is the government's preferred site for the new nuclear power station that it has committed to approving during this parliament.\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the government money will help advance the project and increase confidence among private investors who the government hopes to attract - in part to help it replace the 20% stake owned by Chinese company CGN.\n\nMuch of the £20bn construction cost will be funded by the addition of £1 a month to consumer bills applied through a mechanism currently making its way through parliament. Many will say this is a strange time to be considering adding money to bills expected to rise by 50% in April but the government argues that soaring gas prices make a powerful case for weaning the UK off fossil fuels.\n\nObjectors, including Greenpeace and local action groups, say the project is too expensive, too slow and too damaging to the local environment. But ministers and trade unions argue it will provide 10,000 high skilled jobs in Suffolk and across the UK.\n\n\"We're very pleased that the government is showing its confidence in Sizewell C which, if approved, will lower energy costs for consumers and help to insulate the UK from global gas prices,\" he said.\n\n\"Together with our own investment, these funds will allow us to continue to move the project towards a financial investment decision.\"\n\nThe announcement comes as new funding rules paving the way for the Sizewell C project are making their way through Parliament, in the form of the Nuclear Energy (Financing) Bill.\n\nThe new model, known as RAB (Regulated Asset Base), has already been used to finance some large infrastructure projects, including the £4.2bn Thames Tideway \"super-sewer\".\n\nIt allows investors to receive returns before the projects have been completed.\n\nThe Treasury was initially reluctant to use the RAB model.\n\nNot only does it add money to consumer bills over the lifetime of the project, but it also leaves consumers vulnerable to cost overruns, which have plagued previous nuclear developments.\n\nHowever, BEIS said the RAB model would reduce the UK's reliance on overseas developers for finance.\n\nIt would do this by \"substantially widening the pool of private investors to include British pension funds, insurers and other institutional investors from like-minded countries\".", "Unions say it is \"concerning outside investors are directly targeting Welsh farmland to presumably capitalise on the carbon market\"\n\nFarmers are being \"cold called\" by agents working for investors who want to buy farmland to plant trees that would offset their carbon footprint.\n\nFarming unions claim \"powerful players are seeking to offset emissions\" at the expense of rural communities in what one politician called a \"land grab\".\n\nLand agent Savills said it has made \"direct approaches\" to farmers in Wales on behalf of clients.\n\nOne of those approached said they feared farmers were an \"easy take\".\n\nKyra Somerfield said she was \"annoyed\" and \"shocked\" by the unsolicited call from Savills to ask if she was interested in selling the 220-acre family farm in Carmarthenshire where she has lived and worked for 60 years.\n\nKyra Somerfield farms 300 sheep and 30 beef cattle at her farm in west Wales\n\nThe 83-year-old is worried the nature of Wales could change forever if productive farm land is converted to forests.\n\n\"If we do go along those lines of covering our uplands with trees, the nature of Wales would change irrevocably,\" said Mrs Somerfield.\n\n\"Once land goes from productive agriculture into forestry, it will never return. The potential would be an upland clearance of Wales.\"\n\nThe Welsh government, which declared a climate emergency in 2019, has said it needs to plant 86 million trees by the end of this decade to meet its net zero target by 2050.\n\nBut farming unions say people and companies should reduce their own carbon emissions rather than \"offset our way to net zero\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOver the past three years, the Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) says 75% of the biggest plans for planting trees on Welsh land came from outside the country.\n\nAny proposal to plant over 50 hectares of woodland in Wales - the size of about 93 football fields - needs an environmental impact assessment, but the FUW says only 25% of those plans came from land owners based in Wales.\n\nThe situation has angered Mrs Somerfield, who said: \"It's the element of being taken for granted, that I could easily accept this type of offer.\n\nKyra Somerfield hopes to pass on her farm of 60 years to grandson Lewis\n\n\"It's probably cutting my nose to spite my face in a way, because I'm sure a lot of people will make money by such sales. But I'm not prepared to do so.\n\n\"They may be able to dispose of land that is too hard to farm, because on the whole the number of people engaged in hill farming are getting older, they're getting fewer - and the demands of agriculture today are becoming greater.\"\n\nMrs Somerfield hopes her 16-year-old grandson Lewis can continue her farming legacy and take over Cruglas farm near Llandeilo, where she rears 300 sheep and 30 beef cattle.\n\nLewis is glad Kyra Somerfield rejected bids from investors as he wants to continue his grandmother's legacy\n\n\"They'd be taking away everything that my grandparents started,\" said Lewis, who is currently studying agricultural engineering at nearby Gelli Aur College.\n\n\"They're willing to pay more than the land's worth, just so that they can get the land, which leaves the farmers with no option really.\n\n\"Everyone's struggling and wanting more money so if somebody comes along and says we'll take your issues away and here's some money, most people would do it.\"\n\nWoodland in ancient times used to cover much of Wales yet today makes up only about 15% of its 8,000 square miles (20,700 km2)\n\nSavills confirmed they are making \"direct approaches\" on behalf of \"investors\" adding that the land had \"already been screened for its suitability\" to plant trees.\n\nThe head of forestry for Savills said \"investors have an important role to play in the delivery\" of the Welsh government's tree-planting ambitions.\n\n\"The increasing importance of environmental governance has widened interest in acquiring land to create new woodlands,\" added James Adamson.\n\n\"The land market is small and the amount of land that comes to the open market that may be suitable for tree planting is only a small proportion of the overall potential land area.\n\n\"In order to accelerate the rate of potential tree planting we are making direct approaches to owners of land that may be suitable rather than wait for land to come to market.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru's Welsh Parliament member Mabon ap Gwynfor has called it a \"land grab\" of Welsh farmland.\n\n\"This is nothing more than greenwashing in order to ease the climate conscience of large corporations and effectively allow them to continue with their dirty industries,\" said the Dwyfor Meirionnydd MS.\n\nThe FUW said while it supports \"enhancing and expanding woodland within farmland\", it added it is \"concerning that outside investors are directly targeting Welsh farmland to purchase for tree planting and presumably capitalise on the carbon market\".\n\n\"Displacing existing ownership and family farms will be detrimental to the wider rural economy and community, Welsh culture and food security,\" the FUW said in a statement.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by BBC News This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\n\"A balance must be struck that ensures vulnerable landscapes, communities and industries do not suffer as powerful players seek to offset their emissions, as opposed to reducing them in the first instance. We cannot offset our way to net zero.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said it wants to \"create a Wales that is resilient to climate change\" and has set up working group to help farmers to \"be at the heart of woodland creation\".\n\n\"Most recipients of funding so far have been farmers, or woodland management experts,\" said a government spokesperson.\n\n\"We see farmers and applicants as the stewards of our countryside in Wales, and consider them all essential in helping us realise our ambitious plans to create a national forest that both we and our future generations can benefit from.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Koshka Duff: \"I've just felt like I've been on trial for eight years\"\n\nA professor who won an apology from police over sexist language during a strip search has said she felt like she had been on trial for eight years.\n\nDr Koshka Duff was arrested in 2013 after trying to help a black teenager who was subject to a stop-and-search.\n\nShe told the BBC it was \"dehumanising\" - and she had experienced a \"barrage of victim blaming and gas lighting\" as she pursued a claim against police.\n\nFor years after she faced flashbacks and panic attacks, she said.\n\nDr Duff - now an assistant professor of politics at the University of Nottingham - was trying to give a \"know your rights\" legal advice card to a 15-year-old boy in London when officers accused her of obstruction and arrested her. The boy was found to have a knife, which Dr Duff had not been aware of when she intervened.\n\nShe was taken to Stoke Newington police station, where she was strip searched by two female officers.\n\nOn CCTV footage, officers can be heard laughing about her hair, clothes and talking about her underwear. In one clip, one officer references a smell and then a different officer says \"Oh, it's her knickers\".\n\nDr Duff - who was 24 at the time - made a civil claim against the Metropolitan Police for the way she was treated and earlier this week, the Met said it had settled her claim and \"sincerely apologised\" for the \"sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language used\".\n\nIn her first broadcast interview since the apology, Dr Duff told the BBC's Woman's Hour that she was \"terrified\" as she was pinned down by three officers, had her hands cuffed behind her back, legs tied together and clothes cut off.\n\n\"While they were doing that they were cracking jokes with each another, for example about the benefits of strapless bras when they were talking about whether to cut off my underwear. The overwhelming feeling of it was physical pain and I was terrified.\n\n\"They were kneeling on me with their full weight and they had my hands in cuffs and they were jerking them around behind my back. My wrists and arms were completely cut up from this, I had quite extensive injuries.\"\n\nThis photo of Dr Duff's injured arm was taken while she was at the police station\n\nShe said she had been told by officers that the strip search was as a way of trying to identify her, as she would not tell officers who she was.\n\nBut she said: \"I don't see how stripping me would reveal my identity in any way apart from they wanted to soften me up, to kind of intimidate me into telling them my details, and to punish me for standing up for a young person's rights.\n\n\"And one of the officers who arrested me called me a 'bleeding heart leftie' and 'some sort of socialist'.\"\n\nSpeaking about CCTV footage she managed to obtain years after the search - that showed officers laughing about her hair, saying her clothes stink and talking about her underwear - Dr Duff said \"it was really clear they were trying to humiliate me\" and the comments were \"a peephole into culture of misogyny\".\n\n\"They called me childish. When I was being arrested I was called a 'very silly girl'.\n\n\"The sexism of the way they were treating me was really obvious at the time. I guess it was very dehumanising language.\"\n\nIn November 2013 she was acquitted of assaulting a police officer and obstructing a police officer. However, Dr Duff continued to make a civil claim against the Met Police for the way she was treated.\n\nAs part of the misconduct proceedings, she said she was \"grilled for hours\".\n\nAsked about the impact of pursuing the complaint for eight years, she said: \"The process of going through this complaints procedure - I've just felt like I've been on trial for eight years... I've just experienced a barrage of victim blaming and gas lighting.\"\n\nShe added: \"One of the things I found particularly distressing over the last eight years is they have continually used the fact that my body tensed up during the strip search as a justification for having used more force. Because they said, 'oh you clenched your fists and you were holding your arms rigid'. I was terrified and my body was kind of seizing up.\"\n\n\"What I've experienced over the past eight years is a legal system which is absolutely set up to protect the police from accountability and to prevent complaints from getting anywhere, to just disappear them into a bureaucratic abyss.\"\n\nShe also referenced the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer in 2021, which led to a discussion on confidence in policing and women's safety.\n\nDr Duff said: \"After the rape and murder of Sarah Everard, the police put out statements saying women should challenge officers they think are behaving in a dodgy way, kind of again putting the onus on women in a victim blaming way, saying you know, if you don't challenge them and stand up for your legal rights then that's the reason you might be raped and murdered.\n\n\"On the other hand if you do stand up for your legal rights and in solidarity with those of others, then I've seen the way you get treated for that.\"\n\nIn a statement after the Woman's Hour interview, the force said: \"In 2018, a police sergeant faced allegations he had breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to the strip search of a woman arrested in Hackney in May 2013.\n\n\"A misconduct hearing led by an independent legally qualified chair found that the officer had made several attempts to engage with the complainant and were satisfied that he had reasonable grounds to justify his actions in authorising the search. The panel found the allegations not proven and the officer retired from the Met in 2019.\n\n\"In November 2021, the Met settled a claim brought by Dr Duff and sincerely and unreservedly apologised to the complainant for the language used while she was in custody and any distress caused.\n\n\"A review was undertaken following the civil claim; this was referred to the Directorate of Professional Standards for assessment. A public complaint was also received and is currently under investigation. We have also made a voluntary referral to the IOPC.\n\n\"The Met takes all complaints incredibly seriously. We have a robust process in place to establish whether any misconduct may have occurred and to determine the appropriate next steps.\"\n\nEarlier this week, Inspector Andy O'Donnell, of the Met Police directorate of professional standards, said: \"I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely and unreservedly apologise for the sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language used about yourself and for any upset and distress this may have caused.\n\n\"There's a hope that this settlement and the recognition of the impact of what happened will enable you to put this incident behind you.\"\n\nDr Duff - who has written a book on abolishing the police - accused the Met of deflecting public scrutiny \"by presenting what they did to me as an exceptional incident\".\n\nBut she said she was \"really happy that the conversation is happening right now about misogyny and normalised sexualised violence in policing\".", "Boris Johnson has promised that the official report into parties held in Downing Street during lockdown will be published \"in full\".\n\nBut the prime minister said he did not know when senior civil servant Sue Gray's findings would come out.\n\n\"We've just got to let the independent inquiries go on,\" he added.\n\nMs Gray's findings are said to be undergoing checks by lawyers and human resources experts before they can be handed to the government.\n\nMr Johnson has said he will make a statement to the House of Commons once he has her report.\n\nLabour is demanding that the entire findings, including the names of those attending and organising Downing Street gatherings, be released - and that opposition parties get enough time to scrutinise them fully before they are discussed by MPs.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: \"We will pursue every option to make sure that report is out in full.\"\n\nThe families of those who had died during the pandemic were \"entitled to... the full truth from the prime minister\", he added.\n\nSeparately, the Metropolitan Police have launched an inquiry into potential Covid law-breaking in Downing Street.\n\nMr Johnson has previously apologised for attending a \"bring-your-own-booze\" gathering in the No 10 garden on 20 May 2020, during the first lockdown, saying he thought it was a work event.\n\nReports of a surprise birthday party held for Mr Johnson in the Cabinet Room in June 2020 have also come to light.\n\nMs Gray has spent several weeks looking into these and other events that took place on government premises during lockdowns and other Covid restrictions.\n\nOn a visit to North Wales, Mr Johnson was asked whether the government would \"publish [Ms Gray's report] in full\", replying: \"Of course.\"\n\nThe prime minister added that he stood \"completely\" by \"what I said in the House of Commons\" on Wednesday.\n\nThis appeared to refer to the exchange during a stormy Prime Minister's Questions session when Sir Keir said: \"The prime minister's continual defence is 'Wait for the Sue Gray report'. On 8 December he told this House, 'I will place a copy of the report in the library of the House of Commons'.\n\n\"His spokesperson has repeatedly stated that means the full report, not parts of the report, not a summary of the report, not an edited copy. So, can the prime minister confirm that he will publish the full Sue Gray report as he receives it?\"\n\nMr Johnson replied: \"We've got to leave the report to the independent investigator, as he knows, of course when I receive it, I will do exactly what I said.\"\n\nThe stated aim of Ms Gray's investigation is to \"establish swiftly a general understanding of the nature of the gatherings, including attendance, the setting and the purpose, with reference to adherence to the guidance in place at the time\".\n\nThe official guidance says the \"findings of the investigations will be made public\", but it adds: \"Following the long-standing practice of successive administrations, any specific HR action against individuals will remain confidential.\"\n\nBut, if required, Ms Gray has the power to \"establish whether individual disciplinary action is warranted\" against those involved in the gatherings.\n\nShe has referred some matters to the Metropolitan Police, whose inquiry is ongoing, as she is entitled to do if \"any evidence emerges of behaviour that is potentially a criminal offence\".\n\nMP Pauline Latham says Boris Johnson should go if he is found to have misled Parliament\n\nLabour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats have all called for Mr Johnson to resign.\n\nSome Tory MPs have done the same, but many others say they are waiting for the Gray report before deciding whether to submit letters of no confidence in him.\n\nAt least 54 of them must write to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, to set up a vote on the prime minister's future.\n\nConservative MP Pauline Latham told BBC Radio Derby that she and her colleagues wanted Ms Gray's report to be published as soon as possible.\n\n\"We want to get to the end of this,\" she said. \"We want to get on with what we have to do. We need certainty.\"\n\nAsked if she thought it would be necessary for the prime minister to quit to \"draw a line under\" the issue of Downing Street parties, Ms Latham, MP for Mid-Derbyshire, replied: \"It would if he's lied, and I think he would have no choice, because if he's lied to Parliament, that's one of the rules. You do not lie to Parliament.\"\n\nBut Lia Nici, Tory MP for Great Grimsby, said: \"People have said to me on the doorstep, '[Mr Johnson] is doing the job and we want to let him get on with doing the job'.\"", "Researchers at Durham University have discovered what appears to be the earliest known account of ball lightning in England.\n\nThe research has found what seems to be the first reference to it in a text written 750 years ago.\n\nBall lightning is usually associated with thunderstorms, is unexplained and has been described as a bright spherical object on average 9in/25cm, but sometimes up to several metres, in diameter.\n\nThe rare weather phenomenon now appears to have been documented by a monk in a medieval text.\n\nThis extract from the Chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury, where the medieval monk describes the ball lightning phenomenon, is the earliest known description of ball lightning in England to have been found\n\nThe account by the 12th century Benedictine monk Gervase of Christ Church Cathedral Priory, Canterbury, Kent states: \"A marvellous sign descended near London\" on 7 June 1195.\n\nHe went on to describe a dense and dark cloud, emitting a white substance which grew into a spherical shape under the cloud, from which a fiery globe fell towards the river.\n\nPhysicist Emeritus Professor Brian Tanner and historian Professor Giles Gasper of Durham University made the connection to a ball lightning event after comparing the text in Gervase's medieval Chronicle with historical and modern reports of ball lightning.\n\nCumulonimbus clouds over Chandler, Arizona, USA, in 2018, showing the inverted pyramid with the dark cloud beneath.\n\nProfessor Tanner said: \"Ball lightning is a rare weather event that is still not understood today.\n\n\"Gervase's description of a white substance coming out of the dark cloud, falling as a spinning fiery sphere and then having some horizontal motion is very similar to historic and contemporary descriptions of ball lightning.\"\n\nMedieval writings rarely survive in the author's original version and Gervase's Chronicle and other works now only exist in three manuscripts. One is in the British Library, and two are at the University of Cambridge.\n\n\"It is fascinating to see how closely Gervase's 12th century description matches modern reports of ball lightning,\" added Professor Tanner. \"There are even videos on the internet that show some of the effects he was describing.\n\n\"We should not dismiss medieval descriptions of the natural world as being mired in superstition and therefore of no value. This event was evidently sufficiently spectacular for it to merit special mention in the chronicle. Ball lightning was not understood then and it is still not understood now.\"\n\nPath of ball lightning observed at the Hotel Georges du Loup. near Nice in France.\n\nThe main focus of Gervase's writings was Christ Church Cathedral Priory in Canterbury, its disputes - with neighbouring houses and an Archbishop of Canterbury, as well as chronicling the actions of the king and his nobles, explained Professor Giles Gasper.\".But he [Gervase] was also interested in natural phenomena, from celestial events and signs in the sky to floods, famine, and earthquakes.\"\n\nThe researchers looked at Gervase's credibility as a writer and a witness, having previously examined his records of eclipses and a description of the splitting of the image of the crescent moon.\n\nProfessor Gasper added: \"Given that Gervase appears to be a reliable reporter, we believe that his description of the fiery globe on the Thames on 7 June 1195 was the first fully convincing account of ball lightning anywhere.\"\n\nYou've probably never seen ball lightning because it is so rare.\n\nBBC Weather's Susan Powell said: \"Modern technology allows us to observe our weather in more detail than ever before and understand with greater depth.\n\n\"Ball lightning however remains elusive and it's the subject of many theories. It's interesting to think that in this respect, despite our advances, we stand as mystified as observers in the 12th century.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Edie Pilkington began to get physical twitches such as neck jerks before vocal tics.\n\nA teenager who developed Tourette's syndrome in lockdown was forced to pay for a diagnosis after months of trying to get help through the NHS.\n\nEdie Pilkington, 16, from Bradford, began to get physical twitches such as neck jerks before vocal tics appeared.\n\nMum Amy said attempts to get help felt like \"banging your head against a wall\" and they ended up seeing a consultant privately.\n\nThe government said it had increased funding for mental health services.\n\nEdie said her symptoms had escalated to the point where she could have \"an overload\".\n\n\"It's just so tiring,\" she said.\n\n\"My body feels exhausted, my neck aches like hell. My throat sometimes hurts when I do have verbal ones, like grunts... physical, they do end up leaving marks.\n\n\"That might be what I have to deal with for the rest of my life.\"\n\nSeeing her daughter \"exhausted\", her mother Amy called her GP, who \"referred me to paediatrics initially, as they were confused as to what area to send me to\".\n\n\"The paediatrician said to Edie: 'Don't worry you'll grow out of it', but she was already 15,\" she said.\n\nMrs Pilkington said Edie had lost friends because of the tics, as she stopped wanting to join in activities with them.\n\nAmy Pilkington said trying to get help was like \"hitting a wall\"\n\nLast November, she contacted MP Judith Cummins, who wrote to Bradford District and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group, which is responsible for local NHS services.\n\nIt acknowledged there were \"gaps in our service and provision\" for and promised to escalate the issue.\n\nHowever, the family was still unable to get help and Mrs Pilkington said said she felt like she was \"hitting a wall\".\n\nIn December, Edie and her mum travelled to a clinic in Elstree, Hertfordshire, to see Dr Inyang Takon, one of only a few consultants in England who specialise in tic disorders and Tourette's.\n\nDr Takon prescribed medication for Edie to reduce the tics because of the injury risk they posed.\n\n\"We have seen a lot more children coming in [with tics] during this pandemic period, so we really need to understand what's going on,\" she said.\n\n\"This can only be done when you have a service and when you can do research on the children who are presenting.\n\n\"There are very limited services around the country to address this need. The government needs to do something about this urgently.\n\n\"It's not just one person, there are many, many more who can't afford to pay for this service who need it.\"\n\nDr Inyang Takon is one of only a few consultants in England who specialise in tic disorders and Tourette's\n\nThis is backed up by Tourette's Action, which said specialist clinics have seen an increase in cases, particularly in young women.\n\nThe charity's medical director, consultant neurologist Dr Jeremy Stern, said the lack of services was a \"national problem\" and the system in place was \"not fair or fit for purpose\".\n\n\"People can't necessarily get a diagnosis and very often can't get the treatment which we know can help them,\" he said.\n\n\"It's a problem Tourette's Action is very concerned about and we would like to campaign further to try and help this problem.\n\n\"I cannot say this is a satisfactory situation at this moment.\"\n\nSince her diagnosis, Edie said she feels \"relieved and less stressed and less awkward\".\n\n\"Now I can give a straightforward answer and be more comfortable and calm,\" she said.\n\nMrs Pilkington added: \"Hopefully she can now settle down into the new version of her.\"\n\nA Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"We are absolutely committed to supporting the wellbeing of children and young people with Tourette's syndrome and other tic disorders.\n\n\"The majority of services for people with Tourette's syndrome are commissioned locally by Clinical Commissioning Groups, through either paediatric services or Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).\n\n\"Early support and treatment is vital, and we are providing the largest mental health funding in NHS history through an extra £2.3bn a year to mental health services such as CAMHS by 2024.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Yasmin Chkaifi has been described by a friend as a good soul with a happy disposition\n\nAn arrest warrant had been issued at the start of January for a man killed when he was hit by the driver of a car who was apparently trying to stop him stabbing his ex-wife.\n\nLeon McCaskie, 41, was run over after killing Yasmin Chkaifi, 43, in Maida Vale, west London, on Monday.\n\nThe warrant, saying he should be held without bail, was issued on 4 January after he failed to appear in court.\n\nMcCaskie was accused of breaching an interim stalking protection order.\n\nMs Chkaifi told a friend two years ago she thought she would die at her ex-husband's hands, it has emerged.\n\nAdele-Sara Richards said Ms Chkaifi, who she knew as Yaz, messaged her in April 2020 to say: \"He's had cameras in my house recording me for months.\"\n\nShe added: \"He's stolen my mail, my phone, has access to all my personal data. I think he will kill me. I've tried everything.\"\n\nWitnesses said they heard shouts of \"stop it, stop it\" and described \"a girl being attacked by a gentleman\"\n\nWestminster Magistrates' Court, which issued the arrest warrant on 4 January, heard the breach related to an alleged physical approach to Ms Chkaifi. McCaskie, who also used the surname McCaskre, was also barred from making contact by phone, email, text or social media.\n\nMcCaskie, who police said had stabbed Ms Chkaifi on Chippenham Road, was hit by a car driven by a 26-year-old man. He was arrested on suspicion of murder and subsequently bailed until late February.\n\nWitnesses said they heard shouts of \"stop it, stop it\" and described \"a girl being attacked by a gentleman\". Det Ch Insp Rawlinson said \"very courageous\" bystanders had \"bravely tried to intervene\" and his team was getting a clearer idea of events from witnesses, the families and CCTV.\n\nThe Met Police, which would not comment on whether McCaskie was ever arrested over the alleged stalking protection order breach, said the force had referred itself to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).\n\nThe Met had already confirmed that the stalking order had been obtained against McCaskie.\n\nThe circumstances of the two deaths in Maida Vale are now subject to multiple investigations\n\nMs Chkaifi, who was a qualified childminder, had worked in a school and was studying for a master's degree.\n\nA vigil was held for her in Maida Vale on Wednesday night, where her family asked for time to grieve.\n\nFlowers and candles were left by well-wishers, with tealights spelling out the mum-of-two's nickname, Wafah.\n\nDozens of bouquets have been left in Maida Vale, where a vigil for Ms Chkaifi was held\n\nMs Richards, who described how she supported her after her mother died, said: \"She was a good soul.\n\n\"It's very rare in life you come across a good soul. She always had a happy disposition. She was just a lovely person.\"\n\nAn IOPC spokesperson said: \"We can confirm that we have received a referral from the Metropolitan Police regarding their contact with Yasmin Chkaifi prior to her tragic death in Maida Vale, London, on 24 January.\n\n\"We are currently assessing the available information, and have requested more, to determine what further action may be required from us.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The parts of the world suitable for growing coffee, cashews and avocados will change dramatically as the world heats up, according to a new study.\n\nKey coffee regions in Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam and Colombia will all \"drastically decrease\" by around 50% by 2050.\n\nSuitable areas for cashews and avocados will increase but most will be far from current sites of production.\n\nThe authors say that greater efforts must be made to help farmers adapt.\n\nCoffee is one of the world's most important crops, not just as key beverage but as a livelihood for millions of small farmers.\n\nConsumer demand for avocado has seen a massive rise in imports from producer countries\n\nAnd thanks to growing consumer preferences in richer countries, demand for avocados and cashews has increased substantially in recent decades.\n\nWhile the threat to coffee from climate change has been well documented in recent years, there is little information about how rising temperatures will impact avocados and cashews.\n\nIn this study, the authors looked at how rising temperatures and changing rates of precipitation will impact the three crops over the next 30 years. The researchers have also, for the first time, incorporated information about land and soil characteristics.\n\nCoffee is the most susceptible crop to high temperatures. In those countries accounting for the majority of the world's production of Arabica - the dominant coffee variety - suitability for growing the crop will decrease by around half by 2050 - a \"drastic\" reduction, according to the report.\n\nSome key areas will see a heavier impact. In the lowest temperature scenario, there would be a reduction of 76% in Brazil's most suitable areas for coffee. In Colombia it would shrink by 63%.\n\nSome regions at the northern and southern ends of today's growing areas will become more suitable, including Argentina, South Africa, China and New Zealand among others.\n\nBut according to the authors, this doesn't mean that these new regions can easily replace the current sites.\n\n\"The key message for those that are in the main producing regions today is that farming systems have to adapt to the changing conditions,\" said lead author Roman Grüter, from Zurich University of Applied Sciences.\n\n\"If there is already coffee grown in a new area where it is just about possible with some management options, it might get easier or might be possible to expand but it doesn't mean that we will get perfect coffee growing regions within 10 years or so.\"\n\nFor cashews, the picture is different. Overall, the areas of the world that are highly suitable for growing the crop will increase by 17%.\n\nHowever, in some of the countries that currently are reliant on cashews as a key cash crop the news is not good. India loses significant areas of suitability, while Benin loses half its suitable areas under the lowest modelled increase in temperature.\n\nFor avocados, the picture is also complicated - especially in the biggest producing countries.\n\nMexico, the world's largest producer, sees a major increase in suitable lands, up over 80%. However, Peru - another major grower - loses around half its suitable areas under the same climate model.\n\nWhile the rise in temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns might make some areas more suitable, the authors are concerned that a major shift to develop these crops in new regions might see more forests converted to farmland or a rise of invasive species.\n\n\"In regions that might get more suitable for growing those crops, it is important to make sure that there are no negative environmental impacts such as deforestation,\" said Roman Grüter.\n\n\"In all of these changes, the local stakeholders, the local communities have to get involved in these changing processes. It should be really participatory.\"\n\nA temperature rise of around 1C over the past 30 years has seen farmers in Sicily turn to a range of new crops more suited to warmer conditions.\n\nOne of them is Andrea Passanisi, who grows avocados close to Mount Etna. Along with other producers, this change has been very successful for Andrea.\n\nSicilian avocado grower Andrea Passanisi says that climate change is having a significant impact\n\nHowever, as temperatures continue to rise, growing conditions are getting more difficult.\n\n\"The real climate change here is in the seasons,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"Once it was cold in November and December, now it is January or February - that is not good for avocados.\"\n\nIncreased levels of drought and intense downpours are also challenging for farmers.\n\n\"If you grow on land that's not suitable for avocado, it's the end,\" Andrea said.\n\n\"We will continue to grow, as we have good land, but we will not have as much fruit.\"\n\nWhile the changing temperatures might seem to be bad news for current growers of these crops, there are some active steps that producers can take that could mitigate climate change.\n\n\"It is possible that some regions where avocados are currently grown the use of the genetic variability of avocado might help,\" said Dr Joaquin Guillermo Ramirez Gil, from the National University of Colombia, who wasn't involved in the new study.\n\n\"This species has three 'races' with different geographical origins, which makes it quite 'plastic' to adapt to different climatic conditions.\n\n\"There are also local adaptations and new management alternatives such as the use of bio-stimulants and nanotechnology-based products as a basis for reducing stress due to extreme weather conditions.\"\n\nThe research has been published in the journal Plos One.", "Dr Gary Jenkins died 16 days after the attack last July\n\nA psychiatrist who was \"tortured and left for dead\" in a \"homophobic\" attack in a Cardiff park begged his attackers to stop, a court has heard.\n\nDr Gary Jenkins was heard repeatedly pleading, \"leave me alone, stop it, leave me alone,\" on 20 July, 2021.\n\nAudio played to the jury was from CCTV at Bute Park, but there were no images.\n\nLee Strickland, 36, Jason Edwards, 25, and a girl, 16 at the time, admit manslaughter and robbery, but deny murder, at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.\n\nDuring the 15-minute audio recording, a male voice is heard shouting \"get off him\" and \"what are you doing? Leave him alone, stop\", but the sound of the attack continued.\n\nLee Strickland and Jason Edwards have pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery but deny murder\n\nThe prosecution said the four main voices which can be heard on the recording are the voices of Dr Jenkins and the three defendants.\n\nThe male voices can be heard shouting homophobic abuse, followed by the sound of Dr Jenkins moaning and pleading for the attack to stop.\n\nAt one point Dr Jenkins said: \"Please, please no, please no, stop, nothing left, stop it, stop it, stop it.\"\n\nDuring the attack, the female voice is heard to demand money and a male voice says: \"Hit him. Hit him again.\"\n\nThe voices can be heard describing other violent acts and at the end of the audio, the female voice is heard to say: \"Yeah I needed that.\"\n\nDr Jenkins was attacked near the Summerhouse cafe in Bute Park\n\nThe jury was also shown the bodycam footage of police officers arriving at the scene of the attack, finding Dr Jenkins badly injured with his trousers down.\n\nCCTV footage also showed Mr Strickland buying whisky in a garage on Cathedral Road eight minutes after the prosecution said his voice can be heard on the audio recording of the attack.\n\nThe jury was told he used Dr Jenkins' cards to buy the alcohol.\n\nThe jury was also shown CCTV from North Road, on the other side of Bute Park, where the prosecution said the teenage girl gave Jason Edwards Dr Jenkins' phone, before they embraced and separated.\n\nThe court previously heard Dr Jenkins had been married with two daughters, but had separated from his wife and was openly bisexual when he moved back to his home city of Cardiff about six years ago.\n\nA large area of park was cordoned off after the attack", "Stormont ministers have backed proposals to provide financial support for hotel operators affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nFinance Minister Conor Murphy brought the plan and said it would allow those businesses to be covered by an existing fund for the hospitality sector.\n\nAlmost 2,000 businesses, so far, have received a one-off grant from the department to cope with the ongoing disruption caused by Omicron.\n\nBut hotel operators were not included.\n\nThe Omicron Hospitality Payment was announced in December when fresh restrictions were imposed on businesses to try to stem a sharp rise in the number of Omicron cases.\n\nAt that time, Finance Minister Conor Murphy said his department would deliver a support package of £40m for more than 3,000 hospitality businesses.\n\nOn Thursday, the Department of Finance announced that the scheme would be extended. Hotels will be eligible for a one-off grant between £10,000 and £20,000, depending on their rateable value.\n\nFrom next week, Land and Property Services will contact Tourism NI-certified hotels by email, if they received a previous payment under the Localised Restrictions Support Scheme (LRSS).\n\nThe email will include a link to an online form where businesses will be asked to confirm relevant information and complete a declaration form to enable the new payments.\n\nFinance Minister Conor Murphy says hotels are a vital part of the hospitality industry and should be included in new financial support\n\nMr Murphy said he was \"determined\" to ensure hotels were not left without support.\n\n\"Hotels are a vital part of our hospitality industry and have undoubtedly been impacted by Omicron facing cancellations over the festive period,\" he said.\n\n\"In the absence of a bid for funding for a scheme to help this sector being brought forward, my department has again taken the lead and obtained executive approval to include hotels in the Omicron Hospitality Payment scheme.\"\n\nJanice Gault, Chief Executive of NI Hotel Federation, has welcomed the addition of hotels to the payment scheme.\n\n\"For most hotels, December is their busiest month and trade secured helps to mitigate losses that traditionally occur in the first two months of the new year,\" Ms Gault said.\n\n\"Hotels premises experienced a reduction of up to 60% on food, beverage and function business.\n\n\"Hoteliers are pleased their plight has been recognised in a similar way to other components of the hospitality industry and welcome the inclusion of the sector in the scheme.\"\n\nThe executive is also extending the Omicron Hospitality Payment to certain sports clubs with a licensed bar or restaurant.\n\nThey will be able to avail of a maximum one-off £10,000 payment if they operate such a facility or have a liquor licence and received less than £50,000 from the Department for Communities Sport Sustainability Fund last year.\n\nFurther information will be available next week on the NI business info site.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nWomen's Ashes, one-off Test, Manuka Oval (day one of four)\n\nMissed chances hurt England as Australia took control of the crucial Ashes Test on day one in Canberra.\n\nAfter being dropped on 14, Australia captain Meg Lanning hit 93 and opener Rachael Haynes, also put down on 44, made 86 to steer Australia to 327-7.\n\nThe hosts had been in trouble at 4-2 and later 43-3 after England made an excellent start with the ball.\n\nAlyssa Healy and Beth Mooney fell inside four overs and Ellyse Perry was caught off a top edge for 18, a rare failure for the imperious all-rounder in Test whites.\n\nHowever, Lanning and Haynes capitalised on their let-offs in a dominant partnership worth 169.\n\nThey looked to be easing towards maiden Test centuries when Lanning edged Nat Sciver to slip and Haynes gloved Katherine Brunt behind three balls later.\n\nThat gave England hope of a final-session fightback but Ashleigh Gardner's aggressive 56 and Tahlia McGrath's 52 secured Australia's position in the ascendency, despite the latter falling to the final ball of the day.\n\nAfter a win in the opening Twenty20 of the multi-format series and wash-outs in the next two games, Australia will retain the Ashes with victory in the one-off Test.\n\nEven a draw in this Test would leave England needing to win all three of the one-day internationals that follow to regain the Ashes.\n\nEngland cause their own problems\n\nMuch of what England did on day one of this series-defining Test was good but the fear already is that their errors will cost them.\n\nBrunt, Sciver and Anya Shrubsole found significant movement through the air in an bowler-dominated start, after England won the toss and took the aggressive option of bowling first.\n\nPerry had scored 213 not out and 116 in her previous two Ashes Test innings and when Sciver removed her with a surprise bouncer England were well on top.\n\nIn the final session, Brunt had Haynes caught with a brilliant delivery that lifted off a length and trapped Gardner lbw, bowling in typically aggressive fashion for 3-52.\n\nThe issue for the tourists was the slack period that came in between.\n\nIn the final over of the morning session Lanning edged left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone to slip but England captain Heather Knight put down a regulation catch.\n\nAfter lunch Haynes nicked a cut to second slip off Brunt only for Sciver to spill a harder catch diving to her left.\n\nFor the rest of the session Haynes and Lanning were able to score at ease, England looking flat and their bowling becoming increasingly wayward.\n\nThey fought back well at the end meaning the game is not yet gone but, with women's Tests played over four days not five, England do not have too much time to turn the tables on their hosts.\n\nAfter play Lanning talked of reaching 350 before looking to bowl but the fact Australia can do so points to their impressive batting depth.\n\nHaving seen Healy and Mooney - the latter playing just 10 days after breaking her jaw - nick behind, Lanning, playing her 150th match as captain of Australia across all formats, started shakily before growing into her innings.\n\nThe right-hander was aggressive against Ecclestone, who was unusually off-colour for England, and scored freely between extra cover and gully with drives and cuts.\n\nEven with an old ball Sciver found movement to dismiss her but afterwards Gardner and McGrath ensured England's fightback was not too significant.\n\nGardner was particularly attacking, she hooked Sciver for the day's only six, while McGrath was untroubled, as she was when scoring a match-winning 91 not out in the first T20, until she was caught behind playing a wild drive to the final ball.\n\nLanning also survived a tight call when on 51 when England reviewed a decision that could easily have been given.\n\nShe was hit on the forearm sweeping in front of the stumps but, with the technology showing the ball would have bounced over and the third umpire deeming it passed close to the glove but did not touch, she survived both lbw and caught appeals.\n\nAustralia captain Meg Lanning: \"We felt we had England on the ropes and then to get those two breakthroughs [Lanning and Haynes] probably evened it up a touch.\n\n\"I felt comfortable through the middle session. Before lunch I was struggling a little bit.\"\n\nEngland all-rounder Nat Sciver: \"We probably won the first session and then got a little bit wide and wayward in the middle and brought it back at the end.\n\n\"The runs stacked up a little bit but it is a quick-scoring ground and when they got in it became easier to score.\n\n\"We are frustrated with the drops and maybe a bit of a lack of energy in the afternoon session\"\n\nFormer England spinner Alex Hartley: \"[The Lanning drop] was a bit of a kick in the teeth. Chances are so few and far between in Test cricket. You have to take them.\n\n\"Yes, Australia lost wickets but they have still put themselves in a strong position.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTributes have been paid to comedian and writer Barry Cryer, who has died at the age of 86.\n\nCryer wrote for comedy giants including The Two Ronnies, Tommy Cooper and Morecambe and Wise, as well as starring on the airwaves and on stage himself.\n\nThe world of comedy has been remembering him, with Fawlty Towers star John Cleese saying: \"I never met a nicer, kinder, more cheerful man.\"\n\nDame Esther Rantzen described Cryer as an \"encyclopaedia of humour\".\n\nThe TV presenter, who first worked with him in the 1960s, told the PA news agency: \"In a way, Barry was a genius, but so unassuming that he would be astonished, I think, to be called a genius - but he was.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Stephen Fry This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nStephen Fry described him as \"one the absolute greats of British comedy\", while actor and writer Mark Gatiss added: \"Barry Cryer was the real deal.\n\n\"[He was] an incredibly funny man who worked with - and wrote for - the giants of comedy. Yet he remained forever curious and delighted by whatever was fresh and original. Kind, encouraging, generous and a one off.\"\n\nBroadcaster Gyles Brandreth described Cryer, who was a fixture on BBC radio panel shows like Just A Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, as \"just the loveliest guy; funny and generous\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Gyles Brandreth This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCryer's son Bob wrote on social media that the comedian died \"peacefully, in good spirits and with his family around him\".\n\nHe said: \"Dad was a talented comedy writer and comedian in a particularly golden vintage.\n\n\"It'll be of no surprise to those that knew and worked with him that he was telling an Archbishop of Canterbury joke to a nurse not long before he died. That was one of his gifts, making strangers feel welcome, making them laugh.\"\n\nBob Cryer added: \"He leaves behind him a life of fun, joy, love and silliness and we'll all be doing our best to maintain that legacy.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch writer and comedian Barry Cryer sing on BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue\n\nTributes flooded in from fellow comedians. The Thick of It's Rebecca Front said Cryer \"was an utter genius, endlessly intrigued by and supportive of everyone who worked in comedy.... he made us all feel special\".\n\nVictoria Coren Mitchell, whose father Alan Coren was a long-time friend and colleague of Cryer, remembered him as \"a lovely lovely man\". Her husband David Mitchell described Cryer as \"a brilliant man and a bringer of huge joy who never stopped being delighted by comedy\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Ken Bruce This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBenidorm actress Sherrie Hewson said: \"Barry Cryer, the most gifted talented extraordinary man I had the honour to work with and more importantly call my friend. A huggable gorgeous human being.\"\n\nComedian Ross Noble tweeted that Cryer's death was \"devastating news\", adding: \"He was a legend of his generation and more engaged with the many new generations of writers and comics who followed him than anyone else in the business.\n\n\"Spending time with him was always a great joy. Such a funny and nice man.\"\n\nCryer was born in Leeds in 1935, and started his career as a variety performer while appearing in a university revue.\n\nHe began writing for Irish performer Danny La Rue after a move to London. One evening at a nightclub performance, Cryer was spotted by presenter Sir David Frost, who suggested they work together.\n\nThe pair went on to collaborate on several shows including The Frost Report, Frost Over England and Frost On Sunday.\n\nCryer's early TV appearances were bolstered by a string of panel shows, with his comic timing entertaining audiences on That's Showbusiness, Blankety Blank and What's My Line.\n\nHe continued to be the go-to writer for many high-profile comedians, including Mike Yarwood, Sir Billy Connolly, Bob Hope, Bobby Davro, Jasper Carrott, Stanley Baxter, Dick Emery, Frankie Howerd and Les Dawson.\n\nBBC director general Tim Davie said in a statement: \"If you heard or saw a great sketch, there was always a good chance Barry was behind it.\n\n\"He worked with every major showbiz legend because everyone wanted to work with him. Barry will be hugely missed by his many friends at the BBC and the wider public.\"\n\nCryer appeared on TV comedy shows including Blankety Blank and What's My Line\n\nAlongside his comedy achievements, Cryer bizarrely also had a surprise number one hit to his name. Novelty song Purple People Eater was popular upon its release in 1958, but a cover version by Cryer achieved sudden success in the Nordic countries and reached number one in Finland.\n\nCryer was made an OBE in 2001 and received a lifetime achievement award in 2018 for his comedy career from the British Music Hall Society.\n\nCryer said in 1998: \"I haven't had a career, just a series of incidents. I've been dogged by good luck all my life.\"\n\nLast month, he launched a podcast with son Bob, titled Now, Where Were We?, which had featured guests including Stephen Fry, Danny Baker and Miriam Margolyes.\n\nCryer was made an OBE by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2001\n\nCryer died at Northwick Park hospital in Harrow on Tuesday afternoon.\n\nA funeral for close family and friends will take place in the coming weeks, Bob Cryer said, adding that a memorial service will also be scheduled for a later date.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Manfred Goldberg is one of seven Holocaust survivors to have their portrait put on public display in Buckingham Palace.\n\nThe 91-year-old moved to Britain after World War Two and managed to graduate from university with a degree in electronics.\n\nThe paintings are a memorial to the six million Jewish people who died in the Holocaust.\n\nEvents will take place around the UK and the world to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January.\n\nUK viewers can watch Survivors: Portraits of the Holocaust on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, tonight at 21:00GMT.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has affirmed that he will appoint a black woman to the top US court for the first time in history.\n\nThe eventual nominee will take up a seat to be vacated by liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who will retire in June.\n\nAppearing with Mr Breyer on Thursday, Mr Biden promised a replacement with the \"experience and integrity\" needed for the role.\n\nHe said he'll announce his pick by the end of February. Three judges are considered top contenders.\n\nKetanji Brown Jackson, 51, is widely believed to be the top contender to replace Justice Breyer.\n\nBorn in Washington DC and raised in Miami, Ms Jackson currently serves on the influential US Court of Appeals for the DC circuit. Three current justices previously served on the court.\n\n\"Presidents are not kings,\" she wrote in a 2019 ruling compelling a former aide to President Trump to testify in the Russia meddling probe.\n\n\"They do not have subjects, bound by loyalty or blood, whose destiny they are entitled to control.\"\n\nThe jurist has two degrees from Harvard University, which she attended as an undergraduate and as a law student, once serving as editor of the Harvard Law Review.\n\nDuring her time at Harvard, she led protests against a student who draped a Confederate flag from his dorm window.\n\nHer parents are both graduates of historically black colleges who began their careers are teachers.\n\nMs Jackson has also clerked for three federal judges in the past, most notably Justice Breyer himself from 1999-2000.\n\nIn January 2021, she was among President Biden's very first judicial picks, to fill the court seat vacated by his current Attorney General Merrick Garland.\n\nAt that confirmation hearing, former House Speaker and ex-Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan introduced her; Mr Ryan is a relative by marriage.\n\n\"Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji's intellect, for her character, for her integrity, it is unequivocal,\" he said.\n\nMs Jackson's husband is a surgeon and she has two children.\n\nLeondra Kruger, 45, is in her eighth year on the California Supreme Court.\n\nBorn to a Jamaican immigrant mother and a Jewish father, the Pasadena native is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, where she was the first black woman to serve as editor of the Yale Law Journal.\n\nIn 2016, she became the first California Supreme Court judge to give birth while serving on the bench.\n\nMs Kruger previously worked at the Obama Department of Justice, from 2007-13.\n\nDuring her tenure, she argued 12 cases before the US Supreme Court as deputy to the Solicitor General, the official who represents the government before the high court.\n\nShe reportedly twice turned down offers to serve as the Solicitor General.\n\nThe jurist also once clerked for late Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.\n\nHer husband is a lawyer and she has two young children.\n\nJulianna Michelle Childs, 55, has served on the federal bench in South Carolina since 2010.\n\nShe also previously served as a circuit court judge in the state.\n\nUnlike Ms Jackson and Ms Kruger, Ms Childs did not attend an Ivy League school, instead going to the University of South Carolina Law School.\n\nIn private practice, she was the first black female partner at a major law firm in the state.\n\nCongressman Jim Clyburn, an influential black politician in the state whose endorsement of Mr Biden is widely credited with saving his 2020 campaign, has advocated for Ms Childs to be nominated because of her unorthodox resume.\n\nMost recently, Mr Biden nominated Ms Childs to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.\n\nBlack women make up only about three percent of the federal judiciary, according to data from the Federal Judicial Center, the court system's research arm.\n\nDr Taneisha Means, a political science professor at Vassar College, who researches race and judicial politics, says that a history of racism, sexism and elitism in the legal profession contributes to the scarcity.\n\nBlack law students are often left on the outside looking in because they did not go to an Ivy League university, or because they never clerked for a federal judge, said Dr Means, meaning few ever become eligible for the high court.\n\nMs Means added that a gruelling confirmation process in the US Senate likely makes federal judgeships even less palatable. Recent analysis indicates non-white nominees often face much longer waits than their white counterparts to be confirmed by the mostly white chamber.\n\nStrengthening the diversity of the judicial branch has been a key priority for the Biden administration.\n\nThe Senate confirmed 40 new district and appellate judges last year, the most for a president in his first year since Ronald Reagan in 1981. Among them are the first Muslim-American judge and five black women.", "Apple, lead by Tim Cook, was able to use its size to navigate supply chain problems\n\nApple sales soared in the key Christmas shopping season, despite constraints due to a global shortage of microchips.\n\nSales at the iPhone giant rose 11% to a record $123.9bn (£92.6bn) in the October to December period, beating forecasts.\n\nShares jumped more than 4% in after-hours trade, as the report suggested the firm's pandemic boom is continuing.\n\nApple has seen purchases skyrocket during the pandemic as people spend more time online.\n\nThe firm's market value briefly hit the $3tn milestone in early January though its share price has slipped more recently amid weeks of market turmoil.\n\nExecutives had warned last year that the global shortage of microchips might limit its sales, but the firm's quarterly update to investors on Thursday showed it brushing past those concerns.\n\nMac sales were up 12%, while iPhone sales jumped 9%.\n\nWith few rival phones debuting in the holiday shopping season, the iPhone 13, which started shipping days before the quarter began, led to worldwide phone sales revenue for Apple of $71.6bn.\n\nRevenue from the company's services unit - which includes Apple Pay, the App store and its TV streaming service - was up more than 23%.\n\nThe iPad, which executives said was particularly affected by the supply issues, was the one product that showed weakness, with sales slipping 14%.\n\nDemand in China, where sales rose 20%, propelled the firm's growth in the quarter.\n\nApple said profits were $34.6bn, up 20%.\n\nThe company, which has more than 1.8 billion active devices in the market, has been able to put pressure on suppliers and manufacturers to produce big quantities of iPhones and other devices despite shortages brought on by the pandemic and most recently the Omicron variant.\n\n\"They've navigated the supply chain better than everybody, and it's showing in the results,\" said Ryan Reith, who studies the smartphone market for industry tracker IDC.\n\nChief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said that supply constraints would decrease in the current quarter, which ends in March.\n\n\"The level of constraint will depend a lot on other companies, what will be the demand for chips from other companies and other industries. It's difficult for us to predict, so we try to focus on the short term,\" he said.", "Exeter Chiefs are to end their Native American-themed branding this summer.\n\nThe club had been criticised for continued use of Native American imagery and announced last year they were reviewing their branding.\n\nExeter will keep their 'Chiefs' nickname but will now use imagery from the Celtic Iron Age Dumnonii Tribe.\n\n\"We are excited to welcome in the next era of rugby within Exeter,\" said chairman and chief executive Tony Rowe in a statement.\n\n\"Exeter has and always will be the most important term in our overall identity. The term Chiefs, however, is equally entrenched in our make-up, going back to over a century ago when teams in this region would regularly call their first teams that of the Chiefs,\" added Rowe, who says the re-brand could cost the club as much as £500,000.\n\n\"As a rugby club we have been willing to listen, we have consulted far and wide, and now we are ready to invoke change.\"\n\nThe supporter group Exeter Chiefs for Change have led the calls for the club to get rid of their Native American branding.\n\nIt was their petition in 2020 which brought the issue to a wider audience and led the club to drop their mascot 'Big Chief', although they retained the rest of their branding including places such as the 'Wigwam Bar' and 'Campfire Grill' in their home ground at Sandy Park.\n\n\"I'm incredibly happy and proud to see the club finally doing the right thing and making the right moves at last,\" Alix Burhouse from Exeter Chiefs for Change told BBC Sport.\n\n\"All of us in the campaign were Exeter Chiefs supporters.\n\n\"When you have that connection to something already you're part of that community, so to be able to see the injustice that was happening and finally being paid attention to, to be able to use our platform as fans of the club, meant that we could amplify the voices of the people speaking out.\n\n\"It wasn't about what we wanted or what we felt, it was about making sure that people who had a reason to feel the way they did got the chance to be heard.\"\n\nA number of clubs have asked visiting Exeter fans not to wear Native American-themed headdresses to their away matches this season after criticism of the club's branding by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).\n\nIn October Dante Desiderio, the NCAI's chief executive, said: \"Native 'themed' mascot imagery and the dehumanising stereotypes it perpetuates must go.\"\n\nIn the United States, Washington's American football team dropped their controversial Redskins name and logo, while Cleveland's baseball team changed its name from the Indians to the Guardians.\n\nExeter's new imagery comes from the Dumnonii tribe, which the club say was based in Devon, Cornwall and parts of Somerset for \"many hundreds of years before the Roman occupation from AD43\".\n\nAt that time, Exeter say, historians believe people were \"living in small kingdoms known as 'chiefdoms' which were ruled by high chieftains\", thus providing a link to keep the term 'Chiefs'.\n• None Meeting your ex for dinner - what could go wrong?", "Mother Rachel Morgans was not able to hold Bonnie until about a month after her birth\n\nA baby born at 23 weeks and weighing just 1lb 7oz (652g) has been able to go home four months after her birth.\n\nRachel Morgans' daughter Bonnie was born 17 weeks prematurely on 20 September at Leighton Hospital, Crewe.\n\nComplications on the day of the birth led to fears Bonnie would be classed as a miscarriage, but signs of life meant the birth went ahead despite difficulties, Mrs Morgans said.\n\nNow at home in Sandbach, Cheshire, Bonnie was said to be \"fantastic\".\n\nMrs Morgans had been unwell and experienced bleeding while carrying and was initially expecting twins, losing Bonnie's unborn sibling earlier in the pregnancy.\n\nThen, on the day of Bonnie's birth, she woke up with more heavy bleeding. An ambulance was called and Bonnie was born a little over an hour later.\n\nBut Mrs Morgans, who is also mother to Imogen, 11, and Ralph, two, said Bonnie's early arrival left medics checking whether the frail infant \"showed she wants to be there\".\n\nBonnie was born in September at 23 weeks\n\nWhile Bonnie being able to breathe alone for a 12-minute period had brought some relief, there was still a \"journey\" to be faced, Mrs Morgans said of the early days.\n\nBonnie was transferred to Arrowe Park Hospital in Birkenhead, Wirral, while her parents lived in charity accommodation above the ward. During that time, Bonnie suffered a number of complications including two cardiac arrests and a bleed on the brain.\n\n\"It was heartbreaking because you're not the only family in there,\" Mrs Morgans said. \"Every family is on their own journey and [Bonnie] seemed to be the poorliest baby all the time.\"\n\nBonnie also had to undergo eye surgery at Liverpool Women's Hospital before heading home on 20 January.\n\nRachel Morgans said she \"never thought\" she would get to the stage where Bonnie would be home with her siblings, including big sister Imogen\n\n\"She looks like a normal newborn baby, even though she is four months old,\" Mrs Morgans said, thanking the hospitals.\n\nAlthough still on oxygen and some medication, Bonnie is feeding well and said to be enjoying the company of her siblings.\n\n\"I never thought we would get to this stage,\" Mrs Morgans said, adding Bonnie was \"used to being the star of the show\".\n\nBonnie spends time on her playmat with her brother Ralph\n\nBonnie has a weekly visit from a home care team and physiotherapy every month to help her meet developmental milestones, and the family knows she will have some eyesight issues and have to cope with the effects of chronic lung disease.\n\nBonnie looks like a normal newborn baby four months after her premature delivery, her mother says\n\nDebbie Edwards, director of midwifery at Wirral Women and Children's Hospital, said: \"We are delighted that Bonnie is now able to be at home with her family.\n\n\"The expertise of our specialist teams enable us to care for the most vulnerable babies. We really wish Bonnie all the very best now she is home.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson has vowed to fight on as prime minister after facing fresh calls to quit over lockdown parties in Downing Street.\n\nMPs are still waiting to see the findings of civil servant Sue Gray's inquiry into the events, which had been expected on Wednesday.\n\nAt Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir Starmer called on the PM to keep a promise to publish the report in full.\n\nMr Johnson replied that he would \"do exactly what I said\".\n\nDowning Street has said it is their \"intention\" to publish the report in the format in which Mr Johnson receives it.\n\nThe BBC understands that Ms Gray's report is essentially completed, but she has not yet sent it to the prime minister.\n\nIt seems likely MPs may have to wait until Thursday - or beyond - to see the report.\n\nMr Johnson has said he will give the opposition parties time to study its contents before he makes a Commons statement on it.\n\nSeparately, the Metropolitan Police have launched an inquiry into potential Covid-law breaking in Downing Street, after being handed details of parties by Sue Gray.\n\nTory MPs asked supportive questions in the Commons but the PM faced calls to resign from Labour and SNP MPs\n\nAt a stormy Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir said the prime minister had previously told MPs that \"all guidance was followed\" in Downing Street over gatherings during Covid lockdowns.\n\nThe Labour leader added: \"So since he acknowledges the ministerial code [governing standards of behaviour and forbidding ministers from misleading the Commons] applies to him, will he now resign?\"\n\nHe accused Sir Keir of being \"relentlessly opportunistic throughout\" the pandemic by shifting his position on lockdowns, whereas he had got all the big decisions right.\n\nCommons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle had to step in several times to calm shouting MPs down, threatening some with expulsion from the chamber.\n\nAmid continued noise, Sir Keir said: \"The prime minister's continual defence is 'Wait for the Sue Gray report'. On 8 December he told this House, 'I will place a copy of the report in the library of the House of Commons'.\n\n\"His spokesperson has repeatedly stated that means the full report, not parts of the report, not a summary of the report, not an edited copy. So, can the prime minister confirm that he will publish the full Sue Gray report as he receives it?\"\n\nMr Johnson replied: \"We've got to leave the report to the independent investigator, as he knows, of course when I receive it, I will do exactly what I said.\"\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, asked Conservative MPs to \"show the prime minister the door\" by triggering a leadership contest.\n\nMr Johnson has previously apologised for attending a \"bring-your-own-booze\" event in the No 10 garden on 20 May 2020, during the first lockdown, saying he thought it was a \"work event\".\n\nReports of a birthday party held for Mr Johnson in the Cabinet Room in June 2020 have also come to light this week.\n\nSome Tory MPs have already demanded Mr Johnson's resignation, but many others say they are waiting for the Gray report before deciding whether to submit letters of no confidence in him.\n\nAt least 54 of them must write to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, to set up a vote on the prime minister's future.\n\nCurrently, if a vote of confidence in the prime minister is triggered there cannot be another one for 12 months.\n\nThe committee does not have plans to change the rules to allow two confidence votes within a year, despite reports this proposal had been considered.\n\nCommons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, repeated his staunch defence of the PM, insisting the reported gatherings were work events.\n\nHe added: \"If people are working all day, they have got to eat, they have got to have lunch, they must be allowed to have a cup of coffee during the day.\"\n\nAsked whether that needed to be wine and cake, which was said to be served at the events, Mr Rees-Mogg replied: \"This issue about do people have [an alcoholic] drink when they are working is not absolutely set in stone one way of the other.\"", "Anita Lasker Wallfisch - painted by Peter Kuhfeld - and other survivors are a \"living memorial\" to the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, Prince Charles said\n\nPortraits of seven of the UK's last remaining Holocaust survivors have gone on display at the Queen's Gallery to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.\n\nThe Prince of Wales, who commissioned them, said they were a living memorial to the six million people \"whose stories will never be told, whose portraits will never be painted\".\n\nA ceremony was streamed online to commemorate the victims.\n\nPeople were asked to leave a lighted candle in their window in remembrance.\n\nAround the UK, landmark buildings including the London Eye, Edinburgh Castle, Cardiff Castle and the Titanic museum in Belfast were illuminated in purple, the colour of Holocaust Memorial Day.\n\nPrince Charles said he commissioned the portraits as an enduring reminder of the horrors of the Nazi regime in World War Two and in tribute to the Jewish refugees who made their home in Britain.\n\nHe was left moved after one survivor of Auschwitz showed him her concentration camp tattoo at an event to unveil the portraits on Monday.\n\nLily Ebert, 98, also showed the prince a golden pendant she had hidden from the guards in her shoe and later in her daily bread ration.\n\nAt the event in the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, London, she told Prince Charles: \"Meeting you, it is for everyone who lost their lives.\" Charles touched her shoulder and replied: \"But it is a greater privilege for me.\"\n\nAged 20, Lily Ebert - portrayed here by Ishbel Myerscough - was transported to Auschwitz with her family. Her mother and two siblings did not survive\n\nIn the foreword to the catalogue of the exhibition, the prince said we are \"responsible for one another, for our collective history\", and that the attempted extermination of the Jews in Europe by the Nazis was a stark reminder of this.\n\nHe said: \"Seven portraits. Seven faces. Each a survivor of the horrors of those years, who sought refuge and a home in Britain after the war, becoming an integral part of the fabric of our nation.\n\n\"However, these portraits represent something far greater than seven remarkable individuals. They stand as a living memorial to the six million innocent men, women and children whose stories will never be told, whose portraits will never be painted.\"\n\nArek Hersh is one of the \"seven remarkable individuals\" painted for the project. The artist is Massimiliano Pironti\n\nHe continued: \"They stand as a permanent reminder for our generation - and indeed, to future generations - of the depths of depravity and evil humankind can fall to when reason, compassion and truth are abandoned.\"\n\nIn July 1944, Lily Ebert - then aged 20 - was transported to Auschwitz with her mother and five siblings.\n\nThe Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, notorious for his deadly experiments on prisoners, sent her mother, her younger brother and younger sister to die in the gas chambers, while other family members were put to work.\n\nShe said the pendant in the shape of an angel had been given to her by her mother when she was five.\n\n\"Auschwitz took everything, even the golden teeth they took off people. But this survived,\" she said.\n\nPrince Charles said the portraits, like this one of Manfred Goldberg by Clara Dummond, served as a reminder to future generations\n\nHelen Aronson - painted by Paul Benney - survived the Lodz ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland\n\nHolocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, the largest of the Nazi death camps, in 1945.\n\nFaith leaders also gathered to light candles and remember the victims of all genocides, including other victims of Nazi persecution such as the Roma people, Slavs, disabled people and gay men.\n\nIt also marks the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.\n\nPainted here by Stuart Pearson Wright, Rachel Levy was not able to speak about her experience for decades, even to her husband, but now shares her story in schools\n\nZigi Shipper was interned in a ghetto from the age of 10, then taken to Auschwitz. His portrait is by Jenny Saville\n\nThe Holocaust Memorial Trust said this year's theme for the commemoration was \"one day\" to highlight and remember the single days in history that changed the lives of victims of genocide, and to look forward to a day when there will be no more genocide.\n\nAt York Minster, 600 candles were lit to remember the Jewish victims of the Holocaust and arranged in a Star of David.\n\nYork's Jewish and other faith communities attended the event, which included a procession with readings, music, poetry, prayers and periods of silence for quiet reflection.\n\nThe House of Commons also marked Holocaust Memorial Day, with one MP fighting back tears as he said he still \"feels the trauma\" from the murder of family members and hopes his own children can escape the fears of persecution that generations of Jews have felt.\n\nSix hundred candles, representing the Jewish victims of genocide, were lit in a Star of David at York Minster\n\nAlex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds North West, recounted how many of his relatives were murdered by the Nazis in death camps or in the Lodz ghetto - including Karol, who would have grown up to be Mr Sobel's uncle, if he had not been shot in the head at the age of two by an SS officer.\n\n\"I'm the only child of only children, with very few relatives, and a lot of our family are just ghosts of the past who were taken away from us by the Holocaust,\" he said.\n\nThe UK ceremony for Holocaust Memorial Day was streamed online, featuring survivors of the Holocaust, Rwandan and Cambodian genocide telling their stories to people across the UK - including Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nChief Rabbi of the UK and Commonwealth Ephraim Mirvis gave a speech, saying: \"One day the world will recognise that all that hatred does is to create further hatred.\"\n\nThe ceremony ended with people lighting candles and placing them in their windows, in order to remember those murdered for their identity and to stand against prejudice and hatred today.\n\nBattersea Power Station was among the buildings illuminated in purple as a mark of remembrance\n\nA candle was seen burning in the window of No 10 Downing Street - as in homes across the UK\n\nThe leaders of the UK nations, other senior politicians and members of the public from all walks of life were filmed in this act of remembrance as the Kingdom Choir sang Stand By Me.\n\nA BBC documentary about the project to create portraits of Holocaust survivors living in Britain, called Survivors: Portraits of the Holocaust, was broadcast on BBC Two at 21:00 GMT on Thursday and is now available on iPlayer.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Manfred Goldberg is one of seven Holocaust survivors to get royal portraits", "The girl was accused of possessing instructions for homemade explosives and firearms.\n\nThe case against the youngest girl charged with terrorism offences in the UK has been dropped, after the Home Office decided she was a victim of trafficking.\n\nThe British schoolgirl, now 16, was accused of possessing instructions for homemade firearms and explosives.\n\nBut an expert unit decided she had been groomed online by a US extremist.\n\nThis is the first time a terrorism prosecution has been halted following a decision of this kind.\n\nThe Derbyshire teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was arrested in October 2020 and was alleged to hold extreme right-wing beliefs.\n\nShe was originally due to stand trial at Nottingham Youth Court in August last year on six charges relating to when she was 14. However, the case was delayed after the Home Office was asked to formally consider whether she had been exploited.\n\nThis involved her being referred to an official framework for identifying potential victims of trafficking and modern slavery, called the national referral mechanism.\n\nThe referral was made by defence barrister Gerard Hillman after the girl had been charged. The police had not made a referral when they arrested her months earlier.\n\nThe Home Office's Single Competent Authority decided there were \"conclusive grounds\" she had been groomed and exploited sexually and in other ways, particularly by an older male extremist in the USA. That conduct amounted to trafficking under modern slavery laws.\n\nFollowing that decision, the case has been discontinued by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).\n\nA child does not need to have been subjected to forced movement, either within a country or across borders, to be judged a victim of trafficking.\n\nA CPS review found there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction and the case was quietly dropped earlier this month, with the six terror charges left to lie on file.\n\nThe case against the teenage girl was one of many involving the extreme right\n\nDuring a hearing in July 2021, which scrapped the original trial date, the chief magistrate, Paul Goldspring, said there was \"clear evidence she's been exploited\" and it was \"fairly horrific if true\".\n\nProsecutors had alleged the girl possessed a bomb-making video and a series of similar written instructions. The most serious charge claimed she had a guide for making 3D-printed firearms in circumstances which generated a suspicion it was linked to the \"commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism\".\n\nCPS policy means it had to take into account the trafficking decision, but it was not legally obliged to halt the prosecution.\n\nThe case is part of a trend involving ever younger children being investigated for terrorism offences.\n\nLast week, a 14-year-old schoolboy became the youngest person in the UK convicted of terror charges, having been arrested when he only was 13.\n\nThe most recent statistics, published in December, revealed 13% of those arrested for terrorism offences were aged under 18, the highest proportion in any annual period.\n\nDisputes about culpability, exploitation and radicalisation are at the heart of other cases not before the criminal courts.\n\nAt the special immigration appeals commission, Shamima Begum, who left the UK aged 15 to join Isis in Syria, is appealing against the removal of her British citizenship by the home secretary. She argues that the government has a legal duty to investigate whether she was trafficked and exploited.\n\nIn that court, lawyers representing the Home Office have argued that claims Ms Begum was trafficked are \"entirely speculative\".\n\nApproached about the Derbyshire schoolgirl decision, a Home Office official said: \"We do not routinely comment on individual cases.\"\n\nJonathan Hall QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the BBC that \"online exploitation is the flip side of online radicalisation\".\n\nHe added: \"The internet is not only pulling more and more young people into criminal liability for terrorist offending, but may yield defences to criminal liability, or powerful public interest reasons why a child should not be prosecuted.\n\n\"Issues of fault, dangerousness and criminal liability are still being worked out when dealing with online terrorism offending by children.\n\n\"If criminal justice is not the right outcome, this begs the question whether there are adequate measures to deal with any abiding risk the child may present.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson has rejected claims that he authorised the evacuation of animals from Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul last year.\n\nIt comes after emails from officials published by MPs suggested the prime minister intervened in the evacuation of the animal charity Nowzad.\n\nBut Mr Johnson denied this, and added that the idea animals were prioritised over people was \"total rhubarb\".\n\nEarlier, Labour said his story was \"not credible\" and accused him of lying.\n\nFurther emails from the time of the evacuation, seen by BBC Newsnight, show Downing Street's guidance was sought on approving Nowzad's airlift.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee published several emails as part of its inquiry into the evacuation of people from Kabul.\n\nAbout 15,000 people were airlifted out of the Afghan capital last August, as the Taliban took control after the withdrawal of Western forces.\n\nAmong these were Pen Farthing, an ex-Royal Marine who runs the Nowzad animal charity, and 150 animals, on a chartered plane paid for by donations.\n\nThe UK government sponsored clearance for it, leading to a row over whether animals had been prioritised over people during the rescue effort.\n\nThe charity's Afghan staff made it to the airport with paperwork from the British government to leave.\n\nBut Mr Farthing said last-minute changes by the US authorities to require a passport with a visa meant they were not allowed into the airport. They later made it safely to Pakistan.\n\nTwo of the emails published by the committee on Wednesday suggest the PM was involved in authorising the charity's evacuation.\n\nAsked on Thursday whether he had intervened, Mr Johnson replied: \"Absolutely not\".\n\nBut BBC Newsnight's Sima Kotecha has seen two emails with the subject heading \"Pen Farthing and dogs\", showing the Foreign Office and the prime minister's special representative for Afghanistan, Nigel Casey, sought guidance from No 10 over the issue.\n\nPen Farthing ran the charity in Afghanistan before the Taliban took back Kabul\n\nOne of the emails published by the Foreign Affairs Committee shows an unnamed official in Foreign Office Minister Zac Goldsmith's office writing to colleagues working on the evacuation.\n\nThe official wrote: \"[animal charity - name redacted] are a [details redacted] animal charity operating in Kabul and seeking to evacuation their [details redacted] members of staff (no animals).\"\n\n\"Equivalent charity Nowzad, run by an ex-Royal Marine, has received a lot of publicity and the PM has just authorised their staff and animals to be evacuated, [animal charity - name redacted] are hoping to be treated in the same capacity.\"\n\nAnother email from an unnamed Foreign Office official, sent on the same day, also referenced Nowzad in a request for clearance for another charity.\n\nThe official wrote: \"In light of the PM's decision earlier today to evacuate the staff of the Nowzad animal charity, the [animal charity - name redacted] (another animal rights NGO) is asking for agreement to the entry of [details redacted] staff, all Afghan nationals\".\n\nIn a written statement to the committee, Mr Farthing said no UK government \"capacity\" had been used to transport the animals.\n\nOn Thursday, the PM's spokesman said he played \"no role in authorising individual evacuations from Afghanistan, including Nowzad staff and animals\".\n\nThe spokesman added: \"It's not uncommon in Whitehall for decisions to be interpreted or portrayed as coming directly from the prime minster even when that's not the case.\n\n\"It's our understanding that's what happened in this instance.\"\n\nSpeaking earlier, Labour's shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy said it was \"increasingly clear that the prime minister's story is not credible\".\n\n\"The prime minister has lied about what he did and the actions he took during that time,\" she added.\n\n\"I think it's becoming increasingly clear that you cannot believe a word that our prime minister says.\"", "There will be \"no U-turn\" on a planned National Insurance hike intended to fund health and social care, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has said.\n\nThe planned rise has faced criticism from MPs, including calls from Conservatives for it to be scrapped.\n\nCritics have said that the increase will have a higher impact on the lower-paid and contribute to inflation.\n\nBut the government has said it is needed to help the NHS recover after the pandemic.\n\nMr Kwarteng told the BBC on Thursday that there would be \"no U-turn\" on the rise.\n\n\"We're totally committed to funding the NHS, clearing the backlog of the NHS, and also funding social care and the way to do that is through this tax rise.\n\n\"That's how we're going to get the revenue to pay for the backlog and to pay for a sustainable social care system,\" he said.\n\nIt comes after a Treasury Select Committee report warned that the planned rise would contribute to a rise in inflation.\n\nMel Stride, a Conservative MP and the committee chairman, told the BBC that there was an \"opportunity now to not go ahead with the National Insurance rise in April\", and that he would prefer to see it delayed for a year.\n\nOn Monday, Conservative MP David Davis told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the policy was based on the \"wrong data\", adding that policy makers did not know that by April the UK would have the highest inflation for 30 years, or that interest rates, council tax and fuel prices would be rising when formulating the policy.\n\n\"They didn't know what pressure there would be on ordinary people,\" he said.\n\nUnder the plans, employees, employers and the self-employed will all pay 1.25p more in the pound for National Insurance (NI) from April 2022 for a year, when the extra tax will be collected as a new Health and Social Care Levy.\n\nThe increase will see an employee on £20,000 a year pay an extra £89. Someone on £50,000 will pay £464 more.\n\nPeople earning under £9,880 a year, or £823 a month, won't have to pay National Insurance, or the new levy when it is introduced.\n\nThe government says the changes are expected to raise £12bn a year, which will go initially towards easing pressure on the NHS .\n\nA proportion will then be moved into social care system over the next three years.", "High profile cases such as the murder of Sarah Everard may have led to more reporting, the ONS said\n\nPolice forces in England and Wales recorded the highest ever number of rapes and sexual offences in a 12-month period up to September 2021, official figures show.\n\nThere were 63,136 reported rapes, up 13% from the previous period, the Office for National Statistics said.\n\nA rise in fraud and computer misuse pushed overall crime up by 14%.\n\nMany types of crime, including gun and knife crime, fell during the lockdowns, however.\n\nReports of other sexual offences also rose, with a total of 170,973 sexual offences in the 12 months up to September, an increase of 12%.\n\nThe ONS said there were \"notable increases\" in reported sexual offences after April 2021, the month after Sarah Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a serving police officer, Wayne Couzens.\n\nIt said the latest figures may be due to a \"number of factors\", including the \"impact of high profile incidents, media coverage and campaigns on people's willingness to report incidents to the police, as well as a potential increase in the number of victims\".\n\nThe rise in rape and sexual offences comes as separate figures show the number of rape prosecutions has fallen sharply to historic lows.\n\nThe ONS is relying on crime reported to police for rape and sexual offences, because the broader Crime Survey for England and Wales is only able to ask about these sensitive issues - and about domestic abuse - in face-to-face meetings, which have been suspended in the pandemic.\n\nBut the crime survey, which also reflects offences which may not have been reported to police, found that a 47% rise in computer misuse and 24% increase in fraud - compared to the same period in 2019 - contributed to an overall rise in crime.\n\nExcluding fraud and computer misuse, crime reported to the police fell by 1% while the crime survey found a 14% drop in overall crime.\n\nThe ONS compared the latest crime survey data with figures from 2019, because that was the latest data that was based on a sample independent from this year's telephone survey, and allowed for a comparison over time.\n\nThe ONS said there were signs in the most recent police recorded crime data that levels were returning to or exceeding those seen before the pandemic.\n\nOverall the number of offences estimated by the national crime survey has been falling since the 1990s.", "Ofcom has launched an investigation after the BBC's complaints unit partially upheld complaints about its reporting of an alleged anti-Semitic incident in London in November.\n\nThe media watchdog said the BBC's ruling, issued on Wednesday, \"raises issues under our due accuracy rules\".\n\nComplaints were made about the BBC's coverage of abuse directed towards a group of Jewish teenagers on a minibus.\n\nThe Board of Deputies of British Jews welcomed Ofcom's investigation.\n\nIn its ruling, the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) - which is editorially independent of BBC News - said an article about the incident should have been updated.\n\nIt said the broadcaster should have recognised there was \"genuine doubt\" about its report an anti-Muslim slur was heard from the bus.\n\nThe BBC's complaints unit partially upheld complaints about accuracy and impartiality. However, it did not agree that the article amounted to victim-blaming.\n\nThe use of \"alleged\" to describe the abuse was also described as necessary for legal reasons.\n\nThe ECU investigation followed complaints made by individuals and groups including the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the chief rabbi.\n\nThe BBC has accepted the findings of the ECU and apologised \"for not doing more to highlight that these details were contested\".\n\n\"We should have reflected this and acted sooner,\" a spokesperson added in a statement.\n\nThe Board of Deputies of British Jews president Marie van der Zyl said it was \"dismayed that the corporation continues to justify certain erroneous editorial decisions that continue to cloud the issue and will compound the distress faced by the victims.\n\n\"We welcome Ofcom's decision to investigate the incident. We trust that justice will prevail.\"\n\nThe report related to an incident on Oxford Street on 29 November 2021, where Jewish passengers on a privately hired bus were subjected to abuse.\n\nPolice said at the time they were treating the incident as a hate crime. No arrests have yet been made and inquiries are still ongoing.\n\nThe BBC's original online article on 2 December claimed \"some racial slurs about Muslims\" could also be heard in footage of the incident.\n\nThe following day, this line was amended to say \"a slur about Muslims\" could be heard from the bus.\n\nA BBC London TV report on the same story, also said \"you can hear some racial slurs about Muslim people\".\n\nHowever, groups including the Board of Deputies of British Jews disputed this and complained to the BBC about the coverage.\n\nAfter investigating the footage with the help of native Hebrew speakers, the Board of Deputies interpreted the words as a Hebrew phrase - \"Call someone, it's urgent\".\n\nThe ECU's investigation looked at three questions:\n\nOn these three questions, the ECU found:", "Liz Truss said progress was being made in talks with the EU\n\nForeign Secretary Liz Truss has said she wants to strike a deal on the Brexit Protocol that works for everyone in Northern Ireland.\n\nMs Truss was speaking in Belfast after meeting business and political leaders to discuss the protocol.\n\nThe DUP has repeated its threat to withdraw from Stormont if the UK and EU do not reach a solution in the coming weeks.\n\nMs Truss said she hopes to make \"significant progress\" by February.\n\n\"What I want to do is sort out the protocol, working with the EU to protect the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and that we protect political stability in Northern Ireland as well as making sure we deliver for the people of Northern Ireland,\" she said.\n\n\"What I want is a deal that works for everyone.\n\n\"We are making progress, we're having constructive talks, I want to make significant progress by February.\n\n\"That's important, but it's also important that we secure the support of all of the communities in Northern Ireland, including the unionist community.\"\n\nThe government has been attempting to renegotiate the Northern Ireland Protocol, a deal it made with the EU in 2019.\n\nCurrently, the protocol keeps Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods, which led to new obligations on businesses when importing goods from Great Britain.\n\nUnionist politicians oppose the protocol, saying it undermines Northern Ireland's position within the UK.\n\nThe foreign secretary said people need to be able to get access to the same goods in Northern Ireland that they can in Great Britain.\n\n\"I completely understand the frustration people feel have and the need for rapid progress and that is why we are in intense negotiations with the EU to sort out the very real issues,\" she said.\n\nPaul Givan has been first minister of Northern Ireland since June 2021\n\nAfter speaking to Ms Truss, NI First Minister Paul Givan said he hoped he would still be first minister next week, but warned the DUP would soon have to act over the Northern Ireland Protocol if the government does not.\n\nSpeaking at Stormont, Mr Givan said his party had made it clear to Ms Truss that it would have to act, if there was no indication of any changes when the UK and EU joint committee meets on 21 February.\n\nIt is the formal body overseeing the protocol but has not met in more than six months.\n\nThe first minister said the protocol had caused political and economic instability which needed to be dealt with.\n\n\"The UK government wants to get progress by 21 February, they've said that's a significant date for them - what I'm saying is that the executive needs to be here to deliver on a whole range of issues.\n\n\"There are consequences the public does not want to see, which is why we need to make progress,\" Mr Givan added.\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, of Sinn Féin who also met Ms Truss on Thursday, said the DUP threat was \"undermining politics\".\n\nMs O'Neill said any concept of a new deadline in the negotiations was a \"moveable feast\".\n\n\"What remains consistent is that the DUP is undermining politics and undermining everyone else's ability to deliver a budget, to tackle waiting lists and to bring forward all the other pieces of legislation that are coming to an end point,\" she added.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Assembly is due to be dissolved at the end of March for the next election in May.\n\nThere are a number of pieces of legislation which have yet to complete their passage.\n\nIf the DUP was to withdraw the first minister from the executive, Ms O'Neill would also be removed from her post as deputy first minister as the roles are joint.\n\nThe executive would be unable to meet, as it is co-chaired by the first and deputy first ministers.\n\nThe government, however, has almost finished its consideration of a so-called \"safety net bill\" that would prevent an immediate collapse of the assembly and allow outstanding legislation at Stormont to proceed into law, ahead of the election.\n\nIt is thought it will have received royal assent by mid-February.\n\nTalks over the protocol came as a DUP move to force an executive rethink over Irish Sea border checks was blocked by Sinn Féin.\n\nNew post-Brexit checks at Northern Ireland ports began in January 2021\n\nAgriculture Minister Edwin Poots, from the DUP, submitted documents seeking executive support for the checks on Tuesday, ahead of a legal challenge by loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson.\n\nMr Poots argued the challenge made clear that checks must be approved by all ministers as they are controversial and cut across various departments.\n\nSinn Féin maintained Stormont has a legal obligation to enforce the checks, and that the executive agreed in May 2020 to designate Mr Poots' department to perform the controls.\n\nIt is thought Mr Poots could next week outline a plan to order his officials to stop the checks.\n\nMr Givan said his party colleague was completely entitled to issue a ministerial instruction to the civil service.\n\n\"Politicians have a democratic mandate, civil servants don't and absolutely they would have to follow the democratic instruction of a minister.\n\n\"Not to do that would have profound implications in terms of how the civil service operates.\"\n\nMr Poots had threatened to order his officials to stop the checks, if the paper was blocked.\n\nBut Finance Minister Conor Murphy, of Sinn Féin, said discussions were ongoing and would not be resolved \"by bringing down the assembly and executive\".\n\n\"If this is an attempt to ratchet up and precipitate a crisis it's reckless behaviour,\" he said.\n\n\"We are trying to get a budget together to support health and there is legislation going through the assembly for a whole range of issues.\n\n\"This is about the election, make no mistake, but to jeopardise all of that because they want to try and generate some type of electoral advantage for themselves is highly cynical and does a disservice to the public who need our support.\"", "The driver, who is in his 80s, was pulled over near a Tesco supermarket\n\nA man stopped by police told officers he had been driving with no licence or insurance for more than 70 years.\n\nWhile on patrol, police pulled over the man near Tesco Extra, in Bulwell, Nottingham, on Wednesday evening.\n\nOfficers said the driver - born in 1938 - told them he had been driving with no licence or insurance since he was 12 and had never been stopped by police.\n\nOn Facebook, the Bulwell, Rise Park and Highbury Vale Police team said thankfully he had never had a crash.\n\nThe team added: \"Thankfully he had never had an accident, caused anyone an injury, and never made anyone lose out financially, by hitting them whilst uninsured!\n\n\"Due to the increased number of ANPR cameras in Nottingham, even on the small trips, you are likely to hit a camera, so make sure your documents are in order... because it will catch up with you... one day.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Carl McGrath, Ross Ballantine and Alan Minard died after their fishing boat Nicola Faith sank, now their families want to make sure others do not suffer the same fate\n\n\"We don't want any other family to suffer in the way we have.\"\n\nThe families of three fishermen who died at sea have been praised for their work improving sea safety.\n\nRoss Ballantine, 39, Alan Minard, 20, and skipper Carl McGrath, 34, all died when their boat \"Nicola Faith\" sank off the Conwy coast on 27 January 2021.\n\nOne year on, their families want to prevent others from suffering and are working with the lifeboat service to improve commercial fishing safety.\n\nSupporters raised thousands of pounds to help the families of the three men fund a private search for the wreck of the boat, which was not found until two months later.\n\nPart of the money left over will help support the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), which helped search for the Nicola Faith when it was first reported missing.\n\nLowri Taylor, sister of Ross Ballantine, has said all the families of the lost men have helped get each other through a \"dark\" year\n\n\"There've been a lot of dark moments in the last year,\" said Ross Ballantine's sister Lowri Taylor, \"and the support of the other relatives has been amazing\".\n\n\"We've really been able work together well and that's been amazing,\" she said, adding: \"If someone was having a bad day, then another person has been able to pick them up.\"\n\nThe men's relatives have also been helping with a training course where fishing crews get practical experience of how to survive if they are thrown unexpectedly into rough seas.\n\nThe families have assisted a training course at the Nautical Campus in Fleetwood, Lancashire, that simulates a \"man overboard\" situation\n\nThe course makes \"a real impact\" and helps fishermen think carefully about safety at sea, says the RNLI\n\n\"One year on, we're wanting to create a lasting legacy to the boys and use our experience to share our story and hopefully save more lives,\" Ms Taylor added.\n\n\"Ross was my brother, he was father to his two sons. We want them to grow up seeing that we are doing something positive in his name and in the names of Alan and Carl.\n\n\"It's too early to say what measures may have prevented this dreadful incident, but anything which improves safety and gives fishermen a better chance has got to be a good thing.\"\n\nThe families have been personally attended a training course, talking to those taking part about their experiences of losing a loved one at sea.\n\nFrankie Horne of the RNLI has praised the families' \"strength and compassion\"\n\nThe course sees crew members thrown into a swimming pool with heavy waves while wearing work gear, simulating a real world man overboard situation.\n\nFrankie Horne, RNLI Fishing Safety Manager, said having someone that has endured loss, and can talk about the impact it has had, is a \"vital element\" that had been missing from the course.\n\n\"The families have shown such compassion and strength in wanting to use their tragic experience to prevent more lives being lost,\" he said.\n\n\"We are so grateful to the family for helping us to provide this element of the course, which I firmly believe will be the most powerful tool in changing attitudes and behaviour.\"\n\nAn official investigation as to why the Nicola Faith sank has been taking place, run by the UK Government's Marine Accident Investigation Branch.\n\nIt is due to report back later this year.", "Lorren Rea, from Enfield, says she \"cannot wait until next week\" when she can visit her mum \"properly\" in her care home.\n\nShe has only been able to visit 83-year-old Kay Price once every two weeks for 30 minutes, communicating through a glass partition via an intercom system.\n\nShe tells the BBC: \"At my mum’s care home we were limited to two named visitors, that was me and my brother.\n\n\"We were the only ones allowed to go unless we made a special arrangement for one of her grand daughters to visit - but then we would have to sacrifice our visit.\"\n\nLorren shared a video of her mum, who suffers from dementia and is losing her hearing, enjoying a singalong during one of their visits Image caption: Lorren shared a video of her mum, who suffers from dementia and is losing her hearing, enjoying a singalong during one of their visits\n\nLorren says she is not worried for her mum once visitor restrictions are lifted on Monday.\n\n\"She nearly died from Covid,\" she explains. \"I had a call nearly two years ago when she was apparently taking her last breaths – she pulled through that.\n\n\"Now she’s been vaccinated and she actually tested positive three weeks ago and had absolutely no symptoms.\n\n\"I think she’s a tough old bird and she’ll be absolutely fine.\"", "As the Scottish government prepares to take ScotRail into public ownership, Stephen Kerr from the Conservatives calls rail fares \"outrageous\".\n\nHe highlights that travelling from Falkirk to Edinburgh every day in the working week costs £72.50, but Falkirk to Glasgow costs £85.50 - and asks what the FM plans to do to reduce costs.\n\nMs Sturgeon insists that on average, ScotRail fares are 20% lower than in other parts of the UK.\n\nShe says her government will continue to make investments in the railway to improve passenger services, adding that she believes public ownership of the railway means she will have \"more ability to shape things in future\".", "Northern Ireland has recorded its highest number of deaths due to alcohol in 20 years of official statistics.\n\nIn 2020, Northern Ireland also had the second highest rate of deaths per 100,000 in the UK, according to the Office of National Statistics.\n\nHowever, unlike England and Scotland, Northern Ireland did not see a significant rise in such deaths between 2019 and 2020.\n\nThe NI figure rose from 336 in 2019 to 351 in 2020.\n\nThere were 19.6 fatalities per 100,000 of Northern Ireland's population due to alcohol in 2020.\n\nThat compared to 21.5 deaths per 100,000 in Scotland and 14 per 100,000 in the UK as a whole.\n\nThe alcohol-specific death rate rose across all the United Kingdom, but statistically significant increases were only seen in England and Scotland.\n\nAcross the UK, there were 8,974 deaths due to alcohol-specific causes registered in 2020.\n\nThat was 1,409 more deaths (a 18.6% increase) than in 2019 when there were 7,565 registered deaths, equivalent to 11.8 deaths per 100,000 people.\n\nMore than three-quarters of the deaths were caused by alcoholic liver disease.\n\nCommenting on the figures, the ONS's James Tucker said: \"There will be many complex factors behind the elevated risk since spring 2020.\n\n\"For instance, Public Health England analysis has shown consumption patterns have changed since the onset of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, which could have led to hospital admissions and ultimately deaths.\n\n\"We've also seen increases in loneliness, depression and anxiety during the pandemic and these could also be factors. However, it will be some time before we fully understand the impact of all of these.\"\n\nLast year, Northern Ireland's Department of Health said it spends over £1bn dealing with drug and alcohol misuse every year.\n\nIt described it as a key priority for the minister.", "Car production in the UK last year fell to its lowest level since 1956, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.\n\nThe SMMT said the figures were dismal, largely thanks to a global microchip shortage and disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nIt said there was optimism for the future, with the announcement of new investment worth nearly £5bn.\n\nBut it warned high energy costs could be a challenge for carmakers this year.\n\nHopes that car production would recover in 2021 were firmly dashed. According to the SMMT's figures, just under 860,000 new cars left UK factories last year.\n\nThat was even fewer than in 2020, when the first wave of Covid and the associated lockdowns forced several factories to close.\n\nProduction last year was 6.7% lower than in 2020 - and a full 34% below its pre-pandemic level.\n\nThe main reason for the decline, the SMMT said, was a severe shortage of semiconductors, or computer chips.\n\nA modern car has complex electronics and can use between 1,500 and 3,000 chips to operate items such as engine management systems, emissions controls, safety devices and navigation systems.\n\nBut there were other factors affecting production too. These included widespread staff absences as workers were forced to go into isolation, and the impact of the closure of Honda's factory in Swindon.\n\nThe SMMT's chief executive Mike Hawes admitted it had been \"a dismal year, there's no hiding it\".\n\nBut he suggested that \"despite this miserable year there is optimism\", largely because of the announcement of £4.9bn in planned new investments, many of them in electric vehicles or technology.\n\nThese, he said, had been triggered by the signing of a Brexit deal with the EU, which had provided \"a real shot in the arm\", following five years of declining investment.\n\nBut he added the UK was \"still playing catch-up\" after a long period of Brexit-related uncertainty.\n\n\"The industry did everything it could to be prepared [for new post-Brexit trading arrangements], and largely that has been relatively smooth,\" he told the BBC's Today programme.\n\n\"It has incurred additional costs though, because whilst we were able to benefit from the deal we have with the EU, which avoids tariffs, it doesn't avoid other tariff barriers and additional administration which has required additional people and additional costs to everyone, whether you're exporting or importing.\"\n\nFor the UK motor industry, the pandemic came at just the wrong time.\n\nCar production was already falling, and Brexit uncertainty was making manufacturers reluctant to invest in Britain - at a time when they were making big plans for a new generation of electric vehicles.\n\nThe trade deal with the EU solved that problem - but it came in the middle of a Covid outbreak which triggered a wave of new issues.\n\nThe shortage of computer chips is global and manufacturers around the world have been struggling to deal with it.\n\nBut at a time when the UK car industry should have been focusing on making up lost ground, it was left managing a crisis. The past year has been truly miserable for the sector.\n\nNevertheless, new investment is now coming in, and that momentum now has to be sustained if the UK is truly to become a force in the new market for electric vehicles.\n\nDespite the general malaise in the industry, meanwhile, production of electric and hybrid cars rose by nearly 30% - and accounted for nearly a quarter of all the cars built.\n\nVan production, which is becoming an increasingly important part of the UK motor industry, was also strong, with output recovering to just 3% below its pre-pandemic level.\n\nDemand for these vehicles has been soaring due to the popularity of online shopping and home deliveries.\n\nIndependent forecasts produced for the SMMT suggest that production will rise by nearly 20% next year, to more than one million vehicles.\n\nBut the organisation said that unless new players come into the market, the industry is unlikely to return to the output levels seen five years ago, when some 1.7 million cars left UK factories.\n\nThat is due to the closure of Honda's Swindon plant, and the decision to make vans instead of cars at Vauxhall's factory in Ellesmere Port.\n\nThe chip shortage, meanwhile, is expected to remain a factor in the first part of this year - but become easier after that.\n\nHowever, the industry is likely to face another, very significant challenge: rapidly rising energy costs.\n\n\"Escalating energy costs threaten the viability of vehicle plants, but also our competitive position,\" Mr Hawes said.\n\n\"We already pay more in energy costs here in the UK than in competitor countries across Europe and beyond.\n\n\"So we need to make sure we can try and mitigate those price rises to ensure we can remain competitive.\"", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nManchester United booked an FA Cup fourth-round meeting with Middlesbrough as Scott McTominay's eighth-minute header proved enough to beat Aston Villa at Old Trafford.\n\nMcTominay was allowed to run unchallenged to the edge of the Villa six-yard box, where he met Fred's perfectly weighted cross to steer the ball past Emiliano Martinez.\n\nThe goal condemned Villa boss Steven Gerrard to an unhappy return to Manchester, where he was baited by the home supporters because of his allegiance to Liverpool.\n\nHowever, the result was incredibly harsh on Gerrard and his team.\n\nTwice in a matter of minutes early in the second period they had the ball in the United net, only for both to be ruled out.\n\nThe second was a straightforward offside goal against Danny Ings, albeit the flag was not raised until after Ollie Watkins had put the ball in the net.\n\nHowever, the first was far more debatable and involved a lengthy wait for the video assistant referee to ask Michael Oliver to make the final decision by consulting the screen, the referee eventually ruling Jacob Ramsey was offside and impeded Edinson Cavani in the build-up.\n• None Why did VAR rule out Aston Villa goal?\n• None Relive the action at Old Trafford\n• None Go straight to all the best United content\n\nVilla's recent record in this competition has been awful. Their last victory was a third-round replay against Wycombe in 2016, meaning by next year's competition, they will have gone seven seasons without winning a match in it.\n\nThey could easily have avoided that sorry statistic given their part in a breathless all top-flight encounter, which was full of attacking invention and defensive errors.\n\nJohn McGinn and Emiliano Buendia both tested David de Gea. Watkins beat the United goalkeeper but not the crossbar before Ramsey's goal-bound shot was deflected narrowly wide by the legs of McTominay.\n\nThe Watkins effort came courtesy of a woeful first touch from Victor Lindelof, who was partnering Raphael Varane in the absence through injury of Harry Maguire and Phil Jones.\n\nLindelof's attempt to control a high ball facing his own goal only resulted in the Swede propelling it towards his own goal. De Gea did not come for it, leaving the United defender in a shoving match with Watkins which the striker won.\n\nInstead of steering the ball into the far corner, Watkins lifted it past De Gea and on to the bar.\n\nVilla will be aggrieved at Ings' apparent equaliser being disallowed given the time it took to reach a decision, as fans of both sides became increasingly irritated because they had no idea what was going on.\n\nUnited interim boss Ralf Rangnick has spoken repeatedly about his side's need to start controlling matches.\n\nBut this latest effort did not give any indication they know how to do it.\n\nRepeatedly, the hosts gave away possession under little pressure to the extent it was Villa who had the majority of it.\n\nMarcus Rashford had a particularly grim night, blasting his best chance straight at Martinez from an acute angle and failing to follow up on a Mason Greenwood shot that bobbled towards him as the Villa keeper failed to hold. By the time he was replaced by Jesse Lingard four minutes from time, the England man looked a thoroughly dispirited figure.\n\nHe has now gone 11 games without a goal and has not found the net since scoring in the 3-0 win at Tottenham on 30 October.\n\n\"He's trying hard and done well in training in the last couple of days,\" said Rangnick. \"For strikers, it is important to score goals. It would be good for Marcus to score but as long as he's trying and training well I don't see a problem.\"\n\nThis was also an evening when those who feel Cristiano Ronaldo is at the root of United's problems were given food for thought.\n\nRonaldo was missing with what Rangnick described as \"minor problems\" but the spark and fluidity United have been missing in recent times did not reappear.\n• None Attempt missed. Anwar El Ghazi (Aston Villa) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Ollie Watkins with a headed pass.\n• None Attempt saved. Mason Greenwood (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jesse Lingard.\n• None Attempt missed. Danny Ings (Aston Villa) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Matt Targett with a cross.\n• None Offside, Manchester United. Luke Shaw tries a through ball, but Marcus Rashford is caught offside.\n• None Attempt saved. Mason Greenwood (Manchester United) left footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Bruno Fernandes.\n• None Attempt saved. Mason Greenwood (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Bruno Fernandes.\n• None Attempt missed. Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.\n• None Diogo Dalot (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "One of Britain's largest energy suppliers has apologised after it advised customers they could cuddle pets and eat porridge to stay warm.\n\nOvo Energy said it was \"embarrassed\" after a link to a blog \"containing energy-saving tips\" was sent to its SSE Energy Services customers.\n\nThe company said it had removed the blog so it could \"update it\" with \"more meaningful information for customers\".\n\nIt comes after concerns over the cost of living amid rising energy bills.\n\nOvo Energy acquired SSE Energy Services in 2020 but the brands are still separate.\n\nIn a statement to the BBC, Ovo Energy said it recognised the content of the blog was \"poorly judged and unhelpful\".\n\n\"We are embarrassed and sincerely apologise,\" the supplier added.\n\n\"We understand how difficult the situation will be for many of our customers this year.\"\n\nOn a now-deleted SSE webpage, which offered tips on \"keeping warm in winter without turning up the heating\", SSE suggested \"10 simple and cost-effective ways\" to stay warm and keep bills down.\n\nThe advice included wearing extra layers and to keep moving by \"cleaning the house, challenging the kids to a hula-hoop contest, or doing a few star jumps\".\n\nAlongside stopping draughts, SSE said people could find \"extra heat\" by leaving your oven open after you've finished cooking and by having \"a cuddle with your pets and loved ones to help stay cosy\".\n\nSpeaking to the Financial Times which first reported the story, Darren Jones, chair of the Commons business select committee, called the advice \"insensitive\".\n\n\"Being told to put on a jumper instead of turning on your heating if you can't afford it, at a time of such difficulty for so many families, is plainly offensive,\" the Labour MP told the newspaper.\n\nIn a tweet following Ovo Energy's apology, Mr Jones said: \"Good, I'm glad they apologised. I'm not sure who signed off a marketing campaign telling people to wear a jumper and eat porridge instead of turning on the heating if you can't afford it.\"\n\nHousehold and businesses have seen their energy bills rise in recent months as energy suppliers pass on a sharp rise in wholesale gas prices.\n\nIncreased oil and gas demand in Asia, a rapid recovery of some economies after lockdown, and a summer with little wind to generate alternative power, have all contributed to rising energy costs.\n\nAnother problem is that much of the UK's housing stock is ageing and very poor at retaining heat, leaving residents particularly exposed to jumps in gas prices.\n\nOn Monday, the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group called on the government to prioritise energy saving through home improvements, saying better insulation could save UK households more than £500 a year on energy bills.\n\nTrade body Energy UK has predicted bills will surge by up to 50% in April, when the change to the price cap, due to be determined in February, kicks in. It said the average household could end up paying about £700 more per year.\n\nThat along with UK inflation at a 10-year high and expected to increase further has prompted warnings of a cost-of-living \"crisis\".", "James West said this was one of the most impressive sites that had been discovered during HS2 excavations\n\nArchaeologists working on the route of the HS2 high-speed railway have found a vast wealthy Roman trading settlement.\n\nThe discovery was made during excavations at the site in south Northamptonshire.\n\nA team of about 80 archaeologists have been working on the site for a year and discovered numerous artefacts, including more than 300 Roman coins.\n\nSite manager James West said it was \"extraordinary and tells us so much about the people who lived here\".\n\nThe site, known as Blackgrounds after the black soil found there, is near the villages of Edgcote and Chipping Warden.\n\nWalls of a domestic building were uncovered during the archaeological excavation in south Northamptonshire\n\nArchaeologists said it was an Iron Age village, formed of more than 30 roundhouses, believed to have been established in about 400 BC, that developed into a wealthy Roman trading town.\n\nDiscoveries showed the settlement expanded over time, becoming more prosperous during the Roman period, with new stone buildings and roads being built.\n\nThe team uncovered a 10m (33ft) wide Roman road, described as \"exceptional in its size\", running through the site.\n\nA Roman pot was among the artefacts found by archaeologists\n\nHS2 archaeologists found evidence of workshops, kilns, several \"beautifully preserved wells\" and fiery red-coloured earth, which indicates activities such as bread-making and metal work occurred.\n\nAlongside the coins found, glass vessels, highly decorative pottery, jewellery and evidence of make-up was uncovered.\n\nTraces of the mineral galena - lead sulphide - a substance that was crushed and mixed with oil as make-up, was found on the site, archaeologists said.\n\nThe Roman road found at the site was described as well-preserved and large\n\nMr West said it was one of the \"most impressive sites\" Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) had discovered working on HS2.\n\nHe said the Blackgrounds area \"spans multiple time periods\" and had given the team several \"high-quality finds\".\n\n\"The site really does have the potential to transform our understanding of the Roman landscape in the region and beyond,\" he added.\n\nThe history of the site features in Digging for Britain on BBC Two at 20:00 GMT, and on the iPlayer after broadcast.\n\nArchaeologists worked at the site near the River Cherwell for 12 months\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion please email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Permafrost thaw in Kivalina, Alaska, is threatening villages and homes\n\nCracked homes, buckled roads and ruptured pipelines are likely to become common in and near the Arctic as warming temperatures cause frozen ground to thaw, new findings say.\n\nFive million people live on Arctic permafrost including in Russia, North America and Scandinavia.\n\nClimate change is causing the Arctic to warm two-to-four times faster than the rest of the planet.\n\n\"The land changes right before us,\" one Alaska resident told BBC News.\n\nScientists studying the Arctic say that 70% of infrastructure and 30-50% of critical infrastructure is at high risk of damage by 2050, with projected cost of tens of billions of dollars.\n\nThe study published on Tuesday highlights again how climate change is expected to threaten life as we know it as well as the natural world.\n\n\"Arctic communities are all different but everyone living on permafrost is really struggling,\" Kaare Sikuaq Erickson told BBC News. He works in Alaska as a cultural mediator between residents and institutions.\n\nPermafrost or tundra is defined as land that has been frozen continuously for more than two years. It covers around one quarter of the northern hemisphere's land surface, including half of Canada's land and 80% of Alaska's.\n\nBut warming temperatures are causing parts of it to thaw with often unpredictable effects, including sinkhole formation, land slips and flooding.\n\n\"Both the construction itself and the warming of the climate cause permafrost to thaw, which threatens existing infrastructure and future construction projects,\" says lead author Prof Jan Hjort at the University of Oulu in Finland.\n\nA sinkhole forms after permafrost thawing near the Bering Sea village of Unalakleet, Alaska, in 2021\n\nImagine living on a block of ice and constantly trying to keep it frozen, Mr Erickson says when explaining the challenges facing Alaskan communities.\n\nIt affects everything from trying to dig foundations for a house, or building a level road, to installing sewer and water systems.\n\n\"Historically the ice did stay cooler, but now it's warming fast,\" he explains. \"You see the foundations of buildings and highways are up and down - you're driving over big bumps in the roads.\"\n\nBecause of the unequal way that the US government divided up land after colonisation in the 19th and 20th centuries, indigenous villages now have limited land and few options to move as it becomes unstable, Mr Erickson explains.\n\nMeanwhile in Russia, up to 80% of buildings are damaged in some cities built on permafrost, the research suggests. Most of the cities in the Arctic are located in Russia and the degrading landscape is affecting food security, traditional lifestyles and accessibility.\n\nAnd as the heating of the planet is projected to accelerate in coming years, more permafrost is expected to thaw, threatening infrastructure and communities.\n\nAt least 120,000 buildings, 40,000 km of roads and 9,500 km of pipelines, as well as airstrips, are located in permafrost areas of the northern hemisphere, according to the study.\n\n\"If you think about the Arctic, the whole landscape stability is dependent on the threshold of zero degrees Celsius. And as ground temperature approaches zero, we are seeing huge waves of problems,\" Arctic geologist Louise Farquharson from the University of Fairbanks, Alaska, told BBC News.\n\nIn some communities she studies, water mains are rupturing and houses are becoming unstable when the ground subsides. It's become dangerous to play outside in areas due to ponds forming from meltwater.\n\n\"It's important to emphasise that people have lived in these landscapes for thousands of years - it's not as simple as saying communities can pick up and move,\" she says.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Large mounds called thermokarsts in Siberia are a result of permafrost thawing\n\nIn 2020, evidence of the catastrophic impact of warming permafrost was clear when a huge oil spill caused one of Russia's worst environmental disasters.\n\nAround 21,000 tonnes of diesel poured from Norilsk Nickel's storage tanks into rivers and lakes in Russia's Arctic north. Investigators believe the tanks sank into the ground after it became unstable as permafrost thawed.\n\nIt is possible to tackle the problem using different building design or trying to keep the permafrost cool, the research explains. But it is expensive and risky.\n\nSome highways in Alaska are already built with what are known as air convection embankments. This method places porous stones inside the surface of roads to encourage heat to rise away from the frozen ground.\n\n\"Most scientists would probably agree that the sensible solution is to reduce our dependency on greenhouse gases and thereby lower the degrees to which our planet will warm,\" suggests Dr Poul Christoffersen, glaciologist at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, UK.\n\n\"It's always been hard to live in the Arctic - we always found ways to thrive and we will carry on but it's getting tougher for our people,\" Mr Erickson explains.\n\nScientists are also closely analysing permafrost to assess how much carbon dioxide locked inside the frozen land is being released as it warms.\n\nThe research is published on Tuesday in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic: Only Novak knows the answers\n\nSerbia's prime minister says it is up to Novak Djokovic to explain a \"grey area\" over his Covid test result.\n\nThe unvaccinated Serbian tennis star says he was granted a medical exemption to enter Australia after testing positive for Covid in mid-December.\n\nBut there are questions over public appearances he made at this time.\n\nIf Djokovic went out knowing he had a positive PCR result, it would be a \"clear breach\" of Serbia's rules, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told the BBC.\n\nDjokovic's visa was revoked on arrival in Melbourne last week before being reinstated by a judge on Monday. Documents presented at court showed that the 34-year-old tested positive for coronavirus on 16 December.\n\nHowever on 17 December he was pictured attending an event in the Serbian capital Belgrade honouring young tennis players. There are also reports that he was at a photo shoot on 18 December.\n\n\"If you're positive you have to be in isolation,\" Ms Brnabic told the BBC's Guy De Launey.\n\nBut she added: \"I do not know when he actually got the results, when he saw the results, so there is some grey area… the only answer to this can be provided by Novak.\"\n\nSerbian Covid regulations stipulate a full 14-day self-isolation period, unless the person who has tested positive receives a negative PCR test result during that period.\n\nIf Djokovic was found to have breached Serbia's isolation rules, Ms Brnabic said she would have to consult with \"relevant authorities, and the medical people who are in charge of implementing these regulations\".\n\nIn a separate interview on Tuesday, Djokovic's mother Dijana told the BBC that it was up to her son to answer questions over his PCR result.\n\nDjokovic's Australian visa dispute has hit headlines around the world. The tennis star has been fighting to stay in the country, where he hopes to defend his title at the Australian Open.\n\nNovak Djokovic is currently training in Melbourne\n\nAustralia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.\n\nBorder officials are currently investigating whether Djokovic's travel entry form included a false declaration in stating that he had not travelled in the 14 days before arriving in Australia. Social media posts appear to show him in both Serbia and Spain during that fortnight.\n\nMs Brnabic described Djokovic as \"one of the great champions of Serbia\" and said she hoped he would be allowed to stay in Australia to play in the tournament.\n\nBut she added that she did not agree with the player's stance on vaccination, which she described as \"the only effective response to this pandemic\".\n\n\"What matters to me is that we stand by Novak... but at the same time say that for the country and for me as the prime minister that vaccination is important,\" she said.", "David Carrick appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court in relation to the new charges\n\nA Metropolitan Police officer accused of a string of sex offences has appeared in court on further charges linked to another four victims, including six counts of rape.\n\nDavid Carrick, of Hertfordshire, has been charged with nine further offences, bringing the total to 29.\n\nThe charges relate to eight women for alleged offences between 2009 and 2020.\n\nThe 47-year-old denied 20 of the charges in court in December, but has not entered pleas on the new charges.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service said the latest charges were six counts of rape, one count of attempted rape, one count of assault by penetration and one count of coercive and controlling behaviour between 2009 and 2018.\n\nIn a hearing into the new charges at Westminster Magistrates' Court, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring sent the case to St Albans Crown Court, where Mr Carrick appeared last month via video-link from Belmarsh prison.\n\nAt December's hearing, it was alleged he had raped one woman he met on dating app Tinder and falsely imprisoned another in a cupboard under the stairs.\n\nHe is due to appear at St Albans again later this month, with a provisional trial date set for April.\n\nThe 29 charges he faces are:\n\nMr Carrick was based within the Met's Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command and has been suspended from duty.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner tells the Commons that Boris Johnson can run but he can't hide\n\nLabour and some Tory MPs are demanding immediate answers on whether Boris Johnson attended a drinks event in the Downing Street garden during lockdown.\n\nIn heated scenes in the Commons, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said the PM \"can run, but can't hide\" from scrutiny over the May 2020 gathering.\n\nAnd Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said Mr Johnson must quit if found to have broken Covid rules.\n\nThe PM has declined to say whether he went to the drinks.\n\nHe will face MPs for what is likely to be a volatile session of Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.\n\nOn Monday, ITV published a leaked email from Mr Johnson's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting 100 staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\" on 20 May 2020 - when lockdown rules in England banned large outdoor gatherings.\n\nThe invitation encouraged people to \"bring your own booze\" and \"make the most of the lovely weather\".\n\nWitnesses have told the BBC the prime minister and his wife Carrie were among about 30 people who attended the drinks.\n\nAn inquiry - led by senior civil servant Sue Gray - is under way into this event and other gatherings that took place on government premises during 2020.\n\n\"We should get rid of him…. We should own the situation. We are the Tory party. We are not delivering good governance.\"\n\nThat stinging verdict from a Conservative MP does not, at least not yet, seem to represent the consensus among the party's ranks on what to do about the current situation in Downing Street.\n\nBut the goodwill-to-all-men moment the Christmas holidays promised is very much over.\n\nThe subject of conversation among Tories on Tuesday was not the government's planned menu of policy fare for the week, but whether or not the moment had arrived when Boris Johnson, election-winner, had become Boris Johnson, discredited liability.\n\nStanding in for Mr Johnson in the Commons on Tuesday, minister Michael Ellis said he expected Ms Gray's work to be \"swift\".\n\nBut he warned it could be \"paused\" if the Metropolitan Police - which says it is in contact with the government over reports of alleged breaches of Covid rules - decided to carry out its own investigation.\n\nMr Ellis added that it was not for him to \"pass judgement or to pass sentence\" before Ms Gray's findings were known.\n\nBut Labour MPs lined up to recount stories of constituents who had suffered during the pandemic and to accuse the government of hypocrisy.\n\nMs Rayner said it was disappointing that Mr Johnson was not there in person to respond, adding: \"But his absence speaks volumes, as do his smirks on the media.\n\n\"The public has already drawn its own conclusions. He can run, but he can't hide.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A DUP MP cries while questioning the government over claims it broke lockdown rules\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey asked: \"Will the minister set out what he thinks should happen if a Conservative MP is found to have flouted and broken a Covid law?\"\n\nAnd DUP MP Jim Shannon was brought to tears when speaking of the death of his mother-in-law during the pandemic.\n\nSNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford called on Conservative MPs to \"force [the PM] from office\" if he did not \"do the decent thing\" and resign.\n\nFew Tory MPs turned up in the Commons to support Mr Johnson, but one who did, Suzanne Webb, said: \"The time of the House is better spent at this moment in time, as we recover from this pandemic... debating how we can build back better and level up.\"\n\nBut Scottish leader Douglas Ross told the BBC he felt \"fury\" over what had happened, adding that Mr Johnson should resign if he \"broke the law\".\n\n\"People gave up so much and they're now seeing at the exact same time, potentially, those at the top in No 10 were enjoying the weather and having a drink in the garden,\" he said.\n\n\"I can't answer the question 'was the prime minister there?' He can, and the public deserve that answer.\"\n\nBoris and Carrie Johnson are alleged to have attended the lockdown drinks gathering in the Downing Street garden\n\nTory MP Nigel Mills told the BBC: \"The idea that during the worst lockdown - when you could only see one other person - that the people organising the rules were having a party is just unacceptable. It's indefensible.\"\n\n\"I think if [Mr Johnson] knowingly attended what he knew to be party, then he can't survive that.\"\n\nConservative former minister Johnny Mercer tweeted about the drinks gathering: \"It's humiliating, and does not reflect the majority of my colleagues who 'at least try' and lead by example.\"\n\nAnother ex-minister told the BBC that Mr Johnson \"tries to lie his way out of everything\", while another said: \"Boris is finished.\"\n\nThe PM's official spokesman refused to comment on claims surrounding the drinks event while the investigation was taking place, but he added that the prime minister retained full confidence in Mr Reynolds.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer is expected to attend Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, having missed last week's session because of a positive Covid test.\n\nDid you miss out on attending an important event due to lockdown restrictions in May 2020? Or were you fined for meeting with others during the first lockdown? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "On Monday, we reported extensively on tennis star Novak Djokovic winning a legal battle in Australia to overturn his visa cancellation to play at the Australian Open.\n\nBut Australian officials have said they're still considering whether or not to deport him.\n\nNow, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic has told the BBC she remains hopeful the world men's number one will be allowed to defend his singles title at the tournament.\n\nFollowing a phone conversation with her Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, she said Serbia understood Australia's restrictive Covid rules and procedures, and that Belgrade was not looking for any special treatment for Djokovic.\n\nQuote Message: I don’t think this is the end of the whole saga. I am hoping Novak will be able to play in the Australian Open from Ana Brnabic Serbian Prime Minister I don’t think this is the end of the whole saga. I am hoping Novak will be able to play in the Australian Open\n\n\"What’s important is that Novak is treated equally, that he gets a fair chance. We support him, but at the same time it’s important to keep the relationship strong between the two countries.\"\n\nOn Djokovic attending public events after his positive PCR test, she said that if he had done so, it would be a clear breach of Serbian rules.\n\n\"What we don’t know is when he actually saw his results, so there is some grey area, and I think the only answer to this can be provided by Novak.\"\n\nShe also said she didn't understand why you wouldn’t want to get vaccinated, but that \"in a democracy you have to respect a person’s decision\".", "Last updated on .From the section Northern Ireland\n\nRace organisers have confirmed that the North West 200 international road races will return to the calendar in 2022 after a two-year absence.\n\nThe event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe race week will take place from 8 to14 May, with fonaCAB and Nicholl Oils renewing their title sponsorship.\n\nPeter Hickman, Glenn Irwin, Dean Harrison and John McGuinness are among the riders who have already signalled their intention to compete at the race.\n\nThe 2022 North West meeting will be the first international road race to take place since action at all the world's leading events came to a halt with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.\n\nThe Isle of Man TT races will also return to the international road racing schedule this year, while there is speculation that the Ulster Grand Prix may be back on the roster in August.\n• None Ten memorable and landmark North West 200 Superbike races of the past 20 years\n\n\"Although the pandemic stopped the race action over the past two seasons, the management team of Coleraine and District Motor Club have been working hard to ensure the structures and support that underpin the North West 200 have remained in place for the day when we would be able to make this announcement,\" said club chairman Stanleigh Murray.\n\n\"We are delighted to have retained the support of our loyal title sponsors as we plan the return of one of Northern Ireland's major sporting attractions,\" he added.\n\nGlenn Irwin, winner of the last four Superbike races to be staged over the 8.9-mile Triangle circuit, welcomed news of the event's return as \"absolutely fantastic\".\n\n\"It's one of those moments where you pinch yourself and think, 'we're finally back',\" said the 30-year-old of the announcement.\n\n\"There's nothing I enjoy more than racing at the North West 200. It is and always will be my favourite road race. I'm buzzing.\n\n\"I am so looking forward to making my Honda roads debut.\"\n\nThe Carrickfergus rider has undergone shoulder and arm pump surgery ahead of the 2022 season in which he will again compete for Honda Racing in the British Superbike Championship and make his long-awaited debut at the TT.\n\nIn recent days he has been struggling to overcome a bout of Covid-19, the second time he has contracted the virus.\n\n\"A few days were really rough for me with it there. I had a stint in the Royal [Victoria Hospital]. I felt better the first time I had it, the second time turned out worse for me,\" explained Irwin.", "Some schools are using remote learning due to staff absences\n\nNorthern Ireland assembly members will return to the Stormont chamber later to debate how to keep schools open and safe amid a rise in Covid-19 cases.\n\nLast week, the teaching union NASUWT called for action to prevent schools facing \"significant staffing problems\".\n\nHer department has previously said she had written to schools to set out the mitigations in place.\n\nAn assembly recall petition from Sinn Féin was supported by the SDLP and Alliance.\n\nThe motion also urges the minister to address staffing issues \"by utilising and deploying additional teaching capacity to keep schools open and safe\".\n\nThe department said it would do \"everything in our power to help school leaders during these unprecedented and extremely challenging circumstances\".\n\nA number of schools have announced that some year groups will have to return to remote learning because of staff pressures.\n\nMercy College in north Belfast has written to parents and guardians to explain that from Monday Years eight to 11 will have some staggered remote learning days.\n\nMichelle McIlveen has said she wants schools to remain open\n\nPaula Stuart, principal of Belfast Model School for Girls, also in the north of the city, said: \"Unfortunately, due to current levels of staff absence linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, there are insufficient teaching staff to deliver all lessons face to face as per the school timetable on site.\"\n\nShe continued that Year 10 pupils will have to learn remotely on Monday and Tuesday.\n\nFiona Kane, principal of St Ronan's College in Lurgan, County Armagh, said her school is also facing significant disruption due to Covid-related absences among both staff and pupils.\n\nShe told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that she is implementing a contingency plan which prioritises GCSE and A-Level students for classroom-based learning.\n\nMs Kane explained the plan means some other year groups will be asked to learn at home on certain days so her remaining staff can provide classroom cover for pupils due to sit exams.\n\n\"We've a schedule communicated out there to parents, it's on a rotational basis and I know a lot of schools, a lot of my principal colleagues, are doing exactly the same,\" Ms Kane said.\n\n\"We want to keep as many children in school, in face-to-face lessons, as possible and Year 12 and Year 14 - the GCSE and A-Level classes - are the priority, so they will remain in school.\"\n\nChris Donnelly, principal of St John The Baptist Primary School in west Belfast, said teachers wanted pupils to be taught in the classroom.\n\n\"One thing we have learned decisively across the board is the value of classroom-based learning,\" he told BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday with Steven Rainey programme.\n\n\"There is no substitute.\"\n\nGraham Gault, from the National Association of Head Teachers in Northern Ireland, told BBC News NI the current staffing situation was \"critical\".\n\nHe said a \"perfect storm\" had been created with Covid absences and issues with the system for booking substitute teachers.\n\nMonday's assembly motion references the installation of air monitoring and air filtration devices in schools as part of a plan \"that puts the safety of pupils and staff first\".\n\nLast week, the Education Authority confirmed it had ordered 100 air filtration units which would be sent to areas where improving ventilation was not possible immediately.\n\nSinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan, one of the motion's proposers, said the minister should \"stop sitting on her hands\" and introduce a plan to install High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters in schools.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his party colleague Ms McIlveen was considering the installation of ventilation systems, but warned the cost of this could be \"significant\".\n\nPrincipal of St Cecilia's College in Londonderry, Martine Mulhern, has said the current system of keeping windows open to allow for better circulation has proved challenging in the colder months.\n\nThe Department of Education said the vast majority of schools had \"adequate ventilation\", but that air filters \"may be suitable where there is insufficient ventilation\".\n\nEllen Taylor, from the Secondary Students' Union of Northern Ireland, said there should be HEPA filters in each classroom.\n\n\"The level of transmission in school is huge and that is because of the lack of ventilation and also because you have lots of numbers of children mixing together,\" she said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Louise Powell says her baby died \"due to errors\" at the jail\n\nA prisoner who gave birth to a stillborn baby in the toilet of a cell has said she \"will never forgive the prison\" for the \"horror death\".\n\nLouise Powell, 31, who did not know she was pregnant, said she begged for an ambulance before her baby died at HMP Styal in Cheshire in 2020.\n\nShe told BBC Newsnight she was left alone when she was \"crying for help\".\n\nThe Prisons and Probations Ombudsman found there were \"missed opportunities\" to identify her urgent clinical needs.\n\nIts report said prison staff and nurses should be given early labour training.\n\nIt also said the duty nurse made \"a serious error of judgment\" by not visiting her after they were contacted three times about the severe pain Ms Powell was in.\n\nIn a statement, Ms Powell said: \"The pain of Brooke's death will never leave me.\n\n\"I cannot forgive the prison or healthcare for leaving me when I was calling for help and I felt like I was dying.\"\n\nLouise Powell gave birth in her cell at HMP Styal\n\nShe added: \"I was having a medical emergency and should have been urgently helped. Instead I was left.\n\n\"I want justice for Brooke so no other woman has to go through this horror in prison.\"\n\nPrisons Minister Victoria Atkins said: \"The tragic events detailed in this report should quite simply never happen to any woman or child, and my deepest sympathies remain with the mother.\n\n\"We have already implemented the report's recommendations and important improvements have been made to the care received by pregnant women in custody.\n\n\"But there is clearly much more to do to ensure expectant mothers in prison get the same support as those in the community - something I will continue to prioritise.\"\n\nNHS England, which commissions healthcare in prison, has apologised for the loss of the baby and said it had \"taken prompt action on the recommendations in the report\".\n\nThe Ministry of Justice said it had also made improvements and was looking at how \"we can better screen for pregnancy in jails so no woman falls through the cracks\".\n\nThe report, which refers to Ms Powell as Ms B, said: \"The duty nurse did not review Ms B's record sufficiently or go to see Ms B as she should have done.\n\n\"She failed to fully assess Ms B's clinical situation, and this was a serious error of judgement.\"\n\nThe document details how the Supervising Officer (SO) on Ms Powell's house block acted appropriately to alert the nurse to her condition and update her when the situation changed.\n\nAn hour or so before Ms Powell gave birth, the report said the SO wrote in the wing observation book: \"[Ms B] is having very bad stomach cramps and is bleeding.\n\n\"Hotel 1 [Nurse 2, the duty nurse] contacted three times but would not come out to see her. Tasked night staff with coming to give pain relief and appointment made for triage tomorrow.\"\n\nHowever it stated that all members of staff who helped her during and after the pregnancy acted \"with humanity and to the best of their abilities\".\n\nMs Powell was sent to the prison in March 2020 after admitting common assault, racially-aggravated harassment and criminal damage.\n\nOn her first day she told staff there was \"no chance\" she was pregnant.\n\nHowever, her lawyer Jane Ryan said prison staff were aware she had not had a period for four to five months and never followed it up.\n\nThe health provider to HMP Styal said \"it fully accepts the findings\", and is \"fully committed to ensure that lessons are learnt and that recommendations in the report are acknowledged and actioned following this tragic incident\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We are coming for you\" - Michael Gove's warning to firms that cut corners, sought to profiteer and mis-sold dangerous products\n\nNo leaseholder living in a building higher than 11m, around four to six storeys high, \"will ever face any costs\" for fixing dangerous cladding, the housing secretary has said.\n\nMichael Gove has given firms until March to agree how to help leaseholders trapped in \"unsellable homes\".\n\nHe warned those who had mis-sold unsafe cladding or cut corners on homes that the government was \"coming for you\".\n\nThe cladding crisis has left many with crippling bills to fix unsafe homes.\n\nResidents in blocks 11-18m high had been ineligible for government support to remove unsafe cladding, but Mr Gove confirmed on Monday that the government was scrapping \"the proposal for loans and long term debt for medium rise leaseholders\".\n\n\"No leaseholder living in a building above 11m, will ever face any costs for fixing dangerous cladding,\" Mr Gove told the House of Commons.\n\n\"They are blameless and it is morally wrong that they should be asked to pay for the price.\"\n\nThe housing secretary said businesses who manufactured combustible cladding and insulation, \"many of whom have made vast profits\" at the height of the pandemic, \"must pay now, instead of leaseholders\".\n\nHe added companies would have the chance \"to do the right thing\", but warned if necessary, the government would \"impose a solution upon them in law.\"\n\nFollowing his speech, Labour's Lisa Nandy said it was a \"relief\" that were was a consensus that \"blameless leaseholders must not pay\".\n\nHowever, the shadow housing secretary questioned what made Mr Gove think he could force developers \"who for four years have refused to do the right thing, to pay up\".\n\nMr Gove said earlier some building companies had shown leadership and covered the costs but others \"had not shouldered their responsibilities.\"\n\nCharlotte Meehan lives with her husband in an East London development that has a range of fire safety issues, including flammable cladding, combustible insulation and missing cavity barriers.\n\nShe told the BBC she wanted to move to start a family, but it was impossible: \"We are completely trapped, we can't sell our flat it's worthless.\"\n\nLeaseholders have had to pay £500,000 over the last two years for a 24-hour waking watch, resulting in their service charge doubling.\n\nThe development's reserves for essential repairs are also \"seriously depleted\" leaving it in a \"dire state of disrepair\".\n\nShe welcomed Mr Gove's plan but said it felt \"half baked\" as it does not cover non-cladding fire safety issues or interim costs.\n\n\"People are going bankrupt and losing their homes based on interim costs,\" she said.\n\nIn the wake of the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in hundreds of blocks of flats across the UK.\n\nThe government has so far only promised to pay to remove cladding in taller buildings, not those between 11m and 18m high.\n\nRemoving cladding can cost millions of pounds per block, with the cost often being borne by individual flat owners, under the leasehold system in England and Wales.\n\nIn his letter, Mr Gove warned he would take \"all steps necessary\" to make developers pay including:\n\nThe time limit for leaseholders to sue builders over defective flats will also be extended from six to 30 years.\n\nIt's estimated that the average cladding bill is around £40,000 per leaseholder. Some people have received bills of more than £200,000, more than they paid for their flats in the first place.\n\nThis package of measures is expected to relieve some of that financial pressure, but it by no means covers everything. These proposals ignore non-cladding problems - leaseholders fear they will still face astronomical bills to fix defective insulation, missing fire breaks and flammable balconies.\n\nCampaigners say it makes no sense to make buildings \"half safe\". This is a partial solution.\n\nIt is also unclear how the government intends to force or coerce developers to pay to fix these faults. There is no new money from Treasury. If Michael Gove is unsuccessful in recouping money from the industry it will have to come out of existing departmental budgets. So that is less money for levelling up and less money for home building as a consequence.\n\nDevelopers often argue that they met building regulations at the time and should not be liable for the cost of removing unsafe cladding.\n\nHowever, some, such as housebuilder Taylor Wimpey, have already promised to foot the bill for issues at their buildings.\n\nStewart Baseley, executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation, said that as well as developers and government, other parties should now contribute.\n\n\"[That] not least [would include] material manufacturers who designed, tested and sold materials that developers purchased in good faith that were later proved to not be fit for purpose,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'My life is on hold until the crisis is over'\n\nLiz Vick from Salford is disappointed by the government's plans. She lives in a low-rise building which faces fires safety issues due to missing cavity barriers, not cladding, so she's still on the hook to pay the costs.\n\n\"We are still waiting for a big bill for remediation,\" she told the BBC. \"It could be anything between £50,000 to £100,000 per leaseholder.\"\n\nShe says such a large bill would push her into bankruptcy and the constant stress has affected her mental health.\n\n\"The only way to describe it is you're living in survival mode 24/7, whether that be in terms of facing financial ruin, or burning to death in a building,\" she said.\n\n\"We can't move on with our lives, we can't afford to start a family. My life has been on hold and will be on hold until this crisis is over.\"\n\nThe government says the vast majority of lower height buildings are safe and others that do have combustible cladding may also be safe or could be made safe using existing fire safety measures such as sprinklers or alarms.\n\nHowever, it said a small number have unsafe cladding that must be addressed.\n\nCladding campaigners have long asked that the government accept both the principle that buildings under 18.5m ought to be covered and that leaseholders should not have to pay.\n\nThey cautiously welcomed the government's new proposals, but warned they ignored the costs of fixing other fire safety issues discovered on thousands of tower blocks across UK.\n\nThere is also no help for the many buildings under 11m high with dangerous cladding.", "The Canadian province of Quebec will charge a health tax to residents who are not vaccinated against Covid-19.\n\nQuebec, which has seen the highest number of Covid-related deaths in Canada, is currently struggling with a surge in cases.\n\nOn Tuesday, the premier announced that it would be the first in the nation to financially penalise the unvaccinated.\n\nOnly about 12.8% of Quebec residents are not vaccinated, but they make up nearly a third of all hospital cases.\n\nAccording to federal data, just over 85% of Quebec residents had received at least one vaccine dose by 1 January.\n\nPremier Francois Legault said during a news conference that people who have not received their first dose of vaccine will have to pay a \"contribution\".\n\nThe fee has not yet been decided, but will be \"significant\", he said.\n\n\"I think right now it's a question of fairness for the 90% of the population who made some sacrifices,\" Mr Legault said. \"I think we owe them this kind of measure.\"\n\nLast week, the province announced that it would require proof of vaccination to shop in government cannabis and liquor stores.\n\nA curfew is also in place, the second one of the pandemic, running from 22:00 to 05:00 each day.\n\nIt comes after 62 deaths were recorded in the previous 24-hour period. The daily figure represents a similar rate to January 2021, before widespread vaccinations had begun in the province.\n\nThe percentage of Covid patients in intensive care who have not been vaccinated is 45%, provincial data shows.\n\nThe premier's press conference was attended by his interim public health director, who took over after the long-serving previous director resigned over criticism of his handling of the latest Omicron-driven surge.\n\nHospitals in Montreal, the province's largest city, are nearing 100% capacity and have already started limiting non-Covid related care.\n\nOver 200 members of the city's unhoused population have also tested positive, indicating an outbreak. It comes amid a severe cold snap, which is overwhelming shelters.\n\nQuebec reported 8,710 new cases on Tuesday. The figure represents a 20% positivity rate.\n\nThere are currently 2,742 Covid patients in Quebec hospitals, including 244 in intensive care.\n\nWhile rare, Quebec is not the only region in the world seeking to impose a financial penalty on those unwilling to get jabbed.\n\nStarting later this month, Greeks over age 60 are being required to pay a €100 (£85; C$142; $113) fine for each month that they remain unvaccinated.\n\nSingapore has required Covid patients to pay for their own medical bills if they are not vaccinated.", "\"We should get rid of him…. We should own the situation. We are the Tory party. We are not delivering good governance.\"\n\nThat stinging verdict from a Conservative MP does not, at least not yet, seem to represent the consensus among the party's ranks on what to do about the current situation in Downing Street.\n\nBut the goodwill-to-all-men moment the Christmas holidays promised is very much over.\n\nThe subject of conversation among Tories on Tuesday was not the government's planned menu of policy fare for the week, but whether or not the moment had arrived when Boris Johnson, election-winner, had become Boris Johnson, discredited liability.\n\nWhether or not, in the words of that senior MP, the party should \"get rid of him\".\n\nThe party has not reached that conclusion. The government has an enormous majority. Administrations go through rocky times.\n\nBut the latest, and continuing, stream of revelations, has made the question of the prime minister's survival the central one again.\n\nAnd the frustration burns because the problems seem to many MPs to be self-inflicted.\n\nIt's not that Downing Street and Mr Johnson have reacted badly to a chain of events outside their control.\n\nIn contrast, it's what happened under the prime minister's roof (and in his garden), and how he has responded to the allegations, that have become a fiasco.\n\nDowning Street has chosen to stay silent rather than offer any new information or clarity since the story blew up again on Monday.\n\nThere is no confirmation, therefore, of suggestions from insiders that the prime minister's mood is dark, the atmosphere inside the building terrible.\n\nIt's said that Mr Johnson is still adamant that he personally did nothing wrong. I'm told discussions in No 10 on Tuesday morning still centred around the argument that the drinks on 20 May 2020, which eyewitnesses say the PM attended, can be justified as an office event to thank staff for their hard work during the pandemic.\n\nYet in the absence of additional information or clarity from Downing Street, Tory anger has been on the rise, and the sense of panic has been growing.\n\nNo one raised the issue at Tuesday's cabinet, which tells you how much of an active forum it really is. But MPs privately have been spitting chips, accusing the PM of dishonesty, of tarring the whole party, of failing to get a grip, of - frankly - some things that are too rude to be written down.\n\nFormer ministers have been warning that he has \"one last shot\" at sorting things out.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who of course has his own political need to carve out an identity distinct from No 10, says the PM can't stay if he was at a lockdown party.\n\nAnd a Tory donor has warned the PM to sort it out or step aside.\n\nOn Wednesday, at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson will have to respond to the claims in person.\n\nIt's not in his political DNA to admit mistakes unless it is entirely unavoidable. Yet his attempt to point merely to the investigation into gatherings in No 10 is getting less persuasive by the hour.\n\nAs Labour and some Conservatives are asking - should the country have to wait for an official inquiry to tell him and us, if he attended a gathering in his own garden?\n\nOn previous form, Mr Johnson is unlikely to turn up at the despatch box on Wednesday armed with a mea culpa. There are hints that the PM may give some kind of statement at the beginning of the session - but the full story?\n\nThere will rarely have been a moment when the strength of his answers at the weekly bout of PMQs will have mattered as much.", "John Caudwell donated £500,000 to the Conservatives before the last election\n\nA major Conservative donor has issued an ultimatum to Boris Johnson over revelations about lockdown parties in Downing Street.\n\nJohn Caudwell said: \"Sort it out, Boris, or step aside and let someone else sort it out so that the Tories aren't wiped out at the next election.\"\n\nThe Phones4U founder donated £500,000 to the Conservatives ahead of the 2019 general election.\n\nHe criticised the government's perceived \"arrogance and hypocrisy\".\n\nMr Caudwell was one of the Conservative Party's biggest individual donors at the last general election, and has previously given money to pro-Brexit Tory MP Sir Bill Cash.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"Although I have always obeyed the rules I have never been puritanical about lockdown restrictions so I find it difficult to personally get excited about an outdoor drinks party. But it's the perceived arrogance, hypocrisy and rule breaking that is impossible to justify.\n\n\"While the rest of us were striving to follow the ever-changing rules - including myself, even when I deemed them to be excessive at best, nonsensical at worst - those who were setting those rules were, apparently freely and frequently, disregarding them.\n\n\"Each one of these new revelations gives greater force to the accusation that areas of the government think it's 'one rule for them, one rule for the rest of us'.\n\nHe added that he was not a \"dyed-in-the-wool Tory\" and had been critical of the government's economic recovery plans, urging more investment in apprenticeships and renewable energy.\n\nBut he added: \"I do think the Conservatives are the best party to govern this country, particularly as we look to navigate opportunities post-Brexit.\n\n\"Sort it out, Boris, or step aside and let someone else sort it out so that the Tories aren't wiped out at the next election.\"\n\nAlasdair Locke, who has donated £280,000 to the Conservative Party since Mr Johnson came to power, said the lockdown parties were \"something the media is making a great deal of\" and voters would be concerned with \"serious stuff\" at the next election.\n\n\"I really don't think a leadership change, or challenge, is needed at this stage. A bit more grip would help but that will probably come.\"\n\nThe prime minister is under growing pressure from Labour - and anger from some Conservatives - over his alleged attendance at a previously unreported Downing Street party.\n\nIt comes after ITV published a leaked email from the PM's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting 100 staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\" on 20 May 2020.\n\nThe invitation for the event, which was organised when strict lockdown rules were still in place, encouraged people to \"bring your own booze\" and \"make the most of the lovely weather\".\n\nWitnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife had been among about 30 people who attended the gathering.\n\nBut Mr Johnson has declined to say whether he was one of them.\n\nThe PM's official spokesman also refused to comment on the claims while the investigation was taking place, but he added that the prime minister retained full confidence in Mr Reynolds.\n\nSenior civil servant Sue Gray is investigating lockdown parties in Downing Street, including the event on 20 May 2020, and is expected to report shortly.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nThe controversy over Novak Djokovic's Australian visa application has been \"damaging on all fronts\", the men's professional tennis tour has said.\n\nThe ATP also called for more clarity of the rules to enter Australia and urged players to get vaccinated.\n\nDjokovic left an immigration detention hotel on Monday after his visa cancellation was overturned in court.\n\nBut Australia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.\n\n\"Complications in recent days related to player entry into Australia have... highlighted the need for clearer understanding, communication and application of the rules,\" said an ATP statement.\n\n\"In travelling to Melbourne, it's clear Novak Djokovic believed he had been granted a necessary medical exemption in order to comply with entry regulations.\n\n\"The series of events leading to Monday's court hearing have been damaging on all fronts, including for Novak's well-being and preparation for the Australian Open.\"\n\nImmigration minister Alex Hawke is still \"thoroughly considering the matter\", an Australian government spokesman said.\n\nDjokovic will have further questions to answer about his Australian travel declaration, which all passengers have to complete three to seven days before arrival.\n\nIt states he did not travel in the 14 days before his flight to Australia, but he moved between Serbian capital Belgrade and Spain in that time.\n• None The Sports Desk podcast: Djokovic's latest Australian victory - from courtroom to practice court\n\nSerbia's Prime Minister Ana Brnabic spoke with Australian counterpart Scott Morrison in a call on Monday and emphasised Djokovic's need for good training conditions, local media reported.\n\nMorrison's office said in a statement he'd had a \"constructive call\". Neither leader commented on whether Djokovic could still be deported.\n\nFollowing his release, Serbia's Djokovic, 34, posted a photo of himself and his team - including coach Goran Ivanisevic - on court at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, where he has won a record nine Australian Open men's singles titles.\n\nThis year's tournament begins on 17 January and if Djokovic wins, he will become the most successful men's player in history.\n\nThe world number one is tied with Switzerland's Roger Federer and Spain's Rafael Nadal on 20 Grand Slam singles titles.\n\nThough Djokovic has not spoken publicly about his vaccination status, in his interview with border officials he confirms he is not vaccinated.\n\nHe told the interviewer that he tested positive for Covid twice - in June 2020 and on 16 December 2021. Copies of his positive PCR tests were provided to the interviewer - one was issued on 16 December 2021, a day before Djokovic appeared at public events without a mask.\n\nThe ATP added: \"More broadly, ATP continues to strongly recommend vaccination for all players on the ATP Tour, which we believe is essential for our sport to navigate the pandemic.\n\n\"This is based on scientific evidence supporting the health benefits provided and to comply with global travel regulations, which we anticipate will become stricter over time.\n\n\"We are encouraged that 97% of the top 100 players are vaccinated leading into this year's Australian Open.\"\n\nNadal called the build-up to the Australian Open a \"circus\".\n\n\"Justice has spoken and has said that he [Djokovic] has the right to participate in the Australian Open and I think it is the fairest decision,\" Nadal told the Spanish radio station Onda Cero.\n\nCzech player Renata Voracova had her visa cancelled after travelling to Australia.\n\nThe Czech government said Voracova entered Australia on a valid exemption. Like Djokovic, she had contracted Covid-19 recently.\n\nThe Australian government said on Friday that a recent infection does not mean a foreign national can travel to the country without being fully vaccinated.\n\n\"Hopefully he can play. Because that is what we went there for: to play tennis and not be part of any inside games,\" said Voracova.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Voracova said she had been in Melbourne for six days and played a warm-up tournament before her visa was challenged.\n\nShe was taken to the same hotel as Djokovic and said she had \"around six hours\" of questioning, after which she had to \"defend myself in 10 minutes\" and explain why she should \"stay in the country\".\n\nVoracova said she contacted Tennis Australia just before questioning and they sent her one of their lawyers but they \"couldn't really go through the process\".\n\nVoracova, who said she planned to get vaccinated but had no time after recovering from Covid-19, stayed at the hotel for two nights before deciding to return home.\n\n\"I feel a little bit frustrated for me that the lawyers and the advisors who were there with me didn't apply for court too,\" she added.\n\n\"But I understand it because Novak hired his lawyers and he had to pay for this, so it was the main issue why I couldn't go to court and apply for the same.\"\n\n'Djokovic is not able to relax yet' - analysis\n\nThat late-night practice session at Melbourne Park must have been one of the most exhilarating of Novak Djokovic's career.\n\nHaving won an unexpected victory in an altogether different court earlier in the day - with the judge expressing sympathy for him throughout - his hopes of a 10th Australian Open title are still alive.\n\nAustralian Border Force suggested Djokovic brought little evidence into the country to support his medical exemption. Judge Kelly saw it completely differently, asking \"what else could he possibly have done?\"\n\nBut the world number one is not able to relax just yet, as the Australian immigration minister is expected to decide on Tuesday whether to use his personal power to cancel the visa for a second time.\n\nAnd in the days ahead Djokovic will also need to justify why he posed for photographs with children at a prize-giving the day after his December positive PCR test was confirmed.", "The possibility of deportation still hangs over Novak Djokovic\n\nDjokovic's visa was revoked on arrival in Melbourne last week before being reinstated by a judge on Monday.\n\nBut Australia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.\n\nDjokovic - who is hoping to defend his Australian Open title next week - has not commented on the latest reports.\n\nThe 34-year-old Serb player's entry form stated he had not travelled in the 14 days before his arrival on 6 January.\n\nSocial media posts appear to show him in both Serbia and Spain during that fortnight.\n\nDjokovic told border officials that Tennis Australia completed the Australian Travel Declaration on his behalf, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. It is not clear whether this would help him in the event it is challenged.\n\nThe Australian Border Force (ABF) did not immediately confirm the reports. Djokovic's lawyers told the BBC they had no comment at this stage.\n\nAfter being released from detention on Monday, Djokovic posted a photo of himself and his team - including coach Goran Ivanisevic - on court at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.\n\nThis year's tournament begins on 17 January and if Djokovic wins, he will become the most successful men's player in history.\n\nSerbia's Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and Australian counterpart Scott Morrison spoke in a call on Monday. Neither confirmed whether Djokovic's current visa status had been discussed.\n\nThe Federal Circuit Court reinstated Djokovic's visa after ruling that ABF officials had not given him enough time to respond at Melbourne Airport. This constituted an unfair process, the judge said.\n\nThe court did not make a ruling on whether his reason for a medical exemption from vaccination - that he had Covid last month - was valid.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ros Atkins on... questions that remain for Djokovic\n\nBut on Tuesday Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said he was still considering whether to cancel Djokovic's visa under separate powers in Australia's Migration Act.\n\nThe act allows him to deport anyone he deems a potential risk to \"the health, safety or good order of the Australian community\". A decision was not expected on the same day, local media reported.\n\nThe men's professional tennis tour has called for more clarity of the rules to enter Australia and urged players to get vaccinated.\n\n\"The series of events leading to Monday's court hearing have been damaging on all fronts, including for Novak's well-being and preparation for the Australian Open,\" the ATP said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The UK was in a stay-at-home lockdown at the time of the drinks\n\nA Downing Street drinks event where 100 people were invited \"defies belief\", a senior Welsh minister has said.\n\nLabour's Eluned Morgan accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of failing to answer \"very simple questions\".\n\nThe health minister's comments come after witnesses told the BBC Mr Johnson and his wife were among those who attended.\n\nA UK government minister it was \"important\" to allow a probe to take place before coming to conclusions.\n\nAn email, revealed by ITV News, invited people to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\" on 20 May 2020.\n\nStay-at-home lockdown restrictions were in place across the UK at the time.\n\nAt a Welsh government briefing Ms Morgan said May 2020 was the \"most acute time in the whole crisis\".\n\n\"I just think about the sacrifices that so many people in Wales made at that time,\" she said.\n\n\"To have that juxtaposed with a situation where within Downing Street a party was going on really defies belief.\n\n\"I'm afraid we've seen once again, that he [the prime minister] has failed to give him some very clear answers on some very simple questions.\"\n\nWales was in a stay-at-home lockdown at the time of the drinks\n\nShe added that it undermined Mr Johnson's authority and has \"possibly led to a situation where he is not able to undertake the advice that certainly we've been having from our advisors, in terms of being able to bring in new restrictions.\n\n\"Because clearly, people are likely to be less willing to follow the example set by a prime minister who is simply not following his own rules.\"\n\nA Conservative MP speaking to BBC Wales said he did not think the controversy would would \"see\" the prime minister off.\n\n\"I don't think it is the most pressing political matter for people,\" he said. \"The party is an irritant and will make people fed-up but what they're really concerned about is the cost of living crisis. That's the big issue.\"\n\n\"I can't see who should replace him... we have those who fancy their chances but there is no front runner. And that is useful for Boris.\"\n\nSam Smith-Higgins, is who part of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Group Wales, questioned whether Mr Johnson could be trusted over the planned UK inquiry.\n\nIt has called for a Wales-only inquiry but First Minister Mark Drakeford said he has had assurances from Mr Johnson that the UK inquiry would have a \"proper Welsh dimension\".\n\n\"I lost my dad to hospital-acquired Covid in January. It was horrendous, we had to send texts to nurses to read out our goodbyes to him. We waited six months before having his memorial, scattering his ashes because of restrictions,\" she said.\n\n\"We are not surprised after Barnard Castle and everything that's gone on, it's not really shocking news.\n\n\"How is Mark Drakeford asking us to trust Boris Johnson's word? It's just ridiculous - we need an inquiry now looking at why almost 7,000 people have died in Wales.\"\n\nHealth Minister Edward Argar told BBC Breakfast he understood the \"anger, sadness and upset many will feel about these allegations\".\n\nBut he said it was \"important\" to allow an investigation to take place into gatherings in Downing Street before coming to any conclusions.\n\nIn the Commons on Tuesday, in response to an urgent question, Paymaster General Michael Ellis said the prime minister was affected by coronavirus and he takes this very seriously.\n\nHe added that he had confidence in the prime minister's \"integrity and honour\".\n\nLabour Chris Elmore, MP for Ogmore, told the Commons he almost missed the birth of his son in January last year.\n\n\"My wife was nine-and-a-half centimetres dilated before I was allowed in. She was found in a freezing cold bath, having uncontrolled contractions. We followed the rules to protect midwifery staff.\n\n\"I, and many parents, fathers, mothers, partners would like an apology from the prime minister, as we followed rules to protect NHS staff he partied.\"\n\nMr Ellis said \"the whole purpose of the investigation is to establish the facts and if wrongdoing is established, there will be requisite action\".\n\nShadow Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford had moved out of his home to protect his shielding wife and mother-in-law \"whilst Boris Johnson was attending BYOB house parties in Downing Street\".\n\n\"The contrast in leadership could not be clearer,\" she said.", "The Covid restrictions in place across Scotland are helping to reduce the spread of the Omicron variant, a government adviser has said.\n\nAn update on the current restrictions will be given by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at Holyrood on Tuesday.\n\nBut national clinical director Prof Jason Leitch says measures such as the closure of nightclubs are making a difference.\n\nThe Scottish government has faced criticism that the rules are too tough.\n\nThe latest Scottish government Covid report shows average daily cases in Scotland (2,824 per one million population in the week to 6 January) was higher than in England (2,615 per one million) which has fewer Covid restrictions.\n\nBut Prof Leitch points out that Scotland's rates are well below Wales and Northern Ireland, adding that it is the \"worrying\" increases in Covid hospitalisations which should be the focus.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme, he said the restrictions regime in place \"is protecting people\" despite the scale of infection rates.\n\nHe added: \"Should we still be protecting the public from these case rates if they are just going to go anyway?\n\n\"I think yes is the answer to that. I think the protections reduce the size of the wave and they also potentially elongate the wave to allow you to get more people vaccinated and spread the hospitalisations and intensive care cases out over a longer period.\n\n\"That's got to be good. Now that is not always good if you own a pub or a nursery and people are having to self-isolate, so it's a real balance in there between the number of cases, the numbers off work but I still think it is the right thing to do to try and reduce that case rate.\"\n\nThe hospitality trade has been required to introduce a raft of changes as part of the latest Covid restrictions which are in force until 17 January\n\nProf Leitch also revealed ministers will begin giving out separate figures for positive Covid cases caught on both lateral flow and PCR tests.\n\nThis follows changes announced last week which mean people who have no symptoms but record a positive lateral flow test result will no longer have to go for a PCR test.\n\nPeter Duthie, chief executive of the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow, told BBC Scotland his business has lost about £2m in revenue as a result of the latest restrictions with events such as the Irn Bru Carnival, which would have attracted 150,000 people in the post-Christmas period, curtailed.\n\nHe said: \"It's been a hugely challenging couple of years for the industry and just when a degree of fragile confidence was returning before Christmas we were then hit by this further lockdown.\n\n\"Events matter to people - whether it's sporting events, concerts, live exhibitions - they all play a big part in people's lives.\n\n\"We understand it's a challenging situation, what we're looking for is as much clarity as we can get on the circumstances in which we can reopen.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Edinburgh University, told Good Morning Scotland that the balance in managing harms throughout the pandemic had not been right.\n\nHe said: \"I'm concerned why a lot of the evidence - such as the complete lack of necessity to keep us indoors because this virus does not transmit outdoors - was there from very early on and yet somehow, through the scientific advisory systems and the politicians, this didn't get translated into public health action.\n\n\"As a result we all spent a lot of time having our activities curtailed for very little effect and far too long in my view.\"\n• None State of the Epidemic in Scotland – 7 January 2022 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Ukrainian soldier stationed at the country's border with Russia. Moscow has deployed thousands of troops to its side of the border\n\nRussia has told the US that it has no intention of invading Ukraine, after officials from both countries met for high-stakes talks in Geneva.\n\nAfter a meeting that lasted for seven hours on Monday, both sides agreed to continue efforts to reduce tensions.\n\nBut there was no sign of a major breakthrough following the talks.\n\nAround 100,000 Russian troops are believed to be near the border with Ukraine, prompting fears of an incursion and warnings from the West.\n\nThe US has said there would be sanctions if Russia were to attack Ukraine.\n\nRussia, meanwhile, has warned the US not to \"underestimate the risks\" involved in Moscow's confrontation with the West.\n\n\"We explained to our colleagues that we have no plans, no intentions to attack Ukraine,\" Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters following the meeting.\n\nHe said the Russians had told their US counterparts \"that all measures for the combat training of troops and forces are carried out within our territory\" and that there was \"no reason to fear any escalation scenario in this regard\".\n\nUS Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman described the talks as \"frank and forthright\" discussions designed to encourage a better understanding of each side's security concerns.\n\nThis was the first chance Russian and American diplomats had to discuss face to face the standoff over Ukraine, and Russia's demands for Nato to step back from eastern Europe.\n\nAnd while little agreement appears to have been reached, both sides aired their concerns and set out their demands with at least the possibility of talks continuing in the future.\n\nYet the gap between both sides remains large. The US urged Russia to de-escalate the situation and remove its troops from Ukraine's border but it received no assurance that would happen.\n\nRussia demanded that Nato should give a cast-iron guarantee it would never offer membership to Ukraine. The US rejected this outright. The US offered some ideas for both countries to limit military exercises and missile deployments but there was no sense this would be enough for Russia.\n\nOptimists will point to the fact the talks were business-like, they did not break up in acrimony and Russia insisted it had no intention of invading Ukraine. Pessimists will note that even after such assurances, US officials said they were still not sure if Russia was serious about finding a diplomatic solution to this crisis.\n\nMs Sherman said the US had pushed back on Russian proposals that were \"non-starters\" for the US government, including Russia's demand that Nato commit to never include Ukraine in the alliance.\n\n\"We will not allow anyone to slam closed Nato's open-door policy, which has always been central to the Nato alliance,\" she said.\n\nAccording to Ms Sherman, the US delegation told the Russians that any invasion would be met with \"significant cost and consequences well beyond what they faced in 2014\" when Russia annexed the peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine.\n\nThese measures could include sanctions against key financial institutions, export controls, \"enhancements of Nato force posture on allied territory\" and increased security assistance to Ukraine, she added.\n\nMr Ryabkov said the talks had been \"business-like and professional\" but warned the US not to \"underestimate the risks\" of the tensions.\n\nThe Geneva talks are the first of several meetings between US, allied and Russian officials this week, which will also include a meeting at Nato headquarters in Brussels and at the permanent council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which includes Russia.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMonday's meeting, however, took place without the participation of US European allies, including Ukraine, prompting reassurances from Ms Sherman and other US officials that Ukraine, Europe and Nato would be included in any decisions.\n\nEarlier on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell Fontelles said he believed a Russian invasion was still possible. \"There are 100,000 Russian troops on the other side of the border,\" he said. \"I suppose they haven't gone there to drink coffee!\"\n\nMr Borrell added that he'd been told nothing would be agreed without the EU's \"strong co-operation, co-ordination and participation\".\n\nRussia has repeatedly denied it has any plans to launch a military operation in Ukraine. Last month, the Russian government published a series of demands including a commitment that Ukraine will never join Nato.", "Matt Hancock said he was self-isolating at home following the test result\n\nFormer Health Secretary Matt Hancock has tested positive for Covid-19 after contracting the virus for a second time.\n\nMr Hancock said he had been self-isolating at home since Monday afternoon following the test result.\n\nThe West Suffolk MP first contracted the virus in April 2020 at the height of the first wave of the pandemic.\n\nMr Hancock resigned as health secretary in June for breaking social distancing guidelines by kissing a colleague.\n\nHe said on Twitter: \"Yesterday afternoon I tested positive for coronavirus. I've been isolating at home since then.\n\n\"Thankfully I feel fine. Much better than last time and that's thanks to the vaccine. Get your booster now if you haven't already.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Mark Drakeford's coronavirus review will take place next week\n\nMinisters will look at easing Wales' Covid rules when restrictions are reviewed next week, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.\n\nBut he said it was a \"big if\" whether the situation would allow that.\n\nHe rebuffed calls to ease restrictions now on sports events, following a similar announcement in Scotland.\n\nWelsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said Wales was an outlier with \"overzealous restrictions on sport\".\n\nMeanwhile Health Minister Eluned Morgan said she may change a controversial law which threatens potential fines of £60 for people not working from home when they can.\n\nIt followed a debate in the Senedd where Plaid Cymru briefly threatened to vote against the regulations.\n\nWales' rules were last tightened on 26 December, meaning no more than 50 people can attend a sporting event in Wales - with many teams having to play behind closed doors.\n\nSocial distancing restrictions are in place in businesses, and a rule of six applies in hospitality venues such as pubs and restaurants.\n\nSpeaking in the Senedd, Mr Drakeford said: \"Next week will be the end of a three-week review period.\n\n\"If we are very fortunate, and it's a very big if, and we find that we have passed that peak and we are on a reliable reduction in impact of coronavirus on us, then we will look to see what we can do to say to relax some of the protections that we've had to put in place.\n\n\"But we will not do it until we are confident that the scientific and medical advice to us is that it is safe to move in that direction.\"\n\nCalling for changes to the rules, Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Mr Davies said the rules have made Parkrun impossible to run and the Welsh Rugby Union among others need a \"clear sense of direction\" on when rules will be eased.\n\nPlaid Cymru's Llyr Gruffydd called for Mr Drakeford to \"consider raising the maximum number of supporters so that grassroots sports can operate, and in the case of larger clubs, for some percentage, perhaps a third or half the capacity of the stadium, as long as social distancing and mask wearing is in place\".\n\nParkrun events have been off in Wales since the restrictions were imposed\n\nEvents under the Parkrun umbrella, a weekly 5km run organised by volunteers and usually held in public spaces, have been off in Wales since the restrictions were imposed, but are still taking place in other UK nations.\n\nMr Drakeford rejected Mr Davies's comments, saying he had seen \"many people running in the park in organised groups\".\n\n\"Once we are in a position of knowing that Wales has passed the peak… then we will want as quickly but as safely as possible to begin to relax some of the protections that have been necessary while the Omicron wave was still coming at us,\" he said.\n\n\"But we're not at that point today.\"\n\nThe exchange comes amid a row over Chester FC, an English football club which has its stadium in Wales.\n\nThe club has postponed its next home game.\n\nMr Drakeford said it was important \"we find a pragmatic solution which is clear on the law in Wales - and the law is the same for all clubs in Wales - but also recognising the fact that there are important issues for Chester Football Club and try to help them with those issues too.\"\n\nOn Tuesday Senedd members retrospectively voted on the rules brought in last month, with the regulations passing by a majority.\n\nThey were agreed with Labour support and despite Tory opposition, while Plaid Cymru also disagreed with some of the measures.\n\nPlaid Cymru's Rhun ap Iorwerth said his party would not vote for the work from home rules, which also levy £1,000 fines on firms breaching the rules, without reassurances.\n\n\"For us, it's not acceptable to place the onus on individual employees to ensure their own safety in the workplace,\" he said, adding that the maximum of 50 on sports matches was not \"proportionate\".\n\nLib Dem Jane Dodds said she was also opposed to the work from home measure.\n\nIn response, Eluned Morgan said of the work from home law: \"I'd like to make a commitment that if the regulations go through we will discuss further on whether there should be further amendments to these points.\"\n\nThe regulations on working from home passed, 28 Labour MSs in favour, 13 abstentions from Plaid and the Liberal Democrats and 15 Tories against.\n\nWales' Covid case rate fell for a fourth day in a row on Tuesday to 1,780.5 cases per 100,000 people - its lowest level since a spike in Omicron infections took cases to record levels over Christmas.\n\nBut Mr Drakeford told the Welsh Parliament it was unclear whether recent figures that showed a decline in a number of Covid cases were \"genuine falls\" or a result of fewer people going for PCR tests because of recent changes.\n\nThose who do not have symptoms, but have a positive lateral flow test, are no longer required to get a follow-up PCR test.\n\nHe said even though they were showing a decline, the figures were still \"astronomically high\" and it would take \"a few days\" before it is clear whether they represented a genuine downturn.\n\nConservative Andrew RT Davies said: \"The Labour administration in Cardiff Bay is once again the outlier in the United Kingdom with overzealous restrictions on sport and exercise in Wales - two things which not only boost people's physical health, but also their mental health.\n\n\"The first minister kept saying that he wants evidence that activities are safe before restoring freedoms to the people of Wales. Surely, they should be proven to be dangerous before our rights to go about everyday actions are taken away by ministers?\"", "Scottish actor Carmen Pieraccini is best-known for hard-hitting storylines and heartbreaking scenes in TV drama River City.\n\nBut the role she has found most rewarding is not as Shieldinch's Kelly-Marie Adams, but as a children's clown.\n\nThe 42-year-old provides play therapy for Scotland's sickest children, and has been making youngsters smile for the past 12 years.\n\nAs Dr Squeegie (The Weegie), she dons a bright yellow doctor's coat before meeting children who need some light in their lives.\n\n\"It was a point in my life where I asked myself what did I enjoy doing when I was at drama college,\" she told BBC Radio Scotland's Kaye Adams Programme.\n\n\"Clowning was one of those things. I just loved it. I thought it was something I would like to do more of in my life. I was in River City but I looking for something a bit different.\"\n\nCarmen went to Barcelona to train under French master clown Philippe Gaulier.\n\nHer version of the art is less about giant shoes and custard pies - it's more wholesome fun.\n\n\"We just wear the simple red nose, no make up, no big feet. We are far removed from that. It's all about being in the moment and be playful in the moment.\n\n\"The work we do as clowndoctors with the charity Hearts and Minds is about connecting to the child and bringing the playfulness out from that.\n\n\"It's not circus clowning with custard pies and juggling. This is a different type. It is amazing when you make the connections and find that joy, it can be very powerful.\"\n\nBefore the Covid pandemic Carmen and the other 17 clowndoctors visited hospitals, hospices and schools for children with additional support needs.\n\nDuring lockdown their work went online, but they are slowly getting back to face-to-face encounters.\n\nCarmen said: \"We always work in a duo, like Laurel and Hardy - with a high status clown and a low status clown. Then you have something to play off of.\n\n\"That's good for some kids who are a bit sensitive. We can work in the background so they can look at us from afar before getting more used to us.\"\n\nThe clowndoctors are referred to specific children and their aim is to connect with the child and bring play and fun. Everything is improvised.\n\nSome youngsters will be confined to bed, so the clowns will pretend they are being controlled by the child's finger movements.\n\n\"When you find that spark that makes that child really laugh, it is all about going with that,\" said Carmen.\n\n\"Our main objective is to make people laugh and bring joy because laughter really is the best medicine.\"\n\nCarmen wants to continue \"bringing back the joy\". She thinks everyone can benefit from looking at the world with wonder and magic again.\n\nShe is not the only well-known actor to tread the clown path.\n\nA-list actor David Arquette revealed to America last week that he was training to be a clown.\n\nThe Scream actor said he was learning the entertainment art and that he was in a \"clown period\" of his life.\n\nThe 50-year-old is preparing to work with the US organisation Healthy Humour which goes into hospitals to entertain people going through tough times.\n\nArquette, who has bought the rights to the story of Bozo the Clown and plans to make a film on the children's character, said his \"clown thing\" was playing the nose flute.\n\nCarmen could teach him a few tricks, though.\n\nHer character does funny walks, whistles in \"loads of different languages\" and performs eyebrow dancing.\n\nShe said: \"Your clown character is just all the things that you enjoy doing. Then when you do it on the floor hopefully other people enjoy it.\n\nThere's no make-up, no elaborate costumes, so the children can connect in a basic way.\n\n\"A wee red nose, and that's it,\" said Carmen. \"It's the smallest mask in the world.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nNovak Djokovic says he is focused on playing in the Australian Open next week after winning a court battle that overturned his visa cancellation.\n\nThe 34-year-old Serb said he practised on court in Melbourne within hours of leaving an immigration detention hotel.\n\nBut Australia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.\n\n\"Despite all that has happened, I want to stay and try to compete in the Australian Open,\" Djokovic tweeted.\n\nThe statement continued: \"I remain focused on that. I flew here to play at one of the most important events we have in front of the amazing fans.\"\n• None The Sports Desk podcast: Djokovic's latest Australian victory - from courtroom to practice cour\n\nDjokovic also posted a photo of himself and his team - including coach Goran Ivanisevic - on court at the Rod Laver Arena, where he has won a record nine men's singles titles.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January and if Djokovic wins, he will become the most successful men's player in history.\n\nThe world number one is tied with Switzerland's Roger Federer and Spain's Rafael Nadal on 20 Grand Slam singles titles.\n\nDjokovic posted his message on Twitter at the same time his family - parents Srdjan and Dijana, along with younger brother Djordje - were holding a news conference in Serbian capital Belgrade.\n\nDijana Djokovic said overturning the decision to revoke his visa was the \"biggest victory\" of her son's career.\n\nShe also claimed he had been \"subject to torture and harassment\" while staying in an immigration hotel where refugees and asylum seekers have long complained of poor conditions.\n\nThe family was \"pleased that justice has prevailed\", said Djordje Djokovic.\n\n\"Novak is out there to set another record. He is an athlete and the best tennis player in the world of all times,\" he added.\n\n\"Novak has always advocated freedom of choice, nothing more.\"\n\nJudge Anthony Kelly ordered Djokovic's release after the government acknowledged in court that he was not given enough time to respond following the notification to cancel his visa.\n\nYet it is still not guaranteed he will be able to step on to the court next week, when he is set to start the defence of his title.\n\nImmigration minister Alex Hawke is still considering revoking Djokovic's visa. The MP is able to act using broad discretionary powers granted him by Australia's Migration Act.\n\nA spokesman for Mr Hawke said the decision was an \"ongoing process\". An announcement is expected to be made on Tuesday.\n\nSpain's Rafa Nadal, who is tied on 20 majors with Djokovic and Switzerland's Roger Federer, called the build-up to the tournament a \"circus\".\n\n\"Justice has spoken and has said that he has the right to participate in the Australian Open and I think it is the fairest decision,\" Nadal told the Spanish radio station Onda Cero.\n\n'Djokovic is not able to relax yet' - analysis\n\nThat late night practice session at Melbourne Park must have been one of the most exhilarating of Novak Djokovic's career.\n\nHaving won an unexpected victory in an altogether different court earlier in the day - with the judge expressing sympathy for him throughout - his hopes of a 10th Australian Open title are still alive.\n\nAustralian Border Force suggested Djokovic brought little evidence into the country to support his medical exemption. Judge Kelly saw it completely differently, asking \"what else could he possibly have done?\"\n\nBut the world number one is not able to relax just yet, as the Australian immigration minister is expected to decide on Tuesday whether to use his personal power to cancel the visa for a second time.\n\nAnd in the days ahead Djokovic will also need to justify why he posed for photographs with children at a prize-giving the day after his December positive PCR test was confirmed.\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n• None Huge dance tunes and motivational messages for a new year workout\n• None A new education programme to teach the devastating impacts of compulsive gambling", "The World Health Organization has warned that half of Europe will have caught the Omicron Covid variant within the next six to eight weeks.\n\nDr Hans Kluge said a \"west-to-east tidal wave\" of Omicron was sweeping across the region, on top of a surge in the Delta variant.\n\nThe projection was based on the seven million new cases reported across Europe in the first week of 2022.\n\nThe number of infections has more than doubled in a two-week period.\n\n\"Today the Omicron variant represents a new west-to-east tidal wave, sweeping across the region on top of the Delta surge that all countries were managing until late 2021,\" Dr Kluge told a news conference.\n\nHe quoted the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as forecasting that \"more than 50 percent of the population in the region will be infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks\".\n\nHe said European and Central Asian countries remained under \"intense pressure\" as the virus spread from western countries into the Balkans.\n\n\"How each country now responds must be informed by its epidemiological situation, available resources, vaccination uptake status and socio-economic context\", he added.\n\nRecent studies suggest that Omicron is less likely to make people seriously ill than previous Covid variants. But Omicron is still highly contagious and can infect people even if they are fully vaccinated.\n\nThe record number of people catching it has left health systems under severe strain.\n\nOn Monday, the UK reported a further 142,224 confirmed cases of the virus and 77 deaths. A number of hospitals have declared \"critical\" incidents due to staff absences and rising pressures caused by Covid.\n\nElsewhere, hospital numbers are also rising. France's Health Minister Olivier Veran warned last week that January would be tough for hospitals.\n\nHe added that Omicron patients were taking up \"conventional\" beds in hospitals while Delta was putting a strain on ICU departments.\n\nIn eastern Europe, Poland reported that 100,000 people had died from the virus in the country since the start of the pandemic. Poland now has the sixth-highest mortality rate in the world from Covid-19, and almost 40% of its population remains unvaccinated.\n\nIn Russia, top consumer health official Anna Popova told a meeting of the government's coronavirus task force that without action to control the spread of the virus, the daily number of new Covid cases there could reach 100,000.\n\nThe daily infection rate had recently been declining from a peak of 41,335 cases recorded in early November, Reuters news agency reports.\n\nMs Popova said 305 known cases of the Omicron variant had been detected so far, in 13 of the country's regions. Russia has registered at least 311,281 deaths and 10.5 million cases to date.\n\nOn Monday, the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer said it would be able to launch a version of its vaccine that offers special protection against Omicron, to be rolled out in March. Health experts say it is not yet clear whether this is needed.", "A professional recruitment firm says it is placing graduate lawyers at top firms on starting salaries as high as £150,000 amid a shortage of workers.\n\nAlan Bannatyne, chief financial officer at Robert Walters, told the BBC people in many UK industries were quitting for better paid jobs amid soaring demand.\n\n\"15% is the minimum pay rise we're seeing, but some are increasing their salaries by up to 50%,\" he said.\n\n\"Unless something significant happens, 2022 should be even better for staff.\"\n\nUK job vacancies have hit record levels since the economy reopened as employers scramble to meet demand.\n\nRobert Walters, which focuses on placing professionals in roles, said this had put firms in a \"fierce competition for talent\" and it was \"incredibly hard to find the right people\".\n\nEmployers have put up salaries to attract workers, although Mr Bannatyne said there had been \"winners and losers\" from Covid and not everyone was in a position to pay well.\n\n\"Bricks-and-mortar retailers and airlines have really struggled so will probably not be paying bonuses or giving pay rises,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"So they become a hunting ground for other high growth businesses, such as online retailers, anything to do with technology and digital, and manufacturers of household goods.\"\n\nRobert Walters, which has offices in Asia, Europe and the US, said it had seen its best December ever, with net fee income up 39% globally.\n\nRecruitment agency Manpower said it was seeing a similar trend, as employers struggled to fill vacancies for highly-skilled positions.\n\nUK director Chris Gray told the BBC: \"It is absolutely a candidate-led market right now.\n\n\"Those with the in-demand skills hold the power, and have the freedom and flexibility to accept a job that suits their particular needs and expectations.\"\n\nSkills shortages have been particularly pronounced in sectors such as law, where vacancies for London-based associates rose some 131% year-on-year between January and November last year, according to research from recruiter BCL Legal and data firm Vacancysoft.\n\nAccording to Robert Waters, there is a shortage of recently qualified lawyers, while reports point to an increase in experienced practitioners quitting the industry.\n\nIn addition, UK legal firms face intense competition for talent from US law firms expanding in Britain. It's led to newly qualified lawyers at top London firms being offered salaries of over £100,000 before bonuses.\n\nAccording to the Law Society, in 2018 the average salary for solicitors working full-time in private practice was £62,000 a year (rising to £88,000 in London).\n\nCity banks have also boosted starter salaries to retain talent and Robert Walters predicts the bonus pool this year will be \"huge\".\n\nWages have also been increasing in lower paid jobs. Last week, Sainsbury's became the latest supermarket to pay shop workers at least £10 an hour, following similar moves from Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi.\n\nMany workers have revaluated their careers during lockdown and changed jobs or left the workforce, in what some have labelled the \"great resignation\".\n\nIt has helped to drive up salaries across the UK, with growth in average pay including bonuses standing at 4.9% year-on-year between August and October.\n\nJames Reed, chairman of recruitment agency Reed Recruitment, said the UK was in the midst of a \"jobs boom\" that showed no signs of abating.\n\n\"It's the best time in 50 years to look for a new job, in a situation where the pendulum has swung in jobseekers' favour.\"", "That might be your reaction to what we know now - that one of Boris Johnson's most senior aides emailed around 100 staff in Downing Street for outdoor drinks in May 2020, during the intense early emergency of lockdown.\n\nMartin Reynolds, the principal private secretary (for how much longer?) invited dozens and dozens of staffers to drinks in the garden, socially distanced, but to many people's minds, in contradiction to the very strict and very clear public guidance to the public at the time that banned socialising in any form.\n\nA jog with a friend in the park or a solitary trudge along the same canal path was just about it.\n\n\"Is this for real?\" was in fact the reaction of one of the staff who was gobsmacked to receive the email, written down in black and white, in a message to another official shared at the time.\n\nAnother, shown to the BBC, said: \"Um. Why is Martin encouraging a mass gathering in the garden?\"\n\nThose exchanges make it pretty clear that there were concerns at the time. Yet the event went ahead, with, I'm told, around 30 people in attendance, a long table set out in the garden for drinks, crisps and sausage rolls with, two eyewitnesses told me, the prime minister and his wife in attendance.\n\nNotwithstanding how many of you might feel reading the details of that event, and the planning that went into it, there are three main reasons why this latest bout of claims about what was happening in Number 10 are deeply troubling for Mr Johnson.\n\nFirst off, the email, a scoop for our colleagues at ITV, is evidence in black and white of a social event that was planned in advance.\n\nThat flies in the face of the prime minister's insistence so far that there were \"no parties\". Evidence of a planned event is not the same as ad hoc chats or the odd drink after hours outdoors or in the office in a Covid-secure environment - the kind of events some in government think could be justified.\n\nWith an official investigation under way by a senior and experienced official with a stringent reputation, that is troublesome.\n\nSecond, the prime minister could lose a senior official over what happened, and there has long been speculation about which moderately senior head might roll in the aftermath of the inquiry.\n\nBut if, as eyewitnesses have told us, Mr Johnson was there himself, he is personally right at the centre of the mess.\n\nThird, for most of Monday the chatter among MPs and ministers getting back into the parliamentary routine was that the mood had calmed, the Tory anger at No 10's chaos had eased off after a liberal application of mince pies and eggnog.\n\nDisillusionment with Downing Street was still extremely common but the heat, and with it the political pressure, had cooled somewhat.\n\nBut now, with this new damaging fodder for the opposition, don't be so sure.", "A positive lateral flow result can be taken as a confirmation that you have Covid if you have no symptoms, the UK Health Security Agency says\n\nPeople without Covid symptoms no longer need a PCR test to confirm a positive lateral flow in England.\n\nThe change reflects the high prevalence of coronavirus in the community and the accuracy of rapid tests, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.\n\nThe surge in Omicron cases has seen many with positive lateral flow tests struggling to book a follow-up PCR.\n\nThe UK has capacity for more than 800,000 daily lab tests but moved closer to its limit in December.\n\nOn 23 December, a total of 622,948 PCR tests were taken and on 28 December the figure was 630,768, government figures show.\n\nAnd the demand grew further in the first week of 2022, reaching 698,502 PCR tests on 6 January and 613,496 on Sunday 9 January.\n\nIt is hoped the change will improve access to PCR tests for people with symptoms and for healthcare, transport and other key workers required to test regularly.\n\nThose who have one of the three main Covid symptoms - high temperature, a new, continuous cough and a loss or change to the sense of smell or taste - must still get a PCR test, the government said.\n\nOn Monday, daily testing of 100,000 critical workers in industries such as food processing, transport and the border force began.\n\nReported coronavirus cases in the UK reached a 218,724 high last Tuesday but then fell, with the latest data showing 142,224 new infections on Monday.\n\nAnnouncing the temporary halting of follow-up PCR tests on Wednesday, the UKHSA said lateral flows were more than 80% effective \"at finding people with high viral loads who are most infectious\".\n\nAnd it added that, for every 10,000 lateral flow tests carried out, there were likely to be fewer than three false positive results.\n\nThe requirement was previously suspended between January and March 2021 at a time of high virus prevalence.\n\nThose who test positive on a lateral flow but have no symptoms must still self-isolate for up to 10 days, but they can end quarantine if they receive two negative lateral flow test results, 24 hours apart, on days six and seven.\n\nThe changes, which have already been introduced in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, do not apply to people who have symptoms. They will still need to book a follow up PCR test.\n\nLateral flow tests can be done at home, and show results in 20-30 minutes. PCR test swabs must be sent to a lab for analysis, with results provided in 24-48 hours\n\nHealth officials stress it is still important asymptomatic people register a positive lateral flow test on the government website so case numbers can be reflected accurately and contact tracing can take place.\n\nThere are some exemptions to the new rule.\n\nPeople who receive Test and Trace financial support, those taking part in Covid research studies and about one million people in England eligible for new NHS treatments for Covid will all be asked to take a follow-up PCR.\n\nOn Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government would \"look at the science\" on the possibility of cutting the minimum isolation period for people who tested positive, from seven days to five.\n\nHowever, the possibility was not discussed by cabinet ministers on Tuesday, Downing Street has confirmed.\n\nThe PM's official spokesman said the government was \"gathering the latest evidence\" and keeping the issue under review to \"make sure we have the right approach\".\n\nHe said: \"But what we're absolutely not doing is prejudging anything.\n\n\"The prime minister hasn't received formal advice either way yet. So, we'll await that and then make a decision.\"\n\nThe UKHSA, which is leading work on the issue along with the government's Covid taskforce based in the Cabinet Office, has now clarified the recommended self-isolation period in the US is five days and therefore shorter than in the UK.\n\nIt had previously said the isolation period was effectively the same in both countries.\n\nThe US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut the recommended isolation period there to five days in December.", "Hospitality venues in Northern Ireland must operate with table service only\n\nThe application process for the £40m Omicron Hospitality Payment fund has been delayed.\n\nMore than 3,000 eligible hospitality operators were told they would be contacted this week to start the process.\n\nBut the Department of Finance said it has now been pushed back to next week.\n\nA spokesperson told BBC News NI that \"financial regulations are currently being finalised to enable the Omicron Hospitality Payment to be made\".\n\n\"Land and Property Services will contact eligible businesses directly next week (week commencing 17 January) to ask them to confirm their details to enable the Omicron Hospitality Payment to be made,\" they added.\n\n\"Payments will be issued as quickly as possible once businesses have submitted the necessary information.\"\n\nThe one-off grants were to help those who have experienced losses or cancellations due to restrictions in the run-up to Christmas, usually one of the busiest times of the year for the industry.\n\nNightclubs have also been closed since 26 December.\n\nMore than 3,200 businesses will be eligible under the Omicron Hospitality Payment.\n\nThe amounts will be as follows:\n\nLand and Property Services will contact those who received support from the Localised Restrictions Support Scheme (LRSS) directly.\n\nThe closure of nightclubs was among a number of measures announced by Northern Ireland ministers last month\n\nHospitality businesses which did not receive support from the Localised Restrictions Support Scheme, who would have been eligible for LRSS based on their current circumstances, will also have the opportunity to apply through an application portal.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Poppy has wanted to cut her hair for charity for a number of years\n\nAn 11-year-old girl who has waited more than half her life to donate her afro hair to charity is weeks away from fulfilling her dream.\n\nPoppy Lee-Burrowes had hoped to give away her hair to make wigs when she was five.\n\nBut at the time the Little Princess Trust said it was unable to make wigs from afro hair.\n\nUndeterred, Poppy spent the next six years growing it in case this changed. And this year it did.\n\nIn April the charity announced it was now able to make wigs using afro hair after another 11-year-old urged it to rethink after being told her afro locks were too delicate for wig-making.\n\nPoppy plans to cut off about 8 inches of her hair on 29 January\n\nPoppy, from Rhondda Cynon Taf, said she was excited to cut her hair for charity in a few weeks.\n\nDespite knowing she will miss her \"big hair, don't care\" look, she knows that \"other people will be able to love my hair too\".\n\n\"I want to do it because of the people that won't have hair. I want to be generous and help,\" she said.\n\nOn a fundraising page, she wrote: \"It's taken me since I was about five, I have only ever had small trims in my life, never a big cut, so this is a big deal to me.\"\n\nEven though Poppy loves her hair \"so much\", she is excited for a new bobbed look.\n\nPoppy will be part of the tens of thousands who donate their hair to Little Princess Trust a year, its head says\n\nPoppy's mum Jessica said her daughter asked if she could cut her hair for charity after hearing about her friends doing the same over the years.\n\n\"When we looked into it unfortunately we couldn't donate it because of her hair type, so we just thought we'd carry on growing it.\n\n\"It was last year a friend sent me an article to say they were now able to accept afro hair.\n\n\"We showed it to Poppy and she was ecstatic, over the moon. She was more than happy to have it cut and share her hair.\"\n\nPoppy with her parents Jessica (left) and Beki\n\nMrs Lee-Burrowes said it was \"disappointing\" to hear the charity did not take afro hair but understood \"because of the extensive work they put in to making these wigs and how important they are\".\n\nIt can take 30 to 60 hours to make a hand-tied individual wig, according to Little Princess Trust's chief executive Phil Brace.\n\nThe charity, which provides real hair wigs to children who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment or other reasons, said it has always offered afro style wigs using straight hair which was later curled into the requested style.\n\nBut it was unable to find a wig manufacturer able to use hair donations from black and mixed race people in wigs.\n\nThe chairty made two wigs, including the one pictured, in its successful trials last year\n\nAfro hair can easily break in the wig-making process but after working with 120-year-old London company Raoul to develop a wefting method, \"any child or young person who wants a wig now really does have a wonderful choice\", Mr Brace said.\n\n\"This was about ensuring that any child or young person can feel inclusive and be able to help and support children with cancer and hair loss.\"\n\nHe added: \"Poppy's a star, we are so indebted and grateful.\n\n\"When you get a youngster like this that has made a decision that they want to do good for other people, it's really heart-warming.\"\n\nPoppy has wanted to cut her hair for charity since she was about five years old\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mr Durkan, of the SDLP, told the committee that there had been \"clear failings in communication\".\n\nA £2m emergency winter fuel scheme has been capped at 330 payments daily to prevent it from becoming overwhelmed, a Stormont committee has been told.\n\nThe scheme was launched last week but people have been struggling to apply because within as little as 15 minutes after it opens, it shuts again.\n\nMLAs Andy Allen and Mark Durkan said they had been \"inundated\" with calls from people blocked from applying.\n\nMr Allen, from the UUP, said he felt the scheme was not \"fit for purpose\".\n\nHowever David Polley, from the Department for Communities, told the Stormont committee on Tuesday that this was \"an immediate crisis fund for those facing disconnection in the next few days\".\n\nHe said there are about 200,000 to 300,000 households living in fuel poverty in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"It is not our expectation that this scheme will be able to cater for all those households,\" he stressed.\n\nAndrea Maxwell has been trying to register every day since the scheme opened.\n\nOn Monday, she got as far as filling out the form before she was told applications had been disabled - within five minutes of the portal opening.\n\nThe Newtownards mother-of-three is a full-time carer for her son.\n\nHer electricity bill for the past six days has already topped £90 - just £5 less than her weekly income support.\n\nThat is double what it cost before Christmas.\n\n\"When the kids aren't here and they're at school, I sit with no heating on so I have enough oil for when they come home,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\n\"My son is disabled and trying to explain to him you can't play your game because we have no electric, or trying to explain to the wee ones you can't have a bath because we haven't had the heat on all day, [because] you're sitting here thinking you've put £91 into the electric.\n\n\"The kids are well fed this week and I'll have beans on toast.\"\n\nShe said the process was needlessly complicated.\n\n\"The government know exactly who is on benefits and what benefits they're on, so all they need to do is go into their database.\n\n\"They ask you your gross income on benefits - I don't know what it is so I have to get onto the benefits office, they won't tell you over the phone, they have to mail it out.\"\n\nShe added: \"What annoys me the most is if I was in England, Scotland or Wales you get help by the companies that you're with so if you're on benefits they have a scheme and you can apply for it every year.\n\n\"I know friends of mine who've been trying since the scheme opened and now said it's not worth the hassle or the stress of it.\"\n\nMr Polley told the communities committee that a similar scheme launched last year had a weekly cap but was overwhelmed within the first hour of its opening on a Monday.\n\nPeople are struggling to access an emergency fund to tackle fuel costs\n\nThe daily cap means it should be available every day for someone who is at risk of disconnection, he said.\n\n\"In order for payments to be available until the end of March, there is a maximum number of applicants who can apply,\" he said.\n\n\"The cap was quickly reached on the first few days but half of the applications weren't eligible.\"\n\nThe scheme has already helped hundreds of people, he said, but added that this was \"a relatively small part of the support available from the Department for Communities\".\n\nThere have been calls for Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey to make more money available\n\nMr Polley said that following technical issues on their website, the Bryson Charitable Group, which is managing the fund, had increased its capacity.\n\nThe scheme was launched on 6 January and is due to run until 31 March. It offers £100 towards energy costs for anyone who is eligible.\n\nThe DfC has bid for a further £55m to help those struggling with fuel poverty and a final decision is expected in the January monitoring round.\n\nMr Durkan, of the SDLP, told the committee that there had been \"clear failings in communication\".\n\n\"The scheme was announced on 29 December with no eligibility criteria. Anyone could see the flaws with delivery,\" he said.\n\nHe said his office had been \"inundated with people in desperate need\".\n\n\"It's shocking that we haven't learnt lessons on how to support the most vulnerable in society,\" he said.", "The Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brnabić, has said it would be \"a clear breach of rules\" if tennis star Novak Djokovic was out in public following a positive Covid test.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Guy De Launey, Ana Brnabic said she did not know details of the sequence of events in December - and that only Djokovic had the answers.", "Shoppers swapped party outfits for comfy clothes in the Christmas sales as the Omicron Covid variant saw festive parties cancelled and the return of working from home guidance.\n\nHelen Dickinson, boss of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said loungewear was \"back in fashion\".\n\nBut despite rising cases and concerns over a possible lockdown, UK retailers posted strong sales in December.\n\nClothes and jewellery dominated Christmas gift buying at the tills.\n\nTotal sales rose 2.1% in December compared with the same period a year earlier, according to statistics from the BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor. They were up by nearly 5% over a two-year period before the pandemic.\n\nOver the three months to December, total food sales increased 0.4%, while non-food retail sales rose 4.8%.\n\nMs Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said despite the concerns over Omicron, \"retail sales held up through December\".\n\n\"Loungewear was back in fashion, as many pre-empted the possibility of future restrictions,\" she added. \"Meanwhile, the return of work-from-home advice and reduction in Christmas social events, caused formalwear sales to slow.\"\n\nCompared to December 2020, when the UK was subject to Covid restrictions during parts of the month, online sales fell 13.9% last month, as shoppers returned to High Street stores.\n\nPaul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG, said footwear was the only online category to see mild growth.\n\nBut for the year as a whole, online sales grew by 14.3% overall on 2020.\n\nDespite the positive sales figures in December, Ms Dickinson said businesses faced \"significant head winds in 2022, as consumer spending is held back by rising inflation, increasing energy bills, and April's National Insurance hike\".\n\n\"It will take continued agility and resilience if they are to battle the storm ahead, while also tackling issues from labour shortages to rising transport and logistics costs,\" she added.\n\nWith UK inflation at a 10-year high in November, and the rate expected to increase further in the next few months, many analysts are warning of a cost-of-living \"crisis\".\n\nBusinesses are also bracing for higher energy costs due to surging wholesale gas prices.\n\nFigures from Barclaycard showed a jump in essential spending for December but flagged that the spread of Omicron weighed heavily on hospitality and leisure spending.\n\nThe credit card spending data revealed total spending rose 12.2% in December, lifted by a 13.7% rise in essential spending, which was driven by supermarket shopping and fuel.\n\nRestaurants saw spending slide by 14.1% against pre-pandemic levels from 2019.\n\nJose Carvalho, head of consumer products at Barclaycard, said more Brits \"were either isolating or choosing to stay at home due to the new variant, which hampered face-to-face retailers as well as hospitality and leisure outlets\".\n\nRetailers are starting to issue their Christmas trading updates, with discount chains among the strong gainers.\n\nOn Tuesday, the UK arm of Germany's Lidl said that in the four weeks to 26 December its sales rose 2.6% from a year earlier as it benefited from shoppers switching from other supermarkets.\n\nLidl said its Christmas jumpers were the fastest selling non-food and drink product, with one sold every two seconds on first day of sale.\n\nChristian Härtnagel, Lidl GB chief executive, said the pandemic had been challenging, but added: \"As inflation continues to rise, I want to reassure each and every one of our customers that we remain resolute in our promise of being the destination for the lowest grocery prices in the market.\"\n\nThat came a day after Aldi said its Christmas performance was boosted by record sales of its premium range food and strong demand for beer, wine and spirits.\n\nLast week, discount chain B&M raised its profits expectations after reporting a strong festive trading period.\n\nMajor supermarkets report trading updates this week, with Marks & Spencer and Tesco tipped by analysts to have done particularly well.", "The shop worker was abducted and forced to open the Scotmid store on Leven Street\n\nTwo thieves abducted a shop worker on an Edinburgh street, and forced him to return to his store and hand over a four figure sum of cash.\n\nThe 24-year-old was bundled into a car in Spey Street at 22:45 on Thursday after his shift at a Scotmid shop.\n\nHe was driven more than three miles back to the store on Leven Street in a blue Volkswagen Tiguan.\n\nThe men threatened him and forced him to give access to the premises. Police said it was a \"frightening\" incident.\n\nDet Insp Kevin Tait, of Police Scotland said: \"We believe this was a targeted attack and that those responsible had been following the victim prior to approaching him and forcing him to allow them entry to his place of work.\n\n\"While this was a very frightening experience for him, thankfully he was uninjured and we are now pursuing a number of lines of inquiry to trace the suspects.\n\nThe Volkswagen Tiguan was later found on fire in Edinburgh's Lochend Park.\n\nPolice said it had been stolen from Maybury Car Sales on Turnhouse Road on 12 December.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Cwtches were a common sight in hit BBC show Gavin and Stacey, about the love affair between an Essex boy and Barry Island girl\n\nThe popular Welsh word cwtch has been used for the first time in the UK Parliament.\n\nIt commonly means a hug or cuddle but has no literal English translation.\n\nBrecon and Radnorshire MP Fay Jones said cwtch while questioning Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the House of Commons on 5 January.\n\nIt is the only time the word has been recorded in Hansard, which publicly publishes a record of all parliamentary debates verbatim.\n\nThe Conservative politician was criticising Wales' Covid regulations last Wednesday and said: \"On Friday, I will be holding my team meeting in the local pub because under Welsh government rules we are not allowed to go to our socially distanced office.\n\n\"We cannot do Parkrun and we cannot watch outdoor sport on the touchline - but we can cwtch up together in the clubhouse to watch it.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Fay Jones MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"May I commend the prime minister for his bold decisions, and ask whether he agrees that the inconsistencies in the rules in Wales are not just ludicrous, but are harming the Welsh economy?\"\n\nMr Johnson replied referring to the country's rules, which include mask-wearing indoors and the two-metre rule in public venues, as \"baroque eccentricities\".\n\nMs Jones tweeted: \"Absolutely delighted to learn this morning that my use of the word 'cwtch' in the Commons last week was the first time that word has ever been used in Parliament.\"\n\nIn 2019, another Welsh MP, Rhondda's Chris Bryant, was making an ultimately unsuccessful run for election as Commons Speaker when he said that MPs \"need more of a cwtch\" - although he said it in interviews outside the chamber.", "At least 600,000 passengers scrapped plans to fly from Heathrow Airport last month as the Omicron coronavirus strain sparked tougher travel restrictions.\n\nHeathrow boss John Holland-Kaye said it underlined the crisis in the industry and the uncertainty facing travellers.\n\nA return to normal \"could be years away\", the chief executive of the UK's busiest airport warned.\n\nJust 19.4 million passengers passed through Heathrow in 2021 - 12.3% below 2020, the year the pandemic began.\n\nLast year's number, the lowest for Heathrow for 50 years, was less than a quarter of the pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019. Mr Holland-Kaye said it was time for all coronavirus testing measures to be dropped for fully-vaccinated people.\n\nFears over the Omicron Covid variant meant that, from late November, all travellers arriving in the UK were required to take a pre-departure lateral flow test and self-isolate until they received a negative result from a post-arrival PCR test.\n\nThis led to many people scrapping their travel plans over the festive period.\n\nThe new rules were relaxed for fully-vaccinated arrivals last week after travel firms said they were ineffective due to Omicron spreading widely within the UK. That move sparked a rush of bookings, airlines reported.\n\nMr Holland-Kaye said: \"There are currently travel restrictions, such as testing, on all Heathrow routes - the aviation industry will only fully recover when these are all lifted and there is no risk that they will be re-imposed at short notice, a situation which is likely to be years away.\"\n\nJohn Holland-Kaye says the aviation regulator could help ease the uncertainty.\n\nHe warned this creates \"enormous uncertainty\" for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the aviation regulator, as it prepares to set a five-year cap on Heathrow's passenger charges.\n\n\"The regulator must focus on an outcome that improves service, incentivises growth and maintains affordable private financing.\"\n\nThe CAA increased the cap on Heathrow's price per passenger from £19.60 to £30.19 from 1 January, sparking complaints from airlines that the rise was far too high.\n\nThe CAA is expected to announce a long-term cap running from the summer to 2027 in the coming weeks.\n\nHeathrow said travel to and from the Asia-Pacific region in 2021 was particularly badly hit, down 40.3% from a year earlier.\n\nThe other markets with double-digit reductions were non-EU Europe (down 13.8%) and North America (down 13.6%).\n\nDomestic travel bucked the trend, with a 21.1% boost in passengers compared with 2020.", "Filming in the replica Albert Square began on Tuesday\n\nEastEnders has moved into a new Albert Square, with the cameras rolling for the first time on a troubled £86.7m replacement for the BBC soap's set.\n\nThe show's original home at Elstree studios in Hertfordshire was only intended to be used for two years, but has lasted since 1984.\n\nHowever, the nearby replacement has been plagued with problems, going way over budget and schedule.\n\nIt was originally due to be finished by 2018, at a cost of £59.7m.\n\nAfter filming began in the new Albert Square on Tuesday, a BBC statement said: \"The investment in the BBC's longest-running TV serial drama and wider BBC Elstree Centre, enables improved HD for our audiences and enhanced filming options.\n\n\"EastEnders production are now able to explore new areas on screen and writers, producers and directors have greater freedom to drive further creativity.\"\n\nThe new Albert Square is near the old one at Elstree studios\n\nIn 2018, a critical report from the National Audit Office, the public spending watchdog, said the old set was no longer fit for purpose, but that the new set wouldn't deliver value for money in the way that was envisaged when it was planned in 2015.\n\nSome of the problems were \"built into\" the project from the outset and \"some of the reasons for the delays and cost increases could have been addressed earlier by the BBC\", it said.\n\nThe following year, MPs on the House of Commons Public Accounts select committee described the construction as \"flawed from the start\", saying the BBC was \"complacent\" and had made \"fundamental planning mistakes\".\n\nAt the time, the broadcaster \"strongly rejected\" the notion that it had been complacent, explaining that there had been \"challenges along the way, including construction market issues beyond our control, and working on a brownfield site\".", "Species from around the world that are \"hitching a lift\" on ships threaten Antarctica's pristine marine ecosystem.\n\nThat is the conclusion of a study tracking research, fishing and tourist vessels that routinely visit the protected, otherwise isolated region.\n\nIt revealed that ships from 1,500 ports around the globe visit Antarctica.\n\n\"These ships travel all around the world,\" explained lead researcher Arlie McCarthy from the University of Cambridge.\n\n\"It means that almost anywhere could be a potential source for invasive species.\" Those non-native species, she explained, \"can completely change an ecosystem\".\n\n\"They can create entirely new habitats that would make it harder for those amazing Antarctic animals to find their own place to live.\"\n\nAntarctica's coasts are home to many endemic species that have been isolated for millions of years\n\nThe study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, points to the need for more stringent measures to ensure that ships do not bring species that could disrupt Antarctica's fragile habitats.\n\nThe research team, from the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Cambridge, used satellite data and international shipping databases to work out the weight of Antarctic traffic - and the origin of those ships.\n\n\"What was really surprising was that they don't just have one home port that they go back and forth to,\" said Ms McCarthy.\n\nInstead, the global movement of vessels links otherwise isolated parts of Antarctica to more than 1,500 ports all around the world.\n\nAny marine species that can cling to the hull of the ship and survive the journey to Antarctica could pose an invasive threat.\n\nCreatures, including mussels, barnacles, crabs and algae, are of particular concern, because they attach themselves to hulls, in a process termed \"biofouling\".\n\n'Biofouling' - marine organisms clinging to ships - can be seen here in a water discharge outlet on the hull of an Antarctic-going research vessel\n\nMussels, for example, can survive in polar waters and spread easily, threatening marine life on the seabed. Their water filtering alters the marine food chain and also the chemistry of the water around them.\n\n\"This is the last place in the world where we don't have marine invasive species,\" explained Ms McCarthy. \"So we [still] have an opportunity to protect it.\"\n\nProfessor David Aldridge from the University of Cambridge explained: \"Antarctica's native species have been isolated for the last 15-30 million years.\"\n\nThis makes invasive species one of the biggest threats to its biodiversity. And, as Prof Lloyd Peck from the British Antarctic Survey added, \"your chance of losing a species that is completely unique is much higher in the Antarctic\".\n\nTourism is regulated in the region; tourist ships have to follow biosecurity protocols. But this study revealed that tourism accounted for 67% of visits to Antarctic locations (followed by research, which accounted for 21% and fishing, 7%).\n\nAccording to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, the 2019/20 season saw more that 70,000 people visit the region. And while the industry has been disrupted by the pandemic, that number has been increasing steadily since the first few hundred visitors from Chile and Argentina arrived in the South Shetland Islands in the 1950s.\n\nIt is an increase, say researchers, that has other consequences.\n\nMs McCarthy told BBC News: \"Anywhere these ships go, we see other kinds of human impact on the environment, whether that is accidental release of waste, pollution, collisions with wildlife or noise disturbance.\"\n\nProf Peck said Antarctic tourism was both \"positive and negative\". \"They are a big part of the number of visits [to the continent] and therefore could bring [non-native species] in.\n\n\"But the tour operators are very interested in the environment and take a lot of security measures.\"\n\nThe British Antarctic Survey uses sniffer dogs to search for rats or mice aboard research vessels\n\nMore broadly, biosecurity measures to protect Antarctica - such as cleaning ships' hulls - are currently focused on a small group of recognised Antarctic \"gateway ports\".\n\nBut since this study revealed that many more ports around the world are linked to the region, the British Antarctic Survey is calling for \"improved biosecurity protocols\" and environmental protection measures to protect Antarctic waters. This means inspecting ship hulls with cameras and cleaning them more frequently.\n\nProf Peck said this was particularly important \"as ocean temperatures continue to rise due to climate change\". He added: \"we know something will arrive if we leave things as they are\".", "A prisoner killed himself after being told he could not live at home with his children upon release, a report said.\n\nGwent coroner Caroline Saunders called it \"devastating news\" and urged changes to how soon-to-be-released prisoners are dealt with.\n\nShe has issued a Prevention of Future Deaths report after Ian Miller, who was serving a custodial sentence at Usk Prison, Monmouthshire, died.\n\nMr Miller was found unconscious in his cell on 21 September 2019.\n\nThe day before he died, Mr Miller had been called to a probation meeting ahead of his expected release the following month.\n\nDuring the meeting he was told he would not be able to live at the family home or have unsupervised contact with his children.\n\nHe was also told he would not be able to live with his father-in-law and would probably become homeless.\n\nIn the Prevention of Future Deaths report, Ms Saunders said key people at the meeting did not have a prior relationship with Mr Miller.\n\n\"They did not know how devastating this news would be to him, and he was not placed under closer supervision,\" she said.\n\nThe inquest heard Mr Miller died from self-inflicted injuries, while a toxicologist also found a number of medications in his blood and urine that he had not been prescribed.\n\nHis former cellmate described a culture where prescription drugs were being traded and had become \"a form of currency\".\n\nHe said the trading of drugs was \"rife\" and Mr Miller bought medications from other prisoners.\n\n\"Whilst the ingestion of unprescribed medication did not contribute to Ian's death, this practice, if left unchecked, clearly puts the lives of other prisoners at risk in the future,\" said the coroner.\n\nThe Prison Service has been given until the end of February to explain what steps Usk Prison has taken to address the risks posed by prisoners trading prescribed medication.\n\nA Prison Service spokesman said its thoughts remained with the friends of family of Mr Miller, adding: \"We will consider the coroner's findings and respond in due course.\"", "The centre-left politician and former journalist became European Parliament president in 2019\n\nLeading EU figures have paid tributes to European Parliament President David Sassoli, who has died at the age of 65.\n\nThe Italian former journalist and centre-left politician had been seriously ill for more than two weeks and cancelled all official activities.\n\nMr Sassoli was admitted to hospital in Italy last month due to a serious complication with his immune system.\n\nHis role is seen as one of the EU's top jobs, and includes overseeing parliament's activities.\n\nEU flags in Brussels have been lowered to fly at half-mast in his memory. Leaders and officials from around Europe have been reflecting on his life and work.\n\nMany of the tributes were made in Italian, reflecting Mr Sassoli's linguistic preference despite the predominance of English and French in EU business.\n\nI'm deeply saddened by the death of a great European and Italian. David Sassoli was a passionate journalist, an extraordinary EU parliament president and above all a dear friend\n\n\"Our union loses an Italian patriot, a great European and an indefatigable humanist,\" said French President Emmanuel Macron.\n\nThe German leader, Olaf Scholz, said that Europe \"has lost a committed parliament president, Italy a savvy politician and Germany a good friend\".\n\nDavid Sassoli's colleagues held a minute's silence in his honour on Tuesday\n\nDozens of members of the European Parliament gathered on the steps of the building in Brussels for a minute's silence to remember him, followed by a round of applause.\n\nFrom politicians of left and right, and from journalists across Italy, tributes have poured in for a man who rose through the ranks of both public worlds.\n\nDavid Sassoli's early life as a reporter took him through newspapers and then to the national broadcaster RAI. His youthful passion for politics - a tweet today showed him as a young activist at the fall of the Berlin wall - led him to a career jump. After an unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Rome, he was elected to the European Parliament, crowned finally as its president.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by ROBERTO ZICHITTELLA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nItaly's Prime Minister Mario Draghi called him a \"profound European, a passionate journalist\" and \"a symbol of balance, humanity and generosity.\" In his native Florence, the town hall's flag is at half-mast and here in Rome, his body will lie in state on Thursday.\n\nMany have mentioned his warmth - photos show a broad smile - and his ability to build bridges. Among the many European issues he confronted was migration, urging solidarity from member states.\n\n\"If there is no respect for human life\", he said, \"Europe doesn't exist.\"\n\nIn September, Mr Sassoli was taken to hospital in Strasbourg where he was treated for a severe case of pneumonia caused by legionella. He later told his followers on social media that he had suffered a relapse while recuperating in Italy.\n\nHe worked remotely during October, officially resuming his political duties in November. But he was again hospitalised on 26 December, Italian media report.\n\n\"Pneumonia is an ugly beast - the important thing is to avoid relapses and the convalescence must be adequate,\" he told Italian outlet Corriere in September.\n\nA vote to elect his replacement had already been planned for later this month, and Mr Sassoli had indicated that he would not seek re-election.\n\nMr Sassoli announced in November that he had been away from work due to a bad case of pneumonia\n\nThe former television newsreader became president of the 705-seat European Parliament in July 2019. He was the second Italian president since the assembly was elected by universal suffrage.\n\nHe beat three other candidates to the role, and in a speech following his victory he called for the EU to return to the spirit of its founding fathers who swapped warfare and nationalism for peace and equality.\n\nMr Sassoli left a three-decade career in journalism and became a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2009.\n\nHe was a member of the centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the second-biggest grouping in the parliament.", "Would the Six Nations rugby have gone south?\n\nThis is clearly the news that major sporting bodies and fans were hoping for. There were genuine fears, from within football at least, that the first minister would push the date back once again. It now appears that the increase in Covid passport checks outside stadia has allowed her to throw the doors back open, but with a sense of continued caution. The Scottish government say the decision is based purely on the science but there’s no doubt that the move is timely, from a political perspective. With the Six Nations fast approaching, could the first minister really have watched on if Scotland’s home games had been moved south for the sake of attendance? It was certainly being discussed. As talk now turns to how we learn to live with Covid, this latest sporting sigh of relief will be accompanied by the hope that fans are be back for good.", "This YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Will Smith This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video by Will Smith\n\nIn 2019, a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fan came up with an idea to reboot the sitcom as a gritty drama, even making a mock trailer to show how it could look.\n\nThree years on and the show's star Will Smith has made it a reality - and the first real trailer has been revealed.\n\nThe title character still moves from west Philadelphia, where he was born and raised, to his aunt and uncle's luxury mansion in a wealthy LA suburb.\n\nBut the tone of the show has been flipped and turned upside down.\n\nJabari Banks plays the new Will, with Adrian Holmes as Uncle Phil\n\nInstead of the breezy comedy of the 1990s original, the new show - simply titled Bel-Air - is deadly serious.\n\nIn the original, the famous theme tune explained that the main character Will got in one little fight and his mom got scared.\n\nIn the new version, that still happens - but guns are involved in the basketball court confrontation, and a hardened Philadelphia criminal is looking for him.\n\nWill, now played by Jabari Banks, is taken in by Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian, who have to protect him and concoct a story about him moving to LA to pursue a better education.\n\nThe new trailer also introduces us to the new incarnations of cousins Carlton, Ashley and Hilary, as well as butler Geoffrey, played by English actor Jimmy Akingbola.\n\nWill Smith has developed the new show with the fan who made the original trailer, aspiring film-maker Morgan Cooper.\n\n\"Three years ago, my guy Morgan Cooper uploaded his fan trailer to YouTube, showing how he envisioned the Fresh Prince as a drama,\" Smith wrote on YouTube.\n\n\"Now, here is the first full look at his retelling of the story that's always been so close to my heart.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by Sun Squared Media This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nSmith and Cooper are executive producers of Bel-Air, which will launch on Peacock in the US on 13 February, and on Sky and Now in the UK the following day.", "Former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings has alleged a social event which took place in No 10 on 20 May 2020 may have broken Covid rules.\n\nIn his blog, he said a \"senior No 10 official\" invited people to \"socially distanced drinks\" in the garden.\n\nMr Cummings said he and another adviser had warned that this could be against the rules but were told the event had gone ahead.\n\nDowning Street has been approached for comment.\n\nBut the BBC understands the alleged event will be investigated by a senior civil servant.\n\nThe first coronavirus lockdown was introduced in England in late March and were slowly relaxed in May 2020, but it was not until 1 June that people were allowed to meet outside in groups of up to six people.\n\nIn December, Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked Simon Case, the UK's top civil servant, to investigate after a series of allegations about events taking place in government buildings despite coronavirus restrictions.\n\nMr Case later stepped down after suggestions one of the parties took place in his own office and the investigation was passed to Sue Gray, another senior civil servant.\n\nMr Cummings has now urged Ms Gray to \"dig up\" the email invitations to the event on 20 May - and his email to colleagues warning against it.\n\nHe also said the senior civil servant should look in to his claim that a party took place in Mr Johnson's Downing Street flat on 13 November - something No 10 has previously denied.\n\nIt is understood Ms Gray will examine the alleged event in May 2020, as well as another gathering five days earlier, which was revealed last month.\n\nThe Guardian published a photo of the prime minister with his wife and 17 other staff members - including Mr Cummings - in the Downing Street garden on 15 May 2020, with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard.\n\nHowever, Mr Cummings argued that event did not break any rules.\n\nWriting on his blog, the former chief advisor, who was forced out of Downing Street at the end of 2020 after an internal power struggle, said \"the scene on the terrace was in no sense a 'party' or 'organised drinks'\".\n\n\"Many meetings had been taking place in the garden all day... those on the terrace nearest me in the photo had been having a meeting.\n\n\"No 10 staff were encouraged to have meetings in the garden April-August for the obvious reason that we were in a pandemic with an airborne disease and being outside was safer!\"", "The application for Jeremy Clarkson's farm was turned down by West Oxfordshire District Council\n\nA planned new restaurant for TV personality Jeremy Clarkson's Oxfordshire farm has been refused permission.\n\nDiddly Squat Farm, in Chadlington, is the site of the former Top Gear host's Amazon Studios series, Clarkson's Farm.\n\nClarkson said it would enhance farming and tourism in the area and the refusal meant a \"very bad day for farming\".\n\nWhen asked how frustrated he was, he said: \"Very, and so will all the local farmers.\"\n\nPlanning officers said the proposal to renovate a lambing shed into a restaurant was out of keeping with the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).\n\nThe shed was built in 2020 after a new flock of sheep was bought to diversify the farm business.\n\nIt has now been merged with another local farmer's flock, the council said.\n\nBut council officers said the building has since been used, without planning permission, as a cafe and a bar area.\n\nClarkson posed for selfies with fans as he arrived for a village meeting in September\n\nAhead of Monday's meeting, a total of 53 objections were received by the council, along with 12 letters of support.\n\nChadlington Parish Council said it held a public meeting in November to decide its view on the \"divisive and contentious\" application but a vote was inconclusive.\n\nIn September Clarkson admitted the farm had \"swamped\" the village but said it led to increased trade for businesses.\n\nHe hosted a residents' meeting on the farm that month, when he unveiled plans for the new restaurant.\n\nClarkson told Jeremy Vine: \"There is more traffic, yes, but there is more business.\n\n\"The village shop is doing better, the cafe in the village, the pub in the village - they are all doing better.\n\n\"They are swamped with people but they are swamped with people spending money.\"\n\nThe authority said it \"recently\" served Clarkson's farm with a planning contravention notice after allegations that products sold in its shop were not grown, reared or produced on the farm, or from other local producers.\n\nIf proved, that would be in contravention of a condition agreed when that was given planning permission in November 2019, the council said.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment Durst is sentenced to life in prison for murder\n\nMillionaire convicted murderer Robert Durst has died in prison at the age of 78, according to his lawyer.\n\nDurst died as a California prisoner after being convicted in September of killing his friend Susan Berman.\n\nHe murdered her to stop her talking to police about his wife's disappearance. Police believe he killed two others.\n\nThe US real estate heir turned fugitive unwittingly confessed in an HBO crime documentary series about himself.\n\nDurst's lawyer, Chip Lewis, confirmed that he died at the San Joaquin General Hospital while in the custody of the California Department of Corrections.\n\nHe said that his death was due to \"natural causes\" and that he had been suffering from numerous medical issues.\n\nDurst was sentenced to life in prison in October for the 2000 killing of Berman, who was his long-time confidante and spokeswoman.\n\nHis trial had been delayed for more than a year due to the Covid pandemic. Two days after his sentencing he was admitted to hospital with Covid and placed on a ventilator, according to his trial lawyer.\n\nDurst - whose family have owned a series of New York City skyscrapers, including an investment in the World Trade Center - was investigated after a recording of him confessing was used in the 2015 HBO documentary series The Jinx.\n\n\"What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course,\" he was recorded saying to himself in an apparent hot mic moment.\n\nProsecutors say that he also murdered his neighbour, Morris Black, while living as a fugitive in Texas nine months after killing Berman.\n\nDurst claimed to have shot him accidentally, before going on to dismember his body and dump the parts in Galveston Bay.\n\nAfter a 45-day manhunt, he was arrested for shoplifting a chicken sandwich from a grocery store in Pennsylvania, only a few miles from where he attended university. He was found with thousands of dollars in cash in his rental car, as well as cannabis and Black's driving licence.\n\nHe claimed self-defence at his 2003 trial, and was acquitted after arguing that he fled because he thought his story would not be believed.\n\nDurst is also suspected in the 1982 death of his wife Kathie Durst, whose body has never been found. She was legally declared dead in 2017.\n\nHe was formally indicted for her murder in November by the Westchester Country District Attorney's office in New York.\n\n\"After 40 years spent seeking justice for her death, I know how upsetting this news must be for Kathleen Durst's family,\" District Attorney Miriam Rocah said in a statement on Monday.\n\n\"We had hoped to allow them the opportunity to see Mr Durst finally face charges for Kathleen's murder because we know that all families never stop wanting closure, justice and accountability.\"\n\nThe office added that more information on the Kathie Durst case would be released to the public in the coming days.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mike Allen, who served in Afghanistan, suffered with post-traumatic stress disorder when he returned\n\nA former soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder has built a castle on a hillside to help others struggling with their mental health.\n\nMike Allen built the retreat so he could run sessions to help other people who have gone through similar issues.\n\nAs well as having PTSD, the 41-year-old, who served in Afghanistan, also used to be homeless.\n\n\"Building the castle has been a good coping mechanism,\" said Mike. \"It's been really beneficial to help others.\"\n\nHe began building it in 2019 after his first cabin was demolished because it did not have planning permission.\n\nOther veterans and stone-wall specialists helped build it by hand, using stone and damaged trees.\n\nNow Mike, of Oakdale in Caerphilly county, is running a charitable project called Endex out of his castle above the hills in nearby Wattsville.\n\nMr Allen served in Afghanistan with 2nd Battalion, the Royal Welsh\n\nThe first log cabin that Mr Allen built was demolished\n\nThe scheme supports the rehabilitation of veterans and others suffering with their mental health. But construction of the site got off to a shaky start.\n\n\"A lovely farming family on the other side of the mountain contacted me and invited me onto their land to build something new,\" said Mike, who served in Afghanistan with 2nd Battalion, the Royal Welsh.\n\n\"They gave me the opportunity to live in a caravan on their land for 18 months, so for the first 18 months it was just collecting stones, gathering the logs and building.\n\n\"We got so far - about 10-15% up - and then two gentlemen came along and said they would love to take it down.\n\n\"Then they said they were from the Drystone Association of Wales and said if we took it down then in two weeks they would come back and do it properly.\n\n\"They came back with some veterans and taught us how to do it right.\"\n\nNow the project is up and running, Mike said it had already seen a wide range of visitors.\n\nMr Allen has created a shelter people can sit inside and enjoy views of the valley\n\nThe castle is now home to Endex, a charitable project for veterans\n\n\"Visits have been ongoing constantly really, particularly through lockdown, the first summer lockdown was really, really busy,\" he said.\n\n\"We've had special needs children, special needs adults, PRU (pupil referral unit) children, the local community, walking groups, fitness fanatics.\n\n\"There's an outdoor gym there as well. We've run mediation classes, day yoga classes - there's been quite a lot of different things going on.\"\n\nFormer soldier Mike Allen served in Afghanistan and suffers with post-traumatic stress disorder\n\nAn aerial view of the castle set in a quiet, secluded area\n\nMike added that he had noticed a marked improvement in his own mental health through the building process.\n\n\"I still have good days and bad days and I try to push forward as best I can,\" he said.\n\n\"Building the castle has been a good coping mechanism, I guess. It's been a way that I can keep myself busy. Everything has been collected by hand - it hasn't cost money really.\n\n\"It's been really beneficial to help others.\"", "Secondary pupils are now being asked to wear masks in classrooms, to reduce Covid spread\n\nOne in 12 teachers was absent from England's schools during the first week of term, as Omicron cases spread.\n\nThe latest data shows 8.6% of teachers and school leaders were absent - and 4.9% were absent because of Covid, up from 3% on 16 December.\n\nIt comes as numerous schools have told BBC News they are unable to find temporary staff to cover.\n\nEducation Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has said he is making contingency plans for rising rates of staff absence.\n\nRates of teacher absence were slightly higher in primary schools than in secondaries, where face masks are now required for pupils in class.\n\nIn all state schools, 8.9% of teaching assistants and other staff were also absent.\n\nMeanwhile, 315,000 (3.9%) pupils were absent for Covid-related reasons, up 14,000 on the end of last term.\n\nNational Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman said staff absence in the first week of term was significant and likely to worsen.\n\n\"A small but growing minority of schools are already experiencing teaching-staff absences of more than 20% and the government itself is planning for 25% staff-absence rates,\" he said.\n\nPupils are not required to wear face masks in primaries in England\n\n\"While schools will do everything they can to manage the situation, there is a reality that needs to be acknowledged here.\"\n\nThe staff absences will have a serious impact on schools' ability to remain open, particularly in primaries, where there is usually one teacher per class.\n\nSeparately, hundreds of schools across England have told BBC News they are struggling to provide cover for teacher absence since schools reopened.\n\nBBC News contacted more than 90 multi-academy trusts, representing over 2,000 schools across England.\n\nAnd most of the 26 that responded, representing 553 schools, had been unable to fill teaching gaps.\n\nStuart Guest, head teacher at Colebourne Primary, in Hodge Hill, Birmingham, has seen Covid cases rocket since the return of pupils, despite a string of extra protective measures.\n\nThere are air purifiers in all classrooms at Colebourne, window vents are open and the school asks close contacts of pupils who test positive to take daily lateral flow tests. Covid testing is not required by the government in primary schools.\n\nStuart Guest spent Monday morning calling around teacher supply agencies, with little success\n\n\"We've had more cases in children this week than we had during the whole of the autumn term - and the same with staff,\" he said.\n\nMr Guest has been unable to find supply teachers to cover staff absence this week.\n\nHe called three agencies on Monday morning none of which could supply him with a member of staff.\n\nIn December, the government asked ex-teachers in England to return to help tackle the expected rise in staff absences this term.\n\nBBC News asked more than 90 teacher supply agencies approved by the Department for Education what response they had seen to this call.\n\nOf the 26 that responded:\n\nMarios Georgiou, from Step Teachers, an agency covering London, Norwich, Plymouth and Rainham, in Essex, said: \"In our 20-year history, we have never experienced such a high demand for teachers and support staff.\n\n\"Every agency is experiencing demand which is outstripping supply - we simply do not have enough supply staff to meet our partner school's needs.\"\n\nAssociation of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton said the cost of bringing in the supply staff needed was crippling for schools and college.\n\nHe urged the government to step in and help, as well as providing more support on ventilation.\n\n\"There have been more positive noises about rates of infection beginning to plateau in recent days and we can only hope this is reflected soon in the attendance figures,\" he added.\n\nMatthew Moss High School, in Rochdale, is among those merging classes as they deal with staff absences\n\nMr Zahawi has said he is expecting an increase in infection rates as schools return.\n\nChief inspector of schools Amanda Spielman told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme, she was impressed with how schools were adapting to the \"spike in staff absences\", sometimes by \"condensing classes\".\n\nKeeping children in schools was most important, she said.\n\n\"Clearly there are situations where it would be impossible but the default option should clearly be to keep pupils in school as far as possible,\" Ms Spielman added.", "Aya Youssef said she had returned to work as a teacher on Tuesday\n\nIn Egypt, a viral video of a teacher belly-dancing has sparked a national debate about women's rights and the country's socially conservative values.\n\nAya Yousef was sacked, and divorced by her husband, after she was filmed by a colleague at a work social event on a Nile boat without her permission.\n\nFootage shows her moving to the music alongside male teaching staff.\n\nBelly-dancing is said to date back to Pharaonic times but it is often frowned upon now for women to dance in public.\n\nThe video of Ms Yousef, who is wearing a headscarf and a long-sleeved dress for the daytime river trip, looks very tame by Western standards.\n\nHowever, as it was widely shared on Arab social media in the past week, it prompted an outcry among Egyptian conservatives.\n\nHer critics claimed she had acted shamefully: \"It clearly expresses the poor times we live in!! Anything is permitted,\" wrote one Twitter user.\n\n\"Education has reached a low level in Egypt,\" another commented, calling for intervention by the relevant authorities.\n\nMs Yousef was then sacked by the primary school in Dakahlia Governorate in the Nile Delta, where she had worked for several years teaching Arabic.\n\nShe has vowed she will never dance again and said that she had contemplated suicide during her recent ordeal.\n\n\"Ten minutes on the boat in the Nile cost me my life,\" she told journalists.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Five Egyptian women shared their stories of sexual harassment and abuse with BBC Arabic (October 2018)\n\nWomen's rights advocates in Egypt also spoke out strongly, insisting the teacher did nothing wrong and saying that she was the victim of a witch hunt.\n\nIn her support and in defence of personal freedoms, the deputy head of another school posted photographs on social media of herself dancing at her daughter's wedding.\n\nThe head of the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, Dr Nihad Abu Qumsan, offered Ms Yousef a job in her office and asked her to bring her contract from the education ministry in order to file a legal complaint against her dismissal.\n\nThis may have helped prompt a rethink. Local authorities have now appointed Ms Yousef to a position at a new school.\n\nThe teacher complained the affair was \"a transgression of [her] privacy\".\n\nShe pointed out that she did not dance at a public institution or in front of students and said she planned to sue the person who filmed the video last month.", "A US man, who has become the first person in the world to receive a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig, is \"doing extremely well\" after the procedure, according to his son.\n\nDavid Bennett, 57, underwent the experimental seven-hour procedure as a \"last choice\", after being deemed ineligible for a human transplant.\n\nSpeaking outside the University of Maryland, Mr Bennett's son, David Bennett Jr., gave the BBC an update on his father's condition.", "Magawa was awarded the PDSA medal for gallantry - sometimes described as the George Cross for animals\n\nMagawa, the famous mine-clearing rat who was awarded a gold medal for his heroism, has died at the age of eight.\n\nIn a five-year career, the rodent sniffed out over 100 landmines and other explosives in Cambodia.\n\nMagawa was the most successful rat trained by the Belgian charity Apopo to alert human handlers about the mines so they can be safely removed.\n\nThe charity said the African giant pouch rat \"passed away peacefully\" at the weekend.\n\nIt said Magawa was in good health and \"spent most of last week playing with his usual enthusiasm\". But by the weekend \"he started to slow down, napping more and showing less interest in food in his last days\".\n\nBred in Tanzania, Magawa underwent a year of training before moving to Cambodia to begin his bomb-sniffing career. There are thought to be up to six million landmines in the South East Asian country.\n\nTrained to detect a chemical compound within the explosives, Magawa cleared more than 141,000 square metres (1,517,711 sq ft) of land - the equivalent of 20 football pitches.\n\nHe weighed 1.2kg (2.6lb) and was 70cm (28in) long. While that is far larger than many other rat species, Magawa was still small enough and light enough that he did not trigger mines if he walked over them.\n\nMagawa was capable of searching a field the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes - something Apopo says would take a person with a metal detector between one and four days.\n\nIn 2020, Magawa was awarded the PDSA Gold Medal - sometimes described as the George Cross for animals - for his \"life-saving devotion to duty\". He was the first rat to be given the medal in the charity's 77-year history.\n\nThe rat retired last June, after \"slowing down\" as he reached old age.\n\n\"All of us at Apopo are feeling the loss of Magawa and we are grateful for the incredible work he's done,\" the charity said in a statement.\n\nHis \"amazing sense of smell\" allowed \"communities in Cambodia to live, work, and play; without fear of losing life or limb\", it added.\n\nApopo has been raising its animals - known as HeroRATs - to detect landmines since the 1990s.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Landmines: Why do they kill thousands every year?", "Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who played in the prisoners' orchestra at Auschwitz, is among those being painted\n\nThe Prince of Wales has commissioned seven artists to paint portraits of seven Holocaust survivors, in a tribute to their passing generation.\n\n\"As the number of Holocaust survivors sadly but inevitably declines, my abiding hope is that this special collection will act as a further guiding light,\" Prince Charles said.\n\nThe paintings will be put on public display in Buckingham Palace.\n\nAnd the art project will feature in a BBC Two documentary later this month.\n\nAs well as providing a reminder of \"history's darkest days\", Prince Charles said the portraits would show \"humanity's interconnectedness, as we strive to create a better world for our children, grandchildren and generations as yet unborn - one where hope is victorious over despair and love triumphs over hate\".\n\nThe documentary will feature the survivors' accounts of what the Nazis did to them and their Jewish families.\n\nMany are now over 90, having been in concentration camps as children and then spent much of their adult lives in Britain.\n\nPaul Benney has painted Helen Aronson, 94, who survived the incarceration of Jewish people in the Lodz ghetto, in Nazi-occupied Poland.\n\nPrince Charles wants the paintings to show \"hope is victorious over despair\"\n\nPeter Kuhfeld has painted Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, 96, a musician from a German Jewish family who played in an orchestra of inmates in the Auschwitz concentration camp, also in Nazi-occupied Poland, and was later held at Bergen-Belsen, in Germany.\n\nThe other paintings are by Ishbel Myerscough, Clara Drummond, Massimiliano Pironti, Stuart Pearson Wright and Jenny Saville.\n\nHolocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock said: \"Holocaust survivors endured the very worst.\n\n\"To survive the concentration and death camps and 77 years later see their portraits displayed in Buckingham Palace is very special indeed and a poignant and fitting testament to their lasting contribution to this country.\"\n\nPrince Charles has made a personal cause of promoting tolerance and building bridges between religions and has often warned against the dangers of extremism and persecution.\n\nAnd in a speech marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he said the lessons of the Holocaust were still \"searingly relevant\".\n\nSurvivors: Portraits of the Holocaust is on BBC Two at 21:00 on 27 January, marking Holocaust Memorial Day. The paintings will be at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, between 27 January and 13 February, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, in Edinburgh, from 17 March to 6 June.", "Andrew Gosden was last seen on CCTV at King's Cross train station in London\n\nTwo men have been arrested in connection with the disappearance of a teenager who went missing 15 years ago.\n\nAndrew Gosden, from Doncaster, was last seen on 14 September 2007, aged 14.\n\nTwo men, aged 38 and 45, were arrested on suspicion of kidnap and human trafficking in London. Both have since been released under investigation.\n\nThe older man was also arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, South Yorkshire Police said.\n\nBoth men were arrested on 8 December with the assistance of officers from the Metropolitan Police, and it is believed they are the first arrests in the case.\n\nDet Insp Andy Knowles, of South Yorkshire Police, said: \"Our priority at this time is supporting Andrew's family while we work through this new line of inquiry in the investigation.\n\n\"We are in close contact with them and they ask that their privacy is respected as our investigation continues.\"\n\nAndrew disappeared when he was 14 years old\n\nThe Missing Andrew Gosden Twitter account said it was a \"difficult time\" for his family who only knew what the police statement said.\n\n\"Police investigations will be ongoing for quite a while and we respectfully ask you to give them your support & consideration whilst this takes place,\" it continued.\n\nOn the day of his disappearance, Andrew skipped school and withdrew just under £200 from his bank account before buying a one-way ticket to London.\n\nHe was last seen on CCTV footage arriving at King's Cross Station and since then police have been unable to corroborate his movements.\n\nAndrew's motive for travelling to London on the day he was last seen has never been established.\n\nSource: Help us to find Andrew website\n\nA number of age-progressed images of Andrew have been issued since his disappeareance\n\nAndrew's family commissioned their own searches, including a sonar scan of the River Thames, and numerous images showing how he may look as he grew older have been released.\n\nImages of Andrew's right ear, which has a distinctive double ridge, were also issued at the time of his disappearance.\n\nAppeals by the police, the Missing People charity and his family have failed to produce any sightings of Andrew.\n\nDet Insp Knowles added: \"We have made numerous appeals over the years to find out where Andrew is and what happened to him when he disappeared.\n\n\"I would encourage anyone with any information they have not yet reported to come forward.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "BBC director general Tim Davie has said personal error was to blame for the broadcaster interviewing Jeffrey Epstein's former lawyer last month.\n\nAlan Dershowitz was interviewed shortly after Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of trafficking young girls to late US financier Epstein.\n\nMr Dershowitz himself has been accused of sexual abuse by one of Epstein's accusers - but denies that allegation.\n\nThe BBC later decided the interview had breached its own editorial standards.\n\nAfter the broadcast, the corporation admitted that the US lawyer had not been \"a suitable person to interview as an impartial analyst\" at that time.\n\nMr Davie was appearing before the House of Lords communications and digital committee to answer parliamentarians' questions about impartiality and the Serota review on editorial processes, governance and culture.\n\nWith BBC News in the midst of a programme of job cuts and restructuring, he was asked whether \"centralisation\" had risked \"amplifying\" editorial errors.\n\nReferring to the interview with Mr Dershowitz, which happened in the week after Christmas, Mr Davie said: \"We looked at what happened but there was no investigation.\n\n\"We admitted immediately it was in breach of our editorial guidelines and straight away said it was a mistake.\n\n\"Then you get to why it was a mistake. You can argue a little bit in terms of the amount of seniority and cover we had during Christmas, during Covid.\"\n\nBut he said: \"This was simply about the amount of due diligence that was done by the planner and the knowledge level of the person who was putting the person on air.\"\n\nMr Davie told peers \"not everything gets centralised\" under the BBC's plans to make savings.\n\nThe interview with Mr Dershowitz, 83, was broadcast on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel, shortly after the Maxwell verdict was announced.\n\nMr Dershowitz used the airtime to denigrate Virginia Giuffre's claims against himself and Prince Andrew. Both men deny her allegations of sexual abuse.\n\nHe was introduced on the news segment as a \"constitutional lawyer\" to provide analysis on the verdict - and his connection with Epstein and Ms Giuffre was not made clear in the interview.\n\nThe interview was also featured on the BBC News live page about the trial, and a short clip was played twice on Newsday on World Service English, but those instances gave some context about who Mr Dershowitz was.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRestrictions on large outdoor events in Scotland, including football matches and concerts, are to be lifted from next Monday.\n\nThe move will allow fans to return to stadiums when the Scottish Premiership's winter break ends.\n\nIt will also avoid Scotland's Six Nations rugby matches having to be played behind closed doors at Murrayfield next month.\n\nA limit of 500 people at outdoor events has been in place since Boxing Day.\n\nPremiership football teams started their winter break early after the crowd limit was imposed, with many fans believing the sport was unfairly singled out by the restrictions.\n\nLarge Hogmanay events, including the famous street party in Edinburgh, were also cancelled.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament that the limit of 500 people would be removed from Monday 17 January - which will allow Celtic's match with Hibernian on that day to be played before a full crowd at Celtic Park.\n\nEvent organisers will now have to check the vaccine certification of at least 50% of attendees, rather than the current 20%, or at least 1,000 people - whichever figure is higher.\n\nFrom Monday, the definition of \"fully vaccinated\" for the purpose of vaccine passports will include having a booster if the second dose was more than four months ago.\n\nAnd the government will also continue to consider whether the vaccine passport scheme should be extended to more venues.\n\nRestrictions on indoor events and venues will remain in place until at least 24 January, when Ms Sturgeon said she hoped to be able to lift them too.\n\nThe Scottish Licensed Traders Association said the industry had been left in limbo by the first minister's statement, and warned that any extension of the vaccine passport scheme would have a \"major negative impact\" on businesses.\n\nThe Scottish Premiership started its winter break early to avoid playing more matches without fans\n\nPeople will also still be required to wear face coverings in indoor public places, to work from home when possible, and to only meet indoors in groups of up to three households.\n\nThe measures were imposed by the Scottish government in an attempt to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, with the first minister saying there were now signs that the country was \"starting to turn the corner\" after a huge spike in cases.\n\nLimits of 100 people were placed on indoor standing events or 200 if they were seated, while nightclubs had to close and pubs and restaurants had to bring back table service for alcohol and a one-metre distance between different groups of people.\n\nBut the latest Scottish government Covid report showed that average daily cases in Scotland (2,824 per one million population in the week to 6 January) were higher than in England (2,615 per one million), which has fewer Covid restrictions.\n\nThis is clearly the news that major sporting bodies and fans were hoping for. There were genuine fears, from within football at least, that the first minister would push the date back once again.\n\nIt now appears that the increase in Covid passport checks outside stadia has allowed her to throw the doors back open but with a sense of continued caution.\n\nThe Scottish government says the decision is based purely on the science, but there's no doubt that the move is timely, from a political perspective.\n\nWith the Six Nations fast approaching, could the first minister really have watched on if Scotland's home game's had been moved south for the sake of attendance? It was certainly being discussed.\n\nAs talk now turns to how we learn to live with Covid, this latest sporting sigh of relief will be accompanied by the hope that fans are be back for good.\n\nSome business leaders say said that the tougher coronavirus rules have failed to make a \"meaningful difference\" to infection levels and were causing \"enormous damage\" to some sectors.\n\nAnd pressure has been growing on the first minister to set out how Scotland can begin to \"live safely\" with Covid and loosen restrictions.\n\nMs Sturgeon insisted that the restrictions had \"helped to mitigate to some extent the impact of the Omicron wave\", with positive cases estimated to be about 30,000 a day in early January rather than the initial projection of 50,000 per day .\n\nShe added: \"It is very likely that the situation we face now, though serious, would have been even more challenging without the renewed sacrifices made by people across the country over these last few weeks.\"\n\nThe first minister also told MSPs that a revised framework for dealing with the virus will be released in the coming weeks, following input from parliament and business organisations.\n\nIn a marked change of language to earlier stages of the pandemic, the first minister said this would set out how the country might be able to live with the virus without the need for restrictive measures \"that we are all tired of and which do harm in other ways\".\n\nPubs had to reintroduce table service and ensure distancing between groups of customers as part of measures aimed at slowing the spread of Omicron\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said it was \"disappointing\" that restrictions such as the vaccine passport scheme were continuing despite Scotland being in a \"far more positive position than the government were expecting\".\n\nHe said: \"The outlook is much better now not because of government restrictions, but because of people's good sense. The people of Scotland got this right, not the government.\"\n\nMeanwhile Labour's Anas Sarwar said that \"a new phase of the pandemic must mean a new approach\".\n\nHe added: \"People can no longer live their lives waiting to hear on an ad hoc basis what the rules will be day by day.\n\n\"Businesses and workers cannot plan for the future properly if they cannot predict the government's response.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Seth was in intensive care when his lung collapsed and his family \"feared the worst\"\n\nA thirteen-year-old boy with a life-long progressive condition can finally celebrate Christmas, after weeks in hospital with Covid.\n\nSeth Burke caught the virus just days after becoming the first wheelchair user to become a member of the Welsh Youth Parliament.\n\nHe's more vulnerable to the effects due to his condition and had been fighting for his life in intensive care.\n\nSeth said he did not want anyone else to go through this \"scary\" experience.\n\nHe urged people to get vaccinated.\n\nSeth, from Dinas Powys in the Vale of Glamorgan, has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which made his treatment for Covid more complex.\n\nHe tested positive for Covid on 13 December and started to go downhill a few days later when his temperature rose and he felt very unwell.\n\nThe teenager was taken into the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and, after deteriorating further, was admitted to intensive care where he was put on non-invasive ventilation to help him breathe.\n\nSeth joined the Welsh Youth Parliament to work on mental health and environmental issues\n\nOn Christmas Day, his parents were braced for the worst when his lung collapsed, but he pulled through and, on Wednesday, he will finally go home.\n\nSeth said the whole situation was \"quite scary\".\n\n\"I didn't really know what was going on at the time, it's a bit of a blur,\" he said.\n\n\"There were a lot of machines and beeping. It was very loud, it wasn't very nice and I just wanted to go home.\"\n\nSeth's mother and father, Lisa and John Burke, said they had to face the possibility they might lose him.\n\nMr Burke said: ''I think on that really early Christmas morning when I had to phone Lisa and say he's really gone downhill, I was really scared.\n\n\"All these things flash through your mind and there is the potential you might lose him and it was touch and go.\n\n\"Thankfully he had all the support of the doctors and nurses in the intensive care unit who were really brilliant and we managed to get him through it.\n\n\"I'm just glad he was in the right place at the right time.\"\n\nSeth is finally coming home after weeks in hospital but his parents said he will be feeling the effects of Covid for some time\n\nBy New Year's Day, Seth had bounced back and was out of intensive care and back on a hospital ward playing with Lego and his favourite video games, and watching TV.\n\nHowever, he will feel the impact of Covid for some time as his parents said he is much weaker and he gets very tired.\n\nHis lungs need to repair and he has ventilation support to help him breathe at night.\n\nSeth will not be able to join his friends back at school just yet either due to family fears of other strains of the virus. He will have his first jab next month.\n\nMr Burke said his son was a \"real fighter\", adding: \"I'm incredibly proud of him.\n\n\"I know adult patients who wouldn't put up with half of what he has.\n\n\"He's really resilient, really strong, always got a smile on his face, and just wants to crack a joke and have chat with people.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Seth has never let his lifelong progressive condition hold him back\n\nThe family will now have belated Christmas celebrations, finally getting to open their presents together and have a proper Christmas dinner - it was a Pot Noodle in hospital for Seth's dad on 25 December.\n\nSeth said he hopes his story is a strong message.\n\n\"I don't want anyone to get as ill as I was and I want people to stay well,\" he said.\n\n\"If you feel unwell, get a test and if you can get a vaccination, get a vaccination.\n\nThe family is having a belated Christmas celebration\n\n\"Children can get Covid. I know people say they can't, but they definitely can and I know because I've had it.\n\n\"I want to say thank you to all the doctors and nurses who've helped me get better.\n\n'I've had really good care, they've made me feel a lot better and all the doctors and nurses are really nice.\"", "Actor Gary Waldhorn, known for playing Councillor David Horton in TV sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, has died at 78.\n\nWaldhorn was one of the mainstays of the hit comedy, playing the chairman of the parish council who often locked horns with Dawn French's vicar.\n\nHis other TV shows included such 1980s and 90s favourites as Brush Strokes, Lovejoy and Gallowglass.\n\nWaldhorn also enjoyed an illustrious career in the theatre, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company.\n\nFrench paid tribute by posting a photo of the actor with a broken heart emoji.\n\nWaldhorn died on Monday, his son said.\n\nJosh Waldhorn said in a statement: \"Classically trained, it was the theatre where he truly flourished and he leaves a legacy of entertainment that saw him frequent the boards of Broadway, the West End and our living rooms on the telly!\n\n\"He leaves behind his two grandsons, Cooper and Bayley and his son Josh. We will all miss him terribly.\"\n\nA statement from BBC Comedy added: \"Gary was an incredibly talented actor who is fondly remembered by us for his numerous appearances on some of the nations most treasured BBC shows, and of course as Councillor David Horton in The Vicar of Dibley.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.\"\n\nWaldhorn (left) played Henry IV alongside Timothy West (centre) and Samuel West at the Old Vic, London, in 1997\n\nWaldhorn's theatre roles included Good for the RSC in 1981, which went to Broadway the following year, and Black Comedy alongside David Tennant in the West End in 1998.\n\nHe also played the title role in Henry IV at the Old Vic, a performance that was described as \"magnificent\" by the Sunday Times.\n\nThat saw him return to the theatre where he first caught the acting bug.\n\n\"I liked acting as a child and I remember as a first-former in London we were given tickets to the Old Vic to see a Shakespeare play,\" he once recalled.\n\n\"I saw Richard Burton play Henry V and my life changed. I came home and said, 'I wanted to be a Shakespearian actor.'\"\n\nActor Samuel West, who appeared with Waldhorn in Henry IV, was among the others paying tribute, remembering him as \"a lovely man and a terrific actor\".", "A US man has become the first person in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig.\n\nDavid Bennett, 57, is doing well three days after the experimental seven-hour procedure in Baltimore, doctors say.\n\nThe transplant was considered the last hope of saving Mr Bennett's life, though it is not yet clear what his long-term chances of survival are.\n\n\"It was either die or do this transplant,\" Mr Bennett explained a day before the surgery.\n\n\"I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice,\" he said.\n\nDoctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center were granted a special dispensation by the US medical regulator to carry out the procedure, on the basis that Mr Bennett - who has terminal heart disease - would otherwise have died.\n\nHe had been deemed ineligible for a human transplant, a decision that is often taken by doctors when the patient is in very poor health.\n\nThe pig used in the transplant had been genetically modified to knock out several genes that would have led to the organ being rejected by Mr Bennett's body, the AFP news agency reports.\n\nFor the medical team who carried out the transplant, it marks the culmination of years of research and could change lives around the world.\n\nSurgeon Bartley Griffith said the surgery would bring the world \"one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis\". Currently 17 people die every day in the US waiting for a transplant, with more than 100,000 reportedly on the waiting list.\n\nDr Christine Lau, chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, was in the operating theatre during the surgery.\n\n\"He's at more of a risk because we require more immunosuppression, slightly different than we would normally do in a human-to-human transplant. How well the patient does from now is, you know, it's never been done before so we really don't know,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"People die all the time on the waiting list, waiting for organs. If we could use genetically engineered pig organs they'd never have to wait, they could basically get an organ as they needed it.\n\n\"Plus, we wouldn't have to fly all over the country at night-time to recover organs to put them into recipients,\" she added.\n\nThe possibility of using animal organs for so-called xenotransplantation to meet the demand has long been considered, and using pig heart valves is already common.\n\nIn October 2021, surgeons in New York announced that they had successfully transplanted a pig's kidney into a person. At the time, the operation was the most advanced experiment in the field so far.\n\nHowever, the recipient on that occasion was brain dead with no hope of recovery.\n\nThis watershed moment provides hope of a solution to the chronic shortage of donor human organs. But there is still a long way to go to determine whether giving people animal organs is the way forward. Pig hearts are anatomically similar to human hearts but, understandably, not identical. It's not ideal, compared to swapping in a human donor heart. But it is possible to plumb them in and get them working.\n\nThe bigger issue is organ rejection. These pigs are bred to lack genes that can cause rejection. They are cloned with certain genes \"knocked out\" and reared until they reach an age where their organs are big enough to be harvested for transplantation.\n\nIt is too soon to know how Mr Bennett will fare with his pig heart. His doctors were clear that the surgery was a gamble. The risks are huge, but so are the potential gains.\n\nMr Bennett, however, is hoping his transplant will allow him to continue with his life. He was bedridden for six weeks leading up to the surgery, and attached to a machine which kept him alive after he was diagnosed with terminal heart disease.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Muhammad Mohiuddin from the University of Maryland calls the transplant a \"game-changer\"\n\n\"I look forward to getting out of bed after I recover,\" he said last week.\n\nOn Monday, Mr Bennett was reported to be breathing on his own while being carefully monitored.\n\nBut exactly what will happen next is unclear.\n\nMr Griffith said they were proceeding cautiously and carefully monitoring Mr Bennett, while his son David Bennett Jr told the Associated Press that the family were \"in the unknown at this point\".\n\nBut he added: \"He realises the magnitude of what was done and he really realises the importance of it.\"\n\n\"We've never done this in a human and I like to think that we, we have given him a better option than what continuing his therapy would have been,\" Mr Griffith said. \"But whether [he will live for] a day, week, month, year, I don't know.\"", "Senior Downing Street political staff had to intervene during the first half of 2021 to prevent events at No 10 - such as leaving parties - going ahead, sources have told the BBC.\n\nThe proposed events - suggested by staff, not politicians - would have taken place during the roadmap out of lockdown, which saw restrictions gradually lifted.\n\nIndoor hospitality in England was banned until 17 May 2021 and outdoor mixing - in groups of six - wasn't permitted until 29 March 2021.\n\nThe prime minister is coming under pressure, following allegations he attended a lockdown drinks in the Downing Street garden on 20 May 2020.\n\nOn Monday, ITV published an email from the prime minister's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting around 100 staff to the \"socially distanced drinks\".\n\nWitnesses have told the BBC Boris Johnson and his wife had been among about 30 people at the event.\n\nMr Johnson has not denied he was at the party, instead pointing to an ongoing investigation into gatherings held in Downing Street.\n\nFormer No 10 insiders say those \"socially distanced drinks\" set a precedent: if a senior civil servant such as Mr Reynolds could give approval to this event, it was unsurprising that more junior staff felt it was acceptable to hold a Christmas party later that year.\n\nOne of them said the 20 May drinks had \"lowered the bar\" for future events.\n\nLast Friday, the former senior Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings said he had made it clear in writing that the 20 May event should not go ahead.\n\nBut it has now become apparent he was not a lone voice.\n\nA fellow adviser told the BBC that they were \"furious\" that the drinks took place.\n\nAnd another senior member of the political staff at No 10 also tried unsuccessfully to have the event called off.\n\nA former senior staff member said there had been detailed discussions about meetings which took place outdoors to ensure regulations were observed, but - in their opinion - there had been \"no legal basis\" for the \"bring your own bottle\" event on 20 May 2020.\n\nA long-standing Conservative MP predicted that Sue Gray, the civil servant who is conducting the internal inquiry, would \"let the PM off on a technicality\" - that Downing Street was both a household and a place of work.\n\nHowever, some of those who worked at No 10 at the time maintain that no such loophole would have been credible.\n\nThe latest revelations have resulted in a high degree of jeopardy for Boris Johnson.\n\nOne former member of his staff questioned whether the 20 May event could have gone ahead without his approval, given the resistance to it from key political staff.\n\nA Conservative MP who is well placed to gauge backbench opinion told the BBC that the mood was now hardening against the prime minister.\n\nHe suggested that Mr Johnson's behaviour was \"impugning the reputations of Conservative MPs\".", "Ion Onut was looking at profiles on dating sites while driving his HGV\n\nA lorry driver who was browsing dating sites at the wheel has been jailed for a crash that killed three people.\n\nDavid Daglish, 57, and Elaine Sullivan, 59, of Seaham, and Paul Mullen, 51, of Washington, died in the crash on the A1(M) in County Durham last July.\n\nIon Onut, 41, of the Scottish Borders, admitted three counts of causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for eight years and 10 months.\n\nOnut's phone showed he was browsing sites for 40 minutes before the crash.\n\nPhone records confirmed he had been navigating between two dating sites, had spent almost £50 to engage with users and was looking at profiles and editing his own while driving, Durham Crown Court heard.\n\nDavid Daglish and Elaine Sullivan died at the scene\n\nHis lorry, laden with fertiliser, was moving at least 50mph over that time.\n\nOnut, originally from Romania but who had moved to Galashiels, had ignored warning signs to slow down and alerting drivers to a build-up of traffic caused by a spillage of handbrake fluid.\n\nWitnesses saw him driving erratically and weaving across lanes minutes before the collision, which occurred at about 18:15 BST on 15 July on the northbound carriageway near junction 61 at Bowburn.\n\nJudge James Adkin said: \"You were not asleep at the wheel, which would have been bad enough. In fact you were trawling the internet on dating sites looking for casual sexual partners.\"\n\nOnut's lorry was travelling at 58mph when it hit a line of stationary traffic - first the Vauxhall Crossland which Mr Daglish and his partner Ms Sullivan were in before smashing Mr Mullen's Toyota Hilux under another lorry - and burst into flames.\n\nThere were two lorries and four cars involved in the collision and three other people suffered serious injuries.\n\nPaul Mullen was also killed in the crash\n\nThe lorry \"careered out of control, destroying everything in its path\" before ending up 100m down the carriageway past the point of the initial impact.\n\nNick Dry, prosecuting, said: \"He was utterly engrossed in internet activity, in pursuit of sexual gratification, over an extended period of time while in control of a large goods vehicle on a busy motorway.\"\n\nLorry driver Michael Hosty and another man, Ryan Campbell, were commended for their bravery in rushing to help pull Onut free from his burning cab. Mr Hosty, who now has post-traumatic stress disorder, recalled grabbing him and saying: \"Look, mate, if you don't help me out we are both going to die.\"\n\nThe consequences of Onut's actions were \"catastrophic\", the judge said.\n\nThe crash involved six vehicles and left wreckage strewn across the motorway\n\nSoldier Junior Sullivan, whose mother and stepfather died in the crash, told the court his life was \"shattered\" and he felt \"unbearable rage at the sight of other drivers using their mobile phones\".\n\nHard-working family man Mr Mullen was a loving father to his three children and was about to become a grandfather, his daughter Orlaigh said.\n\nLauren Cawton, who survived the crash, was left with chronic leg pain and said her life had been ruined.\n\nFellow survivor Molly Smith said the crash left her feeling stressed, angry and guilty during the final weeks of her pregnancy.\n\nRichard Bloomfield, defending, said Onut felt remorse and passed on an apology from the defendant for the \"devastation\" he caused.\n\nOnut was also disqualified from driving for a total of 14 years and five months.\n\nSpeaking after the sentencing, Sgt Catherine Iley, from Durham Constabulary, described the crash as \"truly harrowing for everyone involved\".\n\nShe said: \"It was incredibly distressing and upsetting for those who witnessed the collision, and for the emergency responders, including police officers, firefighters and paramedics, who attended the scene.\n\n\"The horror of what they witnessed that day will no doubt remain with them for many years to come.\"\n\nSgt Iley paid tribute to all those who tried to help in the aftermath of the crash including members of the public, Highways England employees and soldiers from the 4th Regiment Royal Artillery who had been caught up in the ensuing traffic jam.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Kate Josephs left the Cabinet Office to work for Sheffield City Council in December 2020\n\nThe chief executive of Sheffield City Council must resign over revelations that she hosted a lockdown party, a former leader of the council has said.\n\nKate Josephs, who led the government's Covid-19 taskforce, held leaving drinks in the Cabinet Office in December 2020, it emerged on Friday.\n\nLord Paul Scriven, Lib Dem leader of Sheffield Council from 2008 to 2011, said Ms Josephs must now stand down.\n\nHe said her admission left him in \"disbelief and anger\".\n\nMs Josephs served as director general of the taskforce responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions from July 2020 until she became chief executive of Sheffield City Council the following December.\n\nShe said she was \"truly sorry\" for joining the drinks reception which is understood to be among the events being investigated by senior civil servant Sue Gray.\n\nMs Josephs said she was co-operating fully with the investigation into gatherings in government buildings.\n\nAt the time of her Cabinet Office departure London was subject to restrictions preventing most indoor mixing between those from different households.\n\nLord Scriven, Lib Dem leader of Sheffield City Council from 2008-11, said Kate Josephs' apology was \"forced\" by reports in The Daily Telegraph\n\n\"Ms Josephs was the most senior civil servant leading the national Covid taskforce,\" Lord Scriven said.\n\n\"She pre-organised a drinks party on the day 567 people died.\"\n\nLord Scriven said the chief executive had \"undermined the name of the city\" and \"whenever she says something to support Sheffield's fight against Covid or the NHS, no-one will believe her\".\n\nHe added: \"I have written to Ms Josephs asking her to step down.\"\n\nOn Friday, Ms Josephs posted an apology for her actions on Twitter, in which she wrote: \"On the evening of 17 December, I gathered with colleagues that were at work that day, with drinks, in our office in the Cabinet Office to mark my leaving the Civil Service.\n\n\"I am truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result.\"\n\nSpeaking after Ms Josephs' admission, Sheffield City Council's leader, Terry Fox, expressed his \"deep disappointment... after everything Sheffield has been through during the pandemic\".\n\n\"People will rightly feel angry and let down. I get that completely,\" he said.\n\nHe said Ms Josephs had been an \"asset\" to the city for the last year but stated residents' questions would have to be addressed.\n\nKate Josephs posted a picture of herself outside 10 Downing Street on 18 December 2020, the day after the leaving drinks were held\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Nino Cerruti - one of the great Italian designers and fashion entrepreneurs - has died aged 91.\n\nReports say he passed away in hospital in Piedmont where he had checked in for a hip operation.\n\nHe always insisted on trying on his own creations first. Many of them were kept at the textile factory his grandfather founded in the town of Biella in 1881.\n\n\"I have always dressed the same person, myself,\" he once said, according to AFP news agency.\n\nWith his experience in producing excellent fabrics at his family's textile mill, Cerruti went into the clothing business in the late 1950s.\n\nWith a model in Capri in September 1968\n\nHe opened his first boutique in Paris in 1967.\n\nWhen he asked male and female models to walk down the catwalk in the same clothes, he revolutionised fashion, AFP notes.\n\nRiding his bike on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice in 1985\n\nIn the '80s, he branched out into Hollywood, designing clothes for stars including Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks.\n\nAt the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 with Antonio Banderas (L) and Prince Albert II of Monaco\n\nWith Catherine Deneuve (C) and Fanny Ardant in Paris in 1999\n\nFrom a portrait session in Italy in July 1987\n\nAt home with his wife and son in Rome in 1988", "Djokovic is scheduled to play in the Australian Open in Melbourne on Monday\n\nNovak Djokovic is set to be detained on Saturday after Australia cancelled his visa for a second time, in a row over his right to remain in the country unvaccinated.\n\nThe decision on \"health and good order\" grounds means he faces deportation and a three-year visa ban.\n\nDjokovic's lawyers called the judgement \"irrational\" and have appealed.\n\nThe men's tennis number one is still scheduled to play in the Australian Open in Melbourne on Monday.\n\n\"Today I exercised my power... to cancel the visa held by Mr Novak Djokovic on health and good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so,\" Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said in a statement.\n\nPrime Minister Scott Morrison said the decision followed \"careful consideration\".\n\nAlluding to the heavy criticism his government has faced for allowing the unvaccinated player into Australia, Mr Morrison said: \"Australians have made many sacrifices during this pandemic, and they rightly expect the result of those sacrifices to be protected.\"\n\nSerbian President Aleksandar Vucic condemned the move, telling the 34-year old in an Instagram message: \"Novak, we stand by you.\"\n\n\"If you wanted to ban Novak Djokovic from winning the 10th trophy in Melbourne why didn't you return him immediately, why didn't you tell him 'it is impossible to obtain a visa'?\" Mr Vucic added.\n\n\"Why are you mistreating him, why are you taking it out not only on him but also on his family and the whole nation,\" the Serbian president said.\n\nAt an emergency late-night court hearing shortly after the decision was announced on Friday, Judge Anthony Kelly ruled that Djokovic could not be deported while the appeal proceedings were happening. An appeal hearing is expected on Sunday.\n\nThe judge also said the government could detain Djokovic after he meets immigration officials in Melbourne on Saturday morning. However, he will be allowed to go to his lawyers' offices to prepare his case ahead of Sunday's hearing.\n\nAn initial hearing will be held on Saturday at 10:15 local time (23:15 GMT on Friday).\n\nDjokovic's legal team called the minister's decision to cancel the visa \"patently irrational\".\n\nCiting a government document with more details on why it was revoked, Djokovic's lawyer, Nicholas Wood, said it was not because he is a danger to the public, but because \"he will excite anti-vax sentiment\".\n\nAlthough Djokovic is not vaccinated, he has not actively promoted anti-vax disinformation. However, Australian anti-vaxxers have been using the hashtag #IStandWithDjokovic on social media.\n\nMr Wood added that the minister had chosen to \"remove a man of good standing\" from Australia and \"impair\" his future career over anti-vaccination comments Djokovic had made in 2020.\n\nThe nine-time Australian Open winner was hoping to defend his title next week, which if he won, would make him the most successful male tennis player in history with a record 21 Grand Slam titles.\n\nFor the moment, Djokovic remains in the Australian Open draw and is due to face fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic on Monday - the first day of the tournament.\n\nDjokovic's visa was first revoked shortly after his arrival in Melbourne on 6 January, after Australian border Force officials said he had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" to receive a vaccine exemption.\n\nHis initial announcement that he was coming to play in the Open prompted a backlash from some Australians, who have lived under long and strict Covid lockdowns, because it was unclear if he could meet the country's strict entry rules. Melbourne in particular was hard bit by lockdowns, enduring 262 days under heavy restrictions last year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"If he plays, I will not watch him\": Watch strong reactions on the Novak Djokovic case in Australia\n\nDjokovic was detained for days at an immigration hotel, before his visa was reinstated by Judge Kelly, who ordered his release, ruling that border officials ignored correct procedure when he arrived.\n\nBut on Friday evening in Melbourne, Mr Hawke again cancelled Djokovic's visa under separate powers in Australia's Migration Act.\n\nThe act allows him to deport anyone he deems a potential risk to \"the health, safety or good order of the Australian community\", however Djokovic can still appeal this.", "The prime minister is fighting to stay in No 10 - and the next few days could prove decisive.\n\nMPs can't skulk, plotting, in Westminster's corridors at weekends. But for Boris Johnson, the time his colleagues spend back in their constituencies could prove even worse.\n\nOne senior MP described how on Friday, during a standard school visit, he was asked by a group of nine-year-olds whether or not the prime minister was going to resign, and then was catcalled by teenage pupils about Boris Johnson's behaviour.\n\nAs much as the prime minister's seemingly dwindling number of backers may wish this saga was merely a preoccupation of his many enemies or the press, the question of whether he stays or goes has become a national conversation.\n\nBoris Johnson is driven away from Parliament on Wednesday\n\nOn Wednesday, presenters on cosy daytime TV sofas crossed live to the Commons for PMQs. Music radio presenters challenged each other to race to the Co-op on London's Strand to fill a carry-on case with a carry-out, after the latest claims about No 10 staff filling a suitcase with booze.\n\nOne minister admits there is a \"lot of discontent\" among local party associations - which MPs will hear in person this weekend. And many report their email inboxes have been filling up with party members and constituents seething about what's been going on.\n\nThe prime minister's future is now the subject of playground teasing. As the MP who had that awkward conversation with the nine-year-olds suggested, if many of his colleagues have similar experiences, \"Monday morning could be a very difficult moment\".\n\nAnother senior MP, who has already been told by their local party chairman that the prime minister should quit, predicted that MPs will hear so much concern this weekend, \"it could all be over on Monday\".\n\nBut hang on. There is nothing automatic about what happens next.\n\nThe consensus among MPs right now seems to be at least to wait until the conclusions of Sue Gray's report are made public.\n\nOne cabinet minister who says \"there is no getting away from the situation - it is very bad\", also cautions: \"It is very hard to get rid of a leader who doesn't want to go.\" The minister says Johnson will \"want to go on and on and on\" - whatever the findings of the report.\n\nAnother senior cabinet minister believes that while MPs are angry, \"they are not at the stage when they want to get rid of him\". Importantly, too, the cabinet itself does not seem to be taking a collective view about what to do.\n\nThe mood among ministers is that the situation is pretty desperate. But they don't seem to be trying to take concerted action together, either, to find a way out.\n\nFor one member of the cabinet, that's in contrast with memories they have of regular discussions about how to manage the political horror during the worst days of Theresa May's premiership. This may be in part down to the fact we are now in very different political times.\n\nThere aren't bonds between groups at the most influential table in the land in the same way - no Brexiteer band determined to get their way whatever the cost, and no group like the one that was determined to protect Mrs May.\n\nThere is, however, an acceptance that Boris Johnson faces a moment of real peril and has to change. One says: \"A lot of people say he has three months to significantly raise his game.\"\n\nThe question of whether the prime minister himself believes he has to change, or can, is an argument for another day.\n\nThe precise wording of the Sue Gray report will be vital in all of this. Will she criticise the overall culture in No 10, or point to individuals or blame the prime minister himself?\n\nRemember, the report is official and Sue Gray's reputation is fearsome, but that's not the same as being an outsider. She is a senior government employee, not an independent arbiter. That's not to suggest that she will pull any punches, but it would be quite something if she were to suggest that Boris Johnson himself had directly broken the rules.\n\nWhatever the specifics of her conclusions, the position will still be difficult. And some of the rising generation of ministers not yet in cabinet may take a harsher view than those already at the top table.\n\nSources suggest there are conversations taking place among the lower ranks, those who see themselves as the future of the party, about the possibility of taking action. The idea has been mooted that some of them may go to the prime minister once the report is out and say that either he goes, or they do instead.\n\nThis doesn't seem to be a concrete plan, but an apparent lack of organisation in cabinet doesn't mean that there's no threat from others on the payroll. Johnson's ministers may not all be prepared to tolerate many more weeks like this.\n\nIt's on the backbenches where MPs are far more open about the action they may take. One former minister, not a usual troublemaker, predicted confidently there will be enough letters calling for a vote of no confidence to bring about a contest next month.\n\nAnother, who backed Boris Johnson originally, told me they will call for him to resign when the Gray report is published and expect enough others will agree to trigger a fight for him to stay in the job.\n\nBut it is one thing threatening all of this privately right now. It's another to follow through.\n\nAnother backbencher told me they were pleading with colleagues to remember the turmoil that changing a leader creates, saying: \"We might not be that far from an election - I just wish everyone would remember that.\"\n\nAnother told the BBC \"I can see no scenario where he's the PM going into the next election\" but \"it's not the right time\" to act.\n\nThe pandemic is still with us. There is growing pressure on family finances. Yet the levels of frustration with No 10 are sky-high, in part because the fiasco is seen as being entirely self-inflicted.\n\nThe behaviour itself, behind closed doors, is almost unbelievable to many. The handling of it a product of what's often seen as Johnson's credo - never apologise, never explain - which means rather than confronting the claims at the start and coming clean, allegations have been left to fester and grow, resulting yesterday in the most extraordinary apology, even, to the Queen.\n\nIt's not at all clear how No 10 believes they can get through this crisis.\n\nRegular briefings to the press this week have been surreal and unproductive. I'm told the mood inside the building is terrible, one source telling me staff are unsure if colleagues are telling each other the truth.\n\nSome, it's said, are still holding on to the conviction that what happened can be explained away that the gatherings were \"events\" not parties, and that the technicalities of the rules may somehow see them through.\n\nThe mood outside Downing Street is rather different, with disbelief that, as one cabinet minister suggested, \"Boris has persuaded himself he's the victim here\".\n\nThere was \"consternation\" when the prime minister went to talk to MPs moments after his Commons apology and - as one of them described to me - told them \"he was bravely taking the blame for other people's mistakes\".\n\nThe fate of Boris Johnson is certainly not yet sealed. The details of the Gray report matter. The bravado of MPs can melt away. The absence of an obvious, ready-to-go rival may protect him (although there are plenty who are lining up to have a go).\n\nThe prime minister may be able to rediscover what one of his colleagues describes as \"his magic\". It could prove in time that this was simply an appalling bout of the mid-term blues. And those who know him well think the chance of Boris Johnson concluding it's best to step away are extremely slim.\n\nBut with each new day of allegations and embarrassment it's more likely that the decision could be taken out of his hands.", "There is now high confidence that Omicron is relatively mild for most adults, says the UK Health Security Agency in its latest risk assessment.\n\nThis is largely thanks to vaccines providing high protection against serious illness caused by this latest Covid variant that is infecting many.\n\nIt comes as other data shows while more babies are being admitted to hospital with Omicron, they are not very sick.\n\nMeanwhile, Covid cases are on the way down, according to UK daily figures.\n\nThere were 99,652 new cases reported on Friday, a continuing drop which pushed the seven-day figure down by 29.5% on the week before.\n\nIt is too soon to say if the Omicron wave has peaked though, since the daily statistics are based on people who come forward for testing.\n\nProf Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics at The Open University, said: \"Infections often do not cause any symptoms, even though asymptomatic infected people can still spread the infection to others. Without symptoms people might not be routinely tested, and so end up not being counted.\"\n\nThere will also be some regional variation, with some parts of the UK running hotter with Covid than others.\n\nDifferent figures, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), estimate infection rates in the community by swabbing people regardless of whether they think they might be infected.\n\nThat data, which goes up to 7 January, suggests 4.3m in the UK have Covid. That's roughly one in 15 people and is the highest level of infections recorded by the ONS since the survey started.\n\nThe number of people testing positive for coronavirus fell in London, but increased in the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the North East.\n\nOn Friday, the UK reported another 270 deaths of people who had tested positive for Covid within the previous 28 days. The seven-day total for deaths is up 67% on the week before, following a record spike in infections in recent weeks. Some of these will be people who died with Covid, not from it.\n\nThe The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says the best way people can protect themselves and others against Covid, is to get fully vaccinated. People who need it can still get a first, second or third dose.\n\nSusan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor at UKHSA, said: \"A booster dose of the vaccine provides you with significant protection against hospitalisation from Omicron. Booster doses also increase the protection against symptomatic and asymptomatic infection, which will reduce transmission in the population.\n\n\"While prevalence remains high, make sure to wear your mask in indoor settings and take a lateral flow test before meeting others. If you develop any symptoms, isolate immediately and get a PCR test.\"\n• None Babies in hospital with Omicron as a precaution\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The man who received the world's first pig-heart transplant once stabbed a man leaving him paralysed, his victim's family have said.\n\nDavid Bennett, 57, was convicted of stabbing of Edward Shumaker in 1988, his sister told the BBC's Today show.\n\nLeslie Shumaker Downey, whose brother died in 2007, said she thought Mr Bennett was unworthy of the surgery.\n\nBut the transplant team said that a person's criminal past could never be grounds for refusing treatment.\n\n\"It is the solemn obligation of any hospital or health care organization to provide lifesaving care to every patient who comes through their doors based on their medical needs,\" officials at the University of Maryland Medical Centre told The New York Times.\n\n\"Any other standard of care would set a dangerous precedent and would violate the ethical and moral values that underpin the obligation physicians and caregivers have to all patients in their care.\"\n\nThe attack took place in April 1988 when Mr Bennett's wife sat on the lap of Mr Shumaker, who was 22, Ms Downey said.\n\nIn an apparent jealous rage, Mr Bennett stabbed Mr Shumaker in the back repeatedly.\n\nMr Bennett was found guilty of battery and carrying a concealed weapon and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.\n\nMs Downey said nobody had contacted her about Mr Bennett receiving the pig heart, and only heard the news when her daughter messaged her.\n\n\"My second daughter sent me an instant message and said: 'Mum, this is the man who stabbed uncle Ed.' I then read the story and got angry because he had received the heart,\" she said.\n\nThe operation, carried out in Baltimore, Maryland, took more than seven hours to complete\n\nMr Bennett is recovering after the experimental seven-hour procedure in Baltimore.\n\nThe transplant was considered the last hope of saving Mr Bennett's life, though it is not yet clear what his long-term chances of survival are.\n\nBut Ms Downey said coverage of the story had upset her.\n\n\"They're putting Bennett in the storylines, portraying him as a hero and a pioneer but he's nothing of that sort,\" she said.\n\n\"I think the doctors who did the surgery should be getting all the praise for what they have done, not Mr Bennett.\"\n\nMr Shumaker used a wheelchair as a result of the attack, before he had a stroke in 2005 and died two years later.\n\nDoctors around the world are sworn to treat patients who need care equally, regardless of their past crimes or activities.\n\nThe Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which operates the US transplant list, says \"punitive attitudes that completely exclude those convicted of crimes from receiving medical treatment, including an organ transplant are not ethically legitimate.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Muhammad Mohiuddin from the University of Maryland calls the transplant a \"game-changer\"", "The Duke of York's lawyers want to question a psychologist who treated the woman accusing him of sexual assault, claiming she may \"suffer from false memories\".\n\nCourt documents show they want Virginia Giuffre's husband, Robert, and psychologist Dr Judith Lightfoot to be examined under oath.\n\nMs Giuffre's legal team want to call the prince's former assistant.\n\nWith a trial due to go ahead after a judge threw out the prince's motion to dismiss the civil case, both parties are requesting help with calling witnesses overseas to give evidence.\n\nJudge Lewis Kaplan, who is hearing the case in New York, has asked for witnesses' evidence to be taken by lawyers by 14 July and said a trial could take place in court later this year.\n\nPrince Andrew, 61, faces allegations by Ms Giuffre that he was one of the men who had sex with her while she was being trafficked by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein at the age of 17 - a minor under US law.\n\nThe prince's lawyers want to question his accuser's husband, Robert Giuffre, about their household finances and how he met his wife around 2002, according to court documents.\n\nThey also want to ask her psychologist, Dr Judith Lightfoot, about subjects they discussed at her sessions and see her doctors' notes and medicines prescribed.\n\nThe legal team argue Ms Giuffre, now 38, \"may suffer from false memories\", and also want to examine Dr Lightfoot about the \"theory of false memories\".\n\nDr Lightfoot and Mr Giuffre, who both live in Australia, would be requested to be examined under oath in person or by videolink, the documents show.\n\nA false memory expert, psychologist Dr Elizabeth Loftus, testified at the trial of Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell in December, before Maxwell's conviction on sex-trafficking charges.\n\nShe said people continually reconstructed their memories rather than retrieving them as if from a recording device, and they could be subject to \"post-event suggestion\".\n\nBut she conceded while \"peripheral memories\" of traumatic events may be forgotten, core memories may get stronger.\n\nMeanwhile, court documents show lawyers for Ms Giuffre are seeking testimony from two people in the UK.\n\nHer legal team want Robert Olney, the prince's former assistant, to provide a statement.\n\nA letter submitted to the Royal Courts of Justice in London says Ms Giuffre has reason to believe Mr Olney has relevant information about Prince Andrew's relationship with convicted child sex offender Epstein.\n\nThis is because Mr Olney's name appears in publicly-available copies of Epstein's phone book, her lawyers say.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Why Prince Andrew's military titles and royal patronages meant so much\n\nAnother letter seeks testimony from Shukri Walker, explaining she stated in the press that she was a potential witness to Prince Andrew's presence at the Tramp nightclub around the time Ms Giuffre said she was abused.\n\nMs Giuffre has said they visited the club in London before she was assaulted in 2001, but the court documents note the duke has denied being at Tramp on the night in question or ever having met Ms Giuffre.\n\nThe developments come after Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday that Prince Andrew's military titles and royal patronages have been returned to the Queen.\n\n\"The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen,\" the palace said in a statement.", "Djokovic is still scheduled to play in the Australian Open in Melbourne on Monday\n\nNovak Djokovic has been detained in Australia ahead of a court hearing that will determine whether the unvaccinated tennis star can stay in the country.\n\nThe Serb faces deportation after his visa was cancelled for a second time, with the government labelling the 34-year-old a threat to public health.\n\nHis lawyers are appealing against what they called an \"irrational\" decision, with the hearing set for Sunday.\n\nDjokovic is still scheduled to play the Australian Open on Monday in Melbourne.\n\nIf he were to win the tournament, he would become the most successful men's tennis player in the history of the sport with 21 major titles.\n\nBut Sunday's hearing, scheduled for 09:30 local time (22:30 GMT on Saturday), is crucial if Djokovic is to be able to compete just hours later.\n\nIf he loses the appeal, the world's top-ranked men's tennis player faces deportation and a three-year visa ban.\n\nOn Saturday, shortly after an online pre-trial hearing, Djokovic returned to the immigration detention hotel where he was held earlier this week. He will remain there until his appeal on Sunday.\n\nDjokovic's visa was first revoked shortly after his arrival in Melbourne on 6 January, after Australian Border Force officials said he had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" to receive a vaccine exemption.\n\nThe tennis star, who has caught Covid-19 twice with the latest positive test on 16 December, was detained for days at the immigration hotel.\n\nHis visa was then reinstated by a judge, who ordered his release, ruling that border officials had ignored correct procedure when he arrived.\n\nBut on Friday evening, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke once again cancelled Djokovic's visa under separate powers in Australia's Migration Act.\n\nThe act allows him to deport anyone he deems a potential risk to \"the health, safety or good order of the Australian community\".\n\nPrime Minister Scott Morrison said the decision had followed \"careful consideration\".\n\nAlluding to the heavy criticism his government has faced for allowing the unvaccinated player into Australia, Mr Morrison said: \"Australians have made many sacrifices during this pandemic, and they rightly expect the result of those sacrifices to be protected.\"\n\nPhotographers tried to catch a glimpse of Novak Djokovic in Melbourne on Saturday\n\nMinutes after we started reporting the news of Djokovic's second visa cancellation, motorists leaned from car windows, honking their horns and shouting their approval.\n\nMost people I've spoken to are pretty outraged that an unvaccinated player was ever allowed here in the first place.\n\nOthers have a more nuanced view. Sure, this is a shambles, they say, but the government overturning the ruling of an independent judge is pretty questionable too.\n\nIt's clear, then, that this is not just about sport. It's headline news and a major topic of conversation.\n\nAnd the background is important, too, as Australia struggles with Covid-19.\n\nMany people are getting jabbed after months of living under strict restrictions. Intensive care wards are filling up, daily deaths have hit record levels, and some might say you've got less chance of finding a Covid test kit in a pharmacy than Djokovic has of playing on Monday.\n\nGiven the seriousness of the Omicron wave, there's another sentiment that you hear often: this drawn-out saga has become a distraction from far more important issues.\n\nCourt documents released on Saturday show Mr Hawke chose to cancel Djokovic's visa because - in his view - the unvaccinated player's presence could fuel opposition to Covid-19 vaccination.\n\n\"[I] consider that his presence may be a risk to the health of the Australian community,\" he wrote in a letter to Djokovic and his lawyers, adding that he believed it could also provoke \"civil unrest\" because he was \"a person of influence and status\".\n\nDjokovic's legal team say their grounds for appeal will centre on the \"invalid and illogical\" rationale of Mr Hawke's decision, which lawyer Nick Wood said was based on the threat of \"exciting anti-vax sentiment\".\n\nMr Wood said he believed deporting the player would potentially do the same thing.\n\nSerbian President Aleksandar Vucic condemned the Australian minister's decision, telling Djokovic in an Instagram message: \"Novak, we stand by you.\"\n\n\"If you wanted to ban Novak Djokovic from winning the 10th trophy in Melbourne why didn't you return him immediately, why didn't you tell him 'it is impossible to obtain a visa'?\" Mr Vucic added.\n\nSpanish tennis star Rafael Nadal, one of Djokovic's biggest rivals, said on Saturday: \"[The] Australian Open is much more important than any player. If he's playing finally, okay. If he's not playing, the Australian Open will be great… with or without him.\"\n\nJapanese player Naomi Osaka described the controversy surrounding Djokovic as \"an unfortunate situation\".\n\n\"He's such a great player and it's kind of sad that some people might remember [him] in this way. But I also think it's... up to the government how Australia is deciding to handle it,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"If he plays, I will not watch him\": Watch strong reactions on the Novak Djokovic case in Australia", "Novak Djokovic sought a medical exemption from Australia's strict Covid visa regulations on the basis that he'd contracted the infection in mid-December.\n\nMr Djokovic was tested in Serbia, where you are legally required to isolate for 14 days following a positive Covid test.\n\nAfter days of speculation over public engagements he apparently attended following his positive test, he has now said he did appear in public during this period of isolation.\n\nHere is a timeline of events from what we know so far.\n\nMr Djokovic attended a Euroleague basketball game in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, between Red Star Belgrade and Barcelona.\n\nAfter the game, numerous people who attended tested positive for Covid-19, so it is possible this is where Mr Djokovic became infected.\n\nMr Djokovic had front row seats at the Euroleague basketball game in Belgrade on 14 December\n\nMr Djokovic says he took a lateral flow test on 16 December following the Covid outbreak at the basketball game.\n\nHe says this came back negative, but that he also took a PCR test \"out an abundance of caution\".\n\nIn court documents, Mr Djokovic's lawyers submitted evidence that confirms he took a PCR test just after 13:00 on 16 December.\n\nThe document from the Institute of Public Health of Serbia states the result came back positive seven hours later, at about 20:00 on the same day.\n\nMr Djokovic says he wasn't notified about his positive PCR result until the following day.\n\nMr Djokovic attended a panel discussion and a ceremony for the unveiling of a stamp in his honour in Belgrade on 16 December (before 20:00), which he posted about on Twitter the next day.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Novak Djokovic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn the morning of 17 December, the Tennis Association of Belgrade posted on Facebook about an award ceremony at the Novak Tennis Center in Belgrade which was happening later that day.\n\nThey said the trophies would be \"handed over to the young talent by the favourite tennis player of this region, and beyond\".\n\nA series of pictures was later posted on the same Facebook page of Mr Djokovic presenting awards without a mask.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by TSB Teniski savez Beograda Belgrade Tennis Association This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nBefore attending the event Mr Djokovic says he produced another negative lateral flow test, and he was \"asymptomatic and felt good\".\n\nIt was after this event that Mr Djokovic says he received notification that his PCR test was positive. At this point he should have began 14 days of isolation.\n\nIt has been reported by French newspaper L'Equipe that Mr Djokovic attended an interview and photo shoot with their paper in Belgrade on 18 December.\n\nHe has since admitted attending this engagement, which he says was \"an error of judgement and I accept I should have rescheduled\".\n\nSerbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told the BBC that it was \"a clear breach of the rules\" if Mr Djokovic continued with public events, knowing he had Covid.\n\nThe paper says he wore a face mask during the interview, but removed it for the photo shoot.\n\nHe posed with the newspaper's Champion of Champions trophy - an award which recognises the outstanding sportsperson of the year.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by L'ÉQUIPE This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFollowing this engagement, Mr Djokovic says he cancelled all other events and isolated for the required period.\n\nIn the court documents provided by Mr Djokovic's lawyers, there is confirmation that he had another PCR test on 22 December.\n\nThis test came back negative at 16:15 the same afternoon, although we don't know when Mr Djokovic was informed of the result.\n\nSerbian Covid regulations stipulate a full 14-day self-isolation period, unless the person who has tested positive receives a negative PCR test result during that period.\n\nMr Djokovic was pictured playing tennis in the streets of Belgrade over the Christmas period.\n\nA fan tweeted a video of the outing on 25 December, which was also reported in several tennis publications in the days following.\n\nThe video was caption: \"Novak Djokovic, playing tennis on Christmas Day in Belgrade... Footage from today!\"\n\nOn the same day, Mr Djokovic was also pictured posing with Serbian professional handball player, Petar Djordjic, in Belgrade.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by José Morgado This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOn 31 December, pictures and video was shared online that appear to show Mr Djokovic in Spain on that date.\n\nA tennis academy based in Sotogrande, Spain (near Marbella) tweeted a video of Mr Djokovic training, as well as several pictures of him meeting fans.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by SotoTennis Academy This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSeveral tennis websites reported he was training in Marbella for the possibility of competing in the Australian Open.\n\nThis is where he was quizzed by border officials and his visa was revoked after he confirmed he wasn't vaccinated.\n\nIn Mr Djokovic's Australian travel entry form - released by the federal court - it was stated that he had not travelled anywhere else in the 14 days prior to his arrival there.\n\nMr Djokovic says the form was filled in by a member of his team who - in \"human error\" - had ticked the wrong box about his previous travel before coming to Australia.\n\nAustralian immigration officials said on Tuesday they were investigating whether he had made a \"false declaration\" - which would be grounds for a visa cancellation.", "Michael Sheen asked his parents, Irene and Meyrick, to donate his suits to a good cause\n\nCharities are urging people to follow Michael Sheen's lead and donate unwanted items following huge losses during the Covid lockdown.\n\nBritish Heart Foundation (BHF) Cymru said it lost about £50m in the first year of Covid due to shop closures.\n\nOther charities echoed this loss and urged people to make donations, like the suits from Michael Sheen's parents.\n\nAdam Fletcher, head of BHF Cymru, said Covid had been \"devastating\" for charities who rely on retail income.\n\nThe BHF has 720 shops across the UK - 32 in Wales.\n\nAll of them had to close when lockdowns hit during the pandemic.\n\nBack in December, the parents of Twilight and Underworld actor Michael Sheen answered the plea and donated some of his old suits to the BHF store in Port Talbot.\n\nHis mother, Irene, said her son \"asked us to find a good cause to donate them to\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by michael sheen 💙 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThey have since sold for hundreds of pounds a piece on eBay.\n\nMr Fletcher said: \"We had a fantastic donation before Christmas from Michael Sheen's family who are strong supporters of the BHF, because as a family they have benefitted from the research.\"\n\nHe said he hoped people follow suit after a \"Christmas declutter\".\n\nAdam Fletcher says charity shop losses directly affect research and support that charities can offer\n\nHe said: \"The coronavirus crisis has had a devastating impact on the BHF's income, leading to research funding being cut in half and the delay of important scientific breakthroughs.\n\n\"The impact is on the amount of new research we can fund and it is important we can address a lot of the questions through research and we can only do that through raising money and through our fundraising opportunities.\n\n\"Every item sold will be turned into funds for research that could help transform the lives of those 340,000 people in Wales living with heart and circulatory diseases.\"\n\nThe BHF is not the only charity that has taken a hit by Covid shutting shops.\n\nBarnardo's said they had seen their retail income fall by £47.9m to £30m in 2020-21 because of the impact of lockdown closures.\n\nLoss-making stores were closed, but Barnardo's was able to triple online sales to £330,000 and increase eBay sales from £1m to £1.4m thanks to continued donations.\n\nTy Hafan said they used to get a third of their funding from their charity shops and added this had now \"reduced significantly\".\n\nFor Cancer Research Wales there has been a 50% drop in income across the board but, in particular, retail income saw a loss of 83% last year - which translates into about £400,000.\n\nCharities have urged people to donate quality items to charity shops to keep them open and help fund their work\n\nRhodri Davies, head of income generation at Cancer Research Wales, said: \"As a charity that looks to generate about £3m a year, that is a big loss for us and it has had a wider impact on resources, staff and the way we operate as a charity.\"\n\nHe said as a result stores have had to undergo a \"restructure\" to keep them afloat.\n\n\"We think about how we present, stock and staff our shops because we have seen a number of people leave, but we have got to make sure that we keep them open to make sure they are profitable for the charity to help fund cancer research.\n\n\"We know the pandemic has had a significant impact on the economy and we want to keep customers coming through our doors shopping, but also we desperately need someone to bring their donated goods to us.\n\n\"Every donation is valued and appreciated because it means every donation we receive we can raise income for the charity to benefit people with cancer in Wales.\"", "And they're off... again, as Pontypridd parkrun resumes after an enforced break\n\nCovid rules in Wales have eased, allowing up to 500 people to gather for outdoor events from Saturday.\n\nThe rule change has been welcomed by football clubs and the running charity parkrun.\n\nKarl Johnson, of Pontypridd parkrun, said its benefits were both physical and mental, and \"to have the event back up and running is a great relief to many\".\n\nThe Welsh government said it hoped to remove all restrictions by 10 February.\n\nMr Johnson said after Saturday morning's event: \"It was great to see our parkrun family back together today after a disappointing two-week break.\n\n\"Credit must go to our amazing band of volunteers who committed to our event at such short notice, 30 volunteers coming together within 16 hours is pretty impressive.\"\n\nSince the group began, their highest turn out has been 491 people, with about 250 since previous lockdowns last year.\n\nBefore the run, Mr John assured entrants that limits would be adhered to.\n\n\"We've done everything we can to make sure people are safe, making sure people can spread out and limited contact when registering on site.\n\n\"It's been disappointing that we've had to cancel over the last two weeks, I know runners have gone over the border to other runs instead. However we're ready and raring to go now we can.\"\n\nAlong with parkrun restarting, rugby and football clubs can now host more spectators again.\n\nGlesni Jones said crowd support made a big difference to the players on the field\n\nIt meant the likes of Clwb Rygbi Nant Conwy, based in Llanrwst, Conwy, could welcome more fans back to their Pant Carw ground for their league fixture against Bethesda on Saturday.\n\n\"The crowd support makes a big difference to the players on the field and it brings a sense of community back to the club,\" said chairperson Glesni Jones.\n\n\"It has been quite a struggle with the planning, preparation, loopholes sent to us and risk assessments, but it's brilliant to have everyone back.\"\n\nNerys Ellis, 70, whose husband was one of the club's founders and whose son plays for the team, said she was delighted to be back.\n\n\"The club means a lot to the community with children as young as seven, right up to the first team all enjoying themselves,\" she said.\n\nYnyshir Albions FC were able to welcome more crowds to their grounds on Saturday\n\nFootball club Ynyshir Albions faced Ton Pentre AFC at The Oval, Ynyshir, Rhondda Cynon Taf, in their first match of the year in the Ardal South West League.\n\nClub treasurer Cei Mason said: \"We're really pleased. Match day income is absolutely vital for us to be able to run the club.\n\n\"As the cost of running a grassroots club continues to rise, I'm sure many other clubs in Wales will feel the same way and will welcome this news,\" he added.\n\nSpeaking before the match, he said despite the changes they may not have the maximum capacity of 500 fans allowed.\n\n\"The news broke a little late for us to communicate the increased capacity to all our followers. We'd hoping to get back up those sort of numbers in the coming weeks,\" Mr Mason said.\n\nAhead of the game the club needed to make some changes to make sure safety rules such as social distancing was followed.\n\nMr Mason said: \"We have opted to change into our kit at a location outside of the ground to give the away team the whole run of the building to adhere to social distance rules.\n\n\"It's not ideal but we're happy to accommodate to ensure the game goes ahead.\"\n\nWhile sports clubs have welcomed the lifting of rules, it has seen a cautious welcome from some others.\n\nLaura says she understands why rules are easing but says it does make her feel more anxious about contracting Covid\n\nStudent Laura Ann Moulding, 25, from Cardiff, was diagnosed with ME in January 2020 and has restricted her social contacts to her family and her boyfriend's family.\n\n\"I'm sticking to social bubbles as best as I can. I'm afraid of catching Covid because I'm quite vulnerable with my pre-existing condition,\" she said.\n\n\"I knew the restrictions were going to be eased some day, to return to some sort of normality again, but I still have overwhelming anxiety that I'm going to catch something, then I could be 10 times worse.\n\n\"I'm pleased to see more people but that fear doesn't subside. I know a lot of people like myself who still feel vulnerable. Even going to the grocery shop it's quite fearful.\"\n\nDr Olwen Williams said the Royal College of Physicians in Wales welcomed the phased manner of the changes\n\nThe Royal College of Physicians in Wales also believes now is the right time for a phased easing of restrictions.\n\nVice-president Olwen Williams said: \"The winter is always a very difficult time within medicine, acute medicine and in the community.\n\n\"We went into the pandemic with a reduced number of doctors and healthcare staff which would have been a challenge in itself.\n\n\"But for two years in a row, having to cope with both the winter winter pressures, the backlog from planned care, but also Covid, it has been quite challenging.\n\n\"We are all very tired, we all look forward to some relief to get on with training and actually delivering the best care we can for our patients.\"\n\nParkrun said it would ensure events stick to the 500-runner limit\n\nThe easing of rules will also mean that the Six Nations rugby tournament can be held in front of a full Principality Stadium.\n\nMs Williams said: \"As regards large sporting events, we did have four events in the autumn and there was not a considerable rise directly from them.\n\n\"People are quite sensible and you know they will have limited contact. Of course people can actually wear masks and keep a safe distance when they're attending the events and that's really very important still.\"", "Simon Ward was among Conservative leaders who voted to withdraw support from the PM\n\nA Conservative association in a safe Tory seat in the West Midlands has voted unanimously to withdraw its support from Boris Johnson.\n\nThe prime minister is facing calls to resign from the opposition and some Tory MPs after admitting attending drinks in the Downing Street garden.\n\nSimon Ward, from the Royal Sutton Coldfield Conservative Association, said \"the culture starts at the top\".\n\nMr Johnson has urged MPs to wait for the outcome of an investigation.\n\nConservative leader of the town council, Mr Ward, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"We were asking people all over our country to make massive sacrifices... over the last two years.\n\n\"I think we have the right to expect everybody in government and in those positions of leadership to follow those same rules and guidelines as well.\"\n\nConservative MP Andrew Mitchell attended the meeting but did not vote\n\nThe vote asking the PM to stand down happened at a meeting on Thursday night, where the area's Conservative MP, Andrew Mitchell was present, but did not take part.\n\nHe retained the seat in the 2019 election with a majority of more than 19,000.\n\nSutton Coldfield is Conservative through and through.\n\nFor many years it was the only Conservative seat in the second city, so if Tories here are not supporting the PM, you have to ask how long will his support hold up elsewhere?\n\nThis vote took place even before the headlines in today's Telegraph detailing parties on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral. A story guaranteed to play badly in The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield.\n\nLike Andrew Mitchell, many Conservative MPs I have been in contact with say they are waiting for the findings of Sue Gray's report, but pressure on them will grow if other associations make similar moves.\n\nThe councillor said the move to withdraw support from the prime minister reflected \"local views at the very grassroots levels\" and was about \"the standards of leadership we expect\".\n\n\"This is about what the right thing is for politics, what the right thing is for our leaders, how this reflects on our country as well, and it's just massively disappointing and it reflects very, very poorly on us as a nation,\" he added.\n\nThe interim chair of Wyre Forest Conservative Association, Julian Phillips, echoed these sentiments, calling on the prime minister to resign.\n\nMr Johnson, for whom he didn't vote for as leader, had always been a \"controversial character,\" he said, but the latest revelation \"stings a lot more\" than any of his previous controversies.\n\nHe confirmed his views were shared with the wider party in Wyre Forest.\n\n\"I don't think anyone is now of the mindset to defend the Prime Minister. There's a great deal of anger, a great deal of embarrassment. It's not great for any of us.\"\n\nTwo more parties, first revealed by the Daily Telegraph have been referred to Sue Gray as part of a civil service probe into alleged Covid rule breaking in Downing Street and government departments.\n\nMinisters have said it will be published shortly.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch a briefing by an FBI agent after the stand-off in Colleyville, Texas\n\nFour people who were held hostage at a synagogue in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, have been freed unharmed after a 10-hour stand-off with police.\n\nThey were taken hostage during a morning service in Colleyville on Saturday.\n\nPolice deployed special weapons teams, while FBI negotiators spent hours talking to the assailant.\n\nExplosions and gunfire could be heard before the incident ended. The hostage-taker has since died, police say.\n\nThe four people taken hostage included the synagogue's rabbi, according to US media reports.\n\nThe service was being streamed online when the incident began. One of the hostages was released unharmed six hours later, with the other three being led to safety by police several hours after that.\n\nThe rescue team breached the synagogue but it is not yet clear how the hostage-taker died or who he was.\n\nPresident Joe Biden was briefed about the developing situation.\n\nThe incident began at around 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) when police were called to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue. People were evacuated from the area shortly after.\n\nA live stream of the Shabbat morning service on Facebook captured audio of a man talking loudly. He could be heard saying: \"You get my sister on the phone\" and \"I am gonna die\".\n\nHe was also heard saying: \"There's something wrong with America.\" The feed has since been taken down.\n\nThe hostage-taker was also heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is currently serving an 86-year prison term in the US, law enforcement officials told local media.\n\nSiddiqui was convicted of trying to kill US military officers while in custody in Afghanistan.\n\nBarry Klompus, a member of the congregation since it opened in 1999, said he had been told about the incident by another member and had quickly turned to the live feed until it was taken down.\n\n\"It was horrible listening and watching, and it's that much more horrible not knowing,\" he told Reuters news agency.\n\nVictoria Francis told the Associated Press that she heard the man rant against America and claim he had a bomb during the live stream. \"He was pretty irritated and the more irritated he got, he'd make more threats,\" she said.", "A vigil for Ms Murphy was held outside the London Irish Centre in Camden on Saturday afternoon\n\nMore vigils are taking place across the island of Ireland and the United Kingdom in memory of murdered teacher Ashling Murphy.\n\nThe 23-year-old was killed on the banks of the Grand Canal outside Tullamore, County Offaly, on Wednesday.\n\nParkrun runners across Ireland held moments of silence on Saturday morning for Ms Murphy.\n\nRTÉ have reported that gardaí (Irish police) have identified a new person of interest who is currently in hospital.\n\nThe Irish broadcaster said gardaí were waiting to speak to him.\n\nAbout 5,000 people attended a vigil and walk in Cork this morning\n\nThousands of people attended vigils in Cork and Dublin on Saturday.\n\nIn County Offaly two walks took place along the Grand Canal in her memory.\n\nOn Friday, the police force said it had made \"significant progress\" in its investigation but were not releasing specific details due to operational reasons.\n\nThey said the Murphy family was \"appreciative and overwhelmed by the national outpouring of support show to them\" .\n\nThe family attended a candlelit vigil near the murder scene on Friday.\n\nVigils are also due to take place in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Brisbane, Australia.\n\nWell wishers lit candles in memory of Ashling near the scene of her murder in Tullamore\n\nThe Irish Independent reported that her father paid a poignant tribute to the talented young musician, by performing her favourite song.\n\nRay Murphy reportedly broke down in tears while playing the final chords of \"When You Were Sweet Sixteen\".\n\nA 40-year-old man arrested after Ms Murphy's murder was released without charge on Thursday night \"and is no longer a suspect\", according to gardaí.\n\nHis solicitor has said he is now in hiding after he was vilified on social media.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, Donal Farrelly said his client was escorted to the hotel by gardaí on Thursday night because of concerns about possible \"retribution\" from members of the public.\n\nThe National Women's Council of Ireland had announced details of vigils at dozens of locations on Friday and many event attracted very large crowds.\n\nMany of the vigils began at 16:00 local time, organised to coincide with the time Ms Murphy was fatally attacked.\n\nPark runners at Orangefield Park in Belfast held a moments silence in memory of Ms Murphy on Saturday\n\nOne of the biggest events took place outside the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) buildings in Dublin.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin was among those in attendance.\n\nSpeaking on the Late, Late Show on RTÉ on Friday night Mr Martin said men needed to \"listen more to women\".\n\n\"We need to listen to what women are saying to us,\" he added.\n\n\"Men want to step up to plate here and make sure we can create a different kind of society where people do feel safe and transform the culture that underpins bad behaviour and violence towards women.\"\n\nA photo of Ms Murphy was displayed on the big screen at half-time during the Heineken Champions Cup in Galway on Saturday\n\nAcross Northern Ireland on Friday, large crowds gathered and traditional Irish musicians performed in tribute to Ms Murphy who was a talented multi-instrumentalist and member of the National Folk Orchestra of Ireland.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nArsenal defender Cedric Soares was forced off with an injury after just 11 minutes against Liverpool on Thursday Tottenham Hotspur say they are \"extremely surprised\" at the decision to call off Sunday's Premier League derby at home to Arsenal. The Gunners' request to postpone the game, as they did not have enough players, was granted on Saturday. Premier League rules say clubs can apply for postponements if Covid-19 is a factor in teams having fewer than 13 players and a goalkeeper available. Spurs believe there are now \"unintended consequences\" of this rule. \"This follows an application from Arsenal to the Premier League on the basis of a combination of Covid, existing and recent injuries and players on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations. \"We are extremely surprised that this application has been approved,\" Tottenham said in a statement. \"The original intention of the guidance was to deal with player availability directly affected by Covid cases, resulting in depleted squads that when taken together with injuries would result in the club being unable to field a team. \"We do not believe it was the intent to deal with player availability unrelated to Covid. \"We may now be seeing the unintended consequences of this rule. It is important to have clarity and consistency on the application of the rule.\" 'The Premier League must stop this now' Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville, now a television pundit, believes the Premier League must make changes to the rules. \"What started out as postponements due to a pandemic has now become about clubs not having their best team,\" Neville tweeted. \"The Premier League must stop this now, draw a line in the sand and say all games go ahead unless you have an exceptional amount of Covid cases. It's wrong.\" Arsenal have Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe on Cup of Nations duty, while Cedric Soares, Bukayo Saka and Calum Chambers all picked up injuries in their Carabao Cup semi-final first leg draw against Liverpool on Thursday. Granit Xhaka was also suspended for Sunday after he was sent off in the first half at Anfield and Martin Odegaard missed the game through illness. \"I sympathise with everyone and I understand the situation but this is where is starts to get a little bit blurry as to what is allowed and what isn't,\" Upson told BBC Radio 5Live. \"There is a combination of reasons why Arsenal's squad is so thin, where do you draw the line? It is a really sensible question to ask. It needs real clarity. It needs to be down to Covid but all these other situations happen and you have to deal with it.\" \"Is this the same with everybody? What goes on? Can you just have a look around your squad and think, 'You know what, we could do with him playing... hold on a minute, he's got Covid,',\" Dublin added. \"We just don't know what's going on. From the outside looking in, it looks like clubs are thinking they want a stronger side for a certain game and so they're asking for it to be called off. It's a confusing situation.\" The Gunners said they \"reluctantly\" requested a postponement and were \"disappointed\" that the game had to be called off. It is the second Premier League game scheduled for this weekend to be postponed after Burnley's game against Leicester City was called off on Friday because of Covid-19 and injuries in the Clarets camp. The Premier League said: \"All clubs are able to apply for a postponement if Covid-19 infections are a factor in their request. \"Postponement rules are designed to protect the wellbeing of players and staff, while maintaining the sporting integrity of the competition. \"Club requests are assessed on a case-by-case basis, based on existing rules and adapted Covid-19 postponement guidance, implemented in light of the Omicron variant. \"The board examines a number of factors, including the ability of a club to field a team; the status, severity and potential impact of Covid-19, and the ability of the players to safely prepare for and play the match. \"The detail within all applications is scrutinised by the league's specialist staff before the board makes its decision.\"\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "MPs have not also been allowed to sit at Stormont since 2016\n\nMPs will be able to be elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly but keep their Westminster seats, BBC News NI has learned\n\nBut the return of the dual mandate will only last until the next Westminster election due in 2024.\n\nIt will bring Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK.\n\nThe move will allow DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May while retaining his seat at Westminster.\n\nUnder existing rules if he was elected to Stormont he would have had to stand down as an MP, leading to a by-election in his Lagan Valley constituency.\n\nDetails of the plan were outlined in a letter from the government peer Lord Caine to fellow lords on Friday.\n\nIt sets out how the government is proposing an amendment to the Northern Ireland Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern Bill which is currently passing through the House of Lords.\n\nThe bill provides for other changes at Stormont agreed under the New Decade, New Approach deal.\n\nIn the letter seen by the BBC, Lord Caine said the amendment he is tabling would \"enable MPs to become MLAs [members of the legislative assembly] at Stormont and hold both seats for the duration of the remainder of that parliament\".\n\n\"As was previously the case a person who holds office as both MP and an MLA will not be able to claim their salary as an MLA,\" he added\n\nThe move will allow DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May while retaining his seat at Westminster\n\nThe letter adds: \"The provision for dual mandates is intended to facilitate a move from the House of Commons to the Northern Ireland Assembly without triggering by-elections.\n\n\"It is therefore consistent with the assessment made by the UK government in the Northern Ireland Act 2014 that the holding of a dual mandate across parliament and the assembly is not practical on an indefinite basis.\"\n\nLegislation preventing MPs from holding seats at Westminster and Stormont was passed in 2014, but only came into effect in 2016 when a number of MPs were forced to give up their seats in the assembly.\n\nThis latest move will allow for a temporary return for dual mandates.\n\nIn his letter, Lord Caine, who is also the under secretary of state for Northern Ireland, said: \"There is no appetite or consensus in Northern Ireland to allow dual mandates to continue indefinitely or to return to a situation in which the overwhelming majority of MPs from Northern Ireland were also members of the assembly.\"\n\nHe said the objective was to \"support further the functioning of the devolved institutions by providing stability where Northern Ireland parties need to reconfigure their representation across Parliament and Stormont without the triggering of parliamentary by-elections.\"\n\nThe letter also makes clear that the provision will \"commence immediately upon Royal Assent\" and it is understood the government plans to have it in place before the assembly election in May.", "MrBeast uses stunts and pranks to delight his audience\n\nJimmy Donaldson, the 23-year-old American better known as MrBeast, was YouTube's highest-earning content creator in 2021, according to Forbes.\n\nHis elaborate stunts have generated more than 10 billion views on the platform and earned him $54m (£39m).\n\nHe has overtaken 10-year-old toy reviewer Ryan Kaji, who has topped the annual list for the past two years.\n\nTogether, the 10 best-paid YouTubers made a combined $300m (£218m) in 2021, the US magazine estimated.\n\nJake Paul is in second place, his first appearance in the top 10 since 2018, and his brother Logan also returns after being absent since 2017.\n\nMinecraft player Nathan Graham, known as Unspeakable, makes the list for the first time in fifth place.\n\nJake Paul's high-profile boxing fights have earned him a spot back on the list\n\nYouTube trends expert Chris Stokel-Walker said this year's list is interesting because it shows \"how stale\" YouTube has become. \"It strikes me how white and male this whole list is,\" he said.\n\n\"If you take any of the names and look at previous years' lists, you'll probably find them on there as well, just in a different order.\"\n\nDuring the pandemic, lots of traditional entertainment media had a difficult time adjusting. Movies were delayed, soap opera schedules were altered and video game releases were postponed.\n\nFor YouTube, however, it was a time of boom.\n\nResearch suggests that in 2021, the platform had 2.3 billion users worldwide. YouTube says one billion hours of video content is consumed on the platform every day.\n\nStokel-Walker said: \"YouTube was developed as something that would shake up the media industry and get rid of gatekeepers. It was going to democratise how our society and entertainment industry looks.\n\n\"This list suggests that it's become more like TV than it would prefer to be. The arrival of money on the platform means content is very high stakes - and we see this in what MrBeast is making.\n\n\"It's not really similar to anything else on YouTube. It's more like big-budget TV.\"\n\nStokel-Walker suggested the high production values of YouTube today are creating a barrier to entry, meaning you need to \"pay to play and be successful\".\n\nSeven-year-old Nastya is the only female in the top 10\n\nThe top earners as identified by Forbes are not necessarily those with the most views, but rather those who have been able to successfully earn money through brand partnerships, sponsorship deals and merchandise sales.\n\nAlthough it's estimated that two-thirds of YouTube content is not in the English language, it seems that English-speaking creators are most able to financially capitalise on their popularity.\n\nYouTube, like many other modern media platforms, is dealing with issues of misinformation and harmful content - however this doesn't seem to have affected its creators' abilities to attract advertisers and sponsors to their channels.\n\nPreston Arsement grew his community largely thanks to videos centred around Minecraft, although he runs several channels on the website.\n\nA regular on this list, he earned an estimated $16m (£11m) in 2021 - down a little from the year before, when he placed sixth.\n\nThe controversial boxer and vlogger was last in the top 10 in 2017. He earned $18m (£13m) in 2021.\n\nComedy pranksters Dude Perfect was number three on the list in 2020. They made $20m (£14m) last year.\n\nThe world's most famous toy reviewer has dropped from the top of the tree to number seven.\n\nIn 2021, his blend of toy reviews, educational videos and family vlogs helped him earn $27m (£19m).\n\nThe seven-year-old Russian has nearly 90 million subscribers on YouTube.\n\nShe started as a toy unboxer but now her vlogs and music videos are growing in popularity and her earnings have risen to $28m (£20m) in 2021.\n\nA new entry, the Minecraft player has been uploading to YouTube for a decade.\n\nHe sold the rights to his back catalogue to the business Spotter last year, which contributed to his earnings of $28.5m (£20m).\n\nA staple of the YouTube highest earning list, the hosts of geek chat show Good Mythical Morning earned $30m (£22m) in 2021.\n\nAnother regular gaming creator, Markiplier has used his business acumen to make a successful brand of merchandise, earning $38m (£27m) last year.\n\nBy branching out into boxing, Jake Paul has found himself back in the top 10. His high-profile fights against UFC stars helped him earn $45m (£32m) in 2021.\n\nIt's some turnaround for the creator who was criticised alongside his bother for some of their vlogs in 2017, which many found to be in poor taste.\n\nWith more boxing plans in the pipeline for 2022, it would be no surprise to see him keep his place among YouTube's elite on next year's list.\n\nYouTube's top earner is a creator who uses stunts and pranks to delight his audience.\n\nLast year, he recreated elements of Netflix hit Squid Game on his channel, played hide and seek in an 80,000-seater stadium and was buried underground.\n\nHis 10 billion views, alongside the MrBeast burger franchise, meant Jimmy Donaldson almost doubled his income in 2021 after ranking second on this list the previous year.", "One of London's busiest Tube lines has been partially closed for four months.\n\nThe Bank branch of the Northern Line will be shut for upgrade works between Kennington and Moorgate until mid-May.\n\nIt means trains on that line will not serve Elephant and Castle, Borough, Bank and London Bridge stations, with customers advised to seek other routes.\n\nTransport for London (TfL) said the closure would allow new tunnels to be connected and the completion of a new southbound platform at Bank.\n\nA temporary bus service - the 733 - will to run between Oval and Finsbury Circus on weekdays to help commuters, the transport body said.\n\nPlans to enlarge Bank station were submitted in 2014, one year after Londoners voted it as the capital's worst Tube station.\n\nThe station's new platform and concourse will open in May, with a new entrance in Cannon Street expected to be unveiled in late 2022.\n\nTfL has warned that other Tube lines are likely to be affected by the works, with the Jubilee, Waterloo & City and Circle lines all expected to be busier than usual.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Martin Shkreli, the former drug firm executive who ordered dramatic price hikes of a life-saving medicine, has been barred from the industry for life.\n\nIn a decision on Friday, Judge Denise Cote ordered him to repay $64.6m (£47m) in profits he made from the scheme.\n\nShe ruled that Mr Shkreli's actions had violated laws against monopolies.\n\nMr Shkreli is currently serving a prison sentence for defrauding investors.\n\nBut this decision is about action he took in 2015 to raise the price of Daraprim, a long-established medicine used to treat toxoplasmosis, from $13.50 to $750 - around 4,000% - overnight.\n\nHe also designed supply agreements to block competitors from offering a generic version of the unpatented medicine, which is used to treat the parasitic disease in pregnant women and patients with Aids.\n\nThe moves were unpopular, and earned him the nick-name \"Pharma Bro\".\n\nSeven states and the Federal Trade Commission brought a lawsuit over the conduct in 2020, saying he had violated state and federal laws that ban anti-competitive conduct.\n\nIn her opinion, US District Judge Cote called Mr Shkreli the \"prime mover\" in the scheme.\n\n\"It was his brainchild and he drove it each step of the way,\" she wrote.\n\nVyera Pharmaceuticals, which Mr Shkreli founded and was previously known as Turing Pharmaceuticals, earlier agreed to pay $40m.\n\nNew York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the officials who brought the suit, celebrated the decision.\n\nShe said Mr Shkreli and his partner had illegally raised the \"price of a life-saving drug as Americans' lives hung in the balance\".\n\n\"But Americans can rest easy because Martin Shkreli is a Pharma Bro no more.\"", "Police found faeces and vomit over the floor, bedding, and dormer window of the attic room\n\nA photo revealing the conditions inside a bedroom in which an autistic man was imprisoned by his mother and stepfather has been released.\n\nMatthew Langley, 22, was left \"close to death\" after being locked in the attic room for seven months.\n\nLorna Hewitt, 43, and her husband Craig Hewitt were convicted of falsely imprisoning him at their Sheffield home between November 2019 and June 2020.\n\nThe National Autistic Society said the scene was \"deeply disturbing\".\n\nBy the time he was found on 2 June 2020, Mr Langley, who also had learning difficulties and suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, double incontinence and arthritis, weighed just six stone (39kg) and was severely dehydrated.\n\nThe photograph, which was released by police, shows piles of rubbish and soiled items in the vomit and faeces-covered room.\n\nThe couple are due to be sentenced on 18 February\n\nThe National Autistic Society said the image was \"really shocking\".\n\nTim Nicholls, head of policy, public affairs and research partnerships at the society, said: \"What happened to Matthew was horrifying.\n\n\"Autistic people and families across the country will be deeply disturbed by this case and the shocking conditions shown in this picture.\n\n\"It's inexcusable, no-one should have to go through what Matthew faced.\"\n\nFollowing a trial at Sheffield Crown Court the Hewitts, of Walkley Road, were also found guilty of causing or allowing a vulnerable adult to suffer serious physical harm.\n\nJurors heard Mr Langley had become so extremely malnourished and dehydrated that his \"life was in the balance\".\n\nProsecutor Nicholas Campbell QC told the court Mr Langley was in a \"pitiable state\" and had been left unable to walk, with bruises showing he had been \"crawling on all fours\" in his room.\n\nThe couple are due to be sentenced on 18 February.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Couple kept autistic son in attic for seven months\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Lord Sainsbury hosted a visit by the Queen to celebrate the supermarket's 150th anniversary\n\nThe former chairman and chief executive of supermarket chain Sainsbury's, Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover, has died aged 94, the company has announced.\n\nDuring his 40-year career with the firm he covered several roles, becoming a director in 1958 before being promoted to lead the business in 1969.\n\nLord Sainsbury retired from the company in 1992, becoming its life president.\n\nSainsbury's current CEO Simon Roberts described him as \"one of the great retailers of his time\".\n\nHe added he was \"a shopkeeper to his core\" and \"was ambitious for the company and led Sainsbury's through an unprecedented period of growth; he was a truly inspirational man\".\n\nMartin Scicluna, chairman of Sainsbury's, said he would be \"greatly missed\" by all his friends and colleagues.\n\nJohn Sainsbury photographed in 1973 as the company went on the London Stock Exchange\n\nJohn Davan Sainsbury started working in his family's business in 1950, after national service and university, initially taking on a role in the grocery department.\n\nHis time at Sainsbury's saw the company grow from a regional, middle-sized grocery chain, to a national household name.\n\nLord Sainsbury became biscuit buyer in 1951 and bacon buyer from 1956, according to The Sainsbury's Archive.\n\nA visit to Canada inspired a new method of producing bacon for the new self-service market which he developed and piloted at the abattoir at Haverhill, the archive said.\n\nHe was also heavily involved in the development of Sainsbury's own range of products, personally approving every packaging design, it said.\n\nLord Sainsbury led the company through other significant changes, including conversion to scanning, the introduction of debit and credit cards, and energy management, it added.\n\nJohn Sainsbury, centre left, at a celebration of the company's centenary on 15 April 1969\n\nIn 1980 he was knighted by the Queen for services to the food retailing industry and with his brothers Simon and Timothy helped transform Sainsbury's.\n\nIn 1991, former managing director Sir Roy Griffiths said no senior member of a family ever cherished the family traditions more closely than Lord Sainsbury.\n\nHe added: \"No chairman has ever looked after the corporate values so committedly, and nothing has been too much, no generosity too great for people who serve the customer, and by definition the company well.\"\n\nLord Sainsbury, whose mantra was \"retail is in the detail\" retired from his role as chief executive and chairman in 1992.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Irish traditional musicians played at the Belfast vigil in tribute to the talented violinist\n\nThousands of people have attended vigils across the island of Ireland on Friday in memory of murdered teacher Ashling Murphy.\n\nThe 23-year-old was killed on the banks of the Grand Canal outside Tullamore, County Offaly, on Wednesday.\n\nHer family attended a candlelit vigil near the murder scene.\n\nThe Irish Independent reported that her father paid a poignant tribute to the talented young musician, by performing her favourite song.\n\nRay Murphy reportedly broke down in tears while playing the final chords of \"When You Were Sweet Sixteen\".\n\nAshling Murphy has been described by her family as \"a little angel\"\n\nThe Murphy family were said to be \"appreciative and overwhelmed by the national outpouring of support show to them,\" according to a statement from Gardaí (Irish police).\n\nIt said that the family had requested \"privacy, space and time to process Ashling's death\".\n\nThe statement added that \"significant progress\" has been made in the murder investigation to date but the force said it was \"not confirming any specific details for operational reasons\".\n\nA 40-year-old man arrested after Ms Murphy's murder was released without charge on Thursday night \"and is no longer a suspect\", according to gardaí.\n\nThe National Women's Council of Ireland had announced details of vigils at dozens of locations on Friday and many event attracted very large crowds.\n\nMany of the vigils began at 16:00 local time, organised to coincide with the time Ms Murphy was fatally attacked.\n\nThe streets around Government Buildings in Dublin were thronged during the vigil\n\nOne of the biggest events took place outside the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) buildings in Dublin.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin was among those in attendance.\n\nIrish Justice Minister Helen McEntee tweeted a photo of a candle shortly after the vigils began and said she was \"thinking of Ashling and all women who are and have been victims of violence\".\n\n\"We must come together to demand zero tolerance of violence against women. As minister for justice, I am working to ensure we have a society that does not tolerate this any longer,\" she said.\n\nEvents are also taking place in Northern Ireland including vigils in Belfast, Londonderry, Newry, Coleraine, Strabane and other locations.\n\nA number of politicians attended the event in Derry's Guildhall Square, including the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) Colum Eastwood.\n\nPoliticians stood with members of the public in Derry's Guildhall Square\n\nIn Belfast, a large crowd gathered outside the City Hall to lay candle and flowers.\n\nA number of traditional Irish musicians performed at the event, in tribute to Ms Murphy who was a talented multi-instrumentalist and member of the National Folk Orchestra of Ireland.\n\nIn Newry, County Down, crowds gathered in Hill Street near the city's cathedral and listened to speeches protesting against violence against women.\n\n\"Women should be able to feel safe every day and go about their daily lives, free from misogyny and violence and abuse,\" said one woman who addressed the event.\n\nPeople placed flowers and candles at the Belfast vigil outside the City Hall\n\nMs Murphy's family have spoken of having lost \"a little angel\" and \"our rock\" in an interview with the Irish Independent newspaper.\n\nHer father, Raymond, told the paper of his daughter's talent for music and how she had \"crammed so much into her short life\".\n\nHer mother, Kathleen, added that \"she was so soft and gentle\".\n\n\"She was a beautiful girl, she was just the best,\" she said.\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins said he had spoken to the Murphy family on Friday morning to express sympathy on behalf of the people of Ireland.\n\n\"The outpouring of grief at the death of Ashling shows how we have all been very touched, and it is so exemplary for young and old, to read of all Ashling's accomplishments during her short but brilliant and generous life,\" he said.\n\n\"It is of crucial importance that we take this opportunity, as so many people have already done in the short time since Ashling's death, to reflect on what needs to be done to eliminate violence against women in all its aspects from our society.\"\n\nPeople in Strabane, County Tyrone, paid their respects on Friday afternoon\n\nThe director of Ireland's National Women's Council Orla O'Connor told BBC News there was \"nationwide devastation, grief and shock at this horrendous killing\".\n\nShe said the vigils were being organised all around Ireland to remember the young teacher, to show support to her family and say: \"We want an end to male violence against women\".\n\n\"There is a lot of anger and frustration that has been expressed,\" she said.\n\n\"This has really triggered past experiences of physical and sexual violence that women have had,\" she added.\n\n\"It also really shows how much women are limiting their lives because of the fear and threat of violence. Here was a young woman going for a run during the day when everyone expects to be safe.\"\n\nCandles were lit at a vigil in Galway on Thursday night\n\nThe taoiseach said Ms Murphy was a talented musician who \"represented the very best of the tradition of teaching in Ireland\".\n\n\"I think it has united the nation in solidarity and revulsion at what has happened,\" he added.\n\n\"We have to do everything that we possibly can to eliminate this appalling behaviour from our society,\"\n\nTánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar said that men needed to have conversations about violence against women and how it was \"never justified\".\n\n\"It doesn't matter who she is, it doesn't matter where it was, it doesn't matter what time of day it is, it is never justified, it is always wrong,\" he said.\n\nFlowers were placed at the gates of the school where the young victim worked\n\nOn Friday morning, gardaí renewed their appeal for information about the murder.\n\nDetectives have previously said they believed she was killed by one man who acted alone.\n\nA team of more than 50 officers has been assigned to the murder investigation and an incident room has been set up in Tullamore.\n\n\"No stone will be left unturned in bringing the perpetrator of this crime to justice,\" said Supt Eamonn Curley on Thursday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Eamonn Curley: \"The injuries are consistent with an assault.\"\n\nHe said Ms Murphy sustained serious injuries \"consistent with an assault\".\n\nA post-mortem examination was carried out to determine the exact cause of her death, but gardaí have said the results would not be released \"for operational reasons\".\n\nDetectives have appealed for information about a Falcon Storm mountain bike.\n\nThey released a photo of the bike, which they said had \"straight handlebars and distinctive yellow/green front forks\".\n\nDetectives issued a photo of a mountain bike in their appeal for witnesses\n\nThey said they also still wanted to hear from anyone who was near the scene of the murder at Cappincur, Tullamore, on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nGardaí responded to the incident following a call from a member of the public at about 16:00 local time and found Ms Murphy with serious injuries.\n\nShe was given medical attention but could not be saved.\n\nMs Murphy worked at Durrow National School and she was also a talented musician who played the concertina, violin and was also learning the uilleann pipes.\n\nShe taught 28 pupils in the 1st class (age six to seven) at the school and had joined the staff team in March 2021.\n\nHer principal James Hogan told Virgin Media News that the school community was \"devastated and numb\".\n\nA team of more than 50 officers has been assigned to the murder investigation\n\nHe paid tribute to her as a \"fantastic, beautiful, an extraordinary sportsperson, Irish musician, choral conductor and an inspiration\".\n\nHe said she was referred to as the \"shining light\" whose face lit up the room when she came into it and said the school was working to support staff and students.", "Jacob Rees-Mogg has suggested lockdown rules may have been too tough at the time the May 2020 drinks party took place in Downing Street.\n\nHe told MPs a future inquiry about Covid should look at whether \"all those regulations were proportionate or whether it was too hard on people\".\n\nAt the time, lockdown guidance said gatherings must be limited to two people outside.\n\nThe PM admitted he attended the drinks but believed it was a \"work event\".\n\nMr Johnson told MPs he had joined colleagues for drinks for around 25 minutes, to \"thank groups of staff\" for their hard work during the pandemic and apologised for his handling of the event, saying he understood people's \"rage\".\n\nHe is facing calls to quit from some senior Tories, as well as opposition parties, after admitting attending the party.\n\nCommons leader Mr Rees-Mogg said: \"I think everybody understands that people were obeying the rules and these rules were very hard for people to obey.\"\n\nHe told MPs that he had been contacted by a friend who was unable to go to the funeral of his two-year old granddaughter during lockdown.\n\n\"We must consider as this goes to an inquiry and we look into what happened with Covid whether all those regulations were proportionate or whether it was too hard on people,\" he added.\n\nThe public inquiry into Covid is set to begin work this spring. Baroness Heather Hallett was announced as the inquiry chair in December.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said the government had sought to strike the right balance when introducing regulations and guidance.\n\n\"Clearly this was a unique situation in which we were required to move at speed and oftentimes whilst the evidence base was continuing to grow.\n\n\"We've sought to learn lessons throughout as we developed guidance in response to the pandemic over this period. But we're confident we sought to strike the right balance throughout.\"\n\nHe added: \"I think prime minister has absolutely acknowledged that these restrictions do not...there is no cost-free option, both in allowing the virus to continue unimpeded and indeed introducing restrictions on people's way of lives and their livelihood.\"\n\nGovernment tweet from 20 May 2020 explaining the guidance that was in operation\n\nThe first coronavirus lockdown was introduced in England in late March and rules were slowly relaxed in May 2020, but it was not until 1 June that people were allowed to meet outside in groups of up to six people.\n\nThere were a number of legal restrictions in place in May 2020, including the law that people could not leave their homes - or be outside the place they live - without a reasonable excuse, which included work (where you couldn't work from home), exercise and getting things like food and medicine.\n\nThe gathering in Downing Street, described in the invitation as \"socially distanced\", was attended by around 30 people, who were invited to bring their own alcohol.\n\nMr Rees-Mogg also continued his criticism of the Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, who has called for the prime minister's resignation.\n\nMr Rees-Mogg dubbed the MSP and MP a \"lightweight\" on Wednesday, and said: \"It seems to me that people who hold office ought to support the leader of the party, that is the honourable and proper thing to do.\"", "Tennis star Novak Djokovic's chances of winning a record 21 Grand Slams hinge on an imminent decision by a court in Australia.\n\nThe Federal Court will hear his appeal after the government cancelled his visa for the second time this month on grounds of public interest.\n\nIt argues that the Serbian player, who has not been vaccinated for Covid-19, poses a threat to public health.\n\nHis defence say the grounds given are \"invalid and illogical\".\n\nDjokovic has been staying at an immigration detention hotel in Melbourne, the same place he was taken after his visa was first revoked following his arrival on 6 January.\n\nA judge overturned that earlier decision, finding that border officials had ignored correct procedure when he arrived, but the government stepped in on Friday to revoke the visa again.\n\nIf he loses the new appeal, the world's top-ranked men's tennis player faces deportation and a three-year visa ban.\n\nIf the saga ends in a win before the court, he could be playing his first game in the Australian Open in Melbourne on Monday.\n\nThree judges will decide Djokovic's fate when the Federal Court meets at 09:30 local time on Sunday (22:30 GMT on Saturday).\n\nThey will look at whether Immigration Minister Alex Hawke was justified in cancelling Djokovic's visa under Australia's Migration Act.\n\nCourt documents show Mr Hawke concluded that the unvaccinated player's presence could fuel opposition to Covid-19 vaccination.\n\n\"[I] consider that his presence may be a risk to the health of the Australian community,\" he wrote in a letter to Djokovic and his lawyers, adding that he believed it could also provoke \"civil unrest\" because he was \"a person of influence and status\".\n\nDefence lawyer Nick Wood has challenged that argument, saying he believes deporting the player could potentially have the same effect.\n\nThere has been much public anger in Australia over Djokovic's attempt to enter the country unvaccinated. Two of its most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, have been reporting tens of thousands of Covid-19 cases for weeks, testing clinics are struggling and the number of deaths is rising.\n\nThe federal government is stressing that no-one is above the strict rules in place to cope with the pandemic.\n\nWhile Djokovic is not vaccinated, he has caught Covid-19 twice, with the latest positive test on 16 December.\n\nHe was originally granted an exemption to enter Australia by two different independent health panels - one commissioned by Tennis Australia, the other by the state government of Victoria.\n\nBut Australian Border Force detained him on 5 January for not meeting federal coronavirus requirements.\n\nDjokovic is currently level with Switzerland's Roger Federer and Spain's Rafael Nadal on 20 Grand Slams. The issue with his entry into Australia also raises questions about whether he will face difficulty playing in tournaments elsewhere.\n\nNadal said on Saturday: \"[The] Australian Open is much more important than any player. If he's playing finally, okay. If he's not playing, the Australian Open will be great… with or without him.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"If he plays, I will not watch him\": Watch strong reactions on the Novak Djokovic case in Australia", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nCoverage: Daily radio commentaries on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Sport website and app, with selected live text commentaries online; TV highlights from middle Saturday.\n\nAndy Murray has described Novak Djokovic's visa saga as \"not great for tennis, not great for the Australian Open, not great for Novak\".\n\nThe world number one had his Australian visa revoked for a second time on Friday evening.\n\nThe 34-year-old plans to launch another legal challenge to stay and compete in the tournament, which begins on Monday.\n\n\"It just seems like it's dragged on for quite a long time now,\" said five-time Melbourne finalist Murray.\n\nDjokovic's visa was cancelled by Immigration Minister Alex Hawke on the basis of \"health and good order\" grounds.\n\nIt means the 20-time Grand Slam champion could be deported and get a three-year visa ban.\n\nLawyers for Djokovic and the Australian government attended an emergency hearing on Friday to determine what will happen next.\n\n\"I'm not going to sit here and start kicking Novak whilst he's down,\" Murray said after his semi-final victory in the Sydney Tennis Classic.\n\n\"[I] just want it to get resolved. It would be good for everyone if that was the case.\"\n\n'No tennis player is bigger than the tournament'\n\nDjokovic is bidding for a men's record 21st Grand Slam title, which would take him past great rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.\n\nHe has enjoyed huge success in Australia, having won a record nine men's titles in Melbourne. He has lost just three times in the tournament since 2011.\n\nFormer world number one Boris Becker, who coached Djokovic from 2013 to 2016, said the Serb had become involved in a \"political game\".\n\n\"No tennis player is bigger than a tournament,\" Becker told BBC Sport.\n\n\"We have to concentrate, as sportsmen or women, back on the action on the court, not what's happening in the court of justice.\n\n\"It is a political game he got involved in and that's unfortunate.\"\n\nThe original decision to grant Djokovic a visa has been hugely controversial with the Australian public, who have been subject to strict lockdown rules in recent months.\n\nA survey of 60,000 people carried out by Australian agency NewsCorp before Hawke's decision showed 83% of people wanted Djokovic to be deported.\n\nAsked if Djokovic would care about public perception, Becker said: \"I think fundamentally he does - who doesn't want to be loved?\n\n\"He knows he's respected but he's not loved as much as Roger and Rafa and some of the others and he's always been the underdog.\n\n\"It is a little bit like me against the world, which made him the player he was, you know?\n\n\"He is a street fighter. That is his mentality and it is what made him big and so successful. It is hard to change that.\"\n\n'My sympathy has gone now'\n\nThe ATP, which governs men's tennis, has said 97 of the top 100 male players are vaccinated.\n\nA number of players have been critical of Djokovic, with Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas saying he had made vaccinated players \"look like fools\".\n\nBritain's Sue Barker, who won the French Open in 1976 and is now a BBC presenter, said the situation was distracting from the whole tournament.\n\n\"We wanted the number one player in the world, he could have been there by being vaccinated,\" she added.\n\n\"I know he's chosen not to and that is his right - but its also his choice. And with that choice comes consequences.\"\n\nDarren Cahill, who previously coached two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep, posted on social media that fault lies \"everywhere\" in this situation.\n\n\"It should've been a hard rule entering this country considering what the folks have been through,\" Australian Cahill wrote.\n\n\"Get vaccinated and come play the Australian Open or if not maybe see you in 2023. No wiggle room.\"", "Rallies have been held outside the Park Hotel, where Djokovic is being held in Melbourne\n\nThe story of the world's top ranked tennis player being held at an immigration detention centre after arriving in Australia last week caused dismay and anger on all sides.\n\nMost of it has been directed at the authorities, be they in the federal or the Victorian state government.\n\nThere's almost a sense of incredulity at how the situation has been mishandled - the monumental breakdown in communication and the political tussling.\n\nDjokovic, who is not the most popular of tennis players here, was expected to land late on Wednesday to a wave of Australian ire.\n\nAt that point the story seemed fairly straightforward.\n\nA world-famous athlete, who has publicly said he is opposed to vaccination, granted an exemption to play at the Australian Open in a country that has implemented some of the world's strictest Covid-19 measures.\n\nIt was hardly surprising that it caused an outcry in a country whose citizens had been told that full vaccination was the condition to freedom of movement and travel.\n\nBut after Djokovic touched down at Melbourne Airport, things became a little murky.\n\nOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded to the public outcry by saying the decision to grant Djokovic a vaccine exemption certificate was a matter for the state government of Victoria.\n\nA few hours later, a statement from Australia's Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews appeared to contradict Mr Morrison - saying that \"while the Victorian government and Tennis Australia may permit a non-vaccinated player to compete\", the federal government would enforce its requirements at the border.\n\nThe following day, Mr Morrison's stance changed as it was revealed that Djokovic's visa had been cancelled, and that the 34-year-old was facing deportation.\n\n\"Rules are rules,\" the prime minister said.\n\nIn less than 24 hours, Mr Morrison had U-turned from initially accepting that the Serbian's exemption - and participation in the Australian Open - was a matter for the state of Victoria, to putting his foot down on the federal government's right to enforce its border rules.\n\nIt's impossible to ignore the politics at play here.\n\nThe tension between state and federal authorities exists because each wants something different from this.\n\nVictoria wants the world number one to compete in one of the state's most important events.\n\nThe federal government, feeling the anger at Djokovic being allowed to fly in, wants to show Australians that they are in control of who comes in and out of the country and that everyone - including the tennis star - is expected to follow the Covid rules.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shaimaa Khalil reports from Melbourne's Park Hotel on the latest twist in the Djokovic visa row\n\nThis is an election year, Mr Morrison has been under immense political pressure over the handling of the Omicron coronavirus wave, amid rocketing case numbers and chaos at testing clinics. Observers suggest he may have chosen to use this as an opportunity to appear tough on the country's border policies.\n\nBut in trying to appear firm on Covid rules and visa requirements, Mr Morrison and his government has created more chaos. Every statement that comes out, every detail that emerges, seems to bring yet another layer of uncertainty.\n\nDjokovic's legal team ended up successfully challenging the decision to deport him in court on Monday, five days into the saga.\n\nJudge Anthony Kelly ordered Djokovic's release after the government acknowledged in court that he was not given enough time to respond following the notification to cancel his visa.\n\nHowever, Australia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.\n\nThere has been a lot of blaming and finger pointing but no one has come out to clearly answer any of the basic questions around this story. Not the federal or state government officials - not even Tennis Australia.\n\nThe way he's been treated in the past few days seems to have shifted the sentiment towards him.\n\nThe Australian player Nick Kyrgios, who had previously criticised Djokovic for his response to the pandemic, came to his defence - calling Australia's treatment of him \"really bad\" and urging authorities to \"do better\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nicholas Kyrgios This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRights groups have also weighed in - Sophie McNeill of Human Rights Watch in Australia tweeted that she felt \"very uncomfortable\" with the way Djokovic had been treated.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Sophie McNeill This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe authorities are reportedly investigating a number of visas. On Saturday, another Australian Open hopeful, Renata Voracova from the Czech Republic, left Australia after her visa was cancelled.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne.\n\nBut one of the biggest and most important sporting events in the country is turning into a big international embarrassment. The eyes of the world will be on Australia for all the wrong reasons.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nPhilippe Coutinho scored a late equaliser on his Aston Villa debut as Steven Gerrard's side fought back from two goals down to draw a pulsating Premier League duel with Manchester United at Villa Park.\n\nCoutinho was just about to be introduced by Villa boss Gerrard midway through the second half when Bruno Fernandes slammed home his second goal of the game off the underside of the bar.\n\nBut the Brazilian proved the catalyst for a memorable response.\n\nFirst he drove at the United defence, helping to create the space which Jacob Ramsey exploited to halve the deficit.\n\nThen Ramsey slid over an excellent cross from the left which Raphael Varane was unable to intercept as he slid back, leaving Coutinho to finish into an empty net.\n\nThe goal brought celebrations at both ends of the pitch as Emiliano Martinez also went into the crowd in relief - it was the Argentine's horrible sixth-minute error that had gifted Fernandes the visitors' opener.\n• None 'There have been many ups and downs' - Coutinho stars on Premier League return\n• None Relive Aston Villa v Manchester United plus the rest of Saturday's Premier League fixtures\n• None Go straight to the best United content\n\nGiven his background - with Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich - Coutinho is a bold loan signing by Villa, and underlines the pedigree of the man they appointed as manager in November.\n\nGerrard is not at Villa to learn how to avoid relegation.\n\nHis demands remain as high as they were as a player and Coutinho's arrival is an example of that.\n\nVilla are a better team since Gerrard's arrival and, after a sluggish start against opponents they dominated but lost to in the FA Cup five days ago, they grew into the game.\n\nThe club's other newboy, Lucas Digne, was among those denied by United keeper David de Gea at the end of the first half - in unorthodox fashion, with his knees.\n\nOllie Watkins did not really test the Spain keeper when Villa broke after Edinson Cavani lost possession in his own half. However, Emi Buendia certainly did with a near-post header. Rooted to his line, De Gea's reactions were up to the job as he beat Buendia's effort away.\n\nWhen De Gea produced more saves after half-time to deny Ramsey and Digne again, it appeared the image of the night for Villa would be midfielder Morgan Sanson kicking a drinks bottle in fury after his error in gifting Fred possession to set up Fernandes for the visitors' second had been followed immediately by his substitution.\n\nHowever, as it was the prelude to Coutinho's arrival, it was the moment that changed the course of the game - and the acclaim for the Brazilian at the final whistle indicated Villa's fans are already firmly behind him.\n\nThis was another frustrating experience for United's interim boss Ralf Rangnick who is trying, so far without success, to find a way for his team to get control of games and find the balance between defence and attack.\n\nUnited could not have been given more of a gift to get their noses in front as Martinez appeared to be distracted by an off-the-ball run from Cavani and dropped what should have been a routine save from Fernandes 20-yard shot through his legs and into his net.\n\nYet, as was so often the case under predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a bright start gave way to difficulties.\n\nWith Cristiano Ronaldo among the absentees, Rangnick went for a bold alternative in 19-year-old Swede Anthony Elanga.\n• None Martial refused to be in squad, Rangnick says\n\nThe move worked to an extent but as United came under increasing pressure, their attacking threat was reduced to periodic counters.\n\nFernandes' second - the first time he has scored more than one in a game since his opening-day hat-trick against Leeds - should have sealed victory. But they lacked the nous to see out the game and instead were pulled around far too easily.\n\nAfter starting with back-to-back league wins, Rangnick has now seen his side muster five points from four games and they remain seventh, worryingly still a point behind a Tottenham side Antonio Conte is clearly not happy with, but who also have two games in hand on United.\n• None Attempt blocked. Donny van de Beek (Manchester United) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Jadon Sancho.\n• None Offside, Aston Villa. Matthew Cash tries a through ball, but Ollie Watkins is caught offside.\n• None Attempt saved. Kortney Hause (Aston Villa) header from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Douglas Luiz.\n• None Attempt saved. Philippe Coutinho (Aston Villa) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Emiliano Buendía.\n• None Goal! Aston Villa 2, Manchester United 2. Philippe Coutinho (Aston Villa) right footed shot from very close range to the high centre of the goal. Assisted by Jacob Ramsey.\n• None Goal! Aston Villa 1, Manchester United 2. Jacob Ramsey (Aston Villa) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the top right corner.\n• None Attempt missed. Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Matthew Cash with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "More babies are going to hospital with Covid during this latest Omicron wave but they are not very sick with the virus, say UK experts - based on the available data since December.\n\nDoctors say early findings are \"incredibly\" encouraging - Covid remains very low-risk.\n\nThey say parents can be reassured, and the NHS has space if babies need care.\n\nWhile many of the babies had a fever with or without a cough, few needed treatment such as oxygen.\n\nThe rise in Covid-related paediatric admissions which hospitals have been seeing is largely for under-fives, and particularly children under the age of one.\n\nNHS England conducted a very rapid evaluation of around 50 admissions of babies with Omicron across around 33 hospitals.\n\nIt continues to gather more evidence as new cases occur.\n\nMeanwhile, early data has also been released by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) comparing around 171 child admissions with Omicron to those earlier in the pandemic.\n\nWith more of the virus circulating at the moment, there is a greater chance that children will catch Covid. Around 4.3 million, or one in every 15 people, are thought to be infected with Covid at the moment. People aged 20 to 29 have the highest rates, and the over-80s the lowest.\n\nAs with earlier in the pandemic, most children and babies who catch Covid will not become ill, but a small proportion will. Some may be in hospital for other reasons, but test positive for the virus while there.\n\nProf Calum Semple, who advises the Government as part of Sage, said: \"Our study has shown that there has been an increased proportion of children being admitted in the last four weeks associated with the onset of Omicron and this has been particularly driven by children under the age of one.\n\n\"The striking feature is that we're now seeing essentially 42% of the children are under the age of one, whereas previously it was around about 30%.\"\n\nProf Russell Viner, who is an expert in child health at University College London, said Covid was behaving like normal winter viruses in children: \"Clinically, this picture is incredibly reassuring. Half were in for observation only. The average length of stay was low...around two days.\"\n\nEven babies with other serious medical complications do not appear to be getting very ill with the virus.\n\nWhen babies and infants do get Covid symptoms, they tend to be a raised temperature and a slight cough.\n\nA fever is something parents or carers should consider seeking medical advice about.\n\nAnd women who are pregnant can help protect themselves and their baby by getting vaccinated against Covid.\n\nUnvaccinated mums-to-be who catch the virus near the end of pregnancy are at higher risk of birth-related complications, including premature births and stillbirths.\n\nIdeally, use a digital thermometer to get a fast, accurate reading\n\nA fever is a temperature of 38C or above and can be a sign of an infection such as Covid\n\nYou can contact your GP or call 111 for advice if your baby has a temperature\n\nSome can be managed at home\n\nThe Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says children's wards are experiencing a busy winter, as is usual for this time of year. While paediatricians are seeing lots of babies and young children with fever and respiratory conditions, very few with Omicron are needing paediatric intensive care.\n\nRCPCH President Dr Camilla Kingdon said: \"We need to watch this space but the picture is a reassuring one.\"", "Alec Baldwin has turned over his mobile phone to police investigating a fatal shooting on a New Mexico film set.\n\nCinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot as Mr Baldwin, 63, rehearsed drawing a prop gun on the set of the movie Rust in October last year.\n\nSanta Fe Sheriff's Office confirmed the actor had turned over his device to authorities near his home in New York.\n\nPolice had said earlier this week that the actor was not co-operating with the inquiry.\n\nSanta Fe County Sheriff spokesperson Juan Rios told the Los Angeles Times on Friday that police intend to gather data like text messages and voicemails off the handset as part of their investigation into the incident.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAaron Dyer, Mr Baldwin's attorney, told BBC partner CBS News that his client had voluntarily turned over the phone.\n\n\"But this matter isn't about his phone, and there are no answers on his phone,\" Mr Dyer said. \"Alec did nothing wrong.\"\n\nMr Baldwin was rehearsing drawing a prop gun while filming Rust, a western, when it discharged, but he has insisted he \"didn't pull the trigger\".\n\nA lawsuit against Mr Baldwin alleges that a film script did not require him to fire a gun when he fatally shot Ms Hutchins.\n\nLawyers handling the legal action described the behaviour of Mr Baldwin and the film's producers as \"reckless\", and accused them of failing to follow safety protocols.", "Australian journalist Paul Sakkal, who has covered Novak Djokovic's visa saga on the ground for Melbourne paper The Age, says it has caused \"anger\" and \"embarrassment\" and cast a shadow over the tennis tournament.\n\nSakkal was speaking to the BBC's Sunday Morning from Melbourne.\n\nHe says the \"visceral reaction\" to Djokovic's arrival in the country without a vaccine is partly down to the \"really large Covid wave\" which has driven 35,000 daily cases in Victoria where the Australian Open will be held.\n\n\"There was a sense that Djokovic, a wealthy entitled person [...] had somehow found a loophole to get into Australia through a back door,\" he says.\n\n\"I think that fed a lot of the anger and that anger hasn't really dissipated, even though he had his first legal challenge that was successful.\n\n\"I think the government made the political calculation that they were still on quite popular political grounds in deporting him and they made that decision on Friday and a court has upheld it today.\"\n\nHe says there is \"no doubt this casts a significant shadow over the tournament\".\n\nIt is \"an embarrassment for the organisers\" and makes \"our government and our federation... look like a bit of a farce\", he says.", "The moment an underwater volcano violently erupted in Tonga has been captured by satellite imagery.\n\nSpeeded-up footage from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the eruption two times.\n\nHunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai has triggered a widespread tsunami threat - including in neighbouring New Zealand.\n\nRead more: Latest news on tsunami warning after giant eruption", "Rachel was so unwell she did not know she had given birth\n\nA woman has spoken of her \"devastation\" after losing a baby delivered while she was in an induced coma with Covid.\n\nRachel, from Wolverhampton, who did not wish her surname to be used, was admitted to hospital over the summer in the 19th week of pregnancy.\n\nShe said uncertainty about whether pregnant women should have the Covid vaccine had put her off getting it.\n\nHer condition deteriorated and she said she was so ill she did not realise at first son Jaxon was stillborn.\n\n\"I was heavily sedated a lot of the time and from what I'm told by my family, my chances weren't looking very good,\" the 38-year-old said.\n\n\"They were trying to get the baby to survive to 28 weeks but unfortunately, at 24 weeks, my son was born stillborn.\"\n\nJaxon died on 6 August, with Rachel not learning of her loss until a few days later.\n\nRachel, who said she had planned to have the vaccine after giving birth, is now urging others to get the jab, particularly women from minority backgrounds, for whom uptake is lower.\n\n\"I was only able to see [Jaxon] once,\" she said. \"It was very difficult for my partner, Austin, because he was suffering too. He'd just lost his child, I was in a coma.\n\n\"We're all devastated at our loss. We were all very excited at this new life then we were left with nothing.\"\n\nRachel stayed at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton for a further two-and-a-half months. She is still recovering.\n\nShe said the coma left her paralysed and a tracheotomy left her unable to speak for a month. \"It's affected my ability to do every day tasks,\" she said.\n\nEncouraging people to get the vaccine, Rachel, who is now fully vaccinated, said: \"I thought I'd have the vaccine when I'd had the baby, but it wasn't meant to be.\n\n\"I would say take it. It's a two-minute thing that can save months of agony if you end up like I was.\"\n\nIf you have been affected by issues raised in this article, help and support is available at BBC Action Line.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n• None How many people have had boosters so far?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe US and Japan have advised people on their Pacific coastlines to get away from the shore as a precaution against tsunami waves caused by a volcano eruption in the South Pacific.\n\nJapan has warned of waves as high as three metres, and waves of 1.2 metres hit the south of the country.\n\nThe US warned of strong currents and waves, and coastal flooding.\n\nThe huge underwater volcanic eruption caused waves of more than a metre to crash into Tonga.\n\nThe eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano was heard across the South Pacific, and eventually as far away as the US.\n\nMany parts of Tonga, whose capital is just 65km (40 miles) south of the eruption, are covered in ash and are experiencing a near-total blackout of power, phone lines and internet services. The extent of any injuries or damage is still unclear.\n\nSocial media footage showed water washing through a church and several homes, and witnesses said ash was falling over the capital, Nuku'alofa.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jese Tuisinu This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nVideos on social media showed traffic jams as people tried to flee low-lying areas by car.\n\nOne resident, Mere Taufa, said the eruption had hit as her family was preparing for dinner, and her younger brother had thought bombs were exploding nearby.\n\n\"My first instinct was to take cover under the table, I grabbed my little sister, and screamed at my parents and others in the house to do the same,\" New Zealand news site Stuff.co.nz quoted her as saying.\n\nMs Taufa said the next thing she knew, water was rushing into their home.\n\n\"You could just hear screams everywhere, people screaming for safety, for everyone to get to higher ground,\" she added.\n\nThe plumes of gas, smoke and ash pouring from the volcano reached 20km into the sky, Tonga Geological Services said.\n\nIn Japan, the 1.2m tsunami was recorded in the Kominato district of Amami-Oshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture at 23:55 (14:55 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nSo violent was the initial eight-minute eruption that it could be heard as \"loud thunder sounds\" in Fiji, more than 800km away, according to officials in the capital, Suva.\n\nThe Fijian government issued a tsunami advisory and opened evacuation centres for people in coastal areas. Vanuatu, another island nation in the Pacific, issued a similar warning.\n\nProf Shane Cronin, a volcanologist at the University of Auckland, said the eruption was one of the biggest in Tonga in the past 30 years.\n\n\"This is a pretty big event - it's one of the more significant eruptions of the last decade at least,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"The most remarkable thing about it is how rapidly and violently it's spread. This one was larger, a much wider lateral spread, much more ash was produced. I expect there to be many centimetres of ash that have been deposited on Tonga.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Australian government said the prime minister and minister for foreign affairs were monitoring the situation and ready to provide support on request.\n\nA tsunami warning has been issued for parts of Australia's east coast and Tasmania.\n\nIn New Zealand, which is more than 2,300km away from Tonga, the National Emergency Management Agency said coastal areas on the north and east coast of the North Island could see \"strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore\".\n\nLocal forecaster Weather Watch tweeted about the eruption: \"The energy release is simply astonishing\", adding: \"Reports of people hearing the sonic booms across New Zealand.\"\n\nDid you witness the volcano? If it is safe for you to do so email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The late Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who was shot dead inside his home on 7 July 2021\n\nJamaican authorities have arrested a former Haitian senator who is a prime suspect in the murder of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.\n\nJohn Joel Joseph was arrested on Friday, Jamaica Constabulary Force spokesman Dennis Brooks said.\n\nMr Moïse was shot dead on 7 July by gunmen who stormed his residence in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.\n\nSoon after, then-National Police Chief Leon Charles said Mr Joseph supplied weapons and planned meetings.\n\nMr Brooks declined to comment on whether the arrest happened following a request by the FBI in the United States, which is also investigating the murder.\n\nA 124-page Haitian police investigative report states that Mr Joseph \"was instrumental in his fierce will to kill the president\", the Miami Herald reports.\n\nFormer Colombian military officer Mario Antonio Palacios was charged in the US earlier this month with being part of the plot.\n\nWhile several arrests have been made in Haiti in connection with the killing, Mr Palacios was the first suspect to face charges.\n\nPrevious suspects detained were also former members of the Colombian military, many of whom said they were hired to provide \"security services\" in Haiti and were not told about a plan to kill the president.\n\nThe investigation into the murder of Mr Moïse, who was 53, has been slow and has been further set back by the resignations of key officials.\n\nInvestigators have also reported receiving death threats and being intimidated.\n\nThe rise in violence in Haiti and a dire economic situation in the country - made worse by several natural disasters in recent years - have led to a growing number of Haitians seeking opportunities in other countries.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The world's number one male tennis player has now had his visa cancelled - again\n\nThe Australian government was never going to come out of this saga looking good.\n\nThey've been on the back foot ever since Novak Djokovic announced he was coming to defend his Australian Open title.\n\nThe decision to cancel Djokovic's visa - after a court previously ruled in his favour - is largely about saving face with Australian voters in an election year.\n\nTo achieve this, the government is prepared to endure any diplomatic fallout, international embarrassment and the wrath of Djokovic's supporters.\n\nThroughout the past two weeks, the federal government has been adamant to make a point: no-one is above the rules. Not even the men's world number one.\n\nA simple, straightforward principle. But the way it's been handled has been anything but.\n\nOn the afternoon before Djokovic arrived, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the player would \"be on the next plane home\" if his documents were not in order on arrival in Melbourne.\n\n\"Rules are rules,\" Mr Morrison reiterated when Djokovic's visa was revoked the next day, on 6 January.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Scott Morrison This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhen Djokovic challenged the decision, Mr Morrison said it was up to the court.\n\nBut suddenly the government's position began to look very shaky as it asked for more time - denied by a judge - to compile its legal case amid questions over federal procedures. It also faced scrutiny over why Djokovic had been allowed to get on a plane in the first place.\n\nThe whole thing could have ended when judge Anthony Kelly decided in Djokovic's favour - citing a bungle in the process at Melbourne Airport - and ordered the government to reinstate his visa and get him out of detention.\n\nThe immigration minister, Alex Hawke, had the option to use his executive powers to cancel the visa and deport Djokovic and he did.\n\nA lot has been said about the motivation behind this - mainly that it's political. And it is. The blaring politics is impossible to escape.\n\nThere are two things to consider here on the government's front.\n\nFirst, the deep embarrassment this has caused the Morrison administration. To Australians and indeed to the world, politicians look like they are enforcing rules they themselves don't understand or are unclear about. They also seemed to not talk to each other.\n\nThe decision comes as an election is just around the corner for Mr Morrison\n\nOne layer of government - the state of Victoria - was making decisions with Tennis Australia, in isolation. Federal officials were saying something entirely different. And the tournament organisers were complaining they'd been caught in between.\n\nThe second has to do more with Covid and less with tennis. The mood in the country is one of shock and fury. Australia's two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, have been reporting tens of thousands of cases for weeks now.\n\nTesting clinics are still struggling and the number of deaths is also rising. Though it's not at the rate of, say, Europe or the US, this is Australia - a country that imposed some of the strictest Covid rules in the world. A country where, at times, a single case could push a whole city or state into lockdown.\n\nAustralians feel abandoned. They feel like things have turned so bad, so quickly. Many also say they've done everything that's been asked of them.\n\nThey got vaccinated and are now getting their boosters, But still, the Omicron variant is rampant around them leaving many asking what more they could've done.\n\nNow juxtapose that picture against a tennis star who publicly said he opposed the vaccine and who admitted to breaking isolation rules while Covid positive, and to providing false information on his travel declaration form.\n\nThere's also that discrepancy about when he found out he had Covid. He said in his statement that week that he knew on 17 December. But the sworn affidavit he presented to the court said the positive test was confirmed on 16 December.\n\n\"If it were you or me,\" someone said on my Twitter feed, \"Would they allow us in after all that?\"\n\nThere's no doubt that Scott Morrison's government has been bruised by this controversy.\n\nThe political tussling between state and federal governments; the breakdown of communication; the opaqueness of which rules apply to whom; an unvaccinated famous athlete that has broken Covid rules. It all makes for a messy picture that politicians have been trying to straighten out.\n\nGiven all that we know now, the government would have had a lot more to explain if they didn't cancel Novak Djokovic's visa.", "E.On says its socks \"should have been stopped\"\n\nEnergy supplier E.On has said it is \"incredibly sorry\" for sending socks to customers in a bid to encourage them to turn the heating down.\n\nIt is the second major supplier to admit to a marketing gaffe when customers are facing a cost of living squeeze driven by energy prices.\n\nEarlier in the week, Ovo's founder said he was \"really embarrassed\" about energy saving advice including \"doing a few star jumps\" and cuddling pets.\n\nEnergy bills are set to soar in April.\n\nA new price cap looks set to add about £600 to the annual gas and electricity bill of a household with typical energy usage.\n\nThe socks were sent out by E.On Next - an arm of the energy giant which sells and promotes renewable electricity.\n\nThe footwear came with a message encouraging people to leave \"lighter footprints\" by turning heating down and lowering carbon emissions.\n\nHowever, some customers reacted with anger and perplexity - especially when they were sent to elderly relatives. Now, the company has apologised.\n\nWriting on Twitter, it said: \"If you recently received a pair of socks from us, we would like to say we are incredibly sorry for how we have made some people feel.\n\n\"In light of the seriousness of current challenges that many people are facing, this mailing should have been stopped and we are sorry.\"\n\nAs first reported in the Daily Mail, the company said it sent the socks to 30,000 customers who responded to an energy saving campaign last year.\n\nIn a subsequent statement, a spokesman for the company said: \"This activity was in no way designed to detract from the seriousness of the current energy crisis\n\n\"This campaign originally went ahead last year and was intended as a fun way to encourage people to think about 'lightening your carbon footprint' and isn't meant to be anything to do with the current challenges many people are facing.\"\n\nHe said E.On had invested billions of pounds into better insulation, efficient heating, and advice to customers.\n\nE.On is the UK's second biggest energy supplier, after British Gas.\n\nStephen Fitzpatrick, the founder of the third-largest, Ovo, said earlier in the week that \"someone had a bad day\" when a link was sent to customers directing them to a blog encouraging them to save energy by hugging pets.\n\nThe latest gaffe comes on the day an alliance of charities called on the government for urgent action to tackle the energy bill crisis.\n\nThe 25 charities, including Save the Children, Age UK, End Fuel Poverty Coalition, WWF, Green Alliance and Greenpeace, said emergency funding was needed to support the most vulnerable.", "Kate Josephs left the Cabinet Office to work for Sheffield City Council\n\nA former Covid taskforce chief hosted leaving drinks in the Cabinet Office in December 2020, it has emerged.\n\nKate Josephs worked for the unit, responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions, before she became chief executive of Sheffield City Council.\n\nThe drinks reception is understood to be among the events being investigated by senior civil servant Sue Gray.\n\nMs Josephs said she was \"truly sorry\" for joining the event, held while London was under Tier 3 rules.\n\nShe said she was co-operating fully with the investigation into gatherings in government buildings.\n\nMs Josephs served as director general of the taskforce from July 2020 until her departure on 18 December 2020.\n\nAt the time of her Cabinet Office departure London was subject to restrictions preventing most indoor mixing between those from different households.\n\nMs Gray's inquiry is to establish \"a general understanding of the nature\" of gatherings that took place and whether any \"individual disciplinary action\" should be taken, according to its terms of reference.\n\nIn a statement posted on Twitter Ms Josephs wrote: \"On the evening of 17 December, I gathered with colleagues that were at work that day, with drinks, in our office in the Cabinet Office to mark my leaving the Civil Service.\n\n\"I am truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result.\"\n\nMs Josephs posted a tweet the following day which included a picture of her outside 10 Downing Street alongside a message praising her \"incredible colleagues who make up the Covid taskforce\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kate Josephs This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn her apology, she said she did not attend any events at Number 10, and would not comment further until an investigation led by senior civil servant Sue Gray had been completed.\n\nMs Josephs also apologised \"unreservedly\" to the people of Sheffield, who she said had \"suffered greatly during this pandemic\".\n\nCity council leader Terry Fox said the two had met today and he expressed \"deep disappointment\" at her actions.\n\n\"People will rightly feel angry and let down. I get that completely,\" he said.\n\nHe said since taking up the role Ms Josephs had been an asset who had worked \"tirelessly for Sheffield and its people\"\n\nHe added: \"Our residents will understandably have questions and concerns, and we await the findings of the investigation.\"\n\nMs Josephs was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for public service in the Queen's Birthday honours in 2021.", "Peter Tobin is serving three life terms for the murders of Angelika Kluk, Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol.\n\nSerial killer Peter Tobin has been taken to hospital from the prison where he is serving three life sentences.\n\nTobin was transferred from HMP Edinburgh to the city's Royal Infirmary on Thursday after becoming unwell.\n\nHe was convicted of raping and murdering Polish student Angelika Kluk, 23, and hiding her body under the floor of a Glasgow church in 2006.\n\nTobin is also serving life terms for the murders of 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton and 18-year-old Dinah McNicol.\n\nVicky, of Redding, near Falkirk, and Dinah, of Tillingham, Essex, both vanished in 1991.\n\nTheir bodies were found 17 years later, buried in the garden of Tobin's former home in Margate, Kent.\n\nIt is not the first time Tobin, who is in his mid-70s, has been taken to hospital from prison in recent years.\n\nIn February 2016 he was taken to the Royal Infirmary by ambulance after he reportedly collapsed in his cell.", "Plans to safeguard England's national parks for future generations have been unveiled by the government.\n\nThe proposals also aim to improve access to nature and ensure landscapes are key to tackling climate change.\n\nIt follows a review of protections for national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).\n\nEnvironment Secretary George Eustice said the plans - including a public consultation - were \"a new chapter in the story of our protected landscapes\".\n\nThe consultation runs to 9 April and will ask for views on the proposals to drive nature recovery and support communities that live and work in those areas.\n\nThe proposals include creating management plans for those in charge of the national parks and AONBs, and encouraging local leaders across England to organise campaigns, events and volunteering projects to bring the public closer to nature.\n\nThe Landscapes Review looked at whether the existing protections were still fit for purpose.\n\nThe review's author, Julian Glover, said: \"It won't be enough just to try to conserve what we have inherited - we can change the story from decline to recovery, to make them greener, more welcoming and full of hope.\"\n\nThe pandemic has seen more people spending time outside but it has also highlighted inequalities surrounding access to green spaces - with people on low incomes being disadvantaged, according to the advisory body Natural England.\n\nIncreased access to nature is among the aims set out in the new plans.\n\nUsing landscapes in the fight against climate change are also central to the aims, along with protecting biodiversity and supporting people's health and wellbeing for the next 70 years and beyond.\n\nMr Eustice said: \"These reforms will play a pivotal role in meeting our international commitment to protect 30% of land for biodiversity by 2030.\"\n\nThe government has also pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 as part of its 25-Year Environment Plan.", "Nicholas Rossi campaigned on children's rights and appeared on TV in the US\n\nAn American man believed to have faked his own death is facing extradition after being arrested in hospital in Glasgow.\n\nNicholas Rossi, 34, was wanted by Interpol and faces a charge of rape in Utah in the United States.\n\nHe was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in December with Covid-19 - where he used the alias Arthur Knight.\n\nPolice Scotland said he was detained under an international arrest warrant.\n\nAuthorities in the US have confirmed that Mr Rossi was also known as Nicholas Alahverdian in the state of Rhode Island where he was involved in local politics and was a critic of the state's child welfare system.\n\nPolice tracked the fugitive to Scotland where he was on a ventilator at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital\n\nMr Rossi told US media in December 2019 that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. Several outlets reported that he had died in February 2020.\n\nA memorial posted online declared him a \"warrior that fought on the front lines for two decades\" for children's rights and said his ashes had been scattered at sea.\n\nMr Rossi is believed to have been traced to the intensive care unit at the QEUH in Glasgow where he was on a ventilator. Medical staff were unaware he was on Interpol's red list.\n\nHe was arrested at the hospital by Police Scotland on 13 December on behalf of colleagues in Utah.\n\nLegal documents show that Nicholas Rossi used a number of aliases\n\nThe Crown Office said he appeared by video link from the hospital in relation to extradition proceedings to the US.\n\nUtah's county attorney confirmed he was known in the state as Nicholas Rossi. Court records showed that Utah officials were looking for him for an alleged rape.\n\nWhen he was arrested in Glasgow he was on the run from authorities in several US states.\n\nThe online memorial for Nicholas Alahverdian described him as a \"warrior\"\n\nInvestigations by other agencies have recognised him as Nicholas Alahverdian, Nicholas Alahverdian Rossi, Nicholas Edward Rossi, Nicholas Alahverdian-Rossi, Nick Alan, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Brown and Arthur Knight.\n\nThe FBI also had a warrant for his arrest on charges of defrauding his foster father by taking out credit cards in his name and running up debts of more than $200,000.\n\nThe Providence Journal reported on Friday that in December 2019, weeks before Mr Rossi told reporters he had non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a Utah investigator contacted the FBI with information on his location.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by NBC 10 WJAR This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Utah charges had come from an initiative to review historical sex assault cases where DNA evidence kits had not been tested.\n\nNicholas Rossi was the suspect in a case in 2008. It had been closed by the lead detective without being referred to the Utah County Attorney's Office for screening.\n\nIn 2018 the DNA review connected him to another sexual assault case in Ohio. Investigators believed Mr Rossi had left the US and had led state legislators in other states to believe he was dead.\n\nThe Utah county attorney's office is now working with federal and international agencies to extradite Mr Rossi back to Utah.\n\nUtah County Attorney David Leavitt said inter-agency investigations had led to the arrest\n\nUtah county attorney, David Leavitt, told BBC Scotland: \"We will now have to go through the process of proving in a Scottish court that Arthur Knight is Nicholas Rossi. That will be a process that will take some time but it's one we will willingly go through because our victim in Utah has been suffering now for all these 13 years.\n\n\"I have no idea what he was doing in Scotland prior to lying in a hospital bed with Covid.\"\n\nHe added: \"Our office is grateful for the significant inter-agency collaboration of law enforcement to bring this suspect to justice.\n\n\"We credit Utah's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant funded through the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Assistance as playing a significant role in testing backlogged kits and ultimately identifying the suspect.\"\n\nMr Leavitt is also encouraging other potential victims of a crime by Mr Rossi to come forward.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tim White, reporter for CBS, says: 'It wasn't the cops that caught him, it was Covid'\n\nCBS investigative reporter in Rhode Island, Tim White, told BBC Scotland: \"Everyone was stunned when news broke that he was alive in Scotland.\n\n\"It's an unbelievable story. People are now coming out of the woodwork, talking about their experiences and reflecting on their interactions with him.\n\n\"Investigators are painting a picture of a pathological liar. He has nearly a dozen aliases.\n\n\"Police say he has changed his story multiple times, he has changed his identity multiple times. Cops tried to get him. It wasn't the cops that caught him though. It was Covid.\"\n\nMr White said that in 2020 a woman claiming to be Nicholas Alahverdian's wife rang several media outlets and said he had died of cancer and urged them to write an obituary.\n\nHowever, the reporter from his organisation was suspicious as lots of things did not add up and a decision was made not to publish the obituary, despite repeated emails and phone calls from the woman claiming to be his wife.\n\n\"We later learned that the state police and FBI were looking into whether he was alive or not,\" Mr White said.\n\nHe said a memorial mass had been arranged at a Catholic church following Mr Alahverdian's \"death\".\n\n\"The priest was putting all the pieces in place and then his phone rang,\" Mr White said. \"It was a detective from the Rhode Island state police who told him 'don't put that mass on, we think he's alive so this would be a complete fraud of a memorial service'.\n\n\"That was a really telling and wild moment. It really was the first time reporters realised that investigators had serious questions about the story of his death.\"\n\nPolice Scotland confirmed that Mr Rossi was arrested in Glasgow on 13 December in connection with an international arrest warrant.\n\nA spokesman said: \"A report was submitted to the procurator fiscal.\"\n• None 'Why we had to fake my murder'", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson needs to \"change his ways\", says pensions minister\n\nA minister whose baby twins died during the pandemic says Boris Johnson \"needs to change his ways\", following a string of revelations about drinks parties at No 10 during lockdown.\n\nGuy Opperman said that in May 2020 - when the PM attended a garden party - he could not visit his wife and sons in hospital due to Covid rules.\n\nHis twins Rafe and Teddy died shortly afterwards.\n\nBut Mr Opperman told the BBC that Boris Johnson should stay in his post.\n\nNo 10 has urged critical MPs to wait for senior civil servant Sue Gray to finish her report into lockdown gatherings.\n\nEarlier this week Mr Johnson acknowledged that he attended a drinks gathering on 20 May 2020 but insisted he believed it was a work event.\n\nDowning Street has also apologised to Buckingham Palace after it emerged two staff parties were held at No 10 on the night before Prince Philip's funeral.\n\nMr Johnson was not at either event, but his spokesman said it was \"deeply regrettable that this took place at a time of national mourning\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Politics North programme, Mr Opperman - pensions minister and MP for Hexham in Northumberland - said: \"I feel pretty emotional about this because in May 2020 my wife and kids were unwell and they went to hospital.\n\n\"I was not able to go there to support them.\n\n\"And I've got constituents who couldn't go to the care homes, to funerals who were obviously obeying the rules and quite clearly in No 10 at that time there were a number of people not behaving appropriately.\n\n\"I feel pretty emotional that I wasn't able to support my wife and kids.\"\n\nHe added while some of the behaviour in No 10 was clearly not acceptable, it was 18 months ago and the prime minister should continue in his position. He said Sue Gray's report would be the time to \"consider what has happened\".\n\nLabour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP are all calling for Mr Johnson to resign after he admitted attending the 20 May 2020 drinks party in the Downing Street garden during lockdown.\n\nAnd Andrew Bridgen has become the fifth Conservative MP to publicly declare they have written to the chairman of the 1922 Committee - which organises Tory leadership contests - to say they have no confidence in the prime minister.\n\nFifty-four Conservative MPs have to write a letter to trigger a vote.\n\nElsewhere the former head of the government's Covid taskforce has apologised for attending a leaving drinks at the Cabinet Office on 17 December 2020 when she left the civil service.\n\nKate Josephs, who is now the chief executive of Sheffield City Council, said she was \"truly sorry\" for \"the anger that people will feel\".", "\"Party-gate\" has left the MPs who sit behind Boris Johnson questioning whether to stand up for him\n\nCulture Secretary Nadine Dorries has urged her colleagues to \"keep calm heads\" following the prime minister's admission he attended a drinks party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020.\n\nShe suggested some of the opposition to Boris Johnson was coming from his usual detractors.\n\nBut it is also the case that some of his previously vocal supporters - who admit they owed their election victory to Mr Johnson - are turning on him.\n\nAs one veteran of the May and Johnson premierships put it: \"Some of the 2019 intake are feeling trigger happy.\"\n\nThis is, in part, driven by constituents who are making their views of so-called \"party-gate\" known in no uncertain terms.\n\nOne winner of a Red Wall seat told me: \"I have an inbox like many colleagues - yes, the usual lefty detractors, but there is a considerable amount of criticism from Conservative voters.\n\nAnother said that while it wasn't the worst \"influx\" of criticism they had experienced, the problem was growing, adding: \"People are concerned, people are worried.\"\n\nTheir constituents' disgruntlement is feeding their own disillusion with their leadership.\n\nAs an MP who snatched their seat from Labour put it: \"Lots of my colleagues are at the end of their tether.\n\n\"The polls are bad (one poll put Labour 10 points ahead this week) and are likely to get worse. This feels terminal.\"\n\nTo trigger a leadership contest, 54 Conservative MPs would have to write to - or email - the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady.\n\nHe is a paragon of discretion and never reveals how many of his colleagues have been sending anti-leadership missives until the requisite threshold has been reached.\n\nSo when people estimate the number of letters which have gone in (and letters can be withdrawn, as well as submitted) these should be taken, not with a pinch, but with a mine of salt.\n\nNonetheless, the talk at Westminster is that perhaps half a dozen letters or emails have been sent by 2019 MPs who would have been assumed to have been supportive.\n\nAnd even if accurate, it is the tip of an iceberg of discontent and restlessness.\n\nSir Graham Brady keeps tight lipped about how many letters he receives - until they hits the magic number\n\nThere are those who are critical privately but are keeping their powder dry until the senior civil servant Sue Gray delivers her report on the alleged parties and events during lockdown.\n\n\"I want to see the facts established,\" said one, while another added: \"This is not something to do lightly.\"\n\nSo there is a moment of jeopardy for Boris Johnson.\n\nA former government adviser characterised the situation like this: \"His biggest problem is the number of newly elected MPs he has got.\n\n\"There is a real divide between those elected in 2010 and 2015 and those from 2019 - those who have lived through the omnishambles Budget can see that this doesn't need to be terminal.\"\n\nThat was when George Osborne's budget unravelled and Labour went ahead by around 10 points in the polls, but the Conservatives went on to win an overall majority in 2015.\n\nHe went on: \"The new intake, who should be ambitious to get on the ministerial ladder, aren't used to seeing polls tighten, so instead they are worried that they could lose their seats.\"\n\nBut what of those sturdy veterans of the 2010 and the 2015 intake who have weathered previous political storms?\n\nWell, the danger for the PM is that some of them are now openly breaking ranks too.\n\nCaroline Nokes - a former minister elected in 2010 - said this week: \"He is damaging the entire Conservative brand for his unwillingness to accept the strictures that other people have lived by.\"\n\nWilliam Wragg, a select committee chair who won his seat in 2015, told the BBC PM programme: \"A series of unforced errors are deeply damaging to the perception of the party. The prime minister's position is untenable.\"\n\nAnd off the record, some of the longer-standing MPs are privately critical.\n\n\"Anyone who has broken the rules must face the consequences,\" said one.\n\nAnother told me that he believed Mr Johnson was impugning the reputation of his own MPs.\n\nBut there is a disagreement over not just if to act, but when.\n\nCaroline Nokes has publicly called for the PM to resign\n\nSome MPs believe that any electoral consequences arising from the current turmoil need to be proven - and that would come after what are expected to be poor local election results in May.\n\nBut others are asking why good councillors should be potentially thrown to the wolves, and are more restless.\n\nOne longer standing MP has said that Chancellor Rishi Sunak \"shouldn't look too eager\" for the top job - it would be better to wait if a leadership challenge is to be successful.\n\nSome of Mr Johnson's strongest critics in private insist that they are not part of any organised putsch or are in a rival camp - they are simply drawing their own conclusions from looking at their postbags.\n\nOne source insisted that Boris Johnson doesn't just have trouble with \"Red Wallers\" who worry that new voters might return to their old Labour roots, but \"those in Lib Dem-facing seats\" are worried too.\n\nAnd after the North Shropshire and Chesham and Amersham by-elections, that is perhaps understandable.\n\nIt's possible the Sue Gray report may yet be more of a damp squib than the ammunition for a Conservative coup.\n\nBut several MPs I spoke to were fearful that hers would not be the last word on \"party-gate\", and that more damaging revelations may appear - either from Dominic Cummings or elsewhere if Mr Johnson stays in post.\n\nA former government adviser who straddled the May/Johnson years put it like this: \"When something happens, it could happen quite quickly.\n\n\"Under Theresa May, there was a growing sense of inevitability - it feels a bit like that now.\"", "A leading health expert has said there is \"cause for optimism\" in the latest data about Covid cases in Scotland.\n\nJillian Evans, head of health intelligence at NHS Grampian, said a slowdown in infection rates was \"positive news\" but added that \"we're no way out of the woods\".\n\nMs Evans warned that infections from the Christmas period were still resulting in hospitalisations now.\n\nHumza Yousaf has said the Omicron wave appeared to be \"decelerating\".\n\nHowever, the health secretary said on Friday more data was needed to be definitive.\n\nScotland's national clinical director, Prof Jason Leitch, also said he was hopeful cases may be reaching or have reached a peak, but added: \"You can only see the peak once you are off it and it is behind you\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland radio programme, Ms Evans was asked about the situation in her health board area.\n\nShe said: \"What a difference a week has made for us.\n\n\"Certainly, a slowing down of those infection rates that we saw in just in the run-up to Christmas and at the start of New Year.\n\n\"The issue for us right now of course is with high infection rates right up to that Christmas period and into New Year we will see the effect of that in hospitals across Scotland, so the baked-in cases we have got we expect to see for the next week or two weeks.\n\n\"So that means we're still under pressure in health and social care systems but it gives us cause for optimism.\"\n\nProf Linda Bauld, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh and chief social policy adviser to the Scottish government, said Omicron cases in the UK appeared to be \"stabilising\".\n\nShe told BBC Breakfast: \"The cases, if we look at them, are going down by over 20%.\n\n\"In fact, yesterday I think was the last day, the first day for a while we've had less than 100,000 cases so things seem to moving in the right direction.\"\n\nHowever, she cautioned the number of patients in hospitals was still \"very high\".\n\nMeanwhile, the Scottish Lib Dems have said Scotland's coronavirus inquiry should deliver its interim findings within a year of starting.\n\nParty leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton, said previous judicial inquiries could \"drag on for years\" before delivering their conclusion.\n\nThe Penrose inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal took seven years to report, while an inquiry into Edinburgh's trams was set up in 2014 and is still to deliver its final report.\n\nMr Cole-Hamilton said: \"Scotland needs a ruthless and thorough public inquiry that can go anywhere, speak to anyone and demand answers for all those who have suffered so much over the past two years.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we know from past form that these inquiries can drag on for years before reaching a conclusion and time is pressing.\"\n\nLady Poole QC will lead Scotland's independent coronavirus inquiry, which will look at 12 areas around the handling of the pandemic.\n\nShe is currently in the process of appointing staff before the inquiry begins to consider evidence.\n\nA Scottish government spokesman said: \"While this is a matter for the inquiry, we are confident Lady Poole will strike the right balance between, on the one hand, addressing the wide range of questions that so many people have and, on the other, making sure that the inquiry can be delivered at speed, so that we can learn and benefit from lessons as early as possible.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nAndy Murray's bid for a first ATP title since October 2019 ended in a straight-set defeat by Russian top seed Aslan Karatsev in the Sydney Classic final.\n\nThe Briton, whose last win in Antwerp came nine months after hip surgery, lost 6-3 6-3 to the world number 20.\n\nMurray was broken in the opening game and struggled on first serve in a set where he was outpowered by Karatsev.\n\nMurray lost his first service game in the second set and the single break was enough for Karatsev to secure victory.\n\nFive break opportunities were created by Murray in the fifth game of the second set, but Karatsev saved them all and regained his rhythm to close in on the title.\n\nLeft to serve out for victory, 28-year-old Karatsev wobbled as Murray saved two championship points before the Russian - a surprise Australian Open semi-finalist in 2021 - secured the third ATP title of his career.\n\nAfterwards Murray thanked his team, which includes recently hired coach Jan de Witt, for \"all of their help\" in him reaching the Sydney final.\n\n\"First time back in the finals for three years, it's been a long road to get back here but I couldn't have done it without your help, so thank you,\" he said.\n\n\"I'd also like to thank my family back home. I don't know if you were watching but I miss you all.\"\n\nDespite the disappointment of the defeat, the world number 135 can reflect positively on the week as a whole.\n\nGenerally, the three-time Grand Slam champion moved well around the court and his serving, before the final against Karatsev at least, was particularly strong.\n\nNow the 34-year-old Scot will head to Melbourne, where the Australian Open starts on Monday.\n\nMurray, a five-time finalist at the opening Grand Slam of the season, will play Georgian 21st seed Nikoloz Basilashvili in the first round on Tuesday.\n\nIn the women's final at the Sydney Classic, Spain's Paula Badosa beat French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-4).\n\nElsewhere, Britain's Neal Skupski and his Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof claimed the ATP doubles title in Adelaide.\n\nThey earned a 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 victory over Ariel Behar and Gonzalo Escobar to claim a second title in two weeks at the start of 2022.\n\nAustralia's Thanasi Kokkinakis won his first ATP title when he came back from a set down to beat Arthur Rinderknech of France 6-7 (6-8) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 in the men's final in Adelaide.\n\nIn the women's final, Madison Keys won a first title since 2019 after she earned a dominant 6-1 6-2 win over American compatriot Alison Riske.\n• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone\n• None Find out who is in the firing line this week\n• None The Peaky Blinders series 6 trailer is here", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Prince Harry is seeking a judicial review against a refusal of the Home Office to allow him to personally pay for police protection when in the UK.\n\nThe US-based Duke of Sussex says his private security team does not have adequate jurisdiction abroad.\n\nHe lost his taxpayer-funded police security after stepping back from royal duties in 2020.\n\nPrince Harry says he wants to visit his home country with his family, but needs to \"ensure\" their safety.\n\nThe application for a judicial review - a challenge in the High Court against the decision of a public body or government department - follows a security incident in London in July 2021 when the duke's car was chased by photographers as he left a charity event.\n\nA legal representative for Prince Harry said the legal claim was filed in September \"to challenge the decision-making behind the security procedures, in the hopes that this could be re-evaluated for the obvious and necessary protection required\".\n\nPrince Harry wants to personally fund police protection, \"not to impose on the taxpayer\", they said.\n\nThe duke, who is now based in California, is arguing that his private security team cannot replicate the work of police protection in the UK, with their access to local intelligence and legal jurisdiction.\n\nA statement said: \"Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life.\n\n\"He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats.\"\n\nHis legal representative said he offered to pay the costs of police protection in January 2020 at Sandringham, when talks with the Queen were being held over the Sussexes' future role. But the offer was dismissed, the representative said.\n\n\"The UK will always be Prince Harry's home and a country he wants his wife and children to be safe in. With the lack of police protection, comes too great a personal risk,\" the statement said.\n\nThe Sussexes' daughter, Lilibet, is now seven months old and has yet to meet her great-grandmother the Queen, grandfather the Prince of Wales and other members of the family.\n\nThe couple were forced to disclose they had put in place \"privately funded security arrangements\" for their move to the US, after then-president Donald Trump said the country would not pay for their protection.\n\nA government spokesperson said the UK's \"protective security system is rigorous and proportionate\".\n\nThey added: \"It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements. To do so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals' security.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. HM Coastguard says it expects another busy summer as foreign travel is full of obstacles\n\nForeign travel restrictions and Covid uncertainty are reasons why coastguards are preparing for another incident-packed 2022 after their busiest year.\n\nCrews attended a record 36,330 rescues last year and, with the potential for Covid travel rules at home and aboard, teams predict more shouts with the UK staycation boom set to rise further.\n\nIt comes as HM Coastguard marks its 200th anniversary on Saturday.\n\n\"It was really busy last summer.\" said Tom Larkin of HM Coastguard.\n\n\"We're expecting it to be just as busy next summer too.\"\n\nThe record number of 2021 rescues beat the 33,577 shouts in the previous busiest year of 2020 - the first year of Covid restrictions - when HM Coastguard estimated more than 34 million people took part in water sport events around the UK coast.\n\nMr Larkin, one of HM Coastguard's senior coastal operations officers, whose team covers the south and west Wales coast, recalled last summer.\n\n\"It was mostly calls to help paddleboarders who'd got into difficulties,\" he said.\n\n\"The restrictions saw lots of people taking up paddleboarding for the first time and a lot of people were going out on them not knowing stuff like the tide times.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Coastguards around the UK have been marking 200 years of saving lives along the coast and at sea\n\nMore than 300 rescue teams cover more than 11,000 miles of UK coastline and Mr Larkin said crews were ready for another busy summer season with many holidaymakers opting to stay at home to avoid any Covid travel uncertainty.\n\n\"The service and teams across the country are preparing for that,\" he said.\n\n\"But my advice to anyone heading to the coast would be to stay safe, plan ahead, and let people know where you're planning to be when you go out on the water.\"\n\nHelicopters from 10 coastguard bases are ready to help people, like in this rescue at Portland in July 2021\n\nMore than 3,500 volunteers are led by hundreds of Coastguard employed operational staff, like Mr Larkin, who try to keep an estimated 200m annual visitors to the coast safe.\n\nIn Mr Larkin's patch between Chepstow in the east and Cardigan in the west, it's the beaches of Pembrokeshire that are the busiest, especially at seaside resorts like Tenby.\n\nBut Nigel Richards, one of the thousands of volunteers and station manager at Burry Port, near Llanelli on the Carmarthenshire coast, warned it was not just the beaches where people get into trouble on the coast.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The family of two adults and a six-year-old child were up to their knees in water at their home near Wrexham during Storm Christoph in 2021\n\n\"There are a number of recurring incidents, like people getting cut off on the sandbanks,\" said the volunteer of 44 years.\n\n\"We have the second highest rise and fall of tide in the world - and that invites people to take a stroll onto the sandbanks, but they don't see the tide coming in behind them and can easily get cut off.\"\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on a visit to the Coastguard helicopter base in Caernarfon\n\nMr Richards said he and his colleagues across the country will be ready for the influx of visitors with search and rescue helicopters - which helped in almost 2,000 rescues in 2020 - ready at 10 bases up and down the UK, from Cornwall to Caernarfon and Stornoway to The Solent.\n\n\"We always plan ahead and this year again we're planning for a busy summer,\" said the retired teacher.\n\n\"We're always ready for whatever incident, whatever time of day or night.\"\n\nThese paintings show how HM Coastguard rescues happened in the 19th Century\n\nMr Richards joined many of his Coastguard colleagues across the UK on Saturday morning to take part in a ceremonial cast of a throwline, which forms part of their lifesaving kit, to mark the service's 200th birthday.\n\nHM Coastguard was formed on 15 January, 1822 by the amalgamation of three services - the Revenue Cruisers, the Riding Officers and the Preventive Water Guard - and was set up to prevent smuggling.\n\nFrom 19th Century coastal lookouts to today's hi-tech national network of coordination centres, the Coastguard doesn't just search and rescue across UK but also coordinates rescues in international waters.\n\nThe service has also helped support during events and emergencies - like helping the NHS during the Covid pandemic, attending the G7 and COP26 summits, and assisting other emergency services during storms.\n\n\"I am immensely proud and humbled by the continued dedication and professionalism from the staff and volunteers which ensures everyone's safety on our shores and around our coast,\" said Maritime Minister Robert Courts.\n\nThe Coastguard began its new search and rescue radio network last month as part of a two-year £175m fibre upgrade across its 165 UK sites in a bid to improve its communication infrastructure.\n\n\"When you look at how we started and where we are now, it's easy to celebrate the innovation and development that can be seen throughout the service,\" said HM Coastguard director Claire Hughes.\n\n\"And yet, we are far more proud of the people, the volunteers and the staff who throughout two centuries have continued to strive to keep people safe at the coast and out at sea. We always have and always will respond to those in distress.\"", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Authorities in Kazakhstan say \"armed extremists\" are behind the recent deadly violence there.\n\nIt’s thought dozens of people were killed, including many in the country’s largest city Almaty.\n\nSteve Rosenberg looks back at what happened, and who was behind the violence.", "Marmite is one of Unilever's many brands\n\nGlaxoSmithKline has rejected three Unilever offers to buy its consumer goods division, including one worth £50bn.\n\nGSK said the proposals \"fundamentally failed\" to reflect the value of the division.\n\nWith a successful bid, Unilever - which owns Marmite, Dove and PG Tips - would add Sensodyne toothpaste and Panadol to its list of household brands.\n\nSuch a deal would be one of the biggest ever involving London-listed firms.\n\nGSK said in a statement the most recent proposal from Unilever on 20 December contained an offer for £41.7bn in cash and £8.3bn in Unilever shares.\n\nThe global healthcare company, which has its headquarters in London, has already been preparing to separate its consumer goods division from its pharmaceutical business in the middle of this year.\n\nThe firm has come under pressure from investors for failing to develop a Covid vaccine.\n\nUnilever said in a statement the GSK consumer arm \"would be a strong strategic fit as Unilever continues to reshape its portfolio\".\n\nThe consumer goods giant, which became a fully British company in 2020 after previously being separated between the UK and the Netherlands, also approached Pfizer about the potential deal, since the American pharmaceutical giant owns a 34% stake in GSK's consumer goods business.\n\nNeither GSK nor Pfizer has any ideological objection to selling to Unilever. GSK had planned to spin off its consumer business later this year anyway through a demerger creating a separate publicly listed company but always said it would have an open mind to a trade sale to another party if the price was right.\n\nGSK's problem with the Unilever bid is that the price isn't right.\n\nBoth Barclays and Goldman Sachs analysts have valued the business at around £50bn. However, that does not include a few important things.\n\nFirst, the premium you would normally expect to pay for taking control of a business - somewhere in the range of 30% - although that might be reduced by the debt of about £10bn GSK was expected to leave on the books of the consumer business.\n\nSecond, the value of the cost savings GSK admits could be made to make the business more profitable.\n\nThird, it may not reflect the higher sales growth targets GSK boss Emma Walmsley has said are possible for the business.\n\nShe has also said the benefit of a demerger is current GSK shareholders would get shares in the demerged business so retain their participation in any future growth in the consumer business.\n\nSome will say if higher growth and greater cost reductions are possible, why haven't they happened already? Emma Walmsley has been in charge for more than four years. That's one of the questions activist shareholder Elliot Management has implicitly asked by encouraging other shareholders to agitate for a more radical greater break up of one of the UK's most valuable companies.\n\nThe BBC understands the very different ideas on what this business is worth means there are no active and ongoing discussions between GSK and Unilever.\n\nBut Unilever's intentions are very clear.\n\nThe \"for sale\" sign is now very visible and the elbows will get sharper as this basket of household consumer goods gets closer to the checkout.\n\nRuss Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said Unilever's chief executive Alan Jope was under pressure because the business had recently missed targets for sales and profit margins.\n\n\"Unilever has strong cashflow, but the heat is on Mr Jope. He wants to be seen to do something,\" Mr Mould said.\n\n\"But this is a high risk deal. Many investors see GSK as underperforming. But at a time when inflation is rising, consumer goods with loyal customers represent a good way for firms to try to manage profits.\"\n\nThe move was first reported in the Sunday Times.\n\nGSK said its consumer goods division had the potential to increase sales by up to 6% a year in the medium term, and Unilever's offers did not take that into account. It said the proposals were not in the best interests of GSK shareholders.\n\nOther brands in the division include Centrum vitamins, Aquafresh toothpaste and Nicorette gum.\n\nThe company has said it is in late stage trails of a Covid vaccine it was developing with the French pharmaceutical firm, Sanofi.", "Alliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood are against the plan\n\nFour of the five parties in the Stormont Executive have said they are against a move allowing MPs to be elected to the NI Assembly but keep their Westminster seats.\n\nDetails of the plan were outlined in a letter from government peer Lord Caine to fellow lords on Friday.\n\nIt will bring Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK.\n\nThe return of the dual mandate will last until the next Westminster election due in 2024.\n\nDual mandates, also known as double jobbing, were banned in Northern Ireland in 2016, when a number of MPs were forced to give up their seats in the assembly.\n\nDouble jobbing allowed politicians to hold seats in different legislatures, for example in the House of Commons and the Northern Ireland Assembly.\n\nThe move will allow DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May while retaining his seat at Westminster.\n\nUnder existing rules if he was elected to Stormont he would have had to stand down as an MP, leading to a by-election in his Lagan Valley constituency.\n\nHowever, the four other parties in the executive - Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and Alliance - have strongly condemned the plans.\n\nSinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill called it \"blatant and disgraceful interference\".\n\n\"It represents a major step backwards for politics here and will deny more people, particularly young men and women, the opportunity to step forward into elected politics,\" she said in a statement.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Michelle O’Neill This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe SDLP and Alliance Party said their three MPs will vote against the mandate when comes to the House of Commons.\n\nAlliance Party leader Naomi Long called it a \"seriously retrograde step\" while SDLP MP Claire Hanna tweeted: \"Being an MP is a full time job, and then some, as is being an MLA.\n\n\"People deserve representation at both levels, and dual mandates were abolished for good reason. NIO (Northern Ireland Office) should not be facilitating DUP threats and gambling with devolution.\"\n\nThe move will allow DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May while retaining his seat at Westminster\n\nUlster Unionist Party Leader Doug Beattie tweeted: \"The fact NIO now directly supporting DUP election campaign means they are not a neutral department.\"\n\nThe leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) Jim Allister, whose party is not executive but could rival the DUP in a number of constituencies, called the plan a \"shameless fix\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jim Allister This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe tweeted: \"Last throw of the dice for some.\n\n\"Dual mandates were abolished for good reason. That reason hasn't changed. Only the desperation of the DUP has changed. What price has the DUP paid for this?\"\n\nLord Caine's letter, seen by the BBC, sets out how the government is proposing an amendment to the Northern Ireland Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern Bill which is currently passing through the House of Lords.\n\nThe bill provides for other changes at Stormont agreed under the New Decade, New Approach deal.\n\nLord Caine said the amendment he is tabling would \"enable MPs to become MLAs [members of the legislative assembly] at Stormont and hold both seats for the duration of the remainder of that parliament\".\n\n\"As was previously the case a person who holds office as both MP and an MLA will not be able to claim their salary as an MLA,\" he added\n\nThe letter adds: \"The provision for dual mandates is intended to facilitate a move from the House of Commons to the Northern Ireland Assembly without triggering by-elections.\n\n\"It is therefore consistent with the assessment made by the UK government in the Northern Ireland Act 2014 that the holding of a dual mandate across parliament and the assembly is not practical on an indefinite basis.\"\n\nLord Caine, who is also the under secretary of state for Northern Ireland, added: \"There is no appetite or consensus in Northern Ireland to allow dual mandates to continue indefinitely or to return to a situation in which the overwhelming majority of MPs from Northern Ireland were also members of the assembly.\"\n\nHe said the objective was to \"support further the functioning of the devolved institutions by providing stability where Northern Ireland parties need to reconfigure their representation across Parliament and Stormont without the triggering of parliamentary by-elections\".", "Three-year-old Miles was found walking the streets during school time\n\nThe parents of a three-year-old boy who wandered home from school alone are demanding answers from the authorities.\n\nGeorgia Wilcox said her family were shocked when Miles turned up at their home in Trealaw, Rhondda Cynon Taf, during school time.\n\nA woman followed Miles, who is non-verbal, to make sure he got home after being spotted walking alone.\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf council said a full investigation into the \"serious incident\" was under way.\n\nMs Wilcox was at home with her partner and two-year-old son when the woman knocked on the door just before 11:00 GMT on Friday.\n\nShe said: \"I was upstairs when the door went and my partner came in with Miles.\n\n\"He said 'you need to get on to the school' because a woman had found him on the hill.\n\n\"I went up to the school and the receptionist looked shocked.\"\n\nMiles is too young to understand the dangers, says his mother\n\nMs Wilcox said they had not been contacted by Trealaw Primary School, about a 10-minute walk away, to say Miles was missing.\n\n\"They were adamant they had been looking for Miles, but the school has refused to let us see the CCTV,\" she said.\n\n\"We are definitely under the impression they didn't know he was gone.\n\n\"The woman had found him on of the hills near our road, he would have been walking on his own.\"\n\nMs Wilcox said Miles had been been spotted \"running in and out of the road\" in footage found on neighbours' CCTV.\n\nShe added: \"We feel really shaken up. We just want them to realise they should be held accountable. He must have wanted to go home but the gate shouldn't be open.\n\n\"He is his normal self, but he doesn't understand that he shouldn't have left [or] the dangers of it all.\"\n\nAn investigation is under way into how Miles was able to walk out of the school\n\nA council spokesman told Wales Online the safeguarding of pupils was of \"paramount importance\".\n\nThey added: \"Council officers and social services staff will work meticulously to understand how this incident occurred and, where issues are identified, immediately put in place measures to prevent this from happening again, and address any additional concerns that are identified as a result of the investigation.\n\n\"We fully share the concerns of parents and guardians of pupils and they will shortly be receiving a letter regarding the incident.\"", "The mural was designed by the My City, My Shirt project to help minority communities identify more with their city\n\nA mural known as Cardiff's \"Mona Lisa\" has been painted over to advertise McDonald's burgers.\n\nThe artwork, in the Butetown area of Cardiff, was created last spring to promote diversity and inclusion.\n\nMonths later it was vandalised, which police investigated as a hate crime - but it has now gone completely.\n\nMcDonald's said it did not know about the mural and had \"instructed the artist to repaint his original mural immediately\".\n\nIn a response to Cardiff South and Penarth MP Stephen Doughty on Twitter, who asked \"What on earth are you thinking?\", McDonald's said the site was hired by a third party and it had been unaware of the mural.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by McDonald's UK This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut art project organiser Yusuf Ismail said the agency involved was made aware of the cultural significance of the mural, but were \"dismissive\" and went ahead with the \"hamburger promotion\" anyway.\n\n\"The agency were given all the information about the sensitive site, not just the fact that it's got an incredible piece of artwork on it, but that it was vandalised, probably racially motivated,\" he said.\n\n\"So they had all that information, this is something that they clearly knew about, and they still went ahead with it. The artist had nothing to do with it.\"\n\nHe added that \"just a restoration of the mural isn't really sufficient\" and said there needs to be \"something with a bit of legacy behind it\".\n\n\"Let's try to find a silver lining in all of this… something that will live longer.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The mural's subject Maimuna Indjai said taking part in the project meant a lot to her\n\nThe mural was painted over in mustard yellow, ready for the McDonald's ad\n\nThe mural was loved by many in the community, with children at Mount Stuart Primary School and St Mary the Virgin Church in Wales Primary School in Butetown fundraising to preserve the mural last year.\n\nMr Ismail said he was \"completely devastated\" when he realised \"Butetown's Mona Lisa\" was going to be painted over.\n\n\"That bit of art encapsulated, embodied, so much good about Cardiff, Wales.\n\n\"I've always struggled with that issue of dual identity - am I Welsh, am I Somali? The truth is I'm both.\n\n\"With that one piece of art we were able to address that, to explain to people from different ethnicities... as long as you are in Wales and Cardiff, the city, the country embraces you and you should embrace it back.\n\n\"The mural has been painted over in mustard yellow... it's pretty tasteless.\"\n\nEconomy Minister Vaughan Gething tweeted that the removal of the mural was \"staggeringly insensitive\", while Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport Dawn Bowden said: \"This is so bad. We can surely do so much better than this?\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Vaughan Gething This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Queen and Prince Philip were pictured at Sandringham one Christmas\n\nHundreds of \"emotional\" photographs capturing the lives of the Royal Family have been found by relatives of an amateur photographer after his death.\n\nEdward Jackson, 72, of King's Lynn in Norfolk, made a hobby of snapping the royals when they visited Sandringham.\n\nStephen Jackson said he hoped some of his uncle's best photos could help mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee later this year.\n\n\"It's been really rewarding,\" added Mr Jackson, who is sorting through them.\n\nThe images were discovered when Mr Jackson and his wife, Jo, came across a makeshift dark room while looking through the house.\n\nAlthough they knew he had been a keen photographer, the number of pictures of the Royal Family has astounded the couple.\n\nAmong many thousands of images of holidays, family gatherings and landscapes were shots of the royals walking to church at Christmas and meeting crowds at the annual Sandringham Flower Show.\n\nDiana, Princess of Wales, is captured en route to church at Sandringham in the 1980s\n\nThe retired newsagent, who died in November, had worked in London for a period in the late 1970s where he documented the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations.\n\nMr Jackson said: \"I was very aware there was going to be a huge amount as I'd only ever known him with a camera round his neck but I didn't realise just how many he had built up over the years.\n\n\"We've been going through hundreds of family ones in the past few weeks and it's been quite emotional and overwhelming.\n\n\"It's a timeline of his life, you can feel him walking around and taking pictures all day. It's been a real eye opener.\"\n\nThe royals, including a young Prince William, are pictured outside the church at Sandringham in the 1980s\n\nThe Queen Mother was photographed in 1989\n\nEdward Jackson, pictured in his 20s, was never without a camera, his nephew Stephen said\n\nHe said he planned to submit some of his uncle's best photos to Kensington Palace following an appeal for pictures to mark the Queen's 70 years on the throne.\n\n\"I am sure if he was here he would doing the same thing,\" Mr Jackson continued.\n\nHis wife, Jo, added: \"It wasn't Christmas for him without a trip to Sandringham.\n\n\"He gave his car to Stephen when he passed his driving test at 17, and he's now 46. Edward hadn't had a car since, but he would cycle to Sandringham.\n\n\"I really feel his pictures need to be seen.\"\n\nThe Jacksons said they hoped Edward's photos, which captured \"so much social history\", could eventually find a home in an archive.\n\nEdward was best man at his nephew Stephen's wedding in 1998\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The head of the German navy has resigned over controversial comments he made over Ukraine.\n\nKay-Achim Schönbach said the idea that Russia wanted to invade Ukraine was nonsense. He added that all President Vladimir Putin wanted was respect.\n\nA number of countries have supplied weapons to Ukraine, including the US and UK. But Germany has refused Ukraine's request for ammunition.\n\nRussia has denied claims that it is planning to invade Ukraine.\n\nBut President Putin has issued demands to the West which he says concern Russia's security, including that Ukraine be stopped from joining the military defence alliance Nato.\n\nHe also wants Nato to abandon military exercises and stop sending weapons to eastern Europe, seeing this as a direct threat to Russia's security.\n\nMeanwhile, the UK has accused Mr Putin of plotting to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government.\n\nMr Schönbach said on Saturday that he had resigned from his role \"with immediate effect\" in order to \"avert further damage\".\n\nHe made the controversial comments while speaking at a think-tank discussion in India on Friday and the video was later published to social media.\n\nIn the video, Mr Schönbach said Mr Putin needed to be treated as an equal by the West.\n\n\"It is easy to give him the respect he really demands - and also probably deserves,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, \"is gone and will never come back\".\n\nThe head of Nato has warned there is a real risk of a fresh conflict in Europe after an estimated 100,000 Russian troops amassed on the border.\n\nSome 170 tonnes of US \"lethal aid\" arrived in Ukraine on Saturday and Sunday, and the UK announced earlier this week that it was sending defence weapons and extra troops for training. Several other Nato members are sending military equipment or deploying forces.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nGermany has refused to send weapons, instead offering to send Ukraine a field hospital. It has reportedly blocked attempts by Estonia to send Ukraine German-origin weapons, according to the Wall Street Journal.\n\nDefence Minister Christine Lambrecht told Welt am Sonntag newspaper that Berlin had already delivered respirators to Ukraine and severely injured Ukrainian soldiers are being treated in German military hospitals.\n\nUkraine has denounced Germany's response, accusing Berlin of undermining Western unity by refusing to transfer weapons to Ukraine or allowing some of its allies to do so.\n\nUkrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a series of posts on Twitter that Germany's stance encouraged Mr Putin to launch an attack.\n\nIn an interview with Sky News on Sunday, Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, called on Germany to play a \"significant role\".\n\n\"If they're not ready to provide us with weapons, defensive weapons, OK, they might do something else which will help us,\" he said.\n\nMr Prystaiko said he would \"absolutely\" like to see Germany block Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.\n\nThe pipeline runs from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, and, if granted regulatory clearance, would increase Moscow's gas exports to Europe. The Ukrainian presidency has described it as a \"dangerous geopolitical weapon\".\n\nApproval for the project is currently being decided by Germany's energy regulator.", "The Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Sets You Free) gate at Auschwitz, the former Nazi death camp\n\nA Dutch tourist has been detained in Poland for giving the Nazi salute at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, local police say.\n\nThe 29-year-old woman made the gesture in front of the Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Sets You Free) gate.\n\nThe woman - who has not been named - was later charged with engaging in Nazi propaganda. Prosecutors issued a fine, which she agreed to pay.\n\nThe woman said the act had been a bad joke, Poland's PAP news agency reports.\n\nShe had been posing for a photo taken by her husband at the time.\n\nIt is not the first time foreigners have been detained for promoting Nazi propaganda in Poland - a charge that can carry up to two years in prison.\n\nIn 2013, two Turkish students were each sentenced to six months in jail, suspended for three years, and fined for a similar Nazi salute at Auschwitz.\n\nNazi Germany built the death camp in the southern Polish town of Oswiecim after occupying Poland at the start of World War Two in 1939.\n\nIn just over four-and-a-half years, Nazi Germany systematically murdered at least 1.1 million people at Auschwitz. Almost one million were Jews.\n\nThose deported to the camp complex were gassed, starved, worked to death and even killed in medical experiments. The vast majority were murdered in the complex of gas chambers at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp.\n\nSix million Jewish people died in the Holocaust - the Nazi campaign to eradicate Europe's Jewish population. Auschwitz was at the centre of that genocide.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n• None 'I have to explain the Holocaust to young people'", "A Ukrainian civilian takes part in a training exercise - Russian forces have been mounting at the border\n\nBritain has started withdrawing staff from its embassy in Ukraine, amid growing fears of a Russian invasion.\n\nOfficials say there have been no specific threats to British diplomats, but about half of the staff working in Kyiv will return to the UK.\n\nThe US has ordered relatives of its embassy staff to leave, saying an invasion could come \"at any time\".\n\nRussia has denied plans for military action, but tens of thousands of troops have amassed on the border.\n\nThe embassy moves were described as precautionary, and nothing specific is thought to have occurred in the past 24 hours to have triggered the decisions of the US and UK.\n\nEU staff in Ukraine will stay in place for now, with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell saying he would not \"dramatise\" the tensions.\n\nMembers of the Nato alliance, including Denmark, Spain, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, are sending more fighter jets and warships to Eastern Europe to bolster defences in the region.\n\nWith an estimated 100,000 Russian troops now at the border with Ukraine, the head of Nato has warned there is a risk of fresh conflict in Europe.\n\nThe US also told non-essential staff they could leave Ukraine, stressing its moves were not an evacuation. But the State Department told AFP news agency that if there was a Russian invasion, it would \"not be in a position to evacuate US citizens\".\n\nAmericans have also been warned by officials not to travel to Ukraine and Russia due to the \"potential for harassment\" against them.\n\nUkraine said it was \"premature\" of the US to withdraw relatives of staff, calling the decision \"a display of excessive caution\".\n\nOn Saturday, some 90 tonnes of US \"lethal aid\" including ammunition for \"front-line defenders\" arrived in Ukraine.\n\nUS Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the government was putting together a \"series of actions that would figure into [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin's calculus\" including beefing up defences in Ukraine with more military assistance.\n\nRussia has seized Ukrainian territory before, when it annexed Crimea in 2014, following fierce protests in Ukraine that toppled the country's pro-Russian president. Russian forces seized control of Crimea before the territory voted to join Russia in a referendum the West and Ukraine deemed illegal.\n\nRussian-backed rebels control areas of eastern Ukraine near Russia's borders in a conflict which has cost an estimated 14,000 lives. A 2015 peace deal is far from being fulfilled.\n\nOn Sunday, the UK Foreign Office accused Mr Putin of planning to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government.\n\nThe man named by the UK Foreign Office - former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev - called the claims \"stupid\" in an interview with Reuters news agency.\n\nUK ministers have warned that the Russian government will face serious consequences if there is an incursion.\n\nUS officials said they were concerned that Russia could try to topple and replace the Ukraine government but declined to comment on the UK accusation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joe Biden: \"It is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further invade Ukraine\"\n\nAre you in Ukraine? Have you been affected by the rising tensions? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A 22-year-old Thai man has been charged with the murder of a British man in western Thailand, according to local officials.\n\nMarcus Evans, 49, died after being attacked in Kanchanaburi in the early hours of Saturday, Thai police said.\n\nA second British man, named by police as Shaun Dagnan, 54, was seriously injured and taken to hospital. A sickle was found at the scene, they added.\n\nThe alleged attacker is due in court on Monday, police said in a statement.\n\nPolice released passport photos of the two men, which show Mr Evans was born in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset and Mr Dagnan was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.\n\nA spokesperson from the UK Foreign Office said: \"We are in contact with the Royal Thai Police following the death of one British man and the hospitalisation of another in Thailand and are ready to provide consular support.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Winter Sports\n\nDave Ryding has won Britain's first alpine skiing World Cup gold medal with victory in the Kitzbuhel slalom.\n\nRyding, 35, was on Friday named in Great Britain's squad for the Beijing Winter Olympics - his fourth Games.\n\nHis two runs clocked in at one minute and 41.26 seconds, 0.38 seconds ahead of Lucas Braathen, with fellow Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen third.\n\nRyding sat sixth after his first run of 51.40 seconds but claimed gold with a brilliant second effort of 49.86.\n\n\"You know, I'm 35 now, but I never stopped believing, I never stopped trying, and to bring the first victory for Great Britain in a World Cup, in Kitzbuhel... I mean, I don't know if dreams are made better,\" he said.\n\nRyding finished second on the same course in 2017, matching the previous best alpine skiing result by a Briton - Konrad Bartelski's runner-up place in the 1981 Val Gardena downhill.\n• None The Football News Show brings you the biggest stories every day\n• None 'I'm here for you': Men from the world of sport and social media open up about their mental health", "A 16-year-old boy found with stab wounds in the street has died, prompting a murder inquiry.\n\nKennie Carter was found badly injured in Thirlmere Avenue, Stretford, shortly before 19:00 GMT on Saturday, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.\n\nHe was taken to hospital but died shortly afterwards.\n\nA police spokesman said five boys aged 15-17 were being held on suspicion of murder following arrests in Stretford, Old Trafford and Hulme.\n\nOne of the teenagers, aged 17, being held on suspicion of murder handed himself in at a police station later in the day.\n\nThe father of the victim told BBC North West Tonight \"all the family are devastated\" before reaching into his pocket to show money he said he was going to give to his son to buy something with before the tragedy happened.\n\nSupt Caroline Hemingway of GMP added the family were \"grieving the loss of a much-loved young soul\".\n\nShe said they were being supported by officers.\n\nSupt Hemingway said: \"A team of detectives have been working through the night and into today to follow-up a number of different lines of inquiry and to piece together the circumstances leading to this callous attack.\"\n\nForensic tents have been set up in Coniston Road as well as Thirlmere Avenue\n\nShe added: \"Again, we see the utterly devastating consequences of knife crime. It destroys lives, families, and communities.\n\n\"It's so heartbreaking to see such a young life lost and such young people suspected of being capable of a horrendous act of violence.\"\n\nAccording to residents, Thirlmere Avenue was usually a \"quiet\" street.\n\nOne resident, Sean Donoghue, said he was \"pretty surprised\" as it was \"generally peaceful\".\n\nGreater Manchester Police said crime scenes have been set up in Stretford, Old Trafford and Hulme and extra officers are patrolling the areas.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Hauliers have needed new paperwork from 1 January\n\nLorry traffic through Holyhead, the UK's second largest port, has fallen to about one-third of its usual capacity, port operator Stena has said.\n\nThe company has also doubled its ferry service between France and Ireland, with more lorries travelling directly to mainland Europe.\n\nSince 1 January, drivers have had to provide specific paperwork to take goods between the EU and the UK.\n\nIan Davies of Stena said he was confident traffic would pick up again.\n\nMeanwhile, the boss of one of Wales' largest hauliers, Gwynedd Shipping, said the system for lorries taking goods between the UK and Ireland is not working at the moment.\n\nThe paperwork arrangements have come about as part of the new trading relationship with the European Union following Brexit.\n\nDrivers also have to provide a negative Covid test when travelling between France and the UK.\n\nFor decades, trucks from mainland Europe heading for Ireland have used the UK as a \"land bridge\", often picking up loads on the way back.\n\nMr Davies, head of UK ports for Stena, which owns the port on Anglesey, said it was cheaper and quicker for lorry drivers to travel through the UK.\n\nBut hauliers' concerns about disruption at ports has made many drive to northern France and across the Irish sea to Ireland in the past few days.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn response, Stena has started running a second ship between Rosslare and Cherbourg.\n\nMr Davies said: \"We're operating probably only about 30 to 40% capacity - the two ferry companies are very quiet.\n\n\"We have routes that go directly between France and Ireland. It has grown in popularity, we've doubled the capacity available, but it's really an uncertain market.\"\n\nMr Davies cited stockpiling ahead of 31 December - and the uncertainty before the end of 2020 as to whether there would be a trade deal with the EU - as some of the reasons why Holyhead was so quiet.\n\nThere were long queues on the road leading into the port in the run-up to Christmas.\n\n\"We had a huge boom prior to Christmas - we had a seven or eight-week period where Holyhead was taking about twelve and a half thousand freight units a week, which normally is 9,000,\" he added.\n\nHolyhead is the UK's second busiest port\n\nBut the Stena official is confident about Holyhead's long-term prospects.\n\nMr Davies expects more goods to start moving through the port again in the longer term, saying the route fits well with just-in-time supply chains.\n\n\"The advantages of a land bridge are huge,\" he said.\n\n\"There's a lot of uncertainty over Dover-Calais over the Covid testing, and over the administration there, but once people get used to that then we expect to see normal levels return.\n\n\"The market always takes time to adjust. People take time to adjust.\"\n\nAndrew Kinsella, managing director of Gwynedd Shipping, said his company has a backlog of 60 lorries in depots waiting ready to be shipped to Dublin.\n\n\"Whilst you don't see queues at ports and terminals the reality is that these queues are developing elsewhere in our depot in Holyhead, in our depot in Deeside and in our depot in Newport in south Wales, and lots of hauliers have depots in the proximity of ports,\" he said.\n\nMany drivers are choosing to use routes between Ireland and mainland Europe\n\nMr Kinsella said many hauliers are finding that their customers are not able to generate the special declarations needed to enable a lorry to get onto a ferry.\n\n\"I'm saying the system doesn't currently work. We move product, we move a lot of food ingredients, we move a lot of finished food products, snacks, bottled water.\"\n\nHe explains how complicated the new system is, with \"a lot of issues about demarcation about who is going to arrange the export declaration with the UK revenue authorities, who's going to arrange the import declaration, the hauliers then trying to arrange the import safety and security declaration to create an ENS number, which helps you generate a PBN number, so there has been a lot of everyone finding their feet\".\n\nPeople are very patient, he said, but \"the reality is when you start to see empty shelves in supermarkets and when it starts to create supply issues in terms of product coming back from Ireland into the UK, and we move a lot of car parts, a lot of packaging for medical products, metals, timber, there's lots of things at play at the minute\".\n\nIndustry group Logistics UK said there had been big changes for the industry.\n\nIts policy manager for Wales, Chris Yarsely, is expecting delays as traffic returns to normal levels \"unless businesses ensure they are prepared for the new trading conditions\".\n\n\"It is virtually impossible to second guess trade patterns in the long term,\" he said.\n\nHowever, he said that on the whole \"traffic is moving relatively smoothly\".\n\n\"For many businesses, this is the first time that they have had to use this sort of paperwork for more than 40 years.\n\n\"But to keep trade as frictionless as possible, it is imperative that the declarations are correct before vehicles head to the port.\"", "The Royal Navy has seized £15m of drugs from a vessel in the Gulf of Oman\n\nThe Royal Navy has seized more than one tonne of illicit drugs thought to be worth almost £15m in the Gulf of Oman.\n\nDuring the 10-hour operation, large quantities of heroin, methamphetamine, hashish and marijuana were found.\n\nA team from HMS Montrose, based in Devonport, Plymouth, brought the substances back to the warship where they were analysed and destroyed.\n\nDefence secretary Ben Wallace said \"our streets are safer\" after the \"successful bust\".\n\nA navy team including Royal Marines approached the small vessel on two small boats before securing and searching the vessel.\n\nThey seized 663kg (104st 4lb) of heroin, 87kg (13st 4lb) of methamphetamine and 291kg (45st 8lb) of hashish and marijuana.\n\nMr Wallace said the operation had \"choked off a huge source of finance to international organised crime groups\".\n\nThe team from HMS Montrose approached the suspect vessel intwo inflatable boats\n\nThe operation was carried out by HMS Montrose, operating as part of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a multinational maritime partnership.\n\nCommander Claire Thompson of HMS Montrose said this was \"a substantial seizure of illegal narcotics and I am extremely proud of my team\".\n\nThe drugs were laid out to be analysed and then destroyed\n\nThe warship has been deployed to the region since 2019 and regularly works alongside international partners.\n\nThis is the largest Royal Navy drugs bust since HMS Montrose captured 2.4 tonnes in the Arabian Seas last year.\n\nCommodore Adrian Fryer, the CMF's deputy commander said he was \"delighted with HMS Montrose's successful narcotics seizure\" which \"disrupts the finance revenues of organised crime and terrorist organisations\".\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Elika Ashoori is campaigning to free her father from an Iranian jail\n\nBritish-Iranian Anoosheh Ashoori, who is being held in Iran on spying charges, is beginning a hunger strike.\n\nThe retired civil engineer, who is approaching his 68th birthday, has been detained in Evin prison for four years and denies the charges against him.\n\nHis daughter said he hoped the protest would bring \"global attention to the plight\" of those unfairly held by Iran.\n\nThe Foreign Office said Iran's continued detention of Mr Ashoori was \"wholly unjustified\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elika Ashoori This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Ashoori lived in the UK for 20 years, but was arrested in Iran after flying out to see his mother in 2017. He was convicted in July 2019 of spying for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.\n\nIn April 2021, Mr Ashoori's legal team submitted a request to the UK government to grant him diplomatic protection, but this has not yet been granted.\n\nHis wife, Sherry Izadi, has told the BBC she is concerned for his health as he is on prostate and cholesterol medication.\n\nHis family have said that during his detention, Mr Ashoori has been subjected to solitary confinement, coercive and abusive interrogations without a lawyer, forced confession, and threats to his and his family's safety.\n\nThey added that Mr Ashoori has been forced to represent himself during his trial and is in an extremely vulnerable position.\n\nLike Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, he is one of about a dozen Western dual nationals being held by Iran.\n\nAnoosheh Ashoori (pictured with his daughter and his wife) is a retired civil engineer from London\n\nAs well as drawing attention to his own plight, Mr Ashoori wants to show solidarity with a 77-year-old former US diplomat who was held in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Barry Rosen began a hunger strike last week in Vienna, where talks to revive a nuclear deal with Iran are being held.\n\nMr Rosen is demanding that no deal be made without the release of dual nationals from several Western countries being held by Tehran as what he calls bargaining chips.\n\nMs Ashoori said that her father would join others \"who have courageously begun a hunger strike in Vienna, demanding that the release of all foreign and dual nationals held by Iran should be a pre-condition of any new agreement by Iran and the JCPOA parties\".\n\nThe Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is known as the Iran nuclear deal. It is an agreement made in 2015 between Iran and seven world powers (the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany). Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.\n\nThe parties involved in the nuclear deal are meeting in Vienna this month.\n\nAmnesty International's Sacha Deshmukh said the UK government needed to \"immediately grant Anoosheh diplomatic protection status\" and should \"use this as the basis for more sustained action to secure Anoosheh's release and the release of all UK nationals being arbitrarily detained in Iran\".\n\nA Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spokesperson told the BBC that \"Iran's continued detention of Anoosheh Ashoori is wholly unjustified\".\n\nThey added: \"Iran should free all those British nationals unfairly detained in Iran. The Foreign Secretary, Minister Cleverly and senior officials consistently raise the cases of Nazanin Zaghari- Ratcliffe, Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz with the Iranian authorities and will continue to do so.\"\n\nMrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in Iran for five years on spying charges and lost an appeal against a second jail sentence in October.\n\nShe was arrested there in 2016 while taking the couple's daughter, Gabriella, to see her family, and was accused of plotting to overthrow the government. She served four years of a five-year sentence in Evin prison in Tehran, and one under house arrest.", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nHossein Vafaei became the first Iranian player to win a ranking title, beating Mark Williams in the final of the Snooker Shoot Out.\n\nVafaei won the one-frame final with a break of 71 and dedicated the victory to his late grandmother.\n\n\"That is for you grandma,\" the 27-year-old told Eurosport. \"It's Mother's Day in Iran and I am very proud I did that.\n\n\"It's a big achievement for a country like Iran. Nobody knew about snooker before. Now they know.\"\n\nWales' Williams, the three-time world champion, only got the chance to play one shot in the final with world number 42 Vafaei sinking a tricky, long red after the break-off.\n\n\"I thought I'd played a pretty good break-off shot there and what a fantastic red that was,\" said Williams. \"To make that break under pressure to win your first tournament, hats off to him.\"\n\nSign up to My Sport to follow snooker news on the BBC app.\n• None DIG OUT YOUR CAGOULE AND TIE UP THOSE BOOTS: The Welsh Coast awaits, explore it with Derek", "England won by one run, series level at 1-1\n\nEngland dominated the majority of the second T20 against West Indies but ultimately won by just one run after some astonishing late hitting.\n\nWest Indies needed a seemingly hopeless 30 from the final over, only for Akeal Hosein to take Saqib Mahmood for 28, including three sixes off the last three balls.\n\nEngland earlier bounced back from being bowled out for 103 in the first T20 to post 171-8 on a similarly challenging pitch.\n\nThey were propelled by Jason Roy taking 24 off Fabian Allen's 11th over, as 107 runs came in the second half of the innings.\n\nRoy made 45, adding 61 with Moeen Ali, who contributed 31, while Chris Jordan once again shone on the island of his birth with a cameo of 27.\n\nLeft-arm seamer Reece Topley, playing his first T20 international for nearly six years, trapped Brandon King lbw and athletically ran out Shai Hope to leave West Indies reeling on 6-2.\n\nWith excessive turn on offer, spinners Moeen and Adil Rashid mesmerised the hosts in the middle overs, sharing five wickets.\n\nBut Romario Shepherd blasted five sixes in his 44 not out, while Hosein's unbeaten 44 came from only 16 balls to make England's margin of victory so much tighter than it should have been.\n\nThe five-match series is level at 1-1. The third game is on Wednesday.\n\nGiven the fright they were given at the end of the match, England were indebted to a batting display vastly improved from Saturday's collapse.\n\nWhereas the tourists struggled to adapt to the conditions in the series opener, on Sunday they were more willing to be patient before unleashing the batting aggression that is their trademark\n\nRoy typified this approach. He lacked fluency as opening partner Tom Banton swept and reverse-swept 25 off 18 balls only to hammer a return catch to left-arm spinner Allen, who then disturbed James Vince's off stump.\n\nRoy had 17 from 23 balls at the halfway stage, but exploded into life with three fours and two sixes in the first over of the second half. One of the maximums, a slog sweep, went out of the ground.\n\nWhen he fell in the next over, caught at long-on from the bowling of Shepherd, Roy had taken 28 runs off his seven previous deliveries.\n\nMoeen was missed twice - the second a bad drop by Odean Smith - as West Indies failed to match the fielding standards of the previous evening. However, when Moeen and Sam Billings were dismissed in consecutive overs, there was an opening for the hosts.\n\nIt was snuffed out by Jordan and captain Eoin Morgan adding 31 at 10 runs an over. It turned out to be just enough.\n\nTopley last played the shortest format for England during their run to the 2016 World Cup final, with a career-threatening back injury then preventing him from featuring in international cricket for four years.\n\nIn replacing Tymal Mills he was England's sole change from Saturday and he took only two legal deliveries to make an impact, pinning King with a hooping inswinger.\n\nThe run-out of Hope was more spectacular. Parrying a stop in his follow-through, Topley chased the rebound, dived and flicked the ball on to the non-striker's stumps.\n\nHe would have had another wicket had Liam Dawson held onto a skier from Nicholas Pooran at mid-wicket.\n\nStill, Moeen and Rashid took control, bowling in tandem for six overs that brought five wickets for 32 runs.\n\nMasterful leg-spinner Rashid had Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo both lbw on review, while off-spinner Moeen continued his fine all-round display by having Pooran and Odean Smith hole out either side of snaffling a sharp caught and bowled off Jason Holder - 3-24 represented his career-best figures.\n\nFrom an almost hopeless position - 61 were needed from the final three overs with only two wickets in hand - Shepherd chanced his arm.\n\nHe hit Jordan for three sixes in the 18th over, but after Topley was tight in the 19th, the result was barely in doubt going into Mahmood's final set.\n\nStill, Hosein's assault of two fours and three sixes was extraordinary and, although the one-run margin does not tell the story of England's superiority, they were extremely ragged at the death.\n\nIt might have been worse for the tourists had Mahmood not got away with a marginal wide decision from the first legal delivery of the over, much to the frustration of Hosein, who ended with the highest score by a number 10 in T20 internationals.\n\nEngland captain Eoin Morgan: \"I was delighted and even with the last quarter, with a relatively inexperienced international side, those are the games you want to play in. For the majority of today I thought we were brilliant.\"\n\nWest Indies captain Kieron Pollard: \"I can see the confidence with the guys in the changing room. We will have days like this but my thing is the fight that the guys continue to show.\"\n\nPlayer of the match Moeen Ali: \"We thought we'd got a really good score but they played well. We paced it better today and each batter gave themselves five or six balls. Chris Jordan played a great knock at the end with the bat.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. MPs should report intimidation tactics to the police, says William Wragg\n\nA Conservative backbencher who accused Downing Street of trying to \"blackmail\" MPs seeking to oust Boris Johnson is to meet police to discuss his allegations.\n\nWilliam Wragg said he will be speaking to a Met Police detective in the House of Commons early next week, after requesting a meeting with the force.\n\nThe MP, who wants the prime minister to quit, said he wanted to leave any probe to \"experts\" rather than No 10.\n\nDowning Street said it had not seen any proof of the behaviour he alleges.\n\nA spokesman said on Friday they were not investigating the allegations but would look \"carefully\" at any evidence presented to them.\n\nChris Bryant, who is chairman of the Commons Committee on Standards, said he had spoken to about a dozen Tory MPs in the past few days who had made similar allegations of whips threatening to withdraw funding for their constituencies, including for campaigning and infrastructure such as bypasses and schools.\n\n\"I've even heard MPs alleging that the prime minister himself has been doing this,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHe described the alleged behaviour as \"misconduct in public office\" and said it was a matter for the police.\n\nThe Labour MP added that he believed this had happened much more over the past 10 years and there had been \"a steady erosion of standards in the way we allocate funding\".\n\nOn Thursday Boris Johnson said he had seen no evidence to support Mr Wragg's allegations.\n\nIt comes as Tory whips and No 10 try to shore up support for the prime minster ahead of civil servant Sue Gray's report into a series of Downing Street lockdown parties which is expected next week.\n\nMr Johnson has been facing down an attempt from some Conservative MPs to oust him since he admitted attending a drinks event at No 10 during the first lockdown, although he says he believed it was a work event.\n\nSo far six Tory MPs have publicly declared no confidence in the PM, but more are thought to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, who organises Tory leadership contests.\n\nUnder party rules, if 54 letters are submitted a no confidence vote is triggered which could result in a leadership election.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tory MP David Davis to PM: In the name of God, go\n\nMr Wragg, MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester and chairman of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, first raised his concerns on Thursday and advised colleagues who feel threatened to go to the police.\n\nHe told the committee that Tory whips - the MPs in charge of party discipline - had threatened those suspected of wanting Mr Johnson out with the removal of government investment in their constituencies.\n\nHe also said he had received reports of government ministers, advisers and staff at No 10 \"encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass\" those suspected of lacking confidence in the prime minister.\n\nMr Wragg, who is also vice-chairman of the 1922 committee, claimed the reports \"would seem to constitute blackmail\" - and as well as contacting police, affected MPs should contact the Commons Speaker.\n\nHe told the Daily Telegraph he would outline \"several\" examples of bullying and intimidation when he speaks to police.\n\n\"I stand by what I have said. No amount of gas-lighting will change that,\" he said.\n\n\"The offer of No 10 to investigate is kind but I shall leave it to the experts.\"\n\nA Met Police spokesman said: \"As with any such allegations, should a criminal offence be reported to the Met, it would be considered.\"\n\nAfter Mr Wragg made his allegations on Thursday, Christian Wakeford - who this week defected from the Conservatives to the Labour Party - said he was threatened he would not get a high school in his constituency if he did not vote in a certain way.\n\nBusiness Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng later questioned Mr Wakeford's claims, saying he had \"never heard of anything like this\" since becoming an MP but if it had happened it would be \"very seriously regarded\" by the government.\n\nConservative MP Tom Tugendhat, who is chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, also said he had not experienced or been told about any instances of blackmail, despite voting against the government on several occasions.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast his relationship with whips had always been \"productive\".", "The stowaway was found in the nose wheel section of a cargo plane (not pictured)\n\nDutch police say they have found a stowaway alive in the wheel section of a plane that landed at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport from South Africa.\n\nFlights from Johannesburg to Amsterdam take about 11 hours, with the cargo plane believed to have made one stop, in Nairobi, Kenya.\n\nIt is very unusual for stowaways on long flights to survive, due to the cold and low oxygen at high altitudes.\n\nThe man's age and nationality have not yet been determined, police say.\n\n\"The man was found alive in the nose wheel section of the plane and was taken to hospital in a stable condition,\" Royal Dutch Military Police spokeswoman Joanna Helmonds told the AFP news agency.\n\n\"It is quite remarkable that the man is still alive,\" she said.\n\nAccording to Dutch broadcaster NOS, the man's body temperature was raised at the scene and by the time an ambulance arrived, he was able to answer basic questions.\n\nA spokesperson for freight carrier Cargolux confirmed in an email to Reuters that the stowaway had been on a flight operated by Cargolux Italia.\n\nAccording to flight data, the only Cargolux freight flight from Johannesburg to Schiphol on Sunday also made a stop in Nairobi. It is not known if the man boarded the plane in South Africa or Kenya.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Where do stowaways hide on planes? (2019 report)", "The crash happened on A4067 from Swansea towards Godre'r Graig\n\nAn 18-year-old woman has died and another woman, also aged 18, has been taken to hospital following a single-vehicle crash.\n\nA white Citroen C1 left the road while travelling along the A4067 from Swansea towards Godre'r Graig in the early hours, according to South Wales Police.\n\nOne woman died at the scene and the other woman was taken to Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales.\n\nPolice are appealing for witnesses and dashcam footage.\n\nCouncillor Alyn Llewelyn said it was inappropriate to comment on safety measures while the accident was still being investigated\n\nAlyn Llewelyn, councillor for Ystalyfera In the Swansea valley, said: \"It is tragic and it's extremely frightening for the community as a whole that a young girl has lost her life in the accident and that another young person has been seriously injured.\n\n\"Everybody's thinking of the families and are very very sad at what's happened overnight.\"\n\nHe repeated the police's appeal for information regarding the accident and said he would be \"in favour of more speed measures along the A467\".\n\nBut he added he would not want to speculate on the circumstances surrounding the accident while it was still being investigated.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pro-Russia militants are on the frontline in the contested Donbas region\n\n\"Europe is now closer to war than it has been since the break up of former Yugoslavia.\"\n\nStark words of warning from the senior EU diplomat I've just been speaking to off the record about current tensions with Moscow, over its huge military build-up on the border with Ukraine.\n\nThe mood in Brussels is jumpy. There's a real fear that Europe could be spiralling towards its worst security crisis in decades.\n\nBut angst isn't wholly focused on the prospect of a long, drawn-out ground war with Russia over Ukraine.\n\nFew here believe Moscow has the military might, never mind the money, or popular support back home for that.\n\nTrue: the EU warns the Kremlin of \"extreme consequences\" should it take military action in neighbouring Ukraine. Germany's new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was in Kyiv and Moscow saying just that on Monday.\n\nSweden moved hundreds of troops over the weekend to its strategically important Gotland island - which lies in the Baltic Sea. And Denmark strengthened its presence in the region a few days before that.\n\nThe rising tensions have also re-ignited the debate in both Finland and Sweden as to whether they should now join Nato.\n\nBut the overarching concern in the West - Washington, Nato, the UK and the EU - is less the possibility of conventional warfare over Ukraine, and far more, that Moscow is seeking to divide and destabilise Europe - shaking up the balance of continental power in the Kremlin's favour.\n\nPoland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told me late last year that the West needed to \"wake up from its geopolitical slumber\" regarding Moscow's intentions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Poland's prime minister says Russia and its allies want to \"disunite\" the EU\n\nFellow EU countries would say they have now woken up and are smelling very strong coffee.\n\nBut, as is so often the case when it comes to foreign policy, EU leaders are far from united over which precise course of action to take.\n\nMoscow denies - despite the massive build-up of troops on the border with Ukraine - that it's planning a military invasion. But it has issued Nato with a list of security demands. Loudly blaming the alliance for \"undermining regional security\", Vladimir Putin insists, among other things, that Nato bans Ukraine and other former Soviet states from ever becoming members of the organisation.\n\nNato flatly refused and the three summits held over the last week or so, between Russia and Western allies, have failed to find much common ground.\n\nWhat Vladimir Putin plans to do next is unclear. But the West believes the Kremlin has invested too much in its very public manoeuvres over Ukraine to back down now, without something to show for it.\n\nThe Biden administration is waiting impatiently for a forceful EU position on possible sanctions, depending on what course of action Moscow takes: a military incursion into Ukraine, cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns or - as is considered most likely - a mish-mash of hybrid attacks.\n\nEU optimists predict the bloc will agree a raft of possible sanctions by 24 January, at the next foreign ministers' meeting. But that's far from guaranteed.\n\nA number of EU countries are umming and ahing about the cost of eventual sanctions to their own economies. Brussels normally discusses burden-sharing, but the outcome of those negotiations may well not please everyone.\n\nThere's also widespread concern in EU countries about gas supplies from Russia. Especially with prices already so high for European households this winter.\n\nWashington says it's looking into ways of softening the impact on energy supplies.\n\nIt wants to hurry the EU into agreeing a firm position on sanctions - knowing all too well that, on foreign policy, approval needs to be unanimous amongst member states.\n\nWere post-Brexit relations easier between the UK and EU, you'd expect a lot more shuttle diplomacy right now between London, Berlin and Paris to compare and discuss ideas, maybe agreeing a common course of action.\n\nBrussels diplomats slightly cattily describe the UK government as \"probably too wrapped up in domestic political scandals to have geopolitics top of its in-tray right now\", but they openly admit the UK is fully engaged on the Russia-Ukraine issue within Nato.\n\nOn Monday, British defence secretary Ben Wallace announced Britain was supplying Ukraine with short-range anti-tank missiles for self-defence. He said a small team of British troops would also provide training.\n\nMr Wallace earlier warned Moscow that there would be \"consequences\" for any Russian aggression towards Ukraine. Britain would \"stand up to bullies\", he said, no matter how far away the conflict.\n\nWashington insists there's no time to lose. It says the Kremlin is considering a \"false-flag\" operation \"laying the groundwork to have the option of fabricating a pretext for invasion\" - i.e. blaming Ukraine for an attack that Russian operatives would carry out.\n\nThe Russian and US leaders have spoken via video link and over the phone\n\nBut US officials say Moscow is preparing to repeat a pattern seen back in 2014 when it accused Kyiv of abuses before Kremlin-backed forces seized control of Ukraine's southern peninsula of Crimea.\n\nThe territory has a Russian-speaking majority. It then voted to join Russia in a referendum that Ukraine and the West consider illegal. Thousands then died in the conflict that ensued in eastern Ukraine.\n\nThe West is bracing for what might follow now.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Wildfires light up the night sky in California\n\nAn unseasonal wildfire is raging in California's Monterey County, forcing evacuations and the closure of Highway 1, US officials say.\n\nThe National Weather Service (NWS) reported a \"surreal fire behaviour given the wet Oct and Dec\".\n\nThe blaze along the Big Sur Pacific coast, dubbed the Colorado Fire, has scorched about 1,500 acres (607 ha).\n\nStrong winds pushed the fire toward the sea, and flames were seen burning near the famous Bixby Creek Bridge.\n\nSenior forestry and fire protection official Mike Meddles said firefighters from 13 agencies from around California's central coast had been deployed to tackle the blaze, according to KTLA digital channel.\n\nThe area where the blaze is burning had \"little or no fire history,\" the NWS's Bay Area branch said in a Twitter post. .\n\n\"Anecdotally it seems as though the long term drought is acting like a chronic illness where even recent rains and cold winter weather isn't helping to keep fires from developing,\" the statement said.\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires.\n\nThe world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.\n\nFlames were seen moving towards the famous Bixby Creek Bridge on Saturday morning", "Stena Line is among firms that have made changes to their routes because of Brexit\n\nStena Line has said it remains committed to its ports and ferry routes serving Wales despite a drop in traffic due to Brexit and Covid-19.\n\nSince 1 January, drivers have had to provide specific paperwork to take goods between the EU and the UK.\n\nThe number of lorries using ferries between Holyhead and Dublin, and Fishguard and Rosslare, has dropped by 50% since the start of 2021.\n\nStena Line said it was a \"blip\" and it would work hard to protect the routes.\n\nThe Welsh Government and a number of MPs have expressed concern at the drop in traffic through Welsh ferry ports as hauliers avoid queues.\n\nStena Line, which owns Holyhead Port, said traffic between Britain and Northern Ireland had already returned to normal levels and freight volumes between Ireland and France had risen considerably.\n\nIan Hampton, executive director of Stena Line UK, said the company was also dealing with a fall in passenger numbers due to coronavirus restrictions on both sides of the Irish Sea.\n\nHe said: \"This is a blip on the horizon in the general life cycle of Stena Line.\n\n\"We've been in existence for a long, long time. We have the financial resources to weather the storm.\n\n\"We know that the business model in the Irish Sea is a strong model and it is one that we will work hard to protect.\"\n\nMr Hampton added: \"We're a hundred percent committed to our operation in the Irish Sea, to our Stena Line vessels and also to the ports that we own.\"\n\nHolyhead is the UK's second busiest roll-on roll-off ferry port\n\nMr Hampton said that if it got to summer 2021 and freight traffic at the ports had not increased he would be \"concerned\".\n\n\"That is something we will monitor carefully, but with the Covid lockdown as well, it's a very hard point to put your finger on,\" he said.\n\nFor decades, trucks from mainland Europe heading for Ireland have used the UK as a \"land bridge\", often picking up loads on the way back.\n\nHolyhead, Fishguard and Pembroke Dock have all benefited from this traffic.\n\nBut there are concerns disruption at ports has made many hauliers drive to northern France and across the Irish Sea to Ireland, bypassing the Welsh ports.\n\nBy using the longer and more expensive sea route, lorries remain in the EU and do not have to go through customs.\n\nDemand is so high ferry companies have increased sailings and routes, including Stena Line - 18 months ago there were three sailings a week between Rosslare and France and Spain, now there are 15.\n\nMany drivers are choosing to use routes between Ireland and mainland Europe\n\nMr Hampton said he doubted the direct crossings between Ireland and France would completely replace traffic through Holyhead and Fishguard, as the routes were longer and more expensive.\n\n\"From hauliers' point of view, the drivers are tied up for the best part of 24 hours at sea,\" he said.\n\n\"The UK land bridge is cheaper and quicker, and will always have more capacity. Even with extra ships operating between Rosslare and Cherbourg, there's only about 15% of the space there is between Dublin and Holyhead.\"", "Christmas in Kyiv has continued as normal, with little sign of anxiety or alert\n\nSometimes it looks a bit like a diplomatic version of \"does he take sugar?\"\n\nIn Geneva and Brussels, Western diplomats face off against their Russian counterparts, discussing, among other things, Ukraine's ability as a sovereign, independent state, to shape its own destiny.\n\nBut Ukraine is not there.\n\nNo matter how many times senior US officials repeat the mantra \"nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine\" - and they repeat it at every opportunity - it's hard for Ukrainians to avoid wondering just what is being discussed behind their backs.\n\nWith an estimated 100,000 Russian troops massed on the country's northern and eastern borders, you might think this would be cause for serious alarm.\n\nOrthodox Christmas was celebrated here last Friday, and if you stroll through Kyiv's busy Christmas markets you're not exactly assailed by a sense of heightened alert and anxiety.\n\n\"People are used to heavy times,\" says Petro Burkovsky from one of Kyiv's oldest independent think tanks, the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. \"In the 20th Century, we had many occasions when people lived in daily horror. It's part of their historical memory.\"\n\nUkraine's current horror has been going on for almost eight years, since masked Russian troops first appeared on the streets of Crimea.\n\nFighting broke out in the eastern Donbas region in April 2014. Since then, 14,000 soldiers and civilians have been killed in what the government in Kyiv calls the \"Russian-Ukrainian War\". Russia insists to this day that it is not a party to the conflict.\n\nEach morning, at a short, sombre ceremony outside the defence ministry in Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers killed on that particular calendar day since independence in 1991 are commemorated. The vast majority have died since 2014.\n\nOn the morning we attend, four names are read out, each killed on 11 January. The last of them, Oleh Andriyenko, died a year ago.\n\nA ceremony takes place in Kyiv every day to commemorate those who have fallen\n\nEach name is met with a volley of gunfire and the toll of a bell.\n\nAcross town, the faces of dead soldiers stare out in serried ranks from the walls of St Michael's Cathedral in a memorial that stretches for almost 100m.\n\nPassers-by stop and reflect, undeterred by the snow and freezing temperatures.\n\nViktor Moroshan, 63, was injured during the ferocious battle for Ilovaisk in August and September 2014. He points to the faces of fallen colleagues from the volunteer Donbas Battalion, which took heavy losses.\n\n\"Everyone had one goal,\" he says finally. \"To liberate our land from those Russians.\"\n\nViktor met his wife, Tetyana, while he was recovering in the hospital in where she was a volunteer.\n\n\"Maybe the war will be big next time,\" she says. \"He [Putin] has a lot of plans to start a new war. It's not a fairy tale.\"\n\nViktor describes himself as ethnically Russian, from one of the areas now under rebel control. But his hatred for Russian leader Vladimir Putin is deep. \"He's a maniac. A killer.\"\n\nRetired now, he says he still keeps an emergency bulletproof vest and helmet ready.\n\n\"My wife says 'Vitya, maybe you shouldn't.' But I say we need to be ready. No-one else can defend our fatherland but us.\"\n\nIt's the kind of defiant talk you might expect in a country facing potentially overwhelming odds and knowing that if it comes to a fight, there will be limits to support from outside.\n\nUkraine's Western allies talk of \"massive\" consequences if Russia mounts an incursion. But while those could well include increased military assistance, it would be Ukrainians alone doing the fighting and the dying.\n\nHence the growing support for Nato membership.\n\n\"Every time Russia starts an escalation in the front line, support for Nato membership grows,\" says Petro Burkovsky, \"and the readiness to make concessions with Russia falls.\"\n\nPublicly, Nato leaders say the door to membership, opened to Ukraine and Georgia in 2008, is still open.\n\nUkraine's deputy prime minister, visiting Nato headquarters in Brussels on Monday, repeated her government's refrain.\n\n\"We have the inherent, sovereign right to choose our own security arrangements,\" Olga Stefanishyna told reporters. \"Including treaties and alliances.\"\n\nBut it's hardly a secret that Nato membership is not on the cards right now. Western officials know it's the very thing most likely to provoke the military confrontation they're so anxious to avoid.\n\nMr Burkovsky says Ukraine has little choice but to wait out a slow-burning, long-term crisis.\n\n\"Right now we have to accept the reality of confrontation and conflict with Russia,\" he says.\n\n\"Maybe in the course of time, the situation in Russia will change. Russia will not be as formidable as it is now, Ukraine will be stronger and the West will be more decisive towards Ukraine and towards Russia.\"\n\nFor the time being, he says, Ukraine should concentrate on avoiding the fate of two of Russia's other neighbours, Belarus and Kazakhstan.\n\n\"They show the fate of people in countries that are Russian satellites,\" he says. \"Most people in Ukraine don't want this destiny for them and of course for their children.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced new restrictions for New Zealand\n\nNew Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has cancelled her wedding after announcing new Covid restrictions.\n\nThe entire country is set to be placed under the highest level of Covid restrictions after an outbreak of the Omicron variant.\n\nThe restrictions include a cap of 100 vaccinated people at events and mask wearing in shops and on public transport.\n\nNew Zealand has recorded 15,104 Covid cases and 52 deaths.\n\nMs Ardern confirmed to reporters on Sunday that her wedding to television host Clarke Gayford would not be going ahead.\n\n\"I am no different to, dare I say it, thousands of other New Zealanders who have had much more devastating impacts felt by the pandemic, the most gutting of which is the inability to be with a loved one sometimes when they are gravely ill,\" she said.\n\n\"That will far, far outstrip any sadness I experience,\" she added.\n\nThe new restrictions come into force at midnight on Sunday local time (11:00 GMT).\n\nIt comes after a cluster of nine Omicron cases were confirmed.\n\nA family who had attended a wedding in Auckland tested positive after returning home to the South Island. A flight attendant also contracted the virus. Officials say the level of community transmission from the group is expected to be high.\n\nIndoor hospitality venues and events will have their capacity capped to 100 vaccinated people or 25 if vaccine passes are not being used. This also includes gyms and weddings, the New Zealand Herald reports.\n\nStudents including year four and above will be required to wear masks in school.\n\nNew Zealand has operated under strict Covid rules since the start of the pandemic, allowing it to keep deaths to a minimum. It was one of the first countries in the world to close its borders and quashed earlier outbreaks with lockdowns.\n\nBut since the emergence of the Delta variant, Ms Ardern has switched from a total Covid elimination strategy to pushing for higher vaccination rates and treating the virus as endemic.\n\nIt's thought that about 94% of the country's population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated and 56% of eligible people have had their boosters.\n\nLast year, the country announced plans to reopen borders as part of a staged reopening. Foreign travellers will be the last group to be granted entry into the country, from 30 April.", "Mark Drakeford: \"We're not going to make vaccinations mandatory in our NHS\"\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford would \"not rule out\" recruiting NHS workers from England who leave their jobs due to its mandatory vaccination policy.\n\nIt comes as the Royal College of GPs said the deadline for health workers in England to have a Covid jab should be delayed to prevent staff shortages.\n\nVaccines are not compulsory for NHS staff in Wales.\n\nMr Drakeford said a \"vast majority\" of care sector staff had also taken the \"protections that vaccination offers\".\n\nWhen asked if he would take on NHS staff from England, Mr Drakeford told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House: \"We wouldn't rule it out but it would depend on what anybody said in an interview when they were applying for a job.\n\n\"We're not going to make vaccinations mandatory in our NHS,\" he said.\n\n\"We haven't in our social care services because we have succeeded by persuasion by getting the vast majority of people who work in our services to do the right thing and take up the protections that vaccination offers.\"\n\nNHS staff in England must have a first jab by 3 February and be fully vaccinated by 1 April to continue in frontline roles.\n\nThe UK's Department of Health said there were no plans to delay and it was \"the right thing to do to protect patients\".\n\nMr Drakeford said: \"I don't expect us to go looking for people who have not been vaccinated but, if people apply, then they would be interviewed in the normal way.\n\n\"We'd look to see what lay behind their decision.\n\n\"We wouldn't rule them out but we certainly won't be going out there looking for them.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the Conservative group in the Senedd - Welsh Parliament has called on the Welsh government to set a date for when all of Wales' Covid rules might be lifted.\n\nTory health spokesman Russell George MS told BBC Politics Wales that, while he did not think Wales was in a position to do that yet, he called for a date in the future and a set of \"criteria to get to that date\".\n\nPlaid Cymru health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth MS said: \"What we need to do now is think about the long-term because, whilst the Conservatives seem to think they have a monopoly in wanting to put this pandemic behind us, none of us, in any political party, wants to keep protection measures in place any longer than possible.\"\n\nWelsh Health Minister Eluned Morgan said it was \"slightly naïve\" to act as if \"it's all over\" since transmission rates remained \"really high\", despite a significant reduction over the last few weeks.\n\nBut she said the Welsh government would be outlining what \"the long-term looks like\" for scrapping remaining Covid laws.\n\nOn Sunday, Public Health Wales said the Covid rate had dropped further to 472.4 cases per 100,000 people over seven days.\n\nIt reported a further eight deaths with Covid and 2,827 new positive cases.\n\nBut three-quarters of people who test positive for lateral flow tests are no longer asked to take follow-up PCR tests, making it more problematic to interpret data.", "The M25 was closed in both directions near junction three after the crash but has since reopened\n\nA police officer has been airlifted to hospital after a crash involving a motorbike being driven the wrong way along the M25.\n\nKent Police said patrols were responding to a report of a stolen motorcycle when the collision happened near Junction 3 at about 16:05 GMT.\n\nThe male officer suffered serious injuries after being hit by the bike along the clockwise carriageway.\n\nA man, 26, was arrested on suspicion of offences including dangerous driving.\n\nThe M25 was closed in both directions near Junction 3 for Swanley after the crash.\n\nBoth carriageways have since reopened but police warned drivers to expect delays.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "NHS England staff must be fully vaccinated by 1 April under government rules\n\nThe deadline for health workers to have a Covid vaccination should be delayed to prevent staff shortages in England, the Royal College of GPs has said.\n\nNHS staff must have a first jab by 3 February and be fully vaccinated by 1 April to continue in frontline roles.\n\nThe Department of Health said there were no plans to delay and it was \"the right thing to do to protect patients\".\n\nNHS workers who oppose the government's mandatory vaccination policy have staged a protest in central London.\n\nDemonstrations were also held in other cities across the UK including Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds.\n\nScotland and Wales have not made any proposals to make Covid jabs compulsory for NHS workers or care home staff, while in Northern Ireland there will be a public consultation.\n\nThe UK recorded 76,807 coronavirus cases and 297 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test, daily government figures show.\n\nMartin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said compulsory vaccination for health professionals in England was \"not the right way forward\".\n\nHe said the vast majority of staff were vaccinated but some 70,000 to 80,000 were not and they accounted for 10% of staff at some hospitals or GP surgeries.\n\nSome 94.3% of NHS trust health care workers in England have had a first dose of vaccine, and 91.5% have had a second dose, figures to 31 December show.\n\nThe data also shows there were 1,480,351 staff on the electronic record - although not all in patient facing roles. Some 1,395,268 staff members had had a first jab, leaving 85,083 unvaccinated.\n\nIf unvaccinated staff were taken out of frontline roles by 1 April there would be \"massive consequences\" for the NHS, Mr Marshall told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHe said a delay would allow time for booster jabs and a \"sensible conversation\" about whether vaccines should be mandatory at all.\n\nDanny Mortimer, deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said some frontline staff would have to leave their roles if they chose not to be vaccinated.\n\nHe said: \"This will reduce frontline NHS staff numbers even further and lead to more gaps in capacity at a time of intense pressure and patient demand.\"\n\nGroups including NHS100K and Together Association marched against compulsory Covid jabs for health workers\n\nIn London, demonstrators marched from Regents Park to the BBC headquarters in Portland Place in a peaceful protest against mandating vaccines for health workers.\n\nBut Dr Nikki Kanani, medical director of primary care for NHS England, said health care professionals had \"a duty\" to make sure they were protected.\n\nShe said: \"If you're marching today, just take a moment, think about the people that you've been looking after who have experienced Covid, think about your colleagues who you've been working with, and think about the best way to make sure that we're all protected, and that we're all as safe as possible, because we are very much in this together and it's down to us to look after each other too.\"\n\nProtesters marched to the BBC's headquarters in central London\n\nMeanwhile, Kate, a nurse in Hampshire, told the Today programme she was prepared to lose her job rather than have a coronavirus vaccine against her will.\n\n\"I don't feel like the vaccination needs to be mandated because we are medical professionals and we have enough information to make that decision for ourselves,\" she said.\n\n\"When I had Covid I was ill but not particularly unwell and when it comes to me being forced to do something or lose my job, I just can't understand how they think that's a sensible position.\n\n\"I'm good at my job, I care about people, and I certainly have never and would never put people at risk.\"\n\nThe deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said delaying the policy on mandatory vaccination was not the answer.\n\nShe said staff who worked with patients and choose not to be vaccinated \"will be redeployed where that is possible, or potentially dismissed\".\n\nAnd while health bosses were worried about \"exacerbating staff shortages at a time when the service is under huge operational pressures\", the majority backed the policy.\n\nShe said: \"The last thing trust leaders want to do is further deplete the workforce by dismissing their staff, but they are obliged to implement the law.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Wednesday, some Conservative MPs called on Boris Johnson to rethink the policy.\n\nThe prime minister told the House of Commons the plan was supported by the NHS and that healthcare workers had a \"professional responsibility\" to get the jab.\n\nBut he added: \"We will reflect on the way ahead. We don't want to drive people out of the service.\"\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said front line staff looked after the most vulnerable people in society, who could face serious health consequences if exposed to the virus.\n\n\"Ensuring staff are vaccinated is the right thing to do to protect patients and those in care.\"\n\nAre you unvaccinated against Covid-19 and an NHS employee? Share your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A Muslim MP says her faith was raised by a government whip as a reason why she was sacked as a minister in 2020.\n\nAccording to the Sunday Times, Tory Nusrat Ghani said that when she asked for an explanation it was stated her \"Muslimness was raised as an issue\".\n\nConservative Chief Whip Mark Spencer said Ms Ghani was referring to him and added her claims were completely false and he considered them defamatory.\n\nNo 10 said the PM had previously met with Ms Ghani to discuss her concerns.\n\nA spokesperson said Boris Johnson \"then wrote to her expressing his serious concern and inviting her to begin a formal complaint process. She did not subsequently do so. The Conservative Party does not tolerate prejudice or discrimination of any kind\".\n\nIn response, Ms Ghani said Mr Johnson \"wrote to me that he could not get involved and suggested I use the internal Conservative Party complaint process\".\n\nShe said she did not do this because it was \"very clearly not appropriate for something that happened on government business\".\n\n\"I do not even know if the words that were conveyed to me about what was said in reshuffle meetings at Downing Street were by members of the Conservative Party,\" she added.\n\n\"All I have ever wanted was for his government to take this seriously, investigate properly and ensure no other colleague has to endure this.\"\n\nMs Ghani was appointed to a post at the Department for Transport in 2018, becoming the first female Muslim minister to speak in the Commons.\n\nShe lost that job in a mini-reshuffle of Mr Johnson's government in February 2020.\n\nSpeaking to the Sunday Times, Ms Ghani said that when she asked for an explanation, a government whip had told her that \"Muslimness was raised as an issue\" during discussions about the reshuffle, and her status as a \"Muslim woman... was making colleagues uncomfortable\".\n\nThe Wealden MP is quoted as saying she dropped the matter after being told that if she \"persisted\" in asking about it she \"would be ostracised and her career and reputation would be destroyed\".\n\n\"I raised it several more times through official party channels.... I was extremely careful to follow procedure, and when the procedure ran out of road I had no choice but to get on with my career.\"\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Sunday Morning programme, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said her allegations were \"very serious\" but there would not be a formal investigation unless Ms Ghani made a formal complaint.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dominic Raab: \"'There can be no discrimination or Islamophobia... in the Conservative Party\"\n\nOn Saturday night, Mr Spencer, in a series of tweets, identified himself as the person Ms Ghani's claims were made about.\n\nHe said the accusations were \"completely false and defamatory\" and denied ever using the words Ms Ghani had alleged.\n\nMr Spencer went on to say it was \"disappointing\" that at the time she had declined to refer the matter for a formal Conservative Party investigation.\n\nHe said he had previously provided evidence to the Singh investigation - which examined how the Conservative Party dealt with discrimination complaints.\n\nInitially Mr Spencer said the investigation \"concluded there was no credible basis for the claims\", but later rewrote the post adding the words \"to be included in the report\" to the end of the sentence.\n\nProf Singh's 2021 report found that while \"not systemic\" there was \"evidence of discrimination\" in the Conservative Party, and it called for the complaints process to be overhauled.\n\nIn a tweet, Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said there was \"no place for Islamophobia or any form of racism\" in the Conservative Party, adding that the allegations had to be \"investigated properly and racism routed out\".\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid also said the matter needed \"a proper investigation\" and that he would support Ms Ghani \"in making a formal complaint\". \"She must be heard,\" he added.\n\nLord Sheikh, president of Conservative Muslim Forum, said he was \"very disturbed\" by what Ms Ghani had said.\n\n\"Somebody is not telling the truth. I would like to get to the bottom of this. I'd like an investigation to be carried out by an independent person,\" he added.\n\nBBC political correspondent Damian Grammaticas said the very public airing of this dispute was a sign of serious tensions among Tories ahead of a crucial week for Boris Johnson.\n\nCivil servant Sue Gray is due to complete her inquiry into parties held on government premises during the coronavirus lockdowns.\n\nIt has been reported that Ms Gray is now also looking into gatherings held at Mr Johnson's private Downing Street flat.\n\nMr Raab said the substance of the findings would be published but could not say if the full report would be made public.\n\nSome Conservative MPs have called on Mr Johnson to resign over the revelations, and one member, William Wragg, complained about the government tactics used against MPs seeking to oust the prime minister.\n\nMr Wragg said No 10 had tried to \"blackmail\" some MPs and he would be meeting with police to discuss the allegations, but Downing Street said it had not see any proof of such behaviour.", "Restaurants, cafes and even bars can be now be found in spaces traditionally linked to industry\n\nWhen the UK's first industrial estates appeared in the 1930s they were built simply to boost Britain's productivity.\n\nBut more than 80 years later, the industrial space is vastly changed.\n\nAmong traditional hauliers, distributors and manufacturers is a growing number of firms from sectors more synonymous with the high street.\n\nCafes, gyms, artisan restaurants and Instagrammable experiences, like axe throwing, have moved into cavernous lock-ups.\n\nWales' first industrial estate - seen here from the sky in 1952 - was in Treforest\n\nCommercial property agent and former CBI Wales chairman Chris Sutton has seen the change at first hand.\n\nHe said: \"Twenty or 30 years ago, industrial estates were just that. They were industrial in nature, but now we see them as a business location.\n\n\"Just in the past two years, we've seen lettings to pottery workshops, a bakery, gin distillery, gyms, craft breweries, climbing walls, funeral services, vets nutrition, a recording studio.\"\n\nChris Sutton says industrial estates became an opportunity to rejuvenate the economy\n\nThere are thousands of industrial and trading estates across the UK, with many clusters of them in Wales.\n\nThe idea of the industrial estate was born out of a desire to supercharge the UK's industrial production. That was certainly the idea at Wales' first trading estate in Treforest.\n\nOff the back of Wales decline in heavy industry, it became, according to Mr Sutton, \"a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity\" to rejuvenate.\n\nIndustrial estates, such as that in Treforest, were created to boost Britain's industrial productivity\n\n\"So what we've seen is that industrial accommodation provides a good location for businesses of a wide range. It's not just straightforward, sort of widget manufacturing,\" he said.\n\nCardiff's Boneyard has transformed one corner of industrial space into a thriving creative community.\n\nEverything from pizza restaurant to psychotherapists now work from the huddle of converted containers.\n\nThe Bone Yard in Cardiff is made up of repurposed shipping containers\n\nShoppers have been drawn to industrial spaces by a new kind of retail experience\n\nHospitality businesses are becoming a draw for diners on trading estates and business parks\n\nAnd it's this kind of re-use, and repurposing of industrial space that retail management expert Laura James from University of Wales Trinity St David believes is driven by a change in consumer attitude.\n\n\"The first thing to say is that consumers know that there's a need, perhaps, to travel to different destinations in order to kind of fulfil that experience that they're looking for,\" she said.\n\n\"It definitely is a different dynamic, isn't it.\"\n\nExperts believe changes in consumer attitudes are driving the success of repurposed industrial spaces\n\nMany independent food outlets have flourished in their new locations\n\n\"I think it is interesting to think that we are now looking at going to these industrial sites with a completely different environment.\n\n\"One that perhaps we wouldn't have thought of before, but what a fantastic way to try and revive shopping and revive retail and revive socialising.\"\n\nWho Cult first came to Bridgend Industrial Estate to base their fledgling clothing brand start-up.\n\nBut it soon found a new market was ready to be serviced.\n\nThat of destination dining. Or in their case, coffee and donuts.\n\nWhoCult found consumer demand was much higher than initially expected\n\nThe willingness of customers to travel has underpinned the success of many businesses\n\nThe coffee shop was only meant as an add-on to customers buying clothes.\n\nOwner Scott McGill took advantage and opened a purpose built café out of town.\n\nIt has gone from strength to strength, with customers queuing through the carpark during lockdown.\n\nThey're now planning a second shop in a similar space.\n\nLast year, estate agent Knight Frank said demand for industrial space had \"soared\" in Wales.\n\nIt said it had hit record levels across the UK during the first half of the year among units larger than 50,000 square feet.\n\nDemand for industrial space has soared across the UK\n\nThe firm said this was largely driven by retailers and distributors expanding their online and home delivery capacity in response to growing e-commerce during the pandemic.\n\nThere are planning controls which can limit retail and service activity on industrial estates and business parks.\n\nBut the growth in demand for units on these estates has given rise to a secondary service industry around it.\n\nGym manager James Gill says businesses like his can capitalise on this.\n\nThe modern day industrial estate looks very different to its originally intended use\n\n\"We'll have people come in here and do work from their offices and sit in our caff for hours,\" he says.\n\n\"A lot of the guys live away, they live in England, and they'll come here for work, and when they're up here they'll train here all the time.\"\n\nGyms have found high demand and extra floor space in industrial areas", "A Turkish court has detained well-known journalist Sedef Kabas for allegedly insulting the country's president.\n\nMs Kabas was arrested on Saturday in Istanbul and a court ordered her to be jailed ahead of a trial.\n\nShe is accused of targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a proverb which she quoted on live television on an opposition-linked TV channel. She denies the charge.\n\nThe charge carries a prison sentence of between one and four years.\n\n\"There is a very famous proverb that says that a crowned head becomes wiser. But we see it is not true,\" she said on the Tele1 channel. \"A bull does not become king just by entering the palace, but the palace becomes a barn.\"\n\nShe also later posted the quote on Twitter.\n\nMr Erdogan's Chief Spokesman Fahrettin Altun described her comments as \"irresponsible\".\n\n\"A so-called journalist is blatantly insulting our president on a television channel that has no goal other than spreading hatred,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\nIn her court statement, Ms Kabas denied intending to insult the president.\n\n\"Her detention overnight at 2am because of a proverb is unacceptable,\" he said. \"This stance is an attempt to intimidate journalists, the media and society\".\n\nMr Erdogan spent 11 years as prime minister before becoming the country's first directly-elected president in August 2014 - a supposedly ceremonial role.\n\nHis silencing of critics has caused alarm abroad, contributing to frosty relations with the EU, which has stalled Turkey's bid to join the bloc.\n\nThousands of people have been charged with insulting Mr Erdogan since he became president.\n\nIn 2020 more than 31,000 investigations related to the charge were filed, Reuters news agency reports.", "Retailer John Lewis has said all its staff are entitled to full sick pay for Covid-related absences, regardless of vaccination status, and it would not be \"right\" to differentiate.\n\nIt comes after Ocado, Next and Ikea revealed they only pay the legal minimum to unjabbed staff if they have to isolate due to Covid exposure.\n\nJohn Lewis's operations director Andrew Murphy said he \"cast no judgement\".\n\nAnd he added the firm was \"not going to make any change of this type\".\n\n\"We're conscious that some businesses have changed their sick pay policy with regard to unvaccinated employees in some Covid-related absence scenarios,\" he said in a Linkedin post.\n\n\"[But] we just don't believe it's right to create a link between a partner's vaccination status and the pay they receive.\n\n\"When life increasingly seems to present opportunities to create division - and with hopes rising that the pandemic phase of Covid may be coming to an end - we're confident that this is the right approach for us.\"\n\nIn England, unvaccinated people must isolate for 10 days if they are a close contact of someone with Covid, even if they do not test positive themselves.\n\nBut this has resulted in unvaccinated workers being more likely to take time off than their fully vaccinated colleagues, who no longer need to isolate after exposure.\n\nAmid soaring staff absence rates, firms have been tightening their sick pay policies.\n\nCurrently, unjabbed employees at Morrisons, Ikea, Ocado and Next who are told to isolate only get statutory sick pay of £96.35 a week, unlike their jabbed colleagues who get full sick pay.\n\nHowever, any worker who is Covid-positive at these retailers will get full sick pay, regardless of their vaccination status.\n\nSick pay cuts will also be implemented at Wessex Water and, in the US, several major companies have started penalising unjabbed workers.\n\nHowever, retailers Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda all say they pay unvaccinated workers full company sick pay when they are isolating.", "Holyhead and Fishguard ports saw a 30% drop in traffic in 2021, according to its operator Stena Line.\n\nIan Davies, boss of Stena's UK ports, said it was down to the new post-Brexit trading relationship with the European Union rather than the pandemic.\n\nBut he added the company had a \"long-term\" commitment to its Welsh ports and expected things to improve.\n\nThe UK government said it had made \"extensive preparations\" and continued to work to mitigate disruption.\n\nAfter years of negotiations, the UK completed its formal separation from the EU on 1 January 2021.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC Politics Wales programme, Mr Davies said the start of the new UK-EU trading relationship hit its Welsh ports \"quite hard\".\n\n\"In January, we saw a big drop off ranging from 50-60% of our freight volumes,\" he said.\n\n\"As people really kind of got used to the new regimes and the new documentation that was required, I would say it caught quite a few, not so much in the haulage industry but their customers, unaware.\n\n\"But then things gradually improved, but we seem to have plateaued; currently, we're probably in the region of 30% down on our [pre-pandemic] 2019 volume.\"\n\nIan Davies says the drop in traffic at Welsh ports in 2021 was because of the UK's new relationship with the EU, not the pandemic\n\nAsked if it was possible to decouple the pandemic hit from a change in post-Brexit trading patterns, Mr Davies said: \"I think now we're probably in a position to say yes, this is really the effect post-Brexit of where we are and slight changes in the way that people are moving freight.\n\n\"If we look at the Irish Sea in its entirety, the freight volumes are roughly the same.\n\n\"What has been adversely affected is really the Welsh ports and the Welsh routes so far.\"\n\nBut he was optimistic about the future, saying he thought \"things will improve\".\n\nIn October, Ireland's foreign affairs minister said there had been a big increase in ferry routes avoiding Welsh ports by directly linking Ireland to mainland Europe - up from \"less than a dozen\" to 44 direct routes.\n\nSimon Coveney told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement programme at the time the use of a so-called land-bridge from Holyhead to Dover had been a vital part of supply chains in and out of Ireland.\n\nLand-bridge movements refer to lorries from Ireland crossing Wales and England en route to other EU countries.\n\nDirect sea routes from Ireland to France are slower and more expensive than crossing the Irish Sea and driving south through Wales and England to cross the Channel between Dover and Calais.\n\nBut sailing directly avoids the new post-Brexit checks and paperwork.\n\nDublin Port's boss said this week Brexit spelled the end of the British land-bridge transit route.\n\nMr Davies said: \"If you look at the numbers you see, statistically, percentage wise, there is a huge increase.\n\n\"But you have to remember the market is very small before. The biggest trading partner is still the UK.\"\n\nWales currently has three ports that have direct routes to Ireland - Holyhead and Fishguard, which are run by Stena Line, and Pembroke.\n\nAsked if he believed those three could be sustained, Mr Davies said Stena Line was \"a long-term player\".\n\n\"Business goes through cycles. We saw it in 2007 and 2008 when the Celtic Tiger [Ireland] crashed,\" he said.\n\n\"We never thought we would see recovery. It took three or four years. We got there. We see this as another business cycle.\"\n\nNot all the required checks on EU imports to the UK have been introduced with many more scheduled during 2022.\n\nHolyhead is the UK's second busiest port\n\nChecks on some animal and plant-based goods are set to be undertaken in so-called Border Control Posts (BCP) from 1 July 2022.\n\nThe Welsh government has plans to build one BCP outside Holyhead and one in south Wales to service both Fishguard and Pembroke ports.\n\nBut neither will be ready on 1 July, leading Wales' Economy Minister Vaughan Gething to announce that the Welsh government is \"exploring interim arrangements at Welsh ferry ports to bridge the gap\".\n\nThe leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Jane Dodds, accused the UK government of doing \"half a job\" of the Brexit deal.\n\n\"Whether it's the unacceptable levels of new red tape for our hauliers and small businesses, the lack of an adequate veterinary agreement for our farmers, or the impact of lost development funds on our most deprived regions, the Conservatives are failing to even attempt to address the problems they have caused on multiple fronts,\" she added.\n\nA UK government spokesperson said: \"We have made extensive preparations and continue to work closely with port authorities, devolved administrations and other partners to deliver the systems and infrastructure needed on time.\"\n\nAsked about the delay, Mr Davies said: \"They have interim measures that they are putting in place so they meet their criteria, so that doesn't really affect us but what we would like is clarity going forward.\n\n\"But, we also know the UK government are talking about in 2025 a digital border.\n\n\"So, the question is why are we going through all this investment in physical infrastructure when in 2025 we have a digital border potentially coming?\"\n\nYou can watch the interview in full on BBC Politics Wales iPlayer.", "Ana de Armas appeared in the latest Bond film No Time to Die\n\nTwo US fans of Cuban-Spanish actress Ana de Armas have sued Hollywood studio Universal Pictures, saying they were duped into renting a film because she was in the trailer.\n\nConor Woulfe and Peter Rosza say they each paid $3.99 (£2.94) for the comedy Yesterday, only to discover the actress had been removed from the final cut.\n\nThey are seeking $5m in compensation on behalf of all affected viewers.\n\nUniversal Pictures has so far not commented on the issue.\n\nThe fans say they were victims of deceptive marketing, and that Universal used de Armas's \"fame, radiance and brilliance\" to promote a film she wasn't in.\n\n\"Although defendant included the scenes with Ms de Armas in the movie trailer advertisements, for the purposes of promoting Yesterday and enticing film sales and rentals, Ms de Armas is not and was never in the publicly released version of the movie,\" says the complaint filed in California on Friday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.\n\nYesterday is about a singer-songwriter who hits his head and wakes up to discover he is the only person on Earth who remembers the Beatles.\n\nAna de Armas - who appeared in the latest Bond film No Time to Die - was to have co-starred as a love interest of the singer in the comedy.\n\nBut the scenes with the 33-year-old actress were cut, apparently because audiences did not like that aspect of the storyline.\n\nRichard Curtis, the screenwriter, said in 2019 that it had been a \"very traumatic cut\", because de Armas was \"brilliant\" in the role.", "Lamb lovers will have seen prices rise\n\nEveryone is braced for financial pain as the cost of living rises this year, particularly with energy bills likely to soar from April.\n\nBut it is not just gas that is pushing up prices at their fastest rate for nearly 30 years.\n\nHere are some of the less obvious items which have recorded rapid price rises, and some of the reasons behind the increases.\n\nThose families who still sit down to eat a traditional roast dinner together are having to be a little more imaginative if they are trying to keep the costs down.\n\nPrices of fresh beef rose by 8.6% from a year earlier, information from data firm Kantar shows. Fresh lamb prices were up even more steeply, rising by 10% to around £11 per kilogramme.\n\nPotatoes - another Sunday lunch staple - were also highlighted as a factor in pushing up December's official inflation rate (which measures the rising cost of living), by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nIn fact, food prices in general were key to the rate rising to a level not seen for three decades.\n\nFraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, says that a lid had been kept on grocery prices for some time, especially at Christmas, but it is \"inevitable\" that increases are to come.\n\nSupermarkets are facing cost pressures of their own from logistics, manufacturing, farming and distribution. Problems such as driver shortages and rising energy prices will add to those pressures.\n\n\"Retailers will be having robust discussions with suppliers, but delayed costs have to flow through and be reflected in what consumers pay,\" he says.\n\nHe points out that when shoppers are faced with grocery price rises of more than 3% or 4% a year, they tend to make bigger decisions, such as cutting back, seeking out promotions, or buying cheaper own-label products.\n\nThe trouble is, he says, there are price rises \"in nearly every category across the supermarket shelves\" and the price gap between discount brands and others is narrower than was once the case.\n\nRichard Walker, boss of supermarket chain Iceland, says he has been seeing an \"alarming\" rise in the use of food banks.\n\nOpen the bathroom cabinet and the moisturisers and cleansers you see inside may well have got more expensive recently.\n\nPrices of skincare products typically rose by 9.6% in the 12 weeks to Boxing Day compared with the same period a year earlier, data from the same Kantar survey shows.\n\nPrestige brands, in particular, went up in price even though demand fell, according to analysts. Perhaps people were a little less hung up on their Zoom face.\n\nSkincare tells a story typical of the general cost of living squeeze at the moment, in that no one single factor is causing prices to rise.\n\n\"The cost of shipping, packaging and raw materials are on the rise and thereby brands have little choice but to increase the price of their products to ensure that their business is sustainable,\" says Emma Fishwick, from analysts NPD.\n\nShe said masks, body creams and eye treatments had recorded some of the biggest price rises towards the end of the year.\n\nCustomer behaviour has been changing as a result, she says. Shoppers are increasingly choosing mid-range brands, which can be 60% cheaper than the upmarket options.\n\n\"Whilst consumers feel the squeeze, as the cost of living increases, consumers are increasingly turning to these brands as a cheaper alternative,\" she says.\n\nIn the official figures, sofas and the like come under quite a broad category of \"furniture and household goods\". The ONS points out prices in the sector have been rising steadily since the start of 2021.\n\nThat includes furniture, household appliances - including the cost of fitting them, and even garden equipment.\n\nPrices of furniture have been highlighted in official statistics\n\nThe 7.4% inflation rate of this category in December was the highest since comparable data began in 1989, according to ONS calculations.\n\nFurniture prices are rising for many of the same reasons as skincare products and food. The cost of raw materials - such as wood in this case - as well as transporting them has gone up.\n\nA settee may be considered a luxury item, and one only bought new after saving up the money. A fridge, on the other hand, is a necessity for every family.\n\nInflation is the rate at which prices are rising. If the price of a bottle of milk is £1 and it rises by 5p, then milk inflation is 5%.\n\nYou may not notice price rises from month to month. But right now, prices are rising so quickly that the money people earn does not go as far.\n\nStatisticians at the ONS featured the effect of second-hand car prices on the inflation rate as a whole, and not for the first time.\n\nThey say used-car prices grew by 28% during 2021, compared with a 7.3% increase the previous year.\n\nIssues in the new and used car market are pushing up prices\n\nThe cost of manufacturing new cars has risen and has been made difficult by a global shortage of computer chips, as well as other materials such as copper, aluminium and cobalt.\n\nAs a result fewer new vehicles have been rolling off production lines.\n\nThat has meant more buyers turning to the used-car market, which has pushed up prices.\n\nAdded to that, the ONS says there are concerns in the trade about fewer second-hand cars being made available owing to a dearth of one-year-old cars to sell on. Delays in new car supplies have meant extensions of lease contracts and fewer part exchanges, again affecting used car availability.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nEngland's batting woes crossed formats and continents as they were routed by West Indies in the first T20 international in Barbados.\n\nSix days on and 10,000 miles away from the conclusion of a dismal Ashes series in Australia, an almost entirely different set of players found themselves 49-7 after being put in on a two-paced pitch.\n\nEngland's T20 record low score of 80 was in danger, only for 28 from Barbados-born Chris Jordan and 22 by Adil Rashid, two of just four players to reach double figures, to spare them from that indignity.\n\nThe tourists were ultimately bowled out for 103, with the superb Jason Holder twice taking two wickets in two balls in figures of 4-7.\n\nBrandon King's unbeaten 55 led the home side to their meagre target with 17 balls to spare, a nine-wicket margin of victory that matched West Indies' biggest win and England's largest defeat in T20s.\n\nThe second game in the five-match series, all of which is being played in Barbados, is on Sunday.\n• None The Sports Desk podcast: What is the future for red-ball cricket in the English game?\n\nEnglish cricket will have expected a different format and opponent to bring a change in fortune. Instead, the kind of helter-skelter batting implosion that was commonplace during the Ashes was repeated.\n\nOnly Sam Billings, who made the journey to Barbados from Hobart after being drafted in for the fifth Test, is part of both squads, meaning England had five survivors from the team that was beaten in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup in November. Liam Livingstone was ruled out through illness and sorely missed.\n\nWith another World Cup just nine months away, the fringe players missed the opportunity to push their claim to be part of the tournament in Australia.\n\nEngland were 10-3 after two overs and never recovered. Overall, four wickets fell one ball after a visiting batter hit a boundary.\n\nJason Roy charged past a Sheldon Cottrell full toss, Tom Banton edged Holder to a wide slip and Moeen Ali loosely drove his first ball to point.\n\nJames Vince slapped a Cottrell long hop to cover, Billings was stumped off spinner Akeal Hosein and out-of-sorts captain Eoin Morgan took 29 balls over 17, during which time he overturned being given caught behind and saw Liam Dawson calamitously run out.\n\nJordan smeared three sixes, adding 36 with Rashid, who scraped England past 100 before he and Saqib Mahmood fell in the final over.\n\nIn meant England had been bowled out for 124 in the last Ashes Test and 103 in a T20 in the same week, 20 wickets for 227 runs overall.\n\nWest Indies put up a limp defence of their world title, exiting in the group stage, and have since moved on from white-ball mainstays like Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo. Even then, they lost a one-day series to Ireland earlier this month.\n\nHowever, this was a magnificent performance, exacting a measure of revenge from an England team that bowled them out for 55 at the World Cup.\n\nIt was led by former captain Holder, who swung the new ball and often befuddled the England batters by first extracting steepling bounce, then using his slower deliveries. He started by removing Banton and Moeen in successive balls and finished by doing the same to Rashid and Mahmood.\n\nThere was no let-up from the rest of the attack, expertly marshalled by experienced skipper Kieron Pollard, while everything catchable was taken.\n\nOpeners King and Shai Hope ensured there was no way back for England, mastering the tricky conditions with a stand of 52.\n\nHope was stumped off a ripping leg-break from Rashid for 20, but King was joined by Nicholas Pooran to complete a ruthless West Indies chase.\n\n'We didn't adapt well enough'\n\nEngland captain Eoin Morgan: \"We didn't seem to adapt well enough. We'll have to come back tomorrow with a fresh gameplan because conditions are likely to be similar. Trying to get the mindset around risk and reward we found a challenge today.\"\n\nWest Indies captain Kieron Pollard: \"When it comes to Kensington Oval and Jason Holder, he steps it up. He was phenomenal for us. We backed it up in the field and the guys really put on a show today.\"", "The Queen spent Christmas in Windsor with a small group, including the Prince of Wales\n\nThe Queen travelled to Sandringham on Sunday, a month after cancelling her traditional Christmas plans in Norfolk due to the rapid spread of Omicron.\n\nHer Majesty flew by helicopter from Windsor Castle to Sandringham, where she is expected to spend a few weeks.\n\nPrior to the pandemic, the Queen had spent 32 consecutives Christmases at her Norfolk home with family members.\n\nBut she took the decision earlier last month to remain at Windsor as a precaution, amid rising Covid cases.\n\nIt marked the second year in a row the pandemic had led to the cancellation of the Queen's traditional Christmas plans at Sandringham.\n\nIt was also the 95-year-old monarch's first Christmas without the Duke of Edinburgh, her husband of more than 73 years, whom she paid tribute to in the annual Queen's Speech on Christmas Day.\n\nThe Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were among a small party who joined the Queen on 25 December at Windsor Castle.\n\nThe Queen typically spends Christmas at her estate in Sandringham\n\nTypically, close members of the Royal Family gather at the Queen's Norfolk estate for the festive period where they attend the local church of St Mary Magdalene on Christmas morning - and are greeted by public well-wishers.\n\nIn a statement issued in December, Buckingham Palace said it was a personal decision not to travel to Norfolk at Christmas and reflected \"a precautionary approach\".\n\nThe monarch, who will mark 70 years on the throne in February, spent much of last year at Windsor Castle, where she and Prince Philip had shielded throughout the lockdowns.\n\nHaving arrived in Norfolk on Sunday, she is expected to remain at Sandringham for some weeks.\n\nNormally her winter break ends some time after accession day on 6 February - the day her father George VI died in 1952.\n\nThis year, 6 February will herald the start of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations, which will culminate in a four-day UK bank holiday weekend from 2 to 5 June.\n\nThe celebrations will be marked by concerts, street parties and a Platinum Jubilee Pageant, with the private estates of Sandringham and Balmoral open to visitors across the long weekend in June.\n\nThe Queen's move to Sandringham in Norfolk comes ahead of the 70th anniversary of the beginning of her reign - her \"accession\" to the throne.\n\nSandringham was where her father George VI died at the age of 56, on 6 February 1952. So it's a poignant time and place, remembering her father and his long influence on her life.\n\nIt's also a relatively rare trip away from Windsor, with a mixture of the Queen's health worries and Covid disruptions keeping her there much of the time.\n\nWhile the Queen's long reign will be marked through the year by Platinum Jubilee events, this anniversary is likely to be a more reflective moment.\n\nThe first anniversary of the death of Prince Philip is also approaching in the spring.\n\nIf the jubilee will be about public celebrations, this will be a more private moment, marking the virtues of lifelong duty and understated service, and to think about how much has changed in those seven decades.\n\nIt is not clear which events the Queen will attend herself. There were concerns for the Queen's health during autumn last year after she spent a night in hospital and was ordered to rest by royal doctors.\n\nIt led the monarch to withdraw from a series of public events, including the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow and the Remembrance Sunday service.", "Matthew Willson had been visiting his girlfriend when he was shot, according to US police\n\nAn English astrophysicist was killed by a stray bullet that travelled through a wall and hit him in his bed, US authorities have said.\n\nDr Matthew Willson, 31, from Chertsey, Surrey, was found with a single gunshot wound to the head.\n\nPolice were called to an apartment in Brookhaven, Atlanta, at 02:00 local time (07:00 GMT) last Sunday.\n\nSgt Jake Kissel, from the Brookhaven Police Department, said the shooting was believed to have been a random act.\n\nThere have been no arrests so far.\n\nSgt Kissel said the stray bullet that hit Dr Willson travelled less than 100 yards (91m) and entered through an exterior wall of the apartment.\n\n\"The two apartment complexes where the gunfire took place and where Matthew was staying, they're separated by a patch of woods, so they back up to each other,\" he said.\n\n\"We're saying it's the reckless discharge of firearms from one apartment complex and the stray bullet travelled through the woods and entered his apartment.\"\n\nDr Willson was in the US visiting his girlfriend Katherine Shepard.\n\nAman Kar, who shared the flat with Ms Shepard, told BBC Breakfast \"multiple rounds of gunshots\" were fired in the opposite complex \"about 20ft away\" in the early hours of Sunday 16 January.\n\nMr Kar added that the gunfire \"had happened before... but not for so long\".\n\nHe said the pair moved into the apartment last August and recalled two similar incidents in October and November when police had been called - but said it was \"just a few shots\" on those occasions.\n\n\"This time it kept going on for 20 or 30 minutes, until one of the stray bullets hit Matthew.\"\n\nMr Kar said he hoped somebody would come forward with more information on the incident \"because as much as it's an accident, it's also not, because the sheer number of shots that were fired.\n\n\"It's hard to see how something so random happened. It's reckless... reckless people with guns.\"\n\nDr Willson was in an apartment block on Clairmont Road in Brookhaven when he was killed\n\nSgt Kissel said investigators were following up on all leads, adding: \"We're receiving tips from the public and our investigator team has been working around the clock to ensure that we're tracking down the individuals that are responsible.\"\n\nHe said an innocent bystander being struck by a stray bullet was the first incident \"of its kind\" in Brookhaven and was an \"alarming\" and \"tragic event\".\n\n\"Even though we believe that it was a random act and complete reckless discharging of firearms, we're still approaching it as a homicide,\" he added.\n\nDr Willson was taken to a local trauma centre but died of his injuries.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was \"supporting the family of a British man following his death\".\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "The UK has accused President Putin of plotting to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government.\n\nThe Foreign Office took the unusual step of naming former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev as a potential Kremlin candidate.\n\nRussia has moved 100,000 troops near to its border with Ukraine but denies it is planning an invasion.\n\nUK ministers have warned that the Russian government will face serious consequences if there is an incursion.\n\nIn a statement, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: \"The information being released today shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking.\n\n\"Russia must de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy.\"\n\nThe Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that the Foreign Office was \"circulating disinformation\" and urged it to \"cease these provocative activities\" and \"stop spreading nonsense\".\n\nDeputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said there was \"a very serious risk\" of invasion but there would be \"severe economic consequences\", including sanctions, if Russia took that step.\n\nHowever, he told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme it was \"extremely unlikely\" British troops would be sent to defend Ukraine, adding that the country was not a Nato ally.\n\nAsked if the threat of sanctions would be enough to deter Russia from invading, Mr Raab said Vladimir Putin would also be worried about getting \"bogged down in Ukraine\" and ending up \"with another Chechnya\", where there was several years of conflict in the 1990s.\n\nHe added that Russia \"needs to live up to the basic tenets of international law and invading another country is not one of those\".\n\nRussia has denied it is planning any attack but Mr Putin has issued demands to the West, including that Ukraine be prevented from joining the Nato military alliance.\n\nHe also wants Nato to abandon military exercises and stop sending weapons to eastern Europe, seeing this as a direct threat to Russia's security.\n\nRussia has seized Ukrainian territory before, when it annexed Crimea in 2014, after the country overthrew their pro-Moscow president.\n\nEver since, Ukraine's military has been locked in a war with Russian-backed rebels in areas of the east near Russia's borders. An estimated 14,000 people have been killed in the Donbas region.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab urges Putin to \"step back from the brink\"\n\nMr Murayev, a media owner, lost his seat in the Ukrainian parliament when his party failed to secure 5% of the vote in the 2019 elections.\n\nResponding to the claim that he was a potential Kremlin candidate to lead Ukraine, he told the Observer newspaper that the Foreign Office \"seems confused\".\n\n\"It isn't very logical. I'm banned from Russia. Not only that but money from my father's firm there has been confiscated,\" Mr Murayev said.\n\nHe later wrote in a post on Facebook that \"the time of pro-Western and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine is gone forever\".\n\n\"Ukraine needs new politicians whose policy will be based solely on the principles of the national interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,\" he said.\n\nBut Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, said he believed Russia was trying to install a pro-Moscow leader.\n\n\"It's not the first time they're trying to do so,\" he told Sky News's Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme.\n\nStung, perhaps, by suggestions that while a crisis was boiling in Europe, the foreign and defence secretaries were both in Australia, the UK government does seem to be trying to show that it's getting a grip.\n\nBut its method - a pair of statements aimed very much at the Sunday papers - has raised eyebrows. The Foreign Office, in a press release remarkably short on detail, said it had evidence of a Russian plot to install a puppet government in the wake of an invasion.\n\nThe man it named as a possible pro-Russian candidate for president, former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev, seems to have dismissed the allegation, but this morning said the country needed new leaders.\n\nOf the four other Ukrainian politicians named, at least three fled to Moscow eight years ago.\n\nThe Russian Foreign Ministry said Britain should stop spreading nonsense, but the British allegations do echo similar warnings made by the American government on Thursday. In Kyiv, some Ukrainian government officials appear to be taking them seriously.\n\nThe Foreign Office also named four other Ukrainian politicians who it said maintained links with the Russian intelligence services.\n\nIt said some of the individuals had been in contact with Russian intelligence officers working on an invasion plan.\n\nThey include Mykola Azarov, who served as prime minister under the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in 2014.\n\nMr Azarov then fled to Russia where he established what was widely seen as a puppet government-in-exile.\n\nHe has been the subject of international sanctions and an Interpol \"red notice\" issued at the request of the Ukrainian government, for charges including embezzlement and misappropriation.\n\nAlso named is Volodymyr Sivkovych, the former deputy head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, who was this week made the subject of US sanctions for allegedly working with Russian intelligence.\n\nThe others are Serhiy Arbuzov and Andriy Kluyev, who both served as deputy prime minister under Mr Yanukovych.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Prystaiko said the question was not whether Russia would invade Ukraine but whether it would be a \"full-scale invasion\" or something smaller, adding that Russia had already been in Crimea for almost eight years.\n\nThe Ukrainian ambassador to the UK said his country was \"prepared to fight\" but that it was \"not that well equipped\" for a prolonged conflict with Russia.\n\nOn Saturday, a US shipment of around 90 tonnes of \"lethal aid\" arrived in Ukraine, including ammunition for \"front line defenders\".\n\nDozens of British troops have been in Ukraine since 2015 to help train their armed forces, and the UK has also made a commitment to help rebuild Ukraine's navy following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014.\n\nEarlier this week, the UK announced it was sending defence weapons and extra troops for training.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon says case numbers are \"hopefully now... very firmly on the downward slope\"\n\nThe impact of Scotland's Covid restrictions on business and hospitality have been \"worth it\", First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she understood the measures had a \"very adverse\" effect.\n\nBut she told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme that \"we're hopefully seeing Scotland firmly on the downward slope\".\n\nRestrictions introduced over the festive period are being phased out, with nightclubs reopening and large indoor events resuming from Monday.\n\nThe first minister said the rules made enough of a difference to the spread of the Omicron variant to justify the financial impact.\n\nShe added: \"That's not me saying I don't understand and agree that those measures had a very adverse affect on businesses. Hospitality throughout the pandemic has been one of the worst hit sectors.\n\n\"But it is not a case of having protective measures and businesses are damaged, or having no proactive measures and everything is fine.\n\n\"It is the difference between having protective measures that stem transmission, or allowing transmission to go completely uncontrolled - in which case the impact on business is even greater and even more damaging. \"\n\nMs Sturgeon said hospitality had been one of the \"worst hit\" sectors\n\nFrom Monday guidance advising adults against meeting up with more than three households at a time will also be scrapped, along with curbs on indoor contact sports.\n\nHowever longer-running measures such as the use of face coverings on public transport and indoor public places will continue.\n\nScotland's vaccine passport scheme for businesses and events remains in place. Ms Sturgeon said it helped \"as a package of measures\" to protect against transmission.\n\nShe added: \"I don't underplay the impact of any of these measures on businesses and the night-time industry, but checking Covid certification is a better alternative to being closed.\"\n\nShe said the scheme was \"not causing anybody any real hardship\" and had allowed large events to go ahead.\n\nThe first minister said she hoped that vaccine passports and wearing of facemasks would \"eventually\" come to an end.\n\nShe said: \"None of us enjoy wearing masks, they are not the biggest handicap to endure as we try to spread transmission.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said there would be big \"economic consequences\" if we let virus spread in an uncontrolled way.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Stephen Kerr says Scottish government has ‘dithered’ on Covid compensation\n\nOn Saturday there were 6,768 new Covid cases in Scotland - a fall of around 400 from the previous day. There were 1,458 people in hospital, down from 1,511 on Friday.\n\nConservative MSP Stephen Kerr welcomed the lifting of restrictions, but urged the Scottish government to quickly deliver compensation for \"the pain inflicted on the hospitality sector and night time economy\".\n\nHe told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show: \"We should see the evidence when Nicola Sturgeon says it was all worthwhile.\n\n\"Infection rates for this variant of Covid were as great here as in any other part of the UK.\n\nHe added: \"What I can't applaud the Scottish government for doing is dithering in getting the compensation they promised these businesses.\n\n\"Some don't even know how to apply for the money. The Scottish government have a lot to answer for.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Ms Sturgeon said she would set the legislative timetable for a second Scottish independence referendum in \"the coming weeks\".\n\nShe said \"preparatory work is underway\" and her aim remained to take steps to enable a referendum to take place before the end of 2023.", "The boat used by Jean-Jacques Savin was found overturned\n\nA 75-year-old Frenchman who was trying to row across the Atlantic Ocean has been found dead at sea, his support team said.\n\nAdventurer Jean-Jacques Savin had previously made the crossing in a large barrel in 2019.\n\n\"Unfortunately, this time the ocean was stronger than our friend, who loved sailing and the sea so much,\" a statement on his Facebook page said.\n\nSavin had triggered two distress beacons on Thursday night.\n\nHis family had not heard any news from him since, and \"were hoping for a glimmer of hope, and even good news,\" the Facebook statement said. But on Friday Savin's canoe was found overturned off the Azores, an island chain in the North Atlantic Ocean, by Portuguese maritime officials.\n\nThe exact circumstances of his death have not yet been determined.\n\nThe former military paratrooper, who celebrated his 75th birthday at sea last week with foie gras and champagne, set off from Sagres in southern Portugal on 1 January, with the aim of crossing the ocean solo.\n\nOn Wednesday, he wrote on Facebook that there were strong winds which made his journey longer by 900km (560 miles), and said he was having trouble with his solar power. But he added: \"Rest assured, I'm not in danger!\"\n\nJean-Jacques Savin's canoe was named Audacieux, which means \"bold\" or \"audacious\" in French\n\nHe said he planned to fix the issues once he arrived at the \"beautiful marina\" of Ponta Delgada, the capital of the Azores.\n\nSavin had planned to spend some three months in his 8m (26ft) canoe, which he referred to as his \"friend\".\n\nHe had described the rowing feat as a way to \"laugh at old age\".\n\nIn 2019, the adventurer successfully crossed the Atlantic in a barrel-shaped orange capsule, using the sea currents alone to propel it across the water for 4,500km (2,800 miles) - a journey of 122 days.", "When BBC correspondent Dan Johnson posted on Twitter shortly before Christmas that he had finished editing a project capturing the voice of his late father Graeme, he was surprised by the reaction. It made him consider the importance of preserving the memories of loved ones.\n\nThrough the dark days of December, my dad was a constant companion. He spoke to me almost every day while I limited my social life to protect my Christmas plans. I couldn't speak to him, though. He'd died four years earlier.\n\nI'd finally got round to editing his own personal version of Desert Island Discs - the long-running BBC radio programme where guests share the soundtrack of their lives - recorded in his last few months. I listened over and over to set the sound levels, carefully piecing together his audio jigsaw - the music that meant the most to him, and the comedians who made him laugh.\n\nHe had lung cancer, despite never smoking, and while we knew his life would be shortened, his outlook was positive - he was responding to treatment and focused entirely on living. We never discussed death. His suggestion, that we sit down and cover everything from Dusty Springfield to The Moody Blues, Morecambe and Wise to Eddie Izzard, was the only hint of something to leave behind, apart from a bench overlooking his favourite view across Green Moor cricket ground high on a hill in South Yorkshire.\n\nIt's the sort of talking we didn't do much of. He was a fairly typical Yorkshireman when it came to emotions. Besides that, I wouldn't have felt able to raise the idea for fear of negatively affecting his optimistic outlook, maybe even his chances. But thankfully, he was up for it and signalled a willingness to step outside our usual comfort zone. Even if his intention was to speak only about songs and sketches, I saw a chance to nudge him into reflecting a little on life and the things that made him tick.\n\nWe started recording on a wet and windy night in September 2017, hunkered down in the old station master's house at Ribblehead, by the impressive viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales. We were away for a few days in one of his favourite spots, where he'd stayed decades before as a boy scout on his first night away from family in Hull. Now he'd been drawn back.\n\nGraeme said he was introduced to the power of music through a neighbour's radiogram in Hull\n\nHe'd already given me a scrawled list of clips to play next to the warming fire as trains passed by the window. I waved a microphone towards him and he explained he thought it would be a nice thing to hand on, something he wished he had from his parents and grandparents.\n\nAs we embarked on the list, he described a fascination with sound, its power and projection, that began as a young boy at the house of a neighbour who had a big radiogram. He captured typical family life at the end of the 1960s, gathered around watching the Morecambe and Wise Christmas special and having to take his turn on the new \"Hi-Fi system\" to play his budding LP collection that started with the Beatles' Abbey Road. The older girls next door had asked if he wanted to see the Beatles with them at Hull's ABC cinema. His parents said 12-year-old Graeme was too young.\n\nI never knew he'd flunked his A-Levels and been forced to take a gap year to weigh up his options. He spent that summer in France, working on a campsite, where the local kids played Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon on the bar's jukebox.\n\nGraeme had hidden a teenage love of Motown because he said it wasn't cool at the time\n\nHe went on to build a career in town planning, which took him to Liverpool, Nottingham and Barnsley, where he worked on redeveloping a landscape scarred by coal mines and coke works. He'd drag me and my sister along the redundant railway lines converted to cycle paths or march us up replanted slag heaps to see the new roads and modern warehouses which were replacing the old industries.\n\nIn the old station master's house, we talked about Van Morrison being a grumpy old man but a great performer. He remembered Bruce Springsteen's epic live gigs full of energy. He described a secret teenage love of Motown, hidden because it wasn't deemed cool at the time.\n\nAs he relaxed a bit, he confessed some thoughts of \"what if\", but was content things had worked out well. He'd made plans in life but had always been flexible, prepared to take opportunities and confident things would be fine.\n\nAfter three recording sessions, we were about two thirds of the way down his playlist when time ran out. I started editing soon after his lungs suddenly deteriorated at the end of 2017. But I found it tough. It was upsetting and I faced a difficult decision. Without a proper ending, I wasn't sure how to wrap up his unfinished symphony. I wonder if I was also reluctant to complete what had become the last task of his life.\n\nDan and Graeme on the weekend they made the recording in the Yorkshire Dales\n\nTrue to form, he'd left a list of scribbled suggestions, so eventually I took that, explained his spoken contribution would end there, then let his other choices play through.\n\nThere was other stuff that went unsaid. He chose Dear John, sung by Eddi Reader but written by Kirsty MacColl about the end of her marriage. My dad referred to his own divorce, but he didn't say much and I didn't press him. \"It had a resonance, it rang a bell,\" he said. \"It made me think, yes, she's captured that very well.\"\n\nThese were hints of deeper meaning behind his choices, even the entire project. He was more emotionally engaged than he let on. He'd learned to love music listening to albums in their entirety, through upbeat hits and darker melodies, changing moods and different tones. He took the rough with the smooth and focused on the overarching narrative, aware that development comes in stages and hopeful that it would be alright in the end - whatever happens along the way.\n\nSome of my family were wary of listening to the finished recording. They'd had four years of radio silence and had to brace themselves to hear his voice again. My sister said it wasn't the gut punch that she'd feared it might be. She found it warm and comforting, not distant or upsetting. The familiarity reassured her that she hadn't forgotten him. Van Morrison brought tears because Brown Eyed Girl had been set as his ringtone.\n\nI appreciate we're really fortunate to have this. I know so many others do not, and I'm sorry. I hope photos, videos and stories can help keep memories fresh and flowing. Death has snatched suddenly from so many families, without even the chance to say goodbye. But if you have the opportunity, make the most of it - get something recorded. It doesn't matter what you talk about. The reflections and insights are powerful but really, it's much simpler than that.\n\nI'll never hear my dad as an old man, the tales he would have told his grandsons, the new interests he'd have immersed himself in. But he left me his snorting, sniggering laughter, the traces of his Hull accent still stretching out his words, and his friendly voice preserved in all its rich, gentle warmth.\n\n\"I may be old, but at least I got to see all the best bands,\" he said, quoting one of his own statement t-shirts. It's arguable. He'd only just turned 63 and, as he said himself, he never did see the Beatles.", "A fire broke out at Wolverhampton Wanderers' Molineux stadium in the early hours, damaging part of the ground, the football club has said.\n\nSmoke could be seen coming from the stadium as 20 firefighters attended at about 01:55 GMT.\n\nIt started in the Sir Jack Hayward Suite bar area and spread to other nearby areas in the Billy Wright Stand, the club said.\n\nThe blaze is thought to have started in an electrical appliance.\n\nTwitter user The Wolfpack said the stadium's alarms started sounding at about 01:40 and police later closed the road by the ground for a time while firefighters dealt with the fire.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐋𝐅𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐊™️ This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCrews contained the blaze before putting it out by 03:40, West Midlands Fire Service said.\n\nAndy Howard, from Wolverhampton fire station, said it was isolated to the bar area and smoke damage was caused to the rest of the floor.\n\nFirefighters left the scene at 06:45 before returning some time later to assess the damage, the club said.\n\nSteve Sutton, facilities, safety and security director at the football club, thanked the fire service and expressed that his relief no-one was hurt.\n\n\"It will take some days to fully assess the damage that has been caused, however it is quite significant and will take some time to repair,\" he said.\n\n\"Any supporter packages affected for the next game will be communicated by the relevant departments over the coming days.\n\n\"The most important thing of course, is that no one was present at the time, apart from our 24-hour security team, and no one was hurt.\n\n\"We apologise to residents in the area for the very loud alarms that went off late into the night, but hope they understand their necessity at such a critical time.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The toilets at Ashton Gate stadium in Bristol were damaged on Saturday\n\nCardiff City has offered to pay for repairs after supporters damaged the toilets at Bristol City's Ashton Gate stadium.\n\nPhotos of the damage were shared on social media following the Severnside derby between The Robins and The Bluebirds.\n\nRoofing and cabling was damaged and debris left strewn across the floor.\n\nThe Welsh club offered to cover the costs following Saturday's game, which Bristol City won 3-2.\n\nDamage could be seen in the ceiling of the toilets\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Met Police want to speak to the man pictured in connection with the incidents\n\nPolice believe four incidents of teenage girls being sexually assaulted in south east London may be linked.\n\nFour girls aged between 13 and 17 have been \"sexually touched\" by a man between 16 December and 18 January, the Met Police said.\n\nThe force has released an image of a man they want to speak to in connection with the incidents.\n\nDet Sgt James Robson said officers were doing all they could to identify the person responsible.\n\nThe force has released the following details about the incidents:\n\nPolice have asked for anyone who recognises the man in the image or has any information to contact officers on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Li Jingwei was reunited with his mother on 1 January after he was sold into a child trafficking ring at four-years-old\n\nA Chinese man who was abducted over 30 years ago has been reunited with his biological mother after drawing a map of his childhood village from memory.\n\nLi Jingwei was just four years old when he was lured away from his home and sold into a child trafficking ring.\n\nOn 24 December he shared a hand-drawn map to the video sharing app, Douyin, which police matched to a small village and a woman whose son had disappeared.\n\nAfter DNA tests, they were reunited in Yunnan province on Saturday.\n\nVideo footage of the reunion showed the pair meeting for the first time in over three decades and shows Li Jingwei carefully removing his mother's coronavirus mask to examine her face before breaking down in tears and embracing her.\n\n\"Thirty-three years of waiting, countless nights of yearning, and finally a map hand-drawn from memory, this is the moment of perfect release after 13 days,\" Mr Li wrote on his Douyin profile ahead of the anticipated reunion. \"Thank you, everyone who has helped me reunite with my family.\"\n\nMr Li was abducted near the south-western city of Zhaotong in Yunnan Province in 1989 and subsequently sold to a family living over 1,800km away.\n\nNow living in Guangdong Province in southern China, he had no success asking his adoptive parents or consulting DNA databases about his origins. So he turned to the internet.\n\n\"I'm a child who's finding his home. I was taken to Henan by a bald neighbour around 1989, when I was about four years old,\" he said in the video, which was shared thousands of times.\n\n\"This is a map of my home area that I have drawn from memory,\" he said holding up a rough guide of the village, which included features like a building he believed to be a school, a bamboo forest, and a small pond.\n\nLi Jingwei drew a map of his childhood village from memory and shared it online\n\nChild abductions are not uncommon in China, a society which places high value on having a son.\n\nMany children are abducted at a young age and sold to other families. In 2015, it was estimated that 20,000 children were being abducted each year.\n\nIn 2021 there were numerous examples of young men being reunited with their biological parents after long absences.\n\nLast July, Guo Gangtang was reunited with his son 24 years after he was abducted in the province of Shandong.", "Two people remain missing after a devastating wildfire hit the central US state of Colorado.\n\nOne of the missing was a 91-year-old woman whose family had been trapped by the incoming flames, local media say.\n\nThe blaze swept through several towns, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing thousands of people to flee.\n\nBoulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle had said it was unlikely any of the missing would be found alive. But one person had now been found safe and well.\n\nThe wildfire burned 6,000 acres across Boulder County, destroying at least 1,000 homes and businesses. It started under unusually dry conditions and came under control in part because of snowfall.\n\nMore than 10 inches (25cm) of snow has fallen on the Boulder area and is now hampering efforts to find those missing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Woman who evacuated from Louisville says families in her neighbourhood have \"lost everything\"\n\nResidents hit by the wildfire are coming to terms with what happened, in some cases returning home to find complete destruction.\n\n\"I feel like I made it out with my life and that's I think the most important thing,\" Jessi Delaplain, who lost her home to the fire, told CBS.\n\n\"I gathered myself and I gathered my cats which was no easy feat to stuff them into the car. And I pulled out of the driveway and there were flames surrounding us.\"\n\nThe cause of the wildfire is being investigated.\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires, and experts say that fires in western North America have grown more intense in recent years.", "People are streaming in to pay their last respects to Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa\n\nThe late anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu is to be aquamated - a process using water that is described as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation.\n\nIt was \"what he aspired to as an eco-warrior,\" said Very Rev Michael Weeder.\n\nThousands of South Africans have been paying their last respects at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town where Tutu's body has been lying in state.\n\nThere has been an outpouring of emotion since his death a week ago aged 90.\n\nOne man, Wally Mdluli, hitchhiked more than 1,000km (620 miles) from Bloemfontein to Cape Town - enlisting the help of family and friends to pay for some of the trip and even sleeping at a petrol station on the way.\n\n\"I feel fulfilled after I saw the coffin. It's like his spirit is in me,\" he told the BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Cape Town.\n\nWally Mdluli travelled more than 1,000km to pay his respects to Archbishop Desmond Tutu\n\n\"It's a memory [I will have] for the rest of my life,\" Mr Mdluli added, saying he hoped that he and all South Africans would live according to Tutu's values.\n\nArchbishop Desmond Tutu's burial is expected to take place this weekend. It is not yet known whether his family will opt for a private or public ceremony.\n\nHe had insisted there should be \"no ostentatiousness or lavish spending\" on the ceremony and that he be given \"the cheapest available coffin\", with the only flowers in the cathedral to be \"a bouquet of carnations from his family\", according to the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.\n\nHis ashes are to be interred behind the pulpit at St George's Cathedral in Cape Town - the Anglican diocese he served as Archbishop for 35 years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Mourners filed past Tutu's simple pine coffin as his body lay in state in his old parish cathedral\n\nAquamation, which uses water, is touted as a greener alternative to cremation, which uses fire. Practitioners say it cuts the amount of environmentally harmful carbon dioxide produced by up to 90%.\n\nThe technical name for the process is alkaline hydrolysis - and it involves weighing the body, then heating it to 150C (300F) in a mixture of potassium hydroxide and water for up to 90 minutes.\n\nThis dissolves the body tissue, leaving only the bones - which are then rinsed at 120C, dried, and pulverised into a coarse powder using a machine called a cremulator.\n\nOnce all these steps are complete, the remains can be buried or scattered in accordance with the deceased's wishes - just as would happen in an ordinary cremation.", "A Belgian scientific research station in Antarctica has been hit with an outbreak of Covid-19, despite workers being fully vaccinated and based in one of the world's remotest regions.\n\nSince 14 December, 11 workers at the Princess Elisabeth Polar Station have caught the virus.\n\n\"The situation isn't dramatic,\" Joseph Cheek, a project manager for the International Polar Foundation, told the BBC.\n\n\"While it has been an inconvenience to have to quarantine certain members of the staff who caught the virus, it hasn't significantly affected our work at the station overall,\" Mr Cheek said.\n\n\"All residents of the station were offered the opportunity to leave on a scheduled flight on 12 January. However, they all expressed their wish to stay and continue their work,\" he added.\n\nThe IPF said that the first positive test was recorded on the 15 December, among a team that had arrived a few days earlier from Cape Town in South Africa.\n\nEleven people in total tested positive, according to the IPF. Three left the station in December while eight remain there - at present there are 30 members of staff at the station.\n\nAll residents at the base are required to be vaccinated before arriving and undergo several PCR tests.\n\nPrincess Elisabeth station is operated by the International Polar Foundation and went into service in 2009.\n\nIt isn't the first time research stations in Antarctica have been affected by a coronavirus outbreak.\n\nLast year, a number of Chilean military personnel based at Bernardo O'Higgins research station were infected after sailors on a supply ship tested positive for the virus.\n\nUpdate 5th January: This article originally reported the number of people infected at 16. It has since been established that this number was incorrect and so we have amended this line in the story.", "Officials said there would be some exemptions to the travel ban on unvaccinated passengers\n\nThe United Arab Emirates has announced that it will ban citizens who have not had three doses of a vaccine against Covid-19 from travelling abroad.\n\nOfficials said the exit ban, which comes into force on 10 January, would not apply to those who are medically exempt from receiving the vaccine.\n\nIt is the latest country to announce new curbs amid a rise in infections.\n\nMany countries impose strict restrictions on unvaccinated people before they are allowed in.\n\nThis varies from a requirement for a negative Covid test before travel to mandatory quarantine upon arrival.\n\nMore than 90% of the population in the UAE has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. About 34% had received the booster jab as of 24 December, according to Our World in Data.\n\nStudies have found that a booster shot offers better protection against the heavily-mutated Omicron variant, which has been spreading rapidly in countries around the world.\n\nThe new travel rules in the UAE were announced by the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.\n\nThey were devised to \"ensure that health and safety are prioritised\", the Emirates News Agency reported.\n\nOfficials said the ban on unvaccinated passengers would also be lifted in \"humanitarian cases\" and in cases where people were travelling for medical treatment.\n\nForeign workers make up the vast majority of the resident population in the Gulf state and will not be affected by the new restrictions, which only apply to citizens.\n\nThe UAE has reported over 750,000 cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began, and more than 2,000 deaths.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Joanna Lumley is \"thrilled to bits and so touched\" to be made a Dame\n\nActresses Joanna Lumley and Vanessa Redgrave have been made dames in the Queen's New Year Honours list.\n\nAbsolutely Fabulous star and activist Lumley has been honoured for services to drama, entertainment and charity.\n\nCelebrated stage and screen veteran Redgrave has been recognised for services to drama.\n\nOther celebrities on the list include newsreader Moira Stuart, dancer Ashley Banjo, 007 actor Daniel Craig and soap stars June Brown and William Roache.\n\nJoanna Lumley said her damehood was \"extraordinary\" and \"completely unexpected\".\n\nShe initially thought the formal letter was bad news, but \"burst into tears\" when she realised it was offering her an honour. \"It was an extraordinary shock,\" she told BBC News. \"I put my head in my hands and sobbed like a baby.\n\n\"Then I thought, how has this happened? Is it a mistake? I truly was completely thrown by it, and thrilled to bits, and so touched.\"\n\nThe 75-year-old star, who is a friend of the Royal Family, won two Bafta Awards for her role as fashionista Patsy Stone in the 1990s BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.\n\nShe also appeared in TV shows The New Avengers and Sapphire & Steel, and was nominated for a Tony Award on Broadway in 2011. Beyond acting, she has been praised for her human rights and animal rights campaigning.\n\nVanessa Redgrave is made a dame 62 years after her father Michael was knighted\n\nVanessa Redgrave said she was \"surprised and grateful to join this wondrous group of British artists whose work has inspired me and audiences the world over\".\n\nShe added: \"My generation fought for freedom of expression. Long may this remain.\"\n\nThe 84-year-old is regarded as one of the greatest actresses of her generation, with six Oscar nominations to her name including a win for the 1977 film Julia. Her other films include Mary, Queen of Scots, Howards End, Mrs Dalloway, Wilde, Mission: Impossible and Atonement.\n\nThe English actress is one of a coterie of stars to wear the triple crown of acting - winning an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony - while she has also received an Olivier Award, the London West End's highest accolade.\n\nDirector John Boorman, pictured on the set of Oscar-nominated 1987 film Hope and Glory, gets a knighthood\n\nDeliverance and Hope and Glory director John Boorman has been knighted, as has pioneering film-maker Horace Ové, the first black Briton to direct a feature film.\n\n\"Chronicling the lives, battles, art and culture of the African and Caribbean diaspora in Britain and around the world has been a lifelong journey and passion,\" he said. \"This award is testament to how far we have come and in many respects how far we still have to go.\"\n\nAlso knighted are fantasy author, Games Workshop co-founder and video game entrepreneur Ian Livingstone for services to the online gaming industry; and writer, broadcaster and former Labour politician Trevor Phillips, for services to equality and human rights.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the premiere of James Bond's No Time To Die in September\n\nDaniel Craig, who bowed out as James Bond with this year's movie No Time to Die, has been made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.\n\nIt is the same honour that the fictional spy himself received, and which author Ian Fleming wrote in the 1957 novel From Russia With Love, was usually given \"on retirement from the Secret Service\".\n\nBond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, who are tasked with choosing Craig's successor, have both become CBEs for services to film, drama, philanthropy and skills.\n\nMoira Stuart appeared on this year's Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special\n\nElsewhere on the list, broadcaster Moira Stuart said she was \"so moved and lifted by this recognition of my work\" after becoming a CBE.\n\n\"Because over the years, since my first Radio 4 news bulletin in 1978 through to my last BBC News summary in 2018, I've been committed to public service broadcasting, which gave me the chance to shift barriers, open doors and change so many stagnant stereotypes,\" she said.\n\n\"No it hasn't been easy, but this magnificent honour means so much to me, and I shall cherish it always.\"\n\nFinancial guru Martin Lewis said it was \"a great surprise and thrill\" to be appointed CBE for services to broadcasting and consumer rights, adding that it had been \"overwhelming\" to hear how his advice had helped people during the pandemic.\n\nBourne and Bloody Sunday film director Paul Greengrass said he was \"very honoured\" to become a CBE, with the same accolade going to Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin.\n\nNovelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz - whose work includes the Alex Rider spy novel series and Foyle's War - and cookery author Claudia Roden have both received the same honour for services to literature.\n\nJune Brown and William Roache have been in TV soaps for 96 years between them\n\nTwo long-serving soap stars - EastEnders' June Brown, aka Dot Cotton, and William Roache, who plays Ken Barlow in Coronation Street - have been appointed OBEs, both for services to drama and charity.\n\nRoache said he was \"delighted\" to receive \"such a wonderful honour\". He added: \"I can't tell you how proud I am!Coronation Street has given me so much in life and I absolutely love the programme and everyone who works on the show.\"\n\nBrown, who left the BBC drama in 2020, said: \"It is a great honour and I would like to thank Her Majesty, and all those involved in my recommendation.\"\n\nAnother EastEnder, Nitin Ganatra, has been appointed OBE for services to drama, while Corrie star Cherylee Houston said she was \"honoured and humbled\" to become an MBE for services to drama and people with disabilities.\n\nThe actress, who plays Izzy Armstrong in the ITV soap, said: \"Equality and inclusion of disabled people is something that's been very dear to me throughout my career so far.\"\n\nKatie Piper was attacked with acid by her ex-boyfriend in 2008\n\nModel, presenter and activist Katie Piper has been appointed OBE for services to charity and victims of burns and other disfigurement injuries.\n\nOBEs have also gone to Scottish pianist Steven Osborne, crime writer Ann Cleeves and Pauline Black from ska band The Selecter, who paid tribute to her home town.\n\n\"Coventry made me who I am today, giving me the opportunity to study, work and ultimately find my creative voice within the 2-tone movement, which has spearheaded the musical conversation about racism and sexism for the past 42 years,\" she said.\n\nMelanie Brown has been appointed MBE for services to charitable causes and vulnerable women\n\nSpice Girl Melanie Brown - aka Mel B - has become an MBE for her role as patron of domestic abuse charity Women's Aid.\n\nDiversity star Ashley Banjo said he was \"so humbled and extremely proud\" to become an MBE for services to dance: \"It really is the ultimate accolade. It's something I never saw coming and for my mum and dad to see this moment means the world.\"\n\nThe Last Leg presenter Adam Hills said he was \"absolutely chuffed to bits\" to be appointed MBE for services to Paralympic sport and disability awareness.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Garraway told the BBC's Andrew Marr that her husband is \"devastated by Covid\"\n\nKate Garraway, the Good Morning Britain presenter who has chronicled her husband Derek Draper's long battle with Covid-19, has been appointed MBE for services to broadcasting, journalism and charity.\n\nOther new MBEs include best-selling author Adele Parks for services to literature, and Smooth Radio/Classic FM presenter Margherita Taylor for services to broadcasting and diversity.\n\nSports presenter Jill Douglas Hogg has received the same accolade for services to sport and charity.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "California's giant sequoias are symbols of permanence - with some living for thousands of years. But the fierce wildfires ravaging the state threaten even these mighty trees, which are among the longest-lived organisms on Earth.\n\nThere is something primeval about giant sequoias. Their weird, broccoli-like branches wouldn't seem out of place with a long-necked dinosaur plodding by.\n\nAnd they are impossibly big: 30 or 40 people would have to link hands to hug the largest ones. The tallest trees are 90m (295ft) high. That's like a 30-storey tower block.\n\n\"They make you feel deep time\", sighs Christy Bingham, as she looks up at the biggest tree in the world - known as the General Sherman.\n\n\"You can just sense standing here that this tree was born before Jesus.\"\n\nChristy lowers her voice as she says this, as if out of respect. She's in charge of conserving these magnificent trees in the Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains - their last redoubt.\n\nDuring wildfires this year, the base of the huge General Sherman tree was wrapped in protective insulation\n\nSequoias live so long because they are exquisitely adapted to their environment, Christy tells me.\n\nThere have always been fires in California and, in response, sequoias have developed insulating bark which can be up to a metre thick and which stops all but the hottest fires damaging the trees.\n\nBut California's fires are changing. Christy leads me deeper into the forest, to show me what she means.\n\nAll you can hear is the sound of the wind in the leaves, the occasional cry of a raven and our footsteps crunching in the leaf litter. It is heaven. Until, that is, we walk over a ridge and the scene changes dramatically.\n\n\"This is what I wanted to show you, this was a giant sequoia grove\", she says. The landscape is monochrome now: grey or black, ash or cinders. Many of the huge trees have been reduced to columns of charcoal.\n\n\"Before 2015 no one saw a sequoia that looked like this,\" says Christy. She is crying now. \"You never saw a tree become a candle and burn up in this way before.\" She points to the blackened remains of one of the biggest trees.\n\n\"This 1,000- to 2,000-year-old tree should have lived another 500 to 800 years but it's gone.\"\n\nChristy wipes her tears with the sleeve of her jacket. \"It will not sequester any more carbon. It will not be a spotted owl house. It's dead.\"\n\nIt isn't just California's trees that have been suffering. Several hours' drive north we visit the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville. It used to be famous for its Wild West-style clapboard shops and its white painted church with its elegant wooden spire.\n\nAll that is gone now, incinerated in the massive Dixie Fire this summer which burnt a million acres and cost some 600 million dollars to fight.\n\nNichoel Farris tells me how she got a text telling her to get out of town. An hour later the whole place - 1,500 buildings in total - had been erased, and her \"forever home\" with it.\n\nThe Dixie fire devastated the town of Greenville\n\n\"It took all the colour out of my life. Look, everything is just a shade of grey\", says Nichoel, gesturing towards the ashes of her house. \"We lost the future we'd planned for and built.\" She's crying now. \"We lost our story\", she tells me.\n\nBut Nichoel hasn't lost all hope. She talks about how she wants to see the town rebuilt using the latest fire protection knowhow. She and her husband grew 80% of their food on their land and she hopes others will do the same.\n\n\"Greenville could actually be a lighthouse community of sustainability and climate adaptation. And how we live in our new normal - because big fires are now the new normal,\" she says.\n\nAnd, in the forest, Christy hasn't given up hope either. She expects to see baby sequoias sprouting here next year. They like burnt soil. And she says the forests need to be better managed, with dead wood and brush that can fuel fires cleared away.\n\nWhat's more, a few of the trees, even here amongst the destruction, will survive. Christy starts to scrape with her fingers at the charred bark of a giant sequoia at the very edge of the grove.\n\nNot far in - about an inch or a couple of centimetres - and the charcoal gives way to reddish bark. \"This is just surface damage,\" she says. \"Look up at the leaves, lots of them have survived. This tree will live!\"\n\nThe resilience of the sequoias should inspire us, says Christy: \"It is telling us we need to act on climate change now and that every little bit counts\". She turns to look me in the eye.\n\n\"Every carbon reduction will help these forests persist,\" she says. And I notice her smile has returned as we walk on through the trees.", "Data for England is shown by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. Data for Wales and Scotland is shown by Health Board and in Northern Ireland by Health and Social Care Trust.\n\nWhen you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board and by Health and Social Care trust in Northern Ireland.\n\nComparative data is shown for a previous year where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Earlier data is not available for all measures, so comparisons between years are not always possible.\n\nA&E attendances include all emergency departments in that trust or health board, not just major A&E departments, for example, those who attend minor injury units.\n\nEach nation has different target times for some of the measures shown, therefore comparisons between them may not be possible.", "Last updated on .From the section Wales\n\nSailor Hannah Mills, athlete Aled Sion Davies, boccia player David Smith and boxer Lauren Price have been recognised in the Queen's New Year Honours list.\n\nThe quartet won Olympic or Paralympic gold in 2021, with Mills, Davies and Smith appointed OBEs having previously been awarded MBEs.\n\nPrice gets an MBE having become Wales' first Olympic boxing gold medallist.\n\nOfficers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)\n\nHannah Mills, 33,has been recognised for her services to sailing and the environment.\n\nAfter carrying the Team GB flag at the opening ceremony, Mills became the most successful female Olympic sailor of all time when she successfully defended her 470 title alongside team-mate Eilidh McIntyre. She also became Wales' most successful female Olympian.\n\nIt was a second success for Mills after her previous gold in Rio 2016 and silver at London 2012 with Saskia Clark.\n\nMills, who announced her Olympic retirement in December, also launched an initiative in 2019 to eradicate single-use plastic in sport.\n• None How the Welsh athletes did at Tokyo 2020\n\nTriple Paralympic champion Aled Sion Davies has been noted for his services to athletics.\n\nDavies, 30, won gold at his third successive games with success in the F63 shot put at Tokyo 2020 delayed for a year because of the pandemic.\n\nHe won F42 discus gold at London 2012 but the event was omitted from Rio four years later, where he won the shot put title.\n\nSwansea-based David Smith made history in the boccia as he retained his individual BC1 title and in doing so confirmed his status as Britain's most successful boccia player.\n\nSmith, 32, now has five Paralympic medals and carried the flag for Great Britain at the closing ceremony.\n\nMembers of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)\n\nLauren Price won middleweight gold on the final day of the Olympics which saw her become Wales' first boxing champion - man or woman - in the history of the Games.\n\nPrice, 27, has announced she intends to turn professional in 2022.\n\nThere was also history in the pool in Japan as Wales won its first swimming gold medal in more than a century.\n\nIt was won by not one but two Welshmen as Matthew Richards and Calum Jarvis were part of the winning men's 4x200m freestyle relay team. The duo are recognised for services to swimming.\n\nRichards also became Wales' youngest Olympic champion at the age of 18, a record previously held by Jade Jones after she won taekwondo gold aged 19 at London 2012.\n\nA Welsh contingent of 21 athletes brought home an impressive 14 medals at the Paralympics.\n\nWelshpool's Jim Roberts took the first gold as the 33-year-old helped Britain to an historic title in the wheelchair rugby - the first European nation to do so. Roberts, who announced his retirement in December aged 34, was recognised for his services to wheelchair rugby.\n\nLaura Sugar competed in Para-athletics at Rio 2016 but switched to Para-canoe for Tokyo and set a new Paralympic best time on her way to gold in the women's kayak single 200m (KL3). Sugar, 30, was recognised for her services to canoeing.\n\nSimon Lee, the Civil Service Sports Council group chief executive, from Crickhowell, has also been appointed an MBE.", "A food distribution project launched two months ago has prevented 5.5 tonnes of food from going to waste.\n\nNewtown Food Surplus in Powys started in October and has already helped feed 465 people.\n\nNow the volunteers who run the project hope to expand it in 2022 with the help of a lottery grant.\n\nIn December, organisers heard it had been approved for £100,000 funding which will enable it to employ staff, rather than rely on volunteers.\n\nVicky Rowe, who started the initiative after working on a similar scheme in Aberystwyth, said the lottery funding will make a huge difference,\n\n\"It's a lot of hours running this sort of project so we do need some paid members of staff - volunteer coordinators and a chef,\" she said.\n\n\"A lot of food that comes in late at night is 'use by' and we need to cook it, and get it into the freezers.\n\n\"But we will [also] need to expand into larger premises of some description. There's a chiller [that] we want to get that up and running. That will be a game changer for us because a lot of the fresh produce can be stored in there.\"\n\nVicky Rowe, who launched the project, believes it could help communities around Wales if replicated\n\nVolunteers go to supermarkets in Newtown and Welshpool at closing time to pick up surplus food that is close to the \"use by\" or \"best before\" dates.\n\nOne of the volunteers, Simon Longley, said after one visit: \"We've got lots of bread but we've also got doughnuts, spring onions, a whole tray full of salad tomatoes and strawberries: anything the supermarkets can't sell any more because it's reached the 'best by' date or it's reached the 'use by' date.\n\n\"It's a legal issue for 'use by' - you cannot sell something that's reached its use by date. 'Best by' is only a recommendation - you judge it by looking at it and checking it.\n\n\"That's the sort of stuff the supermarkets won't sell but we can make use of it in cooking or in people taking it away.\"\n\nThe project sorts the food and makes packages for collection on Mondays and Fridays.\n\nIts initial purpose was to reduce food waste, but since starting, Ms Rowe has seen how the food parcels have been meeting a social need.\n\nPeople have been queuing to collect their food parcel\n\n\"Something that's deeply shocked me is the amount of people that are struggling,\" she said.\n\n\"They're on your doorstep - people who are working as well. They're having to make a choice between putting fuel in the car and putting the heating on and putting food on the table. It's overwhelming.\"\n\nThe project is different from a food bank in that you do not need a referral to pick up a parcel and there is no limit to how many times you can visit.\n\nAndy from Newtown collects food parcels from the project mainly to reduce waste, adding: \"For us, it's environmental (reasons), but it's also about the cost of living.\n\n\"Because the cost of living is going up because of the pandemic. But to me personally, it's for the environment as well because I hate to see waste.\"\n\nSeba said the project has made her feel a part of her new community\n\nSeba, a refugee from Syria who has lived in Newtown for five years, said collecting food from the project made her feel part of the community.\n\nShe said: \"It's a new project, it's very useful. Just to look after us, you know, we are refugees, and we feel somebody cares about us.\"\n\nArfon, a pensioner who has recently been in hospital and collects food to avoid crowded places, said: \"I've just come out of hospital so I don't want to mix too much with people in the shops. Also, I'm on a pension so this helps a lot, food seems to be getting more expensive every day.\"\n\nThe food is what supermarkets can no longer sell\n\nAs well as being given to individuals, the surplus food also goes into meals made by the Newtown Community Cafe.\n\nPre-Covid, the cafe would prepare a three-course meal for people at a local church - but since the pandemic started the food has been delivered to peoples' homes, with 60 sent out in the week before Christmas.\n\nMs Rowe hopes it continues to grow, and she said: \"I'd love to see this rolled out across Wales, with more and more towns and cities getting involved in doing this.\n\n\"Just think how much of a saving we could make on CO2, and also food going into bellies, not bins.\"", "Car burning has become a common event in cities across France during New Years Eve (file photo)\n\nA total of 874 cars have been set alight during New Year's Eve celebrations in France, police say.\n\nHowever, the interior ministry said the number was much lower than in 2019. Authorities also reported a rise in the number of people stopped and detained.\n\nA curfew to tackle Covid-19 meant no significant disruption took place this time last year.\n\nCar burning has effectively become an annual event in French suburbs since riots in 2005 in several cities.\n\nSome 95,000 police and gendarmes were mobilised during recent New Year's celebrations, French media report - including 32,000 firefighters and security personnel.\n\nIn Paris, where face masks have been made compulsory again, 779 people were fined for not wearing a mask.\n\nWhile restrictions have been partially lifted in France, more rules will come into place this month due to concerns for the Omicron variant.\n\nFrom 3 January, public gatherings will be limited to 2,000 people for indoor events, and remote working will become compulsory for those who are able to.", "Prof Chris Whitty and Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, who became household names during the Covid-19 pandemic, have been knighted in the New Year Honours list.\n\nBoth men - who will now have \"Sir\" before their name - have regularly briefed the nation from Downing Street.\n\nDr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, and Dr June Raine, head of the vaccines regulator MHRA, are both made dames.\n\nAnd Tony Blair is knighted, being appointed to the Order of the Garter.\n\nUnlike the main New Year Honours list, which is advised on by the prime minister's office, the Order of the Garter is a royal appointment.\n\nThe former prime minister said it was \"an immense honour\" and he was \"deeply grateful to Her Majesty the Queen\".\n\nOn the main list, actresses Joanna Lumley and Vanessa Redgrave are made dames.\n\nIn sport, husband and wife Jason and Laura Kenny are made a knight and a dame for services to cycling, while Jody Cundy - who has won multiple Paralympic golds in swimming and cycling - is appointed CBE.\n\nTom Daley, who won Olympic gold in Tokyo in the summer, is appointed OBE for services to \"diving, LGBTQ+ rights and charity\". His diving partner and fellow gold medallist, Matty Lee, gets an MBE.\n\nDaley said he felt his honour came with a responsibility to \"make the whole Commonwealth a better place for LGBT people\".\n\nSwimmer Adam Peaty and gymnast Max Whitlock also become OBEs, while shock US Open winner Emma Raducanu is appointed MBE.\n\nHusband and wife Dame Laura Kenny and Sir Jason Kenny, Emma Raducanu MBE, and Tom Daley OBE\n\nJournalist Trevor Phillips is knighted for services to equality and human rights while \"Money Saving Expert\" Martin Lewis is appointed CBE for services to broadcasting and consumer rights.\n\nJune Brown - the 94-year-old actress who played Dot Cotton in EastEnders - is appointed OBE, as is Coronation Street actor Bill Roache, who plays Ken Barlow.\n\nKatie Piper is appointed OBE for her work with burns victims; Kate Garraway is made an MBE for services to broadcasting, journalism, and charity; and Spice Girl Melanie Brown is appointed MBE for her work with vulnerable women.\n\nThe two highest honours go to the former Labour MP for Birkenhead, Lord Field, and Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Sir Paul Nurse. They become Companions of Honour, where membership is limited to 65 people.\n\nActor Daniel Craig is made a companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, for services to film and theatre. It is generally awarded for work in a foreign country - James Bond, who Craig plays in the film franchise, was fictionally given the same honour.\n\nMeanwhile, 12-year-old Max Woosey - who has slept in a tent for more than 600 nights in a row to raise £700,000 (and counting) for North Devon Hospice - is awarded a British Empire Medal.\n\nAnd Tobias Weller - an 11-year-old with cerebral palsy and autism - is also given a BEM for his charity fundraising. Although children have won BEMs before, Tobias is thought to be the youngest ever recipient.\n\nThe oldest person on this year's list is 102-year-old magician Henry Lewis from London, appointed MBE for his work with the Magic Circle.\n\nIn total, more than 1,200 people are on the main UK New Year Honours list, which ranges from the Companion of Honour and the Order of the Bath, through knighthoods and damehoods, to CBEs, OBEs, MBEs, and the BEM - read more about the system here.\n\nIn total, 15.1% of recipients are from an ethnic minority background, which the government said made it \"for the fourth time running, the most ethnically diverse honours list to date\". In total, 47.9% of recipients are women.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Max Woosey has braved snow, rain and wind in his tent\n\nProf Whitty - now Sir Chris - is the chief medical officer for England and the UK government's chief medical adviser. He has appeared at Downing Street news conferences since March 2020, as well as fronting TV campaigns about Covid-19.\n\nHe is also a practising NHS consultant at London hospitals, and represents the UK on the executive board of the World Health Organization.\n\nProf Van-Tam has been the deputy chief medical officer for England since 2017, and has captured the public's imagination with his vivid metaphors at news conferences.\n\nIn late 2020 - while describing the early stages of the pandemic - he said \"it's clear the away team gave us an absolute battering\".\n\nA year later, in November 2021, he warned \"the final whistle hasn't blown\" in the pandemic, but did predict we were in \"half time of extra time\".\n\n\"I love metaphors,\" he told the BBC in 2020. \"I think they bring complex stories to life for people.\"\n\nThe government's chief scientific adviser Prof Sir Patrick Vallance - who was knighted in the 2019 New Year Honours - is given a higher honour, being made a knight commander of the Order of the Bath.\n\nThat's the same rank as Prof Whitty, who was previously a commander of the Order of the Bath. Prof Van-Tam is a regular \"knight bachelor\" - but he, Prof Vallance, and Prof Whitty, will all have the title \"Sir\".\n\nThe chief medical officer for Wales, Dr Frank Atherton, is made a knight, as is Prof Gregor Smith, the chief medical officer for Scotland. Emily Lawson, who has led England's vaccination deployment, becomes a dame. Northern Ireland's health chief, Richard Pengelly, becomes a companion of the Order of the Bath.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prof Jonathan Van-Tam used a lengthy football analogy to explain the significance of vaccines in December 2020\n\nAs always in an Olympic and Paralympic year, a number of athletes make the New Year Honours list.\n\nParalympians Kadeena Cox, Hannah Cockroft, and Hannah Russell are appointed OBE - while Last Leg presenter Adam Hills is made an MBE for services to Paralympic sport and disability awareness.\n\nHannah Mills is appointed OBE for services to sailing and the environment, while Jonathan Brownlee - who, like Mills, won Olympic gold in Japan - is appointed MBE. His brother Alistair, who won gold in 2012 and 2016, already has the same honour.\n\nIn football, Chelsea women's manager Emma Hayes is appointed OBE, while England men's assistant manager Steve Holland becomes an MBE after his side reached the Euro 2020 final.\n\nManager Gareth Southgate was appointed OBE in the New Year Honours list for 2019.\n\nIn entertainment, filmmaker Horace Ové - perhaps best known for his 1976 film Pressure, about black people growing up in Britain - is knighted.\n\nBarbara Broccoli, producer on the James Bond films, is appointed CBE, as is her half-brother - and fellow Bond producer - Michael G Wilson.\n\nThe director Paul Greengrass - appointed CBE - told the BBC he was \"very honoured\" and had been \"lucky to spend my life working in this wonderful industry\".\n\nBernie Taupin, best known as Sir Elton John's lyricist, becomes a CBE, as does the novelist Anthony Horowitz. Ashley Banjo - who came to fame on Britain's Got Talent - is appointed MBE for services to dance.\n\nMeanwhile, June Brown and Bill Roache - aka Dot Cotton and Ken Barlow - are not the only soap stars to be recognised.\n\nCoronation Street's Cherylee Houston and EastEnders' Nitin Ganatra are appointed MBE and OBE respectively.\n• None How does the honours system work?", "Further Covid restrictions in England must be an \"absolute last resort\", Health Secretary Sajid Javid has said, despite rising case numbers in the UK.\n\nWriting in the Daily Mail, Mr Javid said the UK must look to \"live alongside\" coronavirus in 2022.\n\nThe number of people in intensive care was not following the same trajectory as this time last year, he said.\n\nBut he warned there would be a big increase in the number of people needing NHS care in the next month.\n\nThis is \"likely to test the limits\" of NHS capacity more than a typical winter, he said.\n\nMeanwhile, Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers which represents NHS trusts, said hospitalisations with Covid-19 were now increasing across the country, following the pattern seen in London.\n\nHe said people still did not know what would happen next and there were some worries about the impact of intergenerational mixing over the Christmas period.\n\nMatthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health service organisations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said the next few weeks would be \"very tough\".\n\nOn Friday UK daily Covid cases reached another record high of 189,846.\n\nNew Year's Eve celebrations were scaled back across much of the UK as the more infectious Omicron variant continues to drive up cases.\n\nEngland is currently under the government's Plan B restrictions which mean face coverings are compulsory in most indoor venues and on public transport, while people should work from home if they can.\n\nThe government resisted calls to impose new regulations in England in the run-up to the new year, diverging from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where tighter rules are now in place for pubs, bars and restaurants.\n\nMr Javid said England had \"welcomed in 2022 with some of the least restrictive measures in Europe\".\n\nHe said: \"Curbs on our freedom must be an absolute last resort and the British people rightly expect us to do everything in our power to avert them.\n\n\"Since I came into this role six months ago, I've also been acutely conscious of the enormous health, social and economic costs of lockdowns.\n\n\"So I've been determined that we must give ourselves the best chance of living alongside the virus and avoiding strict measures in the future.\"\n\nThere have been shortages of lateral flow tests across the country\n\nBut Mr Javid said the pandemic was \"far from over\".\n\nIt was inevitable there would be a big increase in Covid patients requiring NHS treatment over the next month, he said, because of the lag between infections and hospital admissions.\n\nFriday's coronavirus figures showed daily hospital admissions were up to 1,915, as of 27 December, compared with 1,506 the previous day.\n\nThere was also a further 203 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nThe problem facing the government is that the window to suppress the peak with restrictions may already have passed.\n\nModelling produced for government by Warwick University suggests even a return to lockdown with only schools open has virtually no impact on hospitalisations now.\n\nTo have had a significant impact, measures would need to have been introduced on Boxing Day or a week earlier.\n\nBut even then the argument for them was unclear - in both scenarios infections and hospitalisations rebound once restrictions are lifted. Largely all it achieves is delaying and spreading out illness.\n\nThat could have been of benefit by evening out the pressure on the NHS.\n\nBut there is, of course, the wider costs of restrictions to society, the economy and mental health to factor in.\n\nSome say it would also have bought you time to carry out more vaccinations, but with nine in 10 of the most vulnerable boosted and evidence protection wanes over time this may actually be the point in time when we have the most immunity across the population.\n\nThere are no simple solutions to this Omicron wave - and the options that the government did have may well have gone.\n\nMr Hopson said at the beginning of last week there had been concern from London trusts about the daily growth in hospitalisations, which was around 8%, but that had come down to 4% to 5% on Friday and Saturday.\n\n\"We are still not seeing the large numbers of severely ill older people that we have seen in previous peaks\", he said, adding that intensive care occupancy was broadly stable.\n\nThe sheer volume of patients, combined with Covid-related staff absences across the health sector, would become the \"biggest concern\" if sustained, Mr Hopson said.\n\nMatthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said that he hoped people had \"a great time\" on New Year's Eve but said it was important not to be complacent.\n\n\"I understand how much people want things to return to normal and I'm confident that, as this year progresses, we will be able to do that.\n\n\"We all hope that 2022 is the year in which coronavirus just becomes an illness that we live with, not an illness that dominates our lives.\n\n\"But you can have the optimism but still recognise that the next few weeks are going to be very tough, and we need to do whatever is necessary to get us through these next few weeks,\" he said.\n\nThe country had to press on with the booster programme, he said, but warned that NHS leaders may have to make tough decisions - which could include stopping visitors to hospitals.\n\nA leading statistician who advises the government said the UK's daily Covid-19 cases could be closer to 500,000 due to the testing system being overstretched and reinfections not being counted in the government data.\n\nProf Sir David Spiegelhalter of the University of Cambridge told the BBC: \"This is a huge, unprecedented wave of infection and very daunting.\"\n\nBut he added that deaths were \"not yet going up\" and that the country could be \"fairly optimistic\" about avoiding the kind of pressures seen during the last winter wave.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nUS Open champion Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from the first WTA tournament of the season in Melbourne.\n\nThe 19-year-old Briton recently came out of isolation after contracting Covid-19 in Abu Dhabi before Christmas.\n\nRaducanu was due to compete in the Melbourne Summer Set, an Australian Open warm-up event set to run from 3-9 January.\n\nShe is expected to play in Sydney in the week before the Australian Open starts on 17 January.\n\n\"The timing to compete in the first Melbourne event this week is too soon for me, having just returned from isolation,\" Raducanu said.\n\nThe British number one and world number 19 was made an MBE in the New Year Honours list.\n• None Where in the world is Gotham City and Hogwarts? Check out the map that contains all our favourite fictional places\n• None 5 new things to learn in 2022: Fun and healthy challenges to inspire a new you", "Close contacts who are fully-vaccinated are no longer required to isolate until receiving a PCR result\n\nNew Covid-19 testing measures have been put in place to cope with the rise in demand for PCR tests due to the Omicron variant.\n\nThe Public Health Agency (PHA) has urged members of the public to only book PCR tests when necessary.\n\nFully-vaccinated people identified as close contacts are now advised to take daily lateral flow tests for 10 days following their exposure to the virus.\n\nThey should only book a PCR if a lateral flow is positive.\n\nUnvaccinated people will have to continue to self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nHowever, the PHA has stressed that those displaying symptoms should book a PCR test as soon as possible.\n\nPreviously, close contacts of a confirmed case of Covid-19 were told to self-isolate and get a PCR test, even if fully vaccinated.\n\nPCR tests have been taken by record numbers of people in Northern Ireland this week, according to the PHA.\n\nThe agency said more than 21,000 tests were carried out on 27 December alone.\n\nRecently people have been finding it difficult to secure an in-person PCR slot using the UK's official booking website.\n\nDemand for lateral flow tests has quadrupled in some cases, according to Community Pharmacy NI\n\nThe PHA's deputy director of public health said the testing model was being adapted to make sure \"people with symptoms can get tested in a timely way for the next fortnight\".\n\n\"As Omicron continues to spread in Northern Ireland, we are seeing the expected rapid increase in the number of people going for PCR testing,\" said Dr Bríd Farrell.\n\n\"While this shows that people are taking the issue seriously, and we thank them for that, it is also important that we protect the testing system so that those who need to be tested by PCR can get it.\"\n\nChildren under five years of age are no longer required to take a PCR test - even if they have symptoms like a cough or temperature - unless advised to by a doctor.\n\nThe PHA has encouraged parents to instead carry out a lateral flow test on children, and to only seek a PCR test if the lateral flow returns a positive result.\n\nLateral flow tests show results in 20 to 30 minutes, while PCR test swabs must be sent to a lab for analysis.\n\nThe changes in the testing system, which came into effect at midday, come as 14 more Covid-19-related deaths were recorded in Northern Ireland by the Department of Health on Wednesday.\n\nThe deaths occurred in the period between midnight on 23 December and midnight on 28 December.\n\nDuring that time, the department reported there had been 22,972 positive cases of coronavirus.\n\nThis was more than double the 11,348 cases reported during the comparable five-day period the previous week.\n\nEarlier, the chief executive of Community Pharmacy NI called on the Department of Health to help ramp up the supply of Covid-19 tests to pharmacies.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Foyle, Gerard Greene said demand for lateral flow tests had outstripped supply but pharmacies in Northern Ireland would be replenished with stock in the coming days.\n\nThe Department of Health recommends people take regular rapid lateral flow tests twice-weekly\n\nHe said that in some cases demand for tests had quadrupled in line with the current public health messaging around self-isolation and testing.\n\nThe Department of Health recommends people take regular rapid lateral flow tests twice-weekly, particularly if they are planning to mix with others outside of their household.\n\nPeople who test positive in Northern Ireland are required to self-isolate for at least 10 days from when their symptoms started.\n\nNorthern Ireland's vaccination centres, for first, second and booster jabs, have remained open during the Christmas period.\n\nThe Western Health Trust has announced it is temporarily suspending visiting on all its sites and facilities, which include Altnagelvin Area Hospital and the South West Acute Hospital.\n\nThe suspension will apply from midnight and is to be reviewed on Friday.\n\nThe trust said it had taken the decision due to continued pressures on its hospitals and care facilities, and the general increase in Covid transmission in the community.\n\nSome theatres have chosen to cancel performances due to Covid-19\n\nMeanwhile, some theatres in Northern Ireland cancelled their remaining Christmas performances due to Covid-19.\n\nTheatre companies said more financial support is needed from the executive to pay staff wages after cancellations.\n\nThe MAC theatre in Belfast said it took the decision not go ahead with its remaining shows of The Untold Truth of Captain Hook.\n\nThe theatre said it would be closed until 5 January due to the impact of Covid-19.\n\nThe Waterfront Hall pulled all remaining performances of its pantomime Cinderella and adult pantomime Cinder on Tinder.\n\nProducer Liam McMullan, from GBL Productions, said he has had to cancel 30 performances with about 350 people booked in per show.\n\nThe cast performed 37 shows before the cancellation and Mr McMullan said it cost between £50,000 and £70,000 to put on a production.\n\nMeanwhile, a hotel in County Fermanagh has chosen to implement \"a short-term circuit breaker closure due to the increasing levels of Covid-19 within the region\".\n\nLough Erne Resort general manager Joanne Walsh said while she knew people would be disappointed, it was the responsible thing to do for the health and wellbeing of its guests and staff.\n\nThe facility plans to reopen fully on 5 January.\n\nThe list of Health Trust vaccination clinics is available on Trust websites at these links.\n\nMore details of vaccinating pharmacies are available here:", "Mourners line the route of Peter McNamee's funeral on Saturday\n\nThe deaths of three young men in a road crash in County Tyrone have \"cast a dark cloud\" over the community, mourners have been told.\n\nNathan Corrigan, Peter Finnegan and Peter McNamee died in a crash involving a car and a lorry on the A5 Omagh Road in Garvaghy on Monday.\n\nThe funerals of Mr Finnegan and Mr McNamee took place on New Year's Day.\n\nMonsignor Colum Curry told mourners at Mr McNamee's funeral in Beragh that the community had been left stunned.\n\n\"This terrible tragedy has cast a dark cloud over much of Tyrone and far beyond and it has left people shocked and bewildered and all of that is compounded even more because of the time of year,\" he said.\n\n\"This is not the way for any family to begin a new year.\"\n\nHe said the young man had enjoyed life to the full.\n\n\"We are grateful for the life he did have, grateful for the way he lived that life and grateful for the tremendous joy and fun that he brought into people's lives.\n\n\"His family and his many friends have a wealth of lovely memories to treasure.\"\n\nPeter McNamee (left), Peter Finnegan (centre) and Nathan Corrigan (right) died in the two-vehicle crash on Monday\n\nThe men, who were all in their 20s, died at the scene of the crash.\n\nA fourth man, also in his 20s, was taken to hospital for treatment to serious injuries.\n\nMourners at the funeral of Peter Finnegan at St Patrick's Church in Clogher were told there was a \"deep void\" in the lives of his parents following the crash.\n\nPolice at the scene of the crash\n\n\"The experience of death is always disturbing. But the death of a young person, in the prime of life, is overwhelming in its effects,\" Fr Noel McGahan said.\n\nGAA clubs in County Tyrone also offered their condolences to family and friends affected by the accident.\n\nBeragh GAA club said both Nathan Corrigan and Peter McNamee were past youth members.\n\n\"Words are hard to find to express the sadness of the local community about the heart-breaking events of Monday morning,\" the club said.\n\nGoalkeeper Niall Morgan said it was a \"sobering moment\" when the players were re-routed on their way to the complex after the collision.", "Triple Paralympic champion Aled Sion Davies has been appointed an OBE in the Queen's New Years Honours list for his services to athletics.\n\nDavies won gold at his third successive games with success in the F63 shot put at Tokyo 2020, which had been delayed a year because of the pandemic.\n\nDavies had been awarded an MBE in 2013.", "The West of England, Lincolnshire and London have had the warmest weather\n\nBritain has seen its hottest New Year's Eve ever with temperatures reaching 15.8C (60.4F) in the west of England, the Met Office has said.\n\nThe previous record of 14.8C (58.6F) in Colwyn Bay, Wales, in 2011 was toppled this afternoon in Somerset.\n\nTemperatures will continue to rise across England before dropping at night as the UK rings in 2022.\n\nAreas of southern and eastern England including the West Country and London will see the mildest weather.\n\nThe Met Office said the extremely mild spell was driven by a flow of warm, moist air from the Canary Islands.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Met Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMet Office spokesperson Stephen Dixon said the first reading taken at Ryehill in East Yorkshire at 11:00 GMT had \"provisionally broken the New Year's Eve record\".\n\n\"Our station at Ryehill, a small village in East Yorkshire has recorded 14.9C (58.8F) today, which tops the previous record of 14.8C (58.6F).\"\n\nThat figure has since risen to 15.8C (60.4F) and was last recorded at the Met Office's station in Merryfield in southwest Somerset.\n\nThe Met Office said the weather was forecast to get cooler from Tuesday, potentially bringing wintry showers and frosts.\n\nForget your fleece and coat - it's liberating to take a pleasant New Year's Eve stroll in just your T-shirt.\n\nBut it doesn't bode well for the future.\n\nThe Met Office say the UK's record temperatures have all been elevated by manmade climate change which has raised temperatures globally by 1.1C.\n\nCold records are still being broken, as in the Beast from the East storm in 2018.\n\nBut the Met Office say warm weather records are being broken nine times more frequently - a clear sign of an over-heating planet.\n\nThe winter wildfires in Colorado are even arguably more alarming than unseasonal warmth in the UK.\n\nIt's too soon to say what role human-driven climate change may have played in the disaster - but it's the latest episode of regular weather patterns being disrupted.\n\nMeanwhile, different regions of Alaska are experiencing record high and low temperatures at the same time.\n\nClimate scientists warn that we can expect many more extremes as the planet continues to heat. And attempts to reduce emissions have been undermined by several factors, including President Biden's struggle with climate policies in the USA.\n\nThe highest UK daytime temperature recorded on New Year's Day is 15.6C (60F) in Bude, Cornwall, in 1916.\n\nMet Office chief forecaster Steve Ramsdale said: \"The current weather pattern is bringing extremely mild conditions to the UK - perhaps reaching around 16.0C (60.8F) in some parts.\n\n\"We also expect some very mild overnight temperatures as well with minimum temperature records being broken in places.\"\n\nThe Met Office added the warm spell has the potential to challenge records for New Year's Day, creating the unusual situation of one weather system perhaps breaking weather records for two days in separate calendar years.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A search and rescue dog that went missing over Christmas is recovering well in front of the fire at her Norfolk home after an extensive six-day search.\n\nJuno, a short-haired German pointer, is used to tracking down missing people with Norfolk Lowland Search and Rescue, rather than being the subject of a rescue.\n\nShe was with owner Ian Danks, 43, when she went missing in Fritton Wood, near Gorleston-on-Sea, on 21 December.\n\n\"I'm so humbled by all of the people that offered their support and then came out and helped search for Juno,\" said Mr Danks.\n\n\"Her recovery is going really well... and she's starting to get fan mail.\"", "US President Joe Biden has led a flood of tributes to trailblazing actress and Golden Girls star Betty White, who has died at the age of 99.\n\nCalling her a \"lovely lady\", Mr Biden told reporters: \"99 years old - as my mother would say, God love her!\"\n\nTributes also poured in from people in the entertainment industry including Sandra Bullock, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Reynolds.\n\n\"The world looks very different now,\" tweeted Reynolds about his co-star in the 2009 film The Proposal and the woman whom he jokingly referred to in media interviews as his \"ex-girlfriend\".\n\n\"She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough,\" he continued. \"We'll miss you, Betty.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ryan Reynolds This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I've heard Ryan can't get over his thing for me,\" White had deadpanned to People Magazine for its December issue, \"but Robert Redford is The One.\"\n\nWhite's most famous role was as the naive-but-loveable Rose Nylund in the sitcom The Golden Girls in the 1980s and 90s. The show centred on the friendship of four women sharing a home in Miami and won many awards.\n\nIn 2010, she rounded off a decades long career by becoming the oldest person to host Saturday Night Live.\n\nFive years later, she was honoured with a lifetime achievement Emmy Award - her eighth Emmy in total.\n\nOther US stars took to Twitter to send their condolences and praise her many comedic acting roles.\n\n\"A great loss to us all. We shall miss her dearly,\" tweeted Star Trek actor George Takei.\n\n\"I grew up watching and being delighted by her. She was playful and daring and smart,\" wrote Will & Grace actress Debra Messing, also calling White \"a national treasure\".\n\n\"What an exceptional life,\" posted talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. \"I'm grateful for every second I got to spend with Betty White.\"\n\nSteve Martin recalled a chance encounter when he was opening in 1974 for musician Linda Ronstadt in LA in a tweet to commemorate her 100th birthday.\n\nHe described feeling \"elated\" after White told him that she and her husband Allen Ludden came to see him \"because we heard you were funny\".\n\nWhite also received praise online from actors Catherine Zeta-Jones, Viola Davis and Henry Winkler, as well as comedians Seth Meyers and Conan O'Brien.\n\n\"Rest in peace #bettywhite, our Golden Girl, our friend, and our neighbor,\" tweeted Walt Disney executive chairman Bob Iger.\n\n\"Your wit, your charm, your warmth and your smile will always be with us.\"\n\n\"When I was a kid, I watched 'Golden Girls' with my grandmother and I fell in love with Betty White,\" said actor Jennifer Love Hewitt, who starred in a 2011 Hallmark movie with White.\n\nShe described how she had kept in touch with her \"idol\" in the years since, often going out for pizza and drinks together.\n\n\"She was everything that you wanted her to be and more,\" said Love Hewitt in an emotional video.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by U.S. Army This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 2 by U.S. Army\n\nThe Martin Luther King Jr Center also tweeted praise for her, saying that she worked to support an African-American tap dancer in 1954.\n\nIn response to criticism, she gave him \"even more airtime,\" the civil rights organisation tweeted.\n\nThe US Army also tweeted their respects, writing on Twitter: \"Not only was she an amazing actress, she also served during WWII as a member of the American Women's Voluntary Services.\n\n\"A true legend on and off the screen.\"\n• None Betty White: The Golden Girl with the heart of gold", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe funeral mass for South African anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has taken place at the Anglican cathedral in Cape Town.\n\nTutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who helped end the racist regime in South Africa, died last Sunday aged 90.\n\nIn his eulogy, President Cyril Ramaphosa described Tutu as \"the spiritual father of our new nation\".\n\nTutu had insisted there should be no \"lavish spending\" on the funeral. He wanted \"the cheapest available coffin\".\n\nFamily, friends, clergy and politicians were among those who gathered at St George's Cathedral for Saturday's service, which had limited numbers because of coronavirus restrictions. Tutu's widow Nomalizo Leah sat in a wheelchair at the front of the congregation wearing a purple shawl - the colour of her late husband's clerical robes.\n\nTutu insisted that he be given \"the cheapest available coffin\"\n\nTutu was one of the driving forces behind the movement to end the policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948 until 1991.\n\nIn the main eulogy at the official state funeral on Saturday, Mr Ramaphosa described the archbishop as a \"crusader in the struggle for freedom, for justice, for equality and for peace. Not only in South Africa… but around the world as well\".\n\n\"If we are to understand a global icon to be someone of great moral stature, of exceptional qualities, and of service to humanity there can be no doubt that it refers to the man we're laying to rest today,\" he said.\n\nSaturday's funeral was given a special status, usually designated for presidents and very important people.\n\nTutu had requested that the only flowers in the cathedral should be a \"bouquet of carnations from his family\", according to the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.\n\nHis ashes are to be interred behind the pulpit at St George's Cathedral - the Anglican diocese he served as Archbishop for 35 years.\n\nIt was earlier revealed that Tutu is to be aquamated - a process using water that is described as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation.\n\nEven though only 100 invited guests physically attended Archbishop Desmond Tutu's funeral service at the St George's cathedral, many turned up to honour him by watching proceedings from public viewing areas. Most were visibly emotional.\n\nOne man described his attendance of Tutu's funeral as a full-circle moment because he also witnessed the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and watched Tutu and Mandela hold hands with their fists in the air as South Africa became a democracy.\n\nThe last of South Africa's well-known freedom fighters leaves behind a difficult task for the leaders of the nation: to rid the country of corruption and racial divisions and lead the way forward, in the spirit of the moral compass which was the guiding force of Tutu's leadership.\n\nIn a video message at the mass, the Archbishop of Canterbury described how Tutu \"lit up the world\". He said that his paying tribute to Tutu was \"like a mouse giving a tribute to an elephant\".\n\nTutu's daughter said the outpouring of love for her father had \"warmed the cockles of our hearts\".\n\n\"Because we shared him with the world, you share part of the love you held for him with us,\" she said.\n\nMany people in Cape Town turned up to file past the archbishop's coffin as it lay in state.\n\nOne man, Wally Mdluli, hitchhiked more than 1,000km (620 miles) across the country from Bloemfontein to Cape Town - enlisting the help of family and friends to pay for some of the trip and even sleeping at a petrol station on the way.\n\n\"I feel fulfilled after I saw the coffin. It's like his spirit is in me,\" he told the BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Cape Town.\n\nTutu used his high profile to speak out against the oppression of black people in his home country, always saying his motives were religious and not political.\n\nAfter Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994, Tutu was appointed by him to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to investigate crimes committed by both white and black people during the apartheid era.\n\nTutu was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984 for his role in the struggle to abolish the apartheid system.\n\nHe was also credited with coining the term Rainbow Nation to describe the ethnic mix of post-apartheid South Africa, but in his latter years he expressed regret that the nation had not coalesced in the way in which he had dreamt.", "Flowers have been left near the scene of the crash\n\nA 14-year-old girl has died after being hit by a car on New Year's Eve.\n\nWest Midlands Police said the girl was struck by a grey Mercedes near Rowley Regis railway station, in Sandwell, at about 16:45 GMT.\n\nParamedics attended the scene but the girl was pronounced dead at the scene about 45 minutes later, police said.\n\nThe driver, a 39-year-old man, stopped and was arrested on suspicion of causing death by driving while under the influence of drugs.\n\nPolice said officers had contacted the girl's family and a specialist officer would be deployed to offer them support.\n\nSgt Julie Lyman said: \"This is a truly awful way to start the new year and my heart goes out to the girl's family and friends.\"\n\nOfficers have appealed for witnesses to the collision which happened near the railway station\n\nShe added the investigation was in its early stages and urged people not to speculate online about what happened.\n\nOfficers have appealed for witnesses to the crash, which happened in Station Road, and for anyone with dashcam footage of the collision to come forward.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Our look back includes Helen McCrory, “one of the great actors of her generation”; Una Stubbs, memorable from Summer Holiday to Sherlock via Give Us A Clue; Johnny Briggs who played Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street; and John Challis, aka Boycie, from classic comedy Only Fools and Horses.\n\nKnown for her long and acclaimed career on stage, film and television, Helen McCrory was described by the National Theatre’s artistic director Rufus Norris as “unquestionably one of the great actors of her generation”. She played Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders and Narcissa Malfoy in three Harry Potter films. Her husband, the actor Damian Lewis, paid tribute to her “fearlessness, wit, curiosity, talent and beauty”.\n\nTill Death Us Do Part, Worzel Gummidge and Sherlock actress\n\nA much-loved team captain on ITVs long-running game show Give Us A Clue - opposite Lionel Blair, who also died earlier this year - Una Stubbs found fame in Cliff Richard’s 1963 film Summer Holiday. She went on to star in some of the best-loved shows on British TV.\n\nHer last major role was in the BBC drama Sherlock as landlady Mrs Hudson. “Just about the kindest, nicest, funniest person you could meet,” wrote the show’s creator, Steven Moffat, in tribute. “I don’t know how anyone even starts summing up that career - Till Death Us Do Part, Fawlty Towers, the incomparable Aunt Sally in Worzel Gummidge... and, of course, the irreplaceable heart and soul of Sherlock.”\n\nUpstairs, Downstairs and A Bit of a Do actress\n\nNicola Pagett was best known for playing Elizabeth Bellamy, the rebellious daughter of Richard and Lady Marjorie, in 1970s TV series Upstairs, Downstairs. She landed the title role in the BBC’s 10-episode 1977 mini-series Anna Karenina. Performances in Harold Pinter plays, notably 1985’s Old Times, also defined her 30-year stage and screen career - as did starring alongside David Jason in 1989’s ITV comedy drama A Bit of a Do.\n\nThe TV and film actress was best known for her lead role - alongside Rula Lenska and Julie Covington - in the Bafta-winning 1970s ITV series Rock Follies. The show followed the fictional female rock band the Little Ladies. In addition to numerous screen appearances, Charlotte Cornwell was also a star of stage - including spells with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Her half-brother was the spy author, John le Carré.\n\nWidely regarded as one of the country's finest contemporary classical actors, Sir Antony Sher had a long association with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Raised in South Africa, he had elocution classes in his early teens, which helped him overcome the shyness he had felt as a boy. He played many of the great Shakespearean roles, from King Lear to Shylock - but it was his portrayal of Richard III as a villainous hunchback on crutches which won him an Olivier Award in 1985.\n\nPlayed dad Martin Goodman in the popular Channel 4 comedy Friday Night Dinner. The show’s creator, Robert Popper, described him as “a deeply clever, funny, intelligent, kind man” who also had “the common touch”. A familiar face elsewhere on stage and screen, Paul Ritter also starred in Sky drama Chernobyl and played Eldred Worple in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. His other TV credits included Vera, Belgravia, Cold Feet and No Offence.\n\nPlayed unscrupulous second-hand car dealer Terrance Aubrey Boyce - better known as Boycie - in BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. Co-star Sir David Jason described John Challis as “a wonderful actor” and “a gentleman in the true sense of the word”. Boycie was so popular with viewers that he and his long-suffering wife Marlene ended up in their own spin-off show - The Green Green Grass - when Only Fools and Horses ended its long run. More recently, John Challis played Monty Staines in the ITV show Benidorm.\n\nJohnny Briggs played Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street for 30 years. Baldwin’s affair with Deidre Barlow, played by Anne Kirkbride - and his feud with her husband Ken, played by William Roache - were long-running ratings hits for the show. “Mike Baldwin and Ken Barlow were arch enemies for many years, but as an actor, Johnny was impeccable, always good, and I was so fortunate to have worked with him for so many years,” said Roache in his tribute.\n\nThe biggest role of Mark Eden’s long career was playing one of Coronation Street’s most notorious villains, Alan Bradley - who came to a sticky end when he was hit by a Blackpool tram while chasing Rita Fairclough, played by Barbara Knox. “I loved this man so much,” wrote actress Sally Ann Matthews, who played his daughter Jenny, in tribute. “Thank you for being the most wonderful TV dad, teacher and friend.”\n\nGwyneth Guthrie played Mrs Mack for 20 years in the long-running soap opera Take The High Road. The series - filmed on the banks of Loch Lomond - was made by Scottish Television and ran between 1980 and 2003. Her “wonderful comic timing and dramatic flair made her beloved across the UK,” said STV’s Managing Director of Broadcast Bobby Hain.\n\nLast of the Summer Wine actor\n\nHe was best known for playing Howard in the sitcom Last of the Summer Wine - Pearl’s henpecked husband, who was always trying to hide his passionate affair with Marina. Robert Fyfe joined the long-running BBC show in 1985 and remained until its final episode in 2010.\n\nTrevor Peacock (r) with the Vicar of Dibley cast Trevor Peacock (r) with the Vicar of Dibley cast\n\nHe played the lovable but bumbling Jim Trott in the BBC comedy alongside its main star Dawn French. Parish council member Jim won viewers’ hearts with his catchphrase of “no no no no…”. Trevor Peacock was also an accomplished Shakespearean actor and a successful musician and songwriter - writing a number of pop hits performed by Herman’s Hermits, Adam Faith and Billy Fury.\n\nHe had an extensive career in theatre, TV and film but was best known for playing Ch Insp Derek Conway in The Bill from 1987 to 2002. The ITV series depicted life in a fictional police station - Sun Hill - in south London. Ben Roberts went on to appear in the 2011 film version of Jane Eyre and Tim Burton’s 2016 fantasy Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.\n\nFor a time in the late 1960s and early 70s Bernard Holley was a household name - appearing in 277 episodes of police drama Z-Cars as PC Bill Newcombe. He also played two separate roles in Doctor Who, in 1967’s The Tomb Of The Cybermen episode and The Claws Of Axos in 1971. Holley appeared in numerous other TV shows, and was also a storyteller on the BBC children’s series Jackanory.\n\nBest Exotic Marigold Hotel and The Crown actor\n\nRonald Pickup’s career break came in 1964 with a role as a physician in Doctor Who episode The Tyrant Of France. He went on to work extensively in theatre, film and TV - from telling stories on children’s programme Jackanory to playing the Archbishop of Canterbury in The Crown in 2016. In the Marigold Hotel films in 2011 and 2015, he played the role of Norman Cousins.\n\nOne of India’s earliest and most famous film stars, Dilip Kumar was “arguably the best actor Indian cinema has produced”, wrote Lord Meghnad Desai, eminent economist and Kumar’s biographer.\n\nHe performed in more than 65 films over nearly five decades. Some of the productions - Mela, Naya Daur, Ganga Jumna, Devdas and Mughal-e-Azam - were super-hits and won him legions of fans.\n\nJean-Paul Belmondo’s laconic style and roguish smile captured the imagination of French 1960s youth. He was the cool rebel of the new wave of cinema typified in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 film classic, À Bout de Souffle. He went on to become a highly bankable commercial actor, as at home in comedy as in drama. Cinema audiences at home and abroad were drawn to his charm and seeming disregard for whatever absurdities were taking place on screen. Empire magazine named him one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history.\n\nSally Ann Howes first appeared on screen aged 12, and enjoyed a career that spanned six decades. She shone as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on New York’s Broadway in 1958. Five years later she was nominated for a Tony Award for best lead actress in a musical for her work in Brigadoon. On screen, she was best known for playing the role of Truly Scrumptious - the daughter of a confectionery magnate - in the 1968 musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, opposite Dick Van Dyke.\n\nStar of The Sound of Music\n\nCanadian actor Christopher Plummer was best known for his role as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. His co-star Dame Julie Andrews said the world had lost a consummate actor and she had lost a cherished friend. In 2012, he won an Oscar for the film Beginners - and was also nominated for The Last Station in 2010 and All the Money in the World in 2018. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences - which awards the Oscars - said he had “beguiled audiences across generations”.\n\nMichael K Williams was best known for his complex portrayal of Omar Little, a gay, shotgun-toting robber of drug dealers, which helped cement The Wire’s game-changing depiction of life in the projects of Baltimore. Creator of the HBO series, David Simon, described Williams as “a fine man and a rare talent”. He was also known for playing gangster Albert “Chalky” White in the Prohibition period TV series Boardwalk Empire. Other TV credits included Lovecraft Country, The Night Of, Bessie and When They See Us.\n\nThe former fashion model became known for portraying strong African-American characters in a career that spanned seven decades. Cicely Tyson won two Emmys for her 1974 performance in the civil rights-era film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. She also became the first black woman to take on a main role, in the TV drama East Side/West Side in the 1960s.\n\nTyson turned down stereotypical roles for black women, agreeing only to play characters who were strong, positive and realistic. Paying tribute, former US first lady Michelle Obama said: “I smile knowing how many people she inspired, just like me, to walk a little taller, speak a little more freely, and live a little bit more like God intended.”\n\nGeorge Segal was Oscar-nominated for his 1966 performance alongside Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the celebrated adaptation of Edward Albee’s dark comedy-drama. He went on to play comic roles in shows like The Goldbergs and Just Shoot Me.\n\nThe actor, who developed a penchant for playing warm, everyman characters, was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2017. “I always try to find the humour and the irony in whatever character I am playing because I think of myself as a comedic actor,” Segal told filmtalk.org in 2016. “So that makes drama a lot more fun for me by not taking it so seriously.”\n\nEd Asner was best known for playing fictional TV newsman Lou Grant - first introduced in 1970 as Mary Richards’ boss in the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The character later got his own spin-off show from 1977 to 1982 - in which he became the irascible editor of the fictional Los Angeles Tribune. The role helped earn Asner seven Emmy awards across his career, a record for a male performer. In 2009, he became known to a new generation of audiences by playing elderly widower Carl Fredricksen in the animated Pixar film Up.\n\nBetty White began working as an actress and model in her teens and continued to perform well into her 90s. Celebrated and awarded for her comic acting ability, she is perhaps best known for playing the relentlessly perky Sue Ann Nivens on the Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970s - and then the naive-but-loveable Rose Nylund in sitcom The Golden Girls, about four older women living together in Miami. A committed animal activist, White joked in 2018 that she had to keep acting so she could afford to keep doing her charity work. She died weeks before her 100th birthday.\n\nOlympia Dukakis had a long and distinguished career in theatre, both as a performer and as a director - but in her 50s she starred in a series of hit film comedies, including an Oscar-winning turn as Cher’s mother in Moonstruck. That run - in the late 1980s - also included roles in Steel Magnolias, Working Girl and Look Who’s Talking. Other key roles were as a secondary school head teacher in 1995’s Mr Holland’s Opus and as a transgender landlady in the TV adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.\n\nJessica Walter was an award-winning US actress whose career spanned seven decades. She won an Emmy in the 1970s for her work on police drama Amy Prentiss - but was best known for playing the icy, sharp-tongued matriarch Lucille Bluth in the 2000s TV comedy Arrested Development. Director Ron Howard - the show’s narrator and producer - paid tribute to Walter, a “brilliant, funny, intelligent and strong” star who had delivered a “lifetime of laughs”.\n\nA prolific performer known for his stocky build, Ned Beatty was once nicknamed “the busiest actor in Hollywood”. He made his screen debut in 1972’s Deliverance, in which his character is brutally assaulted during a canoeing expedition. In 1978’s Superman he was seen as Lex Luthor’s bumbling assistant Otis, a character who returned in 1980’s Superman II. He also starred in Network, All the President’s Men and was heard as menacing teddy bear Lotso in Toy Story 3.\n\nBorn in New Jersey in 1914, Norman Lloyd began his career on stage and was a member of Orson Welles’ famed Mercury Theatre company in the 1930s. One of his earliest films was Alfred Hitchcock’s 1942 thriller Saboteur. Hitchcock cast him again in his 1945 film Spellbound and subsequently hired him to direct and produce episodes of his Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series. In the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, he played stern headmaster Mr Nolan and - for six seasons - played Dr Daniel Auschlander in the TV drama St Elsewhere.\n\n“One of the funniest people I ever met,” is how comedian Steve Martin paid tribute to the actor - who was also a familiar face on prime-time US talk shows. Charles Grodin was known for his comic roles in films such as Midnight Run and Beethoven - in which he played a short-tempered dad bedevilled by a slobbering, accident-prone St Bernard dog. In 1988, he won best actor at the 1988 Valladolid International Film Festival for his role in Midnight Run - an action-comedy with Robert De Niro.\n\nJames Michael Tyler starred as Gunther in the hugely-successful US sitcom Friends, appearing in almost 150 episodes of the series which ran from 1994 to 2004. Tyler’s much-loved character worked in the show’s coffee house - Central Perk - and had a crush on Jennifer Aniston’s character Rachel. “Thank you for the laughter you brought to the show and to all of our lives. You will be so missed,” said Aniston in tribute.\n\nHe appeared in the popular HBO series Sex and the City with its four female leads, as Stanford Blatch, talent agent and friend of Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker. Born William Garson Paszamant in New Jersey in 1964, he took on small roles in several 1980s and 90s TV series - including Cheers, Family Ties, LA Law, The X-Files and Friends. His film credits include Groundhog Day, There’s Something About Mary and Fever Pitch - the 2005 US adaptation of Nick Hornby’s football-based novel.\n\nDustin Diamond played Samuel “Screech” Powers in the popular US sitcom Saved by the Bell, about a group of high-school friends and their headmaster. It ran for four seasons from 1989 to 1993 and was a global hit.\n\nShe played Jerri Peterson in US sitcom The Parent ’Hood, which ran from 1995 to 1999 and followed the ups and downs of a middle-class black family in Harlem, New York. Suzzanne Douglas also appeared in Netflix’s When They See Us, as well as The Good Wife and NYPD Blue. In the 2015 biopic Whitney, she portrayed Cissy - the mother of singer Whitney Houston.\n\nYaphet Kotto (c) in Live and Let Die with Roger Moore as James Bond Yaphet Kotto (c) in Live and Let Die with Roger Moore as James Bond\n\nBorn in New York to a Cameroonian immigrant father and a US Army nurse, Yaphet Kotto made his professional theatre debut at the age of 19 in Othello - and later performed on Broadway in The Great White Hope. He won plaudits for his role as the first black Bond villain Dr Kananga - an evil Caribbean diplomat whose alter ego was a New York drug lord - in Live and Let Die, starring Sir Roger Moore.\n\nIn Ridley Scott’s Alien, he took the role of the space ship’s engineer Dennis Parker. His extensive list of film and TV credits also includes US TV police drama Homicide: Life on the Street and the 1980s action movies The Running Man and Midnight Run.\n\nTanya Roberts appeared with Sir Roger Moore in his final Bond film, 1985’s A View To A Kill, playing geologist Stacey Sutton. She also starred in the final series of Charlie’s Angels on TV in 1980 - joining Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd as third “Angel” Julie. She went on to play Midge Pinciotti in more than 80 episodes of sitcom That ’70s Show between 1998 and 2004.\n\nMarion Ramsey had an illustrious career on Broadway, starring in the 1978 production Eubie! - a musical about celebrated jazz pianist Eubie Blake. She also appeared in the original production of Hello, Dolly! She starred in six of the Police Academy films in the 1980s and 90s - and was adored by fans for her portrayal of the squeaky-voiced Officer Laverne Hooks.\n\nRoger Michell worked as an assistant director at London’s Royal Court Theatre before going on to become resident director at the Royal Shakespeare Company. His 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion won a Bafta for best single drama - and he soon caught the eye of producer Richard Curtis, who asked him to direct Notting Hill.\n\nThe romantic comedy, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, became one of the highest-grossing British films of all time. “I am surprised and delighted that 20 years on people are still talking about it and celebrating it,” he said in an interview in 2020.\n\nRichard Donner started in US television in the early 1960s, on series including The Twilight Zone and spy thriller The Man From Uncle - but it wasn’t until the mid-1970s that he made his mark on Hollywood. His work on 1978’s Superman, starring Christopher Reeve, is often regarded as the first modern superhero film.\n\nIn 1985, Donner directed and produced comedy cult classic The Goonies, which tells the story of a group of children hunting for a hidden treasure. “Being in his circle was akin to hanging out with your favourite coach, smartest professor, fiercest motivator, most endearing friend, staunchest ally, and - of course - the greatest Goonie of all,” said director Steven Spielberg in tribute.\n\nBorn in Ukraine in 1979, Halyna Hutchins grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle. After working on documentaries in the UK, she moved to Los Angeles and began working her way up in Hollywood. American Cinematographer magazine named her one of its rising stars in 2019. Hutchins died after being shot on the set of the film, Rust, where she had been working as director of photography.\n\n“Damn, we have lost another giant!” mourned Oscar-winner Spike Lee in his tribute to the pioneering US filmmaker. In 1967, Melvin Van Peebles’ first feature-length film - The Story of a Three-Day Pass - featured a black US soldier demoted for fraternising with a white girl in France. He went on to make the 1970 comedy Watermelon Man - about a white, racist 60s-era insurance salesman who wakes up to find he is black.\n\nA year later, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song told the story of a black street hustler on the run from the police. At the time, Van Peebles said all films up until then had been told through the eyes of the Anglo-Saxon majority.", "One landlord said some customers cancelled their reservations due to Wales' Covid rules\n\nWales welcomed in the new year with a more muted response than usual following new Covid-19 restrictions.\n\nCardiff was \"exceptionally quiet\" and rules \"put people off\" in Flint, according to pubs, with a limit on groups of six allowed to meet. Clubs have also been forced to shut.\n\nThe Welsh government has said its rules were in place to keep people safe.\n\nOne couple stand amid rows of empty tables and chairs outside bars on High Street in Cardiff\n\nSome bars remained closed on New Year's Eve\n\nSome pubs closed their doors by 20:00 GMT on New Year's Eve in Flint, Flintshire, according to staff at the George and Dragon.\n\nIt remained open but had a maximum of about 35 customers, said bar worker Sharon.\n\n\"It was not good. It was very quiet,\" she said. \"The restrictions put people off.\"\n\nIn neighbouring Mold, about half a dozen customers saw in the new year at the Fat Boar bar and restaurant, compared with about 200 in previous years.\n\nOperations manager Mark Finlay said it had been a typical New Year's Eve until 21:00 with diners leaving after finishing their meals rather than staying on.\n\n\"No one came in and it slowly filtered out,\" he said. \"It's a bad way for us to finish the year.\n\n\"We're going into the quieter time of the year now with people thinking about how much much they have spent.\"\n\nNick Newman, landlord of the Philharmonic pub and chairman of the Cardiff Licensees Forum, said it was exceptionally quiet on New Year's Eve for the city's hospitality sector.\n\n\"It wasn't unexpected but that doesn't make it any less disappointing,\" he said.\n\nNew Year's Eve outside Live Lounge in Cardiff at 22:15 GMT\n\n\"I was in town for most of yesterday and then through the evening until one o'clock in the morning.\n\n\"We talk to the police and other agencies and I told them it was probably going to be like a quite ordinary Saturday night, but, in reality, it was a quieter than that.\"\n\nMr Newman said: \"Rival businesses in Bristol will have been making hay but these measures reduce confidence and it's just unnecessary.\n\n\"We have a very active WhatsApp group and everyone was saying the same thing.\n\n\"We have all the distancing and other measures in place and then people were still cancelling their bookings.\"\n\nElsewhere, public events marking New Year's Eve in England and Scotland were cancelled or scaled back against a backdrop of the UK reporting 189,846 new Covid cases in the latest 24-hour period - another record high.\n\nOn Friday, Public Health Wales reported 10,393 new Covid cases and 11 new deaths with the virus.", "This week's party meetings coincided with Mr Kim being in power for 10 years\n\nNorth Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has said the faltering economy will be the national priority this year as the country faces a \"great life-and-death struggle\".\n\nHe was speaking at the end of a key ruling party meeting, coming as Mr Kim marks 10 years in power.\n\nThere was no direct mention of the US or South Korea in his speech.\n\nMr Kim said increasing development and improving people's living standards was the main task.\n\nHe acknowledged the \"harsh situation\" in 2021 and set \"an important task for making radical progress in solving the food, clothing and housing problem for the people\", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.\n\nHe said battling the pandemic was one of the main goals for the coming year: \"Emergency epidemic prevention work should be made a top priority in the state work,\" he is quoted as saying by KCNA.\n\nBut he also said Pyongyang would continue to strengthen its defence capabilities because of an increasingly unstable military environment on the Korean peninsula.\n\nHe was speaking on Friday at the end of the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), which began on Monday.\n\nThere were reports earlier this year that people in the country were going hungry, giving rise to concerns as winter approached about a full-blown food crisis.\n\nThe border has been closed since January 2020 to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from China.\n\nFollowing a year in which leader Kim Jong-un repeatedly stressed North Korea's dire economic condition and food shortages, these challenges were once again in the spotlight at the ruling Workers' Party's year-end plenum.\n\nKim's warning of a \"great life-or-death struggle\" in 2022 echoes last April's rhetoric urging officials to prepare for another \"Arduous March\", referencing North Korea's greatest economic crisis and famine in the 1990s.\n\nWhile such comparisons overexaggerate the situation, North Korea's economic woes have indeed been exacerbated by Covid-19-related border closures, international sanctions and natural disasters.\n\nThese have all contributed to what Kim described in June as a \"tense\" food situation, and international agencies also warn of growing food insecurity and starvation.\n\nKim's emphasis on implementation of the national economic plan, rural development and advancing \"scientific farming\" now serves to remind citizens that their leader is prioritising their needs, while setting expectations for another year of economic struggles.\n\nMr Kim's new year speeches have previously included messages to South Korea and the US, but there were no explicit mentions this time.\n\n\"If we consider this report on the plenum as a replacement of Kim Jong-un's annual New Year's speech, it can be said that it's by far the shortest mention of inter-Korean relations and foreign policy ever,\" Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at Sejong Institute, told NK News.\n\nAt the end of last year, North and South Korea, the US, and China agreed in principle to declare a formal end to the Korean War which ended in an armistice.\n\nBut talks have yet to begin because of North Korea's demands, South Korea has said.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Bibaa Henry (left) and Nicole Smallman were found in bushes at Fryent Country Park in Wembley\n\nThe mother of two murdered sisters whose bodies were photographed by police officers says she is willing to meet with one of them.\n\nDeniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were jailed for taking and sharing photographs of the murder scene of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.\n\nTheir mother, Mina Smallman, told BBC Radio 4 she was \"repulsed by them\" but was willing to meet with Jaffer.\n\nThe Met said it was \"working hard to raise standards\".\n\nMs Smallman also criticised the force's culture of toxicity and said the \"system is clearly broken\".\n\nMs Henry, 46, and Ms Smallman, 27, had been celebrating Ms Henry's birthday at a park in Wembley, north-west London, when they were repeatedly stabbed by Danyal Hussein.\n\nMina Smallman described the officer's actions as a \"sacrilegious act\"\n\nAs part of her role as a guest editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme Ms Smallman spoke about her feelings towards the two former officers who photographed her daughters.\n\n\"I'm repulsed by them if I'm honest, and can't wait to meet Jaffer,\" she said.\n\n\"He said he would like to meet with the family and I don't believe he thought that that could happen but it will, because he said he wanted it to happen and I'm going to give him that invitation.\"\n\nJaffer and Lewis were jailed for 33 months each in December for their actions.\n\n\"The system, clearly is broken. There are things being allowed to happen within the police force,\" she added.\n\n\"There's obviously a core that are abusing their powers and a culture that is toxic. Well we need to change that because the only people who benefit from that are the perpetrators.\"\n\nShe has called on people to share their experiences with the force and says as more people do \"good police officers will feel more empowered to speak up, that's what we want\".\n\nMoving forward, Ms Smallman says her family will now take the time to grieve while continuing to campaign.\n\nBibaa Henry (L) and Nicole Smallman were celebrating a birthday before they were killed\n\nShe said: \"If I told you I had a plan I wouldn't be telling the truth but I feel there's something I can offer in the future.\n\n\"We need to continue the progress we are making on behalf of women, women of colour and abuse and changing the underground toxicity of the police force.\"\n\nA spokesman for the Met said:\" The actions of former PCs Jaffer and Lewis were utterly unprofessional, disrespectful and deeply insensitive.\n\n\"We're working hard to raise standards in the Met and have commissioned an independent review by Baroness Louise Casey to examine our culture and standards of behaviour. \"\n\nIt said since their actions came to light, officers had been reminded of their responsibilities in using social media.\n\n\"The behaviour of Lewis and Jaffer initially came to light because someone had concerns and anonymously reported them. We encourage all our officers and staff, and members of the public, to report wrong-doing and we will act on those reports, \" the spokesman added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The measures are part of a slate of environmental rules introduced by President Emmanuel Macron\n\nA new law banning plastic packaging on most fruit and vegetables comes into effect in France from New Year's day.\n\nCucumbers, lemons and oranges are among the 30 varieties banned from being wrapped in plastic.\n\nLarger packs as well as chopped or processed fruit will be exempt.\n\nPresident Emmanuel Macron called the ban \"a real revolution\" and said it showed the country's commitment to phase out single use plastics by 2040.\n\nMore than a third of fruit and vegetable products in France are thought to be sold in plastic wrapping, and government officials believe that the ban could prevent a billion items of single use plastics being used every year.\n\nIn a statement announcing the new law, the Environment Ministry said that France uses an \"outrageous amount\" of single use plastics and that the new ban \"aims at cutting back the use of throwaway plastic and boost its substitution by other materials or reusable and recyclable packaging\".\n\nThe ban forms part of a multi-year programme introduced by Mr Macron's government that will see plastics slowly eased out in many industries.\n\nFrom 2021, the country banned plastic straws, cups and cutlery, as well as polystyrene takeaway boxes.\n\nAnd later in 2022 public spaces will be forced to provide water fountains to reduce the use of plastic bottles, publications will have to be shipped without plastic wrapping, and fast-food restaurants will no longer be able offer free plastic toys.\n\nHowever, industry figures have expressed concerns over the speed at which the new ban is being introduced.\n\nPhilippe Binard, from the European Fresh Produce Association, said the \"removal of plastic packaging from most fruit and vegetables at such short notice does not allow alternatives to be tested and introduced in a timely manner and stocks of existing packaging to be cleared\".\n\nSeveral other European countries have announced similar bans in recent months as they pursue commitments made at the recent COP26 conference in Glasgow.\n\nEarlier this month Spain announced that it will introduce a ban on the sale of fruit and vegetables in plastic packaging from 2023 to allow business to find alternative solutions.\n\nMr Macron's government also announced several other new environmental regulations, including rules calling on car adverts to promote greener alternatives such as walking and cycling.", "Dani Harmer had joked about going into labour on stage\n\nTracy Beaker star Dani Harmer has said she and her unborn baby are \"absolutely fine\" after she was taken to hospital during a pantomime performance.\n\nThe heavily pregnant actress had to leave Wednesday's production of Cinderella at the Bath Theatre Royal.\n\nShe said on Friday she had had Braxton Hicks - often referred to as false labour contractions, which can occur during later stages of pregnancy.\n\nHarmer, 32, said she planned to return to the stage on Sunday, 2 January.\n\n\"To everyone who has reached out in the last couple of days, thank you so much,\" she wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"Me and baby are absolutely fine. But on Wednesday I had to go to hospital mid-show.\n\n\"Turns out it was Braxton Hicks (horrible bloody things by the way) and was told by the doctors to rest up. My plan is very much to return to Panto on the 2nd.\"\n\nShe sent the \"biggest thank you\" to fellow cast member Harriet Caplan-Dean, \"who stepped in mid-show with no rehearsal and has been looking after my magic wand for me!\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Harriet Caplan-Dean This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHarmer, who is playing the Fairy Godmother in Bath, told the Standard Issue podcast in mid-December that she was eight months pregnant.\n\n\"Touch wood that the Fairy Godmother does not go into labour during her prologue,\" she joked at the time.\n\nThe actress is best-known for playing the title role in the BBC TV adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson's Tracy Beaker books from 2002.\n\nShe returned to the character in March in a new series called My Mum Tracy Beaker.", "It will be \"Sir Tony\" after the Queen's award\n\nTony Blair, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Baroness Amos are to be appointed as members of the Order of the Garter, England's oldest and most senior order of chivalry.\n\nThe former Labour prime minister now becomes known as Sir Tony.\n\nThe appointments are the personal choice of the Queen, who has up to 24 \"knight and lady companions\".\n\nBaroness Amos, a former Labour cabinet minister, becomes the first black member of the order.\n\nThe ceremonial order, founded in 1348, is a recognition of significant public service, and made without prime ministerial advice.\n\nMr Blair becomes Sir Tony from 1 January, as he joins the order as a \"knight companion\".\n\n\"It's an immense honour,\" he said.\n\nHe said it had been a \"great privilege\" to have served as prime minister, adding: \"I would like to thank all those who served alongside me, in politics, public service and all parts of our society, for their dedication and commitment to our country.\"\n\nHe says he will be \"Sir Tony\" rather than Sir Anthony,\n\nSir Tony led his party to a landslide victory in 1997 and won two subsequent general elections. He served for 10 years before resigning and handing power to his chancellor, Gordon Brown.\n\nUnder Sir Tony's leadership, the UK joined the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan - an official inquiry into the 2003 Iraq war was strongly critical of his government and UK military chiefs.\n\nHe famously referred to Diana, Princess of Wales, as the \"people's princess\" after her death.\n\nBaroness Amos becomes the first black member of the order\n\nBaroness Amos, a member of the House of Lords, becomes a \"lady companion\", honouring her career as international development secretary, a United Nations under-secretary for humanitarian affairs and her current role - master of University College, Oxford.\n\nBorn in Guyana, she moved to Great Britain with her family in 1963 and built a career working for equal opportunities - between 1989 and 1994 she was chief executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission.\n\nA lifelong cricket fan, she is also an independent non-executive director of the England and Wales Cricket Board.\n\nBaroness Amos, 67 and Tony Blair, 68, become two of the order's younger members, with most in their seventies, eighties and above, in a post held until death.\n\nCamilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, is appointed as a \"royal companion\" - a move likely to be seen as showing the Queen's endorsement for Camilla's role as a senior member of the royal family and spouse of the future monarch.\n\nThe duchess has had an increasingly high profile with her own campaigns, including raising awareness of domestic abuse and sexual violence.\n\nWith the new appointments there will now be 21 companions out of the maximum of 24.\n\nCamilla has been given this elevation by the Queen\n\nAnother former prime minister, Sir John Major, is among the current members of the Order of the Garter, along with businessman and philanthropist Lord Sainsbury and former MI5 chief, Baroness Manningham-Buller.\n\nAppointments are usually announced on St George's Day, April 23, but the monarch can do so at any time, and has chosen to bring them forward this year to coincide with the New Year's Honours.\n\nThe order, instituted by Edward III in the 14th Century, is rooted in the idea of medieval chivalry when monarchs were surrounded by their most senior aristocratic companions.\n\nThe modern criteria, according to Buckingham Palace, is to \"honour those who have undertaken public service, who have contributed in a particular way to national life or who have served the sovereign personally\".\n\nThe Queen takes part in an annual procession with members of the order at Windsor Castle, wearing velvet robes and plumed hats.\n\nA banner of the heraldic arms of the knights is on display at St George's Chapel at the castle.\n\nIn Scotland there is the Order of the Thistle, instituted in 1687, with the most recent appointment made in 2018.", "A booster vaccine is 88% effective at preventing people ending up in hospital with Covid-19, new data from the UK Health Security Agency suggests.\n\nThe new data confirms that two doses of the AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna vaccines offers little protection against being infected with Omicron.\n\nBut protection against severe disease appears to be holding up much better against the new variant.\n\nHealth officials said this reinforces the importance of getting a third dose.\n\nThe health secretary Sajid Javid said: \"This is more promising data which reinforces just how important vaccines are. They save lives and prevent serious illness.\n\n\"This analysis shows you are up to eight times more likely to end up in hospital as a result of Covid-19 if you are unvaccinated.\"\n\nThe UKHSA analysed more than 600,000 confirmed and suspected cases of the Omicron variant up to 29 December in England.\n\nIt found that a single vaccine dose reduced the risk of needing hospital treatment by 52%. Adding the second dose increased the protection to 72%, although after 25 weeks that protection had faded to 52%.\n\nAnd two weeks after getting a third dose, that protection against hospitalisation was boosted to 88%.\n\nThe UKHSA report said there was not enough data yet to work out how long this protection would last but it is expected to last longer than protection against developing symptoms.\n\nIn people who already had symptoms, protection after each dose was slightly lower and reduced to 68% after a booster compared to unvaccinated people.\n\nA second study, carried out with Cambridge University, confirmed that the risk of going to A&E or being admitted to a hospital ward after catching Omicron was roughly half that of the older Delta variant.\n\nIt also found that the risk of hospital admission alone with Omicron was approximately one-third of that for Delta.\n\nSusan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at UKHSA, said the data was \"in keeping with the encouraging signs we have already seen\".\n\nHowever she said it was too early to draw any conclusions on how severely ill in hospital people could be with Omicron compared to Delta.\n\nShe added: \"The increased transmissibility of omicron and the rising cases in the over 60s population in England means it remains highly likely that there will be significant pressure on the NHS in coming weeks.\n\n\"The data once again shows that coming forward for your jab, particularly your third dose, is the best way of protecting yourself and others against infection and severe disease.\"", "The next few days are crucial in understanding the impact of Omicron on the NHS, a health boss has said.\n\nChris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, said hospital admissions are rising across the country but what could happen next is unclear.\n\nHe warned ministers \"must be ready to introduce new restrictions at pace if they're needed\".\n\nBut the health secretary said any extra measures must be a \"last resort\".\n\nWriting on Twitter, Mr Hopson said staff were working \"flat out\" and the NHS was now under \"different, arguably more\" pressure compared to last January because more planned treatments were being carried out, the booster vaccination campaign was using up significant resources and staff absences were having a greater impact.\n\nEngland has reported 162,572 new cases - a record number for the fifth day in a row - as well as 154 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not report figures on Saturday.\n\nThe number of hospital admissions in England are at their highest level since January 2021, according to the latest figures, while NHS hospital staff absences due to Covid have nearly doubled in a month.\n\nMr Hopson said there was evidence infections peaked in London before Christmas and had plateaued since but the future trajectory \"remains very unclear\", ranging from hospital admissions plateauing and then dropping to numbers rapidly increasing.\n\n\"If the evidence shows that we are getting very significant numbers of people coming into hospital with Covid, then the government needs to be ready to introduce further restrictions at pace,\" he told the BBC.\n\nHe said there were currently not the large numbers of severely ill older people that were seen in previous peaks and intensive care occupancy was broadly stable.\n\nHowever, he said there were worries about the possible impact of intergenerational mixing over Christmas.\n\nUniversity Hospital of North Tees in Stockton has become the latest of more than a dozen hospitals to temporarily suspend routine visits because of rising infections.\n\nThe doctors' union, the British Medical Association, has said further public health measures should be introduced as a matter or urgency.\n\nThe association's council chairman, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said it was \"wholly erroneous to talk about the risk of the NHS becoming overwhelmed\".\n\nThe new year began with the health service \"already overwhelmed, in a parlous state, and with patient care suffering\", he said.\n\nWriting in the Daily Mail, Sajid Javid warned it was \"inevitable\" there would be a big increase in people needing NHS care over the next month due to the time lag between infections and hospital admissions.\n\n\"This will likely test the limits of finite NHS capacity even more than a typical winter,\" he added.\n\nThe problem facing the government is that the window to suppress the peak with restrictions may already have passed.\n\nModelling produced for government by Warwick University suggests even a return to lockdown with only schools open has virtually no impact on hospital admissions now.\n\nTo have had a significant impact, measures would need to have been introduced on Boxing Day or a week earlier.\n\nBut even then the argument for them was unclear - in both scenarios infections and hospital admissions rebound once restrictions are lifted. Largely all it achieves is delaying and spreading out illness.\n\nThat could have been of benefit by evening out the pressure on the NHS.\n\nBut there is, of course, the wider costs of restrictions to society, the economy and mental health to factor in.\n\nSome say it would also have bought you time to carry out more vaccinations, but with nine in 10 of the most vulnerable boosted and evidence protection wanes over time this may actually be the point in time when we have the most immunity across the population.\n\nThere are no simple solutions to this Omicron wave - and the options that the government did have may well have gone.\n\nEngland is currently under Plan B restrictions, which includes mandatory masks in most indoor public places, Covid passes for nightclubs and other large venues and guidance to work from home if possible.\n\nThe measures are set to expire six weeks after implementation, with a review after three weeks, which is expected on or close to 4 January.\n\nThere are already tougher restrictions for hospitality venues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: London welcomed 2022 with fireworks at many of the capital's landmarks\n\nFireworks marked the arrival of the new year in London, despite many events being cancelled as the Omicron Covid variant continues to spread.\n\nThe public were asked to stay away from the displays in the UK capital, with a series of fireworks and drone shows broadcast from a number of landmarks.\n\nIn Scotland, restrictions meant the usual Hogmanay events were cancelled.\n\nDespite official events being scrapped crowds gathered in both cities to see in the start of the 2022.\n\nBig Ben's bell struck 12 times at midnight - the Westminster clock has been undergoing restoration since 2017 which led to the landmark being covered in scaffolding and the bell silenced.\n\nLondon's New Year's Eve fireworks display usually sees crowds gather on the banks and bridges of the River Thames.\n\nInstead, a series of locations around the capital - including the Shard, Millennium Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral - were used as backdrops for smaller light and drone shows as well as traditional fireworks.\n\nSpectators were discouraged from attending, but the events did still attract groups of people.\n\nFireworks were set off from the Millennium Bridge in central London\n\nA light display was seen over St Paul's Cathedral\n\nDespite Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh being cancelled - and a warning from Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that people should \"stay at home as much as possible\" - around 1,000 people went to the top of the city's Calton Hill for the bells.\n\nOthers decided to make the most of a scaled-down New Year, including Eileen and Chris Chalmers from Dreghorn in Ayrshire who had a few days extra holiday to use.\n\nTravelling in their campervan, Mrs Chalmers said that with large scale festivities cancelled, \"it seemed an ideal time to come to the city\".\n\nHogmanay celebrations were cancelled in Scotland but people still gathered in Edinburgh\n\nCrowds gathered on Edinburgh's Calton Hill to celebrate the New Year\n\nEdinburgh Castle and the Balmoral Clock seen at midnight on New Year's Eve\n\nThe celebrations in Wales were also muted as Alert Level Two restrictions have placed a limit on the number of people who can meet in pubs and restaurants.\n\nNightclubs have also been closed and a maximum of 30 people can attend indoor events - or 50 if gathering outdoors.\n\nThe rule of six has returned for bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues in Wales\n\nNightclubs have been closed in Wales\n\nBut in Manchester, revellers queued to get into the 10,000 capacity Depot Mayfield club\n\nThe night was also quiet in Belfast because nightclubs are closed due to Covid rules and dancing has been banned in other hospitality venues.\n\nThe smaller-scale festivities took place against a backdrop of the UK reporting 189,846 new Covid cases in the latest 24-hour period - another record high.\n\nThe Met Office said New Year's Eve 2021 was the warmest on record with a temperature reaching 16.5C (61.7F) at Bala, in Wales. It beat the previous high of 14.8C (58.6F) set at Colwyn Bay, north Wales, in 2011.\n\nIt said New Year's Day was also the warmest on record, with temperatures of 16.2C (61.2F) recorded at St James's Park in central London.\n\nA scaled-down return of the New Year's Day parade in London took place with musicians - including the Voice UK winner Molly Hocking - entertaining an audience in Waterloo Place.\n\nAfter being cancelled last year, the parade - which has previously seen more than 600,000 people flood the city centre, was limited to 600 spectators.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Fireworks and light displays as the world welcomes 2022\n\nMatthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said that he hoped people had enjoyed themselves on New Year's Eve but said it was important people continued to do everything they could to slow down the spread of the coronavirus.\n\n\"I hope people had a great time last night and look forward to the new year but remember last night NHS staff worked through the night in these very difficult circumstances, they are coming for two years of working under this pressure and it is really important that we are not complacent,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\nIn his new year's message the Archbishop of Canterbury urged the public not to \"despair\" over climate change and said there were \"real reasons to hope in 2022\".\n\nAnd the Prince of Wales used his new year message to pay tribute to the \"brave individuals, local communities and international organisations\" who are \"responding to great needs by providing vital assistance\".", "Air travellers in the US have already seen days of disruption\n\nFlight cancellations in the US have hit a new peak in a Christmas season hit hard by the Covid pandemic and bad weather.\n\nNearly 4,400 flights around the world were cancelled on Saturday, more than 2,500 of them in the US, air traffic site FlightAware reported.\n\nAirlines have been struggling with staffing problems with crew quarantining after contracting Covid.\n\nAdding to travellers' woes, heavy snow has hit the central US.\n\nFrom the US cancellations, more than 1,000 are from Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports.\n\n\"Today's cancellations are driven by Omicron staffing and weather-related issues. We did pre-cancel flights in anticipation of inclement weather. We've been contacting passengers early if their flights are cancelled to give them time to rebook or make other plans,\" United Airlines said in a statement.\n\nSunday, when many people often return home from their Christmas holidays, is likely to bring further disruption, with more snow and heavy winds forecast.\n\n\"It's too long and there's no space to spend the time, get something to eat, it's a long time here,\" one traveller stuck at O'Hare airport told ABC news in Chicago.\n\nMore on Covid around the world:\n\nSince 24 December, more than 12,000 flights have been cancelled in the US.\n\nAirlines have been trying to woo crew with extra pay to tackle the staff shortages. But unions say workers fear contracting Covid or having to deal with angry passengers.\n\nThe US is facing a surge in Covid cases powered by the Omicron variant.\n\nNew York City has seen record cases despite high vaccination rates. The virus has hit everything from the police force to Broadway shows, although there has not yet been a significant hike in hospitalisations.\n\nThe city's new mayor, Eric Adams, took office on Saturday after low key New Year celebrations.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Fireworks and light displays as the world welcomes 2022\n\nIn his first speech, he said the city would not be \"controlled by crises\".\n\n\"This pandemic has not only impacted us physically, but emotionally, and I'm going to really encourage people in this city to just find that inner peace, no matter what we're going through,\" he said.\n\n\"We have been through tragedies before. This is a resilient city and a resilient country and I want to bring that energy,\"", "Dave Riley (far right) says he has lost over £2,500 in cancelled gigs between Boxing Day and New Year\n\nCancelled New Year's Eve celebrations have left pub singers thousands of pounds out of pocket with no compensation, an event founder says.\n\nThe new Covid restrictions limit indoor events to 30 seated attendees, leading many venues to cancel.\n\nSinger Dave Riley from Porthcawl, Bridgend, said he had lost over £2,500.\n\nThe Welsh government said freelance musicians may be eligible for the Economic Resilience Fund (ERF) or a local authority discretionary fund.\n\n\"New Year's Eve is traditionally the biggest payday for for pub singers and it was removed, their incomes being basically pulled from under them at very short notice,\" said Peter Phillips, founder of the Porthcawl Elvis Festival.\n\n\"I think the Welsh government have been irresponsible by not putting some measures in place.\n\n\"I'm not criticising their public health measures - that's way above my pay grade to talk about - but they should have thought through who's going to be immediately impacted financially and put something in place for them.\"\n\nHe said many freelance musicians had been able to claim furlough during earlier lockdowns, but this was no longer possible.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford has repeated his call for the UK government to restart the scheme, which cost almost £70bn.\n\n\"They should have put some support in place for these people, these people are friends of ours we've known a lot of these people for years,\" said Mr Phillips.\n\nDave Riley is a singer from Porthcawl who sings covers, his own material and performs an Elvis tribute act on cruises, overseas and in pubs, hotels and clubs.\n\nHe had four gigs lined up between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve, all of which have been cancelled.\n\nDave Riley says his work has been cancelled with \"nothing in place\"\n\n\"It's just come all of a sudden with no plan,\" he said. \"All cancelled basically with nothing in place\".\n\nHe said he had been banking on those gigs - which would have earned him between £2,500 and £3,000 - to see him through January, which is usually a quiet time for entertainers.\n\nHe said he had previously been unable to receive furlough and had got by on unemployment benefits and selling things on eBay.\n\n\"I'm angry this time around. I was only just getting back to normal and building things up again,\" he added.\n\nDave Riley says he was relying on money from his festive gigs to see him through January\n\nUnder Alert Level 2 rules, live music is allowed in pubs and other venues but a maximum of 30 people can attend.\n\nThose in attendance must remain seated, meaning dancing is not allowed.\n\nTable service must be provided and 2m social distancing between groups of a maximum of six people from up to six households must be observed. Face coverings must be worn when not seated at a table.\n\nThe same applies to weddings, where the only exception is that the couple's first dance is permitted.\n\nMr Phillips said the limited number of attendees made booking a singer financially unviable for many businesses.\n\nOn 23 December, the Welsh government outlined the details of a £120m package of financial support for businesses in Wales impacted by Omicron.\n\nIn a statement at the time, Economy Minister Vaughan Gething said: \"We fully understand the continued challenges faced by businesses, however we are facing a very serious situation in Wales.\n\n\"A wave of infections caused by the new, fast-moving and very-infectious omicron variant is headed our way, this means taking early action to try and control its spread - and limit the impact on Welsh businesses.\"\n\nHe said since the start of the pandemic over £2.2bn of support had been provided to businesses throughout Wales.\n\nThe Welsh government will consider whether additional emergency funding is needed in the new year, he added.", "Last updated on .From the section Wales\n\nPrice, 27, won middleweight gold in Tokyo, becoming the first Welsh fighter to claim an Olympic boxing gold medal.\n\nPrice, who has been awarded an MBE in the Queen's New Year Honours list, says she will announce who she has signed with in the next few weeks.\n\n\"I've achieved all I can as an amateur, I've won gold at every single major tournament,\" Price said. \"Winning Olympic gold changed my life.\"\n\nPrice has also won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, World Championships and European Games.\n\nShe is a former kickboxing world champion and played international football for Wales.\n\nPrice now wants to follow in the footsteps of London 2012 gold medal winner Katie Taylor, the Irish boxer who has become an undisputed world champion.\n• None The girl who reached for the moon and came down with Olympic boxing gold\n\n\"I'm definitely going to go professional, it should come out in the next few weeks who I intend to sign with,\" she told BBC Sport Wales.\n\n\"Now I want to go on the next journey and that is following in the footsteps of one of the greatest in Katie Taylor.\n\n\"She's undisputed and I want to do what she has done.\n\n\"I was the first Welsh person to win Olympic boxing gold and maybe I can be the first [Welsh] female to become a world champion as well.\"\n\nPrice, who is from Ystrad Mynach and still intends to train with Team GB boxing coach Rob McCracken and base herself in Sheffield, says the challenge of turning professional is one that excites her.\n\n\"Winning Olympic gold changed my life. The money is there now for women's boxing,\" she said.\n\n\"It's an exciting time in general for women's boxing and a lot of people are saying to me we've got it good, the money is there for the women that has never been there before.\n\n\"I won the Olympics and thought 'what do I do now?'. But the professional challenge, it excites me, I am really looking forward to it.\"\n\nPrice says the surprise of being awarded an MBE caps off her greatest year.\n\n\"Winning Welsh Sports Personality of the Year and then having this to top the year off, it has been a year I will never forget with winning gold as well, it's been the best year of my career,\" she added.\n\n\"Winning Olympic gold will top everything, no matter what I go on to achieve.\n\n\"Being an Olympic champion has been a dream of mine since childhood, sitting in my living room with my nan and grandad at eight years of age and seeing Kelly Holmes win gold. I was stunned as a child, every night of the week I'd be out training doing kickboxing or football training or the gym.\n\n\"All that work at that level is what has got me to where I am today, that and the support of my nan and grandad.\n\n\"I am getting the rewards now, getting an MBE from the Queen is special, sometimes I need to pinch myself.\"", "Zaian Aimable-Lina died from a stab wound to the heart\n\nA 15-year-old boy stabbed to death in south London has been named by police.\n\nZaian Aimable-Lina was found fatally injured after police were called to Ashburton Park in Croydon shortly after 19:00 GMT on Thursday over reports of an assault.\n\nA post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as a stab wound to the heart.\n\nA 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murder on Friday but was bailed until late January, police said.\n\nZaian's death marked the 29th killing of a teenager in London in 2021.\n\nA post-mortem examination revealed Zaian died from a stab wound to the heart\n\nA 16-year-old boy stabbed in west London on Friday took the total number of teenage homicides in the capital in 2021 to 30 - the highest number since 2008.\n\nPolice said the victim's family had been informed and they were being supported by specialist officers.\n\nDet Ch Insp Richard Leonard said: \"My thoughts continue to be with Zaian's family and friends as they cope with this tragic loss. My team are continuing to work around the clock so that we can give Zaian's family the answers they deserve.\n\n\"Zaian's death has sent shockwaves through the local community and London as a whole.\n\n\"He was just 15 years old and had his whole life ahead of him and we need the community to work with us to bring those responsible to justice. No matter how insignificant you may think it, if you have information that can help, you must do the right thing and contact us immediately.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Hundreds of homes have been destroyed by the fire\n\nResidents of Boulder County in Colorado have returned to scenes of devastation after snowfall helped extinguish the last of a raging wildfire.\n\nThe fire swept through 6,000 acres in just a few hours, destroying hundreds of homes.\n\nOne local resident said some families in the area that \"lost everything\" and it was a \"Christmas miracle\" that nobody was killed.\n\nTens of thousands of people fled as the flames engulfed the area.\n\nThe fire at its peak was driven by winds of up to 105 mph (169km/h) which caused flames to jump over highways and entire communities, local authorities told Reuters news agency.\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires, and experts say that fires in western North America have grown more intense in recent years.\n\nNow snow has started to fall, officials say they do not expect the fire to pose any more danger.\n\nPeople have started returning home to assess the damage, many facing scenes of complete destruction.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Woman who evacuated from Louisville says families in her neighbourhood have \"lost everything\"\n\nIn Louisville, Jeff Conroy told local media that he had watched his family's house burn to the ground.\n\n\"The fire department left before I did,\" he told USA Today. \"They knew it couldn't be saved, but I had to watch. And I stayed until our house walls were fully gone.\"\n\nOfficials say they do not expect the fire to pose any further danger\n\nAnother Louisville resident, Linda Jackson, told the Denver Channel that her home of 20 years had been completely destroyed by the fire.\n\n\"I could see flames in my backyard and I knew I had to get out,\" she said. \"I went downstairs, no electricity in my garage and my garage wouldn't open. I thought about just walking out and walking down the street, but I called 911 and the fire department came and got me out.\"\n\nShe said she knew her home \"was just going to be ash\".\n\nSix people have been treated for injuries but no fatalities have been reported - something local officials described as a \"miracle\".\n\nPresident Joe Biden has approved a disaster relief bill that will help those affected.\n\nThese latest fires in Colorado are burning in more suburban parts of the state and are coming relatively late in the season.\n\nHow have you been affected by the wildfires? Tell us by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nWest Ham United survived a late fightback by Crystal Palace to start the new year with a narrow Premier League victory at Selhurst Park.\n\nThe three points move David Moyes' side back up to fifth in the table above Tottenham Hotspur, who had claimed an added-time winner at Watford earlier on Saturday.\n\nThe Hammers were aided by wasteful finishing from the home side and were clinical in front of goal themselves as they netted three times in the first half.\n\nPalace winger Jeffrey Schlupp swivelled and struck the post from a promising position after just 46 seconds and Odsonne Edouard rattled the crossbar with a first-time effort.\n\nBut in between West Ham capitalised on Palace's profligacy as Michail Antonio slid in to convert Said Benrahma's delightful cross midway through the half.\n\nThe visitors doubled their lead within three minutes courtesy of Manuel Lanzini's neat footwork and thumping finish.\n\nOn the stroke of half time, referee Darren England awarded a penalty against Palace skipper Luka Milivojevic for handball after reviewing the incident on the pitchside monitor, and Lanzini confidently converted it.\n\nThe hosts pulled a goal back seven minutes from time when Edouard poked home Michael Olise's cross and the substitute then also curled a late free-kick in for Palace's second - but they could not find a dramatic equaliser.\n• None Go straight to all the best Palace content\n\nPatrick Vieira missed his side's last two games as he isolated after testing positive for Covid-19 so it was a miserable first 45 minutes back in the dugout for the Palace boss as his team conceded three first-half goals.\n\nThe Frenchman has guided his new club to a solid first half of the season but will be unhappy with the manner in which they lost their second home game of the campaign.\n\nNo defender tracked Antonio's run for the first goal and his midfield failed to match a burst forward by Declan Rice - on his 150th Premier League appearance - to set up the second while skipper Milivojevic was culpable for the third.\n\nThe victory was West Ham boss Moyes' 10th on 1 January, equalling the record held by managerial legends Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.\n\nThe Hammers also emulated the feat of securing 10 victories from their opening 20 games last season, when they eventually finished sixth, and they are again challenging for a Champions League spot.\n\nPalace, meanwhile, stay in 11th place but players and fans can take heart from a good offensive display and the fact they almost completed a remarkable second-half turnaround.\n\nEdouard had already hit the woodwork and fired wide from a promising position before the Frenchman deservedly scored to begin an unlikely fightback.\n\nOn 90 minutes, Olise then swung in a cross from the right which sailed all the way in to give a raucous crowd hope of a sensational equaliser and they nearly got exactly that from a stunning acrobatic effort from Jean-Philippe Mateta which flew just wide.\n• None Attempt missed. Jean-Philippe Mateta (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Jeffrey Schlupp.\n• None Goal! Crystal Palace 2, West Ham United 3. Michael Olise (Crystal Palace) from a free kick with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Crystal Palace 1, West Ham United 3. Odsonne Édouard (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Michael Olise with a cross.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Tyrick Mitchell.\n• None Arthur Masuaku (West Ham United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Michael Olise (Crystal Palace) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Michael Olise (Crystal Palace) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Dr Gregor Smith has been Scotland's chief medical officer since April 2020\n\nScotland's chief medical officer has been knighted in a New Year's Honours list that celebrates health workers and Olympic athletes.\n\nDr Gregor Smith, a leading figure in the country's pandemic response, said he was \"surprised and honoured\".\n\nSwimmer Duncan Scott, who became the first British athlete to win four medals at a single games, has also been recognised with an MBE.\n\nOthers honoured include former MP Tommy McAvoy and retired MSP John Scott.\n\nDr Smith was appointed interim chief medical officer in April 2020, less than a fortnight into the first national lockdown, following the resignation of his predecessor.\n\nDr Catherine Calderwood quit after the Scottish Sun published photos showing her breaking Covid travel rules to visit her second home.\n\nDr Smith has been knighted alongside his fellow UK chief medical officers Prof Chris Whitty (England), Dr Frank Atherton (Wales) and Dr Michael McBride (Northern Ireland).\n\nIn his role, the GP advises the Scottish government on its public health response to the pandemic and often attends the first minister's Covid briefings where he answers questions from the media.\n\nDr Smith said: \"I am surprised and feel honoured to receive a knighthood in The Queen's New Year Honours list for services to public health.\n\n\"This means a huge amount to me but it is a reflection of the work that a good number of us have undertaken during the course of the coronavirus pandemic.\"\n\nHe also described his role as a \"privilege and a pleasure\" and praised those he had worked with for their contribution to the virus response.\n\nThe guitar-playing medic, who was formally appointed last December, often shares his love of music on his Twitter account, including bands such as The Foo Fighters and Iron Maiden.\n\nVolunteers and healthcare workers are also among those receiving honours for their work since the first Covid case was confirmed in Scotland in March 2020.\n\nThey include Joseph Freedman, for services to the Jewish community in Glasgow during the pandemic, and Dr Adaeze Ifezulike, a GP from Aberdeen for services to health inequality in minority communities in Scotland.\n\nPaul Fairie, the head of operations at Glasgow's Lighthouse Laboratory that has processed more than 20 million Covid tests joins Mr Freedman and Dr Ifezulike in being made MBEs.\n\nDuncan Scott has became the first British athlete to win four medals at a single games\n\nDuncan Scott will be able to add an MBE to his history-making medal haul from the Tokyo Olympics.\n\nIt consisted of gold in the 4x200m freestyle and silvers in the 200m freestyle, 200m medley and 4x100m medley.\n\nScott's parents had originally planned to go to Tokyo but had to cancel their plans when the Games were rescheduled because of the pandemic.\n\nBut despite his success, the 24-year-old from Alloa, Clackmannanshire, told BBC Scotland there was \"plenty\" to improve on when Paris hosts the games in 2024.\n\nParalympic gold medallist Owen Miller, from Fife, has also been made a MBE following his victorious debut in Tokyo in the T20 1500m, for athletes who compete with learning or intellectual impairments.\n\nAnd there is a MBE for Kathleen Dawson, also from Fife, who swam backstroke as part of the world record-beating mixed 4x100m relay team to win gold for Team GB at the Olympics in July.\n\nLord McAvoy was the MP for Glasgow Rutherglen for 23 years\n\nIn politics, long-serving former Labour MP Tommy McAvoy has been knighted for his political and public service.\n\nLord McAvoy, who was the MP for Glasgow Rutherglen from 1987 to 2010, spent much of his time at Westminster with roles in the Labour Party's whips office, serving in the governments of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.\n\nHe has been in the House of Lords since 2010 and is currently a senior whip and spokesman for both Scottish and Northern Irish issues.\n\nFormer Ayr MSP John Scott is also being made an OBE after 21 years at Holyrood.\n\nMr Scott, 70, was first elected as the area's Conservative MSP in a 2000 by-election, holding the seat in four subsequent elections.\n\nThe ex-farmer overcame pancreatic cancer, the same illness that killed his wife just nine months after he was first elected to the Scottish Parliament.\n\nHis service at Holyrood included a spell as a deputy presiding officer until May's election when he narrowly lost his seat to the SNP's Siobhian Brown.\n\nFormer St Johnstone chairman Geoffrey Brown, who rescued the football club from financial difficulty in 1986, has been made an OBE for services to Scottish football and to the community in Perth.\n\nAnd Dr Liz Cameron, director of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said she was \"deeply honoured and humbled\" to be awarded a CBE for services to the promotion of Scotland and UK international trade.\n\nDr Maggie Ellis has been recognised for a lifetime researching methods to help those with dementia, their families and carers\n\nAmong the academics recognised are three leading researchers at the University of St Andrews.\n\nDr Maggie Ellis, of the school of psychology and Neuroscience in the university, has been awarded an MBE for her dedication to improving the lives of people with dementia.\n\nMeanwhile, Prof Ailsa Hall is to receive an OBE for her decades of work in environmental protection and epidemiology and Prof Anne Magurran will receive an CBE for services to biodiversity.\n\nMembers of the emergency services have also been honoured.\n\nJudi Heaton, who recently retired as an assistant chief constable, head of road policing Chief Supt Louise Blakelock, and Ch Insp Marlene Baillie will each receive the Queen's Police Medal.\n\nAnd Graeme Anderson, who was the lead events planning officer for Tayside Division is to be presented with an MBE for services to event planning and law and order in Dundee.\n\nPat O'Meara (left), pictured with Scotland's national clinical director Prof Jason Leitch, recently led the Scottish Ambulance Service's planning and response to COP26\n\nThe Scottish Ambulance Service's general manager of events Pat O'Meara has been awarded the Queen's Ambulance Medal.\n\nIn a career spanning 23 years he been involved in major incidents, including the Clutha helicopter crash, the George Square bin lorry tragedy and the Stockline Plastics Factory explosion.\n\nMr O'Meara, 57, said: \"I have also attended a bombing, an aircraft crash at Heathrow Airport, I've been held hostage and attended an incident where I was chased with a knife.\"\n\nHe added that he was \"very humbled and grateful\" to received the award but said it would not have been possible without his colleagues.", "Virginia Giuffre, then Roberts, was pictured with Prince Andrew in London in 2001\n\nLawyers for a US woman who has accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault are seeking proof of the British royal's alleged inability to sweat.\n\nVirginia Giuffre's legal team made the request as part of a civil case against the prince in a New York court.\n\nMs Giuffre, 38, alleges that Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager at the homes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.\n\nIn a 2019 interview with BBC Newsnight, he said a \"problem\" with her account was that a medical condition at the time meant he could not have been sweating, as she claims he was.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince Andrew: 'It was almost impossible for me to sweat'\n\nA civil case filed in the US alleges that the prince sexually abused Ms Giuffre - then known as Virginia Roberts - at Maxwell's London home, and at Epstein's homes in Manhattan and Little St James in the Virgin Islands.\n\nEpstein, a convicted sex offender, killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial. British socialite Maxwell was found guilty this week of grooming underage girls to be abused by him.\n\nThe motion filed by Ms Giuffre's lawyers calls on Prince Andrew to supply \"all documents concerning your alleged medical condition of anhidrosis, hypohidrosis, or your inability to sweat\".\n\nPrince Andrew's lawyers said he objected to the request \"on the grounds that it is harassing and seeks confidential and private information and documents that are irrelevant, immaterial and not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence\".\n\nThey added that Prince Andrew had no such documents in his possession to hand over.\n\nThe motion also includes requests for details of Prince Andrew's trips on Epstein's planes, and communication he had with Epstein and Maxwell.\n\nIn a separate development, a request by Prince Andrew's lawyers to pause the proceedings against him has been turned down by a US judge.\n\nHis lawyers had wanted Ms Giuffre to take part in a two-hour deposition to discuss her country of residence.\n\nMs Giuffre has been living in Western Australia and Prince Andrew's lawyers had argued that this may disqualify her from filing a lawsuit in a US court. The judge rejected the demand.\n\nMeanwhile Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty on Wednesday of recruiting and trafficking young girls for Epstein, awaits sentencing, a date for which has not yet been set. The verdict could see her spend the rest of her life behind bars.\n\nThe jury's decision was welcomed by the survivors, with Annie Farmer - the only witness to use her real name during testimony - saying she was \"so relieved and grateful\".\n\nMs Giuffre, who was not one of the four women who testified in the case but was referenced on many occasions in court, said she would \"remember this day always\".\n\nMaxwell's brother Ian told the BBC that she would appeal against the verdict \"on legal grounds - both in terms of the pre-trial process and the trial process as well\", but did not give further details.\n\nHe described the victims' testimony as \"heart-rending\" but said he still believed his sister's innocence.\n\nAnother of Epstein and Maxwell's accusers, Sarah Ransome, criticised Mr Maxwell's remarks.\n\n\"This sex trafficking pyramid wouldn't exist without Ghislaine,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"I really think Ghislaine's brother should sit in a room full of Ghislaine's survivors because then he might have a different opinion of what his sister actually has done. She has destroyed hundreds of lives.\"", "The number of NHS staff off-work because of Covid is rising across England, official data shows.\n\nNearly 19,000 NHS staff were absent for Covid-related reasons on 19 December - up 54% on the previous week.\n\nA further 119,789 Covid infections were recorded in the UK on Thursday, setting another new record for daily cases.\n\nHealth leaders say the NHS is under significant pressure, despite early studies suggesting the Omicron variant may cause a milder illness than Delta.\n\nMinisters say they are monitoring Covid data but no further restrictions are needed in England at present.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said the NHS workforce was \"already under pressure before Omicron came along\", adding: \"There is increased pressure in many workforces at the moment, especially if someone needs to isolate if they have a positive case.\n\n\"Some of the recent moves we have had, moving from 10-day to seven isolation if you take a test in the last two days, I think all of that will help.\"\n\nThe 19,000 absentees include staff at NHS acute trusts who were ill with Covid-19 or who were having to self-isolate. In London, the number of staff absences due to Covid was almost 3,900 - more than double the number a week earlier.\n\nAlong with non-Covid reasons, this suggests about 5% of the NHS workforce in England was absent on 19 December.\n\nData for Scotland suggests 3,285 NHS staff were off for reasons related to Covid in the week to 21 December - up by almost 1,000 on the previous week - while the head of NHS Wales warned almost a fifth of its staff may be off work at the peak of the Omicron wave.\n\nNHS Providers' chief executive Chris Hopson said the figures showed Omicron was having a \"real-time impact on service\".\n\nHe added: \"The next few weeks will present a huge test for the NHS on many fronts - coping with Covid-19, handling emergencies, working on the backlog where possible, and delivering boosters.\"\n\nThe latest figures show the number of beds occupied in NHS hospitals remains high - with 81,880 out of 89,991 adult beds full in England on 19 December.\n\nHowever, ambulance handover delays have improved slightly - with about 20% of people waiting for more than 30 minutes to be handed over to accident and emergency in the week up to 19 December, down from 23% the week before.\n\nMeanwhile, the Ministry of Defence says it is making 750 personnel from the Army, Royal Navy and RAF available to support the acceleration of the Covid booster programme in England and Scotland. The roles include administering vaccines and planning support.\n\nThe latest NHS figures come amid a debate about whether further restrictions are needed to stem the surge of the Omicron variant around the UK.\n\nMore than 100,000 daily Covid cases were recorded for the first time on Wednesday, while the Office for National Statistics estimates 1.3 million people in the UK would have tested positive for Covid on 16 December.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all announced further measures to kick in from 26 December - but no further curbs have been announced in England.\n\nAsked when people in England would get clarity on potential rule changes, Mr Javid said: \"We do have clarity, the government has taken action already - the so-called Plan B.\n\n\"We're clear that there's no need for any kind of further restrictions of any type before Christmas but of course we will keep the situation under review.\"\n\nPressed again on potential rule changes after Christmas, Mr Javid added: \"We're not planning any further announcements this week.\"\n\nHe did, however, urge people to exercise caution over the festive period.\n\n\"If you are meeting people who are more vulnerable... I think a really sensible thing to do is to take a lateral flow test and make sure you're negative,\" he said.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How is the NHS in your area coping this winter? This trust does not currently supply A&E waiting time figures. When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data. Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted. This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available. If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed. In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data. Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board. Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.\n\nEarly data from South Africa and studies in England and Scotland published on Wednesday suggest Omicron infections may be milder and lead to fewer hospital admissions.\n\nAnalysis by researchers at Imperial College London found around a 40% reduction in the risk of being admitted to hospital for a night or more compared with Delta, while an Edinburgh University study suggested there was a 65% lower risk of being hospitalised with Omicron - but it was based on only a few cases.\n\nIn South Africa, a study suggested Omicron patients were 70-80% less likely to need hospital treatment. However, it suggested there was no difference in outcomes for the few patients that ended up in hospital with Omicron.\n\nImperial College epidemiologist Prof Neil Ferguson said the research was \"clearly good news to a degree\" but warned the reduction was \"not sufficient to dramatically change the modelling\" and the speed at which Omicron was spreading could still mean hospitalisations \"in numbers that could put the NHS in a difficult position\".\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency is expected to publish early real-world data on Omicron later, which could give further indications of the variant's severity.\n\nMeanwhile, Prof Francois Balloux, an expert in infectious disease and director of University College London's Genetics Institute, has said London is likely to be past the peak of Covid infections.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's World At One programme, he said: \"We are seeing the peak of the wave of the Omicron variant at least in London and probably also in other parts of the UK - or peaking soon.\n\n\"There's a bit of a lag between infections and cases - it takes a little while for people to test positive - so infections have probably peaked.\"", "Wildfires have devastated parts of Boulder County in the US state of Colorado. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes on Thursday as the fire spread, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses.\n\nOfficials have said that a mixture of dry conditions and very high winds have contributed to the destruction caused by the fire and that fatalities are likely.", "The UK is having the warmest New Year's Day on record, with new high temperatures set for the second day in a row, the Met Office says.\n\nSt James's Park in central London saw temperatures of 16.3C (61.3F) on Saturday as 2022 was ushered in.\n\nWarm air from the Azores has been reaching the UK in recent days, bringing unusually mild weather.\n\nThe previous New Year's Day record was set in 1916, when it reached 15.6C (60.1F) in Bude, Cornwall.\n\nSaturday's high temperature was originally thought to be 16.2C before a slightly higher temperature was recorded later in the day.\n\nFriday was also the warmest New Year's Eve on record.\n\nBBC weather forecaster Ben Rich said: \"We've had winds coming from the south and south west bringing very warm air from the Azores - nearly all the way from the tropics - wafting across the UK and it's that which has lifted the temperatures.\n\n\"It's been with us for a few days now and warming up day by day.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Met Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSunday will be a little colder but temperatures will be still well above normal for this time of year, he added.\n\nThe mild weather currently being seen is widespread across the UK, he added.\n\n\"Around Tuesday it will be much colder as the southerly winds are replaced by northerly winds,\" he said. \"There could be some wintery showers, especially in the north of the UK. It will be a real change.\"\n\nIt will drop to somewhere between 6C and 9C, he said - in line with the average temperatures of 7C or 8C for the start of January.\n\nIn Edinburgh, it could get to as low as 3C on Tuesday.\n\nThe Met Office say the UK's record temperatures have all been elevated by manmade climate change which has raised temperatures globally by 1.1C.\n\nCold records are still being broken, as in the Beast from the East storm in 2018.\n\nBut the Met Office say warm weather records are being broken nine times more frequently - a clear sign of an over-heating planet.\n\nThe winter wildfires in Colorado are arguably even more alarming than unseasonal warmth in the UK.\n\nIt's too soon to say what role human-driven climate change may have played in the disaster - but it's the latest episode of regular weather patterns being disrupted.\n\nMeanwhile, different regions of Alaska are experiencing record high and low temperatures at the same time.\n\nClimate scientists warn that we can expect many more extremes as the planet continues to heat. And attempts to reduce emissions have been undermined by several factors, including President Biden's struggle with climate policies in the USA.\n\nThe Met Office said Scotland had also recorded its warmest New Year's Day temperature, which was 15.9C in Achnagart in the Highlands.\n\nThe previous record was 14.5C in Inverurie in 1992.\n\nThere is also a new record for Wales, with 15.6C in Hawarden, Flintshire.\n\nThose taking a New Year's Day dip in the Firth of Forth benefitted from warmer air temperatures\n\nAnd people in Scarborough have been enjoying the mild weather with a walk on the beach\n\nOvernight on Friday, it reached 16.5C in Bala, Gwynedd, north Wales, making it the hottest New Year's Eve on record.\n\nIt has been so warm that the skating rink at London's Somerset House had to close on New Year's Day because the ice was being affected.\n\nThe Met Office also said a new provisional record had been set for the UK's highest minimum - or overnight - temperature for New Year's Day and the month of January as a whole.\n\nThat was in Chivenor, Devon, which had a temperature of 13.2C. The previous record was 13.1C and was set in 2016.", "Novak Djokovic of Serbia, seen here last year in Melbourne, is preparing to appeal his deportation\n\nA bid by the Australian government to delay Novak Djokovic's appeal against deportation has been rejected by a judge overseeing his case.\n\nThe government had requested the tennis star's court hearing be postponed until Wednesday, but it will instead begin as scheduled on Monday morning.\n\nDjokovic was denied entry to Australia after landing in Melbourne last week to defend his Australian Open title.\n\nHis case has caused a huge outcry and made headlines around the world.\n\nThe world number one men's tennis player - who has said he is opposed to vaccination - is in an immigration detention centre as his lawyers prepare to appeal against a decision by Australia's federal government to cancel his visa.\n\nDjokovic, 34, had been granted a medical exemption to play in the Australian Open tournament in a decision that infuriated many ordinary Australians who have been living under some of the world's strictest Covid rules.\n\nOn Saturday, Djokovic's lawyers submitted a 35-page document arguing that their client fulfilled the criteria for a vaccine exemption certificate because of a recent Covid infection, which was confirmed by a PCR test on 16 December.\n\nThere had been no prior announcement of Djokovic's Covid infection, and photos have since emerged of the player apparently attending events in the Serbian capital Belgrade maskless at around the time he tested positive.\n\nIt is unclear whether he knew he had Covid when the photos were taken.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Novak Djokovic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Australian government has insisted that a recent Covid infection only offers an exemption for residents - and in its own submission to the court on Sunday, government lawyers said the tennis star had been given no assurance a medical exemption would be accepted.\n\nIt appears that Djokovic's team will effectively tell the court that the decision to revoke the visa was affected by a variety of \"jurisdictional errors\" - but that the government will firmly reject any attempt to have its processes ruled invalid.\n\nDjokovic's lawyers have said he was kept at the immigration control point at Melbourne Airport for about eight hours after he arrived, and that he had little communication with them during that period - which the Australian government says was in no way unfair to the tennis star.\n\nOn Sunday, a court order by Judge Anthony Kelly stated that the request to delay the hearing until 12 January had been \"refused without prejudice\" and that submissions must be presented to the court at 10:00 local time on Monday (23:00 GMT Sunday).\n\nLast week, Tennis Australia said it would need to know whether Djokovic was participating in the Australian Open so that it could schedule his games in the competition.\n\nWhile he awaits a final decision, Djokovic's lawyers have asked he be moved from the immigration detention hotel that has often been criticised by refugees for its poor conditions, to \"a more suitable place of detention\" that would allow him to train ahead of the Australian Open.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shaimaa Khalil reports from Melbourne's Park Hotel on the latest twist in the Djokovic visa row\n\nAustralia's pandemic border rules ban foreigners from entering the country if they are not either double vaccinated or have a medical exemption from having the jabs.\n\nWhile foreigners can fly in to Australia on a visa applied for online, they must still clear immigration customs on arrival at the airport.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne.", "Ten people have been killed after part of a cliff collapsed onto leisure boats on a Brazilian lake.\n\nAnother 32 were injured in the accident in the south-east of the country.\n\nVideo circulating online shows the moment the rock detaches from the cliff face as onlookers try to yell warnings to the boats beneath.\n\nAt least one of the boats appears to have sunk, while others managed to escape from the huge wave the falling rock created.\n\nThe collapse at 11:00 local time (14:00 GMT) followed days of rain in Minas Gerais state, which had made the cliffs more susceptible to collapse, local fire officials told reporters.\n\n\"That piece will fall out,\" a woman can be heard saying in a video of the accident. \"Get out of there,\" warns another, before the cliff collapses onto the boats.\n\nThree vessels were hit by falling rock, Lieutenant Pedro Aihara told reporters. Out of the 32 injured, nine people were in hospital.\n\nTwenty people were initially reported missing, but Lt Aihara said most were accounted for after checking hospital lists.\n\nAlessandra Barbosa told news outlet EPTV that she is seeking news of her uncles, who were spending the weekend at the site and decided to take a boat tour of the cliff.\n\n\"I called local hospitals. So far I haven't had any information about them. We are distressed, very concerned,\" she said.\n\n\"We get nervous because we have no information and it's family, right? Family is everything to us.\"\n\nAuthorities are now trying to identify those killed, with their bodies badly damaged in the collapse.", "A memorial wall near St Thomas' Hospital in London remembers those who have died with Covid\n\nMore than 150,000 people in the UK have now died within 28 days of a positive Covid test since the pandemic began.\n\nA further 313 deaths were reported in the government's daily figures on Saturday, taking the total to 150,057.\n\nThe UK is the seventh country to pass 150,000 reported deaths, after the US, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico and Peru.\n\nThe prime minister said every death \"is a profound loss to the friends and communities affected and my thoughts and condolences are with them\".\n\nBoris Johnson added that coronavirus had taken a \"terrible toll on our country\" and \"our way out of this pandemic is for everyone to get their booster or their first or second dose if they haven't yet\".\n\nSome 146,390 new cases have been recorded in the UK, with the more transmissible Omicron variant driving a surge in infections.\n\nThe number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test has also begun to rise, with the total of 1,271 in the past seven days up 38.3% on the previous week.\n\nThe impact of vaccinations means Covid hospital admissions and deaths are not rising as quickly as during previous waves.\n\nHowever, hospitals remain under pressure due to rising admissions and Covid-related staff absences.\n\nIn Scotland the number of people in hospital with Covid has increased by more than 50% in the last week, according to new figures.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCamilla Claridge, from Oxfordshire, lost her grandmother to Covid in February last year and on the night of her funeral, she learned that her father was also dying with the virus.\n\n\"We buried nan and we came home from the funeral and then we were woken at one o'clock in the morning from a phone call to say that it was time to think about saying our goodbyes,\" she said.\n\n\"It was horrendous. The ICU, you walk in and there's just beds of people lined up with machines breathing for them…. I didn't even recognise [my dad] because of all the tubes.\"\n\n\"It's hard to even imagine 150,000 people, families who have gone through what we're going through,\" she added.\n\nProf Andrew Hayward, who is a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said the death toll was \"absolutely tragic\".\n\n\"I think we could have done better,\" he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. \"I think some of the deaths are even more tragic for the fact that many of them were avoidable if we had acted earlier in the first and second wave.\"\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the news as \"a dark milestone for our country\".\n\n\"Our thoughts are with all those who have lost someone, and we thank everyone supporting the vaccination effort,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"We must ensure the public inquiry provides answers and that lessons are learned.\"\n\nThe prime minister has promised to launch an independent public inquiry into the government's handling of the pandemic in the spring of this year.\n\nJo Goodman, co-founder of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign, said the \"country needs answers as to why we have suffered one of the highest global death tolls\".\n\n\"This is ever more urgent as deaths from the Omicron variant continue to surge, with little apparently being done to address this. The public inquiry cannot begin its work soon enough,\" she added.\n\nOfficial figures count coronavirus deaths in different ways.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics records the number of deaths where Covid-19 is mentioned as a cause on the death certificate, even if the person had not been tested for the virus, with a total of 173,248 deaths recorded up to 24 December.\n\nIn January 2021, the UK was the first European nation and fifth country to pass 100,000 reported Covid deaths.\n\nSix weeks later the UK had seen another 25,000 deaths.\n\nBut the combined effect of vaccine rollout and lockdown slowed the growth of the death toll throughout the rest of the year.\n\nThe UK's reported Covid death rate is 225 deaths per 100,000 people. By this measure, it has the 28th highest reported figure of any country, according to Johns Hopkins University.\n\nIt's almost a year since the UK recorded 100,000 deaths. Most of those came in two waves - a sharp sudden surge in the spring followed by a slow, sustained rise in the autumn and winter of 2020 into 2021, largely before vaccines were available.\n\nOn 8 December 2020, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan made history by being the first person to receive a Covid jab as part of the UK's national rollout.\n\nVaccines have been the real success story of the pandemic, weakening the link between infections and serious illness and deaths from the virus. But some fatalities are still inevitable.\n\nToday, the total number of deaths in the UK stands at more than 150,000. It is a sobering reminder of why societies cannot ignore Covid. It hasn't gone away.\n\nA government spokesman said: \"Every death from this virus is a tragedy and our sympathies are with everyone who has lost loved ones.\n\n\"We are thankful for the collective national effort and the hard work of frontline health and social care staff and volunteers for administering vaccines to tens of millions of people and keeping people safe. Their tireless efforts have saved thousands of lives.\"\n\nHowever, he added \"the pandemic is not over\" and urged people to \"play their part\" by getting vaccinated.\n\nIt comes after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said a fourth Covid jab was not needed for most people yet.\n\nData suggests that three months after getting a booster dose, protection against hospital admission remains at about 90% for people aged 65 and over.\n\nThe JCVI said the priority therefore remained to get first, second and third doses to people who have not already had them.\n\nThe prime minister has said he hopes England can \"ride out\" the current wave of infections without further restrictions, although he acknowledged parts of the NHS would feel \"temporarily overwhelmed\".\n\nEngland is currently under Plan B restrictions, which includes mandatory face masks in most public indoor spaces, Covid passes for entry to some large venues and advice to work from home where possible.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have already introduced tougher measures for hospitality venues.\n\nWe have gathered tributes to more than 770 of those who have died with coronavirus. Below are words of remembrance from friends, family and colleagues.\n\nThe tributes are displayed at random, which means that you will see different faces each time you visit this page.\n\nPlease enable JavaScript or upgrade your browser to see this interactive", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nPolice are investigating racist abuse that was directed at ex-England defender Ashley Cole at Swindon's FA Cup clash with Manchester City.\n\nSwindon have apologised to Cole, who was part of ITV's presentation team at the County Ground on Friday\n\n\"We are absolutely saddened and deeply disgusted by this,\" said Swindon owner Clem Morfuni.\n\n\"We cannot stress strongly enough that racial abuse of any kind will not be tolerated.\"\n\nHe added: \"Racism has no place in the world and it is incredibly heart-breaking that this still has a place in our game.\n\n\"We are working with Wiltshire Police on gathering evidence but those responsible will be punished accordingly.\n\n\"On behalf of everyone at Swindon Town Football Club, we send out our heartfelt apologies to Ashley Cole and it is with our deepest regret that you had to experience that.\n\n\"Those few individuals do not represent Swindon Town and will not be welcome at The County Ground.\"\n\nSwindon, from League Two, lost 4-1 to the Premier League leaders in the tie which opened the weekend of third round action.\n\n\"We are aware that one person was subject to racial abuse at the County Ground following the Swindon Town v Manchester City game last night,\" said a statement from Wiltshire Police.\n\n\"We have already commenced an investigation, obtaining statements and securing CCTV. Further enquiries in relation to this incident are ongoing,.\n\n\"Behaviour of this nature is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Anyone with information should call 101 and quote crime reference number 54220002136.\"\n\nSwindon Town Supporters Trust said it was \"deeply saddened and disgusted\", adding: \"This does not represent our club or fanbase, and there should be no place in the game or society for this type of behaviour.\"\n• None Watch all of the latest FA Cup highlights and reaction here", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Fire is a \"horrific, painful moment\" for New York, says Mayor Eric Adams\n\nAt least 19 people, including nine children, have died after a fire in a New York apartment building.\n\nAnother 32 people were sent to hospital, several of whom are in a critical condition, according to New York Mayor Eric Adams.\n\nFire department Commissioner Daniel Nigro said they had found victims on every floor of the 19-storey block, saying the smoke was \"unprecedented\".\n\nHe told NBC News the death toll was the worst seen in New York for 30 years.\n\nIt comes days after an apartment fire in Philadelphia killed 12, with eight children among the dead.\n\nSunday's fire broke out in an apartment that spans the second and third floors of the Bronx apartment block at about 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT), officials said.\n\nSome 200 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze, which officials believe was sparked by a malfunctioning electric heater.\n\nCommissioner Nigro said there were two floors of fire, but the smoke had spread everywhere.\n\nThe local fire chief said the blaze was \"unprecedented\"\n\nVictims were found on every floor of the building\n\nThe door to the apartment where the fire started was left open, and smoke then spread to every floor, Commissioner Nigro told reporters.\n\n\"Members found victims on every floor in stairwells and were taking them out in cardiac and respiratory arrest,\" he said.\n\nIn a virtual news conference on Monday, Andrew Ansbro, the president of the firefighters' union, said the building was \"well-known in that area, for having difficult fires\", noting that its fire protection rules with regard to sprinklers and self-closing doors may have been different from those of the city.\n\nHe claimed it was because the building had previously received federal subsidies and therefore was not required to follow the same fire codes.\n\nMr Ansbro also said that Covid-19 had affected the staffing levels of first responders.\n\nGeorge King, who lives nearby, told AFP news agency people were waving from the windows as the flames took hold.\n\n\"I saw the smoke, a lot of people were panicking,\" he said. \"You could see that no-one wanted to jump from the building.\"\n\nDozens of people have been injured\n\nA total of 63 people suffered injuries, including the 32 taken to hospital. Thirteen are in a critical condition, Stefan Ringel, a senior adviser to the mayor, told AP news agency.\n\n\"The impact of this fire is going to bring a level of pain and despair to our city,\" Mr Adams told reporters. \"The numbers are horrific.\"\n\nHe told CNN on Monday that the incident was \"a wake-up call for all our buildings\" to ensure complaints are heard and protective measures are working.\n\nNew York Governor Kathy Hochul called Sunday's events \"a night of tragedy\", and pledged to create a victims' compensation fund to support survivors.\n\n\"There will be money to find new housing, burial costs and whatever we need because that's what we do here in New York,\" Ms Hochul said.\n\nThe area of the Bronx where the fire occurred is home to a large Muslim immigrant population and many of those affected by the blaze are believed to have originally come to the US from the Gambia.\n\nMr Adams urged anyone impacted by the fire to seek assistance from the authorities, irrespective of immigration status. He assured residents that their details would not be passed on to immigration services.\n\nSpeaking alongside Mr Adams, New York Senator Chuck Schumer pledged to provide immigration support to allow families to come together to grieve.\n\nThe building hosts a number of affordable housing apartments and the blaze is likely to raise questions over the quality of such units in the city.\n\nRepresentative Ritchie Torres, a Democratic lawmaker whose district includes the building, told the US network MSNBC that developments such as the building where the fire hit pose safety risks to residents.\n\n\"When we allow our affordable housing developments to be plagued by decades of disinvestment, we are putting lives at risk,\" Mr Torres said.\n\nDid you witness the incident? Is there any information that you'd like to share? Contact us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Artwork: Webb is now in the designed configuration to view the cosmos\n\nIt's done. The biggest astronomical mirror ever sent into space is assembled and ready for focusing.\n\nThe golden reflector, the centrepiece of the new James Webb telescope, was straightened out on Saturday into its full, 6.5m-wide, concave shape.\n\nThe mirror had been folded like a drop-leaf table for the mission's Christmas Day launch.\n\nJames Webb is set now to become a transformative tool in the study of all parts of the cosmos.\n\nScientists intend to use the $10bn observatory and its remarkable mirror to capture events that occurred just a couple of hundred million years after the Big Bang. They want to see the very first stars to light up the Universe.\n\nThey'll also train the telescope's big \"eye\" on the atmospheres of distant planets to see if those worlds might be habitable.\n\n\"Webb has the potential to blow people away, even people who are used to the pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope - and I know that's hard to imagine,\" said Lee Feinberg, who's led the Webb mirror development team at the US space agency (Nasa).\n\n\"Webb is so powerful, almost anywhere we look we're going to be breaking new ground in a huge way,\" he told BBC News.\n\nWebb was sent up with the sides of its main mirror folded like a drop-leaf table\n\nThe telescope is a joint project of the American, European and Canadian space agencies. It has taken 30 years to design and build, and will continue the revelatory science of Hubble, which is now nearing the end of its operational life.\n\nWebb carries next-generation technologies. It's also much bigger. It's so big, it had to be flat-packed to fit inside the nosecone of the European Ariane rocket that took it to orbit on 25 December.\n\nThe subsequent unwrapping over the past fortnight has had everyone holding their breath. But the complex series of deployments, which included the unfurling of a tennis-court-sized sun shield, passed off with no drama.\n\nIt will go down in space exploration history as an astonishing accomplishment.\n\nIt's time for astronomers to breathe a sigh of relief.\n\nUsually it's the launch that's the most nail-biting part of a mission but the last two weeks have been even more nerve-wracking. Unfolding a telescope of such colossal proportions has been one of the most challenging deployments ever attempted in space.\n\nBut team Webb has done it. And, in fact, it's gone so smoothly, they've made the task look easy. The decades of work on the telescope's design and its innovative engineering have clearly paid off.\n\nThe real proof of the observatory's power though won't come until this summer when the first images are captured and beamed back to Earth. And expectations are sky-high - the views should not only be spectacular but they could also answer some of the biggest questions - like how did our Universe begin and does life exist beyond the Earth?\n\nWebb has a lot of promise to live up to.\n\nControllers, based at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, completed the rearrangement sequence by rotating the main mirror's two \"wings\" through 90 degrees.\n\nTelemetry beamed down from Webb confirmed the second of these side panels had been latched and locked in place at 18:16 GMT.\n\n\"We have a fully deployed JWST observatory,\" Carl Starr, the mission operations manager at STScI, announced.\n\n\"The last two weeks have been totally amazing,\" added Bill Ochs, the Nasa Webb programme manager. \"Thousands of people have worked on JWST to get us to this point. I will tell you every single day that I am honoured and humbled to be associated with this team.\"\n\nAnd addressing controllers, Thomas Zurbuchen, the director of science at Nasa, said: \"We have a deployed telescope on orbit, a magnificent telescope the likes of which the world has never seen. So, how does it feel to make history everybody?\"\n\nThere is still much to do to get James Webb ready to image the Universe. The initial task is simply to let it get very cold.\n\nThe telescope is designed to work in the infrared. It's at this longer wavelength of light (longer than we can see with our eyes) that the pioneer stars will be observed to shine. But unless Webb is taken down to a super-low temperature, its own heat energy will swamp the faintest of signals.\n\n\"We'd be blotting out the very thing we want to see; it would be like trying to look at a lighted match in front of a burning haystack. You'd be lost,\" said Gillian Wright, one of Webb's principal investigators.\n\nHubble's pictures transformed our view of the cosmos. Webb's should be no less impressive\n\nThe big shield will produce a shadow from the Sun that will eventually put Webb below -230C.\n\nOnly in this frigid condition will the four scientific instruments onboard have the required sensitivity.\n\nEngineers will begin checking over their function and performance shortly. They'll also have to align all 18 hexagonal segments in the main mirror to make them behave like a single monolithic reflecting surface.\n\nEach of the segments has motors at the rear that can move them up and down, tip them sideways, rotate them, and even slightly bend them to give them exactly the right curvature.\n\nAll of this preparatory work will fill the next five months or so. The first public release of pictures from Webb is not expected until the end of June at the earliest. But we should be prepared to be wowed, say space agency officials.\n\n\"Webb is an engineering marvel, but it also has this beauty to it,\" enthused Lee Feinberg.\n\n\"One of my favourite things was to watch people's faces when they walked up and looked at it. There is a feeling of awe that humans created this thing. It's just the size and the scale, and the gold coatings. It really lifts you up,\" he told BBC News.\n\nWebb was funded for an initial five years of operations with an expectation it could work for about 10. The life-limiting factor has always been considered to be the amount of fuel onboard the telescope to maintain positioning in space. But such was the accuracy of the launch rocket in putting Webb in just the right part of the sky, astronomers can now look forward to a much longer lived observatory.\n\n\"We have quite a bit of fuel margin right now relative to 10 years. Roughly speaking, it's around 20 years of propellant,\" said Mike Menzel, Nasa's Webb mission systems engineer.\n\n\"There is a feeling of awe that humans created this thing\"", "Djokovic's lawyers said the Serbian had shown no Covid symptoms two weeks after testing postive\n\nTennis star Novak Djokovic had a vaccine exemption to enter Australia after a Covid infection on 16 December, his lawyers say in court documents.\n\nDjokovic was denied entry to Australia after landing in Melbourne this week to play in the Australian Open.\n\nThe world's top ranked tennis player is currently in an immigration detention centre ahead of a court case on Monday.\n\nHis case has caused a huge outcry in Australia and made headlines around the world.\n\nMeanwhile photos have emerged of Djokovic apparently attending events in the Serbian capital Belgrade at around the time he tested positive.\n\nA second Australian Open hopeful, Renata Voracova from the Czech Republic, has now left the country after having her visa cancelled.\n\nThe Czech government had argued the 38-year-old, ranked 81 in the world, had entered Australia on a valid exemption, because she too had had Covid recently.\n\nDjokovic, 34, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted a medical exemption to play in the tournament in a decision that infuriated many ordinary Australians who have been living under some of the world's strictest Covid rules.\n\nBut upon landing, the Serbian was then denied entry into the country.\n\nHis lawyers said he was kept at the immigration control point at Melbourne Airport for about eight hours after he arrived, and that he had little communication with them during that period.\n\nAustralian Border Force (ABF) officials said the player had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" because a prior infection was not a valid reason to enter without a vaccination.\n\nBut in court documents released on Saturday, Djokovic's lawyers argue the player had been granted a temporary visa by Tennis Australia because of his recent infection. It appears they will effectively tell the court that the decision to revoke the visa was affected by a variety of \"jurisdictional errors\".\n\nThere had been no prior announcement of Djokovic's Covid infection, which was confirmed by a PCR test on 16 December.\n\nBut on 17 December, Djokovic posted images to Twitter of his maskless appearance at a ceremony in which he was honoured with his own Serbian postage stamps in recognition for his achievements.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Novak Djokovic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAlso on 17 December, he posed maskless with young players at the Novak tennis centre.\n\nIt is unclear whether he knew he had Covid when the photos were taken.\n\nOne Serbian sports journalist told the BBC that the issue should not affect the player's appeal against deportation from Australia. But he could face a fine on return to Serbia if he knew he was positive when he attended the awards ceremony.\n\nWhile he awaits a final decision, Djokovic's lawyers have asked he be moved from the immigration detention hotel that has often been criticised by refugees for its poor conditions where he is currently being held, to \"a more suitable place of detention\" that would allow him to train ahead of the Australian Open.\n\nFellow tennis player Voracova was held at the same immigration detention hotel as Djokovic, the Park Hotel, and has described it as being \"like in prison\".\n\nHowever, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said Djokovic would remain at the Park Hotel until a final decision was made.\n\n\"We've managed to make sure gluten-free food is delivered to him, as well as exercising tools, a laptop and a SIM card so that he is able to be in contact with his family,\" she told reporters - adding that talks behind the scene had been constructive.\n\n\"It's a positive tone from the Australian side,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shaimaa Khalil reports from Melbourne's Park Hotel on the latest twist in the Djokovic visa row\n\nAustralia's pandemic border rules ban foreigners from entering the country if they are not either double vaccinated or have a medical exemption from having the jabs.\n\nWhile foreigners can fly in to Australia on a visa applied for online, they must still clear immigration customs on arrival at the airport.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Around 1,000 cars stranded after travelling to see heavy snow in Murree\n\nA tourist trapped in her car for hours by unprecedented snowfall in Pakistan has described how she \"saw death\" in front of her as she waited for help.\n\nSamina was in one of thousands who rushed to view the winter snowfall in the hilltop town of Murree.\n\nBut a blizzard on Friday had felled trees and blocked roads in and out of the town just north of the capital.\n\nAround 1,000 vehicles became stranded, and at least 22 people died, including two large families.\n\nSamina told the BBC she had left her home at 16:00 local time to travel to Murree, but soon found herself among those trapped in the snow. Pictures and videos posted on social media showed stranded cars bumper to bumper, with snow piled on their roofs.\n\n\"I could see death in front of me,\" Samina said. \"It was like there were snow peaks built around our car... I can't explain in words what I was going through.\n\n\"We were praying God may help us and we shouldn't be perished in a snowstorm.\"\n\nAccording to Tariq Ullah, an official in the nearby town of Nathiagali, the blizzard dumped up to 1.5m (5ft) of snow within just a few hours.\n\n\"It was unprecedented,\" he told AFP news agency. \"There were strong winds, uprooted trees, avalanches. People around were terrified.\"\n\nSamina was finally rescued at 10:00 the next morning, spending the night in one of the shelters set up in the resort town, which sits at 2,300 metres (7,500 feet) above sea level.\n\nBut among those who died were 10 children, emergency services said, as well as two families of five and eight.\n\nAuthorities said eight people froze to death, while asphyxiation after inhaling fumes while trying to keep warm in their vehicles has been given as a possible reason for the others.\n\nQuestions are now being asked about how this was allowed to happen.\n\nVehicles became trapped on narrow roads near the hilltop town of Murree on Friday morning\n\n\"We didn't get any type of alert from society, from the government, from Google, from the news, from the weather,\" Duaa Kashif Ali, a tourist from Islamabad, told AFP.\n\nShe and 13 other family members and friends abandoned their cars and walked about a mile (1.5km) to a guesthouse where they found shelter.\n\nAccording to the BBC's Farhat Javed - who is in Murree - there is space for about 5,000 cars in the town. However on Friday, 100,000 visitors had been allowed to enter, causing a massive traffic jam as they struggled through the deep snow.\n\nVehicles were abandoned on the roads, and emergency workers - who were first made aware of the problem on Friday morning - told the BBC their own response was slowed by the traffic jams.\n\nThe Punjab provincial government said there would be a full investigation into whether there was a failure to act on severe weather warnings.\n\n\"A high-level inquiry will be launched and if there is any kind of negligence, then action will be taken against all those involved,\" spokesman Hasaan Khawar said.\n\nBut this will not happen before the roads to Murree - which was built by the British in the 19th Century as a medical base for its colonial troops - are cleared.", "Complaints about how the BBC reported on an alleged anti-Semitic incident on a bus will be dealt with \"as swiftly as possible\", the corporation has said.\n\nA police investigation was launched after Jewish passengers were subjected to abuse in London on 29 November.\n\nThe Board of Deputies of British Jews has since complained about how the BBC covered this story.\n\nCulture Secretary Nadine Dorries has written to the broadcaster asking how it will resolve this.\n\nFollowing the incident last year, police appealed for help in tracing a group of men over alleged anti-Semitic abuse directed towards Jewish people celebrating Hanukkah on a privately hired bus in Oxford Street.\n\nThe BBC said in its reporting of this story that a slur about Muslims could be heard from inside the bus - which the Board of Deputies of British Jews has disputed.\n\nPolice said at the time they were treating the incident, which had been filmed, as a hate crime and were investigating it in its entirety. No arrests have yet been made and enquiries are still ongoing.\n\nResponding to the criticism of its reporting, a BBC spokeswoman said: \"Anti-Semitism is abhorrent. We strive to serve the Jewish community, and all communities across our country, fairly. As we have stated previously, our story was a factual report that overwhelmingly focused on the individuals the police want to identify; those who directed abuse at the bus.\n\n\"We know that there are some strong views about this report. We take complaints very seriously and they are being taken through our complaints process.\n\n\"[Director general] Tim Davie has instructed that this process is accelerated to the Executive Complaints Unit, which is editorially independent from news, and will ensure the complaints are fully responded to as swiftly as possible.\"", "Data for England is shown by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. Data for Wales and Scotland is shown by Health Board and in Northern Ireland by Health and Social Care Trust.\n\nWhen you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board and by Health and Social Care trust in Northern Ireland.\n\nComparative data is shown for a previous year where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Earlier data is not available for all measures, so comparisons between years are not always possible.\n\nA&E attendances include all emergency departments in that trust or health board, not just major A&E departments, for example, those who attend minor injury units.\n\nEach nation has different target times for some of the measures shown, therefore comparisons between them may not be possible.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Scottish government is not considering further reducing Covid self-isolation periods, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has said.\n\nIt came after Nadhim Zahawi, the UK government education secretary, backed dropping England's quarantine limit from seven days to five.\n\nOn Thursday the isolation period in Scotland was cut from 10 days to seven.\n\nMr Yousaf said ministers wanted to see the impact of that move before making any further decisions.\n\nIt came as another 7,561 new cases of Covid were reported in Scotland.\n\nThe latest daily statistics also reveal there were 1,382 Covid patients in hospital on Saturday, and 55 in intensive care - up from 48 on Friday.\n\nScotland was the last of the four nations to reduce the self-isolation period.\n\nUnder the new rules, people who test positive for Covid can leave isolation if they have no fever and record two negative lateral flow tests.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Yousaf said it was a risky move to change the quarantine rules.\n\n\"It's not that there isn't a risk attached with going from 10 days to seven days, there is a risk,\" he said.\n\n\"It's just that we wanted time to consider whether or not we would, inadvertently, for example, accelerate the transmission of the virus by cutting that isolation period.\"\n\nMr Yousaf said the Scottish government intended to keep the matter under review.\n\nHe added: \"We're not contemplating at this stage going from seven days to five.\n\n\"We've literally just made the change from 10 days to seven days. I think it'd be sensible to see the impact and the effect of that.\n\n\"But, clearly, we're always guided by the science.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nadhim Zahawi says plans to cut self-isolation to five days are still under review\n\nThe emergence of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant has led to staffing pressures in several sectors, including health and social care, and the police.\n\nWhile hospital patient numbers rise, the latest statistics show that 3.1% of the NHS workforce and 9.1% of adult care home were absent for Covid reasons at the end of last week.\n\nPolice Scotland is drafting in 258 probationers and more than 300 specialist officers to cover absences across the country.\n\nSome schools have also warned of disruption caused by staff absences.\n\nMr Zahawi said cutting the self-isolation period to five days would help with staff absenteeism.\n\nHe told BBC One's Sunday Morning that the UK Health Security Agency had said that there might be a higher spike if the period was cut from seven to five days but the government would keep the measure under review.\n\nThe UK government minister also said the country was on the road \"from pandemic to endemic\".\n\nIt was a view supported by Christine Tait-Burkhard, an expert on coronaviruses at Edinburgh University's Roslin Institute, who said \"we're definitely at the beginning of this being an endemic disease\".\n\n\"So what we would look at with the flu, for instance, that this is probably the version of the virus that is going to come back in the winter months but we have built up baseline immunity in the population to help combat it,\" Dr Tait-Burkhard said.\n\n\"We have got drugs to treat people who end up in hospital, and there's a lot more development in the pipeline to support it.\"\n\nMeanwhile the education secretary also denied there were plans to stop supplying free lateral flow tests - after a report in a Sunday newspaper.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon had said such a move would be an \"utterly wrongheaded\" approach to dealing with coronavirus.", "At least 17 people, including eight children, have died after a fire in an apartment building in the Bronx.\n\nCity Mayor Eric Adams called it a \"horrific, painful moment\" for New York.\n\nThis video was updated on 10 January, to reflect that city officials had revised the number of people killed in the fire downwards, from 19 to 17.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nFourth Ashes Test, Sydney (day five of five)\n\nEngland clung on for a tense draw on the final day of the fourth Test in Sydney to end Australia's hopes of an Ashes clean sweep.\n\nThe tourists were 13 balls from safety when Jack Leach edged Steve Smith behind, leaving it to Stuart Broad and last batter James Anderson to guide England home.\n\nWith the light fading and every Australia fielder around the bat, Broad and Anderson blocked out Smith and Nathan Lyon to secure a hard-fought draw, closing on 270-9.\n\nZak Crawley earlier made a fluent 77 and Ben Stokes hit 60 despite still struggling with his side injury as England crept towards safety.\n\nBoland continued his extraordinary start to Test cricket with 3-30, while captain Pat Cummins took two wickets in three balls to rattle England.\n\nIt was a thrilling end to an entertaining match, with England's players barely able to watch in the dressing room as Anderson played out the final over.\n\nAustralia may be left to rue their late declaration on the fourth day, with rain meaning they lost seven overs as they tried to force victory on Sunday.\n\nThe final Test of the series - a day-night match in Hobart - begins on 14 January.\n\nEngland may have already lost the Ashes but here they showed real fight and character throughout the match.\n\nJonny Bairstow displayed grit with his first-innings century and that energy and determination filtered back to the dressing room as the tourists fought to repel Australia on an absorbing final day.\n\nThe small crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground were at their loudest in the final hour, as Australia tore in with the new ball.\n\nCummins, who had been subdued with the ball throughout the day, trapped Jos Buttler lbw on review before doing the same to Mark Wood two balls later with a delivery that knocked the bowler off his feet.\n\nThat left it to Bairstow, nursing an thumb injury that may keep him out of the next Test, and Leach, one of the heroes of Headingley 2019, to see off 15 overs.\n\nAustralia felt the pressure, with Smith dropping Bairstow off Mitchell Starc, but they would have felt victory was in their grasp when the same batter popped a catch to silly mid-off.\n\nLeach and Broad withstood some short, fast, hostile bowling, all accompanied by the chirping of the players around the bat, before a disappointed Leach edged Smith to slip.\n\nIt was left to Broad and Anderson, the veterans, to see England home and give them something to smile about after a bruising tour.\n\nPositives have been few and far between for England, but Crawley's performance in the morning session hinted at what could be in the coming years.\n\nHaving started strongly the previous night, Crawley refused to let the bowlers settle. He pulled and drove the off-colour Starc before flicking Lyon away to bring up a 69-ball half-century.\n\nJust as Bairstow and Stokes did on the third day, Crawley threw Australia off their plans, dominating the bowling with his elegant strokeplay.\n\nBy the time he fell, trapped by an excellent yorker from Cameron Green, he had scored 77. The other three England batters had scored 19 runs between them.\n\nCrawley also shared a 43-run stand with fellow opener Hameed. That this was England's third highest opening partnership in the last four Ashes series underlines how long their Test batting has been falling away.\n\nHameed battled admirably but struggled for the fluency Crawley was showing at the other end.\n\nHe was dropped by Alex Carey off Cummins but could not make it count, instead fiddling Scott Boland behind for nine to register his sixth consecutive single-figure score. It seems highly unlikely he will feature in the final Test at Hobart.\n\nDawid Malan played a poor shot to Lyon and was bowled, Root was left aghast as he nicked Boland behind and Stokes, having battled so bravely, almost punched his bat as he sent a simple catch off Lyon to Smith at slip.\n\nEngland have still to pass 300 on this tour, and while the draw in Sydney will raise their spirits, they will know that the same batting problems still linger in the background.\n\n'Weather forecasts are hopeless' - what they said\n\nEngland captain Joe Root, speaking to Test Match Special: \"Relief is the overwhelming emotion and I'm quite proud too. We had a lot thrown at us in this game and the guys have really stood up and showed a lot of character and pride.\n\n\"Today shows how much it means to them. When you find yourself out of the series it is really important you front up and time and time again show how much it means to you. I think everyone has done that this week.\"\n\nAustralia captain Pat Cummins: \"That was a great game of Test cricket. We got close. The weather forecasts are hopeless. I learned that this week.\n\n\"I thought we'd left ourselves enough time. Today was good fun.\"\n\nPlayer of the match Usman Khawaja: \"It could have gone either way. We couldn't have asked for much more.\n\n\"I'm enjoying the game. I love it. There are ups and downs. I know the next time I play I could get two ducks.\"\n\nBBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew: \"It's only a draw, there was one wicket in it, but for the morale of the players and fans, it means an awful lot.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby\n\nThe Welsh Rugby Union is considering playing home Six Nations games in England because of Covid crowd restrictions in Wales.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford imposed restrictions on sporting events in Wales, effectively meaning professional games are behind closed doors.\n\nThere is no date set for when measures could be eased, with the next review scheduled for 7 January.\n\nWales are due to host Scotland in Cardiff on 12 February.\n• None Faletau expected to be fit for start of Six Nations\n• None Sturgeon hopes Scotland's Six Nations matches can 'go ahead to crowds'\n\nWayne Pivac's side are also scheduled to meet France on 11 March and Italy eight days later at the Principality Stadium, meaning Wales could face the prospect of playing over half the competition on home soil with no fans.\n\nAs things stand, sporting events in England have no restrictions, so Wales' visit to Twickenham on 26 February will be played before a full house of 82,000, provided spectators can prove full vaccination status or show a negative lateral flow test.\n\nWales launch the defence of their Six Nations title against Ireland in Dublin on 5 February, with current restrictions of 5,000 fans there.\n\nScotland also has restrictions on spectator numbers of 500, France has a limit of 5,000 fans and Italy has a Covid pass system in place after tightening restrictions in December.\n\nThe WRU lost £13.5m in matchday revenue during the 2021 Six Nations after home games against England and Ireland were played behind closed doors.\n\nThe WRU's preference is to play home fixtures this year in front of full crowds in Cardiff and the union hopes restrictions will be lifted in time.\n\nThere are major logistical issues in relocating matches including tickets already sold for the games, availability of stadiums and public health concerns, with the prospect of thousands of Welsh fans travelling to England and back.\n\nThe WRU has also stressed throughout the pandemic it will abide by and support Welsh government's policy on public health. The governing body will also rely on future financial assistance from the Welsh government.\n\nThis is the second time the WRU has considered moving games to England after exploring the possibility for the Autumn Nations Cup in November 2020, when the Principality Stadium was used as a field hospital.\n\nOn that occasion Wales ended up playing their matches at Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli with no spectators.\n\nWembley Stadium will not be able to host any Welsh Six Nations games this year because of preparations for England international football games in March.\n\nOther venues with the capacity required would be West Ham's London Stadium, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium or the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which WRU officials visited in late 2020.\n\nThat venue would prove troublesome this time around because two of the three weekends clash with Tottenham home matches in the Premier League.\n\nEngland's home ground Twickenham would also be another option.\n\nSix Nations organisers are monitoring the situation with meetings this week which they hope will offer more clarity on the situation in each of the countries.\n\n'Welsh pound should be spent in Cardiff not London'\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan says the Welsh Government would be disappointed if matches were staged outside of Wales and warned of financial consequences for the WRU.\n\n\"There would be a Welsh government understanding we would have to step in to support them financially if they did have to postpone those matches or cancel them in some way,\" said Ms Morgan.\n\n\"If they decide to go to England that would be more difficult for us to come up with that financial support.\"\n\nUnder Covid-19 restrictions imposed by the Welsh government, only 50 spectators are permitted to view outdoor events.\n\nThe guidelines are reviewed weekly and Mr Drakeford has so far refused to give public assurances fans will be allowed to return in time for the Six Nations as case numbers for the Omicron variant continue to surge.\n\nWales wing Louis Rees-Zammit, who plays for English club Gloucester, says fans must be allowed to watch the games, even if it means matches being moved.\n\nAndrew Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, says lifting crowd restrictions should be considered.\n\n\"Many people in Wales will tell you that the current restrictions do not make sense,\" he said.\n\n\"I am cautiously optimistic the initial fear over Omicron is not coming to pass and the Labour government needs to have a long hard think about if these restrictions are completely necessary on Friday [7 January].\n\n\"It would be another blow to the Welsh economy if more of the Welsh pound is spent in London and not Cardiff.\"\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"As a result of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant, Wales is currently at alert level two. The cabinet is reviewing the situation on a weekly basis.\"\n• None Shake off festive fatigue with a playlist that will help you relax and reset\n• None Can formulas really pick better teams?", "The headlines were terrifying. Hospitals facing intolerable pressures with patients left dying in corridors, the BBC reported.\n\nIt got so bad that 68 leading A&E doctors wrote to the prime minister to spell out their concerns.\n\nThis is not now though. It was the winter of 2017-18 - the last bad flu season when more than 300 people a day were dying from that virus at one point.\n\nAnd that was not even a one-off. In January 2016 hospitals were cancelling routine operations, telling patients to stay away from A&E if they could, and emergency treatment areas were being set up outside some units - just as they are now.\n\nThe truth is the past decade has been a story of lengthening waits and declining performance.\n\nA&E waits are the best barometer of this. The proportion of patients waiting less than four hours - a key metric in measuring NHS effectiveness - has been gradually eroded.\n\nIt is a similar story elsewhere in the UK - with performance even worse in Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThis should not come as a surprise, as NHS spending has been squeezed.\n\nBetween 2010 and 2019 the annual rises for health were well below those traditionally given since the birth of the NHS, making it difficult to keep up with the needs of the ageing population.\n\nDuring that period, the Tories have been in power - albeit with the Lib Dems for the first five years.\n\nBut it is worth noting, in its 2010 and 2015 election manifestos, Labour was not proposing any tangibly higher increases in spending either.\n\nThe financial crash of 2008 meant all the main political parties were signed up to the idea that spending had to be curtailed.\n\nThis parliament has seen a change - annual rises are now planned to be close to 4% and will end up higher once the pandemic spending is taken into account.\n\nBut the result of the squeeze in the 2010s is fewer doctors and nurses per head of population than our Western European neighbours.\n\nThe turn of the year is always the hardest time. And with the latest data for A&E only covering November, we need to look elsewhere to judge how alarming the current pressures driven by the Omicron variant are.\n\nSince Christmas there have been reports of hospitals declaring critical incidents. At one point on Wednesday evening, one in seven hospital trusts in England were in this situation.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How is the NHS in your area coping this winter? This trust does not currently supply A&E waiting time figures. When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data. Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted. This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available. If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed. In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data. Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board. Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.\n\nIt is, however, very hard to judge exactly what these declarations tell us. They are not normally made public and instead are there to alert local health systems that a service needs help. We have nothing to compare them to.\n\nIf we look at the delays ambulances face when dropping off patients at A&E - this data is available in England up to last weekend - we can see the current difficulties are worse than the last winter before the pandemic hit.\n\nBut it is also fair to say this does not represent the collapse of the NHS, despite all the headlines.\n\nThe truth is the health service will not suddenly become overwhelmed. Instead, what is happening is that care is deteriorating bit by bit.\n\nThe heart attack patients are waiting longer for an ambulance, more elderly patients are spending nights on a trolley in A&E and growing numbers of people are waiting for hip and knee replacements.\n\nThe challenges are, of course, different from winters past. It is a pandemic after all.\n\nA mass vaccination campaign is underway, while the level of staff absence from Covid is bringing another added complexity - it is nearly twice what you would expect - and explains why the army has had to be brought in.\n\nHospitals have also had to completely reconfigure their wards to create Covid and non-Covid areas.\n\nAnd the sheer numbers coming in are a problem. Traditionally winter would see around 1,000 admissions a day for all types of respiratory infections.\n\nCurrently the NHS is seeing more than double that for Covid alone - although a chunk admittedly are people who are ill with something else, such as broken arms, strokes and cancer for example, and may well have come in anyway.\n\nBut even if you discount these patients, you are still well above the 1,000 threshold.\n\nHowever, the NHS has been helped by lower pressures elsewhere. Flu is at rock-bottom levels. There are fewer than 50 patients in hospital with the virus in England.\n\nSo what can we conclude? The challenges are certainly worse and that is translating into poorer quality services.\n\nBut this is not the first year care has been compromised. What matters now is when Covid infections peak - that will determine just how bad this winter will be.\n\nHas your NHS treatment been delayed? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "150,000 people in the UK have now died with Covid-19.\n\nIt is a bleak, sobering figure after nearly two years of daily coronavirus statistics.\n\nBut the problem with statistics, is that a person can forget that behind every number is a person.\n\nHere, Health and Science Correspondent Laura Foster tries to help us understand the impact Covid-19 has had on the UK.", "Cladding being removed from building in Manchester in 2017\n\nHousing Secretary Michael Gove is vowing to \"expose and pursue\" firms responsible for safety problems caused by cladding, the BBC has learned.\n\nOn Monday, he will pledge to ease the \"unfair burden\" placed on leaseholders by issues exposed by the Grenfell fire.\n\nHe will set out measures aimed at forcing developers to pay for cladding removal from lower-height buildings, telling them \"we are coming for you\".\n\nChanges to make it easier for owners to sell their homes will also be unveiled.\n\nBBC Newsnight revealed on Friday that those who live in buildings between 11 and 18.5 metres high will not have to pay for the removal of dangerous cladding under the plans devised by Mr Gove.\n\nIn place of loans taken out by leaseholders, the government will attempt to secure up to £4bn from developers towards the costs.\n\nIn a statement to MPs on Monday, Mr Gove will say taxpayers should not be forced to cough up more money to pay for building defects like the removal of cladding.\n\nHe will set up a roundtable with developers to allow them to \"do the right thing\" before Easter but if that does not lead to a solution, Mr Gove will promise to \"impose a solution upon them in law\".\n\nLabour said the reported proposals were \"less significant than they sound\" and called for leaseholders to be \"fully protected in law from the costs of fixing all historic defects\".\n\nIn the wake of the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in hundreds of blocks of flats across the UK.\n\nRemoving cladding can cost millions of pounds per block, with the cost in lower-height buildings often being borne by individual flat owners, under the leasehold system in England and Wales.\n\nThe government had already promised to pay to remove cladding in taller buildings.\n\nBut hundreds of thousands of people are still living in dangerous blocks more than four years on from Grenfell - while many flat owners have been left with spiralling insurance costs, service charges, and requirements for expensive 24-hour \"waking watch\" patrols in case of fire.\n\nOthers have been left unable to insure or remortgage their homes.\n\nFirms will be threatened with legislation if they do not pick up the bill for safety issues uncovered since Grenfell and a dedicated team will be set up to pursue companies over defects.\n\n\"Those who profited and continue to profit from the sale of unsafe buildings and construction products must take full responsibility for their actions and pay to put things right,\" Mr Gove is expected to say.\n\nStatutory legal protections for leaseholders will be introduced and Mr Gove will pledge \"nothing will be off the table\".\n\nHe will declare medium sized buildings are safe unless there is evidence to the contrary and pledge to restore a more \"common sense\" approach to assessing building safety.\n\nThe consolidated advice notice - which many have complained makes it difficult to sell homes unless they can prove a perfect bill of health - is being withdrawn immediately.\n\nMr Gove will say the notices which the current government introduced, have been wrongly interpreted and and go beyond \"what is necessary\".\n\nNew guidance for assessors will be published in the coming days.\n\nSeveral Tory MPs had been lobbying the government to address the issues. It is understood key figures are happy with what Mr Gove has promised them.\n\nLabour welcomed the measures but said the proposals did not go far enough.\n\nShadow housing minister Matthew Pennycook called on the government to amend the Building Safety Bill, adding leaseholders should be \"fully protected in law from the costs of fixing all historic defects\".\n\nLiberal Democrats deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: \"Leaseholders still need and deserve a public inquiry into the government's handling of this crisis and why it has got it so wrong for so long.\"", "Alice Byrne was last seen on New Year's Day\n\nThe family of a woman who has been missing since New Year's Day have said they are \"shocked and distressed\" by her disappearance.\n\nAlice Byrne, 28, was last seen leaving a friend's flat in Marlborough Street, Portobello, Edinburgh, between 08:00 and 10:00 last Saturday.\n\nDetectives believe she potentially headed in the direction of the promenade and beach.\n\nBut extensive searches have failed to find any trace of Ms Byrne.\n\nIn a statement, released though Police Scotland, her family said: \"Alice has been missing for one week now and we are shocked and distressed by her disappearance.\n\n\"She always keeps in contact with us so we are extremely worried because we have not heard from her. We are desperate to know where she is.\n\n\"If Alice sees this, we want her to know how much we miss her. We just want her home safe and well.\"\n\nPolice say Alice was wearing similar clothes to those seen in this picture when she was last seen\n\nThe family urged anyone who has seen Ms Byrne or who has any information to come forward.\n\nThe statement concluded: \"We are very grateful for the support we have received during this upsetting time.\n\n\"We would like to thank everyone who has shared appeals to find her, the police for their professionalism and especially the local community for all the support they've given.\"\n\nChief Insp Kieran Dougal said no one has heard from Alice since she went missing.\n\nHe added: \"As time passes we have become increasingly concerned for her wellbeing and safety.\"\n\nSearches of the Portobello area have involved specialist resources including air support, police dogs and the marine unit.\n\nOfficers carried out a fresh search along Portobello beach on Saturday\n\nChief Insp Dougal added: \"We are aware that the beach and promenade area was busy on New Year's morning so appeal to anyone to review photos and call if they have any information that may assist in tracing Alice.\n\n\"Naturally Alice's friends and family are extremely concerned and we just want to trace her as soon as possible to ensure she is safe.\n\n\"Again, I would urge anyone who has seen Alice since Saturday, 1 January, or who has any information that may be relevant to our investigation to contact us as soon as possible. If Alice reads this appeal, please phone your family, friends or the police.\"\n\nPolice have also urged anyone who was in the area at the time to check any dash cam devices.\n\nAlice is described as white, about 5ft 6in, of medium build with short black hair.\n\nShe was last seen wearing a black top, black ripped jeans ripped and white trainers.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The glass has been broken for some time, but is the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) now getting ready to push the emergency stop button at Stormont?\n\nFour months after he first issued the threat, is Sir Jeffrey Donaldson going pull his ministers out of the Northern Ireland Executive?\n\nIn a last throw of the dice, the DUP leader demanded a deadline be set by the UK's Brexit negotiator Liz Truss for an end to the protocol negotiations with Brussels.\n\nBut he hasn't set a deadline for his deadline demand to be met, instead he has indicated the end of the month will be critical.\n\nHe may get his answer next week when he meets Ms Truss and we may know then if his threat is real.\n\nBut collapsing the government at a time when Covid-19 Omicron cases are expected to peak is a massive gamble.\n\nIn a speech last September Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the DUP could quit Stormont \"within weeks\"\n\nThat is why he insists whatever happens there will be \"continuity\" in responding to the pandemic.\n\nThat could mean removing Paul Givan as first minister and leaving the other DUP ministers in place which would allow Stormont departments to continue to operate.\n\nBut some may ask what would that achieve apart from also removing the Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill from office.\n\nRemoving the entire DUP ministerial team would also be more problematic.\n\nBut the threat remains and was repeated this week by the party leader in response to speculation Irish language legislation may be moved through Westminster within weeks.\n\nSuch a move he said would place Stormont at \"risk\".\n\nYet another in a series of threats which, if not acted upon, could weaken the DUP leader in the countdown to an election.\n\nThe roles of first and deputy first minister can not operate in isolation, if one goes so must the other\n\nBut the party did move this week to take its own \"decisive action\".\n\nAgriculture Minister Edwin Poots has vowed to halt Irish Sea border checks if he is blocked from bringing a paper to the executive at the end of the month.\n\nHe insists the executive has the legal authority to stop or continue the checks based on a court challenge being brought by loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson.\n\nThis was also part of the strategy laid out by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson in his speech last September.\n\nIf Sinn Féin stands by its threat to block the paper appearing on the executive agenda, Mr Poots has vowed to act.\n\nThat may put him on a collision course with UK Agriculture Secretary George Eustice who has in the past challenged the actions of a DUP minister.\n\nLast April he instructed department officials here to fulfil their legal obligations and progress the border control posts \"without delay\" after the stand-in DUP Agriculture Minister Gordon Lyons ordered work to stop in February.\n\nWe could be set for another showdown with London, but politically a DUP minister halting Irish Sea border checks would be a key card to play in the election campaign.\n\nEqually a DUP minister in charge of a department enforcing Irish Sea border checks would be a key card to play for the party's opponents.\n\nPushing the emergency stop button on an executive winding down within weeks ahead of the election may be easily dismissed as a tactical move.\n\nThe real challenge to the future of the power-sharing executive will come when the votes are counted.\n\nDUP First Minister Paul Givan has already made clear his party will set a series of post-election tests which will have to be met before they return to the executive.\n\nFirst on the list is likely to be dismantling the Northern Ireland Protocol and scrapping the Irish Sea border.\n\nThere may also be little appetite within the DUP to return to Stormont if Sinn Féin is in line to hold the post of first minister.\n\nA Stormont stand-off at that point is likely.\n\nThe next election for the Northern Ireland Assembly is due to take place on 5 May\n\nBut there is safety net currently being stitched together at Westminster.\n\nLegislation to protect the institutions from immediate collapse in a crisis.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Ministers Elections and Petitions of Concern Bill is currently passing through the Lords and will be debated on 19 January.\n\nIt is likely to be in place before the election and would allow the current NI Executive to continue in office post the May poll if a new first and deputy first ministers are not installed.\n\nBut that arrangement could only survive for between six and nine months before the secretary of state for Northern Ireland would be legally bound to call an election in the absence of political agreement.\n\nThat could see the Stormont institutions placed once again in cold storage.\n\nAll of this is not inevitable as we can expect many more political twists and turns pre and post-election.\n\nBut it does feel a course has been set and it is too late when the glass is broken.", "The red can clearly be seen on the white cliffs\n\nAn investigation has been launched after Sicily's normally white Scala dei Turchi cliffs were stained red.\n\nThe marl cliffs, which attract thousands of tourists every year, were defaced sometime overnight on Friday.\n\nThe Scala dei Turchi, said to have once been a hiding place of pirates, are one of the island's most loved tourist attractions, in part thanks to the Inspector Montalbano books.\n\nThe staircase-shaped cliffs near the southern town of Realmonte appear regularly as a backdrop in the popular series about the Sicilian detective.\n\nVolunteers and technicians are helping clean the rock\n\nLuckily, it appears the red stains - created with a mix of red plaster dust and water - can be removed, with volunteers helping to cleanup.\n\nThe police, meanwhile, are checking CCTV and the island's stores to trace anyone who has recently bought red plaster in the hopes of catching the culprit.\n\nThis is not the only time the cliffs have hit the headlines in recent years. In 2020, Italian prosecutors took control of the area, saying it was being badly managed.", "Hanef Bhamjee was awarded an OBE for his fight against apartheid\n\nTributes have been paid to a life-long anti-apartheid campaigner who has died.\n\nHanef Bhamjee, of Cardiff, was born in apartheid-era South Africa and campaigned against its whites-only rule from the age of 10.\n\nHe fled in South Africa for the UK in the 1960s because of his involvement in the student wing of the African National Congress.\n\n\"He was indefatigable in leading and sustaining the anti-apartheid movement in Wales,\" he told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.\n\n\"He had lived in Cardiff for decades having left South Africa in difficult circumstances.\n\n\"He was a legend who led the Wales anti-apartheid movement with great verve and distinction and for everyone involved was regarded as a total legend.\"\n\nSenedd member Mick Antoniw said Mr Bhamjee, originally from Marikana, had been in hospital recently having been ill for a number of years.\n\n\"He looked like he was making a recovery but the repeated strains on his body perhaps became too much,\" he said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Mick Antoniw MS/AS 💙 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFor decades Mr Bhamjee ran the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement from his home, with the help of volunteers.\n\nThat organisation, succeeded by Action for South Africa Wales, campaigned vigorously for an end to racism, colonialism and apartheid in South Africa.\n\n\"In the 80s he obtained political asylum in the UK because he could not go back to South Africa,\" Mr Antoniw said.\n\nShavanah Taj, general secretary of Wales TUC, said he had been \"very active in Welsh Labour politics\".\n\nAnd Senedd member Rhianon Passmore said he was a \"true inspiration to all who knew him\".\n\nMr Bhamjee was the secretary of Action for Southern Africa, formerly the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement, and knew Nelson Mandela from the age of 15.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Friend of Nelson Mandela Peter Hain said his legacy was a peaceful nation\n\nA guest when Mandela visited Wales, Mr Bhamjee said at the time: \"Nelson Mandela has a special place in the hearts of Welsh people. The anti-apartheid campaign was always very strong here, possibly stronger than in any other part of Britain.\"\n\nMr Bhamjee was later awarded an OBE for race relations in recognition of his life-long fight against apartheid.", "BBC correspondent Laura Trevelyan got caught in a snow drift while filming in Washington DC on Monday and had \"snow\" way out.", "Rallies have been held outside the Park Hotel, where Djokovic is being held in Melbourne\n\nThe story of the world's top ranked tennis player being held at an immigration detention centre after arriving in Australia last week caused dismay and anger on all sides.\n\nMost of it has been directed at the authorities, be they in the federal or the Victorian state government.\n\nThere's almost a sense of incredulity at how the situation has been mishandled - the monumental breakdown in communication and the political tussling.\n\nDjokovic, who is not the most popular of tennis players here, was expected to land late on Wednesday to a wave of Australian ire.\n\nAt that point the story seemed fairly straightforward.\n\nA world-famous athlete, who has publicly said he is opposed to vaccination, granted an exemption to play at the Australian Open in a country that has implemented some of the world's strictest Covid-19 measures.\n\nIt was hardly surprising that it caused an outcry in a country whose citizens had been told that full vaccination was the condition to freedom of movement and travel.\n\nBut after Djokovic touched down at Melbourne Airport, things became a little murky.\n\nOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded to the public outcry by saying the decision to grant Djokovic a vaccine exemption certificate was a matter for the state government of Victoria.\n\nA few hours later, a statement from Australia's Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews appeared to contradict Mr Morrison - saying that \"while the Victorian government and Tennis Australia may permit a non-vaccinated player to compete\", the federal government would enforce its requirements at the border.\n\nThe following day, Mr Morrison's stance changed as it was revealed that Djokovic's visa had been cancelled, and that the 34-year-old was facing deportation.\n\n\"Rules are rules,\" the prime minister said.\n\nIn less than 24 hours, Mr Morrison had U-turned from initially accepting that the Serbian's exemption - and participation in the Australian Open - was a matter for the state of Victoria, to putting his foot down on the federal government's right to enforce its border rules.\n\nIt's impossible to ignore the politics at play here.\n\nThe tension between state and federal authorities exists because each wants something different from this.\n\nVictoria wants the world number one to compete in one of the state's most important events.\n\nThe federal government, feeling the anger at Djokovic being allowed to fly in, wants to show Australians that they are in control of who comes in and out of the country and that everyone - including the tennis star - is expected to follow the Covid rules.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shaimaa Khalil reports from Melbourne's Park Hotel on the latest twist in the Djokovic visa row\n\nThis is an election year, Mr Morrison has been under immense political pressure over the handling of the Omicron coronavirus wave, amid rocketing case numbers and chaos at testing clinics. Observers suggest he may have chosen to use this as an opportunity to appear tough on the country's border policies.\n\nBut in trying to appear firm on Covid rules and visa requirements, Mr Morrison and his government has created more chaos. Every statement that comes out, every detail that emerges, seems to bring yet another layer of uncertainty.\n\nDjokovic's legal team ended up successfully challenging the decision to deport him in court on Monday, five days into the saga.\n\nJudge Anthony Kelly ordered Djokovic's release after the government acknowledged in court that he was not given enough time to respond following the notification to cancel his visa.\n\nHowever, Australia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.\n\nThere has been a lot of blaming and finger pointing but no one has come out to clearly answer any of the basic questions around this story. Not the federal or state government officials - not even Tennis Australia.\n\nThe way he's been treated in the past few days seems to have shifted the sentiment towards him.\n\nThe Australian player Nick Kyrgios, who had previously criticised Djokovic for his response to the pandemic, came to his defence - calling Australia's treatment of him \"really bad\" and urging authorities to \"do better\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nicholas Kyrgios This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRights groups have also weighed in - Sophie McNeill of Human Rights Watch in Australia tweeted that she felt \"very uncomfortable\" with the way Djokovic had been treated.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Sophie McNeill This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe authorities are reportedly investigating a number of visas. On Saturday, another Australian Open hopeful, Renata Voracova from the Czech Republic, left Australia after her visa was cancelled.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne.\n\nBut one of the biggest and most important sporting events in the country is turning into a big international embarrassment. The eyes of the world will be on Australia for all the wrong reasons.", "Mehdi Ali arrived in Australia when he was 15. Nine years later, he is still in detention in the same hotel where Novak Djokovic was held.\n\nHe tells me he is being treated \"cruelly and unjustly\" by Australian authorities. He says he has had toothache for months and has not been given any treatment.\n\n\"The cruel uncertainty that we might get out tomorrow, we might never get out is affecting my mental health harshly,\" he says.\n\nHis story highlights the growing concern about the treatment of asylum seekers and the uncertainty about their future.\n\nAnd it comes after other detainees told the BBC of \"inhumane conditions\" at the hotel where one man says his food had maggots in it and another said he spent 23 hours a day in a room that felt like a \"coffin\".\n\nThe Australian Border Force and Home Affairs Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\n\nAustralia's Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews MP told the BBC: \"We treat all people who are in immigration detention fairly and equitably.”", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Around 1,000 cars stranded after travelling to see heavy snow in Murree\n\nAt least 21 people have died after heavy snow trapped them in their vehicles in northern Pakistan.\n\nAs many as 1,000 vehicles became stranded as would-be tourists reportedly rushed to view the winter snowfall in the hilltop town of Murree.\n\nA policeman, his wife and their six children, as well as another family-of-five, are among the dead, according to local emergency services Rescue 1122.\n\nThe military says it has rescued more than 300 people stranded by the snow.\n\nAn army spokesperson added that military engineers and troops had also started to clear roads leading to Murree.\n\nInterior Minister Sheikh Rashid said the crisis had been caused by the number of people travelling to the area, north of the capital Islamabad. More than 100,000 cars had arrived in the colonial-era town in recent days, with social media in Pakistan flooded with pictures of people enjoying the snow.\n\nBut by Friday, local media reported that tourists were getting stranded. On Saturday, the heavy snow and increase in vehicles prompted authorities to declare the region a disaster zone.\n\nPictures and video on social media show cars trapped bumper to bumper, snow piled onto their roofs.\n\nAmong those who perished were 10 children, according to emergency services. Police said at least six had frozen to death in their cars. Asphyxiation after inhaling fumes has been given as a possible reason for the others.\n\n\"People are facing a terrible situation,\" Usman Abbasi, a tourist stuck in the town where heavy snow was still falling, told AFP news agency by phone.\n\n\"It's not only the tourists, but the local population is also facing severe problems,\" he added, saying there were gas and water shortages.\n\nLocals have provided blankets and food to the trapped, while those who could make it up to the town - which sits at 2,300 metres (7,500 feet) above sea level - have been given shelter in government and school buildings.\n\nPrime Minister Imran Khan expressed shock over the \"tragic deaths\" of the tourists, noting how the snowfall and the \"rush of [people] proceeding without checking weather conditions caught district admin unprepared\".\n\n\"Have ordered inquiry and putting in place strong regulations to ensure prevention of such tragedies,\" Mr Khan said in a tweet.\n\nMurree was built by the British in the 19th century as a medical base for its colonial troops.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nadhim Zahawi says plans to cut self-isolation to five days are still under review\n\nCutting the Covid self-isolation period to five days would \"certainly help\", a cabinet minister has said.\n\nNadhim Zahawi also denied the government planned to stop supplying free lateral flow tests - after a report in a Sunday paper.\n\nPeople who test positive for Covid are required to self-isolate for at least seven days, but several sectors are experiencing staffing pressure.\n\nMr Zahawi told the BBC the country was on the road \"from pandemic to endemic\".\n\nHe said reducing the self-isolation period would help with staff absences in the workplace.\n\nAsked about exams, the education secretary said they would be going ahead but said there was also contingency planning.\n\nOn the idea of stopping free lateral flow tests Mr Zahawi, a former vaccines minister, said he did not recognise the Sunday Times report, saying the government had ordered 425 million lateral flow devices in January.\n\n\"We are not calling to an end free lateral flow tests,\" he said.\n\nThe US recently shortened the self-isolation window to five days, and the education secretary said it was important to remember that in the UK isolation begins when you get symptoms while in the US it starts from when you test positive.\n\nMr Zahawi told BBC One's Sunday Morning that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) had said that there might be a higher spike if the period was cut from seven to five days.\n\nHe said the government would follow the science but would keep the potential measure under review.\n\nRules on self-isolation for people in England infected with Covid changed last month, dropping from 10 days' quarantine to seven if they test negative on days six and seven.\n\nScottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said his government was \"not contemplating\" reducing the isolation time to five days at this stage, having just made the change from 10 to seven days.\n\n\"I think it would be sensible to see the impact,\" he said.\n\nWith vaccines and new treatments reducing the risk Covid presents, what's considered proportionate changes because of the need to balance the harms caused by the virus and those caused by trying to suppress it.\n\nTake the isolation period, infectiousness is not like a switch. It doesn't just go on to off.\n\nInstead, people gradually move from peak infectiousness to lower infectiousness.\n\nAs we become more able to live with the virus because it's causing milder illness, the benefits of long isolation periods wane.\n\nBut the costs in terms of missing school or disrupting work remain.\n\nSlowly, but surely, we will see a rowing back of the remaining measures in place.\n\nPlans are understood to have been drawn up within government to start this as early as March, but the rise of Omicron set that back.\n\nThere are several steps that could be taken. Shortening the isolation period further and then ending it unless an individual has symptoms is one.\n\nDismantling PCR testing infrastructure in the community is another. These lab tests are needed to keep an eye on variants, but that can be done by testing hospital patients.\n\nBefore Mr Zahawi said there were no plans to end free lateral flow tests opposition politicians had criticised the suggestion free tests might be stopped.\n\nScottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said such a move would be an \"utterly wrongheaded\" approach to dealing with coronavirus.\n\nShadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said ending free tests would be the wrong policy at the wrong time, adding that the best way to prevent the need for further restrictions was to ensure that people could test regularly and stop passing on the virus.\n\n\"That's why we believe those lateral flow tests have got to remain free whilst we have huge numbers of cases on a daily basis,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi says there will be no end to free lateral flow tests\n\nMr Zahawi also accepted more school staff will end up off work isolating for coronavirus as case rates rise when pupils return.\n\nHe said staff absences were at about 8.5% last week but \"will increase, no doubt, because now schools are back we're going to see an increase in infection rates\".\n\nContingency plans are being made for rising numbers of staff being off, the education secretary said, adding that some schools had remained open despite up to 40% of staff being absent.\n\nHe said that \"exams in January are going ahead\" and \"in the summer we will be going ahead with GCSEs and A-levels\".\n\nBut he added that there was \"always contingency planning\".\n\nThere have been issues with staff absences in transport, health and schools as Covid cases rose over the festive period and in England Covid-related staff absences at hospitals have risen sharply since Omicron took hold last month.\n\nAnd the boss of one of London's busiest hospitals has said he is worried about losing staff when mandatory vaccination rules come in from April.\n\nIt comes as the UK recorded 141,472 new cases, as well as 97 deaths within 28 days of a positive test - although the number of deaths recorded over weekends tends to be lower because of reporting delays.\n\nThe total number of cases over the past seven days is up 6.6% on the previous week, while the figure for deaths is up 30.9%.\n\nAre you a business owner? What are your thoughts on the proposed reduction to the isolation period? Are you struggling with staff shortages due to Covid? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Mourners lined part of the route of the funeral cortege\n\nThe funeral has taken place of a nine-year-old girl who died after years of treatment for a brain tumour.\n\nThe service for Freya Bevan, who died last month, took place at Margam Crematorium, Neath Port Talbot, with people paying tribute along the route.\n\nFreya, from Neath, had been undergoing treatment in the US after it returned, prompting a £200,000 fundraising drive last year.\n\nHer family said heaven had gained the \"sweetest and most beautiful warrior\".\n\nFreya was first diagnosed with a brain tumour in May 2014\n\nIn a Facebook statement, they asked people to wear pink in her memory.\n\nFreya was first diagnosed with a brain tumour in May 2014, at 22 months old.\n\nShe underwent two major brain surgery operations, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.\n\nAnd in February 2015, she travelled with her family for the first time to Oklahoma for proton beam therapy.\n\nThey returned to Wales in May that year but in October 2020 a routine scan showed a tumour had returned.\n\nPeople paid their respects prior to the service on Saturday\n\nFreya had to then undergo a nine-hour operation to remove it and her family decided they would return to the US for more proton beam therapy.\n\nHowever, she died on 27 December.\n\n\"No more pokes, or pills or hospital visits, you are free now our beautiful angel,\" her family said in a tribute last month.\n\n\"Our hearts are completely broken, as we share the news with you, that heaven has gained the most sweetest and most beautiful warrior there ever was.\n\n\"Our brave, beautiful, precious Freya is now healed from cancer and getting big cwtches in heaven from her beloved great grandmother.\"\n\nIn a tweet on Saturday, Swansea Rugby Club said: \"On this extremely difficult day, the boys will wearing pink bows on their jerseys in celebration and as a tribute to Freya.\"\n• None Mum 'so scared' of losing daughter, 8, to cancer", "Mohamud Mohammed Hassan died hours after being released from police custody on 9 January 2021\n\nThe family of a man who died after being released from custody want the attorney general and home secretary to intervene, and the police watchdog to release bodycam footage.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating police contact with Mohamud Mohammed Hassan, 24, from Cardiff, last January.\n\nHe was arrested on suspicion of a breach of the peace, released without charge the next day and died later.\n\nThe IOPC said its probe was \"advanced\".\n\nIt said it would \"work towards sharing video footage and other evidential material with Mr Hassan's family... as soon as we are able\".\n\nSouth Wales Police said it continued to \"fully co-operate with the IOPC investigation and has provided them with information and material, including CCTV footage and body-worn video\".\n\nIn a statement, issued on the first anniversary of Mr Hassan's death, his family said: \"Despite our repeated requests for access to film recording of the last hours of Mohamud's life, the family have been consistently denied access by the IOPC.\n\n\"We believe that all families of those that die in suspicious circumstances in police custody should have an automatic right enshrined in law to get immediate access to police bodycam footage showing exactly what happened during their final moments on this earth.\"\n\nProtesters carrying a banner calling for \"justice\" gathered outside Cardiff Bay Police Station on Sunday.\n\nLast January, hundreds of people joined a protest march through Cardiff after Mr Hassan's death.\n\nA post-mortem examination later failed to establish the cause of his death, an inquest into his death was told.\n\nSix officers are being investigated by the IOPC in relation to the case.\n\nSpeaking at the protest on Sunday, protestor Bianca Ali said: \"We want justice, we want the footage released and we want every single police officer who was on duty and involved in that incident that night to be accountable.\n\n\"We want answers, we want the truth and we want accountability.\"\n\nHilary Brown, the family's legal representative, said not disclosing any footage to the family \"constitutes a cruel and unusual punishment for a family seeking nothing more than the truth\".\n\n\"The length of time it has taken for the IOPC to conclude their investigation is totally unacceptable.\"\n\nIOPC Wales director Catrin Evans said a \"substantial investigation report is being finalised\".\n\n\"While we appreciate how very difficult this past year has been for Mr Hassan's family and their understandable need to know the circumstances surrounding his death, it has been vital that we pursue every possible line of enquiry,\" she said.\n\n\"We continue to liaise with the coroner, and work towards sharing video footage and other evidential material with Mr Hassan's family and legal representative as soon as we are able.\"\n\nSouth Wales Police said it acknowledged the \"impact Mr Hassan's death has had on his family, friends and the wider community\".\n\n\"Our thoughts and condolences continue to be with them,\" it said in a statement.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg is in Kazakhstan's capital amid reports of a power struggle fuelling the recent unrest\n\nInternet services have returned to Kazakhstan's largest city following a five-day blackout.\n\nAlmaty, the country's former capital, has been offline since Wednesday amid a wave of violence in the country.\n\nAlmost 8,000 people have been detained throughout the country, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.\n\nThe demonstrations, triggered by a rise in fuel prices, turned into the worst unrest the country has seen in its 30 years of independence.\n\nThey started on 2 January and grew to reflect discontent at the government and former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who led Kazakhstan for three decades and is still thought to retain significant influence.\n\nLast week, troops from countries including Russia were sent to Kazakhstan to help restore order.\n\nThe presidential statement added that the situation had stabilised, with troops continuing \"cleanup\" operations and guarding \"strategic facilities\".\n\nA state of emergency and a nationwide curfew remain in place.\n\nWhere is it? Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia to the north and China to the east. It is a huge country the size of Western Europe.\n\nWhy does it matter? A former Soviet republic which is mainly Muslim with a large Russian minority, it has vast mineral resources, with 3% of global oil reserves and important coal and gas sectors.\n\nWhy is it making the news? Fuel riots, which have escalated to become broader protests against the government, have resulted in resignations at the top and a bloody crackdown on protesters.\n\nIn the capital, Nursultan, there are obvious signs that security has been tightened, says the BBC's Steve Rosenberg, with the entrance to the city's Presidential Palace blocked.\n\nThere is a growing suggestion, our correspondent adds, that the recent violence is linked to a power struggle within Kazakhstan's ruling elite.\n\nOn Sunday evening government officials retracted an earlier statement posted to an officially-run channel on the Telegram social media app alleging that more than 164 people had died during the wave of violence.\n\nThe Information Ministry told local media that the statement had been issued in error and was the result of a \"technical mistake\". Only 44 deaths have been confirmed.\n\nThe security forces said they killed rioters in Almaty while trying to restore order and that protesters had tried to take control of police stations in the city.\n\nPresident Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said \"20,000 bandits\" had attacked Almaty and that he had told security forces to \"fire without warning\".\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday criticised the president's directive. \"The shoot-to-kill order, to the extent it exists, is wrong and should be rescinded,\" he told ABC News' This Week.\n\nHe said the US was also seeking clarification from the Kazakh president on why he had requested the presence of Russian troops.\n\nIn another development, neighbouring Kyrgyzstan lodged a protest with the Kazakh ambassador over the detention in Kazakhstan of a Kyrgyz jazz musician, after footage emerged apparently showing him in custody, badly beaten.\n\nKazakh authorities accuse Vikram Ruzakhunov of participating in the protests, and have paraded him on state television.\n\nOn Saturday, Kazakh authorities said the country's former intelligence chief Karim Massimov had been arrested on suspicion of treason. They gave no further details.\n\nTwo former deputies to Mr Massimov have also been removed from their posts, the president's office said on Sunday.\n\nMarat Osipov and Daulet Ergozhin had been serving as deputy heads of the country's powerful National Security Committee prior to their removal. Mr Tokayev's office has yet to publicly provide a reason for the sackings.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon: Scottish coronavirus self-isolation period cut from 10 days to seven.\n\nPeople who test positive for Covid in Scotland will be allowed to exit self-isolation after seven days if they have no fever and record two negative lateral flow tests.\n\nThe move brings Scotland into line with England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nHousehold contacts of people with the virus will be allowed to take tests rather than going into quarantine, so long as they have had a booster shot.\n\nThe changes took effect from midnight.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs that no other changes will be made to Scotland's pandemic restrictions for at least another week.\n\nA further 16,103 cases were reported on Tuesday, and the first minister said there had been \"rapid and very widespread transmission\" of the Omicron variant of the virus over the festive period.\n\nOfficial surveys suggested that in the week to 23 December, one in every 40 people in Scotland had Covid - and within a week, this had risen to one in every 20.\n\nMs Sturgeon told MSPs that the virus was \"more widespread now than at any point in the pandemic so far\", something which has had \"extremely serious implications\" for the NHS and other key services.\n\nThe number of people in hospital with the virus has increased by 80% over the past week, from 679 to 1,223 - although the number of people in intensive care has been broadly stable, with 42 recorded yesterday.\n\nSelf-isolation rules are being changed in a bid to ease staff shortages in key sectors, with Ms Sturgeon saying ministers had considered the issue very carefully.\n\nPeople who test positive for the virus will be allowed to exit quarantine after seven days as long as they have no fever and record two negative lateral flow tests, one on day six of isolation and another 24 hours later.\n\nMeanwhile close contacts of positive cases will no longer need to self-isolate as long as they are fully vaccinated - which means two doses and a booster - and take a lateral flow test daily for a week.\n\nAnd people who have no symptoms but record a positive lateral flow test result will no longer have to go for a PCR test, mirroring changes made in England.\n\nWednesday is the first day we've been able to get a clear picture of just how fast Covid infections have spread over the Christmas and new year period.\n\nPublic Health Scotland publishes daily case counts by the date of the PCR test and from these figures we can see that 21,397 people tested positive on 29 December - the highest daily total of the pandemic so far.\n\nOn New Year's Eve, the average number of cases being confirmed a day almost hit 15,000. Two weeks previously this average stood at just over 5,000, which is one of the sharpest rises in case numbers we've seen in Scotland.\n\nThe dominance of the Omicron variant is now almost total, likely accounting for more than 91% of cases in Scotland, less than six weeks after it was first detected here.\n\nThe number of people in hospital with Covid has also been going up over the last three weeks, rising from 494 on 18 December to 1,223 on Wednesday.\n\nHowever, the number of patients always lags behind changes in infection levels, so the full impact of the current high case levels will only be felt in the next week or so.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the changes \"strike an appropriate balance\" between breaking chains of transmission and reducing the disruption of self-isolation to the economy and critical services.\n\nOpposition parties had been calling for changes to the isolation rules for weeks.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the government's initial reluctance to follow the rest of the UK was \"not sustainable\" from the outset and had seen Scotland \"left as an outlier\".\n\nHe also called on the government to show what had changed in the clinical advice it had received.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she would publish as much data as possible, but said the decision had involved the \"application of judgement\" by ministers.\n\nShe said: \"Last week I did not think it was the case that the benefits of changing self-isolation would outweigh the risks.\n\n\"The higher transmission now and the bigger burden of self-isolation on the economy has changed that judgement.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon defended her decision not to change the isolation rules sooner\n\nBusiness groups welcomed the changes, along with further detail of financial support for the worst-affected sectors.\n\nThe Scottish Chambers of Commerce said the move \"should have a positive impact on businesses ability to operate and allow employees to return to work safely, while also safeguarding public health\".\n\nThe Scottish Retail Consortium said staffing levels were \"manageable for the time being\", adding that Wednesday's changes \"should help ease the level of staff absences in retail and its wider supply chain\".\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also backed the changes, saying \"they will be a relief to public services and businesses who were feeling the impact of restrictions\".\n\nScotland's other Covid restrictions are to remain in place for at least another week, with ministers to review the situation again on 11 January.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she expected that restrictions on large gatherings and the requirement for physical distancing and table service in hospitality venues will remain in force until 17 January at the earliest.\n\nPeople in Scotland have been urged to reduce their social contacts as much as possible, with guidance not to meet up in groups of more than three households.\n\nMs Sturgeon also said Scotland would need to find ways of adapting its response to the ongoing challenge of the virus, warning that Omicron is \"unlikely to be the last new variant we encounter\".\n\nShe said the government would not be \"giving up on trying to control Covid entirely\", but would be \"seeking ways of doing so that are more proportionate, more sustainable and less restrictive\".", "About 18,000 people attended the protest in the capital Paris\n\nFrench authorities say more than 105,000 people have taken part in protests across the country against the introduction of a new coronavirus pass.\n\nA new draft law would in effect ban unvaccinated people from public life.\n\nDemonstrators in the capital, Paris, held placards emblazoned with phrases like \"no to vaccine passes\".\n\nInterior Ministry officials said 34 people were arrested and some 10 police officers were injured after the protests turned violent in some places.\n\nThe bill, which passed its first reading in the lower house of France's parliament on Thursday, would remove the option of showing a negative Covid-19 test to gain access to a host of public venues.\n\nInstead, people would have to be fully vaccinated to visit a range of spaces, including bars and restaurants.\n\nThe government says it expects the new rules to come into force on 15 January, although the opposition-dominated Senate could delay the process.\n\nBut demonstrators on Saturday accused the government of trampling on their freedoms and treating citizens unequally.\n\nOthers targeted their anger at the president, Emmanuel Macron, over comments he made earlier this week in relation to unvaccinated citizens, telling Le Parisian newspaper that he wanted to \"piss them off\".\n\nOne protester, hospital administrator Virginie Houget, told the Reuters news agency that Mr Macron's remarks were \"the last straw\".\n\nAnd in Paris, where some 18,000 people marched against the new law, demonstrators responded to his coarse language by chanting: \"We'll piss you off\".\n\nTV images showed altercations between protesters and police turning violent in some places. In Montpellier officers used teargas during clashes with the demonstrators.\n\nTurnout for the protests was estimated to be about four times higher than the last major demonstrations on 18 December, when some 25,500 people marched across the country.\n\nBut despite the vocal protests, opposition to the new measures is not widespread and recent polling suggests the vast majority of people back the vaccine pass.\n\nFrance is one of the most highly vaccinated countries in Europe, with more than 90% of over-12s eligible for the shot fully vaccinated.\n\nMeanwhile, new coronavirus infections are rising rapidly across France as the new Omicron variant takes hold.\n\nThe country recorded more than 300,000 new cases for the second time in a week on Friday and admissions to intensive care wards are rising steadily, putting healthcare systems under strain.\n\nSome hospitals have reported that some 85% of ICU patients are not vaccinated against Covid-19.", "An EastEnders source said Dyer's character had a \"huge storyline in store\" before he goes\n\nActor Danny Dyer will leave EastEnders later this year, the BBC has confirmed.\n\nDyer, who plays Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter, is not quitting immediately, with the BBC promising \"plenty of explosive drama\" before he goes.\n\nEastEnders said Dyer, who joined the show in 2013, had made Mick Carter into \"an iconic character\" who they would \"always be grateful for\".\n\n\"Danny will be leaving EastEnders when his contract comes to an end later this year,\" it said in a statement.\n\n\"However, we won't be saying goodbye just yet as there's still quite some time - and plenty of explosive drama for Mick - to come before he departs Walford.\"\n\nDyer's character Mick has become popular with viewers since he was introduced nine years ago.\n\nMick has remained behind the bar at the Queen Victoria pub ever since and has married Linda Carter, played by Kellie Bright.\n\nAn EastEnders source said: \"Danny made the decision quite some time ago that he would leave the show this year, which has given bosses plenty of time to plan a huge storyline for him.\"\n\nThe source added Dyer's character would be \"at the heart of some big drama\" with the return of his on-screen wife this year.\n\nDyer, 44, won three National Television Awards for serial drama performance for playing the role.\n\nA spokeswoman for the soap said Dyer had not been blocked from other projects, following reports in the Mirror newspaper.\n\nBefore joining EastEnders, Dyer was best known for appearing in British films like Mean Machine and The Football Factory.\n\nHe also fronted his own TV series - Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men.\n\nIn 2017, he appeared in an episode of the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?, in which he found out he was related to royalty.\n\nDyer discovered that he is descended from William the Conqueror, Edward III and Thomas Cromwell.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe boss of one of London's busiest hospitals has said he is worried about losing staff when new rules come in requiring them to be vaccinated.\n\nFrom April, front-line NHS staff in England will need to have the Covid jab - or will be moved to another role.\n\nKing's College Hospital chief Dr Clive Kay said his job was to encourage workers to get jabbed - and 10% of his 14,000 staff were still unvaccinated.\n\nThe government's Nadhim Zahawi defended the policy as \"the right thing\" to do.\n\nFrom the start of April, under law NHS staff in England who have direct face-to-face contact with patients will need to have been vaccinated against Covid.\n\nThis includes front-line workers as well as non-clinical staff who might come across patients, such as receptionists, porters and cleaners.\n\nA similar policy has already been brought in for staff working in social care in England - with care homes warning it has worsened the staffing crisis. The NHS is already facing a severe lack of staff and is short of about 93,000 workers.\n\nDr Kay was speaking after one of his own doctors challenged Health Secretary Sajid Javid over the issue, saying he was \"not happy\" that he faced being dismissed for not getting the jab.\n\nThe doctor, consultant anaesthetist Steve James, argued that he believed he already had antibodies after catching Covid - and has since told the BBC he believes vaccination should be a matter of personal choice.\n\nSajid Javid spoke to consultant Steve James who said he had not got the Covid vaccine\n\nHospital boss Dr Kay refused to say whether he thought the new rule was fair - although argued that staff were \"not being forced\" to have the jab, but instead \"being encouraged\".\n\nBut pressed on the rules, he acknowledged it could mean people leaving their current job: \"There's a possibility if they choose not to be vaccinated they could be redeployed. And if we can't find that opportunity to redeploy them then the consequence is that they will [not have a job].\"\n\n\"We will not make individuals be vaccinated,\" Dr Kay told the BBC's Sophie Raworth on the Sunday Morning programme. \"We must treat them with kindness, with compassion, we must give them every single opportunity to talk through if they don't want the vaccine... but ultimately it is their choice.\"\n\nAsked how many front-line staff he could lose under the law change, Dr Kay said: \"I am confident that we are already seeing a number of staff choosing to be vaccinated. I don't want at this stage to predict or give any numbers.\"\n\nBut he said he was \"of course\" worried about staffing, adding: \"My job is to worry about everything in relation to whether or not we have enough staff here to provide care for patients safely.\"\n\nAccording to Mr Javid in November, more than 93% of NHS front-line staff had had their first dose and 90% were fully vaccinated. This is higher than the wider population, where 90% have had a first dose and 83% have had both.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Sophie Raworth on Sunday morning, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi defended mandatory vaccines for NHS staff in England, saying: \"We have a duty of care when looking after the most vulnerable to protect ourselves and to protect them.\"\n\nDr James told the BBC's Broadcasting House programme on Sunday: \"My view is that we should not mandate vaccination.\"\n\n\"Normally you go through this process of informed consent, where you weigh up as a doctor with the patient, the risks the benefits and that person's personal preference.\"\n\nHe said he has been written to by \"hundreds of people\" since he spoke to Mr Javid, who have told him they were thankful that he has spoken up about how he felt.\n\n\"I've been written to by a group of midwives who say that, I think 41 or 45 of them in that unit will all not be vaccinated. That means the entire midwife staff from one hospital are going to leave.\"\n\nEach of the four UK nations makes its own decisions on the issue.\n\nScotland and Wales have not made any proposals to make Covid jabs compulsory for NHS workers or care home staff, while in Northern Ireland there is to be a public consultation.\n\nScotland's Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said they were not going down the same route as England \"partly because the uptake from NHS and social care staff is so incredibly high\". \"I don't think making vaccines mandatory is the way to go,\" he said.\n\nIt comes as the UK recorded 141,472 new cases, as well as 97 deaths within 28 days of a positive test - although the number of deaths recorded over weekends tends to be lower because of reporting delays.\n\nThe total number of cases over the past seven days is up 6.6% on the previous week, while the figure for deaths is up 30.9%.", "Martyn Hett was one of those killed in the Manchester Arena bombing\n\nVenues would have a legal duty to put in place security measures to protect the public from terror attacks under government plans.\n\nIt comes in the wake of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, when 22 people were killed as they left an Ariana Grande concert.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel will set out the proposals on Tuesday, following an 18-week consultation.\n\nThe so-called Protect Duty has been championed by victims' groups.\n\nThese include the Martyn's Law campaign, which was started by Figen Murray, after the loss of her son, 29-year-old Martyn Hett, in the attack.\n\nMrs Murray welcomed the report on the consultation and said she hoped the legislation would be introduced as quickly as possible \"to avoid the further unnecessary loss of innocent lives\".\n\nThe government will seek to introduce the legislation to Parliament at the earliest opportunity, the Home Office said.\n\nThere is currently no legislative requirement for organisations or venues to consider security measures at the vast majority of public places.\n\nA consultation, launched in February 2021, found that seven in 10 of the 2,755 respondents agreed those responsible for publicly accessible locations should take appropriate and proportionate measures to protect the public from attacks. This included ensuring staff were trained to respond appropriately.\n\nThere was also agreement that measures should be proportionate to a venue's size, the Home Office said, with smaller organisations not facing the same requirements as larger ones.\n\nHalf the respondents were in favour of an inspectorate that would identify key vulnerabilities and areas for improvement, as well as share best practice. There was also an even split of those who were supportive of the use of civil penalties to ensure compliance.\n\nTwenty-two people were killed in the Manchester Arena bombing\n\nHome Secretary Ms Patel said: \"My number one priority is keeping the people of the UK safe.\n\n\"Following the tragic attack at the Manchester Arena, we have worked closely with Figen Murray, victims' groups and partners to develop proposals to improve protective security around the country.\n\n\"We will never allow terrorists to restrict our freedoms and way of life, which is why we are committed to bringing forward legislation this year, that will strike the right balance between public safety, whilst not placing excessive burden on small businesses,\" she added.\n\nMinisters have previously suggested the government could support measures called for by the Martyn's Law campaign, including airport-style checks and counter-terror attack action plans for large venues.\n\nHowever, full details are expected to be laid out in a written ministerial statement on Tuesday.\n\nThe Home Office is also helping to develop a new interactive online platform, which is due to launch this year, aiming to provide advice for organisations on counter-terrorism.", "Lateral flow tests are now part of life for much of the UK. Billions of pounds of public money have been spent on test kits. Has it all been worth it?\n\nEarlier this week, 38-year-old Hailing Hackney unwrapped the last lateral flow test in her kitchen cupboard. \"I was feeling tired, but then I'm always feeling tired,\" she says. \"I saw my best friend over Christmas and her son had tested positive, so I thought I should just check.\"\n\nLike so many others across the UK, she was surprised when a faint line started to appear on the white testing strip. Later that evening her symptoms began - a mild headache and a runny nose.\n\nHailing runs Sparkle Nails & Beauty in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. She had a full list of customers coming in for treatments after New Year and had to quickly rebook all of them.\n\nIt was just lucky I found out so quickly\n\n\"I take two tests a week because I see so many people as part of my job,\" she says. \"It was just lucky I found out so quickly.\"\n\nThe whole point of mass testing like this is to break chains of transmission - to keep Hailing away from her customers at a time when she might be infectious but have no obvious symptoms.\n\n\"I'm serious when I say they have been the single most powerful tool in reducing transmission of the virus,\" says Irene Petersen, professor of epidemiology at University College London.\n\nThe idea of population-wide Covid testing on this scale was first revealed in leaked documents in the autumn of 2020. The plan was to use millions of cheap, throwaway lateral flow tests that could give a result in 15 minutes, rather than the more sensitive PCR tests which had to be sent off and processed in a laboratory.\n\nBut Operation Moonshot - as it was called by the government - got off to a bumpy start. There was alarm about the rumoured £100bn price tag, while some of the early results of a large pilot in Liverpool raised questions about the accuracy of the tests themselves.\n\nWhen twice-weekly rapid testing was rolled out in secondary schools in the spring of 2021, there were worries that large numbers of pupils would be incorrectly told they had the virus - a so-called \"false positive\" - and sent home. Some scientists said the school programme could do \"more harm than good\" and leaked emails claimed it could all be scaled back.\n\nBut data now suggests much of that concern was misplaced. Since March, 183,939 pupils in England have tested positive on a lateral flow test at home and then had a sample sent off to a laboratory for a follow-up PCR test. In total 89% of those swabs returned the same positive result.\n\nSecondary school students took tests as they returned after the Christmas holidays\n\nThe proportion of false positives does increase when the prevalence of the disease falls in society. But the weekly rate of those positive lateral flow tests later confirmed by PCR has never fallen below 50% and has been above 84% since the start of the school year in September.\n\nNo medical test - not even one conducted in a laboratory - can ever be 100% accurate. Some schooling was disrupted unnecessarily but - overall - those real-world results were better than some had first feared.\n\nAlexander Edwards, associate professor in biomedical technology at the University of Reading, says it \"quickly became clear\" that if the tests were used as instructed, \"you don't tend to get large numbers of false positives\".\n\nGradually those same rapid lateral flow tests have become part of everyday life. To begin with they were rolled out in healthcare settings, workplaces and sporting events. Then in April, the programme was extended to the general public. Boxes of seven tests could be delivered free, or picked up from a pharmacy.\n\nBut false positives are not the only possible drawback with mass testing on this scale. Some scientists are concerned that the public are often far too trusting if their lateral flow test comes back negative.\n\n\"It is absolutely not a get-out-of-jail free card, and you do need to continue to take precautions like mask wearing and social distancing,\" says Prof Sheila Bird from the MRC Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge. \"It is helping to weed out some, but certainly not all, of the true positives.\"\n\nOn social media over Christmas it wasn't hard to find posts from people who said they were clear on multiple rapid tests taken at home - even with Covid symptoms - only to test positive on a more sensitive PCR test processed in a laboratory.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by CW This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAn analysis of the lateral flow kit used in Liverpool showed it only detected around half of people without symptoms who - on the same day - returned a positive PCR result. But those PCRs can pick up old genetic material from the virus left in the body even after the infectious period. Prof Petersen says that rapid lateral flow tests are far better at spotting the cases most likely to pass Covid on to someone else.\n\nA peer-reviewed paper she co-authored in October found they were 80% effective at detecting any level of active Covid infection and even better at picking up the most infectious individuals.\n\nQuite how well lateral flow kits perform against Omicron is still unclear. Experiments showed the main brands used in the UK did successfully detect all 15 of the samples infected with the new variant. But a small study published in the past week, and based on different kits used in the US, raised fresh concerns - finding that some Omicron cases could be infectious for several days before being detected by rapid tests using nasal swabs.\n\nScientists say the lesson is - if possible - to test just before you socialise and think of a negative lateral flow as a solid guide rather than something that can ever rule out a Covid infection.\n\nHealth authorities budgeted £4.7bn this financial year for mass testing in England with the bulk of that going to suppliers of the kits - most of which are manufactured in China. Whether all that money is worth it is something epidemiologists are likely to be arguing about for many years. Untangling the effects of rapid testing from all the other Covid measures - from mask wearing to self-isolation - is extremely difficult and open to some interpretation.\n\nA recent analysis of the first Liverpool pilot, which has not yet been peer reviewed by other scientists, found that the early roll out of mass testing in the city was linked to a 32% fall in Covid hospital admissions, and relieved significant pressure on the NHS. Parts of that first pilot scheme have now become government policy - for example using daily rapid tests as an alternative to quarantine for some people.\n\nSome scientists would like to see ministers go further and use lateral flows to completely replace expensive PCR lab tests - both for those with and without Covid symptoms.\n\n\"The PCR programme is such a complete waste of resources. It's there because it was the only thing we had at the beginning. It should be phased out sooner rather than later,\" says Prof Irene Petersen at UCL.\n\nOthers think that as the Omicron wave passes, it is time to wind down the mass testing programme completely.\n\nEducation secretary Nadim Zahawi told the BBC there are currently no plans to ask people to pay for lateral flow tests, amid speculation that the free service could be scrapped if Omicron infections decline. He said an extra 425 million tests are due to be made available this month with further shipments expected after that.\n\nAllyson Pollock, professor of public health at Newcastle University, says tests should be part of a clinical diagnosis or targeted at places like care homes and hospitals, where people are working with vulnerable groups.\n\n\"The cost of mass testing has been staggering,\" she says. \"The best advice is if you have symptoms is to simply stay at home until you are better, and that way you will avoid spreading Covid, flu and a host of other viral infections.\n\n\"All tests create harms. Tests can give false reassurance on the one hand, and on the other can create false alarms and unnecessary isolation.\"\n\nWhatever happens to the pandemic itself though, scientists think mass testing may have opened the door to other more efficient ways of detecting disease in the near future. A new generation of lateral flow tests are going into production - designed to detect not just Covid but different forms of influenza and other viruses at the same time.\n\nSome scientists think we could all soon store a supply of rapid tests or \"viral thermometers\" in the medicine cabinet to help diagnose sickness far more quickly.\n\n\"We have drugs which can reduce the severity of influenza, for example, but they need to be taken very soon after infection,\" says Prof Alex Edwards. \"You might be able to have a system where a vulnerable person can get tested and get the drugs immediately. It would be great to see a positive outcome like that from this very negative pandemic.\"", "A child receives care at a hospital in the town of Dedebit, following a reported airstrike\n\nFifty-six people have been killed and dozens more injured in an airstrike on a camp for the displaced in northern Ethiopia, aid workers say.\n\nImages on social media purportedly show people receiving treatment after the strike on a school in the town of Dedebit, in Ethiopia's Tigray region.\n\nThere has been no independent confirmation of the attack.\n\nGovernment forces have been fighting rebels in Tigray for over a year in a war that has ended thousands of lives.\n\nWhile clashes on the ground between the Ethiopian military and a rebel alliance - led by Tigrayans - have temporarily stopped, airstrikes against rebel positions have continued.\n\nOn Saturday, aid workers told Reuters news agency that the number of casualties had been confirmed by local authorities.\n\nThe aid workers, who were not named, also provided photographs of people wounded in hospital, including a number of children.\n\nIt is unclear how or why the school was hit. The Ethiopian government has previously denied targeting civilians.\n\nOn Friday, the government announced the release of several high-profile opposition figures, including leaders of the rebel Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF).\n\nPrime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the move was aimed at achieving national reconciliation and promoting \"unity\".\n\nThe Tigray conflict broke out in November 2020 after Mr Abiy ordered a military offensive against regional forces in the area. He said he did so in response to an attack on a military base housing government troops there.\n\nThe escalation came after months of feuding between Mr Abiy's government and leaders of the TPLF.\n\nMany people have been displaced in the conflict and the UN has warned that the region is in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including medical supplies.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "People infected with Covid in England can stop self-isolating up to three days early if they test negative twice, it has been announced.\n\nThey will now be able to end quarantine after seven days instead of 10 by providing negative lateral flow results on day six and day seven.\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid said it would minimise disruption caused by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.\n\nHe said the change was based on the latest guidance from health experts.\n\nThe change comes amid a spike in cases caused by the new Covid variant, which has created staff shortages for businesses, health services and rail services.\n\nThe new guidance applies to everyone, regardless of vaccination status.\n\nIt also applies to anyone currently in isolation, so people who tested positive or first showed symptoms on Friday last week could end their isolation in time for Christmas Day if they meet the conditions.\n\nBut people should not end their isolation early if they are still experiencing symptoms, officials said.\n\nAnd anyone ending isolation on day seven is strongly advised to limit contact with vulnerable people, not visit crowded or poorly ventilated spaces, and work from home in line with current guidance.\n\nPeople who are not double-jabbed and come in close contact with a positive case must still isolate for a full 10 days.\n\nThe move comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed no new restrictions would be imposed in England before Christmas Day.\n\nIn a video clip, he said there was not enough evidence on Omicron's severity and the impact of vaccines to justify extra curbs now, but warned he \"can't rule out\" further measures after 25 December.\n\nLabour's Jonathan Ashworth called on the government to set out possible post-Christmas restrictions to give the public and businesses time to plan ahead.\n\nThe shadow work and pensions secretary told BBC Breakfast he welcomed the change to isolation rules as medical officials had given it the \"stamp of approval\".\n\nAnd the rail industry said the move should reduce the number of trains being cancelled due to Covid-related staff sickness.\n\nAnother 90,629 new Covid cases were reported across the UK on Tuesday - slightly down on the all-time highs announced last week. Meanwhile, a further 897,979 people received their booster jab or third dose.\n\nAnnouncing the change to isolation rules, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said Omicron's rapid spread posed a threat to critical public services this winter.\n\nThe agency said the new self-isolation rules reflected updated medical advice, which would be published \"in due course\".\n\nIts chief executive, Dr Jenny Harries, said the new rules would \"help break chains of transmission\" while minimising \"the impact on lives and livelihoods\".\n\nMr Javid said the UKHSA was \"very comfortable\" that the protection provided by lateral flow tests was \"very similar to 10 days of isolation without tests\".\n\nSpeaking on a visit to a London hospital on Wednesday, the health secretary said analysis of the severity of Omicron is not yet complete.\n\n\"The best advice to everyone is continue to remain cautious and keep looking forward to Christmas,\" he said.\n\nMr Javid has also signed contracts for 4.25m additional doses of anti-viral drugs developed specifically for Covid, which he says will help keep lots of people out of hospital.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Sajid Javid talks about the anti-viral drugs which will be made available to the public early next year.\n\nAt the moment, all people across the UK are legally required to self-isolate for 10 days if they test positive for Covid themselves or have symptoms.\n\nThe government says it intends to update England's legal regulations when Parliament returns from its Christmas break.\n\nUntil then, it says the rules will be guidance, and regarded as a \"reasonable excuse\" under current laws to end isolation early.\n\nThe rules mean someone who tests positive on either day six or seven will still be able to end isolation after two negative tests 24 hours apart on the following days.\n\nIt means they could, with two such tests, end their isolation after the second negative test taken on day eight, nine or 10 of the isolation period.\n\nThe devolved nations are in charge of setting their own Covid rules:\n\nOne of those who hopes to benefit from the rule-change is Alex, from Surrey. If he tests negative on Thursday, he will be able to end isolation in time for his 25th birthday on Christmas Eve.\n\n\"I'm planning on going to the pub with my friends, actually getting to see them,\" he tells BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat.\n\nAlex is now hoping for a \"big old Christmas\"\n\nPeople in England are being encouraged to report their lateral flow results to the government, but it is understood this will not be required to leave isolation.\n\nFully-vaccinated people who come into contact with someone who tests positive for coronavirus have already been advised to take a lateral flow test every day for seven days.\n\nWhen the advice was introduced nine days ago, the UK government website where tests can be ordered was temporarily suspended due to high demand but Mr Javid said there was no shortage of the kits and it was down to a lack of delivery slots.\n\nBut some people around the country have since reported problems getting hold of tests, which can also be picked up from local pharmacies, GP surgeries and libraries.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Laura Foster explains how lateral flow tests work and how to do one", "Supermarket Morrisons is to scrap 'use by' dates on most of its milk in a move it says will stop millions of pints being poured down the sink.\n\nThe retailer will instead place 'best before' on 90% of its own-brand milk and encourage customers to use a sniff test to check quality.\n\nRecycling charity Wrap said Morrisons was the first supermarket to make the move, which starts later this month.\n\nIan Goode, senior milk buyer at Morrisons, said it was a \"bold step\".\n\nMilk is the third most wasted food and drink product in the UK, after potatoes and bread, with around 490 million pints wasted every year, according to Wrap.\n\nIt also estimates 85 million pints of milk waste may be due to customers following 'use by' labels, despite research showing it can be used days after the date.\n\nMorrisons believes the move could save seven million pints of its own-brand milk being poured away each year.\n\n'Use by' are the dates until which perishable food can be cooked and consumed safely. 'Best before' on food is guidance for when the product should be consumed to get the best quality, taste and texture.\n\nMorrisons said its research showed that milk does not need to be labelled as a perishable food. \"The dates on the milk will stay the same - it is what we are asking customers to do which is changing,\" the supermarket said.\n\nMr Goode said: \"Wasted milk means wasted effort by our farmers and unnecessary carbon being released into the atmosphere.\n\n\"Good quality, well-kept milk has a good few days life after normal 'use by' dates - and we think it should be consumed, not tipped down the sink.\n\n\"So we're taking a bold step today and asking customers to decide whether their milk is still good to drink. Generations before us have always used the sniff test - and I believe we can too.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMarcus Gover, of Wrap, said: \"I am delighted that Morrisons is the first UK supermarket to take this important step to help reduce household food waste - it shows real leadership and we look forward to more retailers reviewing date labels on their products and taking action.\"\n\nMorrisons has already scrapped 'use by' dates across some of its own-brand yogurt and hard cheese ranges.\n\nThe Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was alright to have 'use by' or 'best before' on milk depending on the processing and type. But there must be clear labelling, and the dates printed on all food and drink must be based on \"robust evidence about the product concerned\".\n\nThe FSA also pointed out that when dealing with food generally, sniffing is not an appropriate safety test, especially with products that could cause food poisoning.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Wales' first minister said England was a “global outlier” when it came to coronavirus\n\nMark Drakeford has accused Boris Johnson of failing to take the necessary action to protect people in England from Covid.\n\n\"The one country that stands up as not taking action to protect its population is England,\" said the first minister.\n\nThe comments come as Mr Drakeford announced Covid restrictions would not be relaxed in Wales.\n\nHe added that England was the \"outlier\" in the UK when it came to Covid. The UK government has been asked to comment.\n\nEarlier this week, the prime minister said he hoped England could \"ride out\" the Omicron wave without further restrictions.\n\nHowever, defending keeping tighter restrictions in Wales, Mr Drakeford criticised Mr Johnson's approach, saying: \"Wales is taking action as is Scotland, as is Northern Ireland and are countries right across Europe and right across the globe.\n\n\"In England, we have a government that is politically paralysed with a prime minister is unable to secure an agreement through his cabinet to take the actions that his advisors have been telling him ought to be taken.\"\n\nMr Drakeford said the peak of the Omicron wave was likely to be \"about 10 to 14 days away\", and insisted those calling for Covid restrictions to be eased were \"factually wrong\".\n\nThe comments came after a senior epidemiologist, who has advised the Welsh and UK governments, called for restrictions to be dropped to pre-Omicron levels.\n\nHowever, the first minister said the idea that Omicron is an illness we can afford to \"take lightly\" does not \"bear any connection to the actual position we are facing\".\n\nThe first minister warned \"the storm of Omicron\" had arrived as Wales sees \"astronomically high\" positivity rates.\n\n\"We have a tough few weeks ahead and we are not in a position to withdraw any of the protections,\" he added.\n\nWelsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies said: \"This is a first minister who isn't prepared to have an independent public inquiry into his handling of the Covid crisis here in Wales.\n\n\"And it is a Labour first minister here in Wales who has presided over the highest death rate, unfortunately, of any part of the United Kingdom, so it's a little bit rich of him to be offering criticism of the prime minister.\"\n\nIn Wales nightclubs are closed, with limits on hospitality businesses, sporting events and who people can meet indoors and outdoors.\n\nThe decision to limit outdoor gatherings, including organised exercise groups, has previously been criticised by the UK health minister, and there have been concerns that hospitality rules could see people head across the border to England to socialise.\n\nPublic Health Wales has reported 7,915 new Covid cases and 21 further deaths.\n\nThe seven day rolling case rate per 100,000 has continued to climb to 2,324, compared to 2,228 reported on Thursday.\n\nThe testing positivity rate - the percentage of Covid test returning a positive result - has fallen very slightly to 51.2%.\n\nThere was a daily average of 662 patients with confirmed Covid in hospital beds - a 77% increase on a week ago - although there were two and a half times as many people in hospital at the same point in 2021.\n\nHowever, NHS bosses have said this includes \"a lot\" of \"incidental\" Covid patients, who are in hospital for non-Covid reasons but test positive for Covid.\n\nBut Mr Drakeford said this \"doesn't make any difference to the hospitals\" as they must still \"treat every one of those patients as a coronavirus patient\".\n\nSpeaking at Friday's Welsh government Covid press conference the first minister said it would not be right to say the Welsh NHS is \"being overwhelmed\" but it is \"certainly facing very challenging circumstances\".\n\nHe said Omicron was \"driving more people to fall ill and then to need hospital treatment\" and also making more health staff ill.\n\n\"The latest figures suggest staff absences from illness and isolation across the NHS is 8.3% but it is as high as 16.5% in some NHS organisations.\"\n\nHe urged people to limit the number of people they meet, take lateral flow tests before going out, and make getting a booster vaccine a priority.\n\nOn those eligible for a vaccine that have chosen not to receive one, Mr Drakeford said they are \"expecting someone else to put themselves in harms way to look after them, and it simply isn't fair.\"\n\nOne senior doctor says restrictions are needed as hospitals are at \"bursting point\"\n\nDr Rowena Christmas, head of the Royal College of GPs in Wales, told BBC Radio Wales that while the rules were difficult hospitals were at \"bursting point\".\n\n\"The numbers are absolutely huge, so I think we have to continue as we are at least for the time being,\" she said.\n\nUK Hospitality Cymru warned this week that without extra money and lighter restrictions businesses would be left in \"peril\", with ministers responding that a emergency financial support package will be available from 10 January.\n\nA government spokesman said they would continue to consider whether additional emergency business support funding was needed.\n\nGary Lulham, boss of Sin City nightclub in Swansea, said while he did not expect any changes the news was \"devastating\" for an industry that was already at a \"critical breaking point\".\n\nHe added that without significant financial support there would be \"hundreds of thousands\" of people at the end of the month who \"won't be able to pay their rent, or be able to put food on the table for themselves or their kids\".\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives urged ministers to provide urgent support for businesses, and said restrictions on outdoor sporting events should be relaxed.\n\nAndrew RT Davies, Welsh Tory leader in the Senedd, called for \"greater flexibility\" on restrictions for hospitality settings.\n\n\"I think all people have done is move that socialising indoors into house party environments which are unregulated environments,\" he said.\n\n\"I do think there is scope to lift some of the restrictions in that particular area.\"\n\nHe also called for Welsh ministers to scrap \"ridiculous\" fines for workers who go into the workplace when they could work at home.\n\nMr Drakeford had previously defended the fines saying they were in place the last time there was a work from home obligation, that \"no fines were issued at all\" during that period and \"they are designed to protect workers, not to penalise them\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nLabour has called for a windfall tax on North Sea gas and oil producers to help limit the expected rise in household gas and electricity bills by £200\n\nThe party says its £6.6bn plan would also remove VAT on domestic energy costs for a year and increase the warm homes discount for poorer households.\n\nShadow chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC the UK was \"uniquely exposed\" to global energy price rises.\n\nBut the government said it was working to manage the impact on consumers.\n\nAnd Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not ruled out taking steps to tackle the rising cost of energy, amid pressure from some of his own backbench MPs.\n\nThe trade body Energy UK predicts bills will surge by up to 50% in April, when the change to the price cap, due to be determined in February, kicks in. This could leave an average household paying about £700 more per year, it says.\n\nUK inflation hit a 10-year high in November, with the rate expected to increase to further in the next few months, while National Insurance contributions are set to rise in April. This has led to warnings of a cost-of-living \"crisis\".\n\nLabour is attempting to seize the initiative with a call for a windfall tax on oil and gas producers.\n\nThe idea is not new. Previous Labour and Conservative governments have done it and the Lib Dems called for a similar move last week.\n\nBut timing is everything, and the government is under pressure to ease the impact of rising energy bills, living costs and its looming increase in National Insurance payments.\n\nBoris Johnson has not ruled out taking steps to soften the blow, but so far has only said what he doesn't want to do - cut VAT on energy bills.\n\nIn opposition, Labour has the luxury of being able to put forward a menu of policy options to try to make the government look indecisive.\n\nBut it's the prime minister and the chancellor who'll have to find a politically palatable way to ease the acute strain coming to households and businesses.\n\nDoing nothing, it seems, is not an option.\n\nUnder Labour's plan, North Sea energy producers, their profits boosted by price rises, would be forced to pay £1.2bn to mitigate household bills through a year-long increase to their corporation tax of 10 percentage points.\n\nThe party also wants an extra £3.5bn to be spent on the warm homes discount, increasing it from £140 to £400 per year, while doubling the number of households eligible to 9.3 million.\n\nVAT, currently set at 5% for household energy bills, should be removed for a year from April - six months longer than Labour has previously called for - the party adds.\n\nThe prime minister has argued that a VAT cut would be too \"blunt\" a tool, as it would affect all households, including the richest, rather than targeting those most in need.\n\nBut Labour says its proposals would save most households about £200, while targeted support to lower earners and pensioners would save them £600.\n\nMs Reeves told BBC One's Sunday Morning there were some \"pretty staggering\" energy bill rises in store for households.\n\n\"The problem is that so much of this has been caused by more than a decade of dither and delay in energy policy by the government,\" she said.\n\n\"The UK is uniquely exposed because of a failure to invest in nuclear and hydrogen and renewables.\"\n\nLabour's plans are unlikely to become policy in time for April, as it is not in power, but the party is keen to put as much pressure on the government over what it sees as a central issue for millions of voters.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats also called for a windfall tax on energy firms earlier this week, with leader Sir Ed Davey saying: \"It can't be right that a few energy fat cats are raking it in from record gas prices while millions of people can't even afford to heat their homes.\"\n\nConservative former energy minister Chris Skidmore has backed the idea of a windfall tax, which has been imposed by previous Labour and Tory governments.\n\nFormer Conservative Chancellor Lord Lamont told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend that, of Labour's proposals, increasing the warm homes discount would provide \"a much bigger bang for your buck\" than cutting VAT or a windfall tax.\n\n\"Windfall taxes tend to stick and then become permanent,\" he said. \"People don't have much sympathy when the prices go down and the windfall taxes remain.\"\n\nA government spokesman said: \"The energy price cap is currently insulating millions of consumers from high global gas prices. We'll continue to listen to consumers and businesses on how to manage the costs of energy.\n\n\"We recognise people are facing pressures with the cost of living, which is why we are taking action worth more than £4.2bn, and supporting vulnerable households through initiatives such as the £500m household support fund, warm home discount, winter fuel payments and cold weather payments.\"", "The case has made headlines around the world, with people in Djokovic's home country taking to the streets in support\n\nNovak Djokovic was given no assurances that a medical exemption would allow him into Australia, lawyers fighting to deport the tennis star have argued.\n\nThe court filing by lawyers for the Australian government also reveal Djokovic, 34, is unvaccinated.\n\nAustralia's Covid border rules ban non-double vaccinated foreigners from entering, unless they have a medical exemption from having the jabs.\n\nA court hearing is under way as Djokovic seeks to stop his deportation.\n\nThe Serbian tennis player flew into Melbourne last week, hoping to defend his Australian Open title.\n\nBut instead he has been held in an immigration detention centre as his lawyers prepare to appeal against a decision by Australia's federal government to cancel his visa.\n\nTennis Australia has said it needs to know by Tuesday if he will be allowed to play, as it has to schedule his matches for the tournament, which begins 17 January.\n\nOn Saturday, Djokovic's lawyers submitted a 35-page document arguing that their client fulfilled the criteria for a vaccine exemption certificate because of a recent Covid infection, which was confirmed by a PCR test on 16 December.\n\nBut in Sunday's court filing, lawyers for Australia's home office dismissed this as a valid reason.\n\n\"There is no suggestion that the applicant had 'acute major medical illness' in December 2021. All he has said is that he tested positive for Covid-19. This is not the same,\" it said, adding there was \"no such thing as an assurance of entry by a non-citizen into Australia\".\n\nIt also said that \"it is common ground\" between the two parties that \"the applicant is unvaccinated\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Serbs in Belgrade give their reaction to Novak Djokovic row\n\nDjokovic has previously said he is opposed to vaccination, but never said openly whether he had had the vaccine.\n\nIn Australia, the news he had been granted a medical exemption was met with anger from citizens who have been living under some of the world's strictest Covid rules.\n\nThose controls have separated families, and meant people missed funerals, births and weddings. Now that more than 90% of Australia's over-16 population are vaccinated some rules have been relaxed. However, some people still cannot travel interstate or globally because of current measures.\n\n\"I think it's a disgrace,\" Melbourne resident Christine Wharton told ABC earlier this week. \"We've all done the right thing, we've all gone out and got our jabs and our boosters and we have someone that has come from overseas and all of a sudden he's been exempt and can play.\"", "Fashion photographer Paolo Roversi said taking a portrait of the duchess was a \"true honour\" and \"a moment of pure joy\"\n\nThe Duchess of Cambridge has marked her 40th birthday by releasing three new photographs.\n\nThe glamorous portraits, taken by fashion photographer Paolo Roversi, show her wearing Alexander McQueen dresses, as well as earrings that belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales, and others loaned by the Queen.\n\nCatherine thanked people for their \"very kind birthday wishes\" and Roversi for \"these three special portraits\".\n\nA big birthday is always a good excuse for nostalgia and reflection - and for the duchess there is plenty to ponder.\n\nMuch has changed for her since her marriage into the Royal Family - not just the prince, their three children and her role as future Queen.\n\nShe has also had to find her feet as a public figure.\n\nMoving from the private Kate Middleton to the public, royal Duchess of Cambridge has had its challenges.\n\nShe has had to navigate the particular and peculiar stresses that come with joining the Royal Family, of which there are many.\n\nThe three portraits were taken at Kew Gardens in November\n\nBuckingham Palace, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were among those to wish her a happy birthday on social media, sharing pictures of Catherine with the Queen, Prince Charles and Camilla.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The Royal Family This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The Royal Family\n\nThe three new photos released of the duchess to mark her big birthday are revealing. They show how she wants to present herself at 40 and they ooze glossy, old fashioned glamour.\n\nThe images were taken at Kew Gardens back in November and will form part of a project from the National Portrait Gallery where the duchess is patron.\n\nThey will go on display in three locations that she has chosen and have special meaning for her.\n\nBerkshire is the county of her childhood and where she was brought up. St Andrews is where she went to university and began her relationship with her husband. Anglesey is where the couple lived together just before and in the early part of their marriage.\n\nThe photos will then be housed in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery.\n\nCatherine wears earrings that belonged to Diana, Princess of Wales, in the two black and white pictures and earrings loaned by the Queen in the other\n\nThese are not royal choices. They are personal ones for a duchess whose happy and settled childhood has provided the blueprint for how she manages the life she now lives.\n\nAnd at 40 she increasingly seems at peace with the path she's on.\n\nI was at her first ever engagement on Anglesey in 2011.\n\nDespite being in a relationship with William throughout most of her 20s, this was the first time we had seen her on official duty. The crowds were big and the spotlight intense but on the surface she seemed unfazed.\n\nIn the years that followed, that calm, sometimes shy, exterior has not gone away but it now includes a growing sense of self confidence in her public work.\n\nThe then Kate Middleton in 2005 at her university graduation in St Andrews - the town is one of the locations where the new portraits will go on display\n\nThe duchess in Ipswich in March 2012, where she gave her first public speech\n\n...and on a more recent visit to a school in London last November\n\nI looked back at her first ever speech in 2012 for East Anglia's Children's Hospices - a cause still close to her heart. She looked and sounded nervous. This wasn't her comfort zone. But fast forward to 2021 and a speech for Action on Addiction and there is an ease and directness in her words.\n\n\"Addiction is not a choice. No one chooses to become an addict. But it can happen to any of us. None of us are immune.\"\n\nAdjusting to the scrutiny has come perhaps most sharply with how she looks.\n\nThe clothes remain a mix of High Street and high end and the duchess has learnt when to pull out all the stops. I give you the James Bond premiere back in September and the Jenny Packham-designed gold dress.\n\nThe duchess wore a gold Jenny Packham dress at the premiere of No Time To Die last September\n\nHer 40s will be another decade of significant change.\n\nAs the Queen does less and works differently due to her age, so the Cambridges will do more.\n\nFor the duchess, that will mean a focus on raising issues around mental health, addiction and early childhood.\n\nShe will also continue to protect the privacy of her own children - Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, six, and Prince Louis, three - managing when we are able to see them.\n\nAt 40 years old, life is now a juggle between the private and the public for the duchess who will one day be queen.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with Prince George and Princess Charlotte in Poland in 2017. Their third child, Prince Louis, was born the following year\n\nIn April 2020 the whole family were pictured taking part in a \"clap for carers\" for BBC Children in Need and Comic Relief", "The no-fly zone application, if successful, would prevent aircrafts flying up to 2,500ft above and 1.5 nautical miles around Windsor Castle\n\nA no-fly zone could be placed over Windsor Castle as part of a security review, Metropolitan Police has said.\n\nThe force has applied for restricted airspace which would prevent aircraft flying up to 2,500ft above and 1.5 nautical miles around the castle.\n\nIt comes after a 19-year-old man was found with a crossbow at the castle on Christmas Day.\n\nA police spokesperson said it would \"further enhance\" security at an \"iconic location\".\n\nThe force added the application was part of an ongoing review into security arrangements and not because of any specific threat or intelligence.\n\nThe 19-year-old was arrested following the incident and has since been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.\n\nResidents in Windsor have been invited to give their views on the application for the restricted airspace order.\n\nA Metropolitan Police spokesman said: \"As part of the Met Police's responsibilities under the Royal and Specialist Protection Command, the Met is responsible for policing within the footprint of Windsor Castle and we work closely with Thames Valley Police to ensure the castle and the surrounding areas are kept safe and secure.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "\"Everyone agrees something has to be done, they'd just rather like someone else to do it.\"\n\nThat wasn't a joke from a former minister tonight, but a pretty accurate summary of the mood across the Tory Party.\n\nThat mood isn't just a barometer of political sentiment in the governing administration, but it's the critical factor in the prime minister's fate.\n\nThere is very deep and widespread concern among the group that has the power to trigger a mechanism to oust Boris Johnson from office if enough of them put their names to letters to call for a contest.\n\nA number of them have already done so, but given the process is confidential it is impossible to tell how many have taken that step. Only one person, Sir Graham Brady, the head of the backbench committee the 1922, has the tally.\n\nSo forget anyone else purporting to be sure how many there really are. One cabinet minister told me confidently having done \"my own sums\" there can't be more than handful, pouring scorn on the notion that the number of official malcontents might have gone higher than a dozen.\n\nBut another member of the government suggested the threshold of 54 could in fact be reached \"by accident\" with many more than No 10 calculate having been handed in already.\n\nBut remember, no one really knows. And again, because it is a confidential process, Tory MPs are perfectly capable of telling each other (and of course journalists) that they have sent a letter when in fact they have done no such thing.\n\nFor Downing Street that uncertainty means they can't feel comfortable with the current state of unease. For members of the cabinet itself they also don't know, and can't be sure that the official report into what happened behind No 10's door in lockdown will spare Boris Johnson from blame.\n\nIndeed, one of their number says there is a \"significant delusion\" at the top table right now in placing any faith that the party isn't angry enough to act, or Sue Gray's report will be vague enough not to put any new pressure on the prime minister personally.\n\nAnd Monday's new broadside from Dominic Cummings shows again that Downing Street is not, and cannot be, in control of what's next.\n\nIt is worth noting that the man who was the chief adviser has made no secret of his desire to see Boris Johnson out of No 10. Mr Cummings might have been the chief adviser but he is now arguably, enemy number one for Downing Street.\n\nBut his latest blog which claims that the prime minister was warned by him about the 20 May 2020 event in the No 10 garden which is only part of the string of accusations, is a reminder to Downing Street that it is not in control of what happens next.\n\nIt is true that there is no consensus among Conservative MPs about the \"something\" that needs to be done. But it is also true that it won't be entirely down to Boris Johnson to define what that is.", "The congressional panel investigating last year's US Capitol riot have issued a subpoena to former President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.\n\nThe House of Representatives committee demanded Mr Giuliani and three others hand over documents and sit for depositions on 8 February.\n\nMr Giuliani travelled the US after the 2020 election to promote the baseless claim that Mr Trump had won the vote.\n\nThe riot on 6 January 2021 was stoked by falsehoods about mass voter fraud.\n\nSubpoenas were issued on Tuesday to three other Trump associates:\n\nBennie Thompson, the Democratic lawmaker who is leading the House select committee, said in a statement that all four aides \"advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former president about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes\".\n\nIt is not clear whether the four of them intend to comply with the committee. If they refuse, they could be held in contempt of Congress and face possible criminal prosecution.\n\nThe subpoena calls on Mr Giuliani - a longtime ally of Mr Trump - to submit a sworn testimony and provide documents.\n\nThe document charges that Mr Giuliani and Ms Powell urged Mr Trump to seize voting machines around the country after being informed by the Department of Homeland Security that it \"had no lawful authority to do so\".\n\nOn the day of the riot, Mr Giuliani addressed the crowd of Trump supporters outside the White House and called for \"trial by combat\".\n\nLater, as the mob was storming the building, he called senators in a further effort to halt Joe Biden's certification as president.\n\nAccording to CNN, the panel has also obtained phone records of the former president's son, Eric Trump, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to another son, Donald Trump Jr.\n\nThe seizure of the phone records is the first time such a legal summons has been issued to a member of the Trump family, the network reported.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ros Atkins on... the US Capitol riot anniversary", "Last updated on .From the section Northern Ireland\n\nIreland's home Six Nations games can be played in front of full houses after the Irish Government lifted restrictions on crowd numbers imposed to help curb the spread of Covid-19.\n\nCapacity inside sports stadiums in the Republic of Ireland had been limited to 50% or 5,000 but this will cease to be the case from 06:00 GMT on Saturday.\n\nRestrictions on numbers able to attend indoor events will also be lifted.\n\nIreland begin their Six Nations campaign against Wales on 5 February.\n\nIn addition to that game in Dublin, the Aviva Stadium will also play host to Ireland's matches against Italy on 27 February and Scotland on 19 March.\n\nThe removal of the restrictions will also benefit GAA's Football and Hurling Leagues which will commence on 29 and 30 January, as well as Munster's Champions Cup clash with Wasps on Sunday.", "At Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson told MPs that he was technically within the rules when he attended a drinks party in his own back garden on May 20, 2020, during lockdown.\n\nHe set out part of the defence he has put forward to the senior civil servant, Sue Gray, who is investigating the allegations of parties taking place on government property.\n\nOn Wednesday, the prime minister told MPs: \"Number 10 is a big department with the garden as an extension of the office - which has been in constant use because of the role of fresh air in stopping the virus.\n\n\"I believed implicitly that this was a work event.\"\n\nA Downing Street spokesman later provided more of the case for the defence - that the prime minister had not seen the email invite to No 10 staff from civil servant Martin Reynolds, encouraging them to bring their own booze to the event.\n\nBut the building - or buildings - in Downing Street also form part of the defence case.\n\nNo 10 acts as both a home and an office for the prime minister, although the flat where he lives is actually above No 11 Downing Street.\n\nThe higgeldy-piggeldy property is variously a conference centre, a venue for ministerial meetings, a workplace for civil servants and advisers, and - in 2020 - also where press briefings were conducted.\n\nSo it's possible the prime minister may be able to claim that if members of his household happened to \"mix\" with staff when restrictions were in place, that was because they were simply using their own back garden.\n\nAnd when he was \"mixing\" with officials that was because the garden was also an office, and those key employees did not need to work from home.\n\nBut this explanation is rejected by former members of Mr Johnson's own staff.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I offer my heartfelt apologies\": Watch Boris Johnson admit to attending the No 10 party in May 2020\n\nIn a tweet on Wednesday, Dominic Cummings argued that 20 May - given the formal e-mail invitation - was \"no way within the rules\" and was \"obviously social, not work\", which would not have been allowed.\n\nAnother former staffer - who has not, unlike Mr Cummings, been openly critical of the prime minister - told the BBC there were \"no legal grounds\" for the 20 May gathering.\n\nAnd they noted that while there was a reference to good weather in the emailed invitation, there was no mention of work - and the only nod to the pandemic was that the drinks would be \"socially distanced\".\n\nSue Gray will no doubt form her own view - but with more Conservative MPs becoming openly critical of Mr Johnson even before she completes her report, there is little doubt that he is in a tight spot.\n\nFormer government insiders are suggesting the culture that was allowed to flourish at Downing Street from the first lockdown onwards contributed to the prime minister's current predicament.\n\nA regular visitor to Downing Street from another department said that drinks were available on some evenings at post-press conference meetings in the garden.\n\nA former No 10 insider has already said drinks were available regularly on Fridays when people were working late.\n\nDominic Cummings was no stranger to the Downing Street garden\n\nDominic Cummings has insisted that the photograph, published by the Guardian, in the Downing Street garden from 15 May 2020 - showing wine on a table - depicted a work meeting, not a social event.\n\nAnd he added in his blog \"No 10 staff were ENCOURAGED\" [his caps] to have meetings in the garden April-August for the obvious reason that we were in a pandemic with an airborne disease and being outside was safer!'\n\nThis account has been corroborated by others in government at the time who said evidence was emerging of the lower risk of transmission outdoors.\n\nBut a former government adviser told the BBC that because people were getting used to meeting outside, the lines between work and socialising had got blurred.\n\nHe suggested that this may have \"normalised\" the drinking and chatting in the garden that took place on 20 May.\n\nBut he nonetheless agrees with Mr Cummings that this event - with that email invite from Mr Johnson's Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds - was \"blatantly against the rules\".\n\nAnd he said several people who worked in No 10 at the time felt Mr Reynolds' email invitation was \"nutty\".\n\n\"Anyone with political nous would know this was wrong,\" said the former insider.\n\nAs we reported, the event went ahead despite opposition from key political staff, leading some to believe it must therefore have been sanctioned by the prime minister himself.\n\nBut the former government source believes Downing Street's denial of this is credible - again, because of the unusual culture at No 10.\n\nHe said that civil servants who are Principal Private Secretaries, like Mr Reynolds, would normally work closely with their ministers,\n\nAnd it would be assumed that they were speaking with the authority of their political masters.\n\nBut in Boris Johnson's case, added our source, \"he just isn't across the detail\".\n\nSo, he claimed, it was left to others in No 10 to undertake functions usually associated with the prime minister himself.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Sir Keir Starmer asks if the PM will do the decent thing and resign\n\nLabour sources say they haven't asked for Martin Reynolds's resignation as the \"culture inside No 10 was set by the man at the top\".\n\nSo bit by bit, a picture of working life inside No10 during the coronavirus crisis is emerging.\n\nThe prime minister would prefer to talk of the government's achievements in the face of the challenge of Covid - such as the mass vaccination programme.\n\nBut as one of Boris Johnson's MPs put it after Prime Minister's Questions, \"it is just drip, drip, drip. It will continue to be drip, drip, drip\" - and \"partygate\" could continue to be politically corrosive.\n\nThe key question now will be whether the No 10 defence - that while mistakes were made, rules were not technically broken - will wash with Sue Gray, and with the wider public.", "Consumer goods giant Unilever has said it \"will not increase\" its £50bn offer for GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) healthcare arm after the bid was rejected.\n\nThe PG Tips and Dove soap maker said it had considered evidence from GSK, but said it had not changed its view on the value of the business.\n\nGSK's health products business owns brands such as Sensodyne toothpaste, Panadol and Centrum vitamins.\n\nUnilever had previously said a deal would be a \"strong strategic fit\".\n\nThe Marmite manufacturer says it wants a bigger slice of the health and hygiene sectors.\n\nBut in a statement on Wednesday, the company said it would \"not increase our offer above £50bn\".\n\n\"We note the recently shared financial assumptions from the current owners of GSK Consumer Healthcare and have determined that it does not change our view on fundamental value,\" it added.\n\nUnilever said it was committed to \"maintaining strict financial discipline\" to ensure that \"acquisitions create value for our shareholders\".\n\nShares in Unilever rose 4.5% after Wednesday's announcement, having fallen sharply on Monday.\n\nUnilever is the third largest company on London's FTSE 100 index and is worth around £100bn. A deal would see it take over one of the biggest divisions of the FTSE 100's fifth biggest company.\n\nGSK, which runs its healthcare operation in a joint venture with US drug maker Pfizer, has previously said it wants to offload the division.\n\nThe company has rejected three Unilever offers, saying the proposals \"fundamentally failed\" to reflect the value of the business.", "The children's commissioner for England is calling for every child to have a single identifying number that can be used by schools, health authorities and the police\n\nAn inquiry is being launched into children who are not attending school in the wake of national lockdowns, the children's commissioner for England has said.\n\nBetween 80,000 and 100,000 children missed more school than they attended in autumn 2020, according to Dame Rachel de Souza's office.\n\nHowever, the number of children who are not on any school rolls is not known.\n\n\"Literally, I am going to go out and find them,\" Dame Rachel told BBC News.\n\nThe Department for Education (DfE) said its \"top priority\" was supporting children to attend school and college.\n\nDame Rachel told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme about 95% of children were usually in school at this time of year - but now, this figure was about 87%.\n\nSome absences were down to illness and Covid, she said, but other children had simply failed to return following classroom closures during the pandemic.\n\nSome may have problems with anxiety and bullying, Dame Rachel said.\n\nOthers were \"not even on any school roll\" - and she would \"go out and find them\".\n\n\"I am going to use the police, or the local safeguarding boards,\" she said.\n\n\"We are going to find the children because I want to talk to them to ask them what's going on and get them in.\"\n\nDame Rachel, a former head teacher, said she was worried vulnerable children could fall into criminality.\n\nSchool was the best place to keep children safe, she said, referring to the case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, who was tortured and killed by his father and stepmother during the first national lockdown.\n\nA serious case review was launched into circumstances around the six-year-old's death, after it emerged social workers had visited the house in the months before he died and found no cause for concern.\n\nThe father and stepmother of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes were jailed last month\n\nDame Rachel also said she had received commitment from Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi to create a national database to see attendance data in real time.\n\n\"I know, and the DfE knows, how many - what percentage - of children are in school on a day-to-day basis, morning and afternoon session,\" she said.\n\n\"We don't know nationally if it's the same children as yesterday - and that's the problem.\"\n\nDame Rachel said she had written to local authorities and safeguarding boards across England and was meeting with representatives from 10 local authorities on Wednesday.\n\n\"When I asked the 10 local authorities to send me very simple data [such as] how many children have you got in your area, how many children are not on roll, how many children are waiting for school places, they could not all give me that answer,\" she said.\n\n\"I cannot believe that we can't actually manage to find every child in this country.\"\n\n\"Our top priority continues to be supporting all children to attend school or college,\" she said.\n\nNational leaders were part of an \"attendance alliance\" aiming to \"spread best practice [to] improve attendance right across the country\", the spokeswoman said.\n\n\"They will be responsible for making sure everyone working on the ground with children, as a teacher, football coach, mental-health worker or in any other role, has the tools and resources they need to break down barriers to children attending school,\" she said.\n\n\"We welcome the children's commissioner's support with this work and will continue to prioritise taking action to make sure children have the opportunity to spend time in class with inspirational teachers and good friends - simply because it is the single most powerful tool at our disposal to make sure every child fulfils their potential.\"\n\nUpdate 25 February: This article originally reported that children's commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza told BBC Woman's Hour that between 80,000 and 100,000 children were not on any school rolls at all. The Office of the Children's Commissioner for England subsequently confirmed that Dame Rachel misspoke and that this figure actually relates to the number of children who were persistently absent from school in autumn 2020, following the first Covid-19 lockdown. They also confirmed that the number of children not on school rolls is unknown and so we have updated our article.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nThe Premier League is looking into changing its guidance around match postponements after criticism over the number of games being called off.\n\nThis season, 22 fixtures have been postponed because of Covid-19 cases, injuries and international call-ups.\n\nThe league has been criticised recently, amid claims that clubs were manipulating the rules around what warranted postponements.\n\nNew guidelines could be in place for 8 February.\n\nIt is understood early discussions have taken place in the last few days following controversy over the league's decision to grant Arsenal's request to postpone Sunday's north London derby at Tottenham.\n\nThere will not be enough time to implement changes for this weekend but when the Premier League resumes after its two-week winter break on 8 February, an agreement over amended guidance is likely to have been reached.\n\nPremier League clubs were told in December that they should fulfil matches if they had a goalkeeper and 13 outfield players available, in reaction to a number of matches being called off because of Covid-19 outbreaks.\n\nHowever, clubs have been allowed to include players injured and on international duty on their list of absentees when applying for a postponement.\n\nOfficials believe now might be the time to amend the Premier League's rules, with Covid restrictions in England set to be eased, and the number of top-flight players testing positive falling for the third successive week.\n\nAfter Wednesday's games, there will still be 20 outstanding Premier League matches to rearrange, all but four of which were originally called off for Covid-related reasons.\n\nIt has already been decided the forthcoming winter break will not be used to reschedule any of these games, which means they will have to be played in weeks reserved for European competition.\n\nEven then, there are bound to be some issues.\n\nLeicester were four matches behind schedule before Wednesday's rearranged home game against Tottenham, and will also have to reschedule a match against Chelsea - moved from late February because Thomas Tuchel's side have reached the Carabao Cup final.\n\nAs Brendan Rodgers' team are still in Europe and the FA Cup, they could reach a point where they have to play twice in a single midweek to fit all their games in.\n\nBurnley, meanwhile, have only played 17 league games this season. Their past two games - at home to Leicester and Watford - were called off, while their matches with Aston Villa and Everton were postponed in December because of Covid-19 cases among the opposing teams.\n\nThe Clarets' match with Tottenham in November was also called off 50 minutes before kick-off because of heavy snow at Turf Moor.\n\nWhat has been said about postponements?\n\nFormer Manchester United captain Gary Neville has been particularly critical of the league's rules over postponements, saying Covid-enforced postponements had now become \"about clubs not having their best team\".\n\nTottenham boss Antonio Conte, speaking on Tuesday, said he found the decision to postpone Sunday's north London derby against Arsenal \"strange and surprising\".\n\n\"We should not postpone games for injuries, for international duty,\" said Conte.\n\n\"I think we have a big problem to solve and it's Covid, but only about this situation can you decide to postpone, not for other situations.\n\n\"Honestly, it's my first time in my life - and I've had a bit of experience in football - I've seen this type of decision. It was very strange.\"\n\nThe Premier League has defended itself by pointing out that managers were complaining around Christmas time that players risked burnout if they were forced to play during a hectic schedule with squads reduced by illness.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta defended the club's decision to request the postponement of the Tottenham game.\n\n\"We didn't have the players necessary to put a squad out to compete in a Premier League match, that is 100%,\" Arteta said before Thursday's Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool.\n\n\"This is a no-win situation. When we play the first three games of the season when other games were off, we were killed and called naive. Now we postpone a match for all the right reasons, believe me, and we get these reactions?\"\n\nWhen asked about changing the Premier League's rules to make them more transparent, Arteta added: \"Yes, but you have to do that from the beginning.\n\n\"It is tricky. Everyone has to try to do the right thing and if we have to change things, then let's change them, but let's all act in the same way.\"\n\nAston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow said the league's current guidelines around Covid-related postponements are \"no longer fit for purpose\".\n\n\"They were well-intentioned at the time but to have a situation where clubs are applying for games to be postponed with just one or two positive Covid cases was never the intention of the rules,\" Purslow told the Times .\n\n\"I have asked the Premier League to review the situation and I hope that happens as a matter of urgency.\"\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga An image from the capital, Nuku’alofa, shows damage following Saturday's tsunami\n\nNew pictures have emerged from Tonga, revealing the damage wreaked by tsunami waves triggered by an undersea volcano.\n\nThey show the Pacific islands blanketed in a layer of volcanic ash, while in coastal areas the waves have torn down trees and ripped buildings apart.\n\nSaturday's tsunami left at least three dead - including a British national - and crippled communications.\n\nInternational phone links are said to have been restored but a severed undersea cable may take weeks to fix.\n\nThat means Tonga remains largely cut off from the outside world, with little known about the scale of destruction.\n\nBut the new images, released by Tonga's consulate in the EU, show cars, roads and buildings in the capital Nuku'alofa coated in a film of ash. The dust has hampered relief planes from landing and delivering much-needed food and drinking water.\n\nConsulate of the Kingdom of Tonga The island of Tongatapu has been coated in a layer of volcanic ash\n\nThe pictures also show the aftermath of the tsunami waves, described by Tonga's government as \"an unprecedented disaster\", on coastal areas on the island. Debris is scattered across the shoreline, after waves more than a meter tall struck on Tonga.\n\nConsulate of the Kingdom of Tonga\n\nAerial images taken by the New Zealand Air Force, meanwhile, indicate that several villages have been wiped out on islands that have yet to be reached.\n\nTeams have been working around the clock to get vital supplies to the region and repair the damaged undersea cable.\n\nEfforts to clear thick ash from Tonga's main airport runway finished on Wednesday, AFP news agency reports, after rescue teams and hundreds of volunteers desperately worked to clear dust from the tarmac using wheelbarrows and shovels.\n\nOfficials hoped to have emergency aid flights landing soon.\n\nScant communication has been established since the eruption, enabled only through a few satellite phones mainly held by foreign embassies in the capital city Nuku'alofa. Many Tongans abroad have since been waiting to hear news from loved ones.\n\nTelecom firm Digicel said on Wednesday that it had managed to restore international calls, though the BBC has not been able to able to reach numbers in Tonga.\n\nFull connectivity - including the internet - could take four weeks or more to restore after the sole cable to the islands was damaged in two places.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nOn Wednesday morning, the Red Cross said it had \"joyfully and happily\" been able to make contact with its team in Tonga for the first time since the eruption.\n\n\"Unfortunately there is devastating news from Tonga overnight with the loss and destruction of homes,\" its Pacific Head of Delegation Katie Greenwood told the BBC's Newsday programme.\n\nMs Greenwood added that Red Cross teams were working to distribute clean water, and that a recent campaign telling people to cover their rain water tanks to protect them from ash had worked and provided a boost to bottled water supplies.\n\nConsulate of the Kingdom of Tonga Images from Tonga's shoreline show damage to structures and trees following the tsunami\n\nThe first aid ships from New Zealand and Australia are expected to arrive on Friday.\n\nNew Zealand Defence Minister Peeni Henare told the BBC the ships would bring more than 250,000 litres of fresh water and desalination equipment, used to separate salt from water.\n\n\"The most pressing matter that's come through from the Tongan government is the need for fresh water,\" he said.\n\nBut Tongan officials have also expressed concern that deliveries could result in a spread of Covid, with the country only recording its first case in October.\n\nThere have been reports of food supplies at shops running low and deliveries have been deemed a priority.\n\nThe explosion of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano was felt as far away as the US. In Peru, two people drowned in abnormally high waves while beaches near the capital Lima were closed off following an oil spill.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A Tongan Olympian has started a fundraiser for his home islands", "Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed Christian Wakeford to the party\n\nChristian Wakeford was elected as the Tory MP for Bury South at the 2019 general election but has now defected to the Labour Party. He was cheered by Labour MPs as he crossed the floor of the Commons chamber to join his new colleagues. But what do the people of Bury make of his decision?\n\nAt Rosylee coffee house opposite the MP's office in Radcliffe, where the shutters are up, there was a feisty conversation about his defection.\n\nDebbie Clark, 52, who lives in the Radcliffe area of Bury, voted Conservative for the first time at the last election.\n\n\"I voted for the party. He should resign and we should have a by-election.\"\n\n\"He should not have the right to go to Labour,\" he says.\n\nMaxine Ballington, 51, also voted Conservative because the previous MP stood as an independent.\n\nShe says she is shocked by Mr Wakeford's defection but agrees with his calls for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign.\n\n\"I've lost two people to Covid. People were fined for having house parties. How can he go to a party at Downing Street?\"\n\nDebbie and Fred Clark believe there should be a by-election\n\nNick Hubble, from Prestwich, says he has \"respect\" for the MP's decision after reading his letter resigning from the Conservative party.\n\n\"I thought fair play to him, he had obviously been plagued by his conscience,\" he adds.\n\n\"I understand people have voted for a Tory MP and they now have a Labour MP but it is more complex than that.\"\n\nMr Hubble, 49, believes some people \"vote for personalities\" rather than political parties so his defection \"may not be [so] drastic\".\n\nThe translator says Mr Wakeford has been a \"good constituency MP\" and \"puts his back into it... which should stand him in good stead\".\n\nMr Hubble is part of Walk Ride Prestwich and Whitefield, which is campaigning for better cycling lanes, and hopes the defection will not have an impact on its work.\n\n\"He was due to go on a ride with us this week. We hope he can still commit to support [our campaign],\" he says.\n\nDavid Collins runs Marie's Coffee Shop close to Mr Wakeford's constituency office, which is painted Tory-blue.\n\n\"I probably wouldn't vote for either of them anyway, Labour or Conservative. They're all as bad as each other,\" he says.\n\n\"They all promise they're going to do things and none of it ever materialises.\n\n\"You wouldn't think you were able to jump ship halfway through, would you?\"\n\nMeanwhile, Bury North's Conservative MP James Daly said in a statement on his defecting neighbour he was \"extremely disappointed having only heard in the press a minute before he walked across the Commons\".\n\n\"I'm astounded he's abandoned the party that's brought millions to Bury,\" he added.\n\n\"Bury Labour Party has done nothing for local people and I will ensure the town still has a Conservative representative.\"\n\nHe said the new Labour MP \"should resign so a by-election can take place\".\n\nLabour-controlled Bury Council said it welcomed Mr Wakeford into \"the family\".\n\n\"This defection is a damning indictment of a Tory government and a hapless prime minister that are out of touch with the people of places like Bury,\" councillor Eamonn O'Brien, leader of Bury Council, added.\n\nThe Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham also thanked the MP for \"having the courage to call out a government failing to deliver on its promises to level up the north of England\".\n\n\"People in Bury South deserve better and together we will make sure their voice is heard,\" he said.\n\n\"It is also a clear warning to the government that they walk away from their promises to the north at their own peril.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Hana Horka was part of the folk group, Asonance\n\nA folk singer from the Czech Republic has died after deliberately catching Covid, her son has told the BBC.\n\nHana Horka, 57, was unvaccinated and had posted on social media that she was recovering after testing positive, but died two days later.\n\nHer son, Jan Rek, said she got infected on purpose when he and his father had the virus, so she could get a recovery pass to access certain venues.\n\nThe Czech Republic reported a record number of Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.\n\nMr Rek and his father, who are both fully vaccinated, both caught Covid over Christmas. But he said his mother had decided not to stay away from them, preferring instead to expose herself to the virus.\n\n\"She should have isolated for a week because we tested positive. But she was with us the whole time,\" he said.\n\nProof of vaccination or recent infection from the virus is required in the Czech Republic to gain entry to many social and cultural venues, including cinemas, bars and cafes.\n\nHis mother was a member of one of the oldest Czech folk groups, Asonance. She had wanted to catch Covid so there would be fewer restrictions on her movement, Mr Rek explained.\n\nTwo days before she died, she wrote on social media that she was recovering: \"Now there will be theatre, sauna, a concert\".\n\nOn Sunday morning, the day she died, Ms Horka said she was feeling better and dressed to go for a walk. But then her back started hurting, so she went to lie down in her bedroom.\n\n\"In about 10 minutes it was all over,\" her son said. \"She choked to death\".\n\nAlthough she was unvaccinated, Jan Rek stressed that his mother did not believe in some of the more bizarre conspiracy theories about Covid vaccines.\n\n\"Her philosophy was that she was more OK with the idea of catching Covid than getting vaccinated. Not that we would get microchipped or anything like that,\" he said.\n\nThere was no point in trying to discuss the issue with her as it would just get too emotional, he added. Instead, he hoped that by telling his story he could convince others to get vaccinated.\n\n\"If you have living examples from real life, it's more powerful than just graphs and numbers. You can't really sympathise with numbers.\"\n\nJan Rek said his mother's band Asonance was \"quite a legend\" in folk and country circles\n\nThe number of Covid cases in the Czech Republic reached a new daily high on Wednesday, with 28,469 cases reported in a population of 10.7m people.\n\nThe government has recently introduced new measures to combat the rise, including mandatory testing for employees and schoolchildren. The isolation period for people who test positive but have no symptoms has been reduced from 14 days to five.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Czech government announced that it would cancel plans to introduce mandatory vaccination for some sections of society. Earlier this month, thousands of people demonstrated in Prague and other cities against its possible introduction.\n\nAround 63% of the Czech Republic's total population has been fully vaccinated, compared with an average of 69% across the EU.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The funeral of primary school teacher Ashling Murphy has taken place in County Offaly in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nCrowds, including schoolchildren holding pictures of Ms Murphy, lined the streets as the cortege made its way to St Brigid's Church, Mountbolus.\n\nHer death has shocked the nation and tens of thousands of people have attended vigils in Ireland and further afield in her honour.\n\nMourners came out in force to pay their respects to the talented primary school teacher.\n\nThere has been an outpouring of grief and shock across the island of Ireland since Ms Murphy's death. The 23 year old was killed while out exercising on the towpath of the Grand Canal outside Tullamore on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nPupils from Durrow National School form a guard of honour for their beloved teacher.\n\nMs Murphy's family, including her sister Amy, were pictured comforting one another.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin was among the political dignitaries who came to pay their respects.\n\nRain did not stop the mourners, including these girls in the colours of Ms Murphy's Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club, where she played camogie.\n\nOther Kilcormac Killoughey camogie teammates provided a sea of colour on a dark day.\n\nMs Murphy was a talented fiddle player and her fellow musicians lined the route of the funeral procession and gave her a fitting send-off.\n\nBefore Mass began, Irish President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina hugged Ms Murphy's parents Raymond and Kathleen, her sister Amy, brother Cathal and boyfriend Ryan. The service, which was livestreamed, featured traditional Irish singers and musicians.\n\nDuring the service, mourners were told a \"depraved act of violence\" which deprived Ms Murphy of her life has united the country in grief and support.\n\nOther tributes to Ashling Murphy were held around Ireland - schools held a minute's silence and artist Sean Corcoran created this piece of sand art in Waterford.\n\nAll pictures are subject to copyright.", "Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed his newest MP to the fold\n\nTory MP Christian Wakeford has defected to the Labour Party and called on Boris Johnson to quit as prime minister.\n\nMr Wakeford took the Bury South seat from Labour at the 2019 general election by just 402 votes.\n\nBut he will now sit as a Labour MP, with his new party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, offering him a \"warm welcome\".\n\nThe ex-Tory was believed to have written a letter of no confidence in the prime minister after revelations about lockdown parties in No 10.\n\nAppearing alongside Sir Keir, he said it had \"been a bit of a whirlwind\" since he made the announcement, but he had been well received by the party.\n\nn a letter to the PM, Mr Wakeford told said: \"You and the Conservative Party as a whole have shown themselves incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves\".\n\nHis defection came just ahead of Prime Minister's Questions, with Labour MPs cheering him as he crossed the floor of the Commons to join his new colleagues.\n\nBut some of his former Conservative colleagues who were also elected in 2019 said they felt \"betrayal\" over the defection.\n\nOne of his peers also said they felt \"let down\" by his choice, but said it had \"unified the party\".\n\nLabour confirmed that Sir Keir and Mr Wakeford first met on Monday to discuss his defection, but the local party did not know before the news became public.\n\nIn his letter, Mr Wakeford said Labour was \"ready to provide an alternative government that this country can be proud of, and not embarrassed by\".\n\nHe said the changes his constituents needed could \"only be delivered by a Labour government with Keir Starmer\".\n\nChristian Wakeford had been a Conservative party member for nearly 20 years and it wasn't so-called \"partygate\" which provoked his defection.\n\nThe Chairman of the Conservatives' Northern Research Group, Jake Berry, suggested the Bury South MP's change of political affiliation had been \"hot-headed\".\n\nBut, in fact, the process had taken four months, during which his discontent with his own party had simmered.\n\nIt was he who had first approached Labour four months ago, and not vice versa.\n\nThe party immediately saw his worth.\n\nBut Jake Berry, Tory MP and former Northern Powerhouse Minister, said: \"I think it was a terrible mistake by Christian... I think he's misjudged the mood of his constituents.\"\n\nHe told BBC Politics Live: \"I think it's slightly hot-headed of him. Of course it is his decision, but I don't think his decision is one that the people of Bury South will support.\"\n\nOffering Mr Wakeford a \"warm welcome\" to his party at Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir said: \"As Christian said, the policies of the Conservative government are doing nothing to help the people of Bury South and indeed are only making the struggles they face on a daily basis worse.\"\n\nMr Johnson replied: \"The Conservative Party won Bury South for the first time in a generation under this prime minister.\"\n\nHe said the party had won \"on an agenda of uniting and levelling up and delivering for the people of Bury South. We will win again in Bury South,\" to loud cheers from Conservative MPs.\n\nBut Sir Keir said \"Bury South is now a Labour seat, prime minister.\"\n\nThe left-wing Momentum campaign group said Mr Wakeford \"should be nowhere near the Labour Party\".\n\n\"Wakeford should be booted out of Labour and a by-election called immediately,\" a spokesman added. \"Labour must back a candidate that will stand up for the people of Bury South and against this Tory government.\"\n\nThe last MP to defect from the Conservatives to Labour was Quentin Davies in 2007, when Gordon Brown was prime minister. Before that it was Robert Jackson in 2005 and Shaun Woodward, who joined Tony Blair's Labour Party in 1999.\n\nMr Wakeford is one of the Red Wall Conservatives, who won traditional Labour seats in the north of England at the 2019 election.\n\nThe 37-year-old former insurance broker and Lancashire county councillor took Bury South by just 402 votes from Labour candidate Lucy Burke.", "Ben John must hand himself in to police by 16:00 GMT on Thursday\n\nA man told by a judge to read classic literature after being found guilty of a terrorism offence will be jailed after a suspended sentence was quashed.\n\nBen John, who police described as a white supremacist, was given a two-year suspended sentence in August.\n\nThe 22-year-old was convicted of having a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook on a computer hard drive.\n\nThe Court of Appeal ruled the original sentence was unlawful and ordered John to serve two years in prison.\n\nHe will also spend a further year on extended licence.\n\nLord Justice Holroyde said: \"We are satisfied that there must be a sentence of immediate imprisonment.\"\n\nJohn, of Addison Drive, Lincoln, who attended the hearing via videolink, must hand himself in to police by 16:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nBen John took a copy of Pride and Prejudice with him to his first review hearing at Leicester Crown Court\n\nLast year, police said John had collected tens of thousands of documents in bulk downloads on to hard drives, which contained \"a wealth\" of white supremacist and anti-Semitic material.\n\nThe ex-student was charged under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act, and found guilty by a jury of one count.\n\nAlongside a suspended sentence he was handed a five-year serious crime prevention order, with Judge Timothy Spencer QC ordering him to read famous works such as Shakespeare plays and Pride and Prejudice.\n\nAt a review hearing earlier this month the judge quizzed John about his literature reading, having received a \"largely positive\" report about him.\n\nThe defendant explained he had \"enjoyed Shakespeare more than Jane Austen\", and the judge concluded there had been \"encouraging\" progress.\n\nBen John was described by police as a white supremacist with a neo-Nazi ideology\n\nThe Attorney General's Office (AGO) referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme.\n\nIt came after campaign group Hope Not Hate wrote an open letter calling for a review of the case.\n\nSolicitor General Alex Chalk QC, who presented the AGO's case to the Court of Appeal, said there were \"real concerns\" over John's online activity, with him liking far-right material on social media days after telling the judge he had abandoned such thoughts.\n\nRichard Wormald QC, representing John, said his client was \"a young child\" when he first came across the document, which was one of thousands among an \"electronic library\" that also included Marxist literature.\n\nPointing to the effect being held in remand had on the defendant, he said the judge's decision to suspend the sentence was \"entirely sensible, carefully constructed and appropriate\", with a \"robust\" rehabilitation programme also in place.\n\nLord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Lavender and Sir Nigel Davis, said certain offences required a mandatory year on licence, but a suspended sentence and licence cannot last for longer than two years, making John's sentence \"unlawful\".\n\n\"The judge had no power to impose a suspended sentence as he did,\" he said.\n\nAfter his trial in August, the judge said he thought John wasn't a \"lost cause\", and believed he stood a greater chance of rehabilitation without being incarcerated.\n\nWhen the 22-year-old last appeared in court - on 6 January - he brought with him copies of Twelfth Night and Pride and Prejudice.\n\nHe was due to return to Leicester Crown Court in July to update the judge on his reading list.\n\nWe may never know what he was going to tackle next, or whether he will continue to plough through the classics in the prison library.\n\nIn what was an extremely unusual case, the former student appeared today via video link, but had to leave for several hours to go to work in a butcher's shop, before returning to hear that he will, after all, be going to prison.\n\nAfter the hearing Mr Chalk said he was \"pleased\" to see the judges find the original sentence \"unduly lenient\".\n\n\"The government is committed to confronting terrorism in all its forms, including from the extreme right wing,\" he said.\n\n\"We remain focused on disrupting the activities of the most dangerous extremists, supporting those who stand up to their hateful rhetoric, and protecting vulnerable people being drawn into terrorism.\"\n\nNick Lowles, from Hope Not Hate, welcomed the new sentence, describing far-right extremism as \"the fastest growing threat of violence in Britain today\".\n\n\"The priority must be a focus on countering radicalisation, especially online, and making it harder for far-right activists to organise and recruit,\" he said.\n\n\"Ultimately, the main deterrent to most offenders comes in the social cost associated with being caught and convicted.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ingrid Betancourt faces a tough primary battle in less than two months if she is to revive her political career\n\nThe former Colombian senator, Ingrid Betancourt, has announced she will run for president again, 20 years after being kidnapped by left-wing rebels.\n\nMs Betancourt was campaigning in the 2002 presidential election when she was abducted by Farc rebels and held hostage for over six years.\n\nShe has pledged to tackle corruption and poverty if she wins May's poll.\n\n\"Today I am here to finish what I started,\" she told supporters in the country's capital city of Bogotá.\n\n\"I am here to claim the rights of 51 million Colombians who are not finding justice, because we live in a system designed to reward criminals,\" she said.\n\nThe Farc rebels were a Marxist group that waged a bitter war against the Colombian government for over 50 years, before eventually calling a ceasefire in 2016.\n\nThe centrist Ms Betancourt is entering a packed field in the election, with more than 20 candidates already declared.\n\nGustavo Petro, the leftist former mayor of Bogotá and a one-time member of the revolutionary guerrilla group M-19, is currently leading in opinion polls.\n\nMany Colombians see him as an alternative to the current right-of-centre president, Ivan Duque, who is prevented from seeking re-election by term limits and who has seen his popularity plummet in recent polls.\n\nDespite her fame internationally, Ms Betancourt has maintained a low profile since her rescue in 2008 by Colombian military forces and faces a tough primary battle to win the nomination of the centrist coalition that includes her party, Green Oxygen.\n\nWith primary votes just two months away, she is expected to pitch herself as a reconciliation candidate in a country where more than nine million people are registered with the government as conflict victims.\n\nMs Betancourt was travelling to a campaign event in the city of San Vicente del Caguán on 23 February 2002 when she was stopped at a roadblock and taken hostage by the FARC.\n\nDuring her six years of captivity in the Colombian jungle she was treated brutally by her captors, before Colombian army spies inside the Farc rebels orchestrated her rescue in July 2008.\n\nShe has spent much of the intervening time living abroad in France with her family.\n\nFarc rebels fought a vicious civil war with the government for more than 50 years, killing more than 200,000 people.\n\nThe group signed a peace deal with the government in 2016 and subsequently entered parliament, but some splinter groups remain at war with the central government.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ingrid Betancourt spoke to the BBC in 2013 about her years of captivity", "Feelings of depression and anxiety rose sharply over Christmas, especially in young people, according to a survey led by University College London (UCL).\n\nDespite fewer restrictions than last Christmas, many still said they were worried about high levels of Covid-19 and the risk to friends and family.\n\nHappiness and life satisfaction also dipped in people of all ages.\n\nThe pandemic is still affecting people's mental health in many ways, the researchers said.\n\nPeople's confidence in their government's handling of the Covid pandemic also decreased over Christmas in England and Wales - to the lowest point recorded (in autumn 2020) - but stayed steady in Scotland.\n\nAnd normal Christmases were abandoned as most people changed travel plans, avoided large gatherings or stayed at home more than expected.\n\nThe findings are based on a survey of 31,000 people in the first week of January. It forms part of the Covid-19 Social Study, which has regularly interviewed people since the start of the pandemic.\n\nDespite vaccines protecting the large majority of the UK population from becoming seriously ill with Covid, and no lockdowns being brought in over Christmas, levels of anxiety and depression were \"on a par with the same time last year,\" said Dr Daisy Fancourt, lead author from UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care.\n\n\"Our findings suggest that it is not just the presence of social restrictions that affect mental health, but also concerns and stressors relating to high levels of the virus and a high risk of infection.\n\nShe added: \"The decrease in confidence in government to handle the pandemic likely contributed to the stresses many people faced over this period.\"\n\nDr Fancourt said from a psychological point of view, keeping Covid levels as low as possible was recommended.\n\nBrian Dow, from the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said the pandemic was likely to impact people's mental health \"for some time to come\".\n\nHe said: \"It's tempting to assume that easing restrictions will automatically lead to an improvement in people's wellbeing, but recovery is rarely linear - the nation's mental health must be a priority for government in the long-term.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tory MP David Davis to PM: In the name of God, go\n\nFormer cabinet minister David Davis has joined calls for Boris Johnson to stand down, telling the prime minister: \"In the name of God, go.\"\n\nHe said the PM had failed to take responsibility for his actions over lockdown parties in Downing Street.\n\nMr Davis's remarks came after backbench Tory MP Christian Wakeford defected to Labour, minutes before Prime Minister's Questions began.\n\nThe PM batted away repeated calls to quit during the stormy Commons session.\n\nMr Davis's criticisms and Mr Wakeford's defection come as Mr Johnson fights to save his premiership after admitting attending a drinks event in Downing Street during the first lockdown.\n\nSo far six Conservative MPs have publicly declared no confidence in the PM, but more are thought to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, who organises Tory leadership contests.\n\nThere are claims that the threshold of 54 letters needed to trigger a no-confidence vote and leadership election could soon be reached, but no official word has been given.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, one of those who has called for Mr Johnson to quit, said a no-confidence vote was \"near\" and \"getting closer\".\n\nBut a former cabinet minister told the BBC that Mr Wakeford's defection seemed to be backfiring, as his actions had \"provided an alternative target for rage\" among Tory MPs.\n\nAnother Tory MP said he had been \"let down by a good friend\" and that his now ex-colleague had \"unified the party\".\n\nThe prime minister is urging fellow Conservatives not to pass judgement on him until a report on parties at No 10, by senior civil servant Sue Gray, comes out next week.\n\nIn his letter to Mr Johnson, Bury South MP Mr Wakeford, said: \"You and the Conservative Party as a whole have shown themselves incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves.\"\n\nThe last MP to defect from the Conservatives to Labour was Quentin Davies in 2007, when Gordon Brown was prime minister.\n\nAt Prime Minister's Questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed Mr Wakeford to his party and repeated his call for Mr Johnson to quit, saying his \"absurd and unreliable defences\" of No 10 parties were unravelling.\n\nBut the most dramatic intervention came towards the end of the session, when Mr Davis told Mr Johnson he had spent weeks defending him from \"angry constituents\".\n\nHe added: \"I expect my leaders to shoulder the responsibility for the actions they take. Yesterday he did the opposite of that. So, I will remind him of a quotation which may be familiar to his ear: Leopold Amery to Neville Chamberlain.\n\n\"'You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go.'\"\n\nA defection is a rare thing. A coup for Labour. A temporary triumph for Sir Keir Starmer.\n\nThere were whispers that Christian Wakeford was spotted talking to a former Labour MP over drinks this week, a few murmurs that he might be thinking about taking such a dramatic step.\n\nBut for it to happen, to see that crossing the floor moment, is unusual indeed.\n\nTraditionally a defection can in fact unite the party who the MP has left behind - it's so drastic.\n\nBut the Wakeford departure adds to the real sense of chaos in Westminster. And the reaction among his now former colleagues elected in 2019 may not follow that traditional path.\n\nThe PM said he did not \"know what [Mr Davis] is talking about\", but insisted he took \"full responsibility for everything done in this government and throughout the pandemic\".\n\nSpeaking afterwards to the BBC, Mr Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said he had supported Mr Johnson until his interview on Tuesday, when he said he had not been told a party in the Downing Street garden risked breaking Covid rules.\n\nJake Berry, chairman of the Northern Research Group of Red Wall Tory MPs, most of whom won their seats from Labour at the 2019 general election, said he thought Mr Davis had \"misjudged the mood of colleagues\".\n\nBut he added that \"the next few weeks and months\" would prove whether the former minister was correct.\n\nHouse of Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg described Mr Davis's message to MPs as \"too theatrical\", telling Channel 4 News he had \"always been a lone wolf\".\n\nWho else has used the phrase, 'In the name of God, go'?\n\nThe phrase was first used by Oliver Cromwell in the 17th Century.\n\nConservative MP Leo Amery used the words during a Commons debate in 1940, following the UK's failed campaign against Nazi forces in Norway. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned two days later.\n\nMs Gray's team are talking to the PM's former aide Dominic Cummings, who says he warned the PM that the Downing Street garden party in May 2020 risked breaking Covid rules.\n\nMr Cummings has also accused Mr Johnson - who insists he thought the party was a work event - of misleading Parliament.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAt PMQs, Sir Keir said the prime minister's defence requires the public to believe that \"as he waded through the empty bottles and platters of sandwiches, he didn't realise it was a party\".\n\nHe added: \"If a prime minister misleads Parliament, should they resign?\"\n\nMr Johnson said: \"[Sir Keir] is continuing to ask a series of questions which he knows will be fully addressed by the inquiry. He is wasting this House's time. He is wasting the people's time.\"\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: \"The prime minister is taking the public for fools. Nobody believes him. Will the prime minister finally take responsibility? Resign, go, prime minister.\"", "The next election for the Northern Ireland Assembly is due to take place on 5 May\n\nSix Stormont parties have signed a joint letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging him to withdraw plans to reintroduce double jobbing in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe practice of double jobbing was banned in Northern Ireland in 2016.\n\nThe government is now proposing to change this by amending a bill currently passing through Parliament.\n\nBut it is coming under pressure to reverse the plan, following criticism from most of the Stormont parties.\n\nThe proposal to re-introduce double jobbing, also known as a dual mandate, would bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK.\n\nIt has already been condemned by four of the five parties in the Stormont Executive as a \"stunt\" ahead of May's assembly election.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis was accused of \"slinging mud\" over the government's proposal to bring back dual mandates.\n\nAlliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood have come out strongly against the plan\n\nThe proposal would also allow Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May, while retaining his seat at Westminster.\n\nWhereas under the existing rules, Sir Jeffrey would have to stand down as an MP if he was elected to Stormont.\n\nIn a letter to Mr Johnson, the leaders of Alliance, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists, SDLP, Green Party and People Before Profit stressed their \"firm opposition\" to the amendment.\n\n\"The roles of MP and MLA are full time roles, and it is not possible for someone to simultaneously do full justice to both,\" they say.\n\n\"There has been no consultation with the Northern Ireland parties regarding this measure and it has been brought forward just months away from an assembly election, which cannot be seen as impartial benefitting as it does only one party.\n\n\"It has also departed from the stated position of the Northern Ireland Office that such amendments would only be considered where \"sufficient consensus\" exists: in fact, all parties with the exception of the DUP are firmly opposed to any return to double jobbing.\"\n\nThe move will allow DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May while retaining his Westminster seat\n\nThe DUP has said other parties should \"stop faking outrage\" over the issue, with Sir Jeffrey denying claims that his party did a deal with the UK government to bring back double jobbing.\n\nThe government is due to bring the amendment before the House of Lords on Wednesday during the latest stage of the Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Bill.\n\nTo defeat it, Labour would need the support of the Liberal Democrats and a number of cross-bench peers.\n\nThe amendment will bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK on the principle of allowing dual mandates, but the mechanics and timeline differ between regions.\n\nIt is time limited to run for the duration of the Parliament session at the time of the assembly election - in this case two years.\n\nThe option will be open for future MPs to avail of the same route, but will be time limited to the next parliamentary election.\n\nSeveral other amendments have also been proposed as part of the bill, which will have to return to the Commons again before the legislation can become law.", "The ad showed two girls talking about where food went when you hang upside down\n\nAn advert for Dairylea cheese has been banned for encouraging unsafe behaviour, after showing a child eating while hanging upside down.\n\nThe ad - which was shown on catch-up television last August - featured two girls hanging from a goalpost, with one of them eating a cheese triangle.\n\nFourteen people complained, including one viewer who said a toddler in their family had copied the girls.\n\nDairylea owner Mondelez argued the risk of choking was low when upside down.\n\nThe company pointed to research that it said suggested someone's ability to swallow was not affected by the position they ate in - and that being in a head-down position was recommended during a choking incident.\n\nIt added the ad had intended to show parents giving their children more freedom, and there were two parents supervising in the background of the ad.\n\nMondelez also said the advert - which aired on ITV Hub, All 4 and My 5 - had been scheduled alongside programmes not directed at children, so a limited number of children would have seen it.\n\nBut the Advertising Standards Authority - which regulates adverts in the UK - agreed with the viewers who complained.\n\nIt said many children would be familiar with a five-a-side football goalpost and it would be easy for them to copy the ad.\n\nThe ASA said it had sought expert views on child accidents, and was advised that there was a potentially a high risk of choking in that situation.\n\n\"We also noted that one complainant had reported that their three-year-old relative, after seeing the ad, ate their food whilst hanging upside down,\" it said in its ruling.\n\nThe watchdog added: \"We considered that the ad condoned and encouraged younger children to eat whilst hanging upside down, which was an unsafe practice where there was potentially a high risk of choking.\"\n\nThe advert must not appear again. Mondelez said it was no longer running the ad and would remove references to eating upside down if it used the ad in future.\n\nA Mondelez spokesman said: \"We recognise and will abide by the ASA's decision but we are disappointed by the ruling. It was aimed at adults (parents) rather than young children and was deliberately scheduled away from programming likely to appeal to children under 16. As such, we believe it was unlikely to encourage 'copycat' behaviour by young children.\n\n\"We remain committed to responsible advertising and work with a range of partners to make sure our marketing meets and complies with all relevant UK regulations.\"\n\nIn a separate ruling released on the same day, adverts for Lipton Ice Tea and Aqua Pura water have also been banned for misleadingly claiming that the bottles were made from 100% recycled materials.\n\nA poster for Lipton Ice Tea seen on a bus shelter in August read: \"Deliciously refreshing, 100% recycled*.\"\n\nBut the asterisk linked to small text at the bottom of the poster which said it excluded the cap and label which were not recycled.\n\nThe ASA said it was misleading, but a Pepsi Lipton International spokeswoman said: \"We did not intend to mislead anyone with this ad. For complete transparency, we added a note on the ad itself to clarify that it did not include the label and cap.\"", "Irish police have arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of the murder of primary school teacher Ashling Murphy.\n\nThe 23-year-old was attacked while out exercising beside a canal in Tullamore, County Offaly, last Wednesday.\n\nThe arrested man is being held at Tullamore Garda Station.\n\nEarlier, mourners including Irish President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach (PM) Micheál Martin, attended an emotional funeral service Mass at St Brigid's Church in Mount Bolus.\n\nHer death has shocked the nation and tens of thousands of people have attended vigils in Ireland and further afield in her honour.\n\nThe suspect, who can be detained for up to 24 hours, was arrested after he was deemed medically fit to be discharged from St James's Hospital in Dublin earlier on Tuesday, RTÉ reports.\n\nHe had presented himself to the hospital last Thursday night with serious and suspicious injuries, says the Irish broadcaster.\n\nGardaí (Irish police) were alerted, having contacted hospitals after Ashling's killing, asking medical officials to contact them if they had suspicions in relation to a wounded patient.\n\nPolice said on Monday \"significant progress\" was being made in the murder investigation, as they renewed an appeal for information.\n\nEvidence has been gathered from the post-mortem examination, the forensic examination of the scene, information from public appeals and interviews with witnesses, RTÉ reports.\n\nAt Ms Murphy's funeral, her parish priest, Fr Michael Meade, told mourners her family was robbed of their \"most precious gift\".\n\nSymbols of her life were brought to the altar during her funeral, including a fiddle, a Kilcormac/Killoughey camogie jersey, a family picture, a school book and her photo.\n\nMourners came out in force to pay their respects to the popular primary school teacher\n\nOne beacon of light in last week's darkness was the outpouring of support and sympathy, he added.\n\nPupils from Durrow National School formed a guard of honour for their teacher, and held photographs of Ms Murphy.\n\nA number of the children also held fiddles and tin whistles in honour of the keen musician.\n\nThe message next to Ms Murphy's image read: \"Fly high in the sky, our shining light.\"\n\nMusicians lined the route of the funeral procession to play emotional tributes to Ashling Murphy\n\nRepresentatives from Ms Murphy's local Gaelic football club, as well as from her old school, attended the parish church of Saint Brigid.\n\nOther tributes to Ashling Murphy were held around Ireland, while schools held a minute's silence.\n• None In pictures: Mourners line the streets for Ashling Murphy", "The culprit thanked Mr Barr for \"not bringing shame on my ma and da\" by exposing the crime\n\nJanuary tends to be the month when many of us re-evaluate our lives and resolve to take action.\n\nAnd so it was for an anonymous person who chose now as the time to ease his or her conscience for a misdemeanour carried out in Londonderry almost 30 years ago.\n\nThe person sent a card to a shop owner in the city's Carnhill area to apologise for stealing £10 from him \"many years ago\".\n\nJim Barr was surprised by the message, which thanked him for \"not bringing shame on my ma and da\" by exposing the crime.\n\nThe culprit suspected Mr Barr knew he was being duped, saying: \"I'm sure you knew. I'm sure your till was down a tenner that day.\"\n\nBut the Derry man told the BBC he had no recollection of it.\n\n\"I haven't a clue who it was, but a friend of mine who's a teacher pointed out that it's probably a fella [boy] as a girl in Derry would tend to say 'mammy and daddy' rather than ma and da.\n\n\"And I'm guessing they were about 12 or 13 so they're probably in their early 40s now.\"\n\nJim Barr says he would love to secretly meet the person who sent the letter\n\nHe explained that in the nineties, pupils from the nearby St Columb's College were the most regular customers in the mornings.\n\n\"There was just one shop and 250 odd houses here, so we would have had a lot of boys calling in for sweets and crisps before school,\" he said.\n\n\"I don't need to know who it was because it's not important, but what I would love is for the person to meet up with me on the quiet so we could go down memory lane and have a laugh about it and say nothing to anyone.\"\n\nThe letter continued: \"I pretended my ma and da gave me a £20 when they only gave me £10.\n\n\"You knew. You told me to double check. I pretended I did and so you gave me the extra £10.\"\n\nHe or she then thanked him for not mentioning it to their parents and for being \"a pillar of the community\".\n\nThe message ended with the words: \"God bless!\"\n\nRemarking on this, Mr Barr said: \"This is a person of faith and this must have been playing on his conscience for years.\n\n\"He gave me back £40, that's the tenner and a pound of interest for every year.\"\n\nIn a week when questions have been asked about the integrity of some figures in Downing Street, Mr Barr suggested most people were innately honest.\n\n\"Most people are good deep down,\" he said.\n\n\"You get the odd bad apple, but the way I look at it is that person might have had a hard life and it's probably just the way they were brought up.\"\n\nThe story has attracted a huge positive response on social media since it was first reported in the Derry Journal on Tuesday,\n\n\"You can barely get a Derry Journal around here today because so many people have been going out to read the story and it's been lovely to hear these messages from people, some of them I don't even know, saying nice things about me,\" said Mr Barr.\n\n\"Maybe with all the doom and gloom of January, people just like to hear a good news story.\"", "Scottish councils face having to cut back services even while raising local taxes to balance the books, a leading councillor has claimed.\n\nAlison Evison, who leads council umbrella body Cosla, said not enough funding is on offer from Holyrood.\n\nShe said the only question over council tax rises was how big they would be, and that it was \"probably inevitable\" that services would face cuts too.\n\nThe Scottish government insists it has treated local authorities fairly.\n\nPublic finance minister Tom Arthur told MSPs on Wednesday that the government did not \"underestimate the challenges\" to local government, but questioned where additional funds would come from when the full budget has been allocated.\n\nCouncils need to set their tax and spending plans in the coming weeks, with the Scottish Parliament also moving through its annual budget process.\n\nThe plans set out by Finance Secretary Kate Forbes in December are sure to pass, with the SNP's partnership arrangement with the Greens giving the government a majority at Holyrood.\n\nHowever, councils have hit out at the settlement offered to them as part of the budget, with leaders expressing \"extreme disappointment\" with the \"totally unacceptable\" proposals.\n\nThere has been dispute over the exact figures involved, with the government pointing to an increase in the core settlement in cash terms, while councils contend that this does not account for inflation or ring-fenced funds.\n\nAnd while town halls are to be given complete control over council tax rates for the first time since the SNP took office in 2007, opposition MSPs say the government has put councils in an \"arm-lock\" ahead of local elections in May.\n\nAlison Evison said the \"constant squeeze\" on council finances was \"not sustainable\"\n\nIn an interview with BBC Scotland, Ms Evison said councils were facing \"tough choices\".\n\nShe said: \"There will be increases to council tax this year. It's obviously up to each local council in terms of their own circumstances how big that increase will be.\n\n\"Councils want to be able to deliver services to their local communities and they need to look at the levers they have in order to deliver those services.\"\n\nAsked if cuts or tax rises were inevitable, she added: \"I think both are probably inevitable, in that councils have to be able to deliver local services to vulnerable people and to everyone across our local communities, and it needs to have money in order to be able to give those services.\n\nMs Evison - a Labour councillor in Aberdeenshire - said local government had been underfunded for a decade, and that \"the constant squeeze on our finances every year is not sustainable\".\n\nShe said: \"On paper we've got more money, but a lot of that money is ring-fenced to meet Scottish government priorities.\n\n\"Even when you look at the increase there and the priorities we are meant to be delivering, the money doesn't cut it - it's £100m short for delivering those essential priorities from the Scottish government.\n\n\"They are the priorities we agree are important across our communities, but they desperately need to be funded and the cash increase we have got doesn't cut that, and it also doesn't cover things like increased costs in our communities.\"\n\nFood and energy bills are already rising sharply and the prospect of higher council tax bills on top of that from April will only add to the pressure on household budgets.\n\nMinisters have, in previous years, protected the public from that by funding a council tax freeze. That's now being lifted to give councils more flexibility.\n\nIt is of course up to individual local authorities to decide if the tax goes up and if so by how much and council elections on 5 May could have a restraining influence.\n\nBut Scotland's top councillor clearly thinks a mixture of tax increases and service cuts is all but inevitable because of what she sees as a lack of funding from the Scottish government.\n\nAlison Evison wants a more generous settlement and will make that case at a meeting with the first minister next week.\n\nWhat's not clear is where the Scottish government could find more money from without squeezing the cash available to other key public services.\n\nA Holyrood debate on council funding was held on Wednesday, with the Conservatives calling for a new system which would guarantee councils a set percentage of the Scottish government budget each year.\n\nLocal government spokesman Miles Briggs said underfunding councils would not help local services recover from the pandemic, saying there was \"increasing concern over the long-term sustainability of local government finances\".\n\nHe added: \"Put simply, council leaders across Scotland have nothing else they can cut to save money or balance their books.\n\n\"We want to see a fair deal where the funding the Scottish government receives is adequately handed on to local authorities as well.\"\n\nLabour has also been critical of the settlement, with MSP Mark Griffin describing it as a \"devastating raid on council budgets\".\n\nHe said: \"It's simply unsustainable for the SNP to continue cutting council budgets to the bone, services are already at breaking point.\"\n\nMr Arthur said the overall settlement for local authorities amounted to £12.5bn when funds from other portfolios are included.\n\nHe said: \"We cannot inflation-proof any part of the Scottish budget, given the nature of inflation right now. We do not underestimate the challenges this allocation presents, but it is simply not possible to inflation-proof all budget lines when the overall budget is not inflation-proofed.\n\n\"If opposition parties do not agree they are fully entitled to propose alternative but balanced funding proposals ahead of the budget bill next week.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch how Boris Johnson reacts when asked if apologising to the Queen was a moment of shame\n\nBoris Johnson faces more questions about his leadership at Prime Minister's Questions, as the row over lockdown parties at No 10 continues.\n\nGrowing revolt among Tory MPs, including those elected in the 2019 election, poses a threat to the PM.\n\nThe BBC's Laura Kuenssberg says one MP claims around half of a group of 20 newer MPs submitted no confidence letters on Wednesday morning.\n\nIf 54 Tory MPs submit letters, it would trigger a leadership contest.\n\nOnly seven are known to have done so, but one MP told the BBC they thought the threshold could be reached shortly.\n\nBut only MP Sir Graham Brady, chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 committee - who receives and counts up the no-confidence requests - knows the exact number.\n\nDefence Minister James Heappey urged his Tory colleagues to show \"cool heads\", adding now was not the right time for the country to change leader.\n\nMany Conservatives have said they want to wait for civil servant Sue Gray to complete her report into gatherings in Downing Street before deciding what to do.\n\nSo far, six Conservative MPs have publicly stated that they have submitted letters of no confidence in Mr Johnson to Sir Graham, while the BBC has been told a seventh - Christian Wakeford, the MP for Bury South - has also sent in a letter.\n\nOne MP involved in trying to encourage others to send letters told the BBC on Tuesday: \"I think we've done it\", but added \"difficult to tell though\".\n\nIt comes after a group of around 20 Tory MPs first elected at the 2019 election - and dubbed the 'pork pie plot' in a nod to one MP's constituency - met to discuss their concerns, with one Tory MP saying half of that group had now submitted letters in an attempt to trigger a ballot.\n\nThe MP said that quotes from ministers that the group of newer MPs were \"idiots\" and \"fools\" had hardened their attitude, and that some of them were threatened with losing their seats under planned boundary changes.\n\nTwo Tory sources told the BBC that the Owen Paterson lobbying row over the autumn had dented the ability of the \"old guard\" on the Tory backbenches to calm anger among newer MPs.\n\nBishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison messaged local campaigners to say that she had been the subject of a \"fabricated\" smear by Downing Street after some newspapers reported that she had been one of this group's organisers.\n\nConservative Chris Loder is among the 2019 intake, and said the group were simply \"sharing views and opinions\".\n\n\"I want to make sure that decency, honour and integrity are returned to the heart of government and I think that would be a good shared objective, rather than the distraction of briefing out about rebellion ringleaders.\"\n\nThe meeting was nicknamed by one cabinet minister as the \"pork pie plot\" because one of the attendees was Alicia Kearns, who represents Rutland and Melton (home of Melton Mowbray pies). Colleagues of Ms Kearns say she is not leading a rebellion.\n\nThe meeting of 2019 MPs dubbed \"the pork pie plot\" by an irritated member of cabinet might sound like something slightly comic, but it is serious.\n\nAnd there is now a wider question - how many other dominoes may then fall?\n\nIn the last week or so, government ministers and the prime minister have been saying, and pleading with people, to wait for the official verdict from the Sue Gray report.\n\nBut some of this younger generation - not necessarily in age but in terms of time in Parliament - seem to have just lost patience with that.\n\nRemember in the darkest days for Theresa May, the Conservatives were broadly split in two - Brexiters and Remainers - with clear ring leaders on each side.\n\nBut this time it is a really circus of different factions that make the complexity of the picture very hard to read.\n\nLet's take a breath though. A big part of the Tory leadership process is shrouded in secrecy, so anyone who purports to tell you with certainty what is going to happen should be treated with very healthy scepticism.\n\nIt is possible that the number of letters hits the threshold required of 54 in the next couple of days.\n\nBut it is also possible that the numbers may be miles off.\n\nWhatever happens in the next 48 hours, the consensus that is growing in the Conservative Party is that as every day goes by, Boris Johnson is less likely to be leading them into the general election unless he - sometimes a political Houdini - can pull off his biggest ever political comeback.\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Johnson insisted he was not warned a drinks party in No 10 on 20 May 2020 could be in breach of Covid rules.\n\nSpeaking to a reporter, he said he \"humbly\" apologised to people for \"misjudgements that were made\" but added he was \"absolutely categorical\" that \"nobody said to me this is an event that is against the rules\".\n\nThis contradicts the account of his former adviser Dominic Cummings who says he cautioned the prime minister about the event, billed by an official in an email invitation as \"socially distanced drinks\".\n\nHe also accused his former boss of lying to Parliament about his knowledge of gatherings in Downing Street.\n\nAsked if he would resign if he was found to have misled MPs, Mr Johnson said: \"Let's see what the report says.\"\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Heappey suggested Mr Johnson's staff were to blame for the event going ahead, adding that the PM \"doesn't really own his own diary\" and its was \"up to his team to have his back\".\n\nHe says the gathering \"reflects rather poorly on those who scheduled it, and put it in the prime minister's diary\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Chancellor believes PM is telling truth about No 10 parties\n\nLord Marland, a former Conservative party treasurer and Johnson ally, said MPs should \"be careful what they wish for because the alternative is probably not thinkable\".\n\nSpeaking to Newsnight, he said people should not \"want to pillory a man who has led us through this crisis and create turmoil within the country\".\n\nNorthern Ireland minister Conor Burns also urged people to get behind Mr Johnson, telling Channel 4: \"Boris won seats for us in that 2019 election I never imagined would fall into the Conservative column.\"\n\nAs well as PMQs on Wednesday, Mr Johnson is set to update the public on England's Plan B measures.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nYorkshire have appointed former West Indies all-rounder Ottis Gibson as their new head coach on a three-year deal.\n\nGibson, 52, will take charge at the end of February and replaces Andrew Gale, who was sacked during the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal.\n\nThe former West Indies and South Africa head coach will report to interim managing director Darren Gough.\n\n\"I'm extremely honoured and excited to be given the opportunity,\" said Gibson.\n\nThe ex-England and Bangladesh bowling coach added: \"This is one of the most prestigious roles in English county cricket, and I am really looking forward to working with this talented group of players to take the club forward.\n\n\"I've spoken at length with Goughy about the direction the club is heading in and I'm excited to be a part of that future.\"\n\nGibson will have overall responsibility for the performance and management of the first team and will be supported by two assistant coaches who will be appointed shortly.\n\nThe former Durham, Glamorgan and Leicestershire player will join Yorkshire once his contract with the Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League finishes next month.\n\nGough, who became interim managing director in December, said: \"Ottis becoming head coach is an important moment for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, and we are very happy he has become part of the team.\n\n\"Ottis is one of the best coaches in the world and will be a fantastic addition. His knowledge, commitment, experience and cricket knowhow will be vital for us as we move into pre-season and get ourselves up and running.\n\n\"We were absolutely blown away by the level of interest and quality of candidates for this role, but I have no doubt he's the best person for the job and will pick up the challenge with relish.\"\n\nLord Patel, chair of Yorkshire, added: \"Ottis' playing and coaching credentials speak for themselves and he has had a distinguished career performing at the highest level.\n\n\"His character and his commitment to buying into the process that we are going through at Yorkshire County Cricket Club shone through in our discussions.\n\n\"He is someone I know will encourage dialogue and help foster a culture of inclusion at the club, as well as supporting and developing the world-class talent we have here and pushing them to the next level.\"\n\nGibson played two Test matches and 15 one-day internationals during a 17-year playing career, and was in charge of the West Indies team that won the 2012 T20 World Cup.\n\nHe took 1,024 wickets and scored 8,552 runs during his career.\n\nGale and director of cricket Martyn Moxon were among 16 people to leave Yorkshire amid the racism scandal.\n\nA report found former player Rafiq, who played for Yorkshire between 2008 and 2018, was a victim of \"racial harassment and bullying\".\n\nRafiq was born in Pakistan and moved to England aged 10, and he captained England teams at youth level and also led Yorkshire in 2012.\n\nHowever, in September 2020, following an initial interview with Wisden , Rafiq told ESPN Cricinfo \"institutional racism\" encountered while at the club left him close to taking his own life.\n\nHe told BBC Sport he dreaded \"every second\" of his career and a team-mate used a racially offensive term linked to his Pakistani heritage.\n\nLast week Rafiq said Yorkshire had taken \"a step in the right direction\" and their suspension from hosting England games should be lifted.\n\nMeanwhile, Yorkshire has proposed amending its rules to remove the requirement that written approval from the Trustees of the Graves Trusts was required in order to appoint or remove board members.\n\nLord Patel said the change would \"remove any misunderstanding of the role of the Trusts\".\n\n\"Lending from the Graves Trusts is incredibly important financially for Yorkshire, but Trustees are not involved in how we run the club,\" he added.\n\n\"Since I became Chair, we have had very constructive discussions with the Trustees, who are fully supportive of the steps we are taking to rebuild the club and invested in our success, but it is clear to me that they hold no influence on the decisions of the Board as this is a commercial agreement.\"", "A man has appeared at a special court in the Republic of Ireland charged with the murder of Ashling Murphy.\n\nHe is Jozef Puska, 31, with an address in Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Tullamore.\n\nMr Puska was heckled as he was taken from a Garda car to a special sitting of Tullamore District Court on Wednesday evening.\n\nThe 23-year-old teacher was attacked while exercising beside a canal in Tullamore, County Offaly, just before 16:00 local time last Wednesday.\n\nJozef Puska was brought into a special sitting of Tullamore District Court on Wednesday evening\n\nIn court, a detective sergeant gave evidence of the arrest, charge and caution.\n\nThe court heard that when the charge was put to the defendant, he replied \"no\".\n\nHis defence solicitor applied for free legal aid and for the services of an interpreter.\n\nHe said Mr Puska was a Slovakian national living on €200 (£166) a week.\n\nJudge Catherine Staines remanded Mr Puska in custody to appear again at Clover Hill District Court on 26 January.\n\nA second man in his 30s who was arrested earlier on Wednesday has been released without charge.\n\nGardaí (Irish police) say a file will be prepared for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. No individual should die like Ashling, says Bishop Tom Deenihan", "Prices have gone up at their fastest rate in nearly 30 years - but there is worse to come, experts have warned.\n\nSoaring food costs and the energy bill crisis drove inflation to 5.4% in the 12 months to December, up from 5.1% the month before, in another blow to struggling families.\n\nThe last time inflation was higher was in March 1992, when it was 7.1%.\n\nAnd with gas and electricity costs set to rise further in the spring, analysts predict it will reach that level again.\n\nHouseholds have seen their energy bills kept in check by the government's price cap, which limits the amount suppliers can charge, but this is due to be revised on 1 April.\n\nAs a result, fuel bills could increase by another 50% in the next few months, the energy industry has said.\n\nAt the same time, there are signs that the high cost of food is proving too much for many people.\n\nRichard Walker, boss of supermarket chain Iceland, said he was seeing an \"alarming\" rise in the use of food banks.\n\n\"There may be some people facing a choice between heating or eating. We're losing customers to hunger,\" he said.\n\nHe added that his stores served some of the UK's most deprived communities.\n\n\"Some of our customers only have £25 a week to spend on food, so they're already struggling to make ends meet,\" he said.\n\n\"When you have real wages falling, Universal Credit top-up withdrawal, food inflation, tax rises, that obviously will hit hard.\"\n\nThe latest rise was announced by the Office for National Statistics, which said increases in prices of furniture, food and clothing also contributed to December's rise in the cost of living.\n\nChancellor Rishi Sunak said he understood the pressures people were facing, but the opposition Labour party said working families faced an impending \"triple whammy\" of financial pressures.\n\nThe latest figures will increase pressure on the government, already under fire over tax rises set to take effect in April.\n\nThey will also fuel calls for the Bank of England to raise interest rates in a bid to dampen consumer spending and bring inflation closer to its 2% target.\n\nInflation is the rate at which prices are rising. If the price of a bottle of milk is £1 and it rises by 5p, then milk inflation is 5%.\n\nYou may not notice price rises from month to month. But right now, prices are rising so quickly that the money people earn does not go as far.\n\nSeparate official figures issued on Tuesday showed that average pay rises are failing to keep up with the rise in the cost of living.\n\nRegular pay, excluding bonuses and adjusted for inflation, fell 1% in November compared with the same month in the previous year.\n\nPaul Johnson, director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, said people on low incomes would be particularly hard hit by the squeeze on living standards.\n\n\"Everyone, particularly those on modest incomes, has had a long period of wages not really growing any faster than prices over the last decade, so another increase at this point is going to be particularly painful,\" he told the BBC.\n\nInflation at this level is a new phenomenon for many young people, who were not even born when prices were last rising this fast.\n\nOne worker, 24-year-old Alfie Kearns from Liverpool, told the BBC he believed inflation was making it harder to save money so that he can move out of his family home.\n\n\"Energy bills and gas and everything has been going up,\" he said. \"A big thing for me right now is I want to move out, I want my own home and that's the next step for me and it's just impossible in the current climate.\"\n\nHowever, there is little sign of a respite for him and others like him, say analysts.\n\nPaul Dales of Capital Economics said inflation was now expected to hit 7% by April.\n\n\"That would be higher than the peak of 6% that the Bank of England was forecasting when it raised rates in December,\" he added.\n\n\"And although inflation will fall back thereafter, we think it will stay above 4% for all of this year and won't drop to the 2% target until April 2023.\"\n\nAs a result, he said, the Bank of England's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee was likely to raise interest rates faster than most people expected, with the next increase to 0.5% expected in February.\n\nAlready-high prices for gas, electricity, food and used cars are set to climb further in the coming months, said BBC economics editor Faisal Islam.\n\nMeanwhile, the Retail Price Index, an inflation measure which is still widely used by government and some businesses, including for wage bargaining, is already at 7.5%.\n\nThe concern is not only that the predicted peak of inflation is getting higher, but that it will prove \"stickier\" than expected, he added.\n\nBusinesses, who face soaring wholesale prices, now face the dilemma of whether to pass on those costs to squeezed consumers.\n\nOne businesswoman, Kate Greig, helps run Kent Food Hubs, a co-operative that helps traders and producers in the county to sell direct to customers.\n\nShe said her suppliers are seeing increases in their material costs, as well as things such as energy bills.\n\n\"Food is more expensive, fuel is more expensive,\" she told the BBC. \"For my traders, raw materials are more expensive, whether that's the lentils to make a meal or the cardboard they use to package it.\"\n\nCommenting on the crisis, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: \"I understand the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, and we will continue to listen to people's concerns as we have done throughout the pandemic.\"\n\nHe said the government was providing support worth about £12bn this financial year and next to help families cope.\n\nShadow Treasury secretary Pat McFadden said: \"These figures show that the cost-of-living crisis is only going to get worse in the coming months.\n\n\"Working families are already feeling the crunch. But the triple whammy of an imminent rise in the energy price cap, real wages falling and Tory tax rises coming down the tracks are going to make this crisis even worse.\"\n\nHow are you being affected by the rising cost of living? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The US and UK have begun formal negotiations over Trump-era tariffs on UK steel and aluminium exports.\n\nTrade officials in both countries said they were committed to an \"expeditious outcome\" that would help preserve metals manufacturers in both markets.\n\nThe trade dispute has been a longstanding thorn in relations between the two allies.\n\nThe US reached a deal to remove border taxes on European metals shipments last year.\n\nUnder the Trump administration, the US imposed a 25% duty on foreign steel and 15% tax on foreign aluminium, setting off a firestorm of criticism - especially from allies, including the UK, who imposed tariffs on some US goods, such as whiskey, in retaliation.\n\nThe US has since lifted some of the measures, which were supported by many steel-makers in the US.\n\nUnder President Joe Biden, it has reached a deal with Europe and has started negotiations on the issue with Japan.\n\nBut British exporters continue to face the border taxes.\n\nOne UK steel exporter has already said it is shifting production to Spain as a result. United Cast Bar Limited told the BBC it was unlikely to move production back to the UK once it had been moved, unless an agreement was reached with the US very quickly.\n\nIn a statement announcing the start of talks, UK and US trade officials said: \"Both parties are committed to working towards an expeditious outcome that ensures the viability of steel and aluminium industries in both markets against the continuing shared challenge of global excess capacity and strengthens their democratic alliance.\"\n\nThe statement followed a virtual meeting between UK Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan and United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai also signed onto the statement.\n\nMs Trevelyan called Wednesday's meeting \"productive\", and said \"we want a resolution as soon as possible which supports UK businesses and further strengthens our trading relationship\".\n\nThe UK steel lobby welcomed the news. It said the existing tariffs had reduced UK exports by nearly 50%.\n\n\"That a few weeks into 2022 a resolution appears to be in sight is hugely welcome news to the steel sector and steelworkers across the UK,\" UK Steel said.\n\n\"Given the competitive disadvantage created by the EU deal, it is vital that these talks are concluded swiftly to limit any additional damage to UK producers.\"\n\nThe industry body added that it hoped the UK would be able to get an even better deal with the US than the European Union as it \"put its new independent trade powers to full use\".\n\nAmerican whiskey-makers, whose exports to the UK have dropped by more than half since UK retaliatory tariffs came into effect in 2018, also said they hoped a deal would come soon.\n\n\"Securing the immediate removal of the UK's 25% tariff on American whiskeys helps support U.S. jobs as the economy seeks to recover from the harsh economic impacts and significant supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,\" said Rob Maron of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.\n\nThe statement from the US and UK said joint measures to address over-production in China would be a focus of future discussions. They blamed the country for creating \"excess capacity\", which they said had created \"distortions that...pose a serious threat to market-oriented steel and aluminium industries in the United Kingdom and the United States, and to the workers in those industries\".\n\nThey said the talks were focused on finding a way to partner \"to promote high standards, address shared concerns and hold countries that practise harmful market-distorting policies to account\".\n\nAfter this ministerial meeting, talks between UK and US officials begin on Thursday and the UK side is keen for them to progress at pace and be wrapped up in weeks, not months.\n\nThe joint statement gives them something to work on. It puts the blame for global excess capacity in the steel and aluminium industries \"largely\" on China, and says the distortion that causes poses a problem for companies and workers in both the UK and the US.\n\nNeither side wants their trade dispute to worsen, so pointing a finger at a rival third party is one way out.\n\nUK steel companies are also desperately keen to get the 25% tariffs on their exports removed as soon as possible - it puts them at a significant competitive disadvantage compared to their EU counterparts.\n\nBut there are other political considerations. There is still concern in Washington about the entirely separate negotiations on Northern Ireland between the UK and the EU, and British threats to suspend parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nPut it this way: if the talks on Northern Ireland take a negative turn, that will certainly not make a resolution of the steel dispute any easier.\n\nSo, it will be interesting to see whether the Americans share the British desire to get this sorted within weeks. If they do, that will be welcome news in London. If they don't, pressure on the UK government to step up its retaliatory measures will intensify.", "Untreated sewage is being dumped illegally in rivers across the country on a regular basis, analysis shown to the BBC suggests.\n\nIt found seven water companies in England and Wales discharged untreated sewage into rivers and the sea more than 3,000 times between 2017 and 2021.\n\nThe water industry admitted action was needed to address the problem.\n\nThe fresh data comes a week after MPs warned of a \"chemical cocktail\" of pollutants tainting England's rivers.\n\nThe Environmental Audit Committee said raw sewage and microplastics were putting health and nature at risk.\n\nChairman Philip Dunne MP said self-monitoring by water companies had \"allowed a blind eye to be turned\" to unpermitted sewage discharges, which he said were unacceptably high.\n\nHe urged regulators and water companies to \"get a grip\" on the situation.\n\nIf illegal discharges were to continue, Mr Dunne said water regulator Ofwat should look at its powers to review those water bosses who receive \"lofty bonuses\".\n\nPeter Hammond, a retired professor of computational biology and also a campaigner with Windrush Against Sewage Pollution, said the statistics showed that the water industry was flouting poor regulation by the Environment Agency.\n\n\"In some cases, multiple sewage works are spilling into the same river causing damage for long periods of time, sometimes spilling as long as four months, six months almost without a break,\" he said.\n\nHe calculated that together the seven companies - Southern Water, South West Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Wessex Water, Yorkshire Water and Welsh Water - discharged untreated sewage from 59 treatment works that treat 4.5 million people's wastewater.\n\nWater companies are allowed to discharge untreated sewage into rivers in exceptional circumstances - for example during heavy rainfall.\n\nPollution is a significant problem in many rivers\n\nThey can be acting illegally if they discharge when the conditions are dry - this is known as a dry spill. Or they can be breaking the law if they are not treating enough of the sewage before they discharge it - this is known as an early spill.\n\nProf Hammond looked at data from \"event duration monitors\", which check every 15 minutes on whether a treatment works is discharging untreated sewage into a river. He then compares this data with rainfall data and with the companies' records on how much sewage they're treating.\n\nIn response to the report United Utilities, Southern Water and Welsh Water, questioned the accuracy of some of the data while Yorkshire Water said that Prof Hammond had \"fundamentally misunderstood\" the data.\n\nAccording to the report the sewage treatment works at Dorking run by Thames Water was responsible for the highest number of unpermitted spills.\n\nUntreated sewage was discharged into the River Mole on 223 days over the last four years. Prof Hammond's analysis suggests none of them would have been permitted by the rules, because either the weather was too dry, or not enough of the sewage had been treated properly.\n\nThames Water said it ''regards all discharges of untreated sewage as unacceptable and will work with the government, Ofwat and the Environment Agency to accelerate work to stop them being necessary and say they are determined to be transparent\".\n\nProf Hammond said the Environment Agency is failing to detect thousands of illegal spills because it is not scrutinising the available data closely enough.\n\n''It's as if the Environment Agency is looking through a telescope and we're looking through a microscope.\"\n\nWater UK, which represents the water companies, said all the water companies agree there is an ''urgent need for action to tackle the harm caused to the environment by overflows\".\n\nAn Environment Agency spokesperson said where there was evidence of non-compliance ''we will not hesitate to pursue the water companies concerned, and take appropriate action\".\n\nThey added that 1,300 storm overflows and storm tanks at waste water treatment works have been identified as ''spilling frequently'' and that ''a major investigation into possible unauthorised spills at thousands of sewage treatment works is ongoing\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hari steered the car as Dylan shouted instructions from the back seat\n\nA 13-year-old schoolboy averted tragedy by steering a car on to the hard shoulder of the M4 after his mum fainted behind the wheel.\n\nHari, from near Cardigan in Ceredigion, grabbed the wheel after his mum, Catrin, fell ill near junction 47 of the motorway about two weeks ago.\n\nHari and his friend Dylan were being driven home from Swansea City's football academy.\n\nThe boys' head teacher, Carwen Morgan-Davies, said they were both \"heroes\".\n\nHari's mother was taken to Morriston Hospital in Swansea and has since recovered.\n\nHe said his mother passed out \"all of a sudden\" while she was driving.\n\n\"I took over the steering wheel and I put her on to the hard shoulder and we drove about a mile down the M4,\" he said.\n\n\"Dylan told me to put the hazard lights on when we were coming to a stop, Dylan said to put the handbrake on.\"\n\nWhen asked how he knew how to drive his Mum's car Hari said: \"I don't know, I was thinking about what my uncle said on the farm.\"\n\nHari (left) steered his mum's car across the M4 as friend Dylan (right) shouted instructions from the back seat\n\nWhen the car came to a halt he got out of the car to flag down help, where Dylan called Hari's father.\n\n\"It could have been an accident because we were on a slip road going off to a different junction,\" said Hari.\n\nDylan 12, from Aberporth, travels with Hari to the Swans Academy as often as five times a week, shouted instructions from the rear of the vehicle.\n\n\"Everybody in school has been asking us what happened,\" said Dylan\n\n\"Hari grabbed it (the wheel) really quickly, to be fair to him,\" he said.\n\n\"He got to the hard shoulder. I was shocked and so was Hari. Everybody in school has been asking us what happened.\"\n\nMr Morgan-Davies, the school's temporary head teacher, said: \"They are stars on the football field and heroes in this situation.", "As we talked about here on Monday night, Tory MPs can take steps to get rid of their leader without having to tell anyone about it other than Sir Graham Brady, the head honcho of the backbenches.\n\nSo it is always impossible to know how many of them at any one time really mean it when they say they are involved in trying to make a change.\n\nBut it most definitely is the case that conversations about doing so are on the rise.\n\nA group of around 20 MPs that were first elected in 2019 are said to have met on Tuesday, after two other meetings recently, to talk about what to do.\n\nAnd it's suggested there's a notion that they will as, a group, submit their letters to Sir Graham after Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nA couple that have spoken privately seem determined to do so.\n\nBut it is not clear at this stage how many of them will go through with it when the moment comes.\n\nAnd we don't know that if they did, how close that tranche would take the number of letters to the threshold of 54, that could trigger a leadership contest.\n\nIt is clear though, worryingly for No 10, that their grouping has been in touch with other disaffected MPs.\n\nLinks across political generations, and across ideological groups, could form a dangerous circle for Mr Johnson.\n\nYet a member of the cabinet dismissed this potential move as being run by \"idiots\", who don't pose a serious threat to the PM, joking that their efforts were a \"pork pie plot\" because one of the group is Alicia Kearns, the MP for Rutland and Melton (home of the pork pie).\n\nFor her part, colleagues say Ms Kearns has been unfairly targeted and that she's not leading any rebellion.\n\nAnd a member of the government also sounded a note of caution, saying: \"Are we really going to get rid of a prime minister with a huge majority over a drinks party?\"\n\nMany Conservative MPs believe that it's better to wait at least to see what Sue Gray's official report into the No 10 shenanigans concludes.\n\nYet it seems tonight not all Tory members are willing to wait.", "Hundreds of police officers, firefighters and other volunteers searched for the girl\n\nA man has been charged with murder after a child was found dead in a barrel in Australian bushland.\n\nThe victim is believed to be a nine-year-old girl who went missing last week from a property in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, police said.\n\nHer disappearance sparked a massive search that ended on Tuesday when officers discovered the child's body near a river in a neighbouring area.\n\nPolice said a 31-year-old man had been arrested in a flat in inner Sydney.\n\nHe faced a court on Wednesday but did not enter a plea on a murder charge or apply for bail. His next hearing will be in March.\n\nThe girl - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - was on holiday with her mother when she disappeared last Thursday. She was reported missing the next morning.\n\nOver the next five days, police officers, firefighters and State Emergency Service volunteers scoured dense terrain in the area for clues.\n\nMeanwhile more than 200 officers conducted an investigation that identified the suspect and \"anomalies\" in his movements, according to New South Wales Police.\n\n\"That has been quite a laborious task in analysing GPS data, analysing CCTV footage and leading us to search the location we searched last night,\" Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said on Wednesday.\n\nPolice have been scouring the area since last week\n\nHe said it showed the suspect had purchased a \"number of sandbags\" from a hardware store, as well as fuel to \"try and float\" a boat at a dock in inner Sydney.\n\n\"That was unsuccessful because the boat was inoperable,\" Deputy Commissioner Hudson said.\n\nThe suspect allegedly later travelled to the Colo River area - where the barrel was later found. It is not far from where the girl originally went missing.\n\n\"Until the post-mortem is conducted, we are still uncertain of what exactly happened to her,\" Deputy Commissioner Hudson added.\n\n\"What we are sure of is that the accused that we charged with murder was responsible for, firstly, placing her in the barrel, and then disposing of that barrel in the bushland where she was located.\"\n\nDuring Wednesday's court hearing, the suspect's lawyer said his client had long-term mental health problems. Prosecutors said there were \"complexities\" in the case, without elaborating.\n\nIdentifying child victims of alleged crimes is prohibited under state law without permission from their next of kin, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.", "A group of more than 100 of the world's richest people have called on governments to make them pay more tax.\n\nThe group, named the Patriotic Millionaires, said the ultra-wealthy were not being forced to pay their share towards the global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.\n\n\"As millionaires, we know that the current tax system is not fair,\" they said in an open letter.\n\nMr Hanauer is a US entrepreneur and an early investor in online retail giant Amazon.\n\n\"Most of us can say that, while the world has gone through an immense amount of suffering in the last two years, we have actually seen our wealth rise during the pandemic - yet few if any of us can honestly say that we pay our fair share in taxes,\" the signatories said in the letter to the World Economic Forum.\n\nEarlier at the forum, which is being held virtually due to Covid rather than in its normal home at Davos, charity Oxfam said the pandemic made the world's wealthiest far richer, while also leading to more people living in poverty.\n\nIts report said lower incomes for the world's poorest contributed to the death of 21,000 people each day, but added the world's 10 richest men had more than doubled their collective fortunes since March 2020.\n\nResearch by Credit Suisse has also found that in 2020, the number of millionaires increased by 5.2 million to a total of 56.1 million globally.\n\nThe UK branch of Patriotic Millionaires said analysis by the Fight Inequality Alliance, the Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam and itself found a wealth tax starting at 2% annually for those with more than $5m, 3% for people with more than $50m, and 5% for billionaires could generate $2.52 trillion a year.\n\nUK entrepreneur Gemma McGough said it's time to \"right the wrongs\"\n\nThe group claimed taxing the UK's wealthiest 119,000 people at such rates would raise £43.71bn a year.\n\nThey suggested such funds could be used to eliminate planned National Insurance tax rises to fund social care in England, pay for the salaries of 50,000 nurses and a permanent increase of Universal Credit.\n\nIt said globally, $2.52tn could lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty and make enough vaccines for the world.\n\nGemma McGough, British entrepreneur and founding member of Patriotic Millionaires, UK said: \"For all our well-being - rich and poor alike - it's time we right the wrongs of an unequal world. It's time we tax the rich.\"\n\nMs McGough added: \"At a time when simply living will cost the average household a further £1,200 a year, our government cannot expect to be trusted if it would rather tax working people than wealthy people.\n\n\"If they do anything in the next few months, they should do this: rather than raising National Insurance, tax the rich - tax us - instead.\"\n\nIn the open letter, the signatories said business and political leaders were \"not going to find the answer in a private forum\" and were \"part of the problem\".", "Former senior civil servant Sue Gray, who became a household name as the Partygate investigator, has been cleared to take up a job with Labour from September.\n\nMs Gray's critical report into lockdown gatherings in Downing Street prompted numerous Conservative MPs to call on Boris Johnson to resign and contributed to his downfall last year.\n\nSome Tory MPs have expressed anger at the job offer to Ms Gray, with allies of the former prime minister saying it undermines her report.\n\nThe independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) has recommended a six-month break from when she quit as an official in March.\n\nBut the government is expected to rule Ms Gray broke civil service rules by failing to declare her contact with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer while still in her former role.\n\nHaving worked in the civil service since 1970s, Ms Gray has vast experience of government and would be useful to Sir Keir, who along with many in his shadow cabinet, has never held a ministerial position.\n\nIn his memoir, Liberal Democrat former minister David Laws recalls being told by a colleague: \"It took me precisely two years before I realised who it is that runs Britain.\n\n\"Our great United Kingdom is actually entirely run by a lady called Sue Gray, the head of ethics or something in the Cabinet Office - unless she agrees, things just don't happen.\"\n\nMs Gray joined the civil service straight from school and worked her way up to the Cabinet Office where, for six years, she led the government's Propriety and Ethics team, which provides advice to departments on standards issues.\n\nPolly Mackenzie - who worked as a special adviser in the Cabinet Office - told the BBC's Profile programme in 2017: \"Sue has been there for so long, she knows everything that anybody has ever done wrong.\"\n\nA photo released with the Partygate report of Mr Johnson at a gathering in No 10 Downing Street\n\nGus O'Donnell, a former head of the civil service, said: \"If there is any one person in the civil service who could write their memoirs, hers would be the most valuable, the most priceless and the most sensational.\n\n\"I am extremely confident that such a memoir will never be written - her secrets will go to the grave.\"\n\nIn 2017, one of her investigations forced Damian Green - then one of Theresa May's most senior ministers - to step down after he was found to have made \"inaccurate\" statements over what he knew about claims pornography had been found on his office computer in 2008.\n\nShe also investigated claims of sexual misconduct by the minister towards journalist Kate Maltby, ruling that her claims had been \"plausible\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Ms Maltby said: \"What impressed me most about Sue Gray was how seriously she took her duty of care to complainants... she was determined to listen to junior people, and not let senior staff off the hook.\n\n\"I found her profoundly moral in a way that isn't normally seen in Westminster.\"\n\nMs Gray's knowledge of ministers' private interests is said to have been useful to prime ministers carrying out rejigs of their team.\n\nChris Cook - an ex-BBC journalist who now works for news website Tortoise - said one sign of a forthcoming reshuffle would be when Sue Gray's office furniture had been re-arranged.\n\nAfter 20 years, she left the Cabinet Office on secondment to work at the finance department in Northern Ireland's government.\n\nWhen a job to lead the Northern Ireland civil service became available she applied, but did not get it.\n\nMs Gray has spent much of her career in the government buildings of Whitehall\n\nUnusually for a normally private individual, she gave an interview to the BBC admitting she was \"disappointed\" she did not get the top job and suggested she may have been seen as \"too much of a challenger, or a disrupter\".\n\nIn 2021, she returned to the Cabinet Office leading on matters related to the Union and the constitution.\n\nShe may have spent the bulk of her career in the civil service, but in the late 1980s she did take a career break to run a pub near Newry in County Down, called the Cove Bar, along with her husband, country and western singer Bill Conlon.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"I loved it, loved it at the time, I'd never do it again.\"\n\nIn 2021, Ms Gray was catapulted into the limelight when she was given the task of investigating whether Covid rules had been followed in government during the pandemic.\n\nHer final report concluded that staff had partied in Downing Street while the rest of the UK was in lockdown, with the approval of their bosses.\n\nShe said many events \"should not have been allowed\", and then-Prime Minister Mr Johnson \"must bear responsibility\".\n\nMs Gray made headlines again when, on 1 March, reports emerged that Labour leader Sir Keir was considering appointing Ms Gray to be his chief of staff.\n\nThe following day, Ms Gray quit her job at the levelling up department and Labour subsequently confirmed it had made her a job offer.\n\nCabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin has suggested this could have breached rules which say civil servants should \"act in a way which deserves and retrains the confidence of ministers\".\n\nHe also said talks between Labour and Ms Gray could potentially have conflicted with a requirement for civil servants to clear with ministers contact with opposition parties.", "Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the idea that the Omicron variant is a mild illness \"is misleading\"\n\nThe head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a warning to world leaders that the coronavirus pandemic \"is nowhere near over\".\n\nDr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned against the assumption that the newly dominant Omicron variant is significantly milder and has eliminated the threat posed by the virus.\n\nThe intervention comes as some European nations saw record new case numbers.\n\nFrance reported nearly half a million new daily cases on Tuesday.\n\nFor the first time since the start of the pandemic, more than 100,000 new infections were recorded in Germany within 24 hours on Wednesday.\n\nSpeaking during a news conference at the WHO's headquarters in Geneva, Dr Tedros told reporters that the Omicron variant had led to 18 million new infections across the world over the past week.\n\nWhile the variant may prove to be less severe on average, \"the narrative that it is a mild disease is misleading,\" he said.\n\n\"Make no mistake, Omicron is causing hospitalisations and deaths, and even the less severe cases are inundating health facilities.\"\n\nHe warned global leaders that \"with the incredible growth of Omicron globally, new variants are likely to emerge, which is why tracking and assessment remain critical\".\n\n\"I remain particularly concerned about many countries that have low vaccination rates, as people are many times more at risk of severe illness and death if they are unvaccinated,\" he added.\n\nThe WHO's emergencies director, Dr Mike Ryan, also warned that Omicron's increased transmissibility is likely to drive a rise in hospitalisations and deaths, especially in nations where fewer people are vaccinated.\n\n\"An exponential rise in cases, regardless of the severity of the individual variants, leads to inevitable increase in hospitalisations and deaths,\" he said.\n\nNew coronavirus infections have been growing across Europe as the new Omicron variant takes hold across the continent.\n\nIn Denmark, officials reported a record 33,493 new daily cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, while health authorities in Italy recorded 228,179 new infections, up from 83,403 the previous day. In Germany a record 112,323 new cases were reported on Wednesday, and the incidence rate of cases per 100,000 people also climbed to a new high of 584.4 over the past week.\n\nFrance meanwhile reported 464,769 new daily infections on Tuesday, more than four times higher than Monday's figure of 102,144 and a daily record for the pandemic. Infections have now climbed past a weekly average of over 300,000 new cases per day.\n\nFrance reported a record daily rise in new infections on Tuesday\n\nAmid the latest surge, French ministers are also facing a dispute with teachers' unions, who have called for a second major strike this week to protest against the government's Covid testing and isolation protocols, which they say are severely disrupting classes.\n\nThe move follows a one-day walkout last week that saw half of the country's primary schools close.\n\nTeachers say class disruptions have become unmanageable, with many parents struggling to get vaccination appointments for their children and long lines forming outside pharmacies as students wait for tests.\n\nFrench education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer. meanwhile. is facing calls to resign after it emerged he had announced a strict Covid-testing protocol for schools while he was on holiday in Ibiza.\n\nThere are however some early indications that the Omicron wave may have already peaked in some European countries.\n\nIn Ireland new cases have started to fall in recent days, with health minister Stephen Donnelly telling public broadcaster RTÉ that restrictions introduced over Christmas and the New Year period could be loosened by the end of the month.\n\nSpanish government data has shown that new infections have started to fall for first time since the Omicron wave began two and a half months ago - although experts warned about reading too much into the data.\n\nAnd in the UK, government ministers are set to review coronavirus restrictions on Wednesday amid a decline in daily infections.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "(From top left to right) Benjamin Macann, Jack Mayle, Callum Halpin, Asim Naveed, John James Jones, Callum Allan, Dean Garforth, Joshua Dillon Hendry, Mark Roberts, James Stevenson, Nana Oppong and Calvin Parris.\n\nTwelve of Britain's most-wanted suspects believed to be hiding in Spain have been named by officials in a bid to flush them out.\n\nThe list - unveiled in a new appeal by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Spanish officials - includes men wanted for murder and drug trafficking.\n\nAmong the most wanted is Nana Oppong, 41, for the drive-by killing of grandfather Robert Powell, 50.\n\nThe NCA's Steve Rodhouse insisted Spain was \"not a safe haven\".\n\nHe added: \"Fugitives usually continue offending while on the run and these men will be known in criminal circles wherever they are.\"\n\nHe said the last thing their associates would want was both UK and Spanish law enforcement focusing on them.\n\nMany of the suspects would be trying to blend in with Spain's large British expat community, and anyone with information should come forward, he added.\n\nThe NCA's Most Wanted campaign partners with independent charity CrimeStoppers, Spanish law enforcement and UK police.\n\nThe latest appeal - launched in the Spanish capital, Madrid, on Wednesday - comes after a previous campaign targeting fugitives, called Operation Captura, resulted in the arrests of 86 offenders.\n\nAmong the most-wanted are:\n\nWanted by Essex Police for the drive-by killing of grandfather Robert Powell, 50, who was shot eight times on 13 June 2020.\n\nHis last known address was in Newham, east London, and he has links to Marbella.\n\nThe 27-year-old is being sought by Greater Manchester Police in connection with the 2018 killing of rival Luke Graham, 31, in a turf war, and the attempted murder of Anton Verigotta.\n\nHis last known address was in Beede Street, Openshaw, Manchester and he has links to Spain and possibly Turkey.\n\nThe 30-year-old from Croydon, south London, is wanted for allegedly selling illegal substances including class A drug MDMA via a phone line in the area, called the Flavour Quest, and on the dark web - a part of the internet only accessible through special browsing software.\n\nAuthorities say he was heavily tattooed when he left the UK - including on his neck, one of a diamond under his left eye and another reading \"Croydon\" on the outside of his left forearm.\n\nHis last known address was in Caterham, Surrey.\n\nThe 29-year-old, described as muscular and 6ft 2in, is accused of being the leader of a drug smuggling gang that brought 46kg of cocaine, worth nearly £8m, into Wales between February and June 2020.\n\nHis last known addresses were in Butetown and Pentwyn, Cardiff and he has a surgical scar along his left wrist.\n\nAlleged to be Asim Naveed's customer, the 32-year-old has gold upper teeth and is accused of selling cocaine in the Welsh capital.\n\nHis last known addresses were in Ely, Sully and Barry in Cardiff.\n\nThe 56-year-old Scotsman is wanted by the NCA and Police Scotland following the seizure of about one tonne of cocaine at the Port of Dover in September 2020, and 28 million Etizolam \"street Valium\" tablets in a raid on a suspected pill factory in Kent in June the same year.\n\nHe is also being sought in connection with two suspected arson attacks in Lanarkshire and the Forth Valley in May 2020.\n\nThe 32-year-old, whose last known address was in Beetley in Norfolk, is wanted by police there for allegedly being involved in a cocaine dealing gang.\n\nHe has links to Barcelona.\n\nThe 31-year-old, who was last known to have lived in Aughton, Lancashire, is being sought for allegedly stabbing two victims multiple times, causing serious injuries.\n\nIt is believed that he fled to Madrid directly after the attack, and may now be in Ibiza.\n\nWanted by Northumbria Police for allegedly being involved in drug dealing, as well as assaulting an emergency worker, affray and dangerous driving.\n\nThe 23-year-old's last known address was in South Shields and he has links to Alicante and Marbella.\n\nSought by Cheshire Police for allegedly being part of a crime gang that sold drugs and guns.\n\nThe 29-year-old, whose last known address was in Dingle, Liverpool, has been accused of previously using the secret phone network Encrochat, which was brought down in an international sting, to carry out his crimes.\n\nThe 30-year-old from Liverpool was allegedly part of a drug-dealing gang, trafficking heroin and crack cocaine from Liverpool to Grimsby via a dedicated phone line.\n\nIn 2018 he was convicted for conspiracy to supply cocaine, for which he was sentenced in his absence to 10 years in prison. His last known address was in Walton, Liverpool.\n\nAlso from Liverpool, the 28-year-old is being sought for grievous bodily harm and attempted robbery in 2016.\n\nWith an accomplice, he threatened the victim with a knife on his driveway at 01:30 GMT in a bid to steal his £60,000 Richard Mille watch. When the victim refused to hand it over, the pair stabbed him multiple times, leaving him with a collapsed lung and needing treatment in intensive care.\n\nCrimestoppers' founder Lord Ashcroft urged people with information about the fugitives' whereabouts to \"do the right thing\" by passing it on.\n\nAnyone with information about the fugitives can call Crimestoppers anonymously in the UK on 0800 555 111 or from Spain on 900 926 111, or go online at crimestoppers-uk.org/fugitives.", "The victims died in the back of a trailer as it crossed the North Sea between Zeebrugge and the UK\n\nA Belgian court has sentenced a Vietnamese man to 15 years in prison after ruling that he was the ringleader of a gang that trafficked migrants found dead in a lorry in the UK.\n\nVo Van Hong was found guilty of leading a cross-Channel people trafficking operation based in Belgium.\n\nThirty-nine Vietnamese people, aged 15-44, were discovered suffocated at an industrial estate in Essex in 2019.\n\nThe court found that at least 15 of them had passed through Hong's network.\n\nHong was one of 23 people on trial in Belgium. Last year, a UK court convicted four people of manslaughter.\n\nThe tragedy that emerged in the Essex town of Grays exposed the nature of the gangs exploiting migrants risking everything to get to the UK.\n\nThe Belgian court said Hong was responsible for running a criminal organisation that had smuggled at least 115 people across the Channel between September 2018 and his arrest in May 2020. He had denied involvement, claiming that he was himself a victim of the gang.\n\nAll those put on trial in Bruges were either Vietnamese themselves or Belgians of Vietnamese origin. Four were cleared by the court, while 19 were convicted.\n\nThey were accused of playing a role before the deadly journey across the Channel from Zeebrugge, buying supplies for the migrants, transporting them in taxis or acting as look-outs at safe houses in the Anderlecht area, the BBC's Nick Beake reports from Brussels.\n\nTwo other members of the gang were given lengthy sentences, including Nguyen Long, 46, described as the ringleader's main lieutenant, according to AFP news agency. The court condemned the gang's contempt for their victims' human dignity and wellbeing.\n\n\"It's clear that anyone who persists in engaging in this practice and pays no attention to the welfare of these people will be severely punished,\" Luc Arnou, a lawyer for the victims' families, told Belgian TV.\n\nThe British trial that ended a year ago at the Old Bailey in London convicted two lorry drivers and two other smugglers of manslaughter, while three others were jailed for involvement in the gang.\n\nAmong the victims were a bricklayer, a university graduate and a nail bar technician. A couple in their mid-30s left behind two young children.\n\nThey were found to have died in the lorry container of asphyxiation and hyperthermia brought on by very high temperatures and a lack of oxygen.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video evidence showed how the trailer containing 39 Vietnamese migrants made its way to the UK\n\nThe father of a 15-year-old boy called Nguyen Huy Hung learned of his death over social media.\n\nThe judge in London said those inside the container had tried desperately to break through the roof and to contact their families by phone during the sea crossing to Purfleet.\n\nIn addition to the Belgian and British trials, a Vietnamese court has also handed down sentences while 26 suspects face trial in France.", "Billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya is under fire for saying that he - and most Americans - \"don't care\" about abuses against the Uyghur minority in China.\n\nMr Palihapitiya, a part-owner of San Francisco's basketball team, made the comments during a podcast discussion of whether President Joe Biden's action on the issue had helped him politically.\n\nMr Palihapitiya later admitted that his comments \"lacked empathy\".\n\nIn a statement intended to clarify his stance, he said \"important issues deserve important discussions\".\n\n\"I believe that human rights matter, whether in China, the United States, or elsewhere,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chamath Palihapitiya This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMany people following the issue were not satisfied.\n\n\"When people apologise, they deserve a second chance. I don't view this as an apology when Chamath can not even acknowledge how his comment was hurtful to the Uyghur community,\" human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat wrote on Twitter. \"China takes comfort knowing that corporate executives have their back and will continue this genocide.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Rayhan E. Asat This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe US has accused China of genocide in its repression of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region - a charge that China has repeatedly rejected.\n\nLast year, Mr Biden signed into law new rules that require companies to prove that goods imported from the area were not made with \"forced labour\".\n\nMr Palihapitiya, an early executive at Facebook and now a prominent venture capitalist, is co-host of the \"All-in\" podcast on which he made the remarks. He was responding to his co-host's observation that Mr Biden's stance on the issue had not helped him in the polls.\n\n\"Let's be honest, nobody, nobody cares about what's happening to the Uyghurs, okay? You bring it up because you really care. And I think that's really nice that you care but .... The rest of us don't care. I'm just telling you a very hard truth,\" he said.\n\nBoston Celtics Forward Enes Kanter, who has been outspoken about human rights issues and campaigned on behalf of the forced labour law, was among those condemning the comments.\n\n\"When genocides happen, it is people like this that let it happen,\" he wrote.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Enes Kanter FREEDOM This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn a statement, the Golden State Warriors basketball team distanced itself from Mr Palihapitiya, who owns 10% of the team, calling him a \"limited investor with no day-to-day operating functions\".\n\n\"Mr Palihapitiya does not speak on behalf of our franchise and his views certainly don't reflect those of our organization\", the team said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Warriors PR This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "US mobile networks AT&T and Verizon have agreed to postpone the rollout of their new 5G service at some airports.\n\nThe C-band service, which offers faster speeds and broader coverage, was due to be turned on tomorrow.\n\nBut airlines in the US have pushed to delay the start, warning that the signals could interfere with aeroplane navigation systems.\n\nThe telecoms firms expressed frustration as they bowed to pressure to limit their rollout.\n\nAT&T said it was \"temporarily\" deferring the rollout at a \"limited number of towers around certain airport runways\". Regulators had had \"two years\" to plan for the start of 5G service, it added.\n\n\"We are frustrated by the Federal Aviation Administration's inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge it do so in a timely manner,\" AT&T said in a statement.\n\n\"We are launching our advanced 5G services everywhere else as planned with the temporary exception of this limited number of towers.\"\n\nVerizon also said it had \"voluntarily decided to limit our 5G network around airports\".\n\nThis third postponement came as the White House and aviation authorities rushed to work out a solution to an issue that airlines have warned could cause major disruption, forcing them to ground some of their fleets and cancel flights.\n\nIn a statement, President Joe Biden thanked Verizon and AT&T for agreeing the delay, which he said would affect only about 10% of wireless tower locations.\n\n\"This agreement protects flight safety and allows aviation operations to continue without significant disruption and will bring more high-speed internet options to millions of Americans,\" he said, adding that officials would continue talks to find a \"permanent, workable solution around these key airports\".\n\nPhone companies have spent tens of billions of dollars to upgrade their networks to deploy the 5G technology, which brings much faster internet services and greater connectivity.\n\nBut airlines fear C-band 5G signals will disrupt planes' navigation systems, particularly those used in bad weather. Two major plane makers, Airbus and Boeing, have also voiced concerns.\n\nIn a recent letter to regulators, the 10 biggest US airlines said they wanted 5G signals to be excluded from \"the approximate two miles of airport runways at affected airports as defined by the FAA on 19 January 2022\".\n\n\"This will allow 5G to be deployed while avoiding harmful impacts on the aviation industry, travelling public, supply chain, vaccine distribution, our workforce and broader economy.\n\n\"We further ask that the FAA immediately identify those base stations closest to key airport runways that need to be addressed to ensure safety and avoid disruption,\" they added.\n\nThere have been several delays already because of the aviation concerns, with launch dates in December and earlier this month both being pushed back. Wireless industry groups say airlines are distorting the risks.\n\nDespite Tuesday's deal, some airlines including Air India and Japan's biggest airline, ANA Holdings said they had cancelled some US-bound flights because of possible 5G interference.\n\nThe much-hyped expansion of 5G networks in the US has been chaotic, to say the least.\n\nThe rollout has been delayed twice - and now AT&T and Verizon have bowed to intense pressure, agreeing to defer opening some parts of the network near airports.\n\nThis happened because of concerns about the safety of aircraft. To mitigate those concerns, airlines would have had to operate under restrictions they clearly found intolerable.\n\nBut those safety issues have been well publicised for more than a year. There was clearly time to come up with a mitigation plan - and other countries have been able to do just that.\n\nThe question is, why were US regulators, telecoms operators, airlines and airports apparently unable to come up with a workable solution?\n\nIn other countries, telecoms companies have been required to reduce 5G signals around airports by taking steps such as pointing antennae away from control towers.\n\nBut US firms were not expecting those types of limits to be imposed when they spent billions on 5G infrastructure, said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a professor of transportation economics at George Washington University and a former deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of Transportation.\n\n\"They want to get the most out of their investment,\" she said. \"What they should have been told beforehand is that they would not have free rein to use it because it could interfere with the planes but they were not given that information in advance.\"\n\nIn an update on Sunday, the FAA, which oversees aviation safety across the US, said it had cleared \"an estimated 45% of the US commercial fleet to perform low-visibility landings at many of the airports where 5G C-band will be deployed\".\n\nThe FAA added that it had approved \"two radio altimeter models that are installed in a wide variety of Boeing and Airbus planes\".\n\n\"Even with these new approvals, flights at some airports may still be affected,\" the regulator said.\n\n\"The FAA also continues to work with manufacturers to understand how radar altimeter data is used in other flight control systems. Passengers should check with their airlines if weather is forecast at a destination where 5G interference is possible.\"", "Mask wearing in Scotland's schools could end as early as next month, according to a leading infections expert.\n\nDr Christine Tait-Burkard said she believed the rules on face coverings for the general public may be lifted \"relatively soon thereafter\".\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney would not be drawn on a timetable.\n\nBut he told BBC Scotland's The Nine that he hoped the rules would not still be in place when exams start in May.\n\nOn Tuesday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs that Scotland had \"turned the corner on the Omicron wave\".\n\nShe announced that the remaining restrictions which had been introduced in response to the Omicron variant would be removed from Monday, with nightclubs reopening, large indoor events resuming and social distancing rules dropped.\n\nThe Covid rules which will remain in place include a requirement for secondary pupils and staff to cover their faces at all times when they are at school.\n\nDr Tait-Burkard said the latest data was encouraging, despite record-breaking case numbers over the festive period.\n\nShe told told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that we were seeing \"less consequence of disease but also cases dropping despite easing\".\n\nThe Edinburgh University academic added: \"Even with schools returning we actually have not seen an increase in cases.\n\n\"I would expect for schools that removal of face masks to be relatively soon, as in early to mid-February, and I'm expecting that actually even for the general public that restriction may be eased relatively soon thereafter.\"\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney had struck a more cautious note when he spoke to BBC Scotland's The Nine on Tuesday.\n\nHe told the programme: \"I think we will be wearing face coverings in general in society for quite a bit longer.\n\n\"I think it is one of those straightforward, baseline measures which gives us a degree of protection against the virus, because the virus hasn't somehow disappeared.\n\n\"It is still out there and we have got to take elementary steps to try to protect against its circulation, and we will do so, but we won't keep those restrictions in place for a moment longer than necessary.\"\n\nAsked if pupils sitting their exams in May would be wearing masks, he said: \"I would hope that wasn't the case but, obviously, we will review these issues on a regular basis.\"\n\nThe issue was also raised at a meeting of the Scottish Parliament's education committee on Wednesday.\n\nMargaret Wilson, the chair of the National Parent Forum of Scotland, said her organisation did not support the continued use of face masks in schools.\n\n\"I do believe that children are under stricter mitigations than any other area of society, and that is why it's really important that everything is reviewed on a regular basis,\" she said.\n\nGreg Dempster, general secretary of the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland, said he felt decisions should be led by the guidance from scientific advisers.\n\nAnd he added: \"I'm not hearing a great deal from pupil representatives or young people about face coverings being a huge barrier.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Scotland's national clinical director, Prof Jason Leitch, has said Omicron is on a \"downward slope\" but urged caution over thinking the pandemic is in its final stages.\n\nAsked if we are in the \"endgame\", he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"I think we're in the endgame of Omicron.\n\n\"Nobody knows if we're in the endgame of the whole pandemic. And anybody who does, I'm afraid it's hope rather than reality.\"\n\nProf Leitch said the World Health Organization was still urging people to be cautious and added: \"Don't drop your guard for surveillance of other variants that might come into your country or you might generate yourself.\n\n\"But we're definitely in a downward slope of Omicron, which is terrific news.\"\n\nMeanwhile new figures from the National Records of Scotland show that in the week from 10 to 16 January, 132 deaths were registered where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate.\n\nThis was an increase of 60 deaths from the previous week.", "The prime minister will face Sir Keir Starmer again in the Commons at lunchtime.\n\nBoris Johnson will know, though, that some of his fiercest critics will be sitting behind, and not in front of, him.\n\nHalf a dozen of his own MPs have publicly called for him to go, and some others are privately of the same view.\n\nHe will, of course, expect to hear cheers from supporters and from some other colleagues who want to rally round in the face of Labour attacks.\n\nPerhaps more crucially, though, are a disparate group of MPs that you might call \"considerers\". They are weighing up whether to submit letters of no confidence, which would trigger a leadership contest.\n\nThey will be listening closely to his answers.\n\nSo what - for now - is holding them back?\n\nMost Conservative MPs will say they will await the conclusion of the investigation into the gatherings in Downing Street by the senior civil servant Sue Gray before deciding how to proceed.\n\nOne of those who has already called for Mr Johnson's departure has urged his colleagues \"to grow some\". He said he had 1,500 hostile letters from constituents and \"this can't go on\".\n\nBut in truth some of those colleagues tell me they are merely awaiting the completion of \"due process\".\n\nVirtually irrespective of what Sue Gray says, they will join the cacophonous chorus calling for him to go in due course.\n\nOne of them said he was simply waiting for other colleagues to \"catch up\" with the conclusion he had reached.\n\nFor others, though, it matters hugely what Ms Gray says.\n\nAlthough she won't sit in judgement of the prime minister, and will simply set out the facts, it will be important to some leadership-sceptics which facts she sets out.\n\nOne of them told me that if she can substantiate Dominic Cummings's claim that the prime minister was told about the nature of the event on 20 May 2020 - that was a social not a work gathering - then more letters of no confidence were likely to go in as MPs would feel they had been misled by the prime minister.\n\nSue Gray's report could come out soon\n\nThis, of course, may not materialise - the prime minister himself denied again on Tuesday that he was warned the event could be against the rules.\n\nDominic Cummings has alleged in his blog that the prime minister had been told.\n\nThis, too, puts pressure on Sue Gray to investigate the claims, and avoid any impression of a whitewash.\n\nThat said, if Sue Gray merely uncovers evidence that the civil servant Martin Reynolds was warned about proceeding with the event, some MPs will be content to see a clear-out of No 10 officials, and their potential rebellion could fade.\n\nOne well-placed MP declared \"she is not going to throw the prime minster under a bus\" - and that a plan was in place for staffing changes at No 10.\n\nAnd a former cabinet minister told me he expected \"deputy heads to roll\" in order to save the prime minister. He did not believe Mr Johnson could remain in No 10 until the next election, but that he could stave off an immediate threat.\n\nFor some Conservative MPs there are other considerations.\n\nOne MP told me he was on the verge of sending a no-confidence email, but key figures in his constituency association - the grassroots Tories who selected him and campaigned for him - wanted to support the prime minister - and, more widely, there is polling which suggests he has retained more support amongst activists than voters.\n\nHowever, there is significant pressure from Conservative voters.\n\nAt least one constituency association has been checking negative letters and emails against the list of supporters that they would canvass at election time, and that has made grim reading.\n\nMany MPs say the incoming criticism goes beyond \"the usual suspects\". And this in turn could yet tip the balance against the prime minister.\n\nSo far cabinet ministers are staying solid. But the thin blue line of junior ministers is under strain.\n\nMaria Caulfield is one minister who has been critical of her boss the prime minister\n\nJunior minister Maria Caulfield posted on Facebook that she \"fully appreciates the depth of anger on this issue\" amongst her constituents and that \"it is clear the spirit of the rules\" was broken.\n\nScience minister George Freeman made clear that he was angry about staff in No 10 holding parties - though he would not pass judgment at this stage on the prime minister.\n\nAnd privately another junior minister has said that her postbag isn't just critical of the prime minister but increasingly hostile to her. She is not - even off the record - calling for the prime minister to go yet - but the prospect of \"party-gate\" sullying the reputations of those who had nothing to do with the gatherings has touched a raw nerve.\n\nIf the prime minister's future is in the balance, this may in due course put more weight on the \"go\" rather than \"stay\" scale.\n\nIt's been suggested that some sceptical MPs will rally round because they do not want to indulge a \"Dominic Cummings coup\" against an elected leader.\n\nAnd that this could perhaps move the balance back in the PM's favour.\n\nBut that he is the source of some - and by no means all - of the allegations against the PM isn't weighing heavily on the minds of some of the considerers.\n\nOne of the 2019 intake was under no illusions about Mr Cummings' role, but nonetheless felt that his attacks would have misfired if the prime minister himself had not given him the ammunition.\n\nA former minister told me: \"Just because he is the source of a story is not a reason to ignore the story.\"\n\nAnd there are concerns that Mr Cummings will come forward with more claims even after Sue Gray reports, and this will be corrosive if the prime minister stays in No 10.\n\nSo far it's been fellow Brexiteers - such as Andrew Bridgen and Tim Loughton - who have publicly urged the prime minister to go.\n\nWorryingly for him, these also tend to be people sceptical of lockdown measures.\n\nSo one aspect of his fightback - the lifting of restrictions in England later this month - won't suddenly get them to reverse their view.\n\nBut what of those who were perhaps more sceptical of Boris Johnson all along?\n\nThe One Nation group of MPs met behind closed doors on Monday night.\n\nThey had gathered to hear from the DUP's Sir Jeffrey Donaldson on Northern Ireland - a party which has had its own leadership problems - and the question of Conservative leadership came up in the second half of the meeting.\n\nMPs shared tales of dismal postbags and I'm told there was an \"intense\" discussion on what to do.\n\nWhile broadly there was a feeling of \"inevitability\", there were different views on timing.\n\nOne MP told me he was against triggering a confidence vote now, because he feared \"Boris Johnson could win\" and \"we would be stuck with him for the next two years\".\n\nBut one of his colleagues favoured a swifter move because he felt that unless Mr Johnson won a confidence vote convincingly \"he will be handed the pearl-handled revolver\".\n\nHow the timing of a contest would play with the public is weighing on some people's minds - would it look less indulgent to move after potentially poor local elections in May rather than in the midst of a pandemic?\n\nAnd would it be better if Mr Johnson took the hit for national insurance rises and increased energy costs in the spring rather than his successor?\n\n\"It's all about the pace at which this occurs\" - and not whether it will occur - according to a former minister.\n\nBut some MPs are already mulling over what would come next.\n\nOne MP who has not been publicly critical of the prime minister is simply concerned that any replacement would not be as effective at appealing to first-time Conservative voters.\n\n\"Do we really want a dull manager as leader?\" he mused.\n\nAnd those who are likely to seek to replace him do not seem to be in an immediate rush.\n\nLetters of no confidence are sent to Sir Graham Brady - the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee.\n\nHe is the very personification of discretion so estimates of how many letters he has received - 54 would lead to a confidence vote, which in turn would trigger a leadership contest if the prime minister loses that vote - are hugely speculative.\n\nOne former minister believes the sheer volume of public complaint makes it likely that more letters may have been, or will be, quietly submitted by his colleagues without much flourish or co-ordination.\n\nAnd just 24 hours before PMQs a group of around 20 MPs elected at the 2019 election met behind closed doors at Westminster, where the mood was said to be hardening - with the possibility that more no-confidence letters are submitted after PMQs.\n\nThe Northern Research Group of MPs also met privately on Tuesday afternoon.\n\nSo it may take little more to tip the balance.\n\nBut, of course, letters can be withdrawn as well as submitted - so the prime minister's performance at PMQs, and then the tone of his response to Sue Gray, may yet tip the balance back in his favour.\n\nAnd while Labour is publicly claiming it is in the \"national interest\" for Mr Johnson to go, privately shadow ministers believe it's in their party interest if he continues in office.\n\nSo if Sir Keir Starmer succeeds in further wounding the prime minister, it will be his own MPs who will have to decide whether it's better to then move in for the kill.", "US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Russia could attack Ukraine \"on very short notice\" and warned again of tough sanctions if it did.\n\nHe was speaking on a visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after months of tension over a Russian military build-up near Ukraine's borders.\n\nStressing the US's close ties with Ukraine, Mr Blinken vowed \"relentless\" diplomacy to stop Russian aggression.\n\nMoscow has denied any plans to attack or invade.\n\nRussia has made a raft of demands to Western governments, including that Ukraine should never join Nato and that the defensive alliance's military activities should be limited in member states including Poland.\n\nTalks between the West and Russia last week failed to reach a breakthrough, with some of Moscow's demands rejected as non-starters.\n\nRussia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014 after the overthrow of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine. It has supported pro-Russian rebels who control parts of eastern Ukraine after they fought a bloody war with government forces.\n\nThere are fears that the conflict, which cost at least 13,000 lives and caused at least two million people to flee their homes, may reignite, with the Russian military openly intervening.\n\nMr Blinken said Russia had built up troops near Ukraine's borders with \"no provocation, no reason\".\n\n\"We know that there are plans in place to increase that force even more on very short notice, and that gives President [Vladimir] Putin the capacity, also on very short notice, to take further aggressive action against Ukraine,\" he said.\n\nHe accused Russia of trying to weaken Ukraine's diplomatic institutions and divide Ukrainian society \"using everything from election interference to disinformation to cyber attacks\".\n\nHe pledged \"relentless diplomatic efforts to prevent renewed aggression and to promote dialogue and peace\", and repeated a warning of tough sanctions against Russia in the event of an invasion.\n\nMr Blinken will meet his Russian counterpart in Geneva on Friday, after talks with European allies in Berlin.\n\nA picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. So on a day when the White House warned that a Russian attack on Ukraine could come \"at any point\", American Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew almost 8,000km to appear in front of cameras with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and reiterate the close ties between the two nations.\n\nHe cautioned Russian President Vladimir Putin that there would be severe consequences if he opted for military action and promised continued defensive and financial support for the Ukrainian government.\n\nGiven evidence of a Russian disinformation campaign to convince Ukrainians that the US is abandoning the Eastern European nation - drawing comparisons to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan - such a show of support was particularly welcomed by senior Ukrainian officials.\n\nMeanwhile, on the streets of Kyiv, everyday life is continuing as normal. Pedestrians waved and took photographs of Mr Blinken's motorcade as it passed along ice-encrusted streets. There is no sense of panic or undue concern even amid headlines of Russian troops amassing along the nation's borders.\n\nTime may tell whether this is mass denial or a sense of steely resolve for the challenges that lie ahead.\n\nRussia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led recent negotiations with the US in Geneva, said his country did not \"intend to take any aggressive actions\".\n\n\"We will not strike, attack or invade Ukraine,\" he said at a meeting on Moscow.\n\nHe said the US could not force Moscow to move its troops away from the Ukrainian border. \"They are on our territory and we won't be making any changes to their movement because of external pressure,\" he added.\n\nMr Ryabkov also called on Washington to stop its military support for Ukraine, which he said posed a direct threat to Russian security.\n\nMr Blinken's visit to Kyiv was described as a bid to \"reinforce the United States' commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity\", before talks in Berlin on Thursday with German, French and British counterparts.\n\nGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who visited Moscow on Tuesday, has warned that any further military escalation \"would carry a high price for the Russian regime - economic, political and strategic\".\n\nUkraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has urged Western governments to impose immediate sanctions on Moscow.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's HardTalk programme, he warned that a Russian invasion of the country could lead to bloodshed and a refugee crisis for Europe.\n\nA consignment of light anti-tank missiles arrived in Kyiv from the UK on Tuesday as British ministers urged Moscow to reflect on the brink of a potential conflict in which thousands could die.\n\nIn an essay published this week, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace accused Russia of using Nato as a \"strawman\" to justify an invasion of Ukraine, accusing President Putin of being motivated by \"ethnonationalism\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ukraine ambassador Vadym Prystaiko says they are \"facing the biggest army in Europe by ourselves\"", "Jamie began his medical transition when he was 18\n\nA transgender man has said confusion over his gender caused a delay in receiving a hospital appointment after an abnormal cervical screening result.\n\nJamie, 29, from Hull, began his medical transition aged 18, but opted to retain his cervix.\n\nWhen referred to hospital after the screening, it was questioned why a man needed an appointment, he said.\n\nThe NHS group responsible for screenings said it was sorry to hear about Jamie's recent experience.\n\nJamie said the nurse who referred him to hospital following the check in late 2020 wrote an accompanying paragraph explaining he was trans.\n\n\"I think the hospital had said 'Why have you sent us this guy?' and she said 'Haven't you read the paragraph that came with it? This is a trans man, he still has a vagina, he needs screening'.\n\n\"It had to go through multiple managers to accept and understand it,\" he said.\n\nJamie said the confusion over his gender led to a three-month wait for results - not the usual two weeks.\n\nHis results came back negative, despite the delay in receiving the appointment.\n\nThe Hull Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is responsible for cervical screening, said while it could not comment on individual cases it was sorry to hear about Jamie's experience and thanked him for bringing it to their attention.\n\n\"Trans men who still have a cervix should have cervical screening to help prevent cervical cancer,\" the CCG said.\n\n\"They may need to ask their GP practice for an appointment and ask that their preferences are recorded in their notes.\"\n\nHowever, NHS guidance says a trans man registered with a GP as male will not usually receive automatic invitations.\n\nOnly women aged over 25 are automatically sent reminders to book an appointment.\n\nJamie believes all those who need screening should receive an invitation routinely\n\nJamie said his case highlighted the issue that trans men and non-binary individuals who have a cervix were not routinely called for screening.\n\n\"There is no notification to tell me I need a screening, so it's something I need to manage myself,\" Jamie said.\n\nHe said because screening was normally done every three years \"it's really easy to forget\".\n\n\"That's why women are sent letters,\" he said.\n\n\"Everyone that needs a screening needs that reminder and that will prompt more people to go.\"\n\nImogen Pinnell, from charity Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust, said there was a need for healthcare professionals to be better educated about the issue \"so they are able to better support transgender and non-binary people with a cervix\".\n\n\"Because so often the experience someone has at an appointment will be what determines if they go back in future\", she added.\n\nPublic Health England said it had worked closely with the LGBT community to produce a guide to help trans people understand what screening is available.\n\n\"We have promoted the guide to LGBT groups to help trans people access the most appropriate screening for them,\" they added.\n\nJamie said he wanted screening invitations to be sent to everyone who required them.\n\n\"No-one is going to say cervical screening is nice, and there is that extra layer of why it is uncomfortable for a trans person.\n\n\"But, for a few minutes of being uncomfortable, that could save your life.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Bury town centre during the first lockdown Image caption: Bury town centre during the first lockdown\n\nAs we've been reporting, MP Christian Wakeford left the Conservative benches and walked across the floor to join Labour this lunchtime.\n\nSo what do constituents think of the Bury South MP's dramatic defection?\n\nAt Rosylee coffee house, opposite Wakeford's office, Debbie Clark, 52, says she voted Conservative for the first time at the last election.\n\n“I am disgusted,” she tells me. “I voted for the party. He should resign and we should have an election.”\n\nHer husband Fred agrees: “He should not have the right to go to Labour.\"\n\nOn the table next to them is 51-year-old Maxine Ballington. She also voted Conservative.\n\nShe too is shocked by today’s defection but wants Boris Johnson to resign.\n\n“I’ve lost two people to Covid. People were fined for having house parties. How can he go to a party at Downing Street?” she says.\n\nOutside Wakeford's constituency office one man told me he wasn’t surprised.\n\nBut as he waits to pick up his wife from a beauty salon, he insists the prime minister hadn't done anything wrong and described the defection an overreaction.", "Mindful of complaints that he holds too few news conferences, President Biden extended this rare formal encounter with the press.\n\n“I’m happy to stick around,” he said, looking at his watch.\n\nHe acknowledged that the pandemic had left Americans exhausted and demoralised, but insisted his administration had accomplished a lot.\n\nHe has answered questions about his policies with a command of technical detail and history, contradicting critics' claims that he’s mentally unfit to run the country.\n\nHis most memorable statements were on foreign policy, in particular his “guess” that the Russian president Vladimir Putin would “move in” to Ukraine because “he has to do something”.\n\nHe clarified that he doesn’t believe Putin wants full blown war, but openly admitted that something less than a major invasion could affect the unity over a Nato response.", "Boris Johnson said the plan would be withdrawn ahead of a Lords debate on Wednesday\n\nControversial plans to allow double jobbing in Northern Ireland will be withdrawn, the prime minister has said.\n\nBoris Johnson was responding to a question from Simon Hoare, the chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.\n\nThe move would have allowed MPs to be elected as MLAs and hold both jobs until the next general election.\n\nDUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who was set to benefit from it, has denied being angry at the decision.\n\nThe move had been criticised by the majority of parties at Stormont.\n\nThe move would have allowed DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May while retaining his seat at Westminster\n\nIt was part of an amendment that peers in the House of Lords were going to debate on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nSix of the political parties signed a joint letter on Tuesday to Mr Johnson calling for the plan to be withdrawn.\n\nThe leaders of Alliance, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists, SDLP, Green Party and People Before Profit, believed it was aimed at helping the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - a charge that party denied.\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader told BBC News NI he was yet to speak to the government about its decision, but that he was \"full of energy\" and ready to go to the polls in Lagan Valley.\n\nAlliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood came out strongly against the plan\n\nA dual mandate would have allowed Sir Jeffrey to stand for election to the assembly in May, while retaining his seat at Westminster.\n\nUnder existing rules, Sir Jeffrey would have to stand down as an MP if he was elected to Stormont.\n\nThe practice of double jobbing was banned six years ago.\n\nThe withdrawal of the government's proposal will now trigger a by-election in his Lagan Valley seat.\n\nHe said he felt the proposal \"offered an opportunity perhaps for a small number of senior representatives to continue to have a voice at Westminster whilst we're trying to resolve issues such as the protocol\" but that he was \"looking forward\" to the assembly election.\n\nAsked if he was angry about what had happened, he said: \"I'm not angry at all, I'm full of energy, I'm focussed on the job that I have, I count it an honour and a privilege to represent the people of my constituency here at Lagan Valley and I look forward to the opportunity of meeting many of them and many others out on the assembly election campaign.\"\n\nBlink and you would have missed it, but it was a moment that will have mattered politically in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe parties who had been pushing back hard against the double-jobbing proposal are chalking the U-turn up as a win.\n\nBoris Johnson was not for elaborating, but it has likely come about due to government fears the vote could have been lost due to opposition from Labour and the Lib Dems - a defeat it did not need when the PM's future is already perilous.\n\nQuestions remain about why Number 10 had suggested the idea in the first place, knowing the backlash it would spark.\n\nAnd surely the biggest blow from this latest development will be felt by DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.\n\nHe had hoped to benefit from the legislation and keep his Westminster seat while running in the assembly election.\n\nNow that part of his election plan is no more.\n\nThe government was expected to face a battle to get the proposals through the Lords, as Labour and Liberal Democrat peers said they would be voting against it.\n\nIf the plan had progressed, MPs would have been able to once more sit in two chambers with double jobbing back in time for the assembly election in May.\n\nIt would have brought Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK.\n\nIn a social media post, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood described the prime minister's announcement as a \"big defeat for the DUP\".\n\nThe Foyle MP said it was a \"victory for all of us who opposed it\".\n\nUlster Unionist peer Lord Empey said it was a victory \"for positive dialogue and engagement with government and other parties\".\n\n\"You don`t have to threaten to crash the institutions for unionism to have influence with government,\" he said. \"There is another way.\"\n\nAlliance Party MP Stephen Farry said the plan \"should not have ever been tabled\".\n\n\"Pressure from parties across the spectrum in NI, and Labour and Liberal Democrats in parliament have had a major impact,\" he tweeted.\n\nBrandon Lewis had defended the plans to bring back dual mandates in Northern Ireland\n\nOn Tuesday, Secretary of State Brandon Lewis was accused of \"slinging mud\" over the dual mandate proposal .\n\nIn a Twitter post, he insisted the \"principle\" received cross-party support in the Lords.\n\nBut Alliance Party leader Naomi Long hit back at Mr Lewis and accused him of deflecting from the \"appalling decision the government has made to assist the DUP in the run up to the election\".\n• None MPs to be able to sit in Stormont as MLAs", "Brian Harwood was thrown from a vehicle into a river when a wooden bridge gave way\n\nThe partner of a man who was killed when a vehicle fell into a river after a wooden bridge collapsed has said his family are \"devastated\".\n\nBrian Harwood, 73, was among 11 people who were thrown from an all-terrain vehicle pulling a trailer when the bridge gave way in Roeburndale, Lancashire, on Tuesday.\n\nTwo other men, aged in their 60s and 70s, remain in hospital.\n\nMr Harwood's partner said: \"Everyone he knew enjoyed his company.\"\n\nMr Harwood, of Penrith in Cumbria, was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nIn a statement, his partner said: \"Brian meant so much to me and the people around us.\n\n\"We are devastated about what has taken place and fully support the investigation. I ask that people respect our privacy and allow us to grieve in private.\"\n\nEleven people were in an all-terrain vehicle and a trailer when the bridge collapsed\n\nPolice said the bridge, which was supported by scaffolding, collapsed as 11 people in a \"shooting party\" were travelling \"on private land\".\n\nOne of the injured men suffered a serious head injury, while the other had a back injury.\n\nAn investigation is continuing in collaboration with the Health and Safety Executive.\n\nDet Insp Kirsty Wyatt, from Lancashire Police, said: \"Our thoughts remain with Mr Harwood's loved ones and everyone affected by this tragic incident.\n\n\"We are supporting the families of those involved and working with partners to establish what caused the bridge to collapse.\"\n\nShe said investigators were expected to remain at the scene over the coming days.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n• None Man dies and two seriously hurt in bridge collapse\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The number of people infected with coronavirus in the UK is showing the most significant fall since the start of the Omicron wave, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates.\n\nIn the week to 15 January, 3.5 million people tested positive - down from 4.3 million the week before, it says.\n\nCovid infections dropped in England, Scotland and Wales - although the trend was less certain in Northern Ireland.\n\nPositive tests also fell in all age groups except young children.\n\nThe figures mirror the steep fall in Covid cases shown in government data since early January, which are dependent on people carrying out tests and reporting the results.\n\nIn contrast, the ONS tests thousands of people in households, whether they have symptoms or not, and is seen as one of the most reliable sources of infection rates.\n\nProf Sir Ian Diamond, the national statistician, said the figures marked \"a major turning point\" and were \"encouraging news\", with marked reductions in infections right across age groups.\n\nBut he added the UK was still in the midst of an Omicron wave and could not be certain whether the sharp falls would continue.\n\nThe prime minister has announced that people will no longer have to work from home in England. Other Covid rules, including vaccine passes and mandatory face masks, will end next Thursday.\n\nIn Scotland, most remaining restrictions are being lifted from Monday, and in Wales some rules are also being relaxed.\n\nAbout 5.3% of the population had the virus in the UK last week, compared to 6.7% the week before, equating to roughly one in 20 people, the ONS says.\n\nAcross the UK, the percentage of people testing positive were:\n\nIn England, Covid infections decreased in all regions except in the North East and the South West, where there was less certainty about the trend.\n\nInfections fell most quickly among people aged 16-24 but they stayed flat in the over 70s (around 3% infected) and rose in primary school-age children (to 8% infected).", "Two teenagers arrested in England as part of the investigation into a hostage-taking at a synagogue in Texas have been released without charge, police say.\n\nBritish citizen Malik Faisal Akram, 44, was shot dead after a standoff with police on Saturday.\n\nThe siege at the synagogue in Colleyville near Dallas ended after 10 hours, with all four hostages unharmed.\n\nDetails of the ages and genders of the teenagers were not released.\n\nThey were arrested in south Manchester on Sunday evening.\n\nGreater Manchester Police said officers from Counter Terrorism Policing North West had been \"in constant contact with US authorities\" to help with their investigation.\n\nAn address in north Manchester has been searched as part of their enquiries, the police force said.\n\nIt has emerged Akram, from Blackburn, Lancashire, was investigated by MI5 but by the time he flew to the US about two weeks ago, he was assessed as no longer being a risk.\n\nHe had been on the British security service's watchlist as a \"subject of interest\" in 2020 and was investigated in the second half of that year.\n\nBut by 2021 Akram, who had a criminal record in the UK, had moved from the active list to the \"former subject of interest\" list and was no longer considered a threat.\n\nOn Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters Akram had been checked \"multiple times\" against US government databases, which did not contain any \"derogatory information\" about him at the time he entered the country.\n\nAkram is believed to have arrived via New York's JFK International Airport two weeks ago, according to police sources, and he is thought to have bought weapons \"on the street\" after arrival.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker tells CBS Mornings about being held hostage - and how he escaped\n\nThe siege began at around 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT) on Saturday, and police were then called to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue.\n\nRabbi Charlie Cytron-White told BBC partner CBS the group had been praying when he heard a click that turned out to be the hostage-taker's gun.\n\nAkram gained initial access to the synagogue during the service by claiming to be a homeless man, according to a police source quoted by CBS.\n\nOne hostage was released after six hours, while the other three - including the rabbi - escaped several hours later.\n\nRabbi Cytron-White said he and two other hostages were able to get out \"without a shot being fired\" after he threw a chair at the hostage-taker.\n\nDuring the standoff Akram was heard on a live stream demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is serving an 86-year prison sentence in nearby Fort Worth, Texas, over attempts to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan.\n\nSiddiqui has distanced herself from his actions, issuing a statement through a lawyer.\n\nHome Secretary Priti Patel has offered \"the full support\" of the UK police and security services to her US counterpart.\n\nForeign Secretary Liz Truss has described the incident as an \"act of terrorism and anti-Semitism\", a view echoed by the Muslim Council of Britain, which called it a hate crime and expressed its solidarity with the Jewish community.\n\nTemporary Assistant Chief Constable Dominic Scally, of Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said: \"CTP North West is continuing to assist with the investigation which is being led by US authorities.\n\n\"Overnight, constructive meetings with colleagues from the United States have taken place.\"\n\nThe confirmation that Malik Faisal Akram was already known to MI5 will inevitably prompt the question: why wasn't he stopped?\n\nAkram, who had a criminal record, was the subject of a brief, four-week investigation in 2020. MI5 officers concluded that he was not of sufficient concern to justify elevating him to a higher priority. He was put onto a list of former subjects of interest, which includes over 40,000 individuals.\n\nBy the time he flew to the US, MI5 were unaware of his intentions - but here there is a second question.\n\nHow was someone with his record able to get on a plane to the US, enter the country unchallenged without declaring his past, and obtain a gun in just two weeks?\n\nIn some cases British police officers have stopped suspect individuals from flying out of UK airports but since Akram's file was effectively closed, this action would not have been considered proportionate on national security grounds.\n\nThere is also a further angle concerning his deteriorating mental state. MI5 does have an in-house behavioural science unit but it's not clear if Akram's case was brought to their attention after his investigation was concluded in 2020.", "A court in Indonesia has sentenced a leading member of the Islamist militant group that carried out the 2002 Bali bombings to 15 years in prison.\n\nThe court in Jakarta found Zulkarnaen, 58, guilty of terrorism.\n\nHe had been on Indonesia's most-wanted list ever since the bombings and had evaded arrest until December 2020.\n\nThe blasts at two bars packed with tourists on the holiday island killed 202 people from 21 nations in Indonesia's deadliest militant attack.\n\nAmong those killed at Paddy's Irish Bar and the nearby Sari Club were 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians and 28 Britons.\n\nIn 2008, three men were executed for their role in the bombings, and several others have either been jailed or killed by the security forces.\n\nLast year, a radical Muslim cleric linked to the Bali attacks was freed after 10 years in jail. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is the former head of Jemaah Islamiah, an al-Qaeda-inspired group behind the attack.\n\nZulkarnaen, also known as Aris Sumarsono, was part of the same group, prosecutors told the court.\n\nThe venues targeted were packed with holidaying tourists from around the world\n\nThey said numerous other attacks had been carried out by a special unit under his command in Indonesia and the Philippines.\n\nThese included Christmas and New Year church bombings in Indonesia in 2000 and 2001, a blast at the Philippines embassy in Jakarta in 2000, the 2003 Jakarta Marriot hotel bombing and the Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta in 2004.\n\nZulkarnaen, for whose capture the US had offered a $5m (£3.7m) bounty, admitted the Bali bombings were carried out by members of his team. But he told the court they had not advised him about the attack in advance, AFP news agency reports.\n\nThe judges did not agree that this absolved him of guilt.\n\n\"The fact that he was the head of the team and agreed on a plan in Bali... it could be considered agreeing to the plan,\" said the presiding judge who was not named for security reasons.\n\nZulkarnaen was found guilty of aiding and encouraging terrorism by lending money and giving shelter to militants and withholding information about attacks. But he was not found guilty of direct involvement in the bombings of the Bali nightclubs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Garil Arnandha, whose father died in the Bali bombings in 2002, met Ali Imron who is serving a life sentence for the attack", "Carwyn Roberts pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour at an earlier hearing\n\nA man who pretended to be a lawyer, doctor and council official to control his girlfriend's life has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence.\n\nThe 29-year-old used fake email accounts to lie, including saying his partner had been drugged and abused.\n\nCarwyn Roberts, from Bangor, had previously pleaded guilty to controlling and coercive behaviour at Mold Crown Court.\n\nHe was also ordered to carry out 150 hours community service.\n\nThe court was told Roberts met his girlfriend on website Plenty of Fish before they moved into her flat together.\n\nThe leisure centre worker told her he was getting an inheritance of £300,000 and suggested they begin looking at houses.\n\nBut there was no inheritance.\n\nEmails she had supposedly been getting from a solicitor about the house buy were from Roberts.\n\nThe 'solicitor' also asked about her sexual history, suggested there were cameras in her flat which had recorded her being unfaithful.\n\nRoberts met his girlfriend on dating website Plenty of Fish\n\nStill pretending to be a lawyer, Roberts told her there were ongoing criminal proceedings against men who had sexually abused her.\n\nHe then convinced his girlfriend to quit her job after telling her about a position at Gwynedd Council. She then received fake local authority emails appeared to offering her employment.\n\nPosing as a doctor, Roberts sent missives telling his girlfriend she was pregnant.\n\nOne of her relatives raised the alarm as they believed there was something not right about a scan picture they were shown.\n\nIt had been found by Roberts online.\n\nIn a victim impact statement the woman, who had a history of anxiety and depression, said Roberts had \"manipulated her, knowing what to say to make her feel special and safe\".\n\nShe said she felt ashamed when she thought of him watching her packing their things to move to a new home that did not exist.\n\nHe made her jobless and financially dependent on him and humiliated her, she said.\n\n\"He exploited all my insecurities,\" she said.\n\nSentencing him to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, Judge Niclas Parry said he accepted Carwyn Roberts struggled with his own \"vulnerabilities\", but said his behaviour had been \"cruel and despicable\".\n\nHe said the case would be bizarre were it not so serious.\n\n\"She wanted to believe these things,\" Judge Parry said.\n\n\"The whole experience led her to anxiety and desperation.\"\n\nRoberts was ordered to pay more than £3,000 court costs.\n\nA restraining order, banning him from contacting his victim or her daughter was made.\n\nIn a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service's Rhian Jones, dubbed the manipulation \"staggering\".\n\nShe said: \"The CPS were able to build a strong case showing the number of fake accounts and emails could be traced back to him, demonstrating he had told lie after lie.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The prime minister announces plans to end Plan B measures in England\n\nEngland's Plan B measures are to end from next Thursday, with mandatory face coverings in public places and Covid passports both dropped, Boris Johnson has announced.\n\nThe prime minister also said the government would immediately drop its advice for people to work from home.\n\nThe PM said England was reverting to \"Plan A\" due to boosters and how people had followed Plan B measures.\n\nHe told MPs scientists believed the Omicron wave had peaked nationally.\n\nAt a Downing Street press conference, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: \"This is a moment we can all be proud of.\n\n\"It's a reminder of what this country can accomplish when we all work together.\"\n\nBut, he said, this should not be seen as the \"finish line\" because the virus and future variants cannot be eradicated - instead \"we must learn to live with Covid in the same way we live with flu\".\n\nHe urged people to continue taking steps to keep the virus at bay, including hand washing, ventilating rooms and self-isolating if positive - and pressed those who were unvaccinated to come forward to get their jabs.\n\nEarlier, in a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, the prime minister said:\n\nFurther announcements on the easing of travel rules and restrictions on care home visits in England are expected in the coming days, Boris Johnson added.\n\nThe prime minister also said the government intended to end the legal requirement for people who test positive for Covid to self-isolate - and replace it with advice and guidance.\n\nThe current regulations around self-isolation expire on 24 March. Mr Johnson said he expected not to renew them then - and suggested that date could be brought forward if the data allows.\n\nCiting the latest infection study by the Office for National Statistics, Mr Johnson said its data showed that infections levels were falling in England. He also said hospital admissions had stabilised and scientists believed \"it is likely that the Omicron wave has now peaked nationally\".\n\nHowever, he said he did expect cases to continue rising in primary schools and pointed to significant pressures on the NHS in north-east and north-west England.\n\nLooking ahead, Mr Johnson said the government would set out its long-term strategy for living with coronavirus.\n\nHe urged people to \"remain cautious\" during the last weeks of winter as there were still \"significant pressures\" on the NHS and the pandemic was \"not over\".\n\nIn response, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he would back lifting Plan B measures \"as long as the science says it is safe\" and accused the prime minister of being \"too distracted\" to have a \"robust plan to live well with Covid\".\n\nSchool leaders' unions said Covid remained a challenge for schools, with high numbers of staff and pupils absent.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the end of face coverings in classrooms, but warned the government risked giving the impression the crisis was over when there was still huge disruption in education.\n\nAnd the Royal College of Nursing said dropping Plan B would do \"nothing to ease the pressure on the NHS\".\n\n\"We can't rely on the vaccine alone when the situation is still so precariously balanced,\" its chief executive Pat Cullen said.\n\nBut for the hospitality sector, which suffered as people worked from home and were cautious over Omicron, there was relief. Industry group UKHospitality said businesses could now begin their revival and recovery.\n\nThe whole of Plan B is going. But is it too soon?\n\nInfections levels, while falling, are still well above what they were last winter. And hospital admissions have only just started coming down.\n\nThe fact remains that England - and the rest of the UK for that matter - is one of the best protected nations when you combine the immunity built up by vaccination and previous infection.\n\nThis does not mean people will not catch the virus in the future, but it does limit how many will become seriously ill.\n\nWhat's more, this Omicron wave appears to have peaked at just over 2,000 hospital admissions a day - very much best-case scenario territory.\n\nThis has given both ministers and the scientists advising them confidence that it's at least time to ease restrictions.\n\nOthers will argue this is going too far, too quickly.\n\nBut in the end it comes down to a judgement about what is proportionate.\n\nAnd certainly you have to wonder what impact the politics involved in this has had - the Tory backbenchers were unlikely to vote to keep any part of Plan B.\n\nBut in the end it also comes down to a judgement about what is proportionate.\n\nThere is a trade-off that has to be made between the costs of such restrictions and the benefits they bring.\n\nWith the worst of the Omicron wave almost certainly over, the benefits were reducing.\n\nThe latest Covid restrictions were first introduced in December to try to slow the spread of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant and allow time for the booster vaccine rollout.\n\nUK daily infections remain high but are falling - on Wednesday, the UK recorded 108,069 new cases.\n\nDr Susan Hopkins, the UK Health Security Agency's chief medical adviser, said case rates would largely decline but \"may plateau at some point\".\n\nVaccine uptake and mask wearing around strangers would determine how quickly that happens, she added.\n\nHospital admissions also appear to be decreasing. However, there is a lag between people catching the virus and becoming seriously ill so deaths are continuing to rise - and are up 14.7% on last week.\n\nOn Wednesday, 359 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded.\n\nNearly 37 million boosters have been given across the UK so far.\n\nThe UK's devolved nations set their own Covid restrictions and have moved at different speeds in introducing and easing them throughout the pandemic.\n\nIn Scotland, some restrictions will be lifted from Monday, including allowing nightclubs to reopen and removing limits on indoor events.\n\nIn Wales, crowds will return to sporting events from Friday and nightclubs can reopen the following week. In Northern Ireland, nightclubs remain closed and indoor standing events are not allowed.", "Peter Swailes had denied modern slavery but changed his plea on the first day of his trial\n\nA man has admitted exploiting a vulnerable worker who was kept in a freezing 6ft (2m) shed for 40 years.\n\nPeter Swailes, 56, denied conspiring to facilitate travel of another with a view to exploitation, but changed his plea at Carlisle Crown Court.\n\nThe defendant's father, also Peter Swailes, 81, was accused of the same offence but died in September 2021.\n\nThe Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) said the case in Carlisle had been \"traumatic\".\n\nThe shed the man was kept in for 40 years had no lights or heating\n\nIt rescued the victim, then 58, from the shed in October 2018 after receiving a tip-off to a confidential helpline.\n\nThe hearing heard he had been sleeping on the floor with a soiled duvet next to a metered TV.\n\nThere was only one window which could not be fully closed and it was in complete darkness when the doors were shut.\n\nAn old electric heater with damaged wiring had been left in the corner of the shed, and there was no other heating inside.\n\nConditions inside the shed were awful, the GLAA said\n\nThe GLAA officers noted that another shed on site used for the family dog to sleep in was in a far better condition.\n\nThe court was also told he was made to carry out work on farms from about the age of 16, painting, slating and tarmacking. He said he was paid as little as £10 per day.\n\nSwailes, of Low Harker, Carlisle, was bailed and will be sentenced on 4 February.\n\nThe court heard he changed his plea on the agreed basis of his \"limited\" involvement with the victim and that he had not been made aware of his living conditions.\n\nThe raid at the caravan park took place in 2018\n\nFrom time to time, Swailes senior would make contact and arrange for his son to work with the man, the hearing was told.\n\nHowever, Swailes junior accepted that, on occasion, he paid the man he had known for many years \"less than his minimum entitlement\".\n\nInvestigators from GLAA were supported by Cumbria Police and the National Crime Agency (NCA) in rescuing the victim.\n\nA search warrant was executed at the Hadrian's Caravan Park near Carlisle on 3 October and Peter Swailes senior was arrested in his static caravan on suspicion of offences under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.\n\nWhen the GLAA told him he was under arrest he said: \"Not all this slavery thing again.\"\n\nThe GLAA said the victim had been sleeping in conditions \"that no human being should live in\".\n\nProviding an update on the victim, prosecutor Barbara Webster said: \"He has accommodation that he is extremely happy with. He is in regular contact. He has a carer who comes in and checks him.\n\n\"He will be cared for until the end of his life.\"\n\nGLAA senior investigating officer Martin Plimmer said it had been \"a really harrowing investigation\".\n\n\"In all my years in law enforcement, I have never known a modern slavery case where the exploitation has taken place over such a long period of time,\" he said.\n\n\"First and foremost in my mind at this time though is the victim. Let's remember that he has been exploited for all his adult life up until just a few years ago.\n\n\"He is now in his early 60s. This is something that even now I struggle to comprehend. For four decades, he was in effect kept as a slave.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section African\n\nGhana suffered a humiliating group-stage exit at the Africa Cup of Nations after the four-time champions were beaten by debutants Comoros.\n\nEl Fardou Ben Nabouhane put the islanders ahead early on, and Ghana then went down to 10 men when Andre Ayew was shown a straight red card.\n\nAhmed Mogni doubled the lead before the Black Stars fought back to make it 2-2.\n\nHowever, Mogni tapped in his second in the 85th minute to inflict Ghana's first group-stage exit since 2006.\n\nThe result in Group C will go down as one of the biggest shocks in Nations Cup history as Comoros scored at the finals for the first time and then went on to record their maiden victory.\n\nIncredibly, the side ranked 132nd in the world now have a chance to reach the knockout stages as one of four best-ranked third-placed sides even though the Coelacanths lost their first two games in Cameroon.\n\nThe tiny island nation with just under a million inhabitants - and more famous for its history of political coups than its football - had only won its first Nations Cup or World Cup qualifier in 2016 at the 20th attempt.\n\nA squad bolstered by members of the diaspora, with many plying their trade in the lower leagues in France, lost just once to achieve a maiden qualification and Comoros have now beaten one of the continent's giants.\n\nGhana had put in disjointed displays in their first two games, a 1-0 defeat by Morocco and a niggly 1-1 draw with Gabon, and finish bottom of the group table despite putting in a spirited display following Ayew's 25th-minute sending off.\n\nTheir fans in the Roumde Adjia Stadium in Garoua looked stunned at the full-time whistle, being left to contemplate a rollercoaster second half which ended their bid for a first Nations Cup title since 1982.\n\nTheir exit will increase the pressure on coach Milovan Rajevac, who returned for a second spell in charge in September.\n\nThe Serb led the Black Stars to the Nations Cup final in 2010 and the World Cup quarter-finals the same year, and guided the West Africans through to Africa's play-offs for this year's World Cup.\n\nHowever, Ghana only won their qualifying group ahead of South Africa on goals scored and are unseeded for the play-off draw - where they will face one of Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Nigeria for a place in Qatar.\n\nComoros, meanwhile, celebrated their three points heartily and now await the final round of matches in the remaining three groups to see if their stunning victory can extend their stay at the tournament.\n\nGhana had needed a win to have a chance of a spot in the last 16 and made the worst possible start by conceding in the fourth minute.\n\nIbroihim Youssouf was released down the right before finding Ben Nabouhane in the middle, and the Comoros skipper sent a low left-footed shot into the bottom right-hand corner from the edge of the area.\n\nKamaldeen Sulemana tested Comoros keeper Salim Ben Boina with two shots from outside the area, the second of which provided another turning point in the contest.\n\nBen Boina spilled the winger's shot and Ayew went in strongly in an attempt to win the loose ball.\n\nThe coming together injured the keeper and the Ghana captain looked surprised to be shown red following a video assistant referee review, with replays showing he went in with studs up and made contact with Ben Boina's upper arm.\n\nThe Comoros keeper was injured in the clash and forced off, leading to the introduction of Ali Ahamada, who came into the tournament without a club side.\n\nThe islanders made it 2-0 just after the hour mark as Mogni twisted and turned the Ghana defence on the edge of the area before sending a low shot past Jojo Wollacott and into the bottom right-hand corner.\n\nThe strike sparked a group celebration down by the corner-flag involving substitutes - but Ghana immediately stirred.\n\nRichmond Boakye looped in a header from a corner and, after Ahamada had clawed away two threatening balls in from Daniel-Kofi Kyereh, Ghana levelled in the 77th minute from another set piece.\n\nArsenal midfielder Thomas Partey flicked on a corner and Alexander Djiku was on hand to convert from close range to give the Black Stars renewed hopes of going through.\n\nBut those dreams were dashed five minutes from time when Bendjaloud Youssouf cut the ball back for Mogni to seal a famous win for Comoros.\n\nGhana, who appear to lack leaders of the calibre of Asamoah Gyan, the striker who led them to the last eight at the World Cup 12 years ago, now face the challenge of regrouping before March's World Cup play-offs.\n• None Attempt missed. Daniel-Kofi Kyereh (Ghana) right footed shot from a difficult angle and long range on the left is too high from a direct free kick.\n• None Attempt missed. Alexander Djiku (Ghana) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.\n• None Goal! Ghana 2, Comoros 3. Ahmed Mogni (Comoros) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Bendjaloud Youssouf.\n• None Offside, Comoros. Faïz Selemani tries a through ball, but El Fardou Ben Nabouhane is caught offside.\n• None Offside, Comoros. Youssouf M'Changama tries a through ball, but Ahmed Mogni is caught offside. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Why shouldn't we be able to run wherever we want to?\"\n\nHundreds of people have joined a vigil to \"show solidarity\" after Ashling Murphy was killed in Ireland while out running.\n\nThe 23-year-old primary school teacher's body was found on the banks of the Grand Canal outside Tullamore, County Offaly, last Wednesday.\n\nAs with the abduction and murder of Sarah Everard, Ashling's death has raised concerns over women's safety.\n\nThe Cardiff vigil organiser said it had made some women feel more vulnerable.\n\nAshling is thought to have been out jogging when she was attacked at about 16:00 GMT last Wednesday.\n\nJozef Puska, 31, who has an address in Lynally Grove, Tullamore, has been charged with her murder.\n\nA vigil in her memory was held in Grange Gardens in Grangetown, followed by a group run.\n\nAbout 300 people attended and there was a passionate rally call to end violence against women.\n\nAshling Murphy was killed while out jogging last Wednesday afternoon\n\nVigil organiser Katie Elin-Salt said: \"We're here to stand as a community in solidarity with Ashling Murphy and her family and the people who loved her.\n\n\"We're here first and foremost to remember her and to mourn her loss, and we're also here to stand together with all women to show that the community of Cardiff think that women have a right to live in safety.\n\n\"Everyone feels this loss very personally, particularly women.\n\n\"It's important we give our grief and our anger that space and come together and heal.\"\n\nA picture of Ashling was taped to the bandstand in the park where the vigil was held\n\nOrganiser Katie Elin-Salt said incidents such as this changes they way women look at the world\n\nThe vigil also remembered others, such as 18-year-old Lily Sullivan, who was found dead in Pembroke the week before Christmas, and women who died as a result of domestic violence.\n\n\"It's important we remember the women whose names we might not know as well,\" Ms Elin-Salt said.\n\n\"We're going to be reflecting on all the women who lost their lives at the hands of male violence... their lives matter just as much.\"\n\nElan Richards, who is training for a marathon, attended the vigil\n\nElan Richards said she wanted to be at the vigil after hearing what happened. She said women have to balance the risks of running constantly.\n\n\"If it's dark I won't run in the park,\" she said. \"I'm training for a marathon so I have to run after work. I run with a light. I run with my phone and one earphone on the other out.\n\n\"I tell people when I'm going and when I'm going go be back.\"\n\nGavin, Betrys, Maria from Grangetown were among the hundreds who attended\n\nGavin, Betrys and Maria from Grangetown joined the vigil.\n\n\"We came here to show our daughter it is not OK to live in fear, women should be safe when they leave their home,\" they said.\n\n\"It should be OK to leave at any time of the day and not be hurt.\"\n\nAs Ashling Murphy's funeral was being held, some women said they felt her death had once again shone a light on the issue of safety.\n\nMum-of-two Jane Cohen, 51, from Cardiff, said: \"It's so sad that women should feel vulnerable and afraid when out on their own - especially after dark - but I know I do.\n\n\"If I walk anywhere that's not well lit and people are not around I try to avoid it.\n\n\"I remember a while back walking from Cardiff Central Station very late at night and I felt I was being followed. I walked as fast as I could to my car and jumped in and quickly locked the door. It was a horrible feeling.\"", "Vogue's former creative director and editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley has died at the age of 73.\n\nThe fashion journalist, whose career spanned five decades, died on Tuesday in New York, his representatives said.\n\nA statement on his Instagram page confirmed his death \"with great sadness\" and described Talley as a \"larger-than-life\" figure.\n\nVogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour remembered him fondly as \"magnificent and erudite and wickedly funny\".\n\nIn a statement shared by the magazine, she said Talley, who was also a judge on TV show a judge on America's Next Top Model, had \"inspired\" generations of people to work in the fashion industry.\n\nShe signed off by calling him a \"brilliant and compassionate man who was a generous and loving friend to me and to my family for many, many years\".\n\nOther fashion figures, including designers and models, have also paid tribute.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by andreltalley This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nUS designer Marc Jacobs said he was \"in shock\" over the news. \"You championed me and you have been my friend since my beginning,\" he posted online.\n\n\"You and your passions were larger than life.\"\n\nBelgian designer Diane von Furstenberg said no-one was \"grander and more soulful\", adding: \"The world will be less joyful.\"\n\nAndre Leon Talley has been described as having been \"larger than life\"\n\nActress and supermodel Milla Jovovich described Talley as a \"force of nature\".\n\nShe said: \"Andre Leon Talley was such an incredible artist, but he was also one of the most genuinely wonderful humans I've ever met.\n\n\"Always there with the most beautiful smile and open arms, he was so sweet and kind, always so gracious and I imagine the term 'fierce' was coined after meeting him.\"\n\nShe added that she felt \"so lucky to have been embraced in his warm glow so many times in my career, because good people are few and far between in this business\".\n\nBorn in Washington DC and raised by his grandmother in North Carolina, Talley studied French literature before becoming an apprentice at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1974.\n\nHe went on to work as a fashion journalist at Women's Wear Daily and Vogue, attending regular fashion shows in New York and around Europe.\n\nThe kaftan-wearing journalist became creative director and editor-at-large at Vogue and was usually seen at events next to Wintour.\n\nIn his time there, Talley became a close confidant of big-name designers like Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld and Paloma Picasso; and his representatives noted his \"penchant for discovering, nurturing and celebrating young designers\".\n\nTalley also wrote for Vanity Fair, HG and Interview, and he was the editor of Numero Russia.\n\nHe also a major figure in the LGBT community, describing himself as \"fluid\".\n\nTalley was widely credited with getting more black models into the fashion industry.\n\nHe also served as a stylist for former US President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.\n\nLast year, Talley was awarded France's Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres honor - recognising people who have made significant contributions to the arts.\n\nIn 2020 he released his memoir, entitled The Chiffon Trenches, and told BBC Hard Talk's Stephen Sackur that the title was inspired by his time spent in an industry that was almost devoid of senior black men.\n\n\"I have I fought many battles,\" he told the BBC World Service. \"I've been in trenches all my life, as an African-American black man, a descendant of the enslaved people who were brought to this country 401 years ago, my daily existence is an uphill battle of survival.\n\n\"Every black man has to wake up and realise that he is black in a country that promises him all the equality, equal justice for everyone... and it's not.\n\n\"So therefore my life is a constant survival in the trenches: I get knocked down, I get up, I get shot down, I get up - not only in my personal life, but in my professional life as well as in my professional life when I was in Paris and in New York.\"\n\nAndre Leon Talley and TV host Gayle King at Keep A Child Alive's 10th Annual Black Ball in New York in 2013\n\nCostume designer Arianne Phillips, who worked on films such as Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, said Talley was a \"larger than life icon\". \"Andre Leon Talley trailblazer, dapper gentleman, fashion editor, writer, journalist with a singular voice - his witty repartee, larger than life icon,\" she wrote.\n\n\"Always so kind and funny, his contribution to fashion and culture is one for the history books.\"\n\nUS actress Kerry Washington declared on Instagram that \"the whole afterlife is going to be just too fabulous now\" with Talley up there. \"You blessed us with your charm and wit and your taste for the exceptional,\" she added.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post 2 by themarcjacobs This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Authorities in Hong Kong have swooped in on a pet shop, seizing a number of hamsters to be euthanised following a Covid outbreak.\n\nCrowds gathered outside the shop as the animals were carried away in boxes.\n\nFamilies who have bought a hamster from the Little Boss pet store since 22 December have been told to hand over their pet for euthanasia.\n\nSome 2,000 hamsters and other small mammals are set to be culled because of the outbreak linked to the shop.\n\nThousands of people have signed a petition against the move.\n\nUnlike many other places, Hong Kong has maintained a \"zero Covid\" strategy focused on eliminating the disease.\n\nAuthorities announced the decision on Tuesday after an outbreak of the Delta variant linked to a worker in the shop prompted officials to test hundreds of animals there - with 11 hamsters positive.\n\nOfficials say it may be an example of animal-to-human Covid transmission.\n\nOnly hamsters at the Little Boss pet shop in Causeway Bay seemed to be affected, with negative results for other animals there such as rabbits and chinchillas.\n\nBut as a \"preventative measure\", 2,000 hamsters and other small mammals in the city will be killed. The animals are spread across 34 different pet shops and animal storage centres.\n\nWorkers wearing hazmat suits were seen removing animals from the pet store\n\nA telephone hamster hotline is being set up, and a ban on the import and sale of hamsters and other small mammals will also be enacted, agriculture officials said.\n\nA pet shop employee, a customer, and the customer's spouse have now tested positive or provisionally positive, health authorities said.\n\nThe virus that causes Covid-19 - Sars-Cov-2 - can be caught by animals including dogs, cats, ferrets and rodents, all commonly kept as pets. But there is no clear evidence that pets can easily pass the infection to humans.\n\n\"Pet owners should keep a good hygiene practice, including washing hands after touching the animals, handling their food or other items, and avoid kissing the animals,\" Hong Kong's agriculture department director Leung Siu-fai told reporters at a news conference.\n\nHamster owners in particular \"should keep them at home\", she said.\n\nShe also promised that the 2,000 animals scheduled for culling would be put down \"humanely\".\n\nMore than 14,000 people have signed a petition calling for authorities to stop the cull of hamsters.\n\n\"A pet is an owner's best friend, and due to the government's orders, thousands of people could unjustifiably lose their dearest companions,\" the petition says.\n\nIn late 2020, millions of farmed mink in Denmark were culled amid fears around mutations to the virus potentially occurring within the animals.", "Wales will have its own veterans commissioner later this year, following similar appointments in Scotland and Northern Ireland\n\nA veterans commissioner for Wales will be appointed this year, according to the UK government.\n\nCommissioners, who act as a voice for ex-servicemen, are already set up in Scotland and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe chancellor promised to fund the role last October and campaigners have urged UK and Welsh ministers to work together at speed to set it up.\n\nUK ministers are responsible for the armed forces but many policy decisions affecting veterans are made in Cardiff.\n\nThese include the running of the Welsh NHS and housing, which fall under the control of the Welsh government.\n\nThere are about 140,000 veterans in Wales and prominent ex-servicemen like Simon Weston have called for a \"single voice\" to represent them.\n\n\"There are many complex issues around people who have been in service, and those that have been injured,\" he told BBC Radio Wales' Breakfast.\n\n\"We can't always go cap in hand to charities to try to get things addressed.\"\n\nHazel Hunt, whose son Richard died in Afghanistan, ran an armed forces charity in his memory.\n\nShe said there had been \"huge variation\" in access to help across Wales.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Simon Weston has backed the idea of a veterans commissioner for Wales\n\nIn 2021, the Welsh government announced more than £500,000 to continue funding seven armed forces liaison officers and other specialist services.\n\nWelsh Secretary Simon Hart said the new commissioner could help ensure consistency of service provision around Wales.\n\n\"The armed forces have a long and important tradition in Wales and we are exceptionally proud of our Welsh veterans,\" he said.\n\n\"Our ex-servicemen and women and their families deserve recognition, support and respect throughout the duration of their service and beyond.\n\n\"The appointment of a Veterans Commissioner for Wales will increase and coordinate the support available and highlights the UK government's commitment to the welfare of the men and women who serve in our armed forces.\"\n\nThe Welsh government also welcomed the post.\n\nWhoever is appointed will be paid £306 a day for 100 days work a year.\n\nHannah Blythyn, deputy minister for social partnership, said: \"This will add value to the established wealth of support and services we deliver for veterans in Wales.\n\n\"From our unique Veterans NHS Wales service, that supports veterans with mental health issues, to our armed forces liaison officers, providing support to veterans and their families with information on local support available in key areas such as healthcare and housing, supporting charities to tackle loneliness and social isolation and resources to support organisations in the employment of veterans.\n\n\"As a government we remain committed to provide services and support for our veterans in Wales and today's announcement adds to that.\"\n\nThis announcement will be widely welcomed by campaigners and charities supporting ex-servicemen and women.\n\nMany of them say support for veterans has improved in Wales in recent years but they also believe having \"a single voice\" with access to decision makers can help ensure consistency and bring added value.\n\nThe UK government has responsibility for the armed forces and always had the power to set this role up but many argued that Welsh government buy-in was essential to make it meaningful.\n\nWith ministers in both capitals welcoming the news, it looks like the two governments are now marching in step on this issue.", "All women in Wales are invited for smear tests from the age of 25\n\nThe routine cervical screening interval in Wales has been extended from three to five years.\n\nCervical Screening Wales announced the change due to the success of Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing.\n\nThe change is for women and people with a cervix aged 25-49, where HPV is not found in their cervical screening (smear) test.\n\nIt follows a recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee and came into effect on 1 January.\n\nThe extension brings the advice for this age group in line with the screening interval for those aged 50-64.\n\nThe change means result letters sent from 1 January will advise recipients that their next appointment will follow in five years, if certain conditions apply.\n\nConsultant in public health for Cervical Screening Wales, Heather Lewis said: \"The HPV test we now use in Wales is more effective at identifying people at higher risk of developing cell changes which can cause cervical cancer.\n\n\"The evidence shows it is therefore safe to extend the time between cervical screening tests for people who do not have HPV identified.\"\n\nHPV is a very common virus that most people will come into contact with at some time during their lives. One or more high-risk types of HPV are present in over 99.8% of cervical cancers.\n\nHPV testing was successfully introduced in Wales in 2018 and almost nine out of 10 results show no high-risk HPV.\n\nThere are about 160 cases of cervical cancer diagnosed every year in Wales and it is the most common cancer in women under the age of 35.\n\nHead of Programme for Cervical Screening Wales at Public Health Wales, Louise Dunk said: \"Testing everyone who attends for cervical screening using a test for high risk HPV will identify those at risk and prevent more cancers than just examining the cells alone.\n\n\"It is a really positive development that this more effective test will mean that women and people with a cervix, who test negative for HPV, now only need to attend their testing every five years, rather than three.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch how Boris Johnson reacts when asked if apologising to the Queen was a moment of shame\n\nBoris Johnson has \"categorically\" denied he was warned a drinks party in the No 10 garden risked breaking lockdown rules.\n\n\"Nobody warned me that it was against the rules,\" the prime minister said, adding: \"I would have remembered that.\"\n\nFormer aide Dominic Cummings says he warned Mr Johnson at the time, and has accused him of misleading MPs about it.\n\nAsked if he would resign if he was found to have misled MPs, Mr Johnson said: \"Let's see what the report says.\"\n\nSenior civil servant Sue Gray is due to publish a report into alleged Covid rule-breaking at lockdown get-togethers in Downing Street and government departments.\n\nMs Gray's team has approached Mr Cummings as part of their inquiry, the BBC has been told. He has said he is willing to answer any questions they may have.\n\nSix MPs have publicly revealed they have submitted letters of no confidence in Mr Johnson, and the BBC has been told a seventh, Bury South MP Christian Wakeford, has also written to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee.\n\nThe BBC's Laura Kuenssberg says a group of about 20 Conservative MPs who were first elected in 2019 have also been meeting to discuss submitting letters to Sir Graham.\n\nIf 54 MPs send letters to Sir Graham expressing no confidence in the prime minister, it will trigger a leadership contest.\n\nOne MP trying to remove the prime minister told the BBC they thought the threshold could be reached saying: \"I think we've done it, difficult to tell though.\"\n\nOur political editor said it was not clear how many of the 2019 intake MPs talking about submitting letters on Wednesday, would go ahead and do it.\n\nA senior MP told the BBC it could be \"a matter of hours\" before things move.\n\nBut a cabinet member denied there was a big threat to the prime minister, telling the BBC: \"It will be bumpy, but we'll get through.\"\n\nThey dubbed the meeting of 2019 MPs the \"pork pie plot\", because one of the attendees was Alicia Kearns, who represents Rutland and Melton (home of Melton Mowbray pies).\n\nHowever, colleagues of Ms Kearns say she is not leading a rebellion.\n\nIt comes as Mr Johnson made a public apology to the Queen over No 10 parties on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral in April last year.\n\nAppearing to be distressed as he was quizzed about the parties, he said: \"I deeply and bitterly regret that that happened.\n\n\"I can only renew my apologies both to Her Majesty and to the country for misjudgements that were made, and for which I take full responsibility.\"\n\nOn Friday, Downing Street apologised to Buckingham Palace over the two staff parties - which were not attended by Mr Johnson - on 16 April, 2021.\n\nThe following day, the Queen sat alone - socially distanced from her family - as she mourned her husband.\n\nThe Queen sat alone at her husband's funeral\n\nIn his blog, Dominic Cummings, who was still working in Downing Street at the time of the drinks party on 20 May 2020, claimed the PM had waved aside his warnings.\n\nMr Cummings said the idea that a senior aide - the PM's Principal Private Secretary Martin Reynolds - would not have checked with Mr Johnson, after he was warned his invitation to drinks in the Number 10 garden broke the rules, \"is not credible\".\n\nTwo other former Downing Street officials told the BBC they remembered Mr Cummings telling them on that day he had advised the prime minister not to allow the drinks to go ahead.\n\nAsked about Mr Cummings' claims on a visit to a North London hospital, Mr Johnson said: \"I can tell you categorically that nobody said that this was something that was against the rules, that was in breach of the Covid rules.\"\n\nYou might call it the \"nobody told me\" defence.\n\nBut will a mixture of pleading ignorance and showing contrition be enough for the prime minister?\n\nHe was, of course, the person in charge, who decided how we all had to limit our behaviour during the pandemic, so this line of defence opens him up to new attacks.\n\nDid he understand the rules? Should he have needed someone to point out a breach?\n\nEven if he thought this was a work event, is that enough? - because work events were also prohibited in May 2020.\n\nSue Gray's inquiry may well find there's no incontrovertible evidence he was, explicitly, told the drinks event in his garden was a breach of the rules.\n\nBut what will voters think?\n\nThat will shape what Tory MPs think of their leader. It's a delicate position for a prime minister with already slipping poll ratings.\n\nIn his interview, Mr Johnson repeated the apology he made to MPs last week for \"mistakes\" made over the May 2020 get-together.\n\n\"As I said in the House of Commons, when I went out into that garden I thought that I was attending a work event.\"\n\nHe said he had not seen the email sent by Mr Reynolds inviting staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\".\n\n\"I only saw it the other day. I only saw it when it emerged,\" said the PM.\n\n\"What I remember is going out into that garden for a short time and for 25 minutes thanking staff who'd worked on Covid, who were continuing to work on Covid, and then going back to the office.\n\n\"If I had my time again, I would not have allowed things to develop in that way.\"\n\nAsked if he had lied to Parliament over the parties, he said: \"No. I want to begin by repeating my apologies to everybody for the misjudgements that I've made, that we may have made in No 10 and beyond, whether in Downing Street or throughout the pandemic.\"\n\nResponding to his latest statement, Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said: \"Boris Johnson clearly knows it's the end of the road.\n\n\"He's the prime minister, he set the rules, he didn't need anyone to tell him that the party he attended broke them.\n\n\"If he had any respect for the British public, he would do the decent thing and resign.\"\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the prime minister was \"just making it worse for himself\" with his \"empty excuses\" and \"transparent lies\".\n\nThe SNP's deputy Westminster leader Kirsten Oswald said it was \"clear the prime minister was not being frank\" about events in the Downing Street garden.\n\nCabinet minister have rallied round the prime minister, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak saying \"of course\" he believed Mr Johnson's version of events.\n\nDeputy PM Dominic Raab said prime ministers would normally be expected to resign if they had been found to have misled MPs, but he believed Mr Johnson would remain in power for \"many years\".\n\nThe government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street. Boris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Indoor events such as concerts and nightclubs will be able to open again from next Monday\n\nScotland's Covid-19 restrictions are to be eased, with nightclubs reopening, large indoor events resuming and social distancing rules dropped.\n\nThe changes will take effect from Monday 24 January after a \"significant fall\" in new case numbers.\n\nHowever, people are still being asked to work from home and to take lateral flow tests before meeting with others.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs that Scotland had \"turned the corner on the Omicron wave\".\n\nGuidance advising adults against meeting up with more than three households at a time will also be scrapped, along with curbs on indoor contact sports.\n\nAnd ministers have decided against extending the vaccine passport scheme to more hospitality settings \"at this stage\".\n\nMs Sturgeon said that while Omicron is still infecting \"large numbers of people\", there had been a significant fall in the number of new infections over the past two weeks.\n\nA total of 20,268 positive cases have been reported over the past three days, compared to 36,526 over the same three days last week.\n\nThe percentage of tests coming back positive has dropped from almost 30% in early January to under 20% now.\n\nIt is now thought that the Omicron wave peaked in the first week of January, and the number of people being admitted to hospital with the virus is also falling.\n\nHospitality venues such as pubs and restaurants will no longer need to operate on a table service only basis\n\nRestrictions introduced over the festive period are being phased out, with limits on crowds at outdoor events such as football matches having been lifted on Monday of this week.\n\nFrom next Monday, the limits on attendance at indoor public events, the requirement for 1m physical distancing and table service in hospitality venues, and the requirement for nightclubs to close will also be removed.\n\nHowever longer-running measures such as the use of face coverings on public transport and indoor public places will continue, while Ms Sturgeon said people were advised to continue to keep gatherings \"small\" to reduce the risk of infection.\n\nPeople should also continue to work from home wherever possible for now, but Ms Sturgeon said talks would be held with businesses about \"a return to a more hybrid approach from the start of February\".\n\nThe first minister said that Scotland was \"once again entering a calmer phase of the pandemic\", but warned there was still \"significant pressure\" on health services.\n\nShe said: \"Although we can be increasingly optimistic at this stage, we must all still play our part in helping further slow the spread of the virus.\"\n\nWhisper it but this really should be the beginning of the end of lockdown-style Covid restrictions in Scotland.\n\nAs the current Omicron measures are eased, the Scottish government certainly has no intention of bringing any of them back.\n\nIn fact, they are working on a new strategy for living with Covid without major restrictions in future.\n\nThat does not mean pretending coronavirus has gone away or abandoning all attempts to limit its spread.\n\nFor instance, the first minister has already said that some continued mask wearing in public is likely.\n\nBut the hope is that the continued use of vaccination and the exercise of personal responsibility can take more of the strain in future.\n\nOpposition parties are anxious for more details of this revised approach which, of course, depends on Covid not mutating into a more dangerous strain.\n\nThe changes were broadly welcomed by business groups, with CBI Scotland saying the easing of rules for hospitality was \"a huge relief to firms desperate to start trading their way to recovery after a difficult festive period\".\n\nThe Scottish Chambers of Commerce echoed this, and welcomed the decision not to extend vaccine passports to more venues - while calling on ministers to \"remove the shackles from offices as urgently as possible\".\n\nAnd the Federation of Small Businesses said withdrawing restrictions \"doesn't mean that local economies will necessarily bounce back\", calling for the government to \"work hard to build business and consumer confidence\".\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives also welcomed the easing of Covid measures, with health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane saying there had been a \"sea change\" in government policy \"towards trusting the Scottish public\".\n\nHowever the party called for the vaccine passport scheme to be scrapped altogether, and for a \"credible plan\" to tackle waiting times in the NHS.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the decision on vaccine passports was \"finely balanced\", but that if case numbers were to rise again then extending the scheme to all licensed hospitality venues \"may well be a more proportionate alternative to other, more restrictive measures\".\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the changes would \"offer hope to a lot of people who can once again look forward to getting some more normality back in their lives\".\n\nHowever he said businesses were \"teetering on the brink\", and called on the government to go further in getting promised financial support to firms.", "French actor Gaspard Ulliel, who is set to appear in Marvel's forthcoming TV series Moon Knight, has died aged 37.\n\nHis family told news agency AFP he died on Wednesday following a skiing accident in the Alps.\n\nUlliel, one of France's best-known actors, has appeared in It's Only the End of the World and Saint Laurent, the biopic of the French fashion designer.\n\nThe actor was skiing in the Savoie region on Tuesday when he collided with another person.\n\nHe suffered severe brain trauma and was airlifted to a hospital in Grenoble, where he died the next day.\n\nThe other skier was not hospitalised and an investigation is now under way.\n\nThe news of his death came just a day after the trailer for Moon Knight, in which he stars as Midnight Man, was released online.\n\n\"French cinema is losing a huge talent, full of charm and energy,\" tweeted French finance minister Bruno Le Maire.\n\nWriter and critic Caspar Salmon also paid tribute, describing Ulliel as \"an actor of considerable magnetism, talent and beauty, who had already carved out an impressive and varied career\".\n\nAs well as being a movie star, Ulliel also appeared as a model. As the face of the Bleu de Chanel fragrance, he was directed by Martin Scorsese for a 2010 television advertisement.\n\nGaspard Ulliel pictured at the Cannes Film Festival premiere of La danseuse (The Dancer) in 2016\n\nBorn just outside Paris in 1984, Ulliel appeared on screen from from the age of 11 but garnered international acclaim for his performance as a young Hannibal in 2007's Hannibal Rising.\n\nHe won the best actor Cesar - the French equivalent of an Oscar - in 2017 for his performance opposite Marion Cotillard and Lea Seydoux in It's Only the End of the World.\n\nIn 2005, he won most promising actor for his performance in the World War One drama A Very Long Engagement, which also starred Audrey Tautou.\n\nSaint Laurent, one of two 2014 biopics about French designer Yves Saint Laurent, was one of the films in competition for the top prize at that year's Cannes Film Festival.\n\nUlliel was praised for his performance but lost out at the subsequent Cesars to Pierre Niney - star of the rival film, titled Yves Saint Laurent.\n\n\"Broken heart,\" tweeted Niney on hearing the news of his fellow actor's death. \"Gaspard was benevolence and kindness. Beauty and talent.\"\n\nGaspard Ulliel, alongside Lea Seydoux, Marion Cotillard, Xavier Dolan, Nathalie Baye and Vincent Cassel at the Cannes Film Festival, where their film, It's Only the End of the World, was showing in-competition in 2016\n\nIn a 2014 interview with IndieWire, Ulliel spoke about the differences between the two films.\n\n\"I waited until we finished our shooting to discover the other film,\" he said. \"I remember arriving at the theatre very nervous, and very quickly felt relieved when I realised quickly how different they were. They're two different visions, two films that never really meet.\n\n\"So in a way, it's legitimate for both films to exist. Maybe it's the best way to celebrate the diversity of such an iconic man as Saint Laurent.\n\n\"I think Pierre Niney did a great job and I was relieved that he was proposing something quite different from what I decided to do.\"\n\nHe said he \"decided very early in the preparation process to take some distance with the reality\" and to \"nourish this character\" with elements of his own life and personality.\n\nUlliel was bitten by a dog as a child, and he later said he felt the scar helped him in his life and career as it looked like a dimple.\n\nHe is survived by his young son and his girlfriend, the model and singer Gaëlle Piétri.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "A schoolboy has become the youngest person in the UK to be convicted of terror offences.\n\nAt Westminster Magistrates' Court, the 14-year-old, who cannot be named, admitted three counts of possessing information useful to a terrorist.\n\nThe boy, from Darlington, was arrested in July last year when he was 13 as part of an investigation into extreme right-wing terrorism.\n\nHe was bailed and will be sentenced on 1 April at Newton Aycliffe Youth Court.\n\nThe teenager, who had been active on racist online forums, was charged last week with possessing information useful to a terrorist - namely manuals for making explosives - with the offences relating to a period on or before July 2021, when he was 13 or younger.\n\nThe investigation was carried out by Counter Terrorism Policing North East.\n\nUntil now the youngest British terror offender was a neo-Nazi from Cornwall who downloaded one of several terrorist manuals when he was 13 but he was two years older when he was arrested.\n\nThe youngest person convicted of planning a terrorist attack in the UK was a 16-year-old boy, also from County Durham.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"The staff and the children have been absolutely fantastic\"\n\nOn 25 October 1918, one small school in south Wales was forced to close for weeks due to the Spanish Flu.\n\nMore than a century later, head teacher Rhian Kenny spots the entry in Ysgol yr Hendy's log book as her staff and almost 200 pupils deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThey have welcomed all children back to class after Christmas despite fears about a return to online learning.\n\nBut in a bid to cut the risk of infection, the Carmarthenshire school is one of hundreds in Wales taking extraordinary measures to protect pupils and their families.\n\nThey include investing in raincoats to make sure pupils stay dry in their hourly outdoor breaks.\n\nAdapting to new measures put in place due to Covid has become the norm for pupils at Ysgol yr Hendy\n\n\"It's been really, really hard,\" said Mrs Kenny.\n\n\"For the last two weeks it's been really, really wet, but regardless of the weather out they've gone.\n\n\"We've purchased additional coats to make sure they are waterproof.\"\n\nMrs Kenny says staff and children have adapted well to the new measures\n\nWhen the school received carbon dioxide monitors they were \"red and beeping mostly\", Mrs Kenny said, indicating poor air flow.\n\nAfter a visit from the council's health and safety officer, they are now waiting for air purifiers.\n\nSchools have been advised to keep classes well ventilated to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading\n\nBut in the meantime, pupils leave classrooms every hour so clean air can circulate before they go back indoors.\n\nSchools across Wales had two planning days at the start of term to respond to the challenges posed by the Omicron variant and put measures in place.\n\nThey were also asked to look at their online learning plans, should there be a need to teach pupils remotely.\n\nFfion (right) and Lilly miss being part of the school choir and mixing with their friends from other year groups\n\nFfion, 9, is \"really happy\" to be back in school and, although difficult, understands why Covid measures have been put in place.\n\n\"It gets really cold in the classroom and sometimes it's hard to work because you're just shivering on your chair,\" she said.\n\nThe ventilation has caused a \"tremendous problem\", Mrs Kenny said, because even with the windows and doors open \"it's just still stale air\".\n\n\"And now the weather's changed... it's a lot colder and I can honestly say it's as cold in the school as it is outside the school.\n\n\"The heating is on every single day for it just to disappear through the windows.\"\n\nRaincoats purchased by the school are used by pupils while outside to allow classrooms to ventilate\n\nBut despite the additional expense, Mrs Kenny said \"it's what we have to do to make sure that the school is as safe as possible and that we're keeping the school open\".\n\nTen-year-old Lily said of the changes: \"We have a good routine going on.\n\n\"When you've got to come out when it's pouring down with rain and it's windy, it's hard.\"\n\nWith limits on mixing between year groups, Lily misses seeing her friends in Years 3 and 4, adding: \"Sometimes you want to play with them or you want to have fun with them, but it is really difficult.\"\n\nThe school has faced challenges posed by two pandemic 100 years apart\n\nSuspended ceilings added to the original structure are partly responsible for poor air circulation at the 110-year-old school.\n\nLearning about the impact of the Spanish Flu in 1918 through the school's log book has helped pupils understand previous generations faced similar challenges.\n\nMrs Kenny said the staff and children have been \"absolutely fantastic\" in adapting to the measures.\n\nShe said she understood why restrictions may need to remain in schools for longer, even as they are relaxed in other settings, because of the \"concentration of people in one building\".\n\n\"As long as we're kept open I don't mind because it's just lovely to hear the children - to hear their voices in school and on the school yard\".", "BBC Scotland obtained a photo of DeeAnn Fitzpatrick taped to a chair at her office\n\nA civil servant photographed tied to a chair and with a piece of parcel tape over her mouth has lost her £500,000 claim for compensation.\n\nDeeAnn Fitzpatrick alleged the incident at Marine Scotland's Scrabster office was in retaliation for her raising concerns about another member of staff.\n\nBut an employment tribunal said the incident happened on an earlier date.\n\nIts ruling criticised Marine Scotland's handling of the case and a \"culture of puerile pranks\" at the office.\n\nThe tribunal said some of the behaviours at the Scottish government office - which was \"charged with enforcing the law\" - had been \"entirely wrong\".\n\nAnd it said: \"The photograph itself shows an image that has elements that are sinister, in particular that tape is placed across the claimant's mouth.\"\n\nThe tribunal was held to hear Ms Fitzpatrick's claim that she was later unfairly dismissed. It rejected her case over inaccuracies about what happened when.\n\nThe former fisheries officer alleged she was targeted in 2010 as a result of blowing the whistle on a male colleague's threatening behaviour towards another female member of staff.\n\nDeeAnn Fitzpatrick said she was disappointed by the ruling\n\nMs Fitzpatrick accused two other male colleagues of taping her in a chair in retaliation for speaking out.\n\nIn its judgement, the tribunal named Reid Anderson as having taken the photograph and Jody Paske of also being involved in the incident.\n\nThe tribunal heard tape was wrapped around Ms Fitzpatrick six times and a piece was put over her mouth. It was 10 minutes before the tape was cut with a knife and she was freed.\n\nBut the tribunal said the image's data, evidence from other witnesses and emails suggested the incident happened in 2009 and not 2010.\n\nWhile the male staff believed the incident had been a practical joke, the tribunal concluded they had acted \"beyond the bounds\" of proper conduct.\n\nIn its decision, the tribunal said: \"It had nothing to do with any disclosure made, because of its timing.\n\n\"There may well have been nothing that triggered it other than the dysfunctional office culture.\"\n\nOther alleged pranks at the Caithness office had included putting ice down clothing, taping someone who had fallen asleep to his chair, placing tape on the beard of another colleague, pouring shredded paper over a member of staff, throwing papers and using a pen casing as a peashooter.\n\nThe tribunal said the behaviour was not acceptable in the modern workplace, and criticised Marine Scotland for not following best practice in certain respects.\n\nFollowing the judgement, Ms Fitzpatrick said she was \"extremely disappointed\" by the outcome of the case.\n\nShe added that she took \"some comfort\" from the tribunal acknowledging there were \"sinister elements\" to the photograph, and the judgement's criticism of the handling of her case.\n\nMarine Scotland has been asked to comment.", "Ireland's president and taoiseach (prime minister) were among the mourners at Tuesday's funeral mass\n\nThe children, neat and sombre in their navy school uniforms, strained to catch a glimpse as the flashing blue lights of the police motorcycles heralded the arrival of the funeral cortege.\n\nEach clutched a graduation photo of Ashling Murphy and a single red rose, their innocence contrasted with the tragic backdrop.\n\nThey were there to pay tribute to a beloved young primary school teacher and talented musician, attacked and killed as she exercised along a nearby canal in the small, rural Irish community less than a week earlier.\n\nHer death has sparked anger, shock and revulsion across these islands and further afield, prompting a national discussion on how to end violence against women.\n\nDave Plunkett walks every day on the canal path.\n\n\"Everyone feels a real connection to her. It just feels like nothing is going to be the same again,\" he said.\n\nAnd for the many, many people who knew and loved Ms Murphy in this County Offaly community, that is the case.\n\nFor them, this is raw and visceral. They're confronting the unimaginable. In the six days since the killing, they have struggled to comprehend the violence that has been brought to their quiet community.\n\nHours after Ms Murphy's funeral, Irish police said they had arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of her murder.\n\nThe night before the funeral, local resident Mary Givan brought fresh batteries for the fairy lights on a makeshift memorial to Ms Murphy along the Grand Canal, and cleared spent tea lights.\n\nHer daughter was in the same year as Ashling at school.\n\n\"This is a mother's fear now,\" she said. \"If you let your daughters out, they can't go out on their own. We can't either.\n\n\"To keep the light burning for her, that's all we can do.\"\n\nAshling Murphy's boyfriend Ryan Casey was hugged by Irish President Michael D Higgins outside the church\n\nThe area is not accustomed to public expressions of heartbreak and sorrow, although there were elements of both outside St Brigid's Church in Mount Bolus on Tuesday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jessica Black This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFr Michael Meade, chief celebrant at the funeral Mass, talked of how Ashling's family had been \"robbed\" of a precious gift - a term that succinctly summed up the callous nature of the 23-year-old's death.\n\nPupils from Ashling Murphy's class held photographs and roses outside St Brigid's Church in Mountbolus\n\nThe rural, local nature of the area was encapsulated by the farmer who opened his fields to mourners in cars and buses, as gardaí (Irish police) marshalled them in.\n\nHis fields have held the overflow from funerals before, but never for one like this.\n\nAhead of the funeral, Fr Meade spoke of the fact that \"something powerful\" would come out of this, reflecting on the outpouring of grief and support from around the world.\n\nBishop Tom Deenihan, Bishop of Meath, told mourners that the \"chink of light\" was that wave of sympathy, manifested by the vigils in Ashling's honour and the support to her family over recent days.\n\n\"Community is needed to overcome evils such as this,\" he said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nConservative MP Daniel Kawczynski has been given a one-day suspension from sitting in Parliament.\n\nIt follows an apology to the House of Commons from the member for Shrewsbury and Atcham earlier for undermining an initial apology for bullying staff.\n\nHe had been investigated over claims he had bullied parliamentary committee staff as he struggled with IT issues during the first lockdown.\n\nMr Kawczynski will not be allowed to sit in Parliament on Thursday.\n\nSir Bernard Jenkin, chair of the Liaison Committee and member of the Standards Committee, told the House that the suspension would have been for a \"significant period but there were significant mitigating circumstances\".\n\nMr Kawczynski has been \"candid in discussing his mental health issues\", Sir Bernard said.\n\nThe MP first apologised to the Commons in June but faced a fresh investigation over comments given to the media.\n\nParliament's standards commissioner found comments made to BBC Radio Shropshire had failed to protect complainants' anonymity and had caused \"significant damage\" to the Commons' \"reputation and integrity\".\n\nLast year, Parliament's Independent Expert Panel (IEP) had concluded he should make an unreserved apology in the House of Commons after ruling his behaviour in April 2020 was \"grossly unprofessional\" and a significant breach of Parliament's Behaviour Code.\n\nBut speaking to a BBC reporter on the 14 June 2021, he said: \"I have no alternative but to apologise, because if I don't apologise then I risk the option of being sanctioned further.\"\n\nHe was referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, which noted: \"This is the first occasion on which an allegation of non-compliance with an Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) sanction has been referred to the Committee.\"\n\nIn concluding Mr Kawczynski had failed to comply with the findings of the IEP it called for him to make an apology to the House and recommended a one-day suspension.\n\nSpeaking after Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, Mr Kawczynski said: \"I acknowledge that in speaking to journalists and the radio I undermined the sincerity of the apology I gave to the House on the 14 June 2021.\n\n\"I am sorry that my conduct will have had a further harmful effect on the complainants and that it may have diminished public confidence in the process.\"\n\nHe promised a written apology to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, the chairman of the Independent Expert Panel and the original complainants.\n\nThe Commissioner for Standards had said a longer suspension could have been expected, but it took in to account mitigating evidence from Mr Kawczynski, who said he had been suffering mental health problems at the time.\n\nIn his statement to the Commons, Mr Kawczynski added: \"I am conscious that my conduct may have merited suspension from the service of the House for a longer period and appreciate the committee's consideration of the difficulties that I was experiencing in my personal life at the time and the mental health issues I explained to them.\n\n\"I deeply regret my actions. I am committed to learn from the mistakes I have made and to work on my personal development, especially in my communication with others in every interaction that I have.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Away from changes to restrictions - an inquiry is being launched into children who are not attending school in the wake of national lockdowns, the children's commissioner for England has said.\n\nDame Rachel de Souza told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme about 95% of children were usually in school at this time of year - but now, this figure was about 87%.\n\nSome absences were down to illness and Covid, she said, but other children had simply failed to return following classroom closures during the pandemic.\n\nIn addition, between 80,000 and 100,000 children were not on any school rolls at all, she said.\n\n\"Literally, I am going to go out and find them,\" she added.\n\nThe Department for Education said its \"top priority\" was supporting children to attend school and college.\n\nYou can read the full story here.", "A man in his 30s has been arrested by gardaí (Irish police) investigating the murder of Ashling Murphy.\n\nThe 23-year-old primary school teacher was attacked while out exercising beside a canal in Tullamore, County Offaly, last Wednesday.\n\nThe man is being questioned in relation to the potential withholding of information.\n\nAnother man in his 30s, who was arrested on Tuesday, continues to be questioned on suspicion of murder.\n\nA 40-year-old man was arrested last week, but was later released and eliminated from police enquiries.\n\nThe man in his 30s being questioned on suspicion of murder was arrested after he was deemed medically fit to be discharged from St James's Hospital in Dublin on Tuesday, RTÉ reports.\n\nHe had presented himself to the hospital last Thursday night with serious and suspicious injuries, says the Irish broadcaster.\n\nGardaí were alerted, having contacted hospitals after Ashling's killing, asking medical officials to contact them if they had suspicions in relation to a wounded patient.\n\nEvidence has been gathered from the post-mortem examination, the forensic examination of the scene, information from public appeals and interviews with witnesses, RTÉ reports.\n\nMourners lined the streets on Tuesday for Ms Murphy's funeral with Irish President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach (PM) Micheál Martin among those who attended.\n\nPupils from Durrow National School where she taught, along with musicians she had played with as well as friends from her local GAA club turned out to pay their respects.\n\nMourners came out in force to pay their respects to the young woman\n\nA priest at the funeral said her family had been robbed of their \"most precious gift\" .\n\nThe Bishop of Meath Tom Deenihan said the killing had also shone a light on the issue of violence against women within Irish society.\n\nMs Murphy's 23-year-old boyfriend, Ryan Casey, spoke of the loss he had endured and said she \"was so much more to me than a girlfriend\".\n\n\"She was my soul mate. She is my soul mate. She will always be my soul mate,\" he said in his emotional tribute.\n\n\"She is the greatest love of my life. I will cherish the last five years we spent together for my entire life and hope that some day, God willing, we can be reunited once more.\"\n\nThe Murphy family and Ashling's boyfriend, Ryan, walked behind the hearse as it left St Brigid's Church\n\nTens of thousands of people have attended vigils across the island of Ireland and further afield following Ms Murphy's killing.\n\nIn the wake of her death, there have been calls for more to be done to tackle violence against women in Ireland.\n\nThe Republic's justice minister has said she intends to publish a new national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in March.", "James Watt (right) and co-founder Martin Dickie at the BrewDog brewery in Ellon in May 2020\n\nScottish beer giant Brewdog sent multiple shipments of beer to the US, in contravention of US federal laws, a BBC investigation has found.\n\nStaff at its Ellon brewery told the BBC they were put under pressure in 2016 and 2017 to ship beer with ingredients that had not been legally approved.\n\nOne US-based importer said they had been deceived by Brewdog.\n\nIn a social media post on Wednesday, Brewdog CEO James Watt admitted to \"taking shortcuts\" with the process.\n\nBBC Scotland's Disclosure programme has been told that staff at the Ellon brewery in Aberdeenshire knew that two of its flagship products, Elvis Juice and Jet Black Heart, contained extracts which were not approved in the US.\n\nOne former worker told the investigation: \"The pressure was enormous. 'Just make it happen', that was the culture. It was clear to us this was coming from the top - from James [Watt].\"\n\nAnother said: \"We were continually told to ship beer to the USA, despite everyone knowing the beers hadn't been approved.\n\n\"Everyone was worried they'd be [fired] if they didn't do what was asked.\"\n\nThe BBC has seen evidence that suggests US treasury officials from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) were given false information on at least five occasions during a six-month period, which meant that potentially hundreds of kegs of beer were sent with incorrect labelling - a violation of TTB laws.\n\nElvis juice was one of the beers that contained extracts which would not be approved in the US\n\nAll beer imported to the US needs to be declared to the TTB and given an official label before being shipped.\n\nUK breweries provide the details of their beers to a US-based importer, who make the label application on the brewery's behalf.\n\nIf the beer has any unusual ingredients, like flavourings or extracts, these need to be declared so that a special label, referencing the beer's formula, can be approved before it can be shipped.\n\nEach extract needs to be deemed safe for consumption in the US before an approval is granted, and this process can sometimes take months.\n\nFalse information provided to the TTB can be prosecuted under US perjury laws.\n\nThe beer was imported to Brewdog's new US brewery which it was setting up in Ohio\n\nBrewdog sources have told the BBC that the only way to have shipped Elvis Juice and Jet Black Heart to the US in that period was to not declare the extracts.\n\nFormer TTB labelling specialist Battle Martin said: \"I think it's serious. There's a lot of people out there putting a lot of effort into complying with the regulations.\n\n\"There has been a deception here,\" he said. \"In my view, based on the number of products and based on the number of times this has happened, I think it warrants further investigation, because it shows a pattern.\"\n\nThe claims are to be broadcast as part of a 60-minute documentary on BBC One Scotland on Monday 24 January at 19:00.\n\nThe BBC wrote to Brewdog last week detailing its allegations.\n\nIn a LinkedIn post on Wednesday - entitled My Biggest Mistakes As Brewdog CEO - Mr Watt said: \"We made some mistakes with the paperwork on the first few shipments [to the US] …all taxes were paid in full, but the paperwork was not always correct.\"\n\n\"In hindsight, there were oversights ... due to the fact we were trying to run a growing business on one side of the Atlantic and start a new business on the other.\"\n\nMr Watt said the company self-reported the issue to the TTB, who told Brewdog there would be no further action taken.\n\nIt is not clear if Brewdog self-reported the issue at the time, or after the BBC wrote to them.\n\nThe TTB told the BBC that a three-year statute of limitations prevented any enforcement action being taken, and in any case, it would have to have been initiated against the US-based importer, who is legally responsible for the shipments.\n\nImporters face losing their import licence for serious breaches of TTB regulations.\n\nMr Watt said Brewdog had consulted a lawyer who believed the errors made would not risk an importer's licence.\n\nDaniel Shelton, who imported one shipment for BrewDog, said he was deceived by the company\n\nDaniel Shelton, who imported one shipment for Brewdog, said he was deceived by the company.\n\nHe said: \"I was misled. I had every reason to believe that they would tell the truth.\n\n\"We believed what we were told and we weren't told what was actually going on.\n\n\"They did lead somebody in my company to falsify documents. And, of course, I'm not happy about that; I don't respect that, I don't like it.\"\n\nAnother importer, Massachusetts-based MHW, told the BBC: \"Our focus is to comply with all Federal and State laws and we rely on all our suppliers for whom we import to provide truthful and accurate information as to all the ingredients in their products so we can determine the required Federal compliance processes to be executed.\n\n\"Regarding the two products in question, we executed the Federal compliance based on the information provided by the supplier at the time, which we believed to be truthful and accurate.\"", "James Greenhalgh says Plan B restrictions were \"a disaster\" for his cafe\n\nWorking-from-home guidance has been lifted but the owner of one coffee shop that relies on office workers says he's still nervous about the future.\n\n\"Ask me in a month how I'm doing,\" says James Greenhalgh, the owner of Leeds-based Flamingos Coffee House.\n\nHe believes it will take months before confidence comes back.\n\nOther firms are more positive about the changes in England, with one nightclub saying his customers will feel happier once Covid passes have been dropped.\n\nAdvice for people to work from home if they can in England has been dropped immediately.\n\nThe requirement for mandatory face coverings in public places and Covid passports will both be dropped from next Thursday.\n\nStephen Spensley, one of the directors of Stereo nightclub in Middlesbrough, said removing the need to show a Covid pass at the door would make his customers feel more welcome.\n\nCustomers had worried about the passes, sharply reducing the numbers coming to his 300-capacity club in the run-up to Christmas, Mr Spensley said.\n\nWhile concern about the virus had eased in January, the requirement to show proof of either vaccination or a recent negative lateral flow test was still putting some customers off, he said.\n\n\"I think our demographic of 18 to 25-year-old clients will feel a lot freer, because a lot of them are hesitant about getting the vaccine,\" Mr Spensely said.\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Greenhalgh said the reintroduction of working-from-home guidance in December had been \"a catastrophe\" for his coffee shop and \"custom went off a cliff\".\n\nDecember is normally his busiest trading period, and sustains the shop in the early part of the next year.\n\n\"These are normally the busiest days of the year, and there were days when we were stood around, and no-one came in,\" he said. \"It's been a disaster.\"\n\nThousands of hospitality businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic, and Plan B restrictions helped push many into trouble, according to insolvency firm Real Business Rescue.\n\nIn December, for example, more than 6,100 bars and pubs were in \"significant financial distress\" it said, more than a fifth more than in the same period last year.\n\nRestaurant owner David Abrahamovitch says his physical shops were hit hard by restrictions\n\nBut some café businesses have managed to diversify.\n\nOne coffee business that has expanded into e-commerce is Grind, which has eight shops in London.\n\nIt started selling compostable Nespresso-compatible coffee pods before the pandemic, and business has taken off, according to founder and chief executive David Abrahamovitch.\n\n\"That side of the business was helped by Plan B,\" he says. \"If people are working at home they are more likely to drink [coffee] at home.\"\n\nHe is expecting the business to have made £20m in sales for the year, and has plans to expand into the US and Europe after a cash injection of £22m, mainly from UK investor Richard Koch.\n\nStereo nightclub in Middlesbrough lost custom due to Covid passes, Stephen Spensley says\n\nMichael Kill, of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), said clubs in England had lost around 20% of their footfall while Covid passes were in place.\n\nThe \"debilitating restrictions\" had meant queues outside clubs were longer, he said, because security staff were trying to check Covid passes on top of checking people's age ID, in low lighting.\n\n\"What we're finding when people come up is there's frustration, from the challenges around exemptions, to civil liberties, accusations of discrimination.\"\n\nMr Kill said without question the sector would need further financial support from the government.\n\nMr Spensely said the extra Covid pass checks had added 20% to his staffing costs because he needs twice the number of security staff at the entrance.\n\n\"Its an extra layer of bureaucracy\" said Mr Spensely \"It slows the queue right down.\"\n\nPeter Marks, chief executive of Rekom, which has 42 venues including chains Pryzm, Bar&Beyond, Eden and Fiction, said vaccine passports \"took 30% off our business\".\n\n\"I'm not as critical as you'd think of Covid passports,\" he said. \"It's better than being shut, but it definitely affected us.\"\n\nTristan Moffat, operations director of The Piano Works, which has two late night live music venues in central London, said \"there'll be a lot of jubilation\" about Wednesday's announcement.\n\n\"We're certainly delighted about it,\" he said.\n\nWhile Covid passes had caused frustration among some customers, others had found them reassuring.\n\nBut other aspects of the Plan B restrictions, such as working from home guidance, had taken a \"huge toll\" on the business, as mid-week trade had fallen away, he said.\n\nIndustry group UK Hospitality said the removal of restrictions was \"a key milestone on the road to recovery for the sector\".\n\n\"Lifting the working from home recommendation is a particularly important move as it enables town and city centres, and the businesses that are their lifeblood, to begin their revival and recovery,\" said UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls.\n• None Face mask rules and Covid passes to end in England", "Fr Michael Meade pauses after being asked what his message will be to mourners at the funeral of young teacher Ashling Murphy, who was murdered in County Offaly five days ago.\n\n\"Be courageous,\" he replies, after a brief moment.\n\n\"Don't be afraid to speak up, and do not be afraid to continue living as we are called to live, showing respect for all people.\"\n\nThe parish priest of Kilcormac, in rural County Offaly in the Republic of Ireland, will be the celebrant at Ms Murphy's funeral Mass on Tuesday, at St Brigid's Church, Mountbolus.\n\n\"Everybody [in the local community] speaks about it with shock and horror, but they are coping very well together,\" he tells BBC News NI.\n\n\"There is a great community spirit here and it is a real example of how we are called to live, to care for each other as best we can and that has been given physical evidence.\"\n\nThe murder of the 23-year-old primary school teacher and musician, along the banks of the Grand Canal just outside Tullamore last Wednesday, has sparked shock, revulsion and anger, not just on the island of Ireland but further afield.\n\nThousands have attended vigils in Ms Murphy's memory across Ireland but also in London, New York and Dubai.\n\nThe nature, timing and setting of the killing - late afternoon in a quiet, rural area - has sparked calls for more to be done to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence towards women.\n\nAshling Murphy's mother Kathleen, father Raymond and sister Amy comforted each other at a candle-lit vigil near the scene of her murder\n\nIreland's National Women's Council has said this must be a \"watershed moment in ending men's violence against women\".\n\nThe country's justice minister, Helen McEntee, said she intended to publish a new national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence at the start of March.\n\nLocally, though, for a community reeling from such horror, the focus at this stage is not so much on that wider discussion, although vitally important, but more on rallying around and caring for Ms Murphy's family and friends as they grieve, says Fr Meade.\n\nMs Murphy was murdered just outside Tullamore, County Offaly\n\nHe adds there is awareness in the locality of the global attention but in their own minds, \"they haven't got that far yet\".\n\n\"It's personal. It's local, it will evolve into what all the politicians are talking about,\" he adds.\n\n\"It will evolve into something and hopefully it will only be for the good.\"\n\nMs Murphy was at the heart of her community.\n\nA former pupil of Sacred Heart School in Tullamore, she taught First Class (age six to seven) in nearby Durrow National School.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Scoil Cholmcille This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSacred Heart School principal Pauline McKenna says the community has always been proud of her.\n\n\"This is a terrible tragedy for her family, our community and our school.\n\n\"She will be greatly missed.\"\n\nMs Murphy was involved with the local GAA club, and she was also a talented musician, having played the fiddle and concertina.\n\nHer father, Raymond, is a well-known banjo player and her sister, Amy, also plays the concertina and button accordion.\n\nMourners have attended vigils in a number of cities, including at the Irish Centre in London\n\nBoth Ashling and Amy taught music to many young students in their local branch of traditional music group Comhaltas, and Ashling also played in the Comhaltas National Folk Orchestra at many national events, including the visit to Ireland of Pope Francis in 2018.\n\n\"There is a sense of numbness here, and a sense of disbelief that this could happen,\" says family friend Paddy Burke, chairman of the local Comhaltas branch.\n\n\"Worldwide, it's violence against women that is the big issue, but here it's a local person that has been murdered.\n\n\"It's the loss of her from her family and her music and GAA friends. She was an intricate part of the whole area.\"\n\nTeachers' unions in the Irish Republic are urging all schools and colleges to join in a tribute to Ms Murphy at 11:00 local time on Tuesday.\n\nStormont assembly members gathered outside parliament buildings to pay tribute to Ashling Murphy\n\nOn Monday, Northern Ireland's First Minister Paul Givan and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill joined other assembly members and party leaders on the steps of Stormont in a vigil to pay their respects.\n\nMs O'Neill said the murder was a \"watershed moment\" and called for anger to be turned into action.\n\nBut what next? Will this, as the National Women's Council has said, be a watershed moment for ending violence against women?\n\n\"In the wake of the senseless killing of Ashling Murphy, women across Ireland have been sharing their stories of abuse and harassment, and how they curtail their lives so that they feel safer,\" said National Women's Council director Orla O'Connor.\n\n\"Ultimately, we know there is no behaviour change women can make that will keep them safe from men's violence.\n\n\"So we need to talk about what we can do.\"\n\nChief executive of Safe Ireland Mary McDermott has called for an all-of-government response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.\n\nBack in County Offaly, Fr Meade says \"everybody is praying and they are united throughout the whole world, all these vigils\".\n\n\"Only something powerful can come out of this.\"\n• None 'What happened to her could have happened to me'", "Campaigners had expected Huddersfield's George Hotel to become the home of a new national museum\n\nA council has come under fire after making \"a shameful decision\" to axe plans for a National Rugby League Museum in the game's birthplace.\n\nCampaigners had expected Huddersfield's George Hotel - where the breakaway competition was established in 1895 - to become the home of a new museum.\n\nBut Kirklees Council said the venue would not be \"financially viable\" without an ongoing cost to residents.\n\nThe council has proposed accommodating the museum elsewhere in the town.\n\nPeter McBride, cabinet member for regeneration at the authority, said: \"With the impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry, we have had to give careful consideration of our investments on behalf of local taxpayers.\n\n\"But Huddersfield is the birthplace of rugby league and the sport is an essential part of our heritage. That's why we're offering to give a home to the museum as part of our major regeneration plans in the heart of the town,\" he added.\n\nA plaque outside the hotel details its unique links to the origins of rugby league\n\nIt comes after Huddersfield fought off bids from Bradford, Leeds and Wigan in 2020 to win the right to host the museum.\n\nSupporters argued The George Hotel had been central to the town's winning bid.\n\nAccording to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Andrew Cooper, the leader of the green group on the council, said: \"This was a competitive process which Kirklees won against other towns on the basis of the museum being based in the George Hotel.\n\n\"Kirklees [Council] has acted in poor faith by reneging on this agreement and now risks losing the rugby league museum from the town where the sport was created,\" he added.\n\nThe hotel, close to the town's railway station, closed in 2013, and was bought by the council.\n\nIt is currently undergoing renovations.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Antarctic Quest 21 held a ceremony on the Antarctic Peninsula in memory of Sir Ernest Shackleton\n\nA team of scientists have held a ceremony in the Antarctic honouring the achievements of explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.\n\nHe died 100 years ago on 5 January 1922 during his final Antarctic mission, aged 47.\n\nA team of scientists set off on a research expedition across Antarctica in December in his memory.\n\nThe group set off from Plymouth as Shackleton did for his final mission 100 years ago.\n\nThe Shackleton Commemoration Expedition, by Antarctic Quest 21, is also hoping to learn more about climate change.\n\nPaul Hart, Antarctic Quest 21's leader, said the ceremony was for Shackleton and for every person who undertakes these feats to learn more about the planet.\n\nThe photograph issued on the announcement of the death of Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1922\n\n\"100 years ago he was setting out on what was going to be a voyage of scientific exploration.\n\n\"He was very interested in protecting the polar regions so it only seems fitting 100 years on that we should commemorate someone whose work and life was dedicated to exploration, science and giving us a greater understanding of the planet we live on,\" he said.\n\nAs part of the quest, the scientists from Devon are crossing Antarctica's Forbidden Plateau, measuring UV levels to inform scientists about the ozone layer and gathering snow samples to measure microplastics.\n\nIt will show whether pollution has travelled to the furthest parts of the world.\n\nHistorian Dan Snow will join a team of scientists for Endurance 2022\n\nAlso to commemorate the centenary of Shackleton's death, historian Dan Snow is taking part in an Antarctic expedition, Endurance 2022, to try to find the Endurance shipwreck.\n\nThe ship sank in 1915 after it became trapped in ice, although everyone under Shackleton's command survived.\n\nEstimated to be 3,000ft (900m) down, the group will be using artificial intelligence to conduct a survey of the seabed to see what is \"basically the most historic shipwreck in the world as yet undiscovered,\" Snow told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"We hope it's going to be in very good condition because it's extremely cold down there, it's very difficult for life forms to survive down there,\" he added.\n\nShackleton's granddaughter Alexandra Shackleton said she thinks his leadership is what made his memory go on to inspire so many adventurers.\n\nAlexandra Shackleton said she hoped Endurance 2022 would \"appreciate\" the preservation of the wreckage should they find it\n\n\"When his ship was crushed they lived on tents on the ice with the sea surging beneath. He personally chose who would be in each tent, not typical of a leader of the time.\n\n\"He didn't put all the officers in one set of tents and the men in the other, he balanced the personalities because he knew his men,\" she said.\n\nA plaque was unveiled in Plymouth in September marking a century since the polar explorer left the city on his final expedition to Antarctica.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "High Street giants Next and Greggs have both said they are raising prices as they seek to offset higher wage and manufacturing costs.\n\nNext, which reported strong sales over Christmas, said its prices would increase by up to 6% next year.\n\nGreggs, Britain's biggest bakery chain, said it had raised prices between 5p and 10p on items across its range of sausage rolls and cakes.\n\nA Greggs spokesman said the move was \"very much a last resort\".\n\nNext said that prices for its spring and summer clothing and homeware ranges would rise by 3.7% from a year earlier, while it expects a 6% increase for autumn and winter goods.\n\nIts forecast came as it said sales for the three months to 25 December were up 20% compared with pre-pandemic 2019, boosted by a strong revival in \"formal and occasionwear\".\n\nNext's online business saw sales soar by 45% from two years ago, whereas sales at its High Street stores were down 5.4%.\n\nNext has said costs associated with wages, manufacturing and shipping are increasing\n\nNext also upped its profit forecast for the year. It now expects to make an extra £22m, taking annual profits to £822m, which would be nearly 10% higher than in 2019.\n\nThe company is forecasting sales of full-price goods to rise by 7% overall in 2022, but it warned that this year could see a tougher trading environment, given the financial pressures facing households, such as higher energy bills.\n\nNext also said it was facing higher costs itself, hence the need to increase its prices by more than previously expected.\n\nThe company said it had seen higher shipping and manufacturing costs. Wage costs were also climbing as a result of the increase in the National Living Wage and because of staff shortages in some areas, \"most notably in warehousing and technology\".\n\nNext is the first of the big retailers to tell us its Christmas story. And it's had a strong one. The business had been expecting weaker growth, but it was much better than expected, adding an extra £70m of sales helped by a revival in adult formal and \"occasionwear\". And this was despite lower levels of stock.\n\nOnline sales were up 45%, which more than offset falling sales in its stores. Even before the pandemic, more than half of the group's sales were already online, making it well placed to benefit from the huge shift in shopping habits.\n\nThis performance puts Next firmly in the winner's camp. It says forecasting the year ahead is unusually difficult. With soaring fuel bills and a rise in the cost of living, the big question is, how much discretionary spending consumers will be able to make?\n\nIt's having to put up prices on products, too. But this is a retailer that's better placed than most to cope with the cocktail of cost increases and challenges facing retailers this year.\n\nAnalysts praised Next for its performance, with the retailer also announcing a special dividend of 160p a share.\n\n\"For all the tales of woe on the High Street, there is one shining jewel to be found in the form of Next,\" said Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.\n\n\"There aren't many bricks-and-mortar retailers dishing out special dividends or upgrading guidance multiple times over.\"\n\nShe added that Next had managed its business \"very well - stock levels have reduced, and labour shortages didn't derail performance\".\n\nGreggs' chief executive, Roger Whiteside, said that the decision to raise prices, taken after an end of year review, was unavoidable.\n\n\"We try and absorb as many of the cost increases that get passed to us as possible and then put through price increases where we can't avoid it, and we've done that this year,\" he told the PA news agency.\n\n\"The question is, does the inflationary pressure recede or go up.\"\n\nGreggs said sales at its stores had eased in the run-up to Christmas and staff absences increased due to the rise of the Omicron variant.\n\nLike-for-like sales for 2021 were down 3.3% compared with the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, but in the fourth quarter, they were up 0.8%.\n\nMr Whiteside, who leads employees across more than 2,000 outlets, also announced that he would step down from the role later this year and retire.\n\nHe will be replaced by Roisin Currie, who is currently Greggs' retail and property director.\n\n\"This looks a solid internal appointment, particularly given her key role in developing the delivery business,\" said analysts at Jefferies.\n\nNext is the first major retailer to report on how it performed over the key Christmas trading period, although there were updates from other companies on Thursday.", "Harvey Parker was last seen leaving Heaven nightclub in Charing Cross on 17 December\n\nPolice searching for a student who went missing after leaving a central London nightclub have found a body in the River Thames.\n\nHarvey Parker, 20, from Lambeth, south London, was last seen leaving Heaven by Charing Cross station in Westminster at about 02:15 GMT on 17 December.\n\nThe Met's Marine Support Unit recovered the body and detectives involved in the search for Mr Parker have informed his family of developments.\n\nThe death is unexplained, police said.\n\nHarvey Parker was last seen near Embankment\n\nOfficers recovered the body near to Embankment, Westminster, after being alerted by the RNLI at 11:51 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nImages released after Mr Parker's disappearance showed him on Craven Street, before he walked south towards Embankment.\n\nMr Parker's body has now been recovered after being spotted near Embankment\n\nDet Ch Insp Lucy O'Connor said: \"Sadly a body has been recovered from the Thames near where Harvey was last seen.\n\n\"We are providing Harvey's family with all the available information. We are also asking for media to please respect the family's privacy at this challenging and difficult time.\"\n\nA report will be compiled for the coroner.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nWorld number one men's tennis player Novak Djokovic has had his visa to enter Australia dramatically revoked on his arrival in Melbourne, amid a huge backlash over a vaccine exemption.\n\nDjokovic was held in the airport for several hours before border officials announced he had not met entry rules.\n\nHe was then taken to a government detention hotel. A court will decide on his deportation on Monday.\n\nThe row is around an exemption he had to play in the Australian Open.\n\nTournament organisers said the Serbian player, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted medical exemption by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia, the body that runs the event, and Victoria state.\n\nThe decision infuriated many in a country that has seen a surge in Covid-19 cases, and where over 90% of those over 16 are fully vaccinated. People have also had to endure some of the world's strictest restrictions and some still cannot travel between states or internationally.\n\nOn Wednesday, border officials said the 34-year-old had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" for entry after arriving from Dubai. He is now being held at a hotel in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton which is used for immigration detention.\n\n\"Non-citizens who do not hold a valid visa on entry or who have had their visa cancelled will be detained and removed from Australia,\" the Australian Border Force (ABF) said in a statement.\n\nDjokovic's team challenged ABF's decision, and a hearing at the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia has been scheduled for Monday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAustralia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied Djokovic was being singled out and said no-one was above the country's rules. But he added that Djokovic's stance on vaccination had drawn attention.\n\n\"When you get people making public statements - of what they say they have, and what they are going to do, and what their claims are - well they draw significant attention to themselves,\" Mr Morrison told reporters.\n\nThough Djokovic's reason for an exemption has not been disclosed, Mr Morrison said contracting Covid-19 in the past six months was not among federal criteria for one.\n\nMr Morrison, who had initially said he would support the Victoria state's decision about the exemption, is now being accused of politicising the issue. The prime minister himself is under pressure amid the Covid-19 surge, and a federal election is scheduled for May.\n\nSeparately the country's deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, said Djokovic should be deported if he had not told the truth.\n\n\"Then he's taking the sovereign capacity of another nation for a joke,\" Mr Joyce told the BBC. \"You can't just wander around the world thinking that because you're really rich you're really above the laws of other nations\".\n\nThe row prompted Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to say Djokovic was a victim of \"harassment\" and that \"the whole of Serbia\" supported him. Mr Morrison denied the visa cancellation was because of \"any particular position in relation to Serbia\", describing the nation as \"a good friend of Australia\".\n\nOutside the hotel where Djokovic was being held, supporters of the tennis player expressed anger at his treatment. The player's father, Srdjan, said his son had been held in a room guarded by police at the airport. \"This is not just a fight for Novak, but a fight for the whole world,\" he said in a statement.\n\nFor hours, Novak Djokovic's supporters made their way outside the Melbourne quarantine hotel where he's believed to be staying, many from the Serbian community here. The strength of feeling was palpable as songs about freedom played and some danced. \"This is a disgrace,\" Kristina told me, draped in the Serbian flag. \"I'm ashamed to be an Australian today. If he's not playing - I'm not going.\"\n\nJelena wore a white cap with Djokovic's signature that she got two years ago when he was here for the tournament. She carries a sign that says \"Thank you\". \"He represents a connection to my home country. The Australian government needs to fix this mess. It's an international scandal and the world is watching,\" Jelena said, her disappointment that he may not be competing evident.\n\nDjokovic has landed in the middle of a controversy that's gone beyond tennis and is now at the heart of a political tussle - between the state and the federal authorities.\n\nAnd while the player and his legal team wait for the court hearing to resume on Monday, anger and confusion are the overarching sentiments here - whether from those who say he shouldn't have been allowed in or those furious at the thought of him being deported.\n\nThe world number one has dominated the Australian Open, winning it nine times. But his attempt to defend his title and go for a 10th may be over before the tournament begins.\n\nSpanish tennis start Rafael Nadal, who is in Melbourne to prepare for the Australian Open, said it was \"normal\" for Australians to get \"very frustrated with the case\".\n\n\"The only for me clear thing is if you are vaccinated, you can play in the Australian Open,\" he said, adding: \"Of course after a lot of people had been dying for two years, my feeling is [that] the vaccine is the only way to stop this pandemic.\"\n\nBut former Australian Open tournament director Paul McNamee told local media the visa U-turn was unprecedented, saying it \"smells\" of politics.\n\nMany Australians had previously accused the government of allowing the rich and famous to do as they please while ordinary people remained separated from sick and dying loved ones.\n\nTwo other people were now having their medical exemptions reviewed, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. Mr Morrison said the ABF had previously advised Tennis Australia on visa expectations.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne. Djokovic has previously won the tournament nine times.", "Best new artist nominees Billie Eilish, Lizzo and Lil Nas X, with Finneas O'Connell\n\nThe 64th annual Grammy Awards Show due to be held in the US later this month has been postponed due to coronavirus, organisers have said.\n\nUncertainty around the Omicron variant means going ahead \"simply contains too many risks\", according to a statement from the Recording Academy and CBS.\n\nThe event, which is regarded as music's biggest night, was scheduled to take place on 31 January in Los Angeles.\n\nIt will happen on a future date to be announced soon, organisers said.\n\nThe health and safety of the music community, the live audience and hundreds of employees remained their top priority, they added.\n\nJazz keyboardist Jon Batiste has the most nominations with 11, while Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber and Doja Cat are all up for the main awards.\n\nIt comes after the Sundance film festival cancelled all in-person events in Utah citing the rapid spread of Omicron.\n\nAll its independent movie premieres and events will take place online, organisers said in a statement.\n\nThe 2021 Grammy Awards was a hybrid in-person and online event after rising infection numbers in Los Angeles and the state of California saw it postponed until March.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Fans of tennis legend Novak Djokovic have gathered outside the player's hotel to voice their support\n\nWorld number one men's tennis player Novak Djokovic should be deported from Australia if he has not told the truth about his exemption from vaccination rules, the deputy prime minister says.\n\nBarnaby Joyce told the BBC that rich people \"can't wander around the world thinking... they are above the laws\".\n\nDjokovic, who had travelled to play in the Australian Open, is in immigration detention after his entry was denied.\n\nA court will decide on whether he should be deported on Monday.\n\nThe 34-year-old Serbian player, who has said he is opposed to vaccination, had been granted a medical exemption to play in the tournament in Melbourne for unspecified reasons, a decision that infuriated many Australians.\n\nThe exemption was given by two independent medical panels organised by Tennis Australia, the body that runs the event, and Victoria state, tournament organisers said.\n\nBut on Wednesday, Australian Border Force (ABF) officials said Djokovic had \"failed to provide appropriate evidence\" for entry after arriving from Dubai. He is being held at a hotel used for immigration detention in a Melbourne suburb.\n\n\"If he hasn't filled out the forms appropriately then he's taking the sovereign capacity of another nation for a joke,\" Mr Joyce told the BBC's Newshour programme. \"100% someone's made a mistake and if he hasn't told the truth then the person who's made the mistake is Mr Djokovic.\"\n\nHe added: \"You can't just wander around the world thinking that because you're really rich you're really above the laws of other nations.\"\n\nDjokovic's team challenged ABF's decision, and a hearing at the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia has been scheduled for Monday. It is not yet clear whether Djokovic will remain in the same hotel until then.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEarlier, Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied Djokovic was being singled out and said no-one was above the country's rules. Though Djokovic's reason for an exemption has not been disclosed, Mr Morrison said contracting Covid-19 in the past six months was not among federal criteria for one.\n\nMr Morrison had initially said he accepted the Victorian government's decision to grant Djokovic and other tennis players medical exemptions.\n\nHe is now being accused of politicising the issue amid the huge public backlash. The prime minister himself is under pressure amid the surge of Covid-19 infections in the country, and a federal election is likely to be held in May.\n\nThe row prompted Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to say Djokovic was a victim of \"harassment\" and that \"the whole of Serbia\" supported him. Mr Morrison denied the visa cancellation was because of \"any particular position in relation to Serbia\".\n\nThe player's father, Srdjan, said his son had been held in a room guarded by police at the airport. \"This is not just a fight for Novak, but a fight for the whole world,\" he said in a statement.\n\nFor hours, Novak Djokovic's supporters made their way outside the Melbourne quarantine hotel where he's believed to be staying, many from the Serbian community here. The strength of feeling was palpable as songs about freedom played and some danced. \"This is a disgrace,\" Kristina told me, draped in the Serbian flag. \"I'm ashamed to be an Australian today. If he's not playing - I'm not going.\"\n\nJelena wore a white cap with Djokovic's signature that she got two years ago when he was here for the tournament. She carries a sign that says \"Thank you\". \"He represents a connection to my home country. The Australian government needs to fix this mess. It's an international scandal and the world is watching,\" Jelena said, her disappointment that he may not be competing evident.\n\nDjokovic has landed in the middle of a controversy that's gone beyond tennis and is now at the heart of a political tussle - between the state and the federal authorities.\n\nAnd while the player and his legal team wait for the court hearing to resume on Monday, anger and confusion are the overarching sentiments here - whether from those who say he shouldn't have been allowed in or those furious at the thought of him being deported.\n\nThe world number one has dominated the Australian Open, winning it nine times. But his attempt to defend his title and go for a 10th may be over before the tournament begins.\n\nSpanish tennis start Rafael Nadal, who is in Melbourne to prepare for the tournament, said it was \"normal\" for Australians to get \"very frustrated with the case\".\n\n\"The only for me clear thing is if you are vaccinated, you can play in the Australian Open,\" he said, adding: \"Of course after a lot of people had been dying for two years, my feeling is [that] the vaccine is the only way to stop this pandemic.\"\n\nBut former Australian Open tournament director Paul McNamee told local media the visa U-turn was unprecedented, saying it \"smells\" of politics.\n\nTwo other players were now having their medical exemptions reviewed, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. Mr Morrison said the ABF had previously advised Tennis Australia on visa expectations.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January. Djokovic has previously won the tournament nine times.", "A plan to tighten controls around the wearing of face coverings has been scrapped\n\nNo further Covid restrictions are currently necessary in Northern Ireland despite a surge in Omicron cases, First Minister Paul Givan has said.\n\nMr Givan said a plan to tighten controls around the wearing of face coverings has also been scrapped.\n\nBut Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill denied the plan had been completely axed.\n\n\"We haven't decided it is not going to happen but we have found it very difficult to make it work,\" she said.\n\nShe added that ministers will continue to explore ways to encourage more people to wear face coverings\n\nThe executive was briefed by Health Minister Robin Swann and his officials on the spread of Omicron.\n\nOn Thursday, the Department of Health reported four more coronavirus-related deaths and 6,877 positive cases.\n\nIt brings the total number of Covid-19 deaths it has recorded in Northern Ireland to 3,002.\n\nThe executive had planned to remove some exemptions on face coverings and place the onus on the individual to provide medical proof on why they cannot wear one.\n\nBut Mr Givan said ministers had agreed to suspend the planned policy \"indefinitely\" and that \"no business should be asking anyone to provide proof\".\n\nPaul Givan said Northern Ireland was not seeing the same increase in people requiring critical care as in previous Covid waves\n\nHe added ministers had been advised previously that GPs would provide the \"certification\" needed for exemptions but they are now reluctant to do so because of the \"huge pressures\" they are currently under.\n\n\"I think it is right, having recognised the problems this policy was creating, we have acted very quickly in terms of suspending this policy and I would urge the public to stop contacting their GPs seeking these exemptions,\" he said.\n\n\"Yes, businesses should be encouraging people to wear face coverings but they should not be asking for proof as that is a policy which this executive has suspended.\"\n\nMr Givan also said schools would not be closed \"in terms of a universal approach\".\n\nHowever, Ms O'Neill criticised his DUP colleague, Education Minister Michelle McIlveen, for failing to bring forward more measures to support schools to stay open during the current crisis.\n\nShe said Ms McIlveen needs to do more to meeting the challenges facing schools with so many staff self-isolating.\n\nBBC News NI understands the assembly will be recalled early on Monday, with MLAs able to question the education minister on what action she is taking in schools.\n\nIt comes after a Sinn Féin petition backed by the SDLP and Alliance and approved by assembly Speaker Alex Maskey.\n\nSome teaching unions have expressed concerns about staff absences from classrooms and securing substitute cover, due to the surge in Omicron cases.\n\nSpeaking to Stormont's health committee on Thursday, Northern Ireland's chief scientific adviser said it would be a \"major surprise\" if there were not substantial numbers of Covid cases among schoolchildren after term resumes.\n\nProf Ian Young said that before Christmas the largest number of cases were in under-18s.\n\nOnce schools broke-up, the rise in cases has been substantial in all age bands, with the exception of under-18s.\n\n\"Generally it will be a relatively mild illness with a small number of exceptions but the rate of household transmission is very high with Omicron and once a child becomes infected and is at home, there is a high risk of transmission to parents, grandparents or wider members of the family,\" Prof Young added.\n\nThe committee also heard that the number of active Covid-19 outbreaks in care homes is 179.\n\nNorthern Ireland's chief medical officer, Sir Michael McBride, said it was important to put this into context and while there was no cause for complacency, he would not wish people to become alarmed by the numbers.\n\nSir Michael said something in the region of three quarters of the outbreaks \"involve staff members or care partners as opposed to residents\".\n\nA £40m support package for hosptiality has been announced but other sectors say they also need help\n\nLast week, ministers agreed to cut self-isolation rules in a bid to manage workforce pressures due to the Omicron variant.\n\nFinance Minister Conor Murphy previously announced a £40m scheme for hospitality businesses, which are already operating under some tighter restrictions.\n\nOther sectors such as tourism and travel have called for extra resources from Stormont.\n\nThe executive is limited in what support it can provide, without further interventions from the Treasury in Westminster.\n\nMr Givan has said he hopes extra money can be reallocated from Stormont departments for Covid support through January's monitoring round.\n\nThursday's meeting comes as a new emergency winter fuel payment scheme opens for applications.\n\nLast month, the Department for Communities said £2m in funding would be available for extra emergency payments to help those most effected by rising costs.\n\nAbout 20,000 households are expected to benefit from the scheme, which will run until 31 March.\n\nFull eligibility criteria, along with the application process, has been published by the Bryson Charitable Group, which is helping oversee the operation of the scheme.\n\nSome travel rules were introduced to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant\n\nMeanwhile, the Department of Health has confirmed that a number of travel rules previously introduced to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant will now be removed.\n\nFully vaccinated passengers and under-18s will not be required to take a pre-departure test or self-isolate on arrival from 04:00 on Friday.\n\nPassengers who are fully vaccinated will still be required to complete a passenger locator form and take either a lateral flow test or PCR test on or before day two of their arrival from Sunday 9 January.\n\nAnyone with a positive lateral flow test will be required to book a free confirmatory PCR test and isolate. If the subsequent mandatory confirmatory PCR is negative, then the isolation period can end.", "Harvey Parker was last seen leaving Heaven nightclub in Charing Cross on 17 December\n\nA body found in the River Thames has been confirmed as that of missing student Harvey Parker.\n\nMr Parker, 20, from Lambeth, south London, was last seen leaving Heaven nightclub by Charing Cross station in Westminster at about 02:15 GMT on 17 December.\n\nThe Met's Marine Support Unit recovered the body and detectives have informed his family.\n\nThe death is being treated as unexplained, police said.\n\nOfficers recovered the body near to Embankment, Westminster, after being alerted by the RNLI at 11:51 on Tuesday.\n\nHarvey Parker was last seen near Embankment in Westminster\n\nInner West London Coroner's Court confirmed the body was Mr Parker on Thursday.\n\nDet Chf Insp Lucy O'Connor, of the Central South Command Unit, said: \"We are providing Harvey's family with all the available information. We are also asking for media to please respect the family's privacy at this challenging and difficult time.\"\n\nThe day before the University of York student went missing he had spent the afternoon at an escape room with his family, before heading off to see a music concert in Brixton. He then went to the nightclub at about midnight.\n\nImages released on Tuesday showed him on Craven Street, before he walked south towards the Embankment.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Public Health Wales say \"sorry\" for confusion, say screening changes are \"very safe\"\n\nWomen have expressed concern after cervical cancer screenings were reduced from every three years to every five.\n\nPublic Health Wales (PHW) said a new method of testing would in fact \"save more lives\" and apologised for how changes were communicated.\n\nHowever, 526,000 people have signed a petition calling for a rethink, while more than 1,700 signed another calling for a debate in the Welsh Parliament.\n\nCatherine Jones, from Wrexham, called for more clarity.\n\nShe said cells on her own cervix had been normal a few years ago but now show as \"high-risk\", adding: \"I know a lot can change in three years.\"\n\nCancer Research UK said it wanted to reassure people the changes were based on \"years of research\" and more effective testing methods made it safe to do so.\n\nThe charity's Andy Glyde said: \"I can absolutely understand the concern, I think this has been a very poorly communicated change, but it is the right change that should be made.\n\n\"To those half a million (who signed the petition), they can be confident that this is based on evidence, in research, it's not been plucked out of the air, it's absolutely not cost-saving or anything like that.\"\n\nCatherine Jones said the reasons for the changes should have been communicated better\n\nHowever, Ms Jones said extending the gap between tests to five years was \"something that people would be worried about\".\n\nShe added: \"I was shocked when I saw it and it was only because of the petition. Nothing was mentioned in any of my appointments that it was changing to five years.\n\n\"I think they need to spread more awareness and make people understand the reasons behind it. They need to put out more information about the reasons why.\"\n\nAnyone with a cervix in Wales is invited for smear tests from the age of 25\n\nWomen and people with a cervix will now need to get routinely tested less often because of the success of Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing, PHW explained.\n\nIt was introduced in Wales in 2018 and almost nine out of 10 results show no high risk. It is those who show no high risk who will be called for testing every five years.\n\nLouise Dunk, Public Health Wales' head of programme for cervical screening, described it as \"a really positive development\".\n\nAnd screening division director Dr Sharon Hillier said the method - also used in England and Scotland - would \"save more lives\".\n\nHowever, the two petitions were set up over concerns cancers could be spotted too late.\n\nRebecca Hallett said she was concerned about the implications\n\nRebecca Hallett, 26, from Caerphilly, called the move \"ridiculous\", adding: \"I think all women should begin getting screened as soon as they become sexually active, which is hard to police I know.\n\n\"I think that a lot of women are already nervous and scared, put off by a friend's bad experience, to go for their first smear anyway.\n\n\"By moving the gap between smears from three to five years seems like it's making these screenings look less important.\"\n\nMs Hallett also said women were encouraged to get their smears after the death of television personality Jade Goody, aged 27, adding: \"By extending the gap it may just make people complacent.\"\n\nThe Senedd petition was created by Joanne Stroud who called the move \"unacceptable\", adding: \"There has been no public consultation and upon release (of details), it has been met with anger, sadness and serious concern for the cervical health of Welsh women.\"\n\nThe death of TV personality Jade Goody led to an increase in women getting smear tests\n\nJo, 43, from Bridgend, who didn't want to give her surname, was diagnosed with cervical cancer 11 years ago and said she believed tests should be done every year.\n\n\"I was 30 when I had my first screening and it was fine. I had another screening a year later at 31, because there's a history in my family of cancer,\" she told Dot Davies, on BBC Radio Wales phone in.\n\n\"It came back as abnormal cells but I was told don't worry, this wasn't unusual, it happened a lot.\"\n\nThen at 32, she found out she had cervical cancer when her children were five and six years old.\n\nJo added: \"Everything happened very quickly - I was in and out of hospital for 12 months where I had haemorrhaging, severe abdominal pain.\n\n\"I lost a lot of weight - I went down to seven and a half stone.\"\n\nDoctors found three tumours in her right ovary, and Jo said she believed she could have died from cervical cancer if there had been a two-year gap between tests.\n\nCerys Furlong received an invitation for a cervical smear on the day changes were announced\n\n\"These screenings are so important because within six months everything went from being abnormal cells to full-on cancer,\" Jo said.\n\n\"We are supposed to be a progressive society but this is going backwards.\"\n\nCerys Furlong, chief executive of gender equality charity Chwarae Teg, said the way the changes were announced was \"really, really unhelpful\".\n\nShe received a letter calling her for a cervical smear on Wednesday, but said it \"seemed like an awfully long time since the last one\" and women are often unsure when they are due their next test and how to chase it up.\n\nShe added: \"When it was announced it was 'here we go again', women's needs and healthcare seemed to be not as important.\n\n\"This may not have been the case, but I do have concerns about any increase... five years is an awfully long time.\"\n\nAlice Davies, from Cancer Research UK said the UK National Screening Committee recommended moving to a five-year frequency because of changes to tests.\n\nThis is because samples are now tested for the human papilloma virus, which can cause abnormal cells if left untreated.\n\n\"As HPV causes virtually all cases of cervical cancer, this new way of testing samples detects more women at risk of developing cervical cancer,\" Ms Davies said.\n\n\"As the new test is more accurate at finding those at risk of cervical cancer, screening intervals can be safely extended from three to five years.\"\n\nShe said it meant focus could now go on those more at risk, while people do not have extra rounds of screening that would give no benefit.", "About 1.3 million people in the UK have \"long Covid\", symptoms lasting more than four weeks after an initial infection, an Office for National Statistics survey suggests.\n\nOf those, 892,000 (70%) first caught the virus at least 12 weeks ago and 506,000 (40%) at least a year ago.\n\nThe survey asked nearly 352,000 people to record their own symptoms.\n\nThere is no universally agreed definition of long Covid and different studies use varying definitions.\n\nGuidance for health workers in England describes it as symptoms that continue for more than 12 weeks after an infection and cannot be explained by another cause.\n\nThese include extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and \"brain fog\", according to the NHS.\n\nThe ONS survey, over four weeks in November and December 2021, suggests, of those with long Covid:\n\nIn line with previous analyses, about 20% said their symptoms meant their ability to do day-to-day activities had been limited a lot.\n\nAnd those most likely to have long Covid are:\n\nUniversity of Exeter senior clinical lecturer Dr David Strain said: \"The stark warning here is that, based on this, in the previous waves, over 800,000 people have their day-to-day activities significantly affected over three months after catching Covid and nearly a quarter of a million report this has a dramatic impact on their quality of life.\n\n\"As we continue to see case numbers of Omicron rise, we must be wary that our reliance purely on hospitalisations and death as a measure of the risk from Covid could grossly underestimate the public-health impact of our current Covid strategy.\"\n\nRecent reports suggest vaccinations help protect against the illness.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ben John was ordered to attend four review hearings in court as part of his sentence\n\nA man told by a judge to read classic literature after being convicted of possessing a bomb-making manual has apparently made \"encouraging\" progress.\n\nBen John, 21, was convicted of having a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook on a computer hard drive.\n\nHe was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years.\n\nAt the sentencing hearing, Judge Timothy Spencer QC asked him to read classic literature and said he would test him on this at review hearings.\n\nJohn, from Lincoln, brought copies of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with him to his first review hearing at Leicester Crown Court.\n\nThe judge asked him to write down a list of the books he had read so far.\n\nAfter looking at the list, the judge asked: \"And is what you have read of more satisfaction to you than some of the material we heard about in front of the jury?\"\n\nHe replied: \"I enjoyed Shakespeare more than Jane Austen, but I still enjoyed Jane Austen to a degree.\"\n\nThe judge replied: \"Well I find that encouraging.\"\n\nBen John took a copy of Pride and Prejudice with him to his first review hearing\n\nThe judge also referred to a report that had been written about John on 30 December.\n\nHe said: \"It is a largely positive and encouraging report. It is clear that you have tried hard to sort your life out, and part of that has been your efforts to find and keep a job.\n\n\"It is equally clear that the glare of publicity that this case has attracted has hampered your rehabilitation.\"\n\nThe judge said he found one area of concern in the report, which was on page two in paragraphs six and seven. However, he did not say what was in these paragraphs.\n\n\"That part of the report does disappoint me and I do not expect to see any similar conduct in your future reports,\" the judge said.\n\nJohn was convicted by a jury in August of one count of possessing information likely to be useful to terrorism.\n\nHe was found not guilty of six other counts of the same offence.\n\nAs part of his sentence he had to attend a \"Healthy Identity Intervention\" programme for 30 days.\n\nHe was also told to attend four review hearings in front of Judge Spencer.\n\nCampaign group Hope Not Hate asked for the sentence to be considered under the unduly lenient sentence (ULS) scheme.\n\nAn open letter, written by the group's chief executive Nick Lowles, said: \"A suspended sentence and a suggested reading list of English classics for a terror conviction is unduly lenient for a crime of this nature.\"\n\nThe Attorney General has since referred the case to the Court of Appeal, and a hearing is due to be held on 19 January.\n\nA spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office said: \"It is now for the court to decide whether to increase the sentence.\"\n\nJohn's next review hearing in front of Judge Spencer has been provisionally set for 4 July.\n\nJudge Spencer told him: \"I hope and expect not to see a repeat of the sort of conduct that we have discussed.\n\n\"I'm encouraged by what you have written out for me, and I encourage your efforts to obtain permanent employment, and I wish you well with those efforts.\n\n\"That is it. I will see you in six months' time.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sage Willoughby, Jake Skuse, Milo Ponsford and Rhian Graham were cleared of criminal damage after a monument to the 17th Century slave trader was pulled down and thrown into Bristol's harbourside last June.\n\nJacob Rees-Mogg has defended juries amid criticism from some Conservative MPs after four people who removed a statue of slave trader Edward Colston were cleared of criminal damage.\n\nThe statue was thrown into Bristol harbour during a protest in 2020.\n\nResponding to the verdict, one MP suggested the jury system \"should be addressed\" if it was a \"barrier\" to doling out punishments.\n\nBut Mr Rees-Mogg said juries are the \"great sublime protector of liberties\".\n\nA lawyer for the defence Blinne Ni Ghralaigh welcomed the not guilty verdict saying: \"In this case, they determined that a conviction for the removal of this statue - that glorified a slave trader involved in the enslavement of over 84,000 black men, women and children as a 'most virtuous and wise' man - would not be proportionate.\"\n\nHowever the decision has angered a number of Conservative MPs.\n\nMP for Ipswich Tom Hunt told the Telegraph: \"If you've broken the law and committed criminal damage you should be punished. If the jury is a barrier to ensuring they are punished then that needs to be addressed.\"\n\nFormer communities secretary Robert Jenrick tweeted: \"We undermine the rule of law, which underpins our democracy, if we accept vandalism and criminal damage are acceptable forms of political protest. They aren't. Regardless of the intentions.\"\n\nAnd another Conservative, Michael Fabricant, said the verdict could \"give rise to other statues being damaged\".\n\n\"The Cenotaph and the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square have been vandalised in the past by anti-racism protesters, and there are now fears that extremists will be 'emboldened',\" he added.\n\nHowever, Leader of the House of Commons Mr Rees-Mogg said he did not think the Bristol verdict put other monuments at risk.\n\nSpeaking in Parliament, the senior minister said: \"I shall not be going out of here immediately afterwards and drawing a moustache on the statue on Oliver Cromwell much though I am opposed to regicides in principle and think they deserve to be removed from pedestals broadly speaking.\"\n\nHe told MPs that monuments should be protected and only removed through \"due process\", but added that \"one of our greatest monuments is the jury system which is the great sublime protector of our liberties\".\n\n\"Juries must be free to come to decisions that they choose to come to on the facts that are in front of them in relation to a specific case and what they hear from the prosecuting counsel, from the defence counsel and from the judge,\" he said.\n\nAsked about the jury's decision, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wouldn't comment on the case itself, but argued that it was \"wrong\" for people to \"go round seeking retrospectively to change our history\".\n\nColston's statue was thrown in Bristol's harbourside during a Black Lives Matter protest\n\nAnd speaking earlier in the day, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said new powers in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill would close a \"potential loophole\" limiting the prosecution of people who damage memorials.\n\nThe bill - currently going through Parliament - would allow courts to consider the \"emotional or wider distress\" caused by damage to public property and raise the maximum sentence to 10 years - regardless of the cost of damage.\n\nIt will also formalise the process of applying for the removal of statues, with ministers being given a final veto.\n\nThe House of Lords will continue its scrutiny of the bill on Monday 10 January.", "The RAC has accused petrol retailers of ripping off motorists by refusing to pass on wholesale price cuts.\n\nThe motoring organisation said unleaded petrol fell by 2p a litre, but should have come down by 12p.\n\nIt estimated drivers were overcharged by £5m a day in December as retailers made an average of 16p a litre on petrol instead of the normal 6p.\n\nThe Petrol Retailers Association objected, saying drivers were likely to have benefited more than that.\n\n\"December was a rotten month for drivers as they were taken advantage of by retailers,\" said the RAC's fuel spokesman, Simon Williams.\n\nIn the past, he said, retailers had always reduced pump prices when wholesale prices dropped.\n\n\"This time they've stood strong, taking advantage of all the media talk about 'higher energy prices' and banked on the oil price rising again and catching up with their artificially inflated prices, which it has now done,\" Mr Williams said.\n\nBut Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, said: \"December's pump price data is less reliable because it is taken from fuel card transactions, and there have been far fewer of these transactions because of the reduction in business activity between Christmas and New Year.\"\n\nHe said the retail fuel market remained \"extremely competitive\" and said supermarkets did not use artificially low fuel prices to lure shoppers into their stores at Christmas.\n\n\"The costs of running petrol stations rose all year, with electricity up 19%, vastly reduced margins from fuel cards, increased national insurance and wage inflation,\" he added.\n\nThe RAC said unleaded dropped from 147.47p a litre to 145.48p, when drivers should have seen prices nearer to 135p.\n\nDiesel dropped by just under 2p a litre from 150.80p to 148.92p, when drivers should have been paying about 142p, it said.\n\nThe RAC's data suggested that the price of a litre of unleaded on the wholesale market, including delivery, averaged 106p across December.\n\nIt said that had a 6p margin been taken by retailers, drivers would have seen an average petrol pump price of around 135p after applying VAT at 20%.\n\nThe average wholesale cost of delivered diesel was 112p a litre which, with the usual 6p retailer margin, would have given a pump price of about 142p.\n\n\"This means it has cost petrol car drivers £6 more to fill up a typical 55-litre family car than it should have (£80 v £74) and for diesel nearly £4 more, with a tank costing £82 at the end of the month instead of £78,\" the RAC said..\n\nIt estimated retailers' refusal to reflect lower wholesale prices at the pumps cost petrol car drivers £156m in December, or the equivalent of £5m a day.\n\nHoward Cox, founder of campaigning group FairFuelUK, called for the government to create an independent pricing watchdog.\n\n\"If gas, electricity, water and telecoms get price protection bodies, why shouldn't motorists have one too?\" he said.\n\nHe said that if prices at the pumps were \"honest and transparent and open to scrutiny\", inflation could fall by as much as 1%.\n\n\"Pump prices should be 10p lower per litre if the actual wholesale price falls had been passed on honestly.\"\n\n\"Sadly, the government's efforts to work with the fuel industry so that pump prices are competitive, and market driven, ensuring consumers benefit from lower prices, is not working,\" said MP Craig Mackinlay, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Fuel for Motorists and Hauliers.", "The government admits the evidence for using masks in schools to reduce spread of Covid is \"not conclusive\".\n\nThe uncertainty is acknowledged in a review used by ministers in England to make their decision to introduce face coverings in classrooms.\n\nThe government's own study in the autumn did not provide proof of a statistically significant impact.\n\nThe evidence review says other studies have provided mixed results, but taken together suggest they may help.\n\nAnd the move was backed by the UK Health Security Agency.\n\nThe review has only just been published following the announcement on Monday about the return of face coverings in classrooms.\n\nIt includes the results of a study in 123 schools in England which used masks and compared that to others that did not during the Delta wave of Covid. The UK is currently experiencing the spread of an even more infectious variant - Omicron - but there is not enough data yet on this one and masks.\n\nSchools where face coverings were used in October 2021 saw a reduction two to three weeks later in Covid absences from 5.3% to 3% - a drop of 2.3 percentage points.\n\nIn schools which did not use face coverings absences fell from 5.3% to 3.6% - a fall of 1.7 percentage points.\n\nIt said this was not statistically significant and the greater reduction in schools where masks were worn could be down to chance.\n\nThe review also acknowledges the use of face coverings could harm learning.\n\nBut a full analysis of the costs versus benefits of the policy has not been done.\n\nThis is despite 94% of school leaders and teachers saying it made communication between teachers and pupils more difficult.\n\nSome 80% of pupils also said it made communication harder, but 70% said it made them feel safer.\n\nThe review said a \"balanced judgement\" had been made.\n\nMinisters have maintained face coverings have a material impact, but will not be used for a \"day longer than necessary\".\n\nSusan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at UKHSA, said: \"We support the Department for Education's decision to reintroduce the use of face masks in secondary schools temporarily whilst Covid rates remain high.\"\n\nThe Department for Education said the move was aimed at \"reducing transmission and disruption to learning\".", "Ghislaine Maxwell is seen during the trial in a court sketch\n\nLawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell say she deserves a new trial after a juror told media that he used his own experience of being sexually abused to persuade other jurors who doubted witnesses.\n\nProsecutors also asked the judge to open an inquiry into the statements.\n\nMaxwell was found guilty last week of grooming underage girls to be abused by Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nThe juror said he told fellow jurors that, like some of Epstein's victims, he had been abused as a child.\n\nThe man, who asked to be identified by his first and middle name, Scotty David, told reporters that he shared his experiences with jurors after some had questioned the recollections from two of Maxwell's accusers.\n\n\"I know what happened when I was sexually abused. I remember the colour of the carpet, the walls. Some of it can be replayed like a video,\" he said he told the jury, according to The Independent. \"But I can't remember all the details, there are some things that run together.\"\n\n\"When I shared that, they were able to sort of come around on, they were able to come around on the memory aspect of the sexual abuse,\" Scotty David said, referring to other jurors, according to the Reuters news agency.\n\nHe also said that he \"flew through\" the juror questionnaire used before trial to ascertain whether prospective jurors could judge Maxwell fairly, and did not recall being asked about his experiences with sexual abuse. He added that he would have answered honestly.\n\nIn a letter to US District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan, who presided over Maxwell's trial, the lawyer for the British socialite said there were \"incontrovertible grounds\" for a new trial to serve the interest of justice.\n\nThe letter was filed shortly after prosecutors said the reports \"merit attention by the Court\".\n\nNeama Rahmani, a lawyer and legal commentator who co-founded West Coast Trial Lawyers, told the BBC that if Scotty David \"lied on his prospective juror questionnaire and denied being the victim of sexual abuse, that would be both perjury and potential grounds for a mistrial\".\n\n\"This is why prosecutors cringe when jurors talk to the media after a guilty verdict: because jurors may say something that may overturn the conviction,\" he said.\n\nMaxwell, 60, was convicted on five of the six counts she faced, including the most serious charge - that of sex-trafficking a minor. Her lawyers have already said they will appeal against the verdict.\n\nA long-time associate of convicted child sex offender Epstein, Maxwell has been in jail since July 2020 when she was charged with involvement in the financier's abuse of teenage girls. Some of the victims were as young as 14.\n\nEpstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.\n\nA date for her sentencing has not yet been set.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The secret lives of Maxwell and Epstein", "A university professor has argued the Welsh government should ease Covid restrictions\n\nCovid restrictions should return to pre-Omicron levels, according to a senior epidemiologist.\n\nCardiff University's Prof John Watkins said booster jabs meant the threat was no worse than that posed by Delta.\n\nThe expert said Omicron cases were more transmissible but less severe and patients were less likely to die.\n\nBut the British Medical Association opposed changes and the Welsh government said its current measures were proportionate.\n\nWales' case rate has hit a new high of 2228.5 cases per 100,000, having more than doubled in a week.\n\nFor the last seven days Wales recorded an average of 10,037 positive cases a day, although daily reported cases have fallen slightly since the high mark of 14,327, recorded on 29 December.\n\nThat factor is currently mitigated by \"80 to 90%\" of over 70s having had a booster jab.\n\n\"We have moved ourselves back to that position where we were in the autumn,\" Prof Watkins said.\n\nThe Welsh government, he said, should think about moving back to its position in November and perhaps \"realign\" with England.\n\n\"We're now in the same position as we were in the pre-Christmas period, when let's be honest, we saw the autumn internationals,\" he said.\n\n\"We had four weekends where you had 80,000 people in a stadium and many, many more and we didn't see a rise in cases, hospitalizations or death.\n\n\"I think we're moving more into that situation so my view would be that it is time to review it and, probably, we should certainly be realigning ourselves with the English.\"\n\nCardiff University's Prof John Watkins said the current threat was no worse than that posed by Delta last Autumn\n\nProf Watkins, who has advised the UK and Welsh governments, admitted Omicron infections were stretching the NHS, particularly by causing high staff absence levels.\n\nHowever, Professor Philip Banfield from the British Medical Association (BMA) said restrictions should remain in place for the next two to four weeks, \"while this wave of Covid plays out\".\n\n\"We went into the pandemic with too few staff and too few beds, and a social care system that was disintegrating, it takes very little to tip us over the edge and I'm afraid the NHS is being tipped over the edge.\n\n\"We're getting feedback for the first time of doctors getting very distressed about their inability to assess patients in the emergency department, I'm getting feedback from GP colleagues saying patients don't want to go into hospital because they fear they will die in the waiting room of the emergency department.\n\nHe added that efforts to tackle the backlog of non-urgent care in Wales have been \"abandoned\".\n\n\"There's very little elective work taking place, cancer work is taking place, if you are genuinely ill with something serious we are desperately trying to get people into hospital still - and to do that safely.\n\n\"The sheer numbers of people getting this variant at this point in time mean a small number admitted to hospital [could] really stretch the service and threaten to tip the NHS in Wales over the edge.\"\n\nVice President of the Royal College of Physicians in Wales, Olwen Williams agreed with the BMA and that the Welsh Government's Covid restrictions should remain in place \"for the next couple of weeks\".\n\nShe said: \"We are aware some people are saying that Omicron is quite a mild disease, but what we're saying is we don't know what that impact is on us, on our elderly, our frail and our unvaccinated and we cannot risk putting people at more harm than is necessary.\"\n\nOn Thursday, Public Health Wales reported six more deaths with Covid, although there were 36 deaths a day at this point in 2021, compared to just over three deaths a day on average now.\n\nThere is a daily average of 625 patients with confirmed Covid in hospital beds - an 82% increase on a week ago, although there were two and a half times as many Covid patients in hospital this time last year.\n\nProf Watkins argues that restrictions alone would not help the health service cope.\n\nInstead, he believes isolation rules should be less strict for the triple vaccinated.\n\n\"The triple vaccinated should be able to be more free to go into work, et cetera,\" he said.\n\n\"I think what we can say within the UK and in Wales is that our vaccine uptake of boosters is around 80-90%, so there's high levels of vaccination in this country,\" said Prof Watkins.\n\n\"My personal view is that we probably should move to mandatory vaccinations.\n\n\"This is all about being proportionate. Symptomatic disease is one thing, but asymptomatic people who test positive are probably quite a low risk of transmission and are unlikely to place any demand on the healthcare system.\"\n\nThe decline of traditional winter illnesses, Prof Watkins argued, could also help the NHS.\n\nCold-like illnesses, such as the respiratory virus RSV, and flu had plummeted.\n\n\"We saw some RSV in children before Christmas, but that peak has declined and we've seen virtually no influenza,\" the professor said.\n\n\"So actually the demand we would expect at this time of year is a demand that we've seen, and it is nowhere in comparison to some of the worst influenza epidemics of the past.\"\n\nProf Watkins did not think Omicron would vanish totally, and said there would have to be a point where life would go \"back to normal\".\n\n\"I suspect that's going to be in 2022 and my hope would be that it was in early 2022, not late,\n\n\"We're getting millions of cases a week in this country, so it's going to naturally have spread to most sectors of the population where people are susceptible, and so therefore it's going to naturally, if you like, burn out,\" he said.\n\nWelsh ministers review Covid restrictions weekly. An announcement is due on Friday.\n\nIn response to Prof Watkins' comments, the Welsh government said its responses had always been science and evidence-based.\n\n\"Omicron is a fast-moving, highly-infectious form of coronavirus,\" a spokesman said.\n\nThey said studies provided hope about the variant's severity, but large infection numbers had caused knock-on effects to public services and the economy.\n\nRising numbers were being admitted to hospitals when the NHS was at its busiest, the Welsh government said.\n\n\"The measures and strengthened guidance, which were introduced from Boxing Day, are a proportionate response to the public health threat from Omicron,\" the spokesman said.\n\n\"The cabinet keeps all measures introduced in response to Omicron under close review.\"\n\nNightclubs closed their doors on 26 December under current rules\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives called on ministers to release support for businesses affected by Covid restrictions \"urgently\" and for a rethink about the restrictions on outdoor sporting events.\n\nIn a statement ahead of Friday's review, Andrew RT Davies, Welsh Tory leader in the Senedd, said: \"Business must not wait until the 17 January to apply for support - that funding needs to be released now.\"\n\nHe also called for Welsh ministers to scrap \"ridiculous\" fines for workers who go into the workplace when they could work at home.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford has previously defended the fines saying they were in place the last time there was a work from home obligation, that \"no fines were issued at all\" during that period and \"they are designed to protect workers, not to penalise them\".\n\nMr Davies has also demanded a rethink of the rules restricting numbers for outdoor sporting events.\n\nHe said: \"We also need the Labour government to seriously examine the logic behind its decisions to limit participation in and attending sports events like Parkrun, not only for the sake of mental health but, so that Wales can play its Six Nations games here and fans can spend their money here.\"", "The Mail on Sunday published a letter the duchess sent to her father Thomas Markle in 2018\n\nThe Duchess of Sussex will receive £1 in damages from Associated Newspapers after the Mail on Sunday was found to have invaded her privacy.\n\nThe nominal sum was set out in court documents which formally confirm the newspaper has accepted defeat.\n\nThe Mail on Sunday published a handwritten letter that Meghan sent to her father Thomas Markle in 2018.\n\nThe media company will also pay an unspecified sum for a separate case of infringing her copyright.\n\nAssociated Newspapers previously indicated it was considering a further appeal to the Supreme Court, but the company has now accepted defeat in the long-running case.\n\nLast February, the High Court had ruled against the newspaper group on the issue of privacy and copyright - saying the issues in the case were so clear cut that there was no need for a full hearing.\n\nAssociated Newspapers was refused permission to appeal against the decision but went to the Court of Appeal in an attempt to get the original ruling overturned.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nHowever, in December, the Court of Appeal rejected Associated Newspapers' attempt to have a trial.\n\nJudges at the appeal said it was hard to see what evidence at a trial would have altered the situation.\n\nThey added: \"The judge had correctly decided that, whilst it might have been proportionate to publish a very small part of the letter... it was not necessary to publish half the contents of the letter.\"\n\nA spokesman for Associated Newspapers said at the time: \"It is our strong view that judgment should be given only on the basis of evidence tested at trial, and not on a summary basis in a heavily contested case.\"\n\nIn her own statement issued after the ruling, the duchess urged people to be \"brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that... profits from the lies and pain that they create\".\n\nAssociated Newspapers will also pay a confidential sum for copyright infringement, while the Mail on Sunday also faces having to cover a substantial part of Meghan's legal costs, which could be more than £1m.\n\nThe £1 might sound like small change, but Meghan's big ambition was about the principle rather than the pay-off.\n\nHer lawyers had already signalled, before the Mail on Sunday's appeal was heard, that they only sought nominal damages over the privacy breach.\n\nThere had been legal exchanges about whether it should be £1 or £5, so maybe the paper got one bargain out of it.\n\nBecause if those amounts seem rather frugal, it was alongside a wrangle over a hefty £1.5m in legal costs.\n\nAnd the token privacy payment was balanced by a much higher confidential amount over the copyright claim.\n\nPlus the newspaper had to publish a front page statement about her courtroom success.\n\nIt was much further reaching than a poundshop win.\n\nMedia lawyer Mark Stephens told the Guardian the nominal £1 settlement suggested a weakness in the privacy aspect of the duchess's case.\n\n\"Normally for that kind of invasion of privacy you would expect £75,000 to £125,000,\" he said. \"It does show that the curation of her reputation was an area where she had effectively invaded her own privacy.\"\n\nHowever, libel lawyer David Hooper told The Daily Beast: \"Accepting the £1 will likely have avoided a tremendous argument about the extent of the damage she suffered.\n\n\"She just wanted to establish a principle and get her legal costs paid, although she may well still be a half a million pounds out of pocket as a result of this process.\"", "Peter Bogdanovich, the US film director known for films such The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon has died aged 82, his agent confirmed on Thursday.\n\nThe New Yorker's work became synonymous with the New Hollywood of the 1970s.\n\nHis coming-of-age drama, 1971's The Last Picture Show, which he also co-wrote, earned him eight Oscar nominations including best director.\n\nThe film, set in a Texas town, had an ensemble cast of rising stars including Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepherd.\n\nIn 2014, he returned with his first movie in 13 years. She's Funny that Way, starring Owen Wilson and Imogen Poots, was \"a celebration of old Hollywood\", wrote BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber at the time.\n\nBogdanovich also starred on the small screen, appearing on HBO's The Sopranos where he played the role of a psychotherapist.\n\nBorn in 1939, Bogdanovich became interested in cinema from an early age.\n\nBetween the ages of 12 and 30, he kept a record of every film he watched along with a small review on an index card.\n\nAs a teenager, he attended acting school and upon leaving took up small roles in theatre and on television, the New York Times reports.\n\nBogdanovich is survived by his two children.\n\nFrancis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather, released a statement to Deadline to say he was \"devastated\" by the news.\n\n\"May he sleep in bliss for eternity, enjoying the thrill of our applause forever\", he said.\n\nGuillermo del Toro, the director of Pan's Labyrinth, tweeted: \"He was a dear friend and a champion of Cinema... He single-handedly interviewed and enshrined the lives and work of more classic filmmakers than almost anyone else in his generation.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Officer Harry Dunn is still traumatised by the attack on the Capitol\n\nPresident Joe Biden will blame Donald Trump for the US Capitol riot as he marks the anniversary of the attack on the seat of American democracy.\n\nSpeaking at Congress, Mr Biden will say his predecessor holds \"singular responsibility\" for the \"chaos and carnage\", said spokeswoman Jen Psaki.\n\nInvestigators have so far arrested 725 suspects in connection with the attack.\n\nTrump supporters stormed the building as Congress was meeting to certify Mr Biden's presidential election victory.\n\nImages of US lawmakers cowering from the mob in the gallery of the House of Representatives on that afternoon of 6 January 2021 shocked the world.\n\nMr Trump had urged protesters at a rally outside the White House shortly beforehand to \"peacefully\" march on Congress, but he also exhorted them to \"fight\" and stirred up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud in the election he had just lost.\n\nThe former president had planned to host a competing news conference on Thursday from his Mar-a-Lago resort home in Palm Beach, Florida. But he cancelled the event after aides reportedly warned of negative press coverage.\n\nA spokesman for Mr Trump, Taylor Budowich, said it was \"unsurprising\" that Mr Biden would spend the day \"trying to further divide our nation\" in an attempt to distract voters from rising inflation and crime and coronavirus school closures.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'A nation in decline' - how the world saw the Capitol riot\n\nPresident Biden - who rarely mentions his predecessor - will speak on Thursday morning in Statuary Hall, a section of the Capitol complex that was breached by rioters.\n\nThe White House press secretary said the president's speech \"will lay out the significance of what happened at the Capitol, and the singular responsibility President Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw\".\n\n\"He will forcibly push back on the lies spread by the former president - in an attempt to mislead the American people, and his own supporters, as well as distract from his role in what happened,\" she added.\n\n\"President Biden has been clear-eyed about the threat the former president represents to our democracy,\" Ms Psaki continued.\n\nHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi will preside over a moment of silence at noon on the chamber floor.\n\nAn inquiry into the riot is being conducted by a House committee, which is dominated by President Biden's Democrats.\n\nThe panel is chasing phone records, visitor logs and other White House documents that could shed light on events leading up to the attack on Congress. They have issued legal summonses to members of Mr Trump's inner circle.\n\nSenior Republicans will mostly be outside of Washington on Thursday, with the party's Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, heading a delegation to the funeral of a former senator in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr McConnell said in the immediate aftermath of the riot that Mr Trump was \"practically and morally responsible\".\n\nSome Republican lawmakers have portrayed the invasion of Congress, in which rioters engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police, as a peaceful protest that was spoiled by a few troublemakers.\n\nBut conservative Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was lambasted on the right on Wednesday after he labelled the riot \"a violent terrorist attack\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. US Rapper Nick Nittoli shares his thoughts on QAnon and the US Capitol riots ‘So embarrassed’\n\nUS Attorney General Merrick Garland gave an update on the FBI inquiry on the eve of the anniversary, calling the law enforcement operation \"one of the largest, most complex and most resource-intensive investigations in our history\".\n\n\"The actions we have taken thus far will not be our last,\" he said. \"We will follow the facts wherever they lead because 6 January was an unprecedented attack on the seat of our democracy.\"\n\nHe said 140 police officers had been assaulted, including one who was beaten and zapped repeatedly with a stun gun until he had a heart attack.\n\nAnother screamed for help as rioters crushed him between doors and bludgeoned him with his own weapon, said the attorney general.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. When a mob stormed the US capitol\n\nMr Garland is facing pressure from the left to prosecute the rioters more aggressively, as well as charge the former president himself and his allies.\n\n\"We build investigations by laying a foundation,\" Mr Garland said. \"We resolve more straightforward cases first because they provide the evidentiary foundation for more complex cases.\"\n\nMost of the charges so far have been misdemeanours that often entail no jail time in the event of a conviction.\n\nThese suspects have been charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct, parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, and obstructing congressional proceedings.\n\nBut 325 suspects are facing felonies - more serious counts - such as using a dangerous weapon to assault officers.\n\nMr Garland said 300,000 tips had been submitted by private citizens, and the FBI were still hunting about 2,500 suspects.\n\nOne rioter, an unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt, was shot by an officer while trying to breach the House chamber. Two others died from natural causes related to cardiovascular disease and another succumbed to a drug overdose.\n\nCapitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died a day later of natural causes after suffering two strokes while defending the building, according to medical officials.\n\nIn an opinion piece for the New York Times on Wednesday, the oldest-living former US President, Jimmy Carter, warned that the country \"now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss\".\n\n\"Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late.\"\n\nA week after the riot, Mr Trump was impeached by the House for incitement of insurrection, but acquitted by the Senate, which was then controlled by his fellow Republicans. He is still seen as holding sway over the party.\n\nOf 10 Republicans who sided with Democrats in the lower chamber vote, two have resigned amid death threats, three others are facing Trump-backed election challenges, and four more have kept a low profile.\n\nWyoming's Liz Cheney was stripped of her Republican leadership position in the House, but is spearheading the congressional inquiry into the Capitol riot.\n\nNational divisions over the invasion of Congress are underscored by BBC interviews with American voters.\n\nJames Clark, 69, a life-long Republican voter in Virginia, said: \"It was truly shocking. President Trump seemed intent on burning down the house before leaving Washington.\"\n\nBut Trump voter Keri Smith, 42, of Texas, argued that the Black Lives Matter protests were worse.\n\n\"We've seen stuff crazier than that happening on a weekly basis for the past two years,\" she said.\n\nLaura Powers, a disaffected Republican, says she is \"still horrified\" by what she watched on TV that day.\n\n\"It was a horrible, dark day for democracy and it should never ever happen again,\" she said.\n\nThe riot has been described as the worst assault on the Capitol since the War of 1812. It is not the only such attack since that era.\n\nIn 1983 a female-led communist group bombed the US Senate. No-one was injured.\n\nOne of the co-defendants in that attack had her sentence in another case commuted by US President Bill Clinton.", "A Russian submarine collided with a Royal Navy warship's sonar on patrol in the North Atlantic, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.\n\nHMS Northumberland had been tracking the submarine when it hit the ship's sonar equipment being trailed hundreds of metres behind it.\n\nThe incident, in late 2020, was captured by a television crew filming a documentary.\n\nA UK defence source said it was unlikely the collision was deliberate.\n\nHMS Northumberland was searching for the submarine in the Arctic Circle after it disappeared from the ship's radar, according to Channel 5, which was filming for its Warship: Life at Sea series.\n\nThe MoD said the frigate had located the hunter-killer submarine using the towed array sonar - a long tube fitted with sensitive hydrophones to listen under the water.\n\nA periscope was spotted on the surface by the ship's Merlin helicopter before the Russian submarine dived again, hitting HMS Northumberland's sonar.\n\nThe film cameras captured the crew shouting: \"What the hell was that?\".\n\nIt is not clear what, if any, damage was suffered by the Russian vessel but the warship had to return to port in Scotland to replace the damaged equipment.\n\nThere has been an increase in Russian submarine activity in recent years, and Royal Navy frigates regularly patrol the North Atlantic.\n\nThe MoD would not usually comment on operations but it has done so because the incident was caught on camera.\n\nA spokesman said: \"In late 2020 a Russian submarine being tracked by HMS Northumberland came into contact with her towed array sonar.\n\n\"The Royal Navy regularly tracks foreign ships and submarines in order to ensure the defence of the United Kingdom.\"", "Boris Johnson has been criticised by his standards adviser over an official inquiry into the refurbishment of his Downing Street flat.\n\nMr Johnson said he was sorry that messages he had exchanged with a Tory peer who initially paid for the revamp had not been disclosed to Lord Geidt.\n\nThe messages were revealed during a separate inquiry by the elections watchdog on how the works were funded.\n\nLord Geidt said it demonstrated \"insufficient\" respect for his role.\n\nHe added they would not have changed the verdict of his own investigation last year that Mr Johnson had not breached the ministerial rulebook.\n\nBut, in an exchange of letters with Mr Johnson, he said they would have led him to question some of the conclusions of the report, published in May.\n\nReplying to Lord Geidt, Mr Johnson offered a \"humble and sincere apology\", and said the messages were sent from a previous mobile phone, which he did not have access to, and he \"did not recall the message exchange\".\n\nMr Johnson's text exchange with Lord Brownlow, published on Thursday, shows on 29 November the PM asked the Tory peer whether he could ask an interior designer contracted for the work to make contact with him to approve fresh redecorations.\n\nLord Brownlow had been asked by Mr Johnson to oversee a charitable trust to fund the work - an idea that was later abandoned.\n\nMr Johnson told Lord Brownlow that parts of his official residence, where refurbishment work began in April 2020, were \"still a bit of a tip\" and he was keen to allow the designer, Lulu Lytle, to continue with the renovations.\n\nA couple of hours later, Lord Brownlow replied, and then in a subsequent message, he added that the trust had not yet been set up but \"approval is a doddle as it's only me and I know where the £ will come from\".\n\nIn his original report, Lord Geidt cleared the PM of a conflict of interest, after it emerged that Lord Brownlow had donated £52,000 to help cover costs.\n\nHe said the prime minister appeared not to be aware that Lord Brownlow had initially paid for the redecorations from his own pocket.\n\nBut he revisited the original probe after it was revealed the PM had sent WhatsApp messages to the Tory peer in November.\n\nThe messages were revealed as part of an investigation by the Electoral Commission, which fined the Conservatives £17,800 last month for failing to accurately declare Lord Brownlow's donations.\n\nAfter the exchange came to light, Downing Street said Mr Johnson had thought Lord Brownlow was overseeing the money, but did not realise the peer was providing the funds himself.\n\nIn his letters to the PM, Lord Geidt said he had been told Mr Johnson lost the ability to search for the messages in April 2020, after security changes following news his personal mobile phone number was available online.\n\nHowever, he said it was \"plainly unsatisfactory\" he had not been made aware of their existence during his original investigation.\n\nHe also expressed \"grave concern\" that officials in Mr Johnson's team had not alerted him to them when the phone was later accessed in June 2020, or before the Electoral Commission disclosed their existence in December.\n\n\"I believe this episode demonstrated insufficient regard or respect for the role of independent adviser,\" he added.\n\nHe added that the lack of disclosure \"shook my confidence\" and \"real failures of process\" had taken place in several parts of the government.\n\nLabour deputy leader Angela Rayner argued it meant the prime minister had broken rules on ministerial conduct, and \"has little regard for the rules or the truth\".\n\n\"Once again, by attempting to hide the truth, Boris Johnson undermines his own office,\" she added.\n\n\"The prime minister's pathetic excuses will fool no one, and this is just the latest in a long line of sorry episodes.\"\n\nLiberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said the episode meant there were \"serious question marks\" over Lord Geidt's original investigation.\n\nShe also poured scorn on the PM's reason for not disclosing the messages - that he had changed his phone - as \"akin to the dog eating your homework\".\n\nThe WhatsApp messages between the prime minister and Lord Brownlow are uncomfortable for No 10. The PM describes the Downing Street flat as a tip - and asks for more money for renovations. The fact they weren't disclosed earlier has clearly made Lord Geidt very unhappy.\n\nBut the messages have also raised a new question about a project being backed by Lord Brownlow.\n\nBoris Johnson says he is \"on the great exhibition plan\", a reference to the idea of major exposition in the UK.\n\nLord Brownlow is a backer - he thanks the PM for thinking about it.\n\nBut some might question why the prime minister brought up a project backed by Lord Brownlow - in a message where he was also asking for more money to be made available from a trust he controlled.\n\nNo 10 says the Great Exhibition idea was dropped - but records show Lord Brownlow did meet the culture secretary to discuss it a few weeks after his exchange with the PM.\n\nAnd the government did back another idea - Festival UK or Unboxed - a UK-wide \"celebration of creativity\" due to take place later this year.\n\nLabour said nobody should be able to \"buy access\" and that the PM had serious questions to answer.\n\nThere was a commitment in the 2019 Conservative manifesto for major Festival of Great Britain in Northern Ireland in 2022. Lord Brownlow, it's understood, is not involved.\n\nDowning Street said: \"All prime ministers and ministers have proposals put to them at various points and ministers also meet stakeholders regularly as part of their engagement on an array of issues.\n\n\"In line with normal practice this idea was referred to the relevant department, considered and ultimately not taken forward by the government.\"", "Tennis star Novak Djokovic has had his visa to enter Australia dramatically revoked on his arrival in Melbourne.\n\nIt comes a day after he was granted an exemption from vaccination rules to play in the Australian Open.\n\nThe BBC's Ros Atkins looks back at how things got to this point.\n\nMore on this story: Australia cancels visa of tennis No.1 Djokovic", "The US President Joe Biden has said that Donald Trump has a bruised ego and cannot accept that he lost the election.\n\nHe was speaking a year after rioters stormed the US Capitol building.", "On 6 January, 2021, people around the United States were shocked by images coming from the US Capitol.\n\nThe pictures - many of which were captured by news agency photojournalists on hand to document the vote certifying Joe Biden's electoral win - depicted rioters trespassing in government offices, or roaming the Senate chamber, or assaulting police officers.\n\nThis week, a House of Representatives select committee set up to investigate the events will begin public hearings aimed at piecing together what happened and who can be held accountable.\n\nWhile the committee can refer cases for prosecution, it is up to the Justice Department to determine if charges are actually filed.\n\nBut for many of the rioters, the snaps taken that day have already come back to haunt them.\n\nTo date, more than 810 have been arrested in nearly every US state and Washington DC. More than 60 so far have been sentenced to incarceration, with US officials vowing that more prosecutions are likely in the future.\n\nInvestigators are seeking public help in identifying over 350 rioters, including 250 suspected of attacking police officers.\n\nHere are five of the most iconic pictures of rioters and what's happened to them since 6 January.\n\nAmong the most widely shared images was that of Jacob Anthony Chansley, a 34-year old who referred to himself as the \"QAnon Shaman\". An ardent Trump supporter, Chansley was pictured wearing horns and a bearskin headdress during the riot, quickly becoming one of the most recognisable figures from the siege.\n\nChansley was arrested just days after the riot. In November, he was sentenced to 41 months in prison for his involvement, in addition to 36 months of supervised release. In court, Chansley said he now believes it was \"wrong\" to enter the Capitol and that he hopes to \"evolve\".\n\nHis sentence is one of the longest so far doled out to 6 January rioters. He is currently being held in a low-security federal prison in Arizona.\n\nAnother rioter, 36-year-old Florida resident Adam Johnson, was famously pictured walking - wearing a Trump beanie - between guide ropes meant for tours at the Capitol. He was carrying a podium bearing the seal of the Speaker of the House and posed in front of a painting depicting the surrender of British General John Burgoyne in the American Revolutionary War.\n\nJohnson, who was dubbed \"Podium Guy\" by social media users in the wake of the riot, was charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and theft of government property just days later.\n\nIn November, Johnson pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building. The other charges were dropped by prosecutors in exchange for a guilty plea.\n\nAdditionally, Johnson - who has expressed interest in writing a book - agreed to hand over any publishing profits to the government for a five-year period.\n\nEarly this year, he was sentenced to 75 days in prison and was also fined $5,000 (£3,996).\n\nAhead of his prison sentence, Johnson reportedly planned to host an \"Adam is going to prison\" party at a Florida restaurant. The event was eventually cancelled by the venue.\n\n\"Come help me celebrate my last Friday of freedom before I go to prison for the lamest charge in history,\" a Facebook page for the event read.\n\nAnother Trump supporter, Richard Barnett, was pictured sitting with one boot on a desk in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.\n\nThe image of Mr Barnett - dressed in a baseball cap and chequered shirt - went viral, as did pictures of the notes he and others left on Mrs Pelosi's desk.\n\nMr Barnett now faces multiple charges in connection with the riot, including obstruction of an official proceeding, entering a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct.\n\nHe has pleaded not guilty to the charges and in April rejected the government's offer of a plea deal. He is currently not in jail.\n\nMr Barnett's trial is scheduled to begin on 6 September.\n\nA fourth rioter, Kevin Seefried, was photographed holding a Confederate battle flag while walking through the halls near the entrance to the Senate, encountering little resistance.\n\nMr Seefried and his son, Hunter, were arrested a week after the riot and hit with multiple charges, including violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds.\n\nThe father-son duo is scheduled to begin a bench trial - in which their culpability will be determined by a judge, rather than a jury - on 13 June.\n\nAaron Mostofsky, a Trump supporter, in the US Capitol on 6 January 2021\n\nThe son of a prominent and politically connected New York City judge, Aaron Mostofsky was famously pictured wearing a fur pelt as a \"caveman\" and holding a police riot shield and wooden stick inside the US Capitol during the 6 January riot.\n\nHe told the New York Post he felt that supporters of President Trump \"were cheated\" in the election.\n\n\"I don't think 75 million people voted for Trump - I think it was close to 85 million,\" he told the newspaper. \"I think certain states that have been red for a long time turned blue and were stolen, like New York.\"\n\nMostofsky was arrested in New York six days after the riot and charged with multiple offences, including theft of government property, assaulting or impeding officers and disorderly conduct.\n\nIn February, he pleaded guilty to one felony charge of civil disorder, as well as several misdemeanor charges.\n\nThree months later, he was sentenced to eight months in prison followed by 12 months of supervised release, including 200 hours of community service and $2,000 (£1,600) restitution.", "Vodafone is delaying the reintroduction of roaming charges in Europe by three weeks.\n\nThe phone network had planned to bring in post-Brexit roaming fees on 6 January, matching other networks that plan to do so in 2022.\n\nBut it said more time was needed for testing, and the change will now come in at the end of January.\n\nEE has also delayed resuming its roaming charges, which were planned for January, until March.\n\nBefore the UK left the EU, users were able to use their calls, texts, and data allowance in their mobile plans in any EU country. But the EU trade deal of December 2020 gave mobile operators the option of reintroducing charges.\n\nThe Three network has also said it will bring in roaming charges between the UK and Europe, though their change is planned for May 2022.\n\nThat means that of the largest mobile networks, only O2 has not announced any plans for the reintroduction of roaming fees.\n\nExplaining the reason for delaying its planned changes, Vodafone said it was not ready to bring in the new system.\n\n\"We have pushed back the introduction of roaming charges to the end of January, giving time for further testing to ensure the best possible experience for customers purchasing our £1 per day bundles. Until then, customers will continue to be able to roam without charges.\"\n\nThe £1 a day charge is Vodafone's best price, and only applies when bought in an eight or 15-day bundle. The usual planned price is £2 per day in fees, matching EE and Three's planned pricing.\n\nEE said the shift in its plans was caused by unspecified technical delays.\n\n\"Making big changes to billing systems in mobile phone networks is always risky,\" said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight and founder of the Mobile Phone Museum.\n\n\"The backlash and negative publicity for any network operator that does not get it right would be immense if a customer ended up with an eye-watering roaming bill.\n\n\"My guess is that rather than rushing out a change, the operators are delaying the introduction to be absolutely sure everything is working.\n\n\"Given the current Covid situation it's not like lots of people are travelling, so the operators are not going to be massively exposed on unexpected roaming costs.\"", "All targets for Northern Ireland's cancer waiting times have been missed, latest figures show.\n\nIn September, 75.5% of breast cancer patients were seen within 14 days. The target is that all urgent breast cancer referrals should be seen within that time.\n\nThe target for 95% of patients to begin treatment within 62 days after an urgent GP referral was also missed.\n\nOnly 42.5% got treatment within that time during September.\n\nThat figure rose slightly to 43.9% in August and 52.4% in July.\n\nThe targets for waiting times for a first definitive treatment following a decision to treat were also missed.\n\nDuring September 2021, there were 2,583 new referrals for suspect breast cancer - this compares to 2,042 the year before.\n\nThe chief executive officer of Cancer Focus NI, Richard Spratt, described the latest waiting time figures as \"extremely disappointing\".\n\n\"Yet again, large numbers of local cancer patients have not been seen within the department's own target dates,\" he said.\n\n\"This has been a consistent failure ever since these targets were set.\n\n\"These statistics are not just numbers; they represent real people.\n\n\"When patients are waiting so long for a diagnostic test or treatment, the impact on them is devastating on top of all the other stresses associated with Covid-19.\"", "The BBC has asked ordinary Americans from around the country how they see the 6 January attack today.\n\nJames is a lifelong Republican who refused to vote for Donald Trump. His vote for Joe Biden in 2020 was the first time he ever cast his presidential ballot for a Democrat.\n\nAfter watching the siege at the Capitol unfold on national television, he wrote to his local Republican Party, begging them to condemn what had happened.\n\n\"Your committee is in part responsible for the violence,\" his letter said.\n\n\"If you still believe the Trump disinformation, then you should go join a proper cult instead of continuing to destroy the Republican Party from within.\"\n\nFor James, the shock from a year ago has not dissipated and he fears that more violence may come.\n\n\"There's a shift in the country with all the misinformation that is promulgated on the internet,\" he tells the BBC.\n\nHe hopes his party will stop listening to Trump and \"the madness will end at some point\".\n\n\"These things go in cycles. The current situation is just so crazy it can't maintain itself.\"", "Margaret Ferrier denies wilfully exposing people to the risk of illness and death\n\nMP Margaret Ferrier will stand trial in August accused of travelling between Glasgow and London knowing she had Covid symptoms.\n\nThe 61-year-old, who represents Rutherglen and Hamilton West, is accused of making the trips despite being told to self-isolate.\n\nMs Ferrier is also said to have travelled in and around Glasgow over three days in September 2020.\n\nShe denies wilfully exposing people to the risk of illness and death.\n\nMs Ferrier, who was suspended by the SNP in September 2020, appeared in the dock at Glasgow Sheriff Court to plead not guilty and was granted bail.\n\nPaul Kavanagh, defending, said: \"Most of the evidence will be capable of agreement.\"\n\nProsecutor Mark Allan told the court: \"Due to the pandemic, the trial will not be fixed for a number of months.\n\n\"A pre-trial hearing will be useful. There are number of civilian witnesses with significant commitments to parliament that will require to be worked around.\"\n\nSheriff Johanna Johnston QC fixed a pre-trial hearing in June as well as the trial on 15 August which is expected to last five days.", "The WHO says Omicron is putting pressure on healthcare facilities around the world\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against describing the Omicron variant as mild, saying it is killing people across the world.\n\nRecent studies suggest that Omicron is less likely to make people seriously ill than previous Covid variants.\n\nBut the record number of people catching it has left health systems under severe pressure, said WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.\n\nOn Monday, the US recorded more than one million Covid cases in 24 hours.\n\nThe WHO - the UN's health agency - said the number of global cases has increased by 71% in the last week, and in the Americas by 100%. It said that among severe cases worldwide, 90% were unvaccinated.\n\n\"While Omicron does appear to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorised as mild,\" Dr Tedros told a press conference on Thursday.\n\n\"Just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising people and it is killing people.\n\n\"In fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick, that it is overwhelming health systems around the world.\"\n\nOmicron is highly contagious and can infect people even if they are fully vaccinated. However, vaccines are still pivotal as they help protect against severe disease that could put you in hospital.\n\nOn Thursday, the UK reported 179,756 cases and 231 Covid-related deaths. A number of hospitals have declared \"critical\" incidents due to staff absence and rising pressures due to Covid.\n\nElsewhere, hospital numbers are also rising. France's health minister Olivier Veran warned this week that January would be tough for hospitals.\n\nHe added that Omicron patients were taking up \"conventional\" beds in hospitals while Delta was putting a strain on ICU departments. France on Thursday reported 261,000 cases.\n\nFrance has seen a record rise in Covid cases in recent weeks\n\nSerbia's President, Aleksandar Vucic, said the country's healthcare system is currently under great pressure. The country recorded more than 9,000 cases on Thursday, according to local media.\n\nIn his latest comments, Dr Tedros repeated his calls for greater vaccine distribution to help poorer countries jab their populations.\n\nHe said that based on the current vaccine rollout, 109 countries will miss the WHO's target for 70% of the world to be fully vaccinated by July.\n\nLast year, the WHO chief said the world will have enough doses of the vaccine in 2022 to jab the entire global adult population - if Western countries do not hoard vaccines to use in booster programmes.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: It would be folly to think Covid is almost over", "Cars line up for PCR tests at a drive-through site at Edinburgh Airport\n\nScotland's current Covid case rates are in line with the worst case scenario, according to the health secretary.\n\nHumza Yousaf has confirmed infections are at the highest level predicted in an evidence paper published in early December.\n\nHe said the next two weeks were set to be the \"most difficult\" faced by the NHS in its 73-year existence.\n\nBut he said new data was looking more positive on hospitalisations due to the virus.\n\nScotland registered 11,360 new positive cases on Thursday - bringing the total number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began to more than a million at 1,010,660.\n\nAbout one in 20 people in Scotland had Covid last week, according to the Office for National Statistics - up from one in 40 the previous week.\n\nMr Yousaf warned BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme the peak was yet to come and health chiefs were already making \"exceptionally difficult\" decisions on prioritising care.\n\n\"Certainly we are heading into the peak and expect that in the next few weeks,\" he said.\n\n\"If you remember the paper we published in early December, we are clearly into the worse case scenario in terms of levels of infection.\"\n\nOmicron modelling from the Scottish Government's December evidence paper put daily infections at an average of 16,000 daily cases by the end of December, increasing into January\n\nHe said that evidence that Omicron was less severe than other variants suggests there may be a \"more optimistic picture in terms of hospitalisations\".\n\nHowever he added: \"Our concern continues to be that even a small percentage of a big number at a time when the NHS doesn't have much headroom at all, is putting real pressure, along with staff absences, on the NHS and social care system.\n\n\"I don't think there's any way of sugar-coating the fact these next two weeks will probably be amongst the most difficult our NHS has faced in its 73 year existence.\"\n\nThe MSP said the health service was dealing with the backlog from the pandemic, high levels of staff absences, and more than 1,200 people in hospitals with Covid.\n\n\"All of those pressures coming during the winter months when we tend to see busier hospitals means this is a perfect storm,\" he said.\n\nLatest figures for the week until 4 January showed NHS Scotland staff absences due to Covid to be at 5,482 - the highest since June 2020.\n\nThe situation in emergency departments across the country is \"the worst it has ever been\", according to Dr John-Paul Loughrey of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, who said medical colleagues were \"filled with dread\" about the next four to six weeks.\n\nNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has told the public to stay away from A&E departments unless their condition is \"very urgent or life-threatening\" due to the \"unprecedented and unsustainable\" pressures they are facing.\n\nThe board said anyone else should first call NHS24 on 111, which it said would \"ensure they are directed to the most appropriate urgent service for their needs and A&Es are safeguarded for those who need them\".\n\nDr Scott Davidson, deputy medical director for acute services at NHSGGC, said A&E units were seeing a large number of people with symptoms that could be managed by speaking to a GP or a local pharmacy.\n\nHe added: \"There are other services geared up and ready to see and treat you.\n\n\"If you've had a slip, trip or fall, we have numerous minor injuries units (MIUs) across NHSGGC which can look after you, including if you've broken a limb.\"\n\nOpposition parties said the plea from the health board showed that the Scottish government had failed to adequately prepare the NHS for the pressures it was now facing.\n\nScottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: \"My colleagues on the frontline are beyond breaking point and have suffered due to Humza Yousaf's inaction and lack of planning ahead of the winter period.\n\n\"A&E services have been overwhelmed for months on end and now patients are being told to try and access treatment elsewhere\".\n\nHis Labour counterpart, Jackie Baillie, said there were also reports of people waiting for more than an hour to get through to NHS24, and called for action from Mr Yousaf \"to bring this situation under control immediately\".\n\nIn the Borders, routine operations and all but essential visiting has been cancelled by the local health board.\n\nNew self isolation rules aimed at improving staff shortages in the NHS and key worker roles were announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Wednesday.\n\nPeople who test positive for Covid in Scotland are now allowed to exit self-isolation after seven days if they have no fever and record two negative lateral flow tests.\n\nAnd household contacts of people with the virus are now allowed to take tests rather than going into quarantine, so long as they have had a booster shot.\n\nProf James Chalmers from the University of Dundee's School of Medicine, said it was important people were honest about their lateral flow test results.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"This isn't that the self-isolation period has been cut from 10 to seven days, it's still 10 days unless you are able to post two negative lateral flow tests, and it's very important that people are scrupulously honest with those negative lateral flow tests.\n\n\"If you don't take a lateral flow test, if you just exit self-isolation at day seven, the modelling suggests a 15% risk that you are still infections, so anybody who cheats these rules is putting others at risk because there is still a risk if you don't have those negative lateral flow tests.\"\n\nProf Chalmers said that, despite the high number of cases in Scotland, the peak was not expected until later this month.\n\nHumza Yousaf confirms Scotland is experiencing the \"worst case scenario\" of Omicron cases\n\nMr Yousaf also told Good Morning Scotland of his \"frustration\" about changes to the coronavirus testing regime for international travel being announced for England only - despite UK-wide discussions on what the rules should be.\n\nWhile talks had taken place between the four nations, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced changes on Wednesday for England only - scrapping pre-departure tests and isolation for travellers.\n\nInstead people will be required to take a lateral flow test no later than the end of day two after their arrival.\n\nMr Yousaf promised a written update for MSPs in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday afternoon.\n\nBut he said: \"Although we engaged in a conversation with the UK government, it is a source of frustration that if the UK government unilaterally decides to move in a certain direction we end up with potentially a double whammy if we don't align.\"\n\nMr Yousaf said that if Scottish ministers opt to follow a different course, this would cause further damage to the travel industry north of the border, without any public health benefit, as travellers could instead opt to fly to and from English airports.", "Farmers and landowners in England could be paid to turn large areas of land into nature reserves, or to restore floodplains, under new government agriculture subsidies.\n\nWhen the UK was part of the EU, farmers were given grants based on how much land they farmed.\n\nFollowing Brexit, the government has pledged to pay based on how farmers care for the environment.\n\nBut environmental groups say the new plans lack detail and may not deliver.\n\nIn what the government describes as \"radical plans\", landowners and farmers will be allowed to bid for funding to turn vast areas of land - between 500 and 5,000 hectares - over to wildlife restoration, carbon sequestration, or flood prevention projects.\n\n\"What we're moving to is a more generous set of incentives for farmers doing the right thing,\" Environment Secretary George Eustice told the BBC.\n\n\"We can have both sustainable, profitable food production, and see a recovery for nature as well.\"\n\nAgriculture is a devolved issue meaning that each UK nation has its own plans. Wales, for example, has said its new funding scheme will promote environmental benefits and be in place from 2025.\n\nUnder the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, farmers were given taxpayers' money largely based on the amount of land they farmed: the more land they held, the more cash support they got. In 2020 about £3.5bn was handed out.\n\nNow the government says that instead of rewarding farmers for how much land they work, it wants to encourage farmers to introduce practices that improve the environment.\n\nFarming creates 10% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, and large-scale agriculture has long been accused of degrading the environment.\n\nApplications will shortly open for the first wave of \"Landscape Recovery\" projects. Mr Eustice said the scheme would lead to \"fundamental land use change\" creating new woodlands, restoring peatlands, and other \"intensive interventions\".\n\nThe aim of these pilot projects is to create 10,000 hectares of restored wildlife habitat, which could help sequester carbon and restore England's rivers and streams. Mr Eustice said he hoped it would lead to more large-scale rewilding projects like the Knepp estate in West Sussex.\n\nBut Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said the \"golden opportunity\" of the agricultural transition was in danger of being \"wasted\" .\n\n\"While we're hearing the right noises from the government, the devil will be in the detail, and the detail is still not published nearly six years after the EU referendum,\" he said.\n\nJames Robinson, a farmer in Cumbria with 300 acres of land, said it was difficult to judge the proposals because they still lacked detail.\n\n\"It will make a difference but we need action now. The way farming has been run for the last 40-50 years has been for field production at the expense of environment. We can't keep going as we are, we need to make a change now, and as farmers we need to step up and make a change. But we also need government support to do that and it's still not quite there yet,\" he said.\n\nThere were also concerns among tenant farmers about how they could take part. George Dunn of the Tenant Farmers Association said: \"Payments are being removed from tenant farmers in real time while we have a vague commitment for further work to be undertaken on how tenants can access schemes\".\n\nDr Alexander Lees, from Manchester Metropolitan University, said the schemes fitted well with the challenges of reversing declines in Britain's most endangered species - those on the Red List. But the aspirations of the pilot seemed \"simultaneously low and over-ambitious\", he said.\n\n\"It would seem very hard to reverse biodiversity loss for the 'most threatened species' in just 10,000 hectares,\" he added.\n\n\"If we are serious, then we need to be racing towards the 300,000 hectare target as fast as possible.\"\n\nAn additional plan, called the Local Nature Recovery scheme, will pay farmers to deliver on small-scale environmental priorities, such as \"creating wildlife habitat, planting trees, or restoring peat and wetland areas\".\n\nMr Eustice said it was \"about individual farms or groups making space for nature on part of their holding, perhaps creating water features on some of the less productive land, or hedgerows for breeding sites for birds.\"\n\nThe government says, by 2030, the policy aims to:\n\nDetails of the broader Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), which aims to support sustainable farming practices, were revealed in December.\n\nThe Wildlife Trusts, National Trust and RSPB were highly critical of the SFI plans, saying they were \"deeply concerned\" that they did not go far enough.\n\nAccording to the Wildlife Trusts, the SFI allows 30% of arable soils to be left bare over winter, which is damaging to soil health. The standards also do not address the damaging impact of pesticides and artificial fertilisers on soil, it said.\n\nIt also claimed that farmers would be left to measure and assess their own management plans.\n\nMr Eustice said judging how successful the plan is would be a \"complex\" thing to do in the years ahead.\n\nHe said: \"We've been running agri-environment schemes in one form or another for well over 20 years, and each of those have been evaluated. It may not be perfect, but we think it's reasonably accurate. And you have to work on something.\"", "Security forces on the streets of Almaty, Kazakhstan's biggest city\n\nFresh gunshots have been heard in Kazakhstan's largest city, as the president claims order has been largely restored after a violent crackdown to days of anti-government demonstrations.\n\nReports said gunfire was heard near the main square of Almaty, the epicentre of protests sparked by a fuel price hike.\n\nThe interior ministry said 26 \"armed criminals\" and 18 security officers had been killed so far in the unrest.\n\nRussian-led forces have arrived in the country at the president's request.\n\nInternet access in the country is down and little independent information is coming out. Armoured personal carriers and troops were seen in the main square of Almaty on Friday, the Reuters news agency said.\n\nMore than 3,000 people have been arrested, according to the interior ministry, and local media said 70 checkpoints had been set up across the country.\n\nIn a statement on Friday, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said \"constitutional order [had] largely been restored in all regions of the country\" and that \"local authorities [were] in control of the situation\".\n\nThe president. who has blamed foreign-trained \"terrorists\" for the unrest without giving evidence, said the operations would continue until \"the militants are completely eliminated\".\n\nAs the protests escalated, President Tokayev appealed to the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) for support. The bloc includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Armenia.\n\nThe overseas force reportedly sent about 2,500 soldiers to Kazakhstan. The CSTO says the troops are a peacekeeping force and will protect state and military installations. They will stay in the country for several days or weeks, the Russian RIA news agency reports.\n\nWhere is it? Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia to the north and China to the east. It is a huge country the size of Western Europe.\n\nWhy does it matter? A former Soviet republic which is mainly Muslim republic with a large Russian minority, it has vast mineral resources, with 3% of global oil reserves and important coal and gas sectors.\n\nWhy is it making the news? Fuel riots, which have escalated to become broader protests against the government, have resulted in resignations at the top and a bloody crackdown on protesters.\n\nThe US state department said it was closely monitoring the deployment of Russian troops. \"The United States and, frankly, the world will be watching for any violation of human rights,\" a spokesman said.\n\n\"We will also be watching for any actions that may lay the predicate for the seizure of Kazakh institutions.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe unrest began on Sunday when the cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - which many people in Kazakhstan use to fuel their cars - doubled, drawing protesters onto the streets.\n\nThe government has said that fuel price caps will be restored for six months. But the announcement has failed to end the protests, which have broadened to include other political grievances.\n\nKazakhstan is often described as authoritarian, and most elections are won by the ruling party with nearly 100% of the vote. There is no effective political opposition.\n\nThe bloodshed comes after President Tokayev sacked his cabinet on Wednesday in a bid to head off the demonstrations. He also fired his powerful predecessor, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had held a national security role since stepping down as president.\n\nThe bustling square of Almaty has turned into a conflict zone, complete with burnt down buildings and vehicles.\n\nMany people are scared to go outside, especially at night because clashes are continuing. The sounds of shooting and explosions remind people how dangerous it can be to leave their homes.\n\nLocal vigilante groups block the entrances to their villages near Almaty to prevent looting. Checkpoints and makeshift barriers block the entrance to the city, so people use narrow streets to get in and out of Almaty.\n\nThere are big queues at petrol stations. Residents struggle to buy food because shopping malls, supermarkets, cafes and restaurants are all closed, only small shops are still open. The internet blockade continues, so people cannot withdraw money, or top up their phones.", "Sales of electric vehicles soared last year, but the market as a whole failed to recover from the Covid pandemic.\n\nMore electric cars were registered in 2021 than in the previous five years combined, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).\n\nYet the industry body said much more investment was needed in charging infrastructure.\n\nMeanwhile, an acute lack of computer chips left dealers struggling to get hold of many new conventional models.\n\nOverall, 2021 was another dismal year for the motor industry. Preliminary figures from the SMMT show that some 1.65m cars new cars were registered.\n\nThat was a small increase over 2020, when the impact of the first Covid-related lockdowns and dealer closures sent sales plummeting.\n\nBut it was still the second-worst figure recorded in nearly three decades, and 28% down on its pre-pandemic level.\n\nAt the beginning of the year, there was a further lockdown, while any hopes of a lasting recovery later on were dashed by a severe shortage of semiconductors - or computer chips.\n\nThese are critical components in modern cars, being used in areas such as engine management and emissions control, emergency braking, airbags, entertainment systems and navigation.\n\nA modern car can use between 1,500 and 3,000 semiconductors.\n\nBut outbreaks of Covid-19 in regions where the chips are made, particularly in southeast Asia, caused factory closures that restricted supplies.\n\nThe motor industry also faced intense competition for the chips that were available from other sectors, particularly the consumer electronics industry.\n\nThis forced manufacturers to allocate what supplies they had to the most profitable models, as well as to those which helped them meet emissions targets - notably electric and plug-in hybrid cars.\n\nDespite the problems affecting the market as a whole, registrations of electric cars rose more than 75%, from 108,000 in 2020 to 191,000 last year.\n\nIn December, they accounted for one in every four cars sold, while the second-best selling car in the country during the year was Tesla's electric Model 3.\n\nBut there were significant regional differences in the take-up of electric models. London and the south east accounted for about 20% of all electric and plug-in hybrid cars registered; Wales and northern England just 10%\n\nNevertheless, the overall trend will be welcomed by the government, which plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel powered cars by 2030, to help meet commitments on climate change.\n\nBut the SMMT has warned that reductions in the value of the plug-in car grant could send out mixed messages to consumers.\n\nIn December, the maximum value of the grant, which is meant to bring down the cost of an electric car, was reduced from £2,500 to £1,500, and the number of eligible models was also narrowed down.\n\n\"It's a confusing message,\" said Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT.\n\n\"It's a massive ambition to get the entire market to move to meet net zero by 2030/2035. We would argue you need to use every lever at your disposal.\"\n\n\"Anything that brings into doubt that commitment doesn't help a consumer who might be wavering.\"\n\nThe industry body said it is also concerned that while electric vehicle sales are rising rapidly, the number of on-street public charging points is not increasing as quickly.\n\n\"There will be more people competing for a much more slowly increasing number of on street chargers,\" explained Mr Hawes.\n\n\"We want the user experience to be seamless, to be affordable and to be easy. And we just foresee this being one of the barriers to the consumer take-up of these vehicles that we need across the country.\"\n\nBut Melanie Shufflebotham, co-founder of the Zap Map website, which lists charging points across the country, disagreed that the rollout of new infrastructure has been too slow.\n\n\"Electric vehicles are now the norm,\" she said.\n\n\"Sales accelerated throughout 2021 and so did the public charging infrastructure. There are nearly 30,000 public chargers in the UK, an increase of more than a third since the end of 2020.\"\n\n\"But we do need charging to keep growing at pace this year to make sure it is simple for the next generation of EV drivers.\"", "Investors want four of the biggest coronavirus vaccine manufacturers to make access fairer\n\nA large coalition of investment firms want the bosses of coronavirus vaccine makers to have their bonuses withheld if they fail to improve product distribution.\n\nThis could guarantee a \"more equitable\" global circulation of the vaccine, said Rogier Krens chief investment officer of Achmea Investment Management.\n\nDrug makers said they are making sure lower income countries have access.\n\nOver nine billion doses have been administered worldwide.\n\nMr Krens said that the group of 65 companies, which collectively control almost $3.5tn (£2.59tn) in assets, believes that vaccines are \"not distributed fairly at the moment\".\n\nOverall, China and India have administered the highest number of doses, with nearly three billion and 1.5 billion respectively.\n\nThe US is third, with more than 500 million. Many poorer countries are relying on deliveries from Covax, a scheme led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, together with the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which is trying to ensure everyone in the world has access to a Covid vaccine. So far the scheme has distributed more than 900 million vaccines.\n\n\"What we're asking the companies to do is to tie their remuneration policy and strategy to a more equitable distribution of the vaccine,\" Mr Krens explained.\n\nIf they don't commit to a fairer distribution, he said the groups first step will be to vote against any remuneration proposals that don't take this into consideration.\n\nAsked if that means trying to withhold bonuses if the concerns aren't addressed, Mr Krens, replied \"effectively yes\".\n\nExecutive pay at vaccine makers should be linked to distribution, says Rogier Krens of Achmea Investment Management\n\nFigures collated by Our World in Data - a collaboration between Oxford University and an educational charity, show that many of the countries with the lowest vaccination rates are lower income African nations such as Burundi, DR Congo and Chad. Meanwhile, those at the top of the list are wealthier countries such as the UAE, Portugal and Brunei.\n\nLast week the head of the World Health Organisation reiterated the importance of vaccines in ending the pandemic. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu warned against \"narrow nationalism and vaccine hoarding\", and added that if \"we end inequity, we end the pandemic\".\n\nPlease upgrade your browser to see the full interactive\n\nA fairer distribution of vaccines makes sense from both a humanitarian and financial perspective, according to Mr Krens.\n\n\"We definitely feel it's our responsibility to invest in companies that act in a socially responsible way,\" he said.\n\nWhen it comes to the money that the group manages for pension funds and other clients Mr Krens explained that a continuation of the pandemic as it's going now, would be a \"threat\" to the economy and eventually, a threat to their investment returns.\n\nThe massive gap in vaccination rates between advanced economies and poorer nations could cost the global economy $5.3tn over five years according to the International Monetary Fund.\n\nMany people are keen to get coronavirus vaccines, such as these who are queuing up in Malta\n\nThe group of investors have voiced their concerns in a letter to the boards of Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.\n\nIn their statement, they highlight the World Health Organisation's roadmap which calls for 70% of the population of every country to be vaccinated by the middle of this year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What went wrong with vaccinating the world? Three experts explain\n\nThe roadmap calls on vaccine manufacturers to be more transparent about production schedules and to prioritise contracts with Covax and Avat which aim to improve the distribution of vaccines in poorer countries.\n\nVaccines makers said they are doing what they can to ensure that doses are spread out fairly.\n\nAstraZeneca, which has worked with Oxford University on its vaccine, said it is \"producing its COVID-19 vaccine for no profit to low income countries and has distributed most of its supply to low and middle income countries.\"\n\nJohnson & Johnson said that approximately 60% its COVID-19 vaccines have been shipped to low and middle income countries and that fair access to them has been \"at the forefront\" of its response to the pandemic. It added that its executive pay strategy \"is designed to promote long-term, sustainable value creation\".\n\nModerna and Pfizer haven't responded to requests for comment. However last year, in an open letter Pfizer's chief executive Albert Bourla wrote that the biggest restriction on expanding manufacturing was \"scarcity of highly specialised raw materials\".\n\nInternational political efforts to improve vaccine production and distribution through a wavier of intellectual property rights have stalled. Hopes for an agreement at the World Trade Organisation were dented when it's in person Ministerial Conference was abruptly cancelled in late November.\n\nAchmea's Rogier Krens believes that such a sharing of the vaccine manufacturing know-how has an important role to play in improving vaccine distribution.\n\nAlthough they have largely resisted so far he said: \"We're actually calling actively for the pharmaceutical companies to contribute in that area\".\n\nHe argued that increasing vaccine supply is crucial to getting more people protected from coronavirus.\n\nMr Krens said that the coalition of investors can bring about change from the drug makers, even if it doesn't happen overnight, because it's size equates to \"quite a strong voice\".", "Governor Bel Edwards signed the pardon near the site of Plessy's arrest\n\nThe governor of Louisiana has pardoned Homer Plessy, a 19th century black activist whose arrest 130 years ago led to one of the most criticised Supreme Court decisions in US history.\n\nPlessy was arrested in 1892 after he purchased a ticket and refused to leave a whites-only train car in New Orleans.\n\nIn 1896, the top US court ruled against Plessy, clearing the way for Jim Crow segregation laws in the American South.\n\nThe pardon was spearheaded by the very office that sought charges against him.\n\nAfter Plessy was removed from the train, his case - Plessy v Ferguson - wound up in front of the Supreme Court. The court ruled that accommodations can exist for different races - a doctrine dubbed \"separate but equal\".\n\nTheir decision stood for decades, until the landmark 1954 Brown v Board of Education case helped begin to dismantle racial segregation laws.\n\nPlessy, a shoemaker who was one-eighth black, died in 1925 with the conviction still on his record.\n\nThe pardoning ceremony on Wednesday was held outside the former train station where he was arrested.\n\nIt was attended by Louisiana Governor Bel Edwards, as well as Plessy's descendants and those of John Howard Ferguson, the Louisiana judge who found Plessy guilty of violating the state's Separate Car Act of 1890. The law at the time required railway companies to provide \"equal but separate accommodations\" for black and white travellers.\n\n\"The 1896 Plessy decision ordained segregation for the explicit purpose of declaring and perpetuating white supremacy, as immoral and factually erroneous as that was - and is,\" said Gov Edwards.\n\n\"Mr Plessy's conviction should never have happened,\" he continued. \"But, there is no expiration on justice. No matter is ever settled until it is settled right.\"\n\nOrleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams, whose office historically prosecuted the case, had fought for the posthumous pardon.\n\n\"While Homer Plessy's actions made him guilty of a crime under law, it was the law that was the real crime,\" said Mr Williams.\n\nKeith Plessy, a distant relative of Plessy, told the Times-Picayune newspaper at the ceremony: \"I feel like my feet are not touching the ground today, because the ancestors are carrying me.\"\n• None US must confront its Original Sin to move forward", "The Extern NI investigation relates to \"serious irregularities\" in financial and performance data in relation to a particular project\n\nGovernment payments to a charity have been suspended over financial \"irregularities\", according to a letter sent by the Department of Health.\n\nThe Nolan Show can reveal the Department for the Economy is said to be investigating Extern NI.\n\nThe investigation reportedly relates to \"serious irregularities\" in financial and performance data provided by Extern NI in relation to a particular project.\n\nExtern said it cannot comment on investigations.\n\nThe charity also said its services were continuing as normal.\n\nExtern is an all-Ireland organisation that provides services in relation to employment, alcohol and drugs, disability services, homelessness, minority communities. and mental health and suicide.\n\nThe Nolan Show has obtained a leaked letter from the Department of Health's director of finance to health trust finance directors in Northern Ireland.\n\nIt said that Stormont's Department for the Economy has suspended all payments to Extern NI pending the outcome of the investigation.\n\nThe Department of Health letter advises officials to seriously consider suspending payments to Extern NI until an investigation has been completed.\n\nExtern helps people in crisis and describes itself as the leading social justice charity across Ireland\n\nThe letter states Extern NI is being investigated by the Department for the Economy \"in conjunction with the PSNI\".\n\nHowever, the PSNI say \"at this time, the Police Service of Northern Ireland are not conducting an investigation into this matter\".\n\nThe Nolan Show asked the Department of Health how this can be considered fair on Extern NI, given it was included in a letter asking health trusts to consider stopping payments to the charity.\n\nThe Department of Health said it does not comment on investigations.\n\nExtern NI provide a range of services, some on behalf of the government in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Nolan Show understands that Extern's staff have not been told about the investigation or the possible suspension of payments.\n\nAlliance Party assembly member Kellie Armstrong said: \"It will come as a shock to staff and service users to hear of this investigation.\n\n\"Indeed the first I learned there were issues was from the Nolan Show.\n\n\"Any investigation process must be allowed to complete. Until the investigation outcomes are known, it is not appropriate for me to comment further.\"\n\nIn the Department of Health letter, it is acknowledged that officials will need to consider the impact that the stopping of payments could have on the delivery of services delivered in conjunction with Extern NI.\n\nSome payments have been allowed to continue to protect these schemes.\n\nBoth the Department for Communities and the Department for the Economy said they were currently not in a position to comment on this matter.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBoris Johnson has accused anti-vaccine campaigners of speaking \"mumbo jumbo\" when it comes to coronavirus jabs.\n\nThe prime minister said those spreading false information on social media were \"totally wrong\" and it was time for him \"to call them out\".\n\nSome European countries are making vaccination mandatory, but Mr Johnson stressed it was important for the UK to maintain its voluntary approach.\n\nIn the UK, 90% of over-12s have now had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.\n\nAnd nearly 83% have had a second dose, while 60% have had their booster or third primary dose.\n\nThursday's coronavirus figures showed 179,756 new cases had been reported in the UK and 231 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nMr Johnson, who was speaking while on a visit to a vaccination centre in Northampton, said: \"I want to say to the anti-vax campaigners, the people who are putting this mumbo jumbo on social media: they are completely wrong.\n\n\"You haven't heard me say that before, because I think it's important we have a voluntary approach in this country and we're going to keep a voluntary approach.\"\n\nMr Johnson said some other European nations were going for \"coercion\".\n\nItaly is the latest country to make vaccination compulsory for some, with all over-50s now being told to have a jab. Austria was the first to make it a legal requirement.\n\nThe prime minister said: \"What a tragedy that we've got all this pressure on the NHS, all the difficulties that our doctors and nurses are experiencing, and we've got people out there spouting complete nonsense about vaccination.\n\n\"They are totally wrong, and I think it's time that I, the government, call them out on what they're doing. It's absolutely wrong, it's totally counterproductive, and the stuff they're putting out on social media is complete mumbo jumbo.\"\n\nHe said some 30-40% of the 17,000 patients in hospital with Covid \"haven't actually been vaccinated at all\". This is \"increasingly true\" of those in intensive care, added Mr Johnson, as the \"overwhelming majority of them have not been boosted\".\n\nPeople should \"behave sensibly\" as well as recognising \"the vital importance of vaccination\", he added.\n\nThe vast majority of adults in the UK have had Covid-19 vaccines - but that hasn't stopped anti-vaccine activists from continuing their crusade against jabs.\n\nTheir tactics change and evolve according to social media policies and what's in the news. They generally promote unfounded claims about the jabs relating to emotive topics. Some brandish scientific titles in a bid to play on trust in experts.\n\nThe reasons behind vaccine hesitancy vary. Some can't get a jab because of medical reasons. Others are on the fence, or don't see the personal benefit. It's only a tiny minority of the unjabbed who are ardent anti-vaxxers.\n\nBut that group is extremely active on social media, sharing posts and videos that exploit doubt and fear in order to advance their agenda.\n\nA select few do it for money or clicks, but others are simply true believers being pulled deeper into an online movement.\n\nIn recent months, it's become clear that anti-vax activists are losing their battle. Some are trying to create their own small communities.\n\nBut a few are turning to increasingly aggressive tactics - threatening doctors, journalists and politicians online and even turning up to their houses.\n\nMr Johnson said while Omicron is milder than previous variants, \"the pressures on hospitals are clear\".\n\nThe number of hospital trusts in England to be in critical incident status amid staffing shortages and rising numbers of coronavirus cases is currently thought to be 17. A critical incident is declared when a trust is worried it might not be able to provide core priority services like emergency care.\n\nBut the prime minister said it was not true that the NHS does not have enough staff to cope with the increasing pressure - with staff numbers increasing, retired staff being called back and volunteers being used.\n\nMr Johnson said the UK vaccination programme would continue to be voluntary\n\n\"What we've got to do is give the NHS all the help we can through the next period, with all the simplifications of systems, moving staff from one hospital to another, all the ways we can back staff up, but also make sure that the people who are likely to get ill get vaccinated first,\" he said.\n\n\"The saddest words in the English language are 'too late'. When you're in ICU and you haven't been vaccinated, sadly it's too late to get vaccinated, so get boosted now.\"\n\nAsked about Australia's detention of men's tennis world number one Novak Djokovic, amid a row over his vaccination status, Mr Johnson said he shares the view that it is a \"very good idea to get vaccinated\".\n\nBut he said the decision to detain the tennis player was a \"matter for Australia\".\n\nFigures released by NHS England on Thursday suggest fewer than half of all adults in some of England's biggest cities have had a booster or third dose of a Covid vaccine.\n\nIn Nottingham, the take-up of the extra jab among over-18s is estimated to be 42.8%, while it is 45.7% in Manchester, 49.9% in Birmingham and 49.1% in Liverpool.\n\nThe figures, for vaccinations given up to 2 January, suggest Newham in London has the lowest rate of take-up for boosters and third doses out of all English local authorities, with 38.5% of all adults having had the extra jab. The Gloucestershire Cotswolds area is estimated to have the highest rate, at 83%.", "The scheme is expected to benefit 20,000 families\n\nA new emergency winter fuel payment scheme has opened for applications.\n\nIn December, the Department for Communities announced that £2m would be available for extra emergency payments to help those most affected by rising fuel costs.\n\nAbout 20,000 households are expected to benefit from the scheme.\n\nPat Austin, from the Fuel Poverty Coalition, welcomed the move but says £2m \"in the face of this crisis is really nothing\".\n\nShe called it a \"disappointing\" amount of money and called for it to be at least doubled and for a taskforce to be set up.\n\nSuccessful applicants to the scheme will receive a one-off payment of £100 worth of gas, oil or electricity.\n\nFull eligibility criteria, along with the application process, has been published by the Bryson Charitable Group, which is helping oversee the operation of the scheme.\n\nEleven companies from across the energy sector have pledged more than £250,000 in donations to the scheme\n\nHouseholds have seen energy bills increase due to supply and demand on the global wholesale market.\n\nThis has driven up the amount providers pay for gas and electricity - and that cost is now being passed on to the consumer.\n\nThe Consumer Council welcomed the scheme and its chief executive Noyona Chundur said: \"We are delighted to have facilitated the establishment of a scheme that will help ease the heavy burden of energy price rises for 20,000 households this winter.\"\n\nEleven companies from across the energy sector have pledged more than £250,000 in donations to the scheme.\n\nThe scheme will close for applications on 31 March 2022.\n\nA Department for Communities spokesperson said it was a global fuel crisis and support was provided through the affordable warmth Scheme, cold weather payments, discretionary support and the winter fuel payment.\n\n\"The vast majority of this year's winter fuel payments have been issued and to date 290,632 people have received their payment, with a total value of £51.7m.\n\n\"The £2m additional funding will be welcomed by many and is vital in providing emergency financial support to thousands of vulnerable families.\"", "Xi'an's 13 million residents have been under a strict lockdown for two weeks Image caption: Xi'an's 13 million residents have been under a strict lockdown for two weeks\n\nHealth officials in the locked-down city of Xi'an have been sacked following public outrage that a woman suffered a miscarriage after being denied access to a hospital due to Covid rules.\n\nPhotos and video of the woman outside a hospital in Xi'an have received hundreds of millions of views on social media.\n\nShe was sitting on a plastic stool, surrounded by a pool of blood.\n\nHer niece, who posted the images, said her aunt, who was eight months pregnant, had been denied entry to the hospital after her most recent Covid health test had expired just hours earlier.\n\nNow the general manager of the Gaoxin Hospital has been suspended and those directly responsible for not letting her in have been removed from their positions.\n\nThe director of Xian's health department appeared on television today to apologise.\n\nRead more about the lockdown in Xi'an here.", "A person living in the south-west of England has caught bird flu, UK officials have confirmed.\n\nCases like this are extremely rare and the individual probably became infected from very close contact with a sick or dead bird.\n\nExperts say there is no evidence of onward spread and all close contacts of the person are being monitored.\n\nThe individual is currently well and self-isolating, and the risk to the public is very low.\n\nAvian flu, also known as bird flu, is a type of influenza that spreads among birds. The UK has recently seen a large number of outbreaks and incidents of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza in birds across the country.\n\nHuman to human transmission of bird flu is very rare.\n\nSome strains of bird flu can pass from birds to people but, again, is rare and requires close, prolonged contact.\n\nOfficials say the person in question got the infection from \"very close, regular contact with a large number of infected birds, which they kept in and around their home over a prolonged period of time\".\n\nThe virus they caught is the H5 type that is found in birds, but it is not yet clear whether it is the same H5N1 strain that has been causing recent outbreaks in poultry that have then had to be culled.\n\nThis is the first human case of this strain in the UK, although there have been cases elsewhere globally. Being a notifiable disease, The World Health Organization has been informed.\n\nProf Isabel Oliver, chief scientific officer at the UK Health Security Agency, said: \"While the risk of avian flu to the general public is very low, we know that some strains do have the potential to spread to humans and that's why we have robust systems in place to detect these early and take action.\n\n\"Currently there is no evidence that this strain detected in the UK can spread from person to person, but we know that viruses evolve all the time and we continue to monitor the situation closely.\n\n\"We have followed up all of this individual's contacts and have not identified any onward spread.\"\n\nThe UK's chief veterinary officer Christine Middlemiss said: \"We are seeing a growing number of cases in birds on both commercial farms and in backyard flocks across the country.\n\n\"We took swift action to limit the spread of the disease at the site in question, all infected birds have been humanely culled, and cleansing and disinfection of the premises is under way. This is a reminder that stringent cleanliness when keeping animals is important.\"\n\nProf Ian Jones, who is an expert in viruses at the University of Reading, said there is no risk to chicken meat or eggs and no need for public alarm.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jill Dodds is confined to bed in a Thai hospital but is slowly regaining movement in her arms\n\nA teacher badly injured in a fall from a Thailand balcony has been overwhelmed by an appeal to bring her home which has raised more than £30,000.\n\nJill Dodds, 47, sustained spinal injuries on 18 December when the balcony gave way and she plunged 20ft (6m) and landed in a skip.\n\nKatie Breeze, 39, of Morpeth, Northumberland, is coordinating efforts to try to return her sister to the UK.\n\nShe told BBC Look North the money would go towards flights and medical care.\n\n\"She has done a little thank-you video on YouTube and got a bit emotional at the end. I don't think she thought it would take off as much as it has,\" she said.\n\n\"Apart from the donations, it is all the support and messages that people have sent with them. She is really overwhelmed with that.\"\n\nMs Dodds, who moved from Northumberland to Thailand six years ago, was taking selfies with a friend at an end-of-term party when the balcony gave way.\n\nThe fall left her with a crushed vertebrae and no movement below her hips.\n\nKatie Breeze says a medical assistance company is helping to get the documents needed to bring her sister home\n\nWith physiotherapy she has been able to sit up in her hospital bed in \"short bursts\" of 10 seconds, which represents \"really good progress\", Ms Breeze said.\n\n\"She has always been really determined and optimistic she is going to get through this,\" she added.\n\n\"She still doesn't have a lot of movement in her legs and even though she has more control of her arms and can nudge things, she has no use of her fingers so she is a bit frustrated.\n\n\"At heart she is a design teacher and does a lot of creative work with ceramics, pottery and textiles, so that is going to be very frustrating for her not to be able to do things like that.\"\n\nMs Breeze said the majority of the money raised so far would go towards flights to bring Ms Dodds back to the UK with a doctor or nurse, as well as creating a comfortable environment for her at home.\n\nJill Dodds was taking selfies with a friend when the balcony she was standing on gave way\n\nThere are also some outstanding bills for her treatment at a Thai government hospital, with Ms Dodds' insurance not covering all the follow-up care she now requires.\n\n\"We talk to her every day online but the worst thing is being so far away and not being able to talk to the doctors directly to get information from them ourselves,\" Ms Breeze said.\n\n\"We just want her back, to have her here with us, and to know exactly what is going on. It is really frustrating.\n\n\"At the minute we are just waiting for a date when we can get her discharged from the hospital. We are hoping it is going to be very soon.\"\n\nMs Dodds initially went to Thailand on an extended holiday but \"fell in love\" with the country, her sister said.\n\nShe has taught at various schools there and currently works at Panyadee, the British International School of Samui.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Rhian Graham outside Bristol Crown Court after the four were acquitted\n\nFour people accused of illegally removing a statue of Edward Colston have been cleared of criminal damage.\n\nSage Willoughby, Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford and Jake Skuse were charged after a monument to the 17th Century slave trader was pulled down and thrown into Bristol's harbourside last June.\n\nIt happened during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city.\n\nLoud cheers erupted in the public gallery of Bristol Crown Court as the verdicts were returned.\n\nThe defendants, who are all from Bristol apart from Mr Ponsford, 26, who is based in Hampshire, laughed and hugged supporters who were waiting outside after they were released.\n\nThe four defendants celebrated outside court after being found not guilty\n\nSage Willoughby took the knee as he left court following his acquittal\n\nMr Willoughby, 22, was seen taking the knee - a symbolic gesture of the BLM movement - outside court.\n\nThree of the four defendants also wore T-shirts designed by Banksy which featured a stencil of the toppled statue's plinth.\n\nSpeaking outside court after being acquitted, Ms Graham said: \"We just want to say thank you to so many people because we have never been alone in this journey.\n\n\"We have been so supported and we are such a small part of this.\n\n\"There were so many people that day. So many people reverberating across the world in response to it [the statue's toppling].\"\n\nMr Willoughby denied they were trying to edit history, but said others were \"whitewashing history\" by calling Colston a \"virtuous man\".\n\n\"We didn't change history, we rectified it,\" he said.\n\n\"This is a victory for Bristol, this is a victory for racial equality and it's a victory for anybody who wants to be on the right side of history.\"\n\nPeople supported the defendants throughout the trial\n\nThe public gallery erupted into screams and cheers of joy as the four defendants - who have been named the Colston Four - were cleared of wrongdoing.\n\nOutside, supporters gathered with banners and Rhian Graham tearfully thanked them. The thanks also extended to street artist Banksy whose T-shirt sale raised funds for them.\n\nWhile there were many supporters outside the court delighted the four were acquitted, others were not so impressed.\n\nOne came up to supporters of the Colston Four and said the result was \"disgusting\".\n\nThis is something that has divided opinion in Bristol and beyond, and the verdict will lead to more debate about which statues should remain standing across the UK.\n\nRaj Chada, who represented Mr Skuse, said the \"defendants should never have been prosecuted\".\n\nHe added: \"It is shameful that Bristol City Council did not take down the statue of slaver Edward Colston that had caused such offence to people in Bristol and equally shameful that they then supported the prosecution of these defendants.\"\n\nBlinne Ni Ghralaigh, for Ms Graham, 30, said the case \"demonstrates the fundamental importance of trial by jury\".\n\n\"In this case, they determined that a conviction for the removal of this statue - that glorified a slave trader involved in the enslavement of over 84,000 black men, women and children as a 'most virtuous and wise' man - would not be proportionate.\"\n\nDuring a highly publicised trial, the court heard the statue was ripped down before being thrown into the harbour during a wave of protests triggered by the murder of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer.\n\nThe four defendants, together with \"others unknown\", were accused of damaging the Colston statue and plinth of a value unknown without lawful excuse.\n\nThe statue was stamped on after it was pulled down\n\nDuring the trial, Mr Skuse, 33, said he took part in rolling the statue to the docks to stage a symbolic \"sentencing\" of the slave trader.\n\nMr Willoughby argued the statue was an \"insult\".\n\nAppearing in the dock, he said: \"Imagine having a Hitler statue in front of a Holocaust survivor - I believe they are similar.\n\n\"Having a statue of someone of that calibre in the middle of the city I believe is an insult, and I will continue to believe that whatever the outcome of this.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Transport secretary says day two PCRs will be replaced by lateral flow tests\n\nThe current Covid testing system for people travelling to England has \"outlived its usefulness\", Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says, as Omicron is now \"widespread and worldwide\".\n\nAhead of a rule change later this week, he said the system - introduced to slow Omicron's spread - had \"done its part\".\n\nPre-departure tests will end for fully vaccinated travellers and day two PCRs will be replaced by lateral flow tests.\n\nMr Shapps said ministers would \"ensure a stable system is in place for 2022\".\n\nThe shake-up, announced on Wednesday, came after travel firms said the measures were not effective now Omicron was spreading widely.\n\nUnder the current rules in force until Friday, all fully vaccinated travellers over the age of 12 must show proof of a negative lateral flow or PCR test taken in the two days before coming to the UK. Fully vaccinated people must also pay for a PCR test within two days of arrival and self-isolate while waiting for the result.\n\nPeople who aren't fully vaccinated must currently take PCR tests on both day two and day eight after arriving, and self-isolate for 10 days.\n\nPeople going abroad should continue to check the travel rules for their destination country.\n\nScotland's health minister Humza Yousaf spoke of his \"frustration\" that the changes were announced for England only, despite UK-wide talks on what the rules should be. He said he would give an update on Thursday afternoon, while Welsh health minister Eluned Morgan said Wales would \"reluctantly\" align with England.\n\nNorthern Ireland has confirmed it will also follow suit.\n\nMeanwhile, Downing Street said it would continue to look at what it means to be \"fully vaccinated\" given what is known about waning immunity. At the moment, \"fully vaccinated\" refers to people who have had two jabs, but in Scotland the term is now being used to mean those who have had their booster.\n\nTwo doses of some vaccines offer almost no protection from an Omicron infection, although they should still greatly reduce the risk of needing hospital care. But a third booster prevents around 75% of people getting any Covid symptoms.\n\nDr Sarah Pitt, virologist at the University of Brighton, said it was \"sensible\" to test people before they got on a plane, as about one in three people who have Covid do not have symptoms but can be infectious to others.\n\n\"It's not that you're a special risk from having been travelling, but people should be testing themselves regularly anyway,\" she said.\n\nSwabs from PCR tests, which are sent to labs for analysis, can show if the variant causing the infection looks like Omicron, Delta or something else.\n\nAsked whether the rule change could mean new variants are missed among people arriving from abroad, he said anyone who had a positive lateral flow test must get a PCR test via the NHS so it can be checked for new variants using sequencing techniques.\n\nMr Shapps said the UK had a much higher level of sequencing than any other country in the world, so it was tracking new variants very carefully \"regardless of whether it starts here or somewhere else\".\n\nHe warned that stricter travel measures could be reintroduced if another variant of concern emerged, and earlier tweeted that the rules would be reviewed by the end of the month.\n\nThe travel industry welcomed the relaxation of the rules.\n\nEasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said the changes would make travel \"much simpler and easier\", as customers could now book and travel with \"confidence\".\n\nChief executive of travel association Abta, Mark Tanzer, said it was \"potentially very positive\", but that damage had \"already been done\".\n\n\"We now hope to see confidence return as we enter what is usually the peak booking season for summer holidays,\" he added.\n\nSteve Heapy, boss of the airline Jet2, also said the timing of the announcement would make a \"huge difference\".\n\nWill the changes affect your travel plans? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None How are travel rules being relaxed?", "Covid-19 transmission has reached \"extraordinary levels\" in Northern Ireland, the chief scientific adviser has said.\n\nProf Ian Young told BBC News NI that about one in 10 people in some parts of Northern Ireland has the virus.\n\nHe said he expected a peak in the next two to three weeks.\n\nAlmost 12% of the total number of positive cases recorded since the start of the pandemic were reported in the past seven days.\n\nNorthern Ireland has recorded a total of 432,492 coronavirus cases, 50,627 of them in the past week.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann said the Omicron variant had brought an \"unprecedent surge\", after more than 30,000 cases were recorded in the past four days.\n\nProf Young said he hoped pressure on hospitals would be less than they were last January, when Northern Ireland was under lockdown measures.\n\nHe said case numbers were expected to peak early to mid-January, while hospital pressures were likely to peak in late January to early February.\n\nProf Young added that evidence suggested Omicron is less severe than the Delta variant.\n\n\"That is going to be what keeps hospital pressures from rising to very high levels.\n\n\"I hope if we all play our part that hospital pressures might be able to stay below the pressures we observed last January.\n\n\"There does remain a significant threat and we all have a role to play in trying to minimise the pressures that hospitals are going to be under.\"\n\nMr Swann said the risk of getting Covid was now \"considerably higher\" than it had ever been and urged people to get a booster dose of the vaccine.\n\n\"Faced with this very real threat, getting your booster dose right now is the single most important step you can take,\" he said.\n\nHealth Minister Robin Swann said a booster dose was \"the single most important step\" people can take\n\nSince 24 December, the number of patients with Covid in Northern Ireland hospitals has risen from 336 to 348.\n\nAs of Tuesday there are 31 Covid-positive patients in intensive care, 25 of whom are ventilated.\n\nThese figures are consistent with those recorded during the rest of December.\n\nNorthern Ireland's infection rate is the highest in the UK, according to the latest UK government figures.\n\nIn the seven days up until 30 December, 2,252 in 100,000 people here had the virus.\n\nThe pandemic and related pressure on hospital services is also continuing to have an impact on surgical services for cancer.\n\nIn total, 162 red flag suspected or confirmed cancer procedures have been cancelled across all health trusts since 26 November, according to figures from the Health and Social Care Board (HSCB).\n\nIt said trusts are actively working to offer new dates as soon as possible.\n\nDr Frances O'Hagan, the deputy chair of the British Medical Association's Northern Ireland GPs committee has said anyone with cold-like symptoms should book a PCR test.\n\n\"A sore throat is probably one of the most prominent symptoms for Omicron, so it's really important that people do get tested, especially if you do have any other associated symptoms as well, in particular a temperature.\"\n\n\"It is important to go ahead and get a PCR booked as it is so difficult now to know what the symptoms are.\"\n\nHowever the Northern Ireland Executive's advice remains that people should only book a PCR test if they have a high temperature, a new, continuous cough or a loss or change in sense of smell or taste.\n\nClose contacts who are fully vaccinated should take daily lateral flow tests for 10 days following their exposure to the virus.\n\nThey should only book a PCR if a lateral flow is positive.\n\nThe measures taken to contain the Omicron variant in Northern Ireland were tightened at the end of December.\n\nThis includes the closure of nightclubs, table service only at hospitality venues and a limit on the number of people from different households that can sit together.\n\nProof of Covid status remains a requirement to enter some hospitality premises and some other indoor settings.\n\nLaws surrounding the wearing of face coverings were also strengthened.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, people who test positive can leave self-isolation after seven days if they produce negative lateral flow results on days six and seven.\n\nMeanwhile, the Irish government will ask the country's chief medical officer to consider relaxing the self-isolation rules for fully vaccinated close contacts of confirmed Covid cases.\n\nTánaiste Leo Varadkar said the rules were causing problems across public services, industry and critical infrastructure.\n\nOn Tuesday, Boris Johnson announced about 100,000 critical workers will take daily Covid tests to reduce the spread of the virus to colleagues.\n\nThe testing, set to begin form 10 January, will include workers in food processing, transport and the border force,", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: PM confirms Plan B will stay, as England sees fastest growth in Covid cases\n\nEngland's current Plan B rules will continue for now, Boris Johnson has confirmed - as new figures show a record one in 15 people had Covid on New Year's Eve.\n\nIn an update to MPs, the prime minister said the Covid measures will be reviewed again by 26 January.\n\nThe rules cannot be scrapped completely because hospital admissions are rising rapidly, he added.\n\nOmicron continues to spread widely, with some hospitals struggling to cope.\n\nA record 3.7 million people in the UK had Covid in the week to New Year's Eve - an extra million more than the week before - according to estimates from the Office for National Statistics.\n\nThis equates to one in 15 people in England, one in 20 people in Scotland and Wales, and one in 25 in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe estimate was highest for London, where one in 10 people were believed to have Covid - although the ONS said there were some \"early signs\" cases were no longer increasing in the capital.\n\nThe figures are part of the ONS weekly infection survey which tracks the pandemic by sampling the population. It does not include people in hospitals and care homes.\n\nMaking an announcement in the House of Commons earlier, Mr Johnson said the government would not be bringing in new measures.\n\n\"In response to the latest data the cabinet agreed this morning that we should stick with Plan B for another three weeks with a further review before the regulations expire on 26 January,\" he said.\n\n\"I know some might therefore ask whether this means we can now do away with measures altogether, but I'm sorry to report that hospital admissions are rising rapidly, doubling around every nine days, with already more than 15,000 Covid patients in hospital in England alone.\n\n\"We're experiencing the fastest growth in Covid cases we've ever known,\" he said - citing the record 218,724 daily confirmed cases on Tuesday, although that included some delayed reporting from over the festive period.\n\nAnd Mr Johnson warned case rates are now rising rapidly among older and more vulnerable people - with infections doubling every week in over-60s.\n\nMore than 20 English NHS trusts have declared critical incidents - according to Downing Street - and some non-urgent surgery is being cancelled due to staff shortages.\n\nOne ambulance service is asking people with suspected strokes or heart attacks to get relatives or friends to drive them to hospital because of staff shortages.\n\nFront-line NHS services and businesses have told the BBC how they are coping with staff being off work with Covid, with one doctor at a surgery in Cambridgeshire saying people are \"falling like flies\".\n\nThe UK announced a further 194,747 cases on Wednesday, as well as 334 deaths within 28 days of a positive test - although the death figures include a backlog from NHS England between 1 and 4 January. A total of 17,276 people are in UK hospitals with Covid, the figures show.\n\nOther changes to Covid measures have also been announced:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Labour's Angela Rayner gives her response to the PM's statement on Plan B\n\nUnder England's Plan B measures, people are told to continue working from home wherever they can, wear face coverings on public transport and in public places, and show their Covid status to get into nightclubs and large events.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are in charge of their own Covid rules - and all brought in stricter measures after Christmas.\n\nIn Scotland, pubs and bars are operating with table service only, and people are being asked to limit social contact to two other households, while in Wales gatherings are limited to six people in public premises, large events are not allowed and nightclubs are closed. In Northern Ireland, nightclubs are also closed and a maximum of six people are allowed at a table in hospitality venues.\n\nScotland also cut its self-isolation period to seven days for people who record two negative lateral flow tests, which brings it in line with the rest of the UK.\n\nIn a Commons statement on Wednesday, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said about 8% of school staff were absent at the end of 2021, and that was \"likely to rise\" as Omicron continues to spread.\n\nCovid measures taken in schools, such as mandatory face coverings for secondary school children, were part of the government's plan to do \"everything in our power to keep children in our classrooms\", he said.\n\nA Department for Education study has found that in 123 schools where face coverings had been in use in the autumn term, there were fewer children absent because of Covid than in schools that were not using masks, Mr Zahawi added.\n\nHe accepted face coverings could be \"distracting\" and \"not great\" for children's wellbeing or education, and said he had commissioned further research into the negative impact of them.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAustralians have reacted angrily to news that tennis player Novak Djokovic will play in the Australian Open, after being exempted from vaccination rules.\n\nAll players and staff at the tournament must be vaccinated or have an exemption granted by an expert independent panel.\n\nDjokovic has not spoken about his vaccination status, but last year said he was \"opposed to vaccination\".\n\nPrime Minister Scott Morrison said if the player's evidence was insufficient he would be on the \"next plane home\".\n\nOrganisers say the defending champion has not been given special treatment, but the decision has infuriated many Australians. The country is seeing tens of thousands of Covid-19 cases for the first time after enduring some of the world's strictest restrictions.\n\nOver 90% of Australia's over-16 population is fully vaccinated, but some people still cannot travel interstate or globally because of current measures.\n\nAmid the controversy, Mr Morrison said the Serbian player would be required to present evidence upon arrival that he has a genuine medical exemption from vaccination. The Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne.\n\n\"If that evidence is insufficient, then he won't be treated any different to anyone else,\" the prime minister told reporters. \"There should be no special rules for Novak Djokovic at all. None whatsoever.\"\n\nThe comments seemed to represent a change in his position, after he said on Tuesday that the Victoria state government had provided the player with an exemption to enter the country and that officials would act \"in accordance with that decision\".\n\nMany Australians had previously accused the government of allowing the rich and famous to do as they please while ordinary people remained separated from sick and dying loved ones.\n\n\"I think it's a disgrace,\" Melbourne resident Christine Wharton told ABC. \"We've all done the right thing, we've all gone out and got our jabs and our boosters and we have someone that has come from overseas and all of a sudden he's been exempt and can play.\"\n\nA&E doctor Stephen Parnis tweeted: \"I don't care how good a tennis player he is. If he's refusing to get vaccinated, he shouldn't be allowed in.\"\n\nNovak Djokovic has been granted permission to defend his Australian Open title\n\nThe decision raised eyebrows with some other tennis players too. \"I just think it's very interesting. That's all I'm going to say,\" Australian Alex de Minaur said.\n\nBritain's Jamie Murray added: \"I think if it was me that wasn't vaccinated I wouldn't be getting an exemption. You know, but well done to him for getting clear to come to Australia and compete.\"\n\nAustralian former player Rod Laver said the reason for the exemption should be made public, saying the situation \"might get ugly\".\n\n\"Yes, you're a great player and you've performed and won so many tournaments, so it can't be physical,\" he said. \"So what is the problem?\"\n\nThe tournament's chief executive, Craig Tiley, said 26 athletes had applied for medical exemptions. \"A handful\" had been granted, he said, under guidelines set by federal regulators.\n\n\"We made it extra difficult for anyone applying for an application to ensure it was the right process and to make sure the medical experts deal with it independently,\" he told Channel 9.\n\nNovak Djokovic's announcement has made him an enemy to some and a hero to others. Whilst the tennis champion has never openly confirmed whether he has been vaccinated, what we do know is that he has previously tested positive for the virus and discussed his opposition to vaccines.\n\nDuring a Facebook live in April 2020 he explained how he \"wouldn't want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine\" should that be necessary to travel or compete in tournaments.\n\nThese comments were widely shared and praised in Facebook groups and Telegram channels promoting outlandish conspiracies that the vaccines are part of a sinister plot to control and harm the world's population.\n\nAnd previous comments like this have added fuel to the fire when it comes to the latest row over why he has been granted an exemption to travel.\n\nIn Telegram channels promoting Covid-19 conspiracies, the exemption has given rise to incorrect theories that the vaccine is experimental. It has also led to outspoken vaccine sceptics, such as US tennis player Tennys Sandgren, to come out in support of Djokovic.\n\nAnd it is not just Djokovic who has been accused of fuelling disinformation on social media. His wife has promoted false claims that 5G technology is somehow linked to Covid-19 on her own Instagram feed - posts labelled as false by the social media site.\n\nApplications for medical exemptions are being assessed anonymously by two separate panels, with inflammatory cardiac illness or another acute condition listed as valid reasons.\n\nBut it is also possible Djokovic has recently tested positive for the virus, which would allow him to defer taking the vaccine.\n\nA spokeswoman for the event told the BBC they could not comment on the reasons behind the player's exemption.\n\nOn Tuesday Djokovic said on Instagram: \"I've spent fantastic quality time with my loved ones over the break and today I'm heading down under with an exemption permission. Let's go 2022. I am ready to live and breathe tennis in the next few weeks of competition.\"\n\nVictoria state government minister Jaala Pulford acknowledged the decision was \"frustrating and upsetting\", but also denied that Djokovic had received special treatment. Both she and Mr Tiley urged Djokovic to give more information to the public.\n\n\"It'll certainly be helpful if Novak was to explain the conditions in which he's sought an exemption and granted an exemption but ultimately it's up to him,\" Mr Tiley said.", "Former Scotland footballer Charlie Adam has been fined £2,000 for drink-driving after being caught behind the wheel of his badly-damaged car.\n\nThe Dundee captain initially told police his £50,000 Audi Q7 had a tyre blow-out on his way home from a party.\n\nHe was breathalysed at the scene on the A930 in Dundee and found to be twice the legal alcohol limit.\n\nAdam, whose previous clubs include Rangers and Liverpool, pleaded guilty at Dundee Sheriff Court.\n\nHe was banned from driving for a year.\n\nThe court heard Adam, who earns £3,500 a week, was on his phone when officers found him in his car at 04:30 on 13 December last year.\n\nHis solicitor Steven Farmer told Sheriff Paul Brown: \"He is aware he will be disqualified. The car had suffered tyre damage. The context here is that his address is in Glasgow.\n\n\"You may be aware that he plays for Dundee Football Club. He is the club captain.\"\n\nThe sheriff replied: \"I was unaware of that.\"\n\nMr Farmer added: \"The primary effect will be on his family and his family life. He currently lives in Glasgow and commutes to Dundee as and when he is required for footballing duties.\n\n\"That will not be possible without driving. It is his intention to move to Dundee. He has two young children and doesn't want to uproot them.\n\n\"The family is effectively going to be separated for an extended period of time while Mr Adam is living in Dundee for the majority of the week. He will see his family when he can. That will be a significant additional penalty.\"\n\nSheriff Brown gave Adam the opportunity to attend a drink-drive rehabilitation course to get his ban reduced by a quarter.", "Deborah Turness was the first woman to run a US network news division\n\nDeborah Turness has been appointed the BBC's new CEO of news and current affairs, replacing Fran Unsworth.\n\nTurness has a distinguished journalistic career - she was the first ever woman to be president of a network news division in the US.\n\nShe was president of NBC News from 2013 until 2017, and later President of NBC News International.\n\nTurness previously worked as editor of ITV News, and since April 2021 she has been the CEO of ITN.\n\nIn a statement, Turness said there \"has never been a greater need for the BBC's powerful brand of impartial, trusted journalism\".\n\n\"It is a great privilege to be asked to lead and grow BBC News at a time of accelerated digital growth and innovation, when its content is reaching more global consumers on more platforms than ever before,\" she said.\n\nThe BBC said it had renamed the position from director to CEO to reflect its \"ambition to continue to build the BBC's global news brand and continue to grow its news services\".\n\nSo the BBC did go external, as it were, for its new director of news.\n\nDeborah Turness is an editorial heavyweight with a considerable international reputation, a solid record on impartiality and - like director-general Tim Davie - a strong commercial pedigree.\n\nBut she is embarking on a hellish (though very well paid) new role which gets tougher for each occupant.\n\nThough not generally a household name, the director of BBC News is arguably the most important job in British journalism - certainly of the broadcast kind - because it reaches so many people.\n\nPerhaps with a nod to her commercial background, and time working for American network NBC, the title at the BBC has been changed from director to CEO.\n\nIn this role, she will come under relentless political pressure; be responsible for thousands of journalists' decisions every day; need to find considerable further savings and uphold impartiality at a time when critics find its betrayal everywhere; accelerate a digital transition; break massive global stories; and constantly respond to crises that could not be foreseen.\n\nTim Davie, the BBC's director-general, said he was \"delighted\" Turness was taking on the role.\n\n\"Deborah brings a wealth of experience, insight, first-class editorial judgement, and a strong track record of delivery,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"She is a passionate advocate for the power of impartial journalism and a great believer in the BBC and the role we play, in the UK and globally. She will do a brilliant job of leading our news and current affairs as we deliver on the BBC's public service mission in the digital age.\"\n\nSian Williams, presenter of 5 News, tweeted: \"Deborah Turness is awesome. We've loved having her at ITN - when we were relaunching 5 News she was in the gallery, fizzing with enthusiasm and ideas. You are very lucky to have her, BBC News.\"\n\nChannel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman added: \"Very sad to see Deborah Turness go. She'll do a great job at BBC News. A real trailblazing woman.\n\nTurness was interviewed by Clive Myrie about her career and the current affairs landscape on BBC Radio 4's The Media Show last August.\n\nBetween 2004 and 2013, Turness was editor of ITV News - the first woman to hold that role.\n\nShe will be paid a salary of £400,000, an increase on Unsworth's by around £60,000, and her start date will be confirmed in due course, the BBC said.\n\nUnsworth has worked in a number of senior roles during her 40-year BBC career\n\nShe will replace Fran Unsworth, who announced in September she was leaving the BBC.\n\nUnsworth, who steps down this month, said it had been \"a great privilege\" to work for the BBC.\n\n\"I have had a ringside seat at some momentous events, including the Falklands War, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, wars in the Middle East, the death of Princess Diana, 9/11 and countless general elections,\" she said in a statement.\n\n\"The jobs I've done have not always been easy. Undoubtedly, some were more fun than others. But I am proud to have done all of them - and to work for an organisation which has such a vital and precious role in the UK and around the world.\"\n\nKyla Mullins, Chair of the ITN Board said in a statement: \"We thank Deborah for her leadership and wish her all the very best in her new position. Deborah will remain as chief executive for a time to come as we begin the process of recruiting her successor.\"\n• None BBC's director of news to leave the corporation", "Alice Clark, 21, was \"so excited\" to qualify as a paramedic, her parents said\n\nTributes have been paid to a newly-qualified paramedic who was killed in a crash involving an ambulance and a cement lorry.\n\nAlice Clark, 21, died in the crash on the A21 near Tonbridge, Kent, at about 22:15 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThree other people, including another paramedic, were also hurt.\n\nThe ambulance was on its way to an incident and no patients were in the vehicle, South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb) said.\n\nIn a statement, Ms Clark's parents described her as a \"beautiful, kind and fun-loving daughter, sister and granddaughter\" who would be missed \"more than words can say\".\n\nMs Clark had joined the trust in November 2021 and was \"so excited to qualify as a paramedic\", her parents said.\n\nA spokesman for Secamb said a male paramedic was airlifted to Kings College Hospital in London with serious injuries and a student paramedic travelling in the back of the ambulance was taken to hospital with a head injury.\n\nGiovanni Mazza, manager at the Paddock Wood operating unit where Ms Clark was based, described her as a \"kind and dedicated paramedic.\"\n\nThe A21 was closed southbound from the junction with the A25 at Westerham to the A255 junction for Hildenborough\n\nMr Mazza said: \"Although she had only been with us for a short time, Alice was already very much part of our ambulance family.\"\n\nSecamb executive director of operations Emma Williams added: \"Our thoughts are also with the other injured staff members as well as all of those who responded to the incident.\"\n\nKent Fire and Rescue Service said four engines were sent to the scene. Fire crews used hydraulic rescue equipment to free the casualties.\n\nThe road, which links London, Tunbridge Wells in Kent and Hastings in East Sussex, reopened after being closed overnight.\n\nPolice are asking for anyone with dashcam footage to contact them.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Aidan Mann, 28, was originally from Bangor but had recently moved to Downpatrick\n\nA 36-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Aidan Mann in Downpatrick, County Down, on Monday morning.\n\nThe 28-year-old tattoo artist was attacked in Church Street at about 11:00 GMT.\n\nThe victim was given treatment by paramedics but died at the scene.\n\nBarry Donnelly, of Church Street in Downpatrick, appeared at Newtownards Magistrates' Court on Wednesday morning via video-link.\n\nHe is charged with murder and possessing two large kitchen knives in a public place.\n\nThe court heard Mr Donnelly confirm he understood the charges against him.\n\nA defence solicitor said no bail application was being made.\n\nThe case was adjourned to 27 January when the defendant is due to appear at Downpatrick Magistrates' Court via video-link.\n\nAidan Mann was originally from Bangor, but had moved to Downpatrick in late 2021.", "The mural was painted over to advertise burgers\n\nWork has begun to restore a mural known as Cardiff's \"Mona Lisa\" that was painted over to advertise McDonald's burgers.\n\nThe artwork, in the Butetown area of Cardiff, was created last spring to promote diversity and inclusion.\n\nHowever a contract to use the wall by an advertising agency meant it was painted over on the weekend.\n\nMcDonald's said it had been unaware of the mural and had instructed a new piece of work by the original artists.\n\nThe wall has been painted white, though it is unclear what the new mural will look like.\n\nThe original art project organiser Yusuf Ismail said \"The artwork that was there is part of a campaign that's gone on for a while and it's been embraced.\n\n\"It's part of our legacy as a city, showing how multicultural Cardiff is and we're glad that McDonald's have recognised that.\"\n\nMr Ismail has said the agency involved was made aware of the cultural significance of the mural but were \"dismissive\" and went ahead with the hamburger promotion anyway.\n\nHe added: \"We're trying to figure out the best plan action but we're delighted that things are moving forward positively.\n\n\"McDonald's are really keen to resolve this issue and we understand this is an oversight.\"\n\nThe wall has been prepared on Monday for a new mural\n\nCardiff South and Penarth MP Stephen Doughty criticised McDonalds, while Economy Minister Vaughan Gething tweeted that the removal of the mural was \"staggeringly insensitive\".\n\nThe wall is currently contracted by an advertising agency so the long term future of any mural is unclear.\n\nThe original artwork was vandalised within months of completion, which police investigated as a hate crime.\n\nHowever children from two nearby schools raised funds to preserve the mural last year.\n\nMcDonald's said it was working to ensure the original site was replaced this week, but understood those behind the project were looking for a new location.", "The Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Sets You Free) gate at Auschwitz, the former Nazi death camp\n\nA Dutch tourist has been detained in Poland for giving the Nazi salute at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, local police say.\n\nThe 29-year-old woman made the gesture in front of the Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Sets You Free) gate.\n\nThe woman - who has not been named - was later charged with engaging in Nazi propaganda. Prosecutors issued a fine, which she agreed to pay.\n\nThe woman said the act had been a bad joke, Poland's PAP news agency reports.\n\nShe had been posing for a photo taken by her husband at the time.\n\nIt is not the first time foreigners have been detained for promoting Nazi propaganda in Poland - a charge that can carry up to two years in prison.\n\nIn 2013, two Turkish students were each sentenced to six months in jail, suspended for three years, and fined for a similar Nazi salute at Auschwitz.\n\nNazi Germany built the death camp in the southern Polish town of Oswiecim after occupying Poland at the start of World War Two in 1939.\n\nIn just over four-and-a-half years, Nazi Germany systematically murdered at least 1.1 million people at Auschwitz. Almost one million were Jews.\n\nThose deported to the camp complex were gassed, starved, worked to death and even killed in medical experiments. The vast majority were murdered in the complex of gas chambers at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp.\n\nSix million Jewish people died in the Holocaust - the Nazi campaign to eradicate Europe's Jewish population. Auschwitz was at the centre of that genocide.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n• None 'I have to explain the Holocaust to young people'", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch the moment the military announced its takeover on live TV\n\nThe military in Burkina Faso says it has seized power and overthrown President Roch Kaboré.\n\nThe announcement was made on state television by an army officer, who cited the deteriorating security situation for the military takeover.\n\nMr Kaboré had faced growing discontent over his failure to stem an Islamist insurgency.\n\nHis whereabouts are unclear, but the officer said that all those detained were in a secure location.\n\nThe coup comes a day after troops seized barracks, and gunshots were heard in the capital, Ouagadougou.\n\nEarlier, the ruling People's Movement for Progress (PMP) party said that both Mr Kaboré and a government minister had survived an assassination attempt.\n\nOn Sunday, mutinying troops demanded the sacking of military chiefs and more resources to fight militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) group and al-Qaeda.\n\nThe army statement said Mr Kaboré had failed to unite the nation and to deal effectively with the security crisis which \"threatens the very foundations of our nation\".\n\nPresident Roch Kaboré was elected to office in 2015\n\nThe statement was issued in the name of a group not heard of previously, the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration or MPSR, its French acronym.\n\nAlthough read out by another officer, the statement was signed by Lt-Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who is believed to be the coup leader and a senior commander with years of experience fighting the Islamist militants.\n\nThe statement said that parliament and the government had been dissolved, and the constitution suspended, but promised a \"return to constitutional order\" within a \"reasonable time\".\n\nThe military also announced the closure of Burkina Faso's borders.\n\nUN chief António Guterres condemned the coup and called on the military to \"ensure the protection and the physical integrity\" of Mr Kaboré.\n\nThe African Union and regional bloc, Ecowas, have also condemned the forceful takeover of power, with Ecowas saying it holds the soldiers responsible for the deposed president's well-being.\n\nEarlier, the news of his detention was received with cheers and celebrations in Ouagadougou, reports the BBC's senior Africa correspondent Anne Soy.\n\nPeople on the streets of Ouagadougou show their support for the military after they deposed President Kaboré\n\nEarlier video footage from the capital appeared to show armoured vehicles - reportedly used by the presidency - peppered with bullet holes and abandoned in the street.\n\nMobile internet services have been disrupted, though fixed-line internet and domestic wi-fi are working.\n\nMr Kaboré has not been seen in public since the crisis began, but two posts appeared on his Twitter account before the officer announced he had been toppled.\n\nThe later one called on those who had taken up arms to lay them down \"in the higher interest of the nation\". Earlier, Mr Kaboré congratulated the national football team on their win in an Africa Cup of Nations match.\n\nIt is unclear who posted the tweets.\n\nSome security sources say the president and other government ministers are being held at the Sangoulé Lamizana barracks in the capital.\n\nOn Sunday, hundreds of people came out in support of the soldiers and some of them set fire to the ruling party's headquarters.\n\nMultiple cars apparently used by the presidency were found with bullet holes\n\nThe coup comes a week after 11 soldiers were arrested for allegedly plotting to overthrow Mr Kaboré.\n\nBut discontent has been growing in Burkina Faso over the government's failure to defeat an Islamist insurgency in the country since 2015.\n\nThat escalated in November, when 53 people, mainly members of the security forces, were killed by suspected jihadists. And on Saturday, a banned rally to protest against the government's perceived failure led to dozens of arrests.\n\nMutinying soldiers made several demands, including: the removal of the army's chief of staff and the head of the intelligence service; more troops to be deployed to the front line; and better conditions for the wounded and soldiers' families.\n\nSimilar troubles in neighbouring Mali led to a military coup in May 2021 - one that was broadly welcomed by the public.\n\nBurkina Faso is now the third West African country to witness a military takeover in recent years. Guinea and Mali have had sanctions imposed on them by Ecowas to press them to return to constitutional order.", "Brewdog co-founder James Watt has been accused of abuse of power in the workplace by former staff\n\nThe chief executive of Scottish beer giant Brewdog has been accused of inappropriate behaviour and abuse of power in the workplace by former staff.\n\nMore than 15 ex-Brewdog workers have spoken out about CEO James Watt to the BBC's Disclosure programme.\n\nFormer Brewdog USA workers said Mr Watt's behaviour made female bartenders feel \"uncomfortable\" and \"powerless\".\n\nLawyers for Mr Watt said the allegations were false and he denied behaving inappropriately.\n\nBrewdog was founded in 2007 by Mr Watt - then just 24 - and his friend Martin Dickie and it has its headquarters in Ellon in the north east of Scotland.\n\nThe company, which has more than 100 bars and employs more than 2,000 people worldwide, says it is worth about £2bn.\n\nIn 2016, Brewdog opened its first bar in the US - in Columbus, Ohio - and it now has eight across three states.\n\nThe BBC Scotland Disclosure team started investigating the company after almost 300 former and current Brewdog employees signed a letter last year accusing Mr Watt of presiding over a toxic culture of fear.\n\nThe documentary The Truth about Brewdog features interviews with 12 former Brewdog USA staff who have alleged inappropriate behaviour and abuse of power in the workplace by Mr Watt.\n\nKatelynn Ising, who worked in DogTap, Brewdog's flagship bar and brewery in Canal Winchester, Ohio, said female staff would dress down when they knew Mr Watt would be in their bars.\n\nKatelynn Ising advised female staff not to wear makeup or wear hair down when Mr Watt was in town\n\nShe said: \"We would make a point to warn new girls - like, 'Hey, just so you know, James Watt's coming to town.\n\n\"Just, kind of, leave after your shift, don't really hang around [and] don't always do your hair and makeup that day, like don't catch his attention.'\"\n\nKatelynn said she witnessed Mr Watt take female customers on late night tours of the US brewery, next to the DogTap.\n\n\"Sometimes there would be one woman, sometimes there would be a gaggle of women,\" she said.\n\n\"They were always intoxicated, they were in their twenties usually. They were very pretty, and he would say he's taking them on a private tour of the brewery.\"\n\nFormer duty manager Jackie English said she witnessed Mr Watt doing similar things.\n\nShe said: \"There were three separate nights… [he'd]… come into the building with a girl, a young female, you know, cute little blondes and he would take them into the brewery… to give them a tour or whatever.\"\n\nJackie said this behaviour made her feel \"uncomfortable\".\n\nShe said: \"You're showing your employees that you can do whatever you want because of who you are and who your name is. That's how it felt a lot of times.\"\n\nMr Watt's lawyer told the BBC this allegation was false.\n\n\"Mr Watt regularly takes both women and men, friends and customers on evening tours of the brewery,\" the lawyer said.\n\n\"It is not true to say that those who accompany him are intoxicated. The claim that he did, was made by an employee in June 2021.\n\n\"It was fully investigated - the claims were not substantiated - no further action was warranted by Brewdog USA HR.\"\n\nDylan Gray said he would schedule more men on nights when Mr Watt was there\n\nDylan Gray was a manager at Brewdog Franklinton, in Columbus, Ohio.\n\nHe told the programme: \"I would schedule certain female staff around him so they would not be there. I would schedule more men at nights when he was there. I would sit behind the bar with female staff so they wouldn't feel uncomfortable.\"\n\nOne bartender, who asked not to be named, told the programme that Mr Watt was \"a starer\".\n\n\"He liked to stare,\" she said. \"I just wanted to leave [and] not really deal with it.\"\n\nShe said she would ask to have her shifts changed in order to avoid him.\n\n\"What do you do when that's your boss, the head of the company? You can't really tell them no, or cut them off - you feel a little bit powerless,\" she said.\n\nBrewDog launched its first operations in the US in 2016 and now has eight bars across Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana\n\nManager Dylan Gray said the female bartender discussed her concerns with him.\n\nHe said: \"It didn't make me feel good, to have someone who is your captain to make you feel that way, that shouldn't be how it is.\n\n\"It was disappointing and I'm more or less disappointed in myself that I couldn't make something happen sooner.\"\n\nDylan claimed he would have been \"canned long ago\" if he confronted Mr Watt.\n\nMr Watt's lawyer told the BBC: \"This is categorically denied. At no time has Mr Watt given unwelcome attention to any female bartender. That account is not true - this was fully investigated by Centric HC who concluded that there was no substance to these claims.\"\n\nThe lawyer said following enquiries by Brewdog, none of the managers interviewed had any knowledge of staff attempting to change shifts to avoid Mr Watt.\n\nBrewdog has made its name with beers such as Punk IPA and Elvis Juice\n\nFormer manager Meg Herman told the BBC Mr Watt had been \"flirtatious\" with an employee one evening at their Canal Winchester HQ.\n\nShe said: \"He ends up going up to the roof with her, and no-one on staff, that was downstairs, felt comfortable with it.\n\n\"He could've gone anywhere else but he didn't. He did it at the brewery. And that is a power trip.\"\n\nMr Watt's lawyer told the BBC that their client \"has never been on the roof of the DogTap, either on his own or accompanied by anyone.\"\n\nThe Brewdog US HQ in Canal Winchester, Ohio\n\nDuty manager Nathan Quick worked in Brewdog's Franklinton bar until last year. He is one of two former staff who say they witnessed Mr Watt having a sexual encounter on the roof terrace bar.\n\n\"He was on the rooftop kissing with his hand up the shirt of this young lady,\" he said.\n\n\"It wasn't uncommon for us to have the perception that that was going on, but for us to physically see it was something else.\"\n\nMr Watt's lawyer said: \"At no time did Mr Watt have a sexual encounter on the roof terrace of the Franklinton bar.\n\n\"We hold a statement from the only party that Mr Watt could have been present with at the Franklinton Bar. She has confirmed in her statement that Mr Watt and her did visit the roof briefly, but absolutely no sexual encounter took place.\"\n\n\"She has also confirmed that far from being intoxicated; she drove herself home that evening.\"\n\nMr Watt's lawyer said that they \"hold a statement from the manager of Brewdog Franklinton, that it has never been reported to him, nor does he have any knowledge of Mr Watt ever having any kind of sexual encounter with someone on the rooftop bar\".\n\nThe BBC investigation spoke to almost 100 former and current Brewdog staff. Most of those who still work at the company said they were afraid to speak publicly for fear of losing their jobs.\n\nKayla McGuire said Mr Watt's behaviour around women was a talking point among staff\n\nOne current employee was willing to speak publicly. Kayla McGuire works in the brewery in Ohio.\n\n\"I don't think that leaders should be able to intimidate their staff,\" she said.\n\n\"I don't [think] anyone should have to go to work and be afraid of what's going to happen to them, especially not in an industry that should be joyful and fun and creative.\"\n\nShe said Mr Watt's behaviour around women was a talking point among staff at Brewdog USA.\n\n\"Those allegations have made many of us uncomfortable. Myself included,\" she said.\n\nJames Watt declined to be interviewed for the BBC Disclosure programme.\n\nBrewdog chairman Allan Leighton said he had been given assurances from Mr Watt that the BBC's claims were not accurate, and were based on misinformation.\n\nMr Leighton said: \"James has committed to making improvements to his management style.\"\n\nHe also noted: \"Since publication of the open letter in 2021, the Board has overseen a major independent review into our culture and we have implemented a wide-ranging action plan to address the issues raised.\"\n\nThe BBC Disclosure programme makes no allegations of criminal behaviour with women by Mr Watt.", "Members of the Taliban are meeting Western officials in Norway for the first talks in Europe since the group took control of Afghanistan.\n\nThe talks, set to last three days, will cover human rights and the humanitarian crisis in the country.\n\nThe UN says 95% of Afghans do not have enough to eat.\n\nA number of protests have taken place in Europe with critics claiming the Taliban should not be rewarded with the meetings.\n\nOn Sunday, members of the Taliban met human rights activists but the details of those discussions have not been revealed.\n\nOne feminist activist, Jamila Afghani, told AFP news agency that the negotiators showed \"goodwill\".\n\n\"Let's see what their actions will be, based on their words,\" she said.\n\nMonday is said to be the most significant day of talks, with Taliban members meeting Western officials. The group is set to request access to billions of dollars that are frozen in US banks.\n\nAfghanistan has seen unemployment and food prices soar, whilst the value of its currency is plummeting and banks have set limits on cash withdrawals.\n\nThe United Nations has warned that hunger threatens 55% of the population.\n\n\"We are requesting them to unfreeze Afghan assets and not punish ordinary Afghans because of the political discourse,\" Taliban delegate Shafiullah Azam told the Associated Press news agency.\n\n\"Because of the starvation, because of the deadly winter, I think it's time for the international community to support Afghans, not punish them because of their political disputes.\"\n\nThe discussions are taking place at a hotel outside the Norwegian capital Oslo\n\nWestern envoys are expected to emphasise the importance of a more inclusive Taliban government and human rights.\n\nSince taking power, the Taliban have told most female workers to stay at home while secondary schools are only open to boys and male teachers. A number of women have been targeted for speaking out against the move. Some are now said to be missing with the Taliban denying their involvement. But the Taliban told the BBC's Quentin Sommerville that the claims were fabricated.\n\nHuman rights activists and journalists have also been targeted since the Taliban came to power.\n\nOn Monday, Afghanistan's deputy minister for information and culture, Zabihullah Mujahid, said girls would be allowed to attend school from the end of March this year. He also denied that the Taliban are holding a number of women who had been protesting for their rights.\n\nAt present, no country has recognised the new Afghan government.\n\nNorway's Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said the meetings \"do not represent a legitimisation or recognition of the Taliban\".\n\n\"But we must talk to the de facto authorities in the country,\" she said.\n\nThe initiative has divided Afghans - some stress the importance of engaging the Taliban; others insist that the Taliban should not be invited to European capitals while they systematically violate human rights at home, the BBC's Lyse Doucet reports.\n\nA number of protests have taken place across Europe over the weekend.\n\nIn Oslo, one protester told AFP news agency that the discussions were the equivalent of \"laughing in the face\" of Afghans who have lost family members.\n\n\"You do not talk to terrorists,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "A Ukrainian civilian takes part in a training exercise - Russian forces have been mounting at the border\n\nBritain has started withdrawing staff from its embassy in Ukraine, amid growing fears of a Russian invasion.\n\nOfficials say there have been no specific threats to British diplomats, but about half of the staff working in Kyiv will return to the UK.\n\nThe US has ordered relatives of its embassy staff to leave, saying an invasion could come \"at any time\".\n\nRussia has denied plans for military action, but tens of thousands of troops have amassed on the border.\n\nThe embassy moves were described as precautionary, and nothing specific is thought to have occurred in the past 24 hours to have triggered the decisions of the US and UK.\n\nEU staff in Ukraine will stay in place for now, with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell saying he would not \"dramatise\" the tensions.\n\nMembers of the Nato alliance, including Denmark, Spain, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, are sending more fighter jets and warships to Eastern Europe to bolster defences in the region.\n\nWith an estimated 100,000 Russian troops now at the border with Ukraine, the head of Nato has warned there is a risk of fresh conflict in Europe.\n\nThe US also told non-essential staff they could leave Ukraine, stressing its moves were not an evacuation. But the State Department told AFP news agency that if there was a Russian invasion, it would \"not be in a position to evacuate US citizens\".\n\nAmericans have also been warned by officials not to travel to Ukraine and Russia due to the \"potential for harassment\" against them.\n\nUkraine said it was \"premature\" of the US to withdraw relatives of staff, calling the decision \"a display of excessive caution\".\n\nOn Saturday, some 90 tonnes of US \"lethal aid\" including ammunition for \"front-line defenders\" arrived in Ukraine.\n\nUS Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the government was putting together a \"series of actions that would figure into [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin's calculus\" including beefing up defences in Ukraine with more military assistance.\n\nRussia has seized Ukrainian territory before, when it annexed Crimea in 2014, following fierce protests in Ukraine that toppled the country's pro-Russian president. Russian forces seized control of Crimea before the territory voted to join Russia in a referendum the West and Ukraine deemed illegal.\n\nRussian-backed rebels control areas of eastern Ukraine near Russia's borders in a conflict which has cost an estimated 14,000 lives. A 2015 peace deal is far from being fulfilled.\n\nOn Sunday, the UK Foreign Office accused Mr Putin of planning to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government.\n\nThe man named by the UK Foreign Office - former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev - called the claims \"stupid\" in an interview with Reuters news agency.\n\nUK ministers have warned that the Russian government will face serious consequences if there is an incursion.\n\nUS officials said they were concerned that Russia could try to topple and replace the Ukraine government but declined to comment on the UK accusation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Joe Biden: \"It is going to be a disaster for Russia if they further invade Ukraine\"\n\nAre you in Ukraine? Have you been affected by the rising tensions? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The military has been battling to curb a long-running insurgency\n\nShots have been heard near the presidential palace in Burkina Faso's capital amid a mutiny by soldiers.\n\nGunfire has also been heard at several barracks in Ouagadougou, with soldiers demanding the sacking of military chiefs, and more resources to fight militant Islamists.\n\nHundreds of people came out in support of the troops, forcing authorities to introduce a night-time curfew.\n\nThe government said the crisis had been contained.\n\nIt dismissed rumours of a new coup attempt, just over a week after 11 soldiers were detained for allegedly plotting a coup.\n\nThe location of President Roch Kaboré is unclear, but the defence minister denied rumours circulating on social media that he was under arrest.\n\nIt is the latest sign of growing discontent with President Kaboré's government over its failure to quell the Islamist insurgency that has devastated the West African state since 2015.\n\nProtesters in support of the soldiers set fire to the ruling party's headquarters.\n\nGunshots were heard at military camps in the west and south of the capital, and at an air base near the main airport.\n\nSoldiers convicted of a coup attempt in 2015 are imprisoned at the camp in the west, known as Sangoule Lamizana.\n\nShooting was also heard at military bases in the northern towns of Kaya and Ouahigouya, the US embassy said.\n\nIn a televised address to the nation earlier, Defence Minister Barthélémy Simporé said there were \"localised, limited\" incidents \"in a few barracks\", and none of the \"republican institutions\" had been targeted.\n\nGen Simporé urged people to continue with their normal activities, saying the government would release further information in due course.\n\nInternet monitoring group NetBlocks said that access to the web had been disrupted.\n\nThe killing of 53 people by suspected jihadists in November heightened public outrage against the government, and raised fears that the military would take power - just as it had in neighbouring Mali in May.\n\nOn Saturday, dozens of people were arrested in Ouagadougou for holding a banned rally to protest against what they described as the government's inability to deal with the militants.\n\nMr Kaboré, a former banker and prime minister, became president after winning elections in 2015.\n\nThe polls were the first since long-serving ruler Blaise Compaoré went into exile a year earlier following a popular uprising against his rule.", "A 22-year-old Thai man has been charged with the murder of a British man in western Thailand, according to local officials.\n\nMarcus Evans, 49, died after being attacked in Kanchanaburi in the early hours of Saturday, Thai police said.\n\nA second British man, named by police as Shaun Dagnan, 54, was seriously injured and taken to hospital. A sickle was found at the scene, they added.\n\nThe alleged attacker is due in court on Monday, police said in a statement.\n\nPolice released passport photos of the two men, which show Mr Evans was born in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset and Mr Dagnan was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.\n\nA spokesperson from the UK Foreign Office said: \"We are in contact with the Royal Thai Police following the death of one British man and the hospitalisation of another in Thailand and are ready to provide consular support.\"", "Anest was born with a heart defect and was entering heart failure at three weeks old\n\nA mother whose baby daughter had open heart surgery in England wants treatments to be offered in Wales.\n\nTwo years on, Elin, from Ceredigion, worries her family will re-live the \"horrific experience\" in future.\n\nUnder-16s have had to travel to England for heart surgery since 1998.\n\nThe Welsh government said children are treated across the border where there's \"higher levels of specialism in dealing with these complex conditions\".\n\nOn Christmas Eve 2019, Elin and Emyr's daughter, Anest, was taken by air ambulance from Aberystwyth to Noah's Ark Children Hospital in Cardiff.\n\nShe was born with holes in her heart and, at three weeks old, doctors told her parents she was entering heart failure.\n\nAnest was put on life support and following a \"traumatic few weeks\", her condition deteriorated further when she contracted a virus.\n\nShe was then transferred to Bristol for heart surgery.\n\n\"It's quite horrific [thinking back]. I try not to think about it if I'm honest. It really has been put to the back of my mind,\" said Elin.\n\n\"We live in rural Ceredigion, so Cardiff is a long way away to start with, without travelling again to Bristol, so yes it was a traumatic experience for us.\"\n\nThe care they received was excellent, she added, but facing surgery across the border was \"a challenge\".\n\n\"We'd been in Cardiff for around a month, so we knew the hospital, we knew the staff, the doctors of course. But then we had to start from new in Bristol,\" she said.\n\n\"Getting to know a new hospital, new doctors, so it was extra stress really on top of what was a traumatic experience to start off with.\"\n\nLast year, almost 200 children from Wales had heart surgery in Bristol, and many patients in north Wales travelled to hospitals in Liverpool and Birmingham.\n\nWith Anest facing further surgery in the future, mum Elin wants cardiology treatments to return to Wales.\n\n\"There's an excellent team of cardiologists and expertise in Cardiff, so why not get surgeons involved in that team?\" she said.\n\n\"There's definitely a demand for it in Cardiff, and if adults are allowed to have treatment in Wales, in their own country, why aren't children?\"\n\nBridget said the answer is not moving treatment to Wales\n\nBridget's daughter Elain was diagnosed with a rare heart condition as a baby and they have travelled to Bristol many times over the past 11 years.\n\nBut for Bridget, the answer is not moving treatments to Wales.\n\n\"I do feel happy that Elain goes to the surgeon and the team of experts in Bristol,\" she said.\n\n\"They understand her condition and I would fear if things changed.\"\n\nHowever, as a member of a support group for families who share the same journey, she said there is \"a gap\" in the support available.\n\nElain received heart surgery in 2015 and is still treated in England\n\nAfter almost 12 years, she said it was \"disappointing\" that nothing has changed.\n\n\"Many times, we've been faced with tough situations where we've had to travel and be away from home for months, it has been a challenge over the years.\n\n\"I just think maybe the government should support families more - travel costs, time off work, the stress it puts on families from all aspects.\n\n\"There's a gap in support from that perspective.\"\n\nGP Dr Graham Thomas, of the Wales Cardiac Network, said cardiac surgery for children was more complex than in adults.\n\nHe said: \"Children who have complex difficulties with their hearts need to be under expert tertiary centres.\n\n\"But, in Wales, there isn't quite enough of the population [who need cardiac surgery] to justify that.\n\n\"Also, because of our geography, in north Wales, we use our expertise in Manchester and Liverpool and in the south, in Bristol.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said children needing cardiac surgery require \"higher levels of specialism\" and that centres in England had been established to \"achieve the best outcomes\".\n\n\"Whilst health boards in Wales offer access to paediatricians with expertise in cardiology, children requiring cardiac surgery are treated at larger centres where they have higher levels of specialism in dealing with these complex conditions.\n\n\"There are only 11 centres in England and they typically provide services for a large area which achieves the best outcomes for patients.\"", "Russia and the US have held \"frank\" talks as fears mount of a Russian military offensive against Ukraine.\n\nAn estimated 100,000 Russian troops have been deployed near Ukraine, although Russia denies it has any plans to invade.\n\nThe US and its allies have threatened new sanctions, but the two sides have agreed to keep talking.\n\nAs the situation intensifies, two of the BBC's most senior journalists on the region answer your questions.\n\nYou can read the full question and answer exchange here.\n\n1. Are the countries around Ukraine safe from a bigger war? - Hristo, Bulgaria\n\nThere's no war, yet, and hopefully conflict can be avoided. The diplomats are still talking.\n\nBut, yes, it's not only Ukraine that's worried about the possibility of war.\n\nOther countries in the region - like the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - are concerned that any future conflict could spread to their countries.\n\n2. In the event of an invasion, how likely are civilian casualties? - Danil Gorbununov, Ukraine\n\nThis could play out in any number of ways, from so-called \"hybrid\" attacks - hacking, disinformation, etc - all the way up to a full-scale invasion, the likes of which Europe has not seen since World War Two.\n\nOne way or another, civilians will be caught up in it. They might find themselves freezing in their homes as the power grid collapses, or trapped behind Russian lines if, as some have speculated, Russian tanks move in from the territory of neighbouring Belarus (personally I find this unlikely, but Russia seems happy to keep everyone guessing).\n\nThis conflict has already claimed around 14,000 Ukrainian lives. If Russia tries to take more territory or install a more friendly regime in Kyiv, it's hard to see how this won't result in many, many casualties.\n\nRussia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart Antony Blinken held \"frank\" talks in Geneva\n\n3. Why does Russia fear Nato? - Mike Hancock, US\n\nI don't believe Russian officials really fear Nato, which is a defensive alliance.\n\nAccording to the US Secretary of State, only 6% of Russia's borders touch Nato countries. Is that a threat to Russian national security?\n\nAlso, many Nato countries actually have good relations with Moscow, and Russia even sells weapon systems to Turkey, a Nato member.\n\nI think this is more about the Kremlin trying to carve out a sphere of influence for itself on its doorstep - and using Nato as an excuse to do that.\n\n4. Would this story be very different if Ukraine was already a Nato member? - Ryan Johnston, Belfast, Northern Ireland\n\nUkraine (and Georgia) have been on a theoretical path to Nato membership since a summit in Bucharest in 2008. But it's a long and rocky path.\n\nSince 2014, when Ukrainians got rid of a president they thought was going to side with Russia rather than Europe, the country has been at war with Russia.\n\nFirst Russia took over Crimea. Then it encouraged pro-Russian separatists in the south-east of the country (the area called the Donbas).\n\nNato can't welcome members who are already involved in conflicts of this kind. There are also all sorts of other things Ukraine needs to do, in terms of political reforms and improving their military.\n\nRight now, to welcome Ukraine into Nato would be seen as the ultimate red rag to a Russian bull. So no-one thinks it's going to happen any time soon.\n\nIn many ways, this is a red herring, as President Putin knows perfectly well that membership is not around the corner.\n\n5. If Putin says he won't invade Ukraine, why is the US warning Russia? - Assad Ullah, China\n\nWords are one thing (and you're right - the Russians keep saying they won't invade), but their actions point in another direction.\n\nThere has been the massing of forces, the support for separatists in the Donbas (including handing out around one million Russian passports), and the threat of dire consequences if Ukraine does anything provocative (which, until now, it sensibly hasn't).\n\nPlus, President Putin's rejection of Ukraine's independent identity is not a secret - he wrote a long essay on the subject last year. You can read it online, but be prepared for a deep dive into ancient Russian history.\n\n6. What is Putin's justification for so many troops on the border? - Richard Sullivan, Gloucestershire, UK\n\nBasically, Russia's position is: \"Hey, this is our country: we can move our troops wherever we want to on our territory.\"\n\nThe result - an estimated 100,000 Russian soldiers near its border with Ukraine, plus more Russian troops arriving in Belarus for snap war games.\n\nA potential invasion force, says the West. Moscow denies it.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n7. Why are the superpowers interested in Ukraine? Ernest Onyameamah, Ghana\n\nFor Russia, it's all about recreating something that was lost with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 - a Russian sphere of influence.\n\nPeople also ignore how humiliated some Russians felt by the end of the Soviet empire and the West's eager expansion into eastern Europe. It left deep scars.\n\nFor the US, it's about defending the principle that countries have the right to choose their own destiny, alliances and future paths.\n\nNot just Ukraine, but all those former members of the old Warsaw Pact (a Soviet-led military alliance during the Cold War) who turned to Nato in the 1990s.\n\nIt's also about trying, as much as it can, to limit what the West sees as Vladimir Putin's malign influence.\n\n8. What could Russia do to Europe's gas supplies? - George\n\nCould Russia choke off gas supplies if the West hits Russia with sanctions in the event of an invasion?\n\nIt's a possibility. Russia likes to portray itself as a reliable energy supplier. But in a sanctions war, the energy gloves might come off.\n\nThe EU relies on Russia for 40% of its gas. So any supply reduction or cuts by Russia would be felt acutely in Europe.\n\nTrue, Russia would lose out financially, too. But the Russians think they have an alternative market - China - and are already looking to boost energy supplies there.\n\nPresident Putin wrote a long essay on his rejection of Ukraine's independent identity in 2021\n\n9. How are people in Ukraine feeling?\n\nI was in Kyiv last week and I found a mixture of apprehension and resignation. As President Zelensky says, \"what's new here?\" - Ukraine and Russia have been at loggerheads for eight years.\n\nWar is already a reality, even if the conflict in the Donbas is now a frozen, low-level confrontation. I didn't detect any panic in Kyiv, but people did seem to believe that one day, unless he's stopped, Vladimir Putin will try to do something.\n\nThey know where their bomb shelters are and some say they're willing to volunteer in one way or another if war breaks out. But they're really tired of the conflict and have no appetite for a fight which they know they would probably lose.\n\nThe only honest answer any of us can give right now is that we have absolutely no idea. Russia has certainly assembled enough men and equipment to do something in Ukraine. Not enough (by a mile) for a full scale invasion, but enough, perhaps, to mount a more limited operation - perhaps in the Donbas.\n\nBut Russians are not clamouring for war and Putin knows that \"victory\" in Ukraine could kill an awful lot of his own soldiers.\n\nDoes his visceral distaste for the very idea of Ukraine trump all other rational considerations? Surely not. But he's caught the West's attention and he has a long list of demands which go way beyond the question of Ukraine and Nato (particularly as he knows Ukraine is not about to join).\n\nSo he will continue to hold a figurative gun against Ukraine's head while he pursues his wider agenda. And as any film buff will tell you, when there's a gun on the table, it usually means someone's going to use it later.", "The protocol created a new trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK\n\nThe EU's chief Brexit negotiator has said he is not setting \"artificial deadlines\" after talks on the NI Protocol failed to make a breakthrough.\n\nMaros Šefčovič was speaking after a meeting in Brussels with the UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.\n\nHe added if political goodwill was maintained it could \"lead to a timely agreement on durable solutions\".\n\nMrs Truss said there had been \"progress\" and she wants to work with the EU \"in short order\".\n\n\"We're putting as much resource as we can into making this work and making things happen for the people of Northern Ireland,\" she added.\n\nIn a joint statement, the lead negotiators said they would hold further talks next week.\n\nThey added that the Joint Committee, the formal body overseeing the protocol, would meet before the end of February.\n\nThat will be the first Joint Committee meeting in more than six months.\n\nForeign Secretary Liz Truss is acting as lead negotiator for the first time since replacing Lord Frost\n\nIreland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney described the mood of the talks as \"quite good\" and welcomed the foreign secretary's \"personal engagement.\"\n\n\"We need to show a bit of patience here and allow the negotiating teams to try to advance areas where they can find agreement,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the Joint Committee meeting in February could create a \"platform for agreement\".\n\nThe protocol keeps Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods and EU customs rules are enforced at its ports.\n\nThat means new paperwork and processes when importing materials and equipment from Great Britain.\n\nUnionist politicians have criticised the arrangements and say the Irish Sea border undermines Northern Ireland's position in the UK.\n\nOver the past six months the UK government has been attempting to renegotiate the deal.\n\nIn July, the UK proposed an arrangement in which goods from Great Britain, which are due to stay in Northern Ireland, would not be checked and would have minimal paperwork.\n\nGoods which are due to move onwards to the Republic of Ireland would be checked at Northern Ireland's ports.\n\nThe EU published its own proposals in October, which it said would significantly reduce, but not eliminate, checks on goods.\n\nIt has previously said that the easiest way to reduce checks would be for the UK to sign up to a Swiss-style agri-food agreement.\n\nThat would involve all of the UK following the relevant EU rules, something the government says it could not accept.", "The government and business will herald a \"landmark moment\" in improving the North West's rail connections on Monday when the bill to extend HS2 to Manchester is laid in Parliament.\n\nPhase 2b of the high-speed line will cut journey times by 55 minutes from London to Manchester, ministers say.\n\nThe bill laid on Monday seeks powers to lay new track and build new stations.\n\nWork is under way on phase one of HS2 between London and Birmingham. It is set to open between 2029 and 2033.\n\nThe next section will extend the line to Crewe, with the final phase taking HS2 to Manchester - with that part of the line expected to open between 2035 and 2040.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said: \"We are determined to improve transport connections and level up communities across the country, and this bill marks a landmark moment as we bring HS2 to Manchester and lay the foundations for Northern Powerhouse Rail.\"\n\nHS2 Ltd, the organisation delivering the railway, said phase 2b would deliver \"significant connectivity, reliability and journey time benefits\" for passengers travelling between Scotland, the North, the Midlands and the South East.\n\nAmong other things, the 52-mile route includes new high-speed stations at Manchester Airport and Manchester Piccadilly.\n\nIt will also provide the infrastructure required for Northern Powerhouse Rail - a new high-speed line between Warrington, Manchester and Marsden in Yorkshire\n\nSome 17,500 construction jobs are expected to be created, HS2 limited said.\n\n\"HS2 has an integral role to play in levelling up and rebalancing Britain's economy, and this extension of the network fuels that role by bringing the country's economic centres in the North and Midlands closer together,\" HS2 Ltd boss Mark Thurston said.\n\n\"Construction of the first phase of HS2 is already supporting over 20,000 jobs and spearheading investment and growth in major population centres along the route,\" he added.\n\n\"This bill is a vote of confidence in HS2's ability to help towns and cities in the North realise their economic potential.\"\n\nIn November, the government sparked outrage when it scrapped the planned extension of HS2 from East Midlands Parkway to Leeds.\n\nInstead it promised to deliver similar benefits, faster and more cheaply, through its scaled back Integrated Rail Plan.\n\nHowever, business leaders in the Midlands and North accused the government of reneging on its investment promises, noting many journey times would now be slower than under the previous proposals.", "Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai sparked global concern when she disappeared from public view after posting allegations of sexual assault online\n\nRetired tennis star Martina Navratilova has blasted a decision by Australian Open organisers to ban T-shirts supporting Chinese player Peng Shuai.\n\nSecurity staff had on Friday asked spectators trying to enter the grounds to remove T-shirts saying \"Where is Peng Shuai?\".\n\nMs Peng disappeared for weeks after accusing a top Chinese official of sexual misconduct in November.\n\nShe has since re-appeared, but many remain concerned about her wellbeing.\n\nTennis Australia, the organising body behind the Australian Open, said Peng Shuai's safety remained their \"primary concern\", but defended their decision to confiscate the T-shirt and banner in a statement.\n\n\"Under our ticket conditions of entry, we don't allow clothing, banners or signs that are commercial or political,\" it said.\n\nIn a tweet, former world female number one tennis player Navratilova called the decision \"pathetic.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Martina Navratilova This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFrench tennis player Nicolas Mahut also chimed in on the incident, suggesting that organisers were bowing to pressure from major corporate Chinese sponsors.\n\nChinese premium liquor company Luzhou Laojiao and mattress firm DeRucci are listed as two of the leading partners on Australia Open's website.\n\n\"What's going on!? What lack of courage! What if you did not have Chinese sponsors?\" Mr Mahut tweeted.\n\nAustralia researcher for international rights group Human Rights Watch, Sophie McNeill, called Tennis Australia's decision \"not cool,\" and urged other tennis players in the tournament to bring attention to Peng Shuai.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Sophie McNeill This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFriday's incident also sparked the creation of a Gofundme page that promised to print out more T-shirts after reaching its AUD$10,000 (£5,296; $7,179) goal.\n\nIt is common for international sport events to have policies on what organisers deem as political statements. Wimbledon prohibits \"any objects or clothing bearing... political statements, objectionable or offensive statements\" from the tournament grounds.\n\nIn November, Ms Peng posted a 1,600-word note on Chinese social media platform Weibo, accusing former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of forcing her to have sex with him.\n\nShe then vanished from the public eye, triggering a wave of global concern among the international tennis community, fans and human rights groups over her whereabouts.\n\nShe resurfaced weeks later, and in her first media interview in December following her reappearance, she denied making any accusations of sexual assault and claimed her social media post had faced \"a lot of misunderstandings\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "A 16-year-old boy found with stab wounds in the street has died, prompting a murder inquiry.\n\nKennie Carter was found badly injured in Thirlmere Avenue, Stretford, shortly before 19:00 GMT on Saturday, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.\n\nHe was taken to hospital but died shortly afterwards.\n\nA police spokesman said five boys aged 15-17 were being held on suspicion of murder following arrests in Stretford, Old Trafford and Hulme.\n\nOne of the teenagers, aged 17, being held on suspicion of murder handed himself in at a police station later in the day.\n\nThe father of the victim told BBC North West Tonight \"all the family are devastated\" before reaching into his pocket to show money he said he was going to give to his son to buy something with before the tragedy happened.\n\nSupt Caroline Hemingway of GMP added the family were \"grieving the loss of a much-loved young soul\".\n\nShe said they were being supported by officers.\n\nSupt Hemingway said: \"A team of detectives have been working through the night and into today to follow-up a number of different lines of inquiry and to piece together the circumstances leading to this callous attack.\"\n\nForensic tents have been set up in Coniston Road as well as Thirlmere Avenue\n\nShe added: \"Again, we see the utterly devastating consequences of knife crime. It destroys lives, families, and communities.\n\n\"It's so heartbreaking to see such a young life lost and such young people suspected of being capable of a horrendous act of violence.\"\n\nAccording to residents, Thirlmere Avenue was usually a \"quiet\" street.\n\nOne resident, Sean Donoghue, said he was \"pretty surprised\" as it was \"generally peaceful\".\n\nGreater Manchester Police said crime scenes have been set up in Stretford, Old Trafford and Hulme and extra officers are patrolling the areas.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Emad Al Swealmeen was the passenger in a taxi which was destroyed by his bomb\n\nNew details have emerged about the Liverpool bomber Emad Al Swealmeen's failed asylum attempts - and the false information he used to make his cases.\n\nA previously confidential 2015 asylum judgment, released to the BBC, reveals how his claim of being a Syrian refugee lacked basic facts.\n\nAl Swealmeen, an Iraqi, lost that case but the Home Office did not remove him before he tried again under a new name.\n\nThe Home Office will not comment on his case and no review has been announced.\n\nIt is not clear whether officials spotted his second application from checking his fingerprint records.\n\nBut the papers raise further questions about why he was not removed from the UK before the attack.\n\nAl Swealmeen, 32, was killed when his bomb went off inside a taxi at Liverpool Women's Hospital on Remembrance Sunday in November.\n\nThe driver escaped seconds before the vehicle was engulfed in flames and was taken to hospital, but did not suffer life-threatening injuries. Nobody else was hurt.\n\nThe fresh details about Al Swealmeen's asylum claim are in the 2015 judgment from the tribunal that rules on appeals against Home Office immigration decisions.\n\nIt shows how he told obvious lies in an attempt to stay in the UK, and that his application lacked basic facts about his home and the danger he faced.\n\nAccording to the documents, released after legal representations from BBC News, Al Swealmeen arrived in the UK on 30 April 2014 and claimed asylum six days later.\n\nHe claimed to be fleeing from his native Syria, which was then in the grip of a worsening civil war.\n\nDuring his interview with a Home Office assessor, Al Swealmeen confirmed he had been living in the United Arab Emirates for 14 years and gave a vague account about returning to Syria to visit family, despite the raging conflict.\n\nHe said he had then left out of fear for his life, returned to the UAE and flown on to the UK to claim asylum.\n\nThat flight, on a genuine Jordanian passport, came four months after he had already applied for a UK visa - meaning that British immigration officials had a copy of his fingerprints before he arrived.\n\nWhen a Home Office asylum case worker questioned Al Swealmeen closely about his travels, he couldn't explain why he had been in danger or describe his purported family's situation in Syria - such as basic facts about the geography of where they lived.\n\nAn expert in Arabic also analysed Al Swealmeen's speech and concluded he was almost certainly Iraqi.\n\nPictures of the burning car outside the hospital were widely shared on social media\n\nAl Swealmeen was housed in Liverpool while he waited for a decision - which came in a rejection letter in November 2014.\n\nHe then appealed - but did not attend the 2015 hearing in Manchester.\n\nHe had been detained under the Mental Health Act, after he had been found waving a knife at people in a Liverpool underpass.\n\nThe judge handling the case concluded that Al Swealmeen's account was straightforward and so lacking in credibility that it could be dealt with immediately.\n\n\"His account of his time in Syria gives the impression of someone quoting information that is in the public domain rather than having first-hand experience,\" ruled the judge.\n\n\"The appellant did not identify himself with any particular faction or indicate that he would be at risk other than in a general sense.\n\n\"In view of all of the evidence, I reject his account of events in Syria and his fears on his return in their entirety and dismiss his asylum appeal.\"\n\nThat conclusion meant the Home Office had the green light to send Al Swealmeen back to Iraq or Jordan, as it had previously warned him it would do.\n\nDuring 2015 and the years that followed, the government was forcibly sending some people back to both countries - but Emad Al Swealmeen was not one of them.\n\nEnforced returns were falling during this period as the government pursued its so-called \"hostile environment\" policies designed to encourage people to leave of their own choice.\n\nInstead of going, Al Swealmeen tried to appeal again in August 2015, failed, and then joined Liverpool Cathedral's course on the foundations of Christianity, presenting himself as a potential convert.\n\nBy 2017 he had converted and Malcolm and Elizabeth Hitchcott, a couple who volunteered in the local Christian community, gave him a bed.\n\nIt's around this time he made a new asylum application under the name Enzo Almeni.\n\nAs part of that claim, officials would have expected him to volunteer his fingerprints, so they could verify he had not claimed before - but it's not clear whether these checks were carried out.\n\nEmad Al Swealmeen (on right in light grey jacket) during a service at Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, alongside the bishop Right Reverend Cyril Ashton\n\nThe Home Office eventually rejected this second application - but instead of being removed from the UK, Al Swealmeen was yet again able to lodge an appeal in January 2021. That challenge was outstanding when he detonated his homemade bomb.\n\nThe Home Office has declined to comment on the specific circumstances of Emad Al Swealmeen's case but said it was \"fixing the broken asylum system\" in its current legislation.\n\n\"The new plan for immigration will require people to raise all protection-related issues up front, to tackle the practice of making multiple and sequential claims and enable the removal of those with no right to be in our country more quickly,\" said a spokesman.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UUP leader Doug Beattie apologises for making a joke about Edwin Poots and his wife\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie has said he is \"deeply ashamed and embarrassed\" by a number of historical tweets he published.\n\nEarlier Mr Beattie apologised for tweeting a joke about the former DUP leader Edwin Poots and his wife.\n\n\"Since I made my unreserved apology in relation to a tweet at the weekend I have been made aware of a number of historic tweets which I published.\n\n\"I am deeply ashamed and embarrassed by the content of these tweets. They are totally unacceptable. They do not reflect the opinions or values I hold today,\" he tweeted.\n\nThe Upper Bann MLA said since the time he entered politics he had made a serious effort to increase the representation of women and advocate policies which would improve the lives and well-being of all women and girls.\n\n\"That is where I stand and I deeply regret the fact that these historic tweets could serve to undermine that position,\" he said.\n\nHe said misogyny was something which must be taken very seriously and admitted he had fallen short in the past.\n\nHe did not provide any details of what he said in the past tweets.\n\nDoug Beattie's rise through the political ranks has been meteoric. Now his fall threatens to be equally rapid.\n\nTwitter is awash with historical tweets containing many derogatory references to women.\n\nOne has emerged in which he accused Muslims of playing the victim.\n\nThere's even one in which he uses the N-word.\n\nThe fact that most date from a decade or more ago is largely irrelevant.\n\nThen he was still a soldier.\n\nTonight he's facing another battle - for his political career.\n\nEarlier, Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots said his wife was disgusted by a joke posted about her by Mr Beattie.\n\nThe joke was posted on Saturday night and by Sunday morning Mr Beattie had deleted it.\n\nIn his apology, he told Mr and Mrs Poots that he was \"sorry for the hurt I may have caused\".\n\nMr Poots said the joke had demeaned women and specifically had demeaned his wife.\n\nThe Lagan Valley assembly member, who briefly served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) last year, told the BBC's The Nolan Show that the UUP leader's judgement in posting the joke was \"poor\".\n\n\"I just don't know what he was thinking,\" he said.\n\nEdwin Poots says he accepted Doug Beattie's apology but believes the UUP leader's judgement was \"poor\"\n\n\"I'm a big boy, I can take a lot of abuse in politics and that's fine but [he] shouldn't be drawing other members of people's families into anything.\"\n\n\"Saturday night was the first time we had been together as a family for four years because we have two children who are doing voluntary work abroad - it coincided that they happened to be home.\"\n\nThe DUP politician said it was the \"type of joke you'd have heard people telling on TV on a Friday or Saturday night in the 1970s or '80s\".\n\n\"There may be a global anger that [the joke] demeans women in general, and it does, but it demeans one woman in particular and that one woman happens to be my wife and my children's mother,\" he said.\n\n\"She happens to be married to a politician - I wasn't a politician when she married me, but she's given me her full support.\n\nDoug Beattie deleted and later apologised for the post on Twitter\n\nSpeaking on the Nolan Show, Mr Beattie said he was \"genuinely sorry\" and he had written to Mr Poots to apologise.\n\nHe later repeated the apology in the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday afternoon.\n\n\"I posted a joke and regardless of what my intentions were it wasn't just inappropriate,\" he said.\n\n\"It was absolutely wrong and fundamentally wrong and therefore it's important I stand here and I say to Mr and Mrs Poots that I am sorry for the hurt I may have caused.\n\n\"I have to say to wider society, that my language was wrong on every level.\n\n\"We have to have our guard against this and I did not show the leadership I should have shown.\"\n\nDeputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said social media companies had a \"moral and corporate responsibility\" to ensure those engaged in misogyny, sexism, online abuse and threats are blocked from their services.\n\n\"For those in political leadership that engage in that everyday sexism and think it's a joke that's just disgusting in itself,\" she said.\n\n\"That's not political leadership, political leadership is calling out things whenever it's wrong and in this case misogyny online is a huge problem.\"\n\nMs O'Neill added: \"For a political leader to be engaged in online what he deems to be jokes, I do not deem to be jokes, I think is just incredulous\".\n\nSDLP leader Colum Eastwood said there was \"no place for misogyny in our society\".\n\n\"We need to take a zero tolerance approach,\" he said.\n\n\"We have a huge responsibility to call out misogyny in other men - Doug Beattie has totally failed the leadership test on this issue.\"\n\nAlliance Party leader and Justice Minister Naomi Long said she was \"genuinely shocked at just how casually misogynistic\" the tweet was.\n\n\"It would have made many a 1970s comic blush,\" she said.", "Sean Ivey's home was badly damaged by fire just days after he posted a video on social media of youths careering around on motorbikes. Amanda Dunn took her own life following a decline in her mental health during an ongoing dispute with a neighbour.\n\nBBC Panorama reports on what can happen when anti-social behaviour escalates, and investigates how police and local councils deal with it.\n\nRead more: IS anti-social behaviour still seen 'as a bit of bother'?'\n\nYou can watch Panorama's Anti-Social Behaviour: Afraid in My Own Home on BBC1 on Monday 24 January at 7.30pm or on Iplayer.\n\nIf you are affected by suicide or mental distress, support is available at BBC Actionline.", "Sir George Hamilton served as PSNI chief constable from 2014 to 2019\n\nA former Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable has said Martin McGuinness had acted \"with integrity\" and was \"a man I could do business with\".\n\nSir George Hamilton was speaking for a BBC film on 20 years of the PSNI.\n\nHe said the former deputy first minister was \"committed to making this a better place\".\n\nBut he said that going to Mr McGuinness's funeral while still in post was a \"dilemma\".\n\nMr McGuinness, a former IRA leader and a senior member of Sinn Féin, died in 2017, a year after stepping down as deputy first minister.\n\nSpeaking for the documentary, Twenty Years on the Frontline, Sir George, who served as the PSNI's chief constable between 2014 and 2019, recalled how he regarded working with Mr McGuinness.\n\n\"He acted with integrity, he acted in a common sense way, in a pragmatic way,\" he said.\n\n\"When he was going to have to do or say something that was going to be difficult for me, he would've given me prior notice - not seeking my permission, but he would've had the courtesy of saying 'This is what I'm going to be doing and saying publicly', on most occasions.\n\n\"And he was a man, therefore, that I could do business with.\"\n\nGeorge Hamilton, right, and Martin McGuinness (left) with BBC News NI's former security editor Brian Rowan at an event in 2015\n\nWhen asked by presenter Stephen Nolan about attending Mr McGuinness's funeral, Mr Hamilton said: \"I remember looking at his coffin with the tricolour resting on it and thinking of the coffins that I had carried and walked behind because of the actions of the IRA of which he was a very prominent member.\"\n\nHe said the pair had spoken about their hopes for the peace process shortly before Mr McGuinness's death.\n\n\"He and I had conversations, when he knew how ill he was, about the work that still needed to be done, and I'm not talking about his political pursuit of a united Ireland, I'm talking about firming up the peace process and dealing with the legacy issues.\n\n\"Regardless of his past, and you can't disregard it, I was convinced that, in the here and now, this was a person who was committed to making this a better place.\"\n\nThe film, which charts many of the major events which led up to the formation of the PSNI, spoke to police officers who have lost family members, colleagues and suffered injuries as a result of their service.\n\nIn November 2001, under policing reforms, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), which was overwhelmingly Protestant, was renamed the PSNI.\n\nOne of the main aims of police reform was to build broader community support and increase the number of Catholic officers.\n\nHowever figures last December revealed an ongoing recruitment problem, with 24% of officers recruited in 2020 being Catholic.\n\nAs well as Mr Hamilton, the film also features interviews with Chief Constable Simon Byrne and former chief constables Sir Ronnie Flanagan and Sir Hugh Orde.\n\nSimon Byrne spoke about the fallout over the funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey, saying he would have done some things differently but that the PSNI's hands were tied.\n\nMary Lou McDonald, Gerry Adams and Michelle O'Neill were among the senior Sinn Féin members at Bobby Storey's funeral\n\nHe faced calls to resign after prosecutors opted not to charge anyone over the funeral in June 2020.\n\nIt attracted 2,000 mourners at a time when Covid restrictions were in place.\n\n\"I think if I was living it again, I would like to have seen more police in and around the funeral, to show a presence, to show that we were gathering evidence.\n\n\"But, at the end of the day, our hands were tied in terms of tactics that were legitimate and lawful because of the way the law was constructed.\"\n\nHe added: \"I've seen plenty of people saying to me we should've arrested people, we should've stopped them but this wasn't an unlawful processions, this was a funeral.\"\n\nMr Byrne said the intensity of the chief constable's role in Northern Ireland, particularly in the wake of high-profile incidents such as Mr Storey's funeral, was \"unique\".\n\n\"Sometimes when the pressure's up and you go home and have to deal with those issues with your family... about some of the criticisms - is it about me the person or me the role? - it's not nice and I couldn't pretend that it is.\n\n\"It feels like venom and intensity - it is hard when it's coming at you from all angles.\"\n\nHe added: \"I have been approached when out and about and people will say things to you - and you recognise that's part of the job, but it wouldn't be an experience anywhere else I've worked.\"\n\nTwenty Years on the Frontline airs on BBC One Northern Ireland on Monday 24 January at 22:35 GMT", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"My most overwhelming memory is the physical pain of it,\" said Dr Koshka Duff\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has apologised to a woman for the \"sexist, derogatory and unacceptable language used\" while she was being strip-searched.\n\nDr Koshka Duff was detained in 2013 after offering a legal advice card to a black teenager during his stop-and-search.\n\nOn CCTV footage, officers can be heard laughing about her hair, clothes and talking about her underwear.\n\nThe force said it had settled her claim and \"sincerely apologised\".\n\nDr Duff, who is now an assistant professor at the University of Nottingham, was trying to give the \"know your rights\" card to a 15-year-old boy in London.\n\nThe officers accused her of obstruction and arrested her.\n\nShe told the BBC she decided to act in the spirit of \"passive resistance\", and went limp rather than walking to the police van willingly.\n\nShe was taken to Stoke Newington police station, where Sgt Kurtis Howard approved the strip search.\n\nThe custody sergeant asked two female officers to cut off her clothes in a cell after Dr Duff would not give her name, and because they did not know anything about her or what she was carrying.\n\n\"She's resisting. Resistance is futile... treat her like a terrorist, I don't care,\" he said.\n\nThis photo of Dr Duff's injured arm was taken while she was at the police station\n\nDr Duff described the strip search, which was carried out by female officers, as a \"very violating and humiliating experience\".\n\nShe said it left her with multiple injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.\n\n\"They caused significant injury, and subjected me to degrading treatment,\" the academic said.\n\n\"When they had me completely naked they touched my breasts and between my legs.\"\n\nDr Duff added she heard male officers talking through the open door, and feared they might be watching.\n\nDr Duff described the strip search as a \"very violating and humiliating experience\"\n\nOn CCTV footage Dr Duff managed to obtain years after the search, officers can be heard laughing about her hair, saying her clothes stink and talking about her underwear.\n\nDr Duff was later charged with two counts of assaulting a police officer and one charge of obstructing a police officer, but was acquitted of all charges following a trial.\n\nThe Met held a misconduct hearing in August 2018, and halfway through Sgt Howard was cleared of gross misconduct without giving evidence.\n\nPanel chairman Maurice Cohen said there were \"reasonable grounds justifying Sgt Howard's actions in authorising a strip search\".\n\nIn a statement, the Met said: \"In November 2021, the Met settled a claim following the arrest of a woman in Hackney in May 2013.\n\n\"We have sincerely apologised to the complainant for the language used while she was in custody and any distress caused.\n\n\"Following the conclusion of the civil claim, allegations of misconduct relating to these comments were referred to our Directorate of Professional Standards and are currently being investigated.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nHossein Vafaei became the first Iranian player to win a ranking title, beating Mark Williams in the final of the Snooker Shoot Out.\n\nVafaei won the one-frame final with a break of 71 and dedicated the victory to his late grandmother.\n\n\"That is for you grandma,\" the 27-year-old told Eurosport. \"It's Mother's Day in Iran and I am very proud I did that.\n\n\"It's a big achievement for a country like Iran. Nobody knew about snooker before. Now they know.\"\n\nWales' Williams, the three-time world champion, only got the chance to play one shot in the final with world number 42 Vafaei sinking a tricky, long red after the break-off.\n\n\"I thought I'd played a pretty good break-off shot there and what a fantastic red that was,\" said Williams. \"To make that break under pressure to win your first tournament, hats off to him.\"\n\nSign up to My Sport to follow snooker news on the BBC app.\n• None DIG OUT YOUR CAGOULE AND TIE UP THOSE BOOTS: The Welsh Coast awaits, explore it with Derek", "England won by one run, series level at 1-1\n\nEngland dominated the majority of the second T20 against West Indies but ultimately won by just one run after some astonishing late hitting.\n\nWest Indies needed a seemingly hopeless 30 from the final over, only for Akeal Hosein to take Saqib Mahmood for 28, including three sixes off the last three balls.\n\nEngland earlier bounced back from being bowled out for 103 in the first T20 to post 171-8 on a similarly challenging pitch.\n\nThey were propelled by Jason Roy taking 24 off Fabian Allen's 11th over, as 107 runs came in the second half of the innings.\n\nRoy made 45, adding 61 with Moeen Ali, who contributed 31, while Chris Jordan once again shone on the island of his birth with a cameo of 27.\n\nLeft-arm seamer Reece Topley, playing his first T20 international for nearly six years, trapped Brandon King lbw and athletically ran out Shai Hope to leave West Indies reeling on 6-2.\n\nWith excessive turn on offer, spinners Moeen and Adil Rashid mesmerised the hosts in the middle overs, sharing five wickets.\n\nBut Romario Shepherd blasted five sixes in his 44 not out, while Hosein's unbeaten 44 came from only 16 balls to make England's margin of victory so much tighter than it should have been.\n\nThe five-match series is level at 1-1. The third game is on Wednesday.\n\nGiven the fright they were given at the end of the match, England were indebted to a batting display vastly improved from Saturday's collapse.\n\nWhereas the tourists struggled to adapt to the conditions in the series opener, on Sunday they were more willing to be patient before unleashing the batting aggression that is their trademark\n\nRoy typified this approach. He lacked fluency as opening partner Tom Banton swept and reverse-swept 25 off 18 balls only to hammer a return catch to left-arm spinner Allen, who then disturbed James Vince's off stump.\n\nRoy had 17 from 23 balls at the halfway stage, but exploded into life with three fours and two sixes in the first over of the second half. One of the maximums, a slog sweep, went out of the ground.\n\nWhen he fell in the next over, caught at long-on from the bowling of Shepherd, Roy had taken 28 runs off his seven previous deliveries.\n\nMoeen was missed twice - the second a bad drop by Odean Smith - as West Indies failed to match the fielding standards of the previous evening. However, when Moeen and Sam Billings were dismissed in consecutive overs, there was an opening for the hosts.\n\nIt was snuffed out by Jordan and captain Eoin Morgan adding 31 at 10 runs an over. It turned out to be just enough.\n\nTopley last played the shortest format for England during their run to the 2016 World Cup final, with a career-threatening back injury then preventing him from featuring in international cricket for four years.\n\nIn replacing Tymal Mills he was England's sole change from Saturday and he took only two legal deliveries to make an impact, pinning King with a hooping inswinger.\n\nThe run-out of Hope was more spectacular. Parrying a stop in his follow-through, Topley chased the rebound, dived and flicked the ball on to the non-striker's stumps.\n\nHe would have had another wicket had Liam Dawson held onto a skier from Nicholas Pooran at mid-wicket.\n\nStill, Moeen and Rashid took control, bowling in tandem for six overs that brought five wickets for 32 runs.\n\nMasterful leg-spinner Rashid had Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo both lbw on review, while off-spinner Moeen continued his fine all-round display by having Pooran and Odean Smith hole out either side of snaffling a sharp caught and bowled off Jason Holder - 3-24 represented his career-best figures.\n\nFrom an almost hopeless position - 61 were needed from the final three overs with only two wickets in hand - Shepherd chanced his arm.\n\nHe hit Jordan for three sixes in the 18th over, but after Topley was tight in the 19th, the result was barely in doubt going into Mahmood's final set.\n\nStill, Hosein's assault of two fours and three sixes was extraordinary and, although the one-run margin does not tell the story of England's superiority, they were extremely ragged at the death.\n\nIt might have been worse for the tourists had Mahmood not got away with a marginal wide decision from the first legal delivery of the over, much to the frustration of Hosein, who ended with the highest score by a number 10 in T20 internationals.\n\nEngland captain Eoin Morgan: \"I was delighted and even with the last quarter, with a relatively inexperienced international side, those are the games you want to play in. For the majority of today I thought we were brilliant.\"\n\nWest Indies captain Kieron Pollard: \"I can see the confidence with the guys in the changing room. We will have days like this but my thing is the fight that the guys continue to show.\"\n\nPlayer of the match Moeen Ali: \"We thought we'd got a really good score but they played well. We paced it better today and each batter gave themselves five or six balls. Chris Jordan played a great knock at the end with the bat.\"", "The stowaway was found in the nose wheel section of a cargo plane (not pictured)\n\nDutch police say they have found a stowaway alive in the wheel section of a plane that landed at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport from South Africa.\n\nFlights from Johannesburg to Amsterdam take about 11 hours, with the cargo plane believed to have made one stop, in Nairobi, Kenya.\n\nIt is very unusual for stowaways on long flights to survive, due to the cold and low oxygen at high altitudes.\n\nThe man's age and nationality have not yet been determined, police say.\n\n\"The man was found alive in the nose wheel section of the plane and was taken to hospital in a stable condition,\" Royal Dutch Military Police spokeswoman Joanna Helmonds told the AFP news agency.\n\n\"It is quite remarkable that the man is still alive,\" she said.\n\nAccording to Dutch broadcaster NOS, the man's body temperature was raised at the scene and by the time an ambulance arrived, he was able to answer basic questions.\n\nA spokesperson for freight carrier Cargolux confirmed in an email to Reuters that the stowaway had been on a flight operated by Cargolux Italia.\n\nAccording to flight data, the only Cargolux freight flight from Johannesburg to Schiphol on Sunday also made a stop in Nairobi. It is not known if the man boarded the plane in South Africa or Kenya.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Where do stowaways hide on planes? (2019 report)", "The victims' commissioner, Dame Vera Baird, says anti-social behaviour is often seen as \"a sort of sub-crime\"\n\nAnti-social behaviour can devastate lives. Yet BBC Panorama has found an important tool to help repeat victims is rarely being used.\n\nWhat starts as nuisance can quickly escalate to a more serious crime.\n\n\"I heard noises at the front of the house,\" says Paul, who has asked us to conceal his real identity. He saw more than 20 youths outside his house, some as young as nine. \"[They] began to throw big pieces of concrete at my house and myself.\"\n\nPaul's ordeal started last August after challenging a group who had climbed on a nearby roof. After that, he became a target.\n\nLast November, he saw a group of youths coming towards the back of his house one night. \"They had a long metal pole that looked like a spike,\" he says, \"they put it through the window and all the glass shattered and went across the room.\"\n\nHe didn't know where to move. Paul then heard a noise at his front door and realised he was surrounded. He called the police, who sent a patrol car, but the group had gone by the time it arrived.\n\nIn the past five months almost every window in Paul's house has been broken. He has made calls to the police on 11 different days - sometimes twice a day. Cleveland Police has assigned a community support officer and increased patrols. Paul's housing association have helped install CCTV.\n\nIt's been quiet since December, but he's still nervous.\n\nAccusations of anti-social behaviour can sometimes begin with disputes between neighbours. If they get out of hand, the impact can be extremely serious, particularly on people's mental health.\n\nIn March last year, John Grocott discovered his twin sister Amanda Dunn's body slumped on her kitchen floor at her home in Staffordshire. She had taken her own life.\n\nJohn believes the decline in her mental health dates back three years, to a minor dispute with a neighbour over bird feed. The dispute escalated, with accusations on both sides. He believes the stress was the \"trigger of her downfall\".\n\nAmanda had called Staffordshire Police twice about the dispute and had contact with a neighbourhood police officer before her death. She had told police she was \"at the end of her tether\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sean Ivey's home was damaged by fire just days after he posted a video on social media of youths careering around on motorbikes\n\nAt an inquest, South Staffordshire's coroner didn't hear from Amanda's neighbours, but said a \"major reason for her fatal actions was an ongoing problem\" with them.\n\nIn a later report to Staffordshire Police, the coroner said while he had only heard one side of the story, there was a real concern police were \"seeking to brush such incidents under the carpet and not taking them sufficiently seriously\".\n\nStaffordshire Police said it had apologised to Mrs Dunn's family for its response. \"We have taken on board the concerns identified by the coroner and have put in place actions to improve our response to cases like this.\"\n\nThe neighbours involved in the dispute said what happened to Mrs Dunn was \"very, very sad\" and pointed out \"there are always two sides to arguments such as this\".\n\nBut John Grocott is calling for the police to be \"more alert\" in these cases.\n\nPanorama's research has identified four more deaths in the last 12 months in which anti-social behaviour is alleged to have played a part.\n\nThe victims' commissioner, Dame Vera Baird, says such deaths are shocking and should be seen as a \"failure to protect\" by police and local authorities. \"It is a serious responsibility,\" she added.\n\nDeputy Chief Constable Andy Prophet, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for anti-social behaviour, says authorities need to do better at \"early understanding of the problem\". He said: \"Early engagement is seldom a single agency. Getting the response right together is the best way to prevent those small number of horrific tragedies that can happen.\"\n\nBut there are concerns about how anti-social behaviour is being dealt with.\n\nDame Vera Baird says victims of anti-social behaviour are still not being made a high enough priority\n\nIt's hard to know the full scale of anti-social behaviour because police statistics don't reflect reports to local authorities and housing associations.\n\nIn the 12 months up to June 2021, the police recorded 1.8 million incidents of anti-social behaviour in England and Wales.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, police recorded more than 71,000 incidents of anti-social behaviour in the same period. Part of these two figures reflects breaches of Covid restrictions.\n\nIn Scotland, there were around 372,000 incidents of anti-social behaviour reported to the police in the year to the end of September 2021, according to a Freedom of Information request.\n\nPolice and local councils use a broad range of powers to crack down on anti-social behaviour.\n\nIn England and Wales, if a victim feels authorities aren't doing enough, they can use something called an Anti-Social Behaviour Case Review, also known as the \"community trigger\".\n\nIt was introduced in 2014 and victims of anti-social behaviour who have complained a number of times can ask agencies - including their police force and local council - to meet and take a fresh look at the problem.\n\nDame Vera says it's an \"excellent\" tool for victims, because it gives them the power to say \"put this right\" and it is the responsibility of the local authorities, police and crime commissioners to promote it.\n\nPanorama wrote to all 331 council districts in England and Wales with responsibility for anti-social behaviour to find out how many community triggers had been run.\n\nBecause the collection of data is inconsistent, it is impossible to be precise about how often it had been used. However, data from the 191 authorities that replied suggests about 300 were held in 2021.\n\nOf those to respond, 37 local authorities - around one in five - said they had never run a community trigger.\n\nDame Vera says victims of anti-social behaviour are still not being made a high enough priority. She says part of the reason is police regarding it as \"a sort of sub-crime - a bit of bother\".\n\nMr Prophet said the police don't see anti-social behaviour as a low-level crime. He said: \"We are incredibly focused on helping officers see and understand those cases that are potentially looking really concerning.\"\n\nThe government says it \"is committed to tackling anti-social behaviour and ensuring that victims get the support they deserve.\" It says all local councils were written to last year \"to remind them of their duties around community triggers\" and police involvement in them will be monitored.\n\nYou can watch Panorama's Anti-Social Behaviour: Afraid in My Own Home on BBC1 on Monday 24 January at 19:30 GMT and on iPlayer.", "Francis Urquhart was depicted as a fearsome chief whip in the BBC's House of Cards series\n\nIn fact, their job is a very basic one; they must ensure MPs vote in the way the party leadership wants, and (in the case of the government whips) see that the government gets its business through Parliament.\n\nIt doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to get done.\n\nBut it's easy to see why Machiavellian Francis Urquhart in the BBC TV series House of Cards could be viewed as a role model, rather than a villain.\n\nWhipping is \"a deed without a name\" involving \"the dark arts\", and its practitioners deploy fiendish subtlety and precisely targeted intimidation like a combination of Sigmund Freud and Don Corleone.\n\nIn his recent memoirs, former Conservative chief whip Andrew Mitchell puts it like this: \"A whip is not moral or immoral, but amoral.\n\n\"If the government decides to proceed with the Slaughter of the First-Borns Bill, it is the whips' job to secure the necessary votes by explaining that there are too many first-borns around, fettering the chances of the second and third-born children… 'it will go down particularly well in your constituency, have you not studied your own population statistics?'.\"\n\nIt's not a huge step from that kind of persuasion to more heavy-handed tactics.\n\nTory MP Andrew Mitchell describes whips as \"amoral\" in his memoirs\n\nThe former foreign secretary Jack Straw describes in his memoirs how, when he looked likely to defy the Labour Party line as a young MP in the 1980s, the legendary Labour whip Walter Harrison's attempt to dissuade him involved administering a painful twist to his genitals.\n\nAnd as I write, hundreds of Westminster journalists will be digging into William Wragg's extraordinary allegations.\n\nThere is a more benign side to whipping, though. It's a kind of HR function, which involves helping MPs deal with all kinds of personal crises, from looming bankruptcy to divorce, or mental health issues, and very little of that seeps out into public view.\n\nBut the point here is that core whipping is supposed to be invisible. Government business is supposed to go through smoothly and efficiently, with the behind-the-scenes efforts which make it happen never exposed to the light. If strong-arm tactics become the story, they've failed.\n\nWhen, during the Blair years, the Labour MP Paul Marsden objected to a dressing down from the then Chief Whip, Hillary Armstrong, he recorded the exchange and went public by giving a verbatim account to the Mail on Sunday.\n\nNo 10 was forced to put out a statement saying that dissenting backbenchers would be allowed to speak out on the Iraq war. At the time, it was an extraordinary thing to do, but these days MPs are more likely to go public if they think they're being mistreated.\n\nOf course, the Commons generation of 2019 have not had a normal start to parliamentary life.\n\nFor most of their time in parliament, they've been whipped by WhatsApp, so their relationship with their whip has been much more superficial. Now, at a dangerous political moment, that is starting to matter.\n\nIf the whips can't head off or suppress dissent, or stop eruptions by the likes of William Wragg and David Davis, it becomes harder to deliver the vote.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. MPs should report intimidation tactics to the police, says William Wragg\n\nThere's talk that Tory dissidents are looking for an opportunity to register their discontent with a vote against the government.\n\nThe whips scan through the agenda for the week ahead looking for pitfalls - and they will be scrutinising very carefully right now.", "The SDF says its forces have the prison surrounded\n\nFears are growing over the fate of hundreds of children believed to be held by jihadist extremists inside a besieged prison in north-east Syria.\n\nNearly 850 children are inside Ghwayran prison in Hasaka, which was stormed by Islamic State (IS) group fighters on Thursday, triggering days of battles.\n\nOn Monday some 300 militants in the prison gave up, security forces said.\n\nMore than 150 people are reported to have been killed since IS launched its raid to try to free jailed fighters.\n\nThousands of IS suspects are held in prisons run by Kurdish authorities.\n\nThe Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, supported by US-led coalition forces, fought the IS group after it overran large parts of Syria several years ago and declared its territorial defeat in March 2019.\n\nHowever IS cells still operate and have mounted strings of deadly attacks against security forces and civilians.\n\nThe surprise assault on the prison by more than 100 IS fighters sparked fierce fighting inside and outside the facility, including US-led coalition air strikes.\n\nA UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said on Monday that 102 IS fighters, seven civilians and 45 Kurdish members of security forces and prison guards had been killed in clashes at the prison since Thursday.\n\nThe UN children's charity Unicef said it was concerned for nearly 850 children held at the prison amid the fighting.\n\nIt said the safety of the children - some as young as 12 years old - was at \"serious risk\".\n\n\"As fighting continues, the risk for children increases including to be harmed or forcibly recruited,\" it said, and called for their release.\n\nThe SDF said IS militants were holed up in a dormitory housing hundreds of children who had been detained for suspected links to IS.\n\nIt said they were being used as \"human shields\" and warned it would hold \"the terrorists accountable if the children are hurt\".\n\nThe SDF said its forces had sealed off the area around the jail and that \"IS fighters located within the gates of the prison can no longer escape\".\n\nRelatives of children held at the prison say they have been detained without proper evidence and for resisting forced conscription into the SDF, AFP news agency reported.\n\nIS had a strategy of forcibly recruiting children, including those they abducted, and training them to carry out suicide bombings or kill prisoners. The children, dubbed Cubs of the Caliphate by IS, are held along with thousands of IS fighters from more than 50 countries in Kurdish-run prisons in north-eastern Syria.\n\nThe overcrowded site at Ghwayran housed 3,500 suspected IS members including some of its leaders, according to the SOHR.\n\nHundreds of jihadists who broke out following the IS attack have been recaptured, but some are still on the run, it said.\n• None The Lion Cubs of the caliphate\n• None IS mother 'regrets everything' about Syria journey", "Pro-Russia militants are on the frontline in the contested Donbas region\n\n\"Europe is now closer to war than it has been since the break up of former Yugoslavia.\"\n\nStark words of warning from the senior EU diplomat I've just been speaking to off the record about current tensions with Moscow, over its huge military build-up on the border with Ukraine.\n\nThe mood in Brussels is jumpy. There's a real fear that Europe could be spiralling towards its worst security crisis in decades.\n\nBut angst isn't wholly focused on the prospect of a long, drawn-out ground war with Russia over Ukraine.\n\nFew here believe Moscow has the military might, never mind the money, or popular support back home for that.\n\nTrue: the EU warns the Kremlin of \"extreme consequences\" should it take military action in neighbouring Ukraine. Germany's new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was in Kyiv and Moscow saying just that on Monday.\n\nSweden moved hundreds of troops over the weekend to its strategically important Gotland island - which lies in the Baltic Sea. And Denmark strengthened its presence in the region a few days before that.\n\nThe rising tensions have also re-ignited the debate in both Finland and Sweden as to whether they should now join Nato.\n\nBut the overarching concern in the West - Washington, Nato, the UK and the EU - is less the possibility of conventional warfare over Ukraine, and far more, that Moscow is seeking to divide and destabilise Europe - shaking up the balance of continental power in the Kremlin's favour.\n\nPoland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told me late last year that the West needed to \"wake up from its geopolitical slumber\" regarding Moscow's intentions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Poland's prime minister says Russia and its allies want to \"disunite\" the EU\n\nFellow EU countries would say they have now woken up and are smelling very strong coffee.\n\nBut, as is so often the case when it comes to foreign policy, EU leaders are far from united over which precise course of action to take.\n\nMoscow denies - despite the massive build-up of troops on the border with Ukraine - that it's planning a military invasion. But it has issued Nato with a list of security demands. Loudly blaming the alliance for \"undermining regional security\", Vladimir Putin insists, among other things, that Nato bans Ukraine and other former Soviet states from ever becoming members of the organisation.\n\nNato flatly refused and the three summits held over the last week or so, between Russia and Western allies, have failed to find much common ground.\n\nWhat Vladimir Putin plans to do next is unclear. But the West believes the Kremlin has invested too much in its very public manoeuvres over Ukraine to back down now, without something to show for it.\n\nThe Biden administration is waiting impatiently for a forceful EU position on possible sanctions, depending on what course of action Moscow takes: a military incursion into Ukraine, cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns or - as is considered most likely - a mish-mash of hybrid attacks.\n\nEU optimists predict the bloc will agree a raft of possible sanctions by 24 January, at the next foreign ministers' meeting. But that's far from guaranteed.\n\nA number of EU countries are umming and ahing about the cost of eventual sanctions to their own economies. Brussels normally discusses burden-sharing, but the outcome of those negotiations may well not please everyone.\n\nThere's also widespread concern in EU countries about gas supplies from Russia. Especially with prices already so high for European households this winter.\n\nWashington says it's looking into ways of softening the impact on energy supplies.\n\nIt wants to hurry the EU into agreeing a firm position on sanctions - knowing all too well that, on foreign policy, approval needs to be unanimous amongst member states.\n\nWere post-Brexit relations easier between the UK and EU, you'd expect a lot more shuttle diplomacy right now between London, Berlin and Paris to compare and discuss ideas, maybe agreeing a common course of action.\n\nBrussels diplomats slightly cattily describe the UK government as \"probably too wrapped up in domestic political scandals to have geopolitics top of its in-tray right now\", but they openly admit the UK is fully engaged on the Russia-Ukraine issue within Nato.\n\nOn Monday, British defence secretary Ben Wallace announced Britain was supplying Ukraine with short-range anti-tank missiles for self-defence. He said a small team of British troops would also provide training.\n\nMr Wallace earlier warned Moscow that there would be \"consequences\" for any Russian aggression towards Ukraine. Britain would \"stand up to bullies\", he said, no matter how far away the conflict.\n\nWashington insists there's no time to lose. It says the Kremlin is considering a \"false-flag\" operation \"laying the groundwork to have the option of fabricating a pretext for invasion\" - i.e. blaming Ukraine for an attack that Russian operatives would carry out.\n\nThe Russian and US leaders have spoken via video link and over the phone\n\nBut US officials say Moscow is preparing to repeat a pattern seen back in 2014 when it accused Kyiv of abuses before Kremlin-backed forces seized control of Ukraine's southern peninsula of Crimea.\n\nThe territory has a Russian-speaking majority. It then voted to join Russia in a referendum that Ukraine and the West consider illegal. Thousands then died in the conflict that ensued in eastern Ukraine.\n\nThe West is bracing for what might follow now.", "Matthew Willson was visiting his girlfriend Katherine Shepard when he was shot\n\nThe death of an English astrophysicist who was killed by a stray bullet fired through the wall of a US apartment was \"senseless\", his sister has said.\n\nDr Matthew Willson, 31, from Chertsey, Surrey, was found in bed with a single gunshot wound to the head.\n\nPolice were called to the apartment in Brookhaven, Atlanta, at 02:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on 16 January.\n\nKate Willson said: \"Everyone who knew my brother has lost a wonderful friend.\"\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast, Ms Willson said her brother \"was a joy to be around\".\n\nShe said she had flown to the US as soon as she heard the news, arriving 36 hours later.\n\n\"The bullet had caused too much damage to his brain, he was brain dead, and there was very little chance he was ever going to wake up.\"\n\nHe was later pronounced dead in hospital.\n\nMs Willson said: \"The outpouring of love from everybody who knew Matt from around the world has been a real sign of what a wonderful person he was.\"\n\nKate Willson described her brother as a \"wonderful person\"\n\nMs Willson said: \"A bullet came through the wall and struck my brother in the head.\n\n\"It was too dangerous for the police to go in to investigate. They had to stand back until it was safe to go to my brother.\n\n\"It's a real senseless act,\" she said.\n\nMs Willson said her brother's girlfriend, Katherine Shepard, had been left \"traumatised\".\n\n\"I admire her and I can't imagine what she's going through,\" she said.\n\nMs Willson said the family had not received any more information from the police and there had been no arrests so far.\n\n\"Somebody knows who did this, and somebody know who's responsible.\"\n\nSgt Jake Kissel, from the Brookhaven Police Department, earlier said the shooting was believed to have been a random act.\n\nHe said the stray bullet that hit Dr Willson travelled less than 100 yards (91m) and entered through an exterior wall of the apartment.\n\n\"We're saying it's the reckless discharge of firearms from one apartment complex and the stray bullet travelled through the woods and entered his apartment.\"\n\nAman Kar, who shared the flat with Ms Shepard told the BBC \"multiple rounds of gunshots\" were fired in the opposite complex \"about 20ft away\".\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "Police released a photo of Cleo Smith after her rescue\n\nAn Australian man has pleaded guilty to abducting four-year-old Cleo Smith and holding her at his home for 18 days.\n\nCleo vanished from her family's tent last October while on a camping trip in Western Australia, sparking a huge search that gripped the country.\n\nPolice later found her at a stranger's house in her hometown of Carnarvon, a short drive from the campsite.\n\nTerence Darrell Kelly, 36, admitted a charge of child stealing to a magistrate on Monday.\n\nHe was remanded in custody to face the Perth District Court in March, and is expected to be sentenced at a later date.\n\nAustralian media reported that Mr Kelly's guilty plea had come as a surprise ahead of what many expected to be a lengthy legal process.\n\nHe has been held in a Perth jail since 5 November - two days after police smashed their way into his locked house, found Cleo inside, and arrested him on a nearby street.\n\nTerence Darrell Kelly was flown 1000km (620 miles) from Carnarvon to Perth in November\n\nVideo of the rescue released at the time showed the young girl identifying herself to officers and smiling.\n\nHer family later released a statement saying they were \"so thankful that our little girl is back within our arms\".\n\nThey had been on the first night of their holiday at the remote Quobba Blowholes camping ground when she went missing between 01:30 and 06:00 on 16 October.\n\nCleo had been sleeping on an air mattress next to her younger sister's cot. When her mother, who had been sleeping in the second room of the tent, got up in the morning, Cleo was gone and the tent door was open.\n\nA police task force of more than 100 officers investigated her disappearance.\n\nThey ultimately found \"really important\" information about a car that led them to Mr Kelly's house, Commissioner Chris Dawson said in November.\n\nLocal media reported the breakthrough came when police traced a mobile phone number to a phone tower near the campsite around the time of Cleo's abduction.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Detective Blaine spoke to Cleo Smith shortly after she was rescued\n\nMore details about the abduction are expected to be made public in the sentencing hearing, news outlet Perth Now reported.\n\nMr Kelly is yet to enter a plea on a separate charge of assaulting a public officer.", "James Snyder has not yet publicly responded to the allegation, which was made by a female co-star\n\nAn actor has been fired from the Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child following a complaint about his conduct.\n\nJames Snyder had played Potter in the stage show, which has been a huge hit with both UK and US audiences.\n\nProducers terminated Snyder's contract following allegations from a co-star of misconduct, the nature of which has not been specified.\n\nSnyder has not yet publicly responded. The BBC has asked his team for comment.\n\nProducers said they received a complaint against Snyder in November and immediately suspended him from the production, pending an independent investigation.\n\nFollowing the conclusion of that investigation, producers confirmed on Sunday they had terminated his contract.\n\nThe play picks up the Potter story 19 years after the events of JK Rowling's final novel\n\nThe complaint was made by actress Diane Davis, who plays Ginny Potter in the show, the wife of Snyder's character Harry.\n\nProducers confirmed in November that Davis had taken a leave of absence from the Broadway show following the allegation. It is not yet known when she will return.\n\n\"We are committed to fostering a safe and inclusive workplace, which is why we have robust workplace policies and procedures in place for all those involved in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,\" producers said.\n\n\"This includes strict prohibitions against harassment in any form, as well as channels through which any employee can report conduct that they believe is inappropriate. We will continue to do all we can to ensure the extremely talented team that brings this production to life feels safe, empowered, and fully supported.\"\n\nSnyder's name does not feature on the cast and creative list on the Broadway show's website.\n\nThe play has been a huge hit both on Broadway and in London's West End\n\nThe play, which picks up 19 years after JK Rowling's final Potter novel left off, portrays the wizard and his friends as grown-ups, now with children of their own.\n\nIt was a huge success in London's West End before transferring to Broadway, where it won the Tony Award for best new play in 2018.\n\nSnyder has appeared in other Broadway productions such as Cry-Baby, If/Then and In Transit. His TV credits include roles in The Good Wife, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Drop Dead Diva.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "David Davis said the rise in NI payments could damage economic recovery from the pandemic\n\nSenior Tory MP David Davis has urged the government to call off the rise in National Insurance payments, arguing it will place too much pressure on households at a time of high inflation.\n\nFrom April, employees, companies and the self-employed will pay 1.25p more in the pound on earnings or profits to help fund the NHS and social care.\n\nMr Davis told the BBC this would create a \"disincentive to work\".\n\nBut No 10 said the NI increase was the \"right approach\".\n\nA spokesman added that the Cabinet was united behind the policy, which was voted through Parliament last September.\n\nAnd Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"What we are telling people is that, if you want to fund our fantastic NHS, you have to pay for it and this government is determined to do so.\"\n\nNI will go up from April but will revert to its current rate a year later, with a new Health and Social Care Levy - at the same rate of 1.25% on earnings and profits - being set up instead.\n\nThe government says the increase, which it would require another parliamentary vote to reverse, is expected to raise £12bn a year.\n\nThe money raised will go initially towards easing pressure on the NHS, with a proportion then being moved into social care system over the next three years.\n\nThe government says taxes must rise to deal with the rising cost of social care\n\nInflation rose to 5.4% in December, the highest rate for 30 years, and is expected to surge further, with electricity and gas bills set to go up substantially in April.\n\nMr Davis, a former Brexit Secretary, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the government's decision last year to raise NI and then set up the Health and Social Care Levy had been based on \"quite a lot of wrong data\".\n\n\"They didn't know at the time that by April we would have the highest inflation for 30 years,\" he added.\n\n\"They didn't know that interest rates would be going up, that council tax would be going up, that fuel prices were about to rise by about £700 a year for an average family.\n\n\"Therefore they didn't know quite what pressure there would be on ordinary people.\"\n\nMr Davis said the forthcoming changes would take away about 10% of disposable income for \"ordinary families\", arguing: \"It creates a disincentive to work, [and] for overtime and promotion... a disincentive for employment.\"\n\n\"It's probably not going to raise anything like £12bn. It may even have a negative because it slows the growth of the economy,\" he added.\n\nSeveral Conservative MPs have raised concerns over the introduction of the NI rise during parliamentary debates last autumn.\n\nBut Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told the Today programme that \"successive governments have not dealt with\" how to fund social care for an ageing population.\n\nHe added of the NI rise: \"It is really important to remember that the highest earners, the 14% who earn the most are paying 50% - they are paying half of that contribution.\n\n\"And the lowest earners, 6.1 million of the lowest earners pay nothing, so it is as progressive as we can make it to deal with a problem that breaks many an individual in their old age.\"\n\nPressed on suggestions the move could \"shock\" the economy and prevent the tax rise from raising the predicted sums, Mr Zahawi replied: \"I think the Treasury have done the work on this and it is the right thing to do.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Russia risks \"a new Chechnya\" if it invades Ukraine, warns Boris Johnson\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has warned Russia that invading Ukraine would be \"disastrous\" and a \"painful, violent and bloody business\".\n\nSpeaking as the Foreign Office pulled some embassy staff out of Ukraine, the PM said the situation was \"pretty gloomy\" but war was not inevitable.\n\nHe said the UK was \"leading on creating a package of economic sanctions\" against Russia and was supplying defensive weaponry to Ukraine.\n\nIt said Nato allies were sending additional ships and fighter jets to eastern Europe to reinforce defences and increase deterrence, in response to the continuing build-up of Russian forces.\n\nRussia has denied plans for military action, but an estimated 100,000 troops have amassed on the border. The head of Nato has warned of a risk of fresh conflict in Europe.\n\nThe Kremlin has accused Nato of escalating tensions with the move. Russia considers the alliance as a threat, and is demanding legal guarantees that it will not expand further east, including into Ukraine. But the US has said the issue at stake is Russian aggression, not Nato expansion.\n\nMr Johnson said: \"The intelligence is very clear that there are 60 Russian battle groups on the borders of Ukraine, the plan for a lightning war that could take out Kyiv is one that everybody can see.\n\n\"We need to make it very clear to the Kremlin, to Russia, that that would be a disastrous step.\"\n\nMr Johnson added that the UK stood \"four-square with the people of Ukraine\".\n\nUkraine has been holding training exercises as Russian forces mount at the border\n\nUS President Joe Biden held a video conference with EU leaders, the Nato secretary general and Mr Johnson on Monday evening.\n\nDowning Street said the leaders agreed that if a further Russian incursion took place, \"allies must enact swift retributive responses including an unprecedented package of sanctions\".\n\nEarlier, No 10 said there were no plans to send British combat troops to defend Ukraine, however.\n\nOfficials said there had been no specific threats to British diplomats but about half of the staff working in Kyiv will return to the UK. The US has ordered relatives of its embassy staff to leave, saying an invasion could come \"at any time\".\n\nThe embassy moves were described as precautionary, and nothing specific is thought to have occurred in the past 24 hours to have triggered the decisions of the US and UK.\n\nAbout 30 British diplomats - including the ambassador - remain in Ukraine.\n\nForeign Secretary Liz Truss said the British Embassy in Kyiv continued to operate but \"it's important that we prepare for any eventuality\".\n\nShe said the UK had a \"very strong package of sanctions ready to go\" and called for Germany's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Russia to be cancelled in the event of an incursion into Ukraine, saying she was \"very, very concerned\" about Europe's energy dependence on Russia.\n\nAsked about the UK's accusations that Russian President Vladimir Putin was plotting to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government, Ms Truss declined to elaborate on the source of the intelligence.\n\nBut she said: \"We are going to call out every instance of Russia trying to influence democracy, trying to subvert Ukraine, false flag operations and sabotage. We will call that out.\"\n\nEU staff in Ukraine will stay in place for now - EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he would not \"dramatize\" the tensions.\n\nThe prime minister said he had visited Ukraine and knew the people of the country, adding: \"My judgment is that they will fight.\"\n\nMr Johnson, speaking to reporters in Milton Keynes, said: \"We also need to get a message that invading Ukraine, from a Russian perspective, is going to be a painful, violent and bloody business.\n\n\"I think it's very important that people in Russia understand that this could be a new Chechnya.\"\n\nThere was a major separatist conflict in Chechnya in the 1990s, with a decade of ultimately unsuccessful fighting for its independence.\n\nAsked if an invasion was imminent, Mr Johnson said: \"I've got to tell you that I think the intelligence is pretty gloomy at this point. There is certainly a very, very large array of Russian forces and we have to take the necessary steps.\n\n\"I don't think it's by any means inevitable now, I think that sense can still prevail.\"\n\nHe was due to speak to international allies on Monday.\n\nRussia has seized Ukrainian territory before, when it annexed Crimea in 2014, following fierce protests in Ukraine that toppled the country's pro-Russian president. Russian forces seized control of Crimea before the territory voted to join Russia in a referendum the West and Ukraine deemed illegal.\n\nRussian-backed rebels control areas of eastern Ukraine near Russia's borders in a conflict which has cost an estimated 14,000 lives. A 2015 peace deal is far from being fulfilled.\n\nOn Sunday, the UK Foreign Office accused Mr Putin of planning to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government, naming former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev as a possible candidate.\n\nMr Murayev called the claims \"stupid\" in an interview with Reuters news agency.\n\nThe Foreign Office has warned against all travel to Crimea and two areas of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk oblast and Luhansk oblast. It is advising against all but essential travel to the rest of Ukraine.\n\nAre you in Ukraine? Have you been affected by the rising tensions? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The M25 was closed in both directions near junction three after the crash but has since reopened\n\nA police officer has been airlifted to hospital after a crash involving a motorbike being driven the wrong way along the M25.\n\nKent Police said patrols were responding to a report of a stolen motorcycle when the collision happened near Junction 3 at about 16:05 GMT.\n\nThe male officer suffered serious injuries after being hit by the bike along the clockwise carriageway.\n\nA man, 26, was arrested on suspicion of offences including dangerous driving.\n\nThe M25 was closed in both directions near Junction 3 for Swanley after the crash.\n\nBoth carriageways have since reopened but police warned drivers to expect delays.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Muslim MP says her faith was raised by a government whip as a reason why she was sacked as a minister in 2020.\n\nAccording to the Sunday Times, Tory Nusrat Ghani said that when she asked for an explanation it was stated her \"Muslimness was raised as an issue\".\n\nConservative Chief Whip Mark Spencer said Ms Ghani was referring to him and added her claims were completely false and he considered them defamatory.\n\nNo 10 said the PM had previously met with Ms Ghani to discuss her concerns.\n\nA spokesperson said Boris Johnson \"then wrote to her expressing his serious concern and inviting her to begin a formal complaint process. She did not subsequently do so. The Conservative Party does not tolerate prejudice or discrimination of any kind\".\n\nIn response, Ms Ghani said Mr Johnson \"wrote to me that he could not get involved and suggested I use the internal Conservative Party complaint process\".\n\nShe said she did not do this because it was \"very clearly not appropriate for something that happened on government business\".\n\n\"I do not even know if the words that were conveyed to me about what was said in reshuffle meetings at Downing Street were by members of the Conservative Party,\" she added.\n\n\"All I have ever wanted was for his government to take this seriously, investigate properly and ensure no other colleague has to endure this.\"\n\nMs Ghani was appointed to a post at the Department for Transport in 2018, becoming the first female Muslim minister to speak in the Commons.\n\nShe lost that job in a mini-reshuffle of Mr Johnson's government in February 2020.\n\nSpeaking to the Sunday Times, Ms Ghani said that when she asked for an explanation, a government whip had told her that \"Muslimness was raised as an issue\" during discussions about the reshuffle, and her status as a \"Muslim woman... was making colleagues uncomfortable\".\n\nThe Wealden MP is quoted as saying she dropped the matter after being told that if she \"persisted\" in asking about it she \"would be ostracised and her career and reputation would be destroyed\".\n\n\"I raised it several more times through official party channels.... I was extremely careful to follow procedure, and when the procedure ran out of road I had no choice but to get on with my career.\"\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Sunday Morning programme, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said her allegations were \"very serious\" but there would not be a formal investigation unless Ms Ghani made a formal complaint.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dominic Raab: \"'There can be no discrimination or Islamophobia... in the Conservative Party\"\n\nOn Saturday night, Mr Spencer, in a series of tweets, identified himself as the person Ms Ghani's claims were made about.\n\nHe said the accusations were \"completely false and defamatory\" and denied ever using the words Ms Ghani had alleged.\n\nMr Spencer went on to say it was \"disappointing\" that at the time she had declined to refer the matter for a formal Conservative Party investigation.\n\nHe said he had previously provided evidence to the Singh investigation - which examined how the Conservative Party dealt with discrimination complaints.\n\nInitially Mr Spencer said the investigation \"concluded there was no credible basis for the claims\", but later rewrote the post adding the words \"to be included in the report\" to the end of the sentence.\n\nProf Singh's 2021 report found that while \"not systemic\" there was \"evidence of discrimination\" in the Conservative Party, and it called for the complaints process to be overhauled.\n\nIn a tweet, Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said there was \"no place for Islamophobia or any form of racism\" in the Conservative Party, adding that the allegations had to be \"investigated properly and racism routed out\".\n\nHealth Secretary Sajid Javid also said the matter needed \"a proper investigation\" and that he would support Ms Ghani \"in making a formal complaint\". \"She must be heard,\" he added.\n\nLord Sheikh, president of Conservative Muslim Forum, said he was \"very disturbed\" by what Ms Ghani had said.\n\n\"Somebody is not telling the truth. I would like to get to the bottom of this. I'd like an investigation to be carried out by an independent person,\" he added.\n\nBBC political correspondent Damian Grammaticas said the very public airing of this dispute was a sign of serious tensions among Tories ahead of a crucial week for Boris Johnson.\n\nCivil servant Sue Gray is due to complete her inquiry into parties held on government premises during the coronavirus lockdowns.\n\nIt has been reported that Ms Gray is now also looking into gatherings held at Mr Johnson's private Downing Street flat.\n\nMr Raab said the substance of the findings would be published but could not say if the full report would be made public.\n\nSome Conservative MPs have called on Mr Johnson to resign over the revelations, and one member, William Wragg, complained about the government tactics used against MPs seeking to oust the prime minister.\n\nMr Wragg said No 10 had tried to \"blackmail\" some MPs and he would be meeting with police to discuss the allegations, but Downing Street said it had not see any proof of such behaviour.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lord Agnew accuses the Treasury of having \"little interest in the consequences of fraud to our society\"\n\nA Conservative minister in the House of Lords has resigned attacking the government's handling of fraudulent Covid business loans.\n\nLord Agnew accused the Treasury of having \"little interest in the consequences of fraud to our society\".\n\nBut he said his departure was \"not an attack on the prime minister\".\n\nLast year, the National Audit Office criticised the government for failing to implement measures to prevent people exploiting Covid schemes.\n\nLord Agnew, a Treasury minister with responsibility for cross-government efficiency, said \"a combination of arrogance, indolence and ignorance\" was \"freezing the government machine\".\n\nHe accused the government of making \"schoolboy errors\" by giving loans to over 1,000 companies who were not trading when Covid struck.\n\n\"I hope that as a virtually unknown minister beyond this place giving up my career might prompt others to get behind this and sort it out,\" he said.\n\nIn a dramatic moment in the House of Lords, he read out his resignation speech in response to a question from Labour about the £4.3bn of Covid loans written off by the Treasury.\n\nHe concluded with a \"thank you and goodbye\", before marching out of the chamber to a round of applause - a rare occurrence in the Lords.\n\nA No 10 spokesman said: \"We are grateful to Lord Agnew for the significant contribution he has made to government.\"\n\nThe spokesman said the government was taking action against fraud, adding that 150,000 ineligible claims have been blocked and £500m recovered last year.\n\nAn HMRC tax protection taskforce was also expected to recover an additional £1bn, the spokesman added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Bounce Back Loan scheme was set up in April 2020 with the aim of keeping small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nA total of 1.5 million loans worth £47bn were issued through the initiative, after about a quarter of UK businesses applied.\n\nBanks, building societies and other accredited lenders loaned companies up to £50,000, or a maximum of 25% of annual turnover, with the government guaranteeing them repayments if the firms defaulted.\n\nIn September, the state-owned British Business Bank, which oversees the scheme, said £2bn of loans had been repaid and £1.3bn had been defaulted on.\n\nIn December 2021, the public spending watchdog the National Audit Office said counter-fraud activity had been \"implemented too slowly\".\n\nIt estimated that the business department had put the estimated cost of fraudulent loans at £4.9bn - 11% of the total given out.\n\nIn response to Lord Agnew's resignation, the British Business Bank said \"key counter-fraud measures\" had been put in place at the start of the scheme, and it had worked with the scheme's lenders to put additional measures in place.\n\n\"Arrogance, indolence, ignorance\", \"schoolboy errors\", and \"nothing less than woeful\".\n\nAs the political joke goes, Lord Agnew may not have been a household name, even in his own household, but the manner of his attack on the government from the ministerial despatch box points to a serious issue.\n\nThere was always a trade-off between due diligence on pandemic rescue loans and getting some £72bn of cash into the bank accounts of businesses.\n\nThe government made a strategic decision to prioritise speed \"in good conscience\", as ministers put it.\n\nAs a result, a process that would have taken months, in some cases took just days.\n\nThis undoubtedly helped the whole economy bounce back.\n\nBut it is the scale, not of the losses in general (expected to top £20bn, mainly on Bounce Back loans) of the £4bn at least that will be written off due to fraud, that led to this highly public exit from the minister.\n\nIn particular, over 1,000 businesses that were not even trading, received Bounce Back loans, said the minister.\n\nRight now, the banks that operated the scheme are deciding how to account for the loans in their full year results.\n\nOver a quarter of the £1bn given to banks by taxpayers has so far been for fraudulent loans, Lord Agnew told peers.\n\nAnd he fears a \"new dangerous phase\" where banks act less than rigorously in seeking repayment, given they know they can reclaim the cash from the taxpayer.\n\nAt a time of tight budgets, rising prices and taxes, banks could come under pressure to try a little harder to collect the monies owed.\n\nLabour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves described Lord Agnew's departure as \"a damning indictment\" of the chancellor's failures on fraud.\n\n\"It should be a source of enduring shame to [Rishi] Sunak that he has so casually written off £4.3bn of taxpayers' money,\" she added.\n\nLiberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine said the government had \"allowed fraudsters to steal billions of taxpayers' money\" and urged the chancellor to explain how he would get the money back.\n\nLord Agnew was appointed a Treasury minister in February 2020. He has also sat as a non-executive director for the Department for Education.", "Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga Images from Tonga's shoreline show damage to structures and trees following the tsunami\n\nA volcanic eruption in Tonga that triggered a tsunami was hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima during World War Two, Nasa says.\n\nThe eruption \"obliterated\" a volcanic island north of the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa, the agency said.\n\nTonga says more than four-fifths of the population has been affected by the tsunami and falling ash.\n\nThree people were confirmed killed in the tsunami last week.\n\nBefore the eruption, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic island was two separate islands joined by new land formed in 2015.\n\nNasa says the eruption was so powerful all the new land is gone, along with \"large chunks\" of the two older islands.\n\nThe widespread emission of volcanic ash, gases and particles from the eruption has proven to be a massive challenge for Tongan officials.\n\nIn the immediate aftermath of the eruption and tsunami, there were fears that water sources had been polluted by the thick blanket of ash, increasing the risk of diseases like cholera and diarrhoea. However, officials noted that testing in recent days had cleared ground water and rainwater as safe to drink.\n\nBut fine volcanic ash and emissions continue to pose a public health risk. Exposure could potentially cause breathing difficulties, affect the cardiovascular system, and irritate the lungs, eyes and skin.\n\nIn an update, the government said 62 people on Mango, one of the worst-hit islands, had to be relocated to the outer island of Nomuka \"after losing their homes and all of their personal belongings\".\n\nThe government added however, that many of those residents could be moved again to the main island Tongatapu due to a lack of food and supplies.\n\nIt added that there were under two dozen injuries, mostly from Nomuka .\n\nRescuers have set up a field hospital there after the existing clinic was swept away in the tsunami.\n\nShips and planes carrying foreign aid have been arriving in Tonga since last week, after locals were finally able to clear the island's only airport runway of ash.\n\nNew Zealand and Australia have led the international response, using their air force and naval carriers to make contact-less drops of supplies including water, food, hygiene kits and tents, as well as water-treating and telecommunications repair equipment.\n\nThe remote archipelago was cut off for five days because the explosions severed the sole fibre-optic sea cable bringing internet to the island.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Get ready to run\": Watch Tongan journalist Marian Kupu recount the moment the undersea volcano erupted\n\nBut even communication between Tongatapu, the main island, and the outer islands remains \"an acute challenge\", the Tongan government statement said.\n\nThey added that a ship was due to arrive this week to repair the internet cable. Firms had previously estimated the cable could take up to four weeks to repair.\n\nThe arrival of foreign aid has vastly accelerated the flow of information from the stricken island.\n\nDue to Covid fears, the aid work is still all being carried out by locals through groups like the Red Cross. Tonga, which is effectively Covid-free, has requested no foreign aid workers land in the country to prevent an outbreak.\n\nBut the UN's representative in the region, Sione Hufanga, told the BBC that could change given the scale of damage.", "As the US places thousands of troops on a heightened state of alert, Ros Atkins looks at the short and long-term causes behind the tension on the Ukrainian border.", "The latest easing of the Omicron restrictions is \"a very significant moment\" in the fight against Covid, the deputy first minister has said.\n\nFor the first time since Boxing Day nightclubs can reopen and crowd limits on large indoor events are lifted.\n\nBut people are still being asked to work from home and take lateral flow tests before meeting others.\n\nJohn Swinney said the government would continue to take a \"proportionate\" approach to the remaining measures.\n\nOn Sunday First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that \"we're hopefully seeing Scotland firmly on the downward slope\".\n\nThe lifting of many of the remaining restrictions was announced last week following a significant fall in new case numbers.\n\nGuidance advising adults against meeting up with more than three households at a time has been dropped, along with restrictions on indoor contact sports.\n\nIn hospitality, the requirement for 1m physical distancing and table service has now ended, but the vaccine passport scheme remains in force for certain venues.\n\nLonger-running measures such as the use of face coverings on public transport, in indoor public places and in secondary schools also remain in place.\n\nMr Swinney welcomed the easing of restrictions that were introduced last month before Scotland experienced record-breaking virus case numbers.\n\nBut he warned: \"It is too early to say if it is the beginning of the end.\"\n\nMr Swinney told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland that worldwide there remained \"significant challenges\" in the handling of the virus, specifically around the possible emergence of new variants.\n\nHe also said the Scottish government would continue to take a prudent approach to basic anti-virus measures such as the wearing of face coverings.\n\nNightclubs can reopen as restrictions to tackle the Omicron wave are lifted\n\nMr Swinney added: \"Covid is still out there. We can still see there are thousands of cases on a daily basis within Scotland.\n\n\"There are people who are still having a very hard time with Covid and our health service is still enduring the enormous pressures of Covid.\n\n\"So Covid has not, in any shape or form, disappeared.\"\n\nThe Omicron variant is now believed to have peaked in the first week of January.\n\nThe percentage of positive tests has dropped from almost 30% in early January to under 20% .\n\nThe number of people being admitted to hospital with Covid is also falling.\n\nIn total, 6,329 positive cases were reported on Sunday with 1,441 patients in hospital. It is down from 7,158 cases a week earlier, with 100 fewer people in hospital.\n\nAt the weekend Ms Sturgeon defended the continuing vaccine passport scheme, saying it had helped as part of \"a package of measures\" to protect against transmission.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon says case numbers are \"hopefully now... very firmly on the downward slope\"\n\nIn an interview with the BBC's Sunday Morning programme, she said: \"I don't underplay the impact of any of these measures on businesses and the night-time industry, but checking Covid certification is a better alternative to being closed.\"\n\nShe said that vaccine passports were \"not causing anybody any real hardship\" and had allowed large events to go ahead.\n\nThe first minister said she hoped that passports and wearing of facemasks would \"eventually\" come to an end.\n\nBut she said there would be big \"economic consequences\" if we allowed the virus to spread in an uncontrolled way.\n\nDespite restrictions easing, people have been advised to keep social meet-ups small to reduce the risk of infection.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC North East Scot This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWorkers should also continue to work from home where possible. Ministers are due to hold talks with business leaders about a return to a hybrid working approach from February.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the financial impact of Covid restrictions on business and hospitality had been \"worth it\" to stop the spread of Omicron.\n\nShe told the programme: \"It is not a case of having protective measures and businesses are damaged, or having no proactive measures and everything is fine.\n\n\"It is the difference between having protective measures that stem transmission, or allowing transmission to go completely uncontrolled - in which case the impact on business is even greater and even more damaging.\"\n\nThe lifting of restrictions was welcomed by business groups.\n\nCBI Scotland said last week that it was \"a huge relief to firms desperate to start trading their way to recovery after a difficult festive period\".", "President Kaboré pictured at the Paris Peace Forum in November\n\nBurkina Faso's neighbours have condemned what they call an attempted coup in the West African state.\n\nPresident Roch Kaboré's whereabouts are unclear amid conflicting reports on whether he has been detained by dissident forces.\n\nGunfire was heard overnight near the presidential palace and at barracks in the capital, Ouagadougou.\n\nThe mutinying troops have demanded the sacking of military chiefs and more resources to fight Islamist militants.\n\nMr Kaboré has not been seen in public since the crisis began in the early hours of Sunday, but two posts have appeared on his Twitter account.\n\nThe latest one calls on \"those who have taken up arms to lay them down in the higher interest of the nation\", while an earlier one congratulates the national football team on their win in an Africa Cup of Nations match.\n\nIt is unclear whether Mr Kaboré or someone else posted the tweets.\n\nIn a strongly worded statement, West African regional bloc Ecowas said it \"holds the military responsible for the physical wellbeing\" of the president.\n\n\"Ecowas is following with great concern the evolution of the political and security situation in Burkina Faso, characterised since Sunday 23 January by an attempted coup d'etat\n\nVideo from the capital appears to show armoured vehicles - reportedly used by the presidency - peppered with bullet holes and abandoned in the street.\n\nMobile internet services have been disrupted, though fixed-line internet and domestic wi-fi are working.\n\nSoldiers have also surrounded the state television headquarters and there was no live programming on Monday.\n\nBBC reporter Simon Gongo says a sense of normality has returned to the streets. No further shooting can be heard, and people and cars are moving through Ouagadougou.\n\nA crowd has gathered in front of the president's private residence, he says, wanting to understand what happened on Sunday night.\n\nWith no official comment from the military or the government, people are anxiously waiting for an official statement on the situation, our reporter says.\n\nSome security sources say the president and other government ministers are being held at the Sangoulé Lamizana barracks in the capital.\n\nHowever, others say he has been taken to a secure location for his own protection.\n\nOn Sunday, hundreds of people came out in support of the soldiers and some of them set fire to the ruling party's headquarters. A night-time curfew has since been imposed.\n\nThe French embassy in the capital has issued a statement saying the situation remains confused, and advising French citizens not to go outside unnecessarily, and never at night.\n\nFrench schools will stay closed and two Air France flights have been cancelled, it said.\n\nThe unrest comes a week after 11 soldiers were arrested for allegedly plotting a coup.\n\nBut discontent has been growing in Burkina Faso over the government's failure to defeat an Islamist insurgency in the country since 2015.\n\nThat escalated to new highs in November, when 53 people, mainly members of the security forces, were killed by suspected jihadists. And on Saturday, a banned rally to protest against the government's perceived failure led to dozens of arrests.\n\nSimilar troubles in neighbouring Mali led to a military coup in May 2021 - one that was broadly welcomed by the public.\n\nMultiple cars apparently used by the presidency were found in the morning with bullet holes\n\nIn Burkina Faso, mutinying soldiers made several demands, including the removal of the army's chief of staff and the head of the intelligence service; more troops to be deployed to the front line; and better conditions for the wounded and soldiers' families.\n\nOn Sunday, Defence Minister Gen Barthélémy Simporé downplayed previous rumours of the president's capture, and the nature of the unrest at large.\n\nState television, meanwhile, characterised the sound of gunfire at military barracks as the actions of a small few disgruntled soldiers rather than a widespread fight or coup attempt.", "Retailer John Lewis has said all its staff are entitled to full sick pay for Covid-related absences, regardless of vaccination status, and it would not be \"right\" to differentiate.\n\nIt comes after Ocado, Next and Ikea revealed they only pay the legal minimum to unjabbed staff if they have to isolate due to Covid exposure.\n\nJohn Lewis's operations director Andrew Murphy said he \"cast no judgement\".\n\nAnd he added the firm was \"not going to make any change of this type\".\n\n\"We're conscious that some businesses have changed their sick pay policy with regard to unvaccinated employees in some Covid-related absence scenarios,\" he said in a Linkedin post.\n\n\"[But] we just don't believe it's right to create a link between a partner's vaccination status and the pay they receive.\n\n\"When life increasingly seems to present opportunities to create division - and with hopes rising that the pandemic phase of Covid may be coming to an end - we're confident that this is the right approach for us.\"\n\nIn England, unvaccinated people must isolate for 10 days if they are a close contact of someone with Covid, even if they do not test positive themselves.\n\nBut this has resulted in unvaccinated workers being more likely to take time off than their fully vaccinated colleagues, who no longer need to isolate after exposure.\n\nAmid soaring staff absence rates, firms have been tightening their sick pay policies.\n\nCurrently, unjabbed employees at Morrisons, Ikea, Ocado and Next who are told to isolate only get statutory sick pay of £96.35 a week, unlike their jabbed colleagues who get full sick pay.\n\nHowever, any worker who is Covid-positive at these retailers will get full sick pay, regardless of their vaccination status.\n\nSick pay cuts will also be implemented at Wessex Water and, in the US, several major companies have started penalising unjabbed workers.\n\nHowever, retailers Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda all say they pay unvaccinated workers full company sick pay when they are isolating.", "Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a Cabinet Office inquiry into claims made by a Muslim MP who says her faith was given as a reason for her sacking as a minister in 2020.\n\nNusrat Ghani said a government whip told her \"Muslimness was raised as an issue\".\n\nThe Conservative MP welcomed the inquiry, saying all she wanted was for the matter to be taken seriously.\n\nConservative Chief Whip Mark Spencer said the claims were completely false.\n\nHe said Ms Ghani was referring to him and that he considered her allegations to be defamatory.\n\nMr Johnson declined to say if the chief whip could stay in his job while the investigation was conducted.\n\nHe said: \"This is something I take extremely seriously. We must wait and see what the investigation produces.\"\n\nThe new Cabinet Office inquiry comes at the beginning of what could be a difficult week for the prime minister, with the expected completion of a report into gatherings on government premises that took place when coronavirus restrictions were in place.\n\nSenior civil servant Sue Gray has been asked to look at the nature and purpose of the gatherings, including who went to them \"with reference to adherence to the guidance in place at the time\".\n\nMr Johnson has faced calls from some of his MPs to resign over the matter, but others say they are withholding judgement until the findings of Ms Gray's report are published.\n\nOn Monday the PM's former aide, Dominic Cummings, said he had sent Ms Gray written evidence but would not be meeting her.\n\nNus Ghani's allegations come at a time when there all these different fuses that have been lit.\n\nThere are small flames travelling along the line towards Downing Street: whether it is this story, or whether it is the story about a small group of 2019 MPs who have their own claims that the whips have gone beyond what is normal - and MP William Wragg will be talking to the police about all of that.\n\nBut the biggest threat to Boris Johnson is the Sue Gray report, which might emerge on Wednesday or Thursday.\n\nDespite lots of frenzied reporting nobody, other than Ms Gray and her team, knows exactly who she has been talking to, or the evidence being gathered.\n\nThe expectation is we will get a series of conclusions, but I would expect calls from the opposition and some Conservative MPs for the whole thing to be published.\n\nWhy does the report matter so much right now? It is not just because the public want to know what has been going on.\n\nMany MPs see the Sue Gray report as the crucial piece of evidence that will help them make up their mind about whether it is time to end the Johnson leadership.\n\nIt is going to be a very, very significant week for Downing Street.\n\nNus Ghani with William Wragg (left), another vice chair of the 1922 committee - the body which represents Conservative backbench MPs\n\nResponding to news of the inquiry, Ms Ghani, a vice-president of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs, said: \"As I said to the prime minister last night all I want is for this to be taken seriously and for him to investigate.\n\n\"I welcome his decision to do that now. The terms of reference of the inquiry must include all that was said in Downing Street and by the whip.\"\n\nNo 10 has said that when Ms Ghani first made the allegations, the prime minister recommended that she make a formal complaint to Conservative Campaign Headquarters, but she did not take up this offer.\n\nThe prime minister's spokesman could not provide details of the terms of reference for the investigation but said officials should be able to \"investigate freely\".\n\nSpeaking on Sunday, Ms Ghani said when she had not used the Conservative Party's internal process because it was \"very clearly not appropriate for something that happened on government business\".\n\nEducation Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said it was \"important\" for the inquiry to go ahead, adding that Ms Ghani was a \"valued colleague\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Nadhim Zahawi tell BBC Breakfast: 'I certainly don't recognise institutional racism in my party'\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast he hoped she would present evidence to the Cabinet Office, adding that it had taken \"a lot of bravery\" to make the allegations.\n\nConservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi - who has frequently spoken about Islamophobia in her party - said Ms Ghani should never have been asked to go through the party's complaint process.\n\n\"This allegation relates to comments made in Downing Street, not Conservative headquarters; it relates to a job in government, not a job in the Conservative Party; the allegations were made by the chief whip, not by the chief executive or chairman of the party,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"This was not a party issue, this was a government issue.\"\n\nBaroness Warsi, the first Muslim woman to attend cabinet, said Ms Ghani's experience had been \"an open secret in Westminster\" and that she had \"struggled to be heard\" for nearly two years.\n\nThe former party chair said that she believed there was a \"pattern\" with Islamophobia in the Conservative Party, where \"Islamophobic racism is not viewed as seriously as other forms of racism\" and \"action is rarely taken until the media is involved\".\n\nShe called for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to intervene, arguing the government might have broken the law.\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said the prime minister's standards adviser Lord Geidt should investigate if the chief whip broke the ministerial code with his alleged comments.\n\nMs Ghani was appointed to a post at the Department for Transport in 2018, becoming the first female Muslim minister to speak in the Commons.\n\nShe lost that job in a mini-reshuffle of Mr Johnson's government in February 2020.\n\nSpeaking to the Sunday Times, Ms Ghani said that when she asked for an explanation, a government whip had told her that \"Muslimness was raised as an issue\" during discussions about the reshuffle, and her status as a \"Muslim woman... was making colleagues uncomfortable\".\n\nThe Wealden MP said she had dropped the matter after being told that if she \"persisted\" in asking about it she \"would be ostracised and her career and reputation would be destroyed\".\n\nAfter her allegations were published, Mr Spencer identified himself as the person Ms Ghani's claims were made about, saying he did not want other whips to be \"drawn into this matter\".\n\nThe Sherwood MP said he had previously provided evidence to the Singh investigation which he said had \"concluded there was no credible basis for the claims\" but he later added the phrase \"to be included in the report\".\n\nProf Swaran Singh's 2021 report - which examined how the Conservative Party dealt with discrimination complaints - found that while \"not systemic\" there was \"evidence of discrimination\" in the Conservative Party, and it called for the complaints process to be overhauled.\n\nThe report made 16 recommendations - eight of which the Conservative Party says are still to be implemented. The EHRC has said it is monitoring the progress made by the party.", "The Pentagon says US troops are on standby to deploy to Europe, should Russia invade Ukraine (file picture)\n\nUS President Joe Biden has said there is \"total unanimity\" with European leaders over Russia's troop build-up on its border with Ukraine.\n\nDuring crisis talks on Monday, Western powers agreed to \"unprecedented\" sanctions against Russia if it were to invade.\n\nThe US has also put 8,500 troops on alert, which Russia said caused it \"great concern\".\n\nIt denies having any plans for an invasion.\n\nHowever some 100,000 Russian soldiers have been deployed on Ukraine's border.\n\nJoining the US and UK in Monday's talks were the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the EU. The head of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg also dialled in.\n\n\"I had a very, very, very good meeting - total unanimity with all the European leaders,\" Mr Biden said afterwards.\n\nA Downing Street spokesperson said the leaders \"agreed on the importance of international unity in the face of growing Russian hostility\".\n\nShould a further Russian incursion into Ukraine happen, they agreed that \"allies must enact swift retributive responses including an unprecedented package of sanctions\".\n\nThe aim of the 80-minute video call between the allies was to agree on a common strategy against Russia's actions, after some disagreements over how Western nations were responding.\n\nOn Monday, UK PM Boris Johnson warned that \"gloomy\" intelligence suggests Russia is planning a lightning raid on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and the UK started withdrawing some staff from its embassy there.\n\nThe US took a similar move, by ordering relatives of its embassy staff to leave.\n\nBut EU staff are to stay in place for now, with foreign policy chief Josep Borrell saying he would not \"dramatise\" the tensions.\n\nThere have also been differences on the support given to Ukraine - the US and UK are among the nations to have sent military aid. However Germany refused Ukraine's request for defensive weapons, and will instead send medical aid, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht told local media.\n\nThe Pentagon has said some 8,500 combat-ready US troops are on alert to deploy at short notice.\n\nBut they would only be deployed if the Nato military alliance decides to activate a rapid-reaction force, \"or if other situations develop\", said Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.\n\nThere are no plans to deploy to Ukraine itself, he added.\n\nSome Nato members, including Denmark, Spain, France and the Netherlands, are already planning to send fighter jets and warships to eastern Europe to bolster defences in the region.\n\nOver the weekend, some 90 tonnes of US \"lethal aid\" including ammunition for \"front-line defenders\" arrived in Ukraine.\n\nThe Kremlin has said it sees Nato as a security threat, and is demanding legal guarantees that the alliance will not expand further east, including into neighbouring Ukraine. But the US has said the issue at stake is Russian aggression, not Nato expansion.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFor months now, the Ukrainians have been preparing a territorial defence force of volunteers. They are training for a possible defence of Kyiv.\n\nOne woman member, Marta Yuzkiv, a doctor in her 50s, told the BBC: \"Of course I am worried. I am a peaceful woman, I don't want to have a war started. But in any case, in case it's started, I should be ready to defend the country.\"\n\nAndrei Volkov, an IT consultant in Kyiv, called the situation \"dangerous\".\n\n\"The situation is extremely tense, I think something might happen,\" he said, adding that he was making \"contingency plans\".\n\n\"Going to western Ukraine I suppose, going somewhere where it's going to be safe.\"\n\nRussia has seized Ukrainian territory before, when it annexed Crimea in 2014. After Russian forces seized control, Crimea voted to join Russia in a referendum the West and Ukraine deemed illegal.\n\nRussian-backed rebels also control areas of eastern Ukraine near Russia's borders. That conflict has cost an estimated 14,000 lives, with a 2015 peace deal a long way from being fulfilled.", "Police say the incident has been contained\n\nA 43-year-old woman has been stabbed to death and a man killed after being hit by a vehicle in west London.\n\nThe woman was stabbed in Chippenham Road, in Maida Vale, just after 09:00 GMT, the Metropolitan Police said.\n\nWhen officers arrived to reports of the stabbing, they also found a man, 41, had been hit by a vehicle. Both died at the scene.\n\nDetectives have arrested the driver of the car, a 26-year-old man, on suspicion of murder.\n\nEyewitness Mulugeta Asseratte said he was \"coming up from the bakery to Chippenham Road and suddenly heard shouts of 'stop it, stop it' and it was a girl being attacked by a gentleman\".\n\nA man who died was hit by a vehicle, the Met Police say\n\n\"All of a sudden, it moved to the street and no sooner than they reached the street than a driver came and hit both of them.\n\n\"We were all shocked and shouting and my heart goes out to the families.\"\n\nPolice are working to inform the woman and man's families and post-mortem examinations will take place.\n\nChippenham Road, Elgin Avenue and Goldney Street have been cordoned off.\n\nDet Ch Insp Jim Eastwood said: \"This was a terrible incident that occurred in broad daylight on a busy London street.\n\n\"It also appears that a number of members of the public bravely tried to intervene to stop the attack.\n\n\"A man has been arrested in relation to the case; we are not aware of any links between this man and the two deceased.\n\n\"I can also confirm that we are not currently looking for anyone else in connection to this incident.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n• None 'Young pupils say their biggest fear is being stabbed'\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Thierry Mugler was famous for his sharp tailoring and his perfumes\n\nFrench fashion designer Thierry Mugler has died at the age of 73, his representatives have announced.\n\nHe was known for designs with broad shoulders and sharp tailoring, inspired by 1940s and 50s glamour.\n\nMugler's designs were worn by stars including David Bowie and Lady Gaga. He created many stage costumes for Beyoncé and in 2019 designed Kim Kardashian's famous \"wet dress\" for the Met Gala.\n\nIn later years, his brand became famous for perfumes, such as Angel and Alien.\n\n\"We are devastated to announce the passing of Mr Manfred Thierry Mugler on Sunday January 23rd 2022,\" a post on Mugler's official Facebook account confirmed.\n\nA tribute posted on his Instagram page described Mugler as \"a visionary whose imagination... empowered people around the world to be bolder and dream bigger every day.\"\n\nHis agent told AFP news agency that he died of natural causes.\n\nThierry Mugler designed Kim Kardashian's \"wet dress\" that she wore to the Met Gala in 2019\n\nBorn Manfred Thierry Mugler in 1948 in Strasbourg, France, he was a talented performer and by the age of 14 was a dancer with the Ballet du Rhin. He was also an acrobat and fashion model.\n\nWith an early interest in making his own clothes, Mugler opened his first boutique in Paris during the 1970s.\n\n\"I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but fashion took off for me very quickly in Paris as soon as I showed my sketches,\" he recently told Women's Wear Daily.\n\nMugler became known for his theatrical designs that over accentuated features such as hips and shoulders, with plunging necklines and constricted waists.\n\nMugler is pictured at a dress rehearsal for his show The Wyld - Not of this world in 2014\n\nHis designs have been worn by the likes of David Bowie, George Michael, Sharon Stone and Rihanna. Mugler's connection with Bowie was so strong that he dressed him for his wedding to Iman.\n\nMugler sold the rights to his name to Clarins in 1997, several years after launching his perfume Angel, with the brand.\n\nSaid to have been a recluse, he appeared to retire from fashion in the early 2000s, choosing to create one-off pieces for Lady Gaga and work as the creative advisor on Beyoncé's I Am... Sasha Fierce world tour in 2010.\n\nThe singer honoured the designer on her website with a montage of the many creations he made for her over the years, with the caption: \"Rest in Peace, Thierry Mugler.\"\n\nBeyoncé often wore Mugler's designs, and he created her stage costumes for the I AM... World tour in 2010\n\nMugler's agent told AFP that he had been planning to announce new collaborations this week.\n\nPeople from the fashion world have paid tribute to Mugler on social media since his death was announced.\n\nFashion designer Brian Atwood said he was a \"constant inspiration\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ms. Ross This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nActress and model Irina Shayk posted pictures of herself with Mugler in a tribute posted on Instagram, writing: \"Gone too soon... you'll always be missed.\"\n\nThe Instagram post confirming Mugler's death attracted tributes from stars such as Brigitte Nielsen, who commented: \"Such an icon. Unbelievably sad.\"\n\nModels Bella Hadid, Winnie Harlow and Heidi Klum joined Neilsen in paying tribute by leaving comments on the post.\n\nSinger Rita Ora paid tribute by wearing a pair of the designer's distinctive jeans.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by ritaora This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSex And The City star Kristin Davis wrote that it had been \"another horrible loss\" of \"visionary Thierry Mugler\", while actress Vanessa Hudgens added: \"No one did it like he did.\"\n\nBlack-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross described Mugler as a \"defining force in fashion... even his archive collection today seems futuristic.\"\n\nKourtney Kardashian, meanwhile, posted a picture on her Instagram story of her famous family all dressed in Mugler's designs.", "The draft online safety bill would not stop the sharing of \"insidious\" images of child abuse and violence against women and girls, MPs have said.\n\nThe Commons culture committee warned the government its proposed legislation is not clear or robust enough.\n\nContent which is currently technically legal, such as deepfake pornography, still needs addressing, they said.\n\nBut the government said the bill will make the UK \"the safest place in the world to be online\".\n\nMPs said the bill's definition of illegal content must be reframed, and more should be done to define the risk around activities that fall below the threshold of criminality but still form part of the sequence for online abuse.\n\nThey warned violent images including child abuse could still be shared through the practice of \"breadcrumbing\", where perpetrators leave digital hints to indicate they have harmful content to share.\n\nJulian Knight, the Conservative chair of the committee, said: \"In its current form what should be world-leading, landmark legislation instead represents a missed opportunity.\"\n\n\"The Online Safety Bill neither protects freedom of expression nor is it clear nor robust enough to tackle illegal and harmful online content.\n\n\"Urgency is required to ensure that some of the most pernicious forms of child sexual abuse do not evade detection because of a failure in the online safety law.\"\n\nMPs said the government should change the bill to ensure Ofcom had powers to assess whether online platforms were sufficiently considering the right to freedom of expression in their decision making.\n\nThey raised concerns that a focus on threatening companies with fines could lead to \"excessive takedowns\" of content.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Fitness influencer Elle Edwards speaks about dealing with explicit messages and cyber-flashing\n\nThe MPs' comments come after another report by parliamentarians - published in December - said the draft laws needed to bring more offences into scope, such as cyber-flashing, content promoting self-harm, paid-for scam and fraudulent advertising, and the deliberate sending of flashing images to people with photosensitive epilepsy.\n\nEarlier this month, Culture minister Chris Philp told MPs there were a \"number of areas\" where the bill could be \"improved substantially\".\n\nBut a spokesperson from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said it did not agree with the criticism from the Commons culture committee, saying the bill set a \"global gold standard for internet safety.\"\n\n\"It has strict measures including a duty of care to stamp out child sexual abuse, grooming and illegal and harmful content,\" they said.\n\n\"There are also stringent rules to make sure tech firms and Ofcom protect people's free speech and privacy, so content is not taken down without good reason.\"\n\nChildren's charity the NSPCC said it was \"crucial the bill is tightened to comprehensively respond to the child abuse threat\".\n\n\"The legislation needs to unambiguously tackle grooming across multiple platforms, and prevent abusers being able to exploit gaps that allow them to continue to commit and organise abuse in plain sight,\" its chief executive Sir Peter Wanless said.\n\nThe bill is currently in draft and a revised form is expected within months.", "The Queen spent Christmas in Windsor with a small group, including the Prince of Wales\n\nThe Queen travelled to Sandringham on Sunday, a month after cancelling her traditional Christmas plans in Norfolk due to the rapid spread of Omicron.\n\nHer Majesty flew by helicopter from Windsor Castle to Sandringham, where she is expected to spend a few weeks.\n\nPrior to the pandemic, the Queen had spent 32 consecutives Christmases at her Norfolk home with family members.\n\nBut she took the decision earlier last month to remain at Windsor as a precaution, amid rising Covid cases.\n\nIt marked the second year in a row the pandemic had led to the cancellation of the Queen's traditional Christmas plans at Sandringham.\n\nIt was also the 95-year-old monarch's first Christmas without the Duke of Edinburgh, her husband of more than 73 years, whom she paid tribute to in the annual Queen's Speech on Christmas Day.\n\nThe Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were among a small party who joined the Queen on 25 December at Windsor Castle.\n\nThe Queen typically spends Christmas at her estate in Sandringham\n\nTypically, close members of the Royal Family gather at the Queen's Norfolk estate for the festive period where they attend the local church of St Mary Magdalene on Christmas morning - and are greeted by public well-wishers.\n\nIn a statement issued in December, Buckingham Palace said it was a personal decision not to travel to Norfolk at Christmas and reflected \"a precautionary approach\".\n\nThe monarch, who will mark 70 years on the throne in February, spent much of last year at Windsor Castle, where she and Prince Philip had shielded throughout the lockdowns.\n\nHaving arrived in Norfolk on Sunday, she is expected to remain at Sandringham for some weeks.\n\nNormally her winter break ends some time after accession day on 6 February - the day her father George VI died in 1952.\n\nThis year, 6 February will herald the start of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations, which will culminate in a four-day UK bank holiday weekend from 2 to 5 June.\n\nThe celebrations will be marked by concerts, street parties and a Platinum Jubilee Pageant, with the private estates of Sandringham and Balmoral open to visitors across the long weekend in June.\n\nThe Queen's move to Sandringham in Norfolk comes ahead of the 70th anniversary of the beginning of her reign - her \"accession\" to the throne.\n\nSandringham was where her father George VI died at the age of 56, on 6 February 1952. So it's a poignant time and place, remembering her father and his long influence on her life.\n\nIt's also a relatively rare trip away from Windsor, with a mixture of the Queen's health worries and Covid disruptions keeping her there much of the time.\n\nWhile the Queen's long reign will be marked through the year by Platinum Jubilee events, this anniversary is likely to be a more reflective moment.\n\nThe first anniversary of the death of Prince Philip is also approaching in the spring.\n\nIf the jubilee will be about public celebrations, this will be a more private moment, marking the virtues of lifelong duty and understated service, and to think about how much has changed in those seven decades.\n\nIt is not clear which events the Queen will attend herself. There were concerns for the Queen's health during autumn last year after she spent a night in hospital and was ordered to rest by royal doctors.\n\nIt led the monarch to withdraw from a series of public events, including the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow and the Remembrance Sunday service.", "Mary Nightingale will present the new hour-long weekday news programme\n\nITV has announced a shake-up of its evening schedule which will see its news programme extended and top soaps given new slots.\n\nUnder the plans, ITV News will be broadcast from 18:30 to 19:30, with more focus on stories outside London.\n\nEmmerdale, which currently airs in the 19:00 slot, will move half an hour later, to 19:30, to make room.\n\nAnd Coronation Street will broadcast three hour-long episodes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the network said.\n\nThis means the soap will no longer be divided into two separate half-hour chunks with a different programme in between, as it is currently.\n\nOn certain nights of the week, ITV's soaps will also be on at the same time as EastEnders, which is on at 19:30, 20:00 and 20:30. ITV's soaps have been more popular in TV ratings than EastEnders for a few years, so when the shows clash, ITV will probably feel it is in the stronger position.\n\nOther changes mean there will be a total of 90 minutes of ITV news programming broadcast on the channel from 18:00.\n\nSally Dynevor has appeared in Coronation Street since 1986\n\nITV's most popular soaps will move into new back-to-back schedule slots \"destined to build a strong block of continuing drama\", the network said.\n\nEmmerdale will continue to broadcast one half-hour episode every weeknight, but its slot will move further into prime time and air at 19:30 instead of the current 19:00.\n\nThere are also changes for Coronation Street, which currently broadcasts six episodes per week across three nights. These are normally split between one half-hour episode at 19:30, and another at 20:30.\n\nUnder the current schedule, a different programme is usually scheduled between the two Coronation Street episodes. Paul O'Grady: For The Love of Dogs and Bradley & Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad are among the programmes scheduled in the 20:00 slot this week, for example.\n\nHowever, under the new schedule, Coronation Street will be broadcast in a single hour-long chunk, from 20:00 until 21:00, interrupted only by regular advert breaks.\n\nITV said this new \"super soap\" scheduling means live TV viewers of Coronation Street and Emmerdale \"can get their soap fix back-to-back\".\n\nEmmerdale won the serial best drama prize at the National Television Awards in 2020\n\nAnnouncing the changes, ITV's managing director of media and entertainment, Kevin Lygo said Coronation Street and Emmerdale are \"fundamental to the success of ITV\".\n\n\"We know that, as with all dramas, viewers increasingly watch them whenever, and however they choose. The new scheduling means that viewers can watch them live on TV in one go in a continuous soap fix, as well as on ITV Hub where they are regularly in the most watched shows every month,\" he said.\n\nThe broadcaster also announced on Monday its plan to increase news output, marking the biggest expansion of jobs in ITV News in 20 years.\n\nThe newly-extended evening news programme, which will be presented by Mary Nightingale, will bring \"more focus on reporting from outside of London... to reflect the whole of the UK,\" ITV said.\n\nThe new evening schedule will mean a total of 90 minutes of news, with the regional half-hour programme broadcast at 18:00, followed by the newly-expanded hour-long ITV News at 18:30.\n\nThe changes mean ITV News will air until 19:30, placing it in competition with Channel 4 News and the BBC's magazine programme The One Show.\n\nThe expansion of ITV News means it will compete with the BBC's magazine programme The One Show at 19:00\n\nITV said 27 new journalists, producers and multi-skilled camera operators/video editors would be recruited to join the programme alongside ITV's existing specialist editors and correspondents.\n\nCorrespondents will be hired in Wales, Scotland and the north of England, while a new Social Affairs reporter based in the north of England will also be among the new appointments.\n\nWhen the email dropped at 10.30 this morning in the ITV newsroom, there were a lot of smiling faces (after weeks of rumours). In recent years, news has more often been about 'managed decline', with decreasing budgets, bureaus closing and rounds of job cuts the norm not just at ITN (which makes ITV News).\n\nInstead, today the story is of investment in news, with the biggest expansion in airtime at ITV for decades and a round of appointments to come. The pressure is now on ITN to get it right; to ensure disgruntled Emmerdale fans and others who switch on to get primetime ITV programmes at 7pm aren't turned off by what they'll now see instead.\n\nI understand the beefed-up evening news won't be morphing into a news and discussion show (like Channel 4 News) or even (as is being suggested by some) into a magazine format (like BBC's The One Show), but will, in the main, simply contain more on-the-ground reports and lives. I'm told the phrase that has been used in recent months in planning this is 'getting Britain right' and that the programme will focus primarily on UK coverage and on telling the story of Britain.\n\nITV's decision is an acknowledgement of the value of live broadcasting in the age of the streamers (think of the wall-to-wall coverage Paul Brand's scoop got recently, across the channels, as ITV News aired the video of the PM's former Press Secretary Allegra Stratton being asked about rumours of a Christmas party held at Downing Street). The decision is also likely a sign that, in order to invest in primetime dramas like Trigger Point, which started last night on ITV, cuts need to be made in other parts of the primetime schedule. News can fill that hole.\n\nThe big question, of course, is what it means for ITV's News at Ten - or 'News at When' as it used to be dubbed as it bounced around the schedule. Does an extended early evening news bulletin signal plans for a future scaling back of the later news bulletin? It's a trend in the US, where the main news programmes are primarily aired in the early evening. That's denied by ITV, but media watchers will be looking to see if anything else emerges from the channel in the months ahead.\n\nLygo said their evening news programme continued to attract large audiences despite rapidly changing viewing habits.\n\n\"We are very excited to be announcing this investment in what is an important public service strength of ITV - high-quality, impartial, trusted broadcast journalism - at a time when it could not be more important,\" he added.\n\nEvening news bulletins are regularly among the most-watched programmes on both BBC One and ITV.\n\nOn Friday (21 January), BBC One's Regional News and Weather was the most popular programme of the day on the network, with five million viewers watching at 18:30.\n\nITV said it would hire 27 new journalists, producers and camera operators for its increased news coverage\n\nITV said its own evening news programme was watched by an average of 3.2 million viewers in 2021, with the show posting its highest viewing shares for a decade in 2020 and 2021.\n\nViewers in the Scottish STV licence areas will continue to receive STV News at 18:00 on Monday to Friday under the new plans, followed by the new hour-long news programme.\n\nOn Thursdays, STV's current affairs programme, Scotland Tonight, will move from its usual 19:30 slot to 20:30.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Artwork: Webb should be ready for full science operations in June or July\n\nThirty days after it was launched, the James Webb telescope has arrived at the position in space where it will observe the Universe.\n\nThe Lagrange Point 2, as it's known, is a million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth on its nightside.\n\nWebb was finally nudged into an orbit around this location thanks to a short, five-minute thruster burn.\n\nControllers back on Earth will now spend the coming months tuning the telescope to get it ready for science.\n\nKey tasks include switching on the observatory's four instruments, and also focusing its mirrors - in particular, its 6.5m-wide segmented primary reflector.\n\n\"There's a pretty intensive effort to take all of those 18 segments from their current state and get them to act as one big mirror, and also to get the secondary mirror into its optimised condition,\" explained Charlie Atkinson, the chief engineer on Webb at Northrop Grumman, the American aerospace company that co-led the telescope's development with the US space agency (Nasa).\n\n\"We do this using the science images, which is why we need to get the science instruments activated and checked out with some initial calibration work,\" he told BBC News.\n\nWebb, billed as the successor to the famous Hubble Space Telescope, was launched on 25 December by an Ariane-5 rocket from French Guiana.\n\nIts overarching goals are to take pictures of the very first stars to shine in the Universe and to probe far-off planets to see if they might be habitable.\n\nEurope's Ariane-5 gave the new observatory a near-perfect trajectory and velocity to get it out to L2. Even so, two course correction burns were necessary, with the third on Monday tipping Webb into its planned parking position.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lift-off: Watch the moment the James Webb left Earth on its Ariane rocket\n\nThe Lagrange Point 2 is one of five gravitational \"sweet-spots\" around the Sun and Earth where satellites can hold their position with few orbital adjustments, thus conserving fuel.\n\nThe other advantage is that Webb will not experience at L2 the big swings in temperature and light endured by space telescopes positioned much closer to Earth.\n\nThis is vital for the mission. It's designed to view the cosmos in infrared light and must maintain therefore constant super-cold conditions for its hardware.\n\nInfrared light has waves that are just longer than those of visible light. \"Seeing\" in the infrared will allow the telescope to, for example, look through dust to image stars that would otherwise be obscured.\n\nThe individual segments of the primary mirror must be aligned to act as one\n\nWebb will now circle L2, keeping the Earth and the Sun in a near-straight line.\n\n\"L2 is pseudo-stable,\" said Jean-Paul Pinaud, who leads the Northrop engineers that keep Webb on track.\n\n\"The flight operations team is preparing routine station-keeping burns. They'll be doing those every 20 days or so with the trajectory calculations provided by our flight dynamics team. We'll set them up in a similar way, and then fire the thruster. But the burns will be quite small.\"\n\nHidden behind a big sunshield, Webb's optics and instruments will soon cool to about -230C (some sections of the telescope are already there). When that happens, controllers will switch on Webb's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to take a picture of a test star to begin the process of aligning the big mirror.\n\n\"We know when we first focus on a star in space, we'll actually see 18 different spots of light because the 18 individual mirror segments won't be aligned,\" said Nasa instrument systems engineer Begoña Vila.\n\n\"But we'll adjust the mirrors to bring all the spots together to make a single star that's not aberrated and good for normal operations.\n\n\"It's a long process. It can take up to three months during commissioning, and we are ready to do that,\" she told BBC News.\n\nFocusing involves driving small actuators, or motors, on the back of the 18 segments of the primary mirror to harmonise their curvature. The current misalignment, which is measured in millimetres, will be brought down to one measured in nanometres - a factor of a million improvement.\n\nSimilar adjustments will be applied to the 74cm-diameter secondary reflector which sits out in front of the primary mirror and is used to bounce light back towards the instruments.\n\nAn image taken from the top of the Ariane as Webb separates to begin the next phase of its journey\n\nSo far, the Webb mission has not put a step wrong. The launch and journey out to L2 passed off without incident.\n\nAnd even the complex business of unfolding the telescope after it came off the top of the Ariane rocket was made to look like the easiest of rehearsals.\n\n\"We were thrilled with the precision and success of all those deployments,\" said Kyle Hott, the mission systems engineering lead at Northrop.\n\n\"It's pretty incredible to think that it was all just a concept on paper decades ago, and now it's actually here, arriving at L2. Morale is high and we're so very excited.\"", "The transport secretary has indicated he is committed to simplifying the UK's passenger locator form filled out by travellers ahead of their journey.\n\nIn a question to Grant Shapps, Labour MP Ben Bradshaw says the form is a \"massive irritant\", being longer than the EU equivalent and \"very complicated\".\n\nSpeaking in the Commons after announcing changes to the testing rules, Shapps said: \"I entirely agree with him about the complexity of the passenger locator form.\"\n\nFrom 11 February, fully-vaccinated arrivals to England will need to verify their status via a passenger locator form but will not have to be tested.\n\nPeople who do not qualify as fully vaccinated will still need to fill out a passenger locator form to demonstrate proof of a negative Covid test taken two days before they travel and they must still take a post-arrival PCR test.", "One of three ex-Minneapolis policemen present at the death of George Floyd will testify in his own defence in a federal civil case against him and his colleagues.\n\nThe charge that Thomas Lane deprived Mr Floyd of his civil rights is \"a perversion of justice\", his lawyer said.\n\nMr Lane, 38, and ex-officers J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao are also facing state criminal charges.\n\nIn her opening argument, Samantha Trepel, the government prosecutor, said that the three men should be held accountable for failing to act as Mr Floyd had his neck pinned to the ground by senior officer Derek Chauvin.\n\n\"These three CPR-trained defendants stood or knelt next to Officer Chauvin as he slowly killed George Floyd right in front of them,\" she said.\n\nThe government is seeking to prove that the ex-officers showed \"deliberate indifference to [Mr Floyd's] serious medical needs\" during the attempted arrest, thus depriving him of his right against illegal search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution.\n\nBut Eric Gray, Mr Lane's lawyer, described him on Monday as a \"gentle giant\" who \"did everything possible to help George Floyd\".\n\nRobert Paule, a lawyer representing Mr Thao, told the court: \"The death of George Floyd is indeed a tragedy. However, a tragedy is not a crime.\"\n\nIt is rare for US police officers to be charged under civil rights statutes, and the trial could ultimately expand how officers are held liable for excessive use of force.\n\nTwelve jurors and six alternates were selected for the trial last week.\n\nVideo evidence shows that, as Chauvin pressed his knee into Mr Floyd's neck, Mr Lane restrained his legs, Mr Kueng, 27, held his torso, and Mr Thao, 35, warned bystanders to keep away from them.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Lane and Mr Kueng's defence teams are expected to argue that fault lies with Chauvin, the senior officer. Their lawyers have pointed out that the two men were rookies in their first week on the job, with Chauvin as their training officer.\n\nA criminal complaint against Mr Lane mentions he twice asked Chauvin whether they should turn Mr Floyd over into a side recovery position and was rebuffed both times.\n\nThe trial is expected to last about four weeks. None of the members of the jury are African American.\n\nThe judge overseeing the case, US District Judge Paul Magnuson, told potential jurors last week that the case had \"absolutely nothing\" to do with race and would only rely on the facts.\n\nLegal experts say prosecutors could also ask Chauvin to take the stand against his colleagues.\n\nConvicted of murder and manslaughter last June, Chauvin is serving 22 1/2 years in state prison.\n\nHe is also awaiting federal sentencing for his own civil rights charges, after accepting a plea deal in December in order to avert a second trial.\n\nLawyers for the Floyd family said the trial would be \"another painful experience\" but \"another milestone in the long, slow journey to justice for George Floyd and his family\".", "Police officers examine a weapon near the crime scene at Heidelberg University\n\nA lone gunman has killed one person and seriously injured three others inside a lecture hall at Heidelberg University in the south-west of Germany, before shooting himself dead.\n\nHe was an 18-year-old German student.\n\nGerman police said the shooter, who was armed with two guns, had used a \"long gun\", and fired shots around the amphitheatre \"wildly\".\n\nThe bloodshed triggered a large operation at the university's campus in the Neuenheimer Feld area.\n\nPolice asked people to avoid the area so rescue workers and emergency services could move around freely.\n\nGerman media reported that the gunman appeared to have no religious or political motive.\n\nPolice have searched his flat in the city of Mannheim, and found a WhatsApp message he had sent shortly beforehand, in which he spoke of punishing people.\n\nHeidelberg is a university town with about 160,000 inhabitants.\n\nThe country has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe, and school shootings are rare. Anyone under 25 is required to pass a psychological evaluation before getting a gun licence.\n\nPolice initially said four victims had been wounded, with a later update confirming one had died in hospital.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Fans rush towards the Olembé stadium in Yaoundé before the crush\n\nAt least eight people have been killed and 38 injured in a crush outside an Africa Cup of Nations football match in Cameroon.\n\nVideos showed screaming fans being crushed at an entry gate to the Olembé stadium in the capital Yaoundé.\n\nWitnesses described chaotic scenes outside the ground as thousands of fans struggled to get access.\n\nTwo boys, aged eight and 14, are among the dead, and seven people were seriously injured.\n\nCameroonian President Paul Biya ordered an investigation into the \"tragic incident\". The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has also launched its own investigation, and says a minute's silence will be observed at future matches as a mark of respect to those who died.\n\nOfficials say about 50,000 people tried to attend the match on Monday.\n\nThe stadium has a capacity of 60,000 but it was not meant to be more than 80% full for the game because of Covid restrictions.\n\nNick Cavell, a producer for BBC Africa Sport, was at the match and says news of the crush did not seem to filter through to the crowd until there were reports on social media.\n\nImages on social media show fans clambering over fences, rushing past checkpoints and trampling on unconscious supporters. Others show some trying to resuscitate their fellow fans.\n\nDanish journalist Buster Emil Kirchner described seeing \"a lot of chaos\" as fans clamoured to enter the ground through a single open gate.\n\n\"It was hectic - people running, people climbing fences, people breaking through the barricades,\" he told the BBC.\n\nAnother journalist, Leocadia Bongben, saw a commotion coming from one of the fan zone areas outside the stadium.\n\n\"People started shouting,\" she told the BBC's Newsday programme. \"A minute after that an ambulance came to the stadium, but when we got to the place the police would not allow us to get close to where the stampede was.\n\n\"It's really quite a sad situation that people go to watch a game and they end up dying there.\"\n\nSome of the injured were in a \"desperate condition\", nurse Olinga Prudence told the Associated Press.\n\nCameroon is football-mad and has not hosted an Africa Nations Cup in 50 years, so crowds flocked to the stadium to see the biggest game of the tournament so far. The problem is, 30 minutes before kick-off, only one gate - the south gate - was open.\n\nA bottleneck formed, with one eyewitness saying fans with tickets were waving them in the air trying to gain access, frustrated with the slow speed of entry. Fans without tickets were also in the crowd, trying their luck.\n\nFans need a negative Covid test to get into the stadium, which can only delay things - but this is not done by the gates - and separate sources I've spoken to do not believe it had a major bearing on the stampede.\n\nSecurity at the Afcon stadiums could be better - there is a significant police presence but it is not as organised as it could be. Some gates are flimsy with temporary fencing supported by breeze blocks that can be pushed down - though this was not the case with the south gate, where people were trampled and pressed against fences in the crush.\n\nVanessa Tchouanzi told Reuters news agency she saw her friend get knocked over and killed by a rush of people \"coming in in droves\".\n\n\"She couldn't take the shock, the weight of all those people,\" she said.\n\nFootball's world governing body Fifa said the \"thoughts and prayers of the global football community\" were with those affected.\n\nCaf President Patrice Motsepe said no more tournament matches would take place at the stadium until there was an \"absolute guarantee\" fans would be safe.\n\n\"Clearly there were failures - there were things that should have been foreseen,\" Mr Motsepe told a press conference.\n\nThe African football body said Sunday's quarter-final would now be moved from the Olembé stadium and held instead in another stadium in the same city - the Ahmadou Ahidjo.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Charles Ayitey This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAfter a low turnout at the first round of matches of the continent's top football tournament, the Cameroonian authorities have organised mass transport and given out free tickets to lure fans to attend.\n\nThe Olembé stadium, officially called the Paul Biya stadium but dubbed \"Olembé\" after the neighbourhood it occupies, is the largest in Cameroon and opened last year. It was scheduled to host three more matches, including the final.\n\nCameroon was supposed to host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019, but was stripped of the event amid concerns over delays in building stadiums and infrastructure.\n\nMonday's last 16 match between Cameroon and Comoros took place despite the incident and ended with a 2-1 win for the hosts.\n\nMore on Cameroon's Africa Cup of Nations:", "The UK has accused President Putin of plotting to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government.\n\nThe Foreign Office took the unusual step of naming former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev as a potential Kremlin candidate.\n\nRussia has moved 100,000 troops near to its border with Ukraine but denies it is planning an invasion.\n\nUK ministers have warned that the Russian government will face serious consequences if there is an incursion.\n\nIn a statement, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: \"The information being released today shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking.\n\n\"Russia must de-escalate, end its campaigns of aggression and disinformation, and pursue a path of diplomacy.\"\n\nThe Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that the Foreign Office was \"circulating disinformation\" and urged it to \"cease these provocative activities\" and \"stop spreading nonsense\".\n\nDeputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said there was \"a very serious risk\" of invasion but there would be \"severe economic consequences\", including sanctions, if Russia took that step.\n\nHowever, he told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme it was \"extremely unlikely\" British troops would be sent to defend Ukraine, adding that the country was not a Nato ally.\n\nAsked if the threat of sanctions would be enough to deter Russia from invading, Mr Raab said Vladimir Putin would also be worried about getting \"bogged down in Ukraine\" and ending up \"with another Chechnya\", where there was several years of conflict in the 1990s.\n\nHe added that Russia \"needs to live up to the basic tenets of international law and invading another country is not one of those\".\n\nRussia has denied it is planning any attack but Mr Putin has issued demands to the West, including that Ukraine be prevented from joining the Nato military alliance.\n\nHe also wants Nato to abandon military exercises and stop sending weapons to eastern Europe, seeing this as a direct threat to Russia's security.\n\nRussia has seized Ukrainian territory before, when it annexed Crimea in 2014, after the country overthrew their pro-Moscow president.\n\nEver since, Ukraine's military has been locked in a war with Russian-backed rebels in areas of the east near Russia's borders. An estimated 14,000 people have been killed in the Donbas region.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab urges Putin to \"step back from the brink\"\n\nMr Murayev, a media owner, lost his seat in the Ukrainian parliament when his party failed to secure 5% of the vote in the 2019 elections.\n\nResponding to the claim that he was a potential Kremlin candidate to lead Ukraine, he told the Observer newspaper that the Foreign Office \"seems confused\".\n\n\"It isn't very logical. I'm banned from Russia. Not only that but money from my father's firm there has been confiscated,\" Mr Murayev said.\n\nHe later wrote in a post on Facebook that \"the time of pro-Western and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine is gone forever\".\n\n\"Ukraine needs new politicians whose policy will be based solely on the principles of the national interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,\" he said.\n\nBut Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, said he believed Russia was trying to install a pro-Moscow leader.\n\n\"It's not the first time they're trying to do so,\" he told Sky News's Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme.\n\nStung, perhaps, by suggestions that while a crisis was boiling in Europe, the foreign and defence secretaries were both in Australia, the UK government does seem to be trying to show that it's getting a grip.\n\nBut its method - a pair of statements aimed very much at the Sunday papers - has raised eyebrows. The Foreign Office, in a press release remarkably short on detail, said it had evidence of a Russian plot to install a puppet government in the wake of an invasion.\n\nThe man it named as a possible pro-Russian candidate for president, former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev, seems to have dismissed the allegation, but this morning said the country needed new leaders.\n\nOf the four other Ukrainian politicians named, at least three fled to Moscow eight years ago.\n\nThe Russian Foreign Ministry said Britain should stop spreading nonsense, but the British allegations do echo similar warnings made by the American government on Thursday. In Kyiv, some Ukrainian government officials appear to be taking them seriously.\n\nThe Foreign Office also named four other Ukrainian politicians who it said maintained links with the Russian intelligence services.\n\nIt said some of the individuals had been in contact with Russian intelligence officers working on an invasion plan.\n\nThey include Mykola Azarov, who served as prime minister under the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in 2014.\n\nMr Azarov then fled to Russia where he established what was widely seen as a puppet government-in-exile.\n\nHe has been the subject of international sanctions and an Interpol \"red notice\" issued at the request of the Ukrainian government, for charges including embezzlement and misappropriation.\n\nAlso named is Volodymyr Sivkovych, the former deputy head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, who was this week made the subject of US sanctions for allegedly working with Russian intelligence.\n\nThe others are Serhiy Arbuzov and Andriy Kluyev, who both served as deputy prime minister under Mr Yanukovych.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Prystaiko said the question was not whether Russia would invade Ukraine but whether it would be a \"full-scale invasion\" or something smaller, adding that Russia had already been in Crimea for almost eight years.\n\nThe Ukrainian ambassador to the UK said his country was \"prepared to fight\" but that it was \"not that well equipped\" for a prolonged conflict with Russia.\n\nOn Saturday, a US shipment of around 90 tonnes of \"lethal aid\" arrived in Ukraine, including ammunition for \"front line defenders\".\n\nDozens of British troops have been in Ukraine since 2015 to help train their armed forces, and the UK has also made a commitment to help rebuild Ukraine's navy following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014.\n\nEarlier this week, the UK announced it was sending defence weapons and extra troops for training.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon says case numbers are \"hopefully now... very firmly on the downward slope\"\n\nThe impact of Scotland's Covid restrictions on business and hospitality have been \"worth it\", First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she understood the measures had a \"very adverse\" effect.\n\nBut she told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme that \"we're hopefully seeing Scotland firmly on the downward slope\".\n\nRestrictions introduced over the festive period are being phased out, with nightclubs reopening and large indoor events resuming from Monday.\n\nThe first minister said the rules made enough of a difference to the spread of the Omicron variant to justify the financial impact.\n\nShe added: \"That's not me saying I don't understand and agree that those measures had a very adverse affect on businesses. Hospitality throughout the pandemic has been one of the worst hit sectors.\n\n\"But it is not a case of having protective measures and businesses are damaged, or having no proactive measures and everything is fine.\n\n\"It is the difference between having protective measures that stem transmission, or allowing transmission to go completely uncontrolled - in which case the impact on business is even greater and even more damaging. \"\n\nMs Sturgeon said hospitality had been one of the \"worst hit\" sectors\n\nFrom Monday guidance advising adults against meeting up with more than three households at a time will also be scrapped, along with curbs on indoor contact sports.\n\nHowever longer-running measures such as the use of face coverings on public transport and indoor public places will continue.\n\nScotland's vaccine passport scheme for businesses and events remains in place. Ms Sturgeon said it helped \"as a package of measures\" to protect against transmission.\n\nShe added: \"I don't underplay the impact of any of these measures on businesses and the night-time industry, but checking Covid certification is a better alternative to being closed.\"\n\nShe said the scheme was \"not causing anybody any real hardship\" and had allowed large events to go ahead.\n\nThe first minister said she hoped that vaccine passports and wearing of facemasks would \"eventually\" come to an end.\n\nShe said: \"None of us enjoy wearing masks, they are not the biggest handicap to endure as we try to spread transmission.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said there would be big \"economic consequences\" if we let virus spread in an uncontrolled way.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Stephen Kerr says Scottish government has ‘dithered’ on Covid compensation\n\nOn Saturday there were 6,768 new Covid cases in Scotland - a fall of around 400 from the previous day. There were 1,458 people in hospital, down from 1,511 on Friday.\n\nConservative MSP Stephen Kerr welcomed the lifting of restrictions, but urged the Scottish government to quickly deliver compensation for \"the pain inflicted on the hospitality sector and night time economy\".\n\nHe told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show: \"We should see the evidence when Nicola Sturgeon says it was all worthwhile.\n\n\"Infection rates for this variant of Covid were as great here as in any other part of the UK.\n\nHe added: \"What I can't applaud the Scottish government for doing is dithering in getting the compensation they promised these businesses.\n\n\"Some don't even know how to apply for the money. The Scottish government have a lot to answer for.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Ms Sturgeon said she would set the legislative timetable for a second Scottish independence referendum in \"the coming weeks\".\n\nShe said \"preparatory work is underway\" and her aim remained to take steps to enable a referendum to take place before the end of 2023.", "Boris Johnson has entered a crucial week for his premiership, ahead of a report over alleged parties at Downing Street during lockdown.\n\nCivil servant Sue Gray is expected to publish her findings this week - although the date is not confirmed.\n\nThe PM's former aide, Dominic Cummings, has said he sent Ms Gray written evidence but wouldn't be meeting her.\n\nMeanwhile, senior Tory William Wragg, who claimed MPs seeking to oust the PM were \"blackmailed\", met police earlier.\n\nMr Wragg, chairman of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, raised his concerns last week and advised colleagues who felt threatened to go to the police.\n\nHe said he wanted to leave any probe to \"experts\" rather than No 10, but Downing Street said it had not seen any proof of the behaviour he alleges.\n\nMr Johnson's troubles worsened on Monday, when Treasury minister Lord Agnew quit the government over its handling of fraudulent Covid business loans.\n\nMaking a dramatic resignation in the House of Lords, the Tory peer accused the Treasury of having \"no interest in the consequences of fraud to our society\".\n\nMs Gray - who is currently a permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office - is investigating a series of allegations about lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street.\n\nHer report is \"the biggest threat\" to Mr Johnson's premiership on what is expected to be a significant week for his government, the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg says.\n\nShe says many MPs see Ms Gray's report as the crucial piece of evidence that will help them make up their mind about whether it is time to end Mr Johnson's leadership.\n\nThe prime minister is reported to be determined to hang on to his position - believing he has done nothing wrong.\n\nSo far six Conservative MPs have publicly declared no confidence in Mr Johnson.\n\nBut more are thought to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, who organises Tory leadership contests.\n\nIf 54 letters are submitted a no confidence vote is triggered which could result in a leadership election.\n\nA further challenge for Mr Johnson emerged at the weekend after claims by Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani that one of the reasons given for why she was sacked as a minister in 2020 was because she is a Muslim.\n\nThe PM has ordered the Cabinet Office to look into the allegations.\n\nSue Gray is leading the investigation into alleged parties at Downing Street during lockdown\n\nAccording to media reports, 16 gatherings allegedly took place in either No 10 - where the prime minister lives and works - or other government departments during the Covid pandemic.\n\nLondon's Metropolitan Police have not commented on reports that officers on duty guarding Downing Street when the gatherings were held have been questioned.\n\nAmong the events being investigated by Ms Gray is a Downing Street garden drinks event on 20 May 2020, when legal restrictions and guidelines were in place to limit the spread of coronavirus.\n\nMr Johnson stressed it was a \"work event\" and said he stayed for 25 minutes to thank staff for their efforts.\n\nMs Gray has also been looking at two events held on 16 April, 2021 - on the eve of the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh.\n\nNo 10 has already apologised to Buckingham Palace for the two events in April.\n\nMs Gray has been asked to look at the nature and purpose of the gatherings, including who went to them \"with reference to adherence to the guidance in place at the time\".\n\nThe internal investigation was ordered by Mr Johnson who set the terms of reference and Ms Gray - who is required to be impartial - will report back to him.\n\nIn a blog post, Mr Johnson's former top advisor, Mr Cummings, said he was not giving evidence to Ms Gray in person on Monday, contrary to reports.\n\nWhen approached by Ms Gray, Mr Cummings wrote, he suggested they should \"keep everything in writing\" to make \"both our lives easier\".\n\n\"She agreed,\" Mr Cummings wrote. \"So I have answered questions in writing and will answer further questions in writing if she wants.\"\n\nNo timeline has yet been announced for the Cabinet Office inquiry into Ms Ghani's claims.\n\nShe became the first female Muslim minister to speak in the Commons when she was appointed to a post at the Department for Transport in 2018.\n\nBut she told the Sunday Times that when she asked for an explanation as to why she lost that job, it was stated her \"Muslimness was raised as an issue\".\n\nConservative Chief Whip Mark Spencer said the accusations were \"completely false and defamatory\" and denied ever using the words Ms Ghani had alleged.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a Cabinet Office inquiry into Ms Ghani's claims. She welcomed the investigation and said: \"The terms of reference of the inquiry must include all that was said in Downing Street and by the whip.\"", "US President Joe Biden has been forced to respond after criticism of his comments on the Russia-Ukraine tension.\n\nWatch how his answers differed between Thursday and the day before.\n\nMore on this story: Ukraine hits back at Biden amid Russia tensions", "Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has won the right to ask the Supreme Court to block his extradition to the US.\n\nThe High Court ruled on Monday he had an arguable point of law that Supreme Court justices may want to consider.\n\nThe ruling means Mr Assange can petition the UK's highest court for a hearing, stalling any extradition from the UK for now.\n\nHe is wanted in the US over the publication of thousands of classified documents in 2010 and 2011.\n\nLord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice, said Mr Assange's case had raised a legal question over the circumstances in which judges received and considered assurances from the US about how he would be treated in prison.\n\nBut Mr Assange has no guarantee of a hearing despite being able to petition the Supreme Court. In practice this means his case may take many more months to come to a conclusion.\n\nStella Moris, Mr Assange's fiancee and mother of his two young sons, claimed the High Court ruling as a victory but said \"we are far from achieving justice in this case\".\n\nSpeaking outside the court, she said: \"Let's not forget that every time we win, as long as this case isn't dropped, as long as Julian isn't freed, Julian continues to suffer.\n\n\"For almost three years he has been in Belmarsh prison and he is suffering profoundly.\"\n\nShe added: \"Our fight goes on and we will fight this until Julian is free.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"As long as Julian isn't freed, he continues to suffer\" - Mr Assange's fiancee Stella Morris reacts\n\nMassimo Moratti, from Amnesty International, said while the organisation welcomed the High Court's decision on the matter of US assurances, it was \"concerned\" the court had \"dodged its responsibility\" on ensuring issues of public importance were fully considered by the judiciary.\n\nHe added: \"The courts must ensure that people are not at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. This was at the heart of the two other issues the High Court has now effectively vetoed.\"\n\nMr Moratti added that the Supreme Court should have had the chance to consider and rule on all the points of law raised by Mr Assange, adding: \"If the question of torture and other ill-treatment is not of general public importance, what is?\n\nThe Wikileaks documents revealed how the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan, while leaked Iraq war files showed 66,000 civilians had been killed and prisoners tortured by Iraqi forces.\n\nThe US says the leaks broke the law and endangered lives, but Mr Assange says the case is politically motivated.\n\nIn January last year, a lower judge who deals with extradition requests ruled that while the US had a case to prosecute Mr Assange for alleged offences relating to the mass hacking of government systems, he could not be sent from the UK to stand trial - because there was no guarantee that American authorities could safely care for him.\n\nAmid fears that he would be subject to extremely harsh solitary confinement conditions, lawyers for Mr Assange argued his fragile mental health meant the US would find it impossible to stop him taking his own life.\n\nThe High Court then reversed that decision last December, saying that the US had provided good enough assurances that proved Mr Assange could be safely cared for.\n\nBut in a short ruling on Monday morning, Lord Burnett said there was now a legal question over how those assurances had been provided as part of the appeal, but not beforehand.\n\n\"Assurances [over treatment] are at the heart of many extradition proceedings,\" said Lord Burnett's statement. He said the High Court refused permission to appeal - but whether or not the issue needs to be heard in the Supreme Court \"is a matter appropriately for its decision\".\n\nMr Assange's lawyers now have 14 days to make the application to the Supreme Court.\n\nThe Committee to Protect Journalists cautiously welcomed the High Court ruling and said if Mr Assange were to be prosecuted in the US it \"would set a deeply harmful legal precedent\".\n\nMichelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists said although the ruling was \"welcome\" the case was \"damaging media freedom\" every day that it dragged on.\n\nShe added: \"The US is seeking Assange on charges that relate to the very business of gathering and processing news.\n\n\"For so long as this is treated as a potentially indictable offence, reporters, doing important work, will be looking over their shoulders.\"", "The Met Police want to speak to the man pictured in connection with the incidents\n\nPolice believe four incidents of teenage girls being sexually assaulted in south east London may be linked.\n\nFour girls aged between 13 and 17 have been \"sexually touched\" by a man between 16 December and 18 January, the Met Police said.\n\nThe force has released an image of a man they want to speak to in connection with the incidents.\n\nDet Sgt James Robson said officers were doing all they could to identify the person responsible.\n\nThe force has released the following details about the incidents:\n\nPolice have asked for anyone who recognises the man in the image or has any information to contact officers on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic: Only Novak knows the answers\n\nSerbia's prime minister says it is up to Novak Djokovic to explain a \"grey area\" over his Covid test result.\n\nThe unvaccinated Serbian tennis star says he was granted a medical exemption to enter Australia after testing positive for Covid in mid-December.\n\nBut there are questions over public appearances he made at this time.\n\nIf Djokovic went out knowing he had a positive PCR result, it would be a \"clear breach\" of Serbia's rules, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told the BBC.\n\nDjokovic's visa was revoked on arrival in Melbourne last week before being reinstated by a judge on Monday. Documents presented at court showed that the 34-year-old tested positive for coronavirus on 16 December.\n\nHowever on 17 December he was pictured attending an event in the Serbian capital Belgrade honouring young tennis players. There are also reports that he was at a photo shoot on 18 December.\n\n\"If you're positive you have to be in isolation,\" Ms Brnabic told the BBC's Guy De Launey.\n\nBut she added: \"I do not know when he actually got the results, when he saw the results, so there is some grey area… the only answer to this can be provided by Novak.\"\n\nSerbian Covid regulations stipulate a full 14-day self-isolation period, unless the person who has tested positive receives a negative PCR test result during that period.\n\nIf Djokovic was found to have breached Serbia's isolation rules, Ms Brnabic said she would have to consult with \"relevant authorities, and the medical people who are in charge of implementing these regulations\".\n\nIn a separate interview on Tuesday, Djokovic's mother Dijana told the BBC that it was up to her son to answer questions over his PCR result.\n\nDjokovic's Australian visa dispute has hit headlines around the world. The tennis star has been fighting to stay in the country, where he hopes to defend his title at the Australian Open.\n\nNovak Djokovic is currently training in Melbourne\n\nAustralia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.\n\nBorder officials are currently investigating whether Djokovic's travel entry form included a false declaration in stating that he had not travelled in the 14 days before arriving in Australia. Social media posts appear to show him in both Serbia and Spain during that fortnight.\n\nMs Brnabic described Djokovic as \"one of the great champions of Serbia\" and said she hoped he would be allowed to stay in Australia to play in the tournament.\n\nBut she added that she did not agree with the player's stance on vaccination, which she described as \"the only effective response to this pandemic\".\n\n\"What matters to me is that we stand by Novak... but at the same time say that for the country and for me as the prime minister that vaccination is important,\" she said.", "Teddy was admitted to hospital with breathing problems when less than a month old\n\nA charity is warning parents to be alert to a common winter virus that can cause breathing problems in very young children.\n\nThe British Lung Foundation says respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) could rebound in January after few cases last winter - but numbers are currently low.\n\nAs with Covid, most children have mild symptoms but a small number need hospital treatment.\n\nMany more coughs and viruses are circulating this winter than last.\n\nIn a normal year, RSV is responsible for 20,000 hospital admissions in the under-ones - but most parents had not heard of it, the charity said.\n\nDuring the pandemic, with lockdowns and little mixing, RSV virtually disappeared.\n\nBut it returned last summer, out of season, and contributed to emergency departments becoming overwhelmed with children, before another rise in cases in the autumn.\n\nAnd during the past three months, more than 1,000 children have been admitted to hospital with RSV in England.\n\nDr Michelle Jacobs, consultant in paediatric emergency medicine, at Watford General Hospital, said RSV \"rears its ugly head every winter\".\n\nThe numbers of children affected in the last week of December \"had gone right down\" and were \"a lot lower than feared\", she said.\n\nBut it could start to affect more children once they had been mixing at school for a couple of weeks.\n\nDr Andy Whittamore, a GP and clinical lead at the British Lung Foundation, said doctors \"are seeing a lot of children with coughs and viruses that weren't circulating last year\".\n\nWith their immunity lowered, he predicts a surge in RSV.\n\nBut not everyone agrees this is inevitable.\n\nWhen parents see symptoms, they often do not know if their child has a cold, Covid, asthma or something else.\n\nDr Damian Roland, honorary professor of paediatric emergency medicine, at Leicester University, said: \"It doesn't matter what the disease is.\n\n\"If your child has a fever but is still eating and seems well, then you don't need to be concerned.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chloe-Ann Ford This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nChloe-Ann Ford, 23, from the Isle of Wight, tested positive for Covid in November and thought her baby son Teddy was also infected when he became unwell - but it turned out to be bronchiolitis caused by RSV.\n\n\"One minute he seemed alert and then he brought up his feed and started breathing quickly, as if he was holding his breath,\" she says.\n\n\"Then he went blue around his mouth and nose,\" she says.\n\nHer partner called an ambulance and Teddy - who was less than a month old - spent five nights in hospital being given oxygen and fed through a tube.\n\n\"It was horrible, awful,\" Ms Ford says.\n\n\"We didn't leave the house for two weeks afterwards while he recovered.\"\n\nDoctors suggested Teddy's five-year-old sister might have picked up RSV at school and passed it on.", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "Lorna and Craig Hewitt denied locking her vulnerable son for seven months in a vomit and faeces-covered attic bedroom\n\nA mother and stepfather who kept their starving autistic son locked in a \"disgusting\" attic bedroom have been found guilty of false imprisonment.\n\nMatthew Langley, 22, was \"close to death\" inside the vomit and faeces-covered room, weighing just six stone (39kg) and severely dehydrated.\n\nLorna Hewitt, 43, and husband Craig Hewitt denied keeping him captive at their Sheffield home for seven months.\n\nBut both were found guilty following a trial at the city's crown court.\n\nThe pair, of Walkley Road, were also convicted of causing or allowing a vulnerable adult to suffer serious physical harm.\n\nThe couple are due to be sentenced on 18 February\n\nFollowing the verdicts, Judge Michael Slater told the defendants to expect a prison term \"of some length\" when they are sentenced on 18 February.\n\nJurors heard Mr Langley, who also had learning difficulties and suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, double incontinence and arthritis, had become so extremely malnourished and dehydrated that his \"life was in the balance\" by the time he was found on 2 June 2020.\n\nParamedics called out to reports Mr Langley had collapsed alerted police, who found faeces and vomit over the floor, bedding, and dormer window of the attic room, prosecutors said.\n\nProsecutor Nicholas Campbell QC said officers had described \"the smell, the overflowing bin and the presence of buzzing flies\", and noticed a lock on the bedroom door with a key on the outside.\n\nMr Langley was in a \"pitiable state\" - unable to walk, with bruises and abrasions suggesting he had been \"crawling on all fours\" in his room.\n\nHe had suffered an acute injury to his kidney and his sodium levels were \"dangerously\" elevated due to being deprived of water and other fluids for some time, the court heard.\n\nHis sodium levels were \"so high that they could shut his brain down and kill him\", the prosecutor added.\n\nWhen he was found by ambulance staff, Mr Langley weighed 6st 2lbs (39kg). But seven months earlier on 7 November 2019, he had weighed 8st 6lbs (53.6kg).\n\nHe was taken to hospital and a nurse found he was \"all skin and bone, lacking muscle and fat. His skin was dry and appeared dehydrated. He was soaked in urine and was covered in faeces, both dry and fresh\", jurors were told.\n\n\"The room was in a disgusting state, markedly worse than the rest of the house,\" Mr Campbell said.\n\nThe attic room at the Walkley Road house was in a disgusting state markedly worse than the rest of the house, prosecutors told jurors\n\nThe court heard Mr Langley had not been seen by anyone outside of the household during those seven months and, in February 2019, his mum and stepdad had also stopped him from attending college. They had also cancelled medical appointments scheduled for later in the year.\n\nMr Hewitt, 42, told paramedics his stepson had \"an eating disorder\", while Mrs Hewitt claimed her son had not been well for a few days, that she had found him collapsed in his room and her husband had brought him downstairs, the court heard.\n\nGiving evidence Mrs Hewitt told jurors she was aware her son was unwell but \"had not realised how ill he was\".\n\nMr Hewitt claimed there were locks on all the doors of the house when he moved in because it had previously been student accommodation. He told police his stepson was \"only locked in at night\" to stop him from going downstairs and setting off the burglar alarms, as was the case a few years ago, the jury heard.\n\nThe court was told Matthew was a \"drain on their resources\".\n\nMr Campbell said: \"As the pressures grew, it may be that they were prepared to gamble with his health, in order to have him taken off their hands.\"\n\nDet Sgt Susannah Taylor, from South Yorkshire Police, said: \"This was an horrific case in which the victim could well have lost his life as his organs were shutting down.\n\n\"He had to be placed into intensive care in a life-threatening condition. Thankfully he has since made a full recovery and is now getting the support and care he needs.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSoaring energy prices which threaten the living standards of millions could last up to two years, the boss of the UK's biggest energy supplier has said.\n\nChris O'Shea, chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica, said there was \"no reason\" to expect gas prices would come down \"any time soon\".\n\nHe said hopes that bills rising by more than 50% to about £2,000 a year would be short-lived may be misplaced.\n\nRising energy bills have raised concerns over the cost of living.\n\n\"The market suggests the high gas prices will be here for the next 18 months to two years,\" Mr O'Shea told the BBC.\n\nMany countries see gas as an intermediate solution while they wean themselves off more carbon-intensive energy sources, such as oil and coal, creating an international dash for gas as the world economy wakes up after its Covid-related slumber.\n\n\"As we move towards net zero, gas is a big transition fuel,\" Mr O'Shea said.\n\n\"And so as you turn off coal-fired power stations in other countries, there isn't an abundance of gas that you can just turn on quickly.\"\n\nThe idea of re-badging gas as a \"transitional fuel\", rather than as a traditional hydrocarbon, has growing political support and has encouraged those calling for increased investment in boosting the supply of gas from domestic sources such as the North Sea.\n\nAre you worried about the rising cost of energy bills? How will it affect you?\n\nHowever, Mr O'Shea was doubtful that higher levels of UK-sourced gas would have made much difference to surging prices.\n\n\"I'm not sure an increase in UK supply would have brought the price down from £3 a therm, as it was in December, from 50p as it was a year ago,\" he said.\n\n\"We bring gas in from the United States, from Norway, from Europe, from Qatar, from other places. So we're not in a position to simply have the UK as an isolated energy market. We are part of a global market.\"\n\nMr O'Shea suggested three moves the government could make to help households cope with what has been described as a \"cost of living crisis\".\n\n\"Those three things together, could be enacted very quickly, without regret,\" he said. \"And that would take care of half of the price rise. And then you could get a further relief targeted to those households that needed most.\"\n\nGovernment officials have discussed targeting relief through changes to the warm homes discount plan, which currently offers a one-off payment of £140 to those in receipt of certain benefits.\n\nSir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has proposed increasing that payment to £300 and widening the number of people eligible.\n\nMr O'Shea said the current design of the scheme would see relief for some result in rises in everyone else's bills.\n\n\"The way the warm homes discount works is that the cost of that scheme is met by customers. So if you increase it, you increase energy bills and we think that whatever relief comes is got to not be at the expense of hard-pressed energy consumers,\" he added.\n\nAnother option proposed by some in the energy industry is to find a way to provide support to energy companies via loans or a fund, which firms could borrow from when wholesale prices are high and pay back once they've fallen.\n\nBut according to Mr O'Shea, that plan would rely on the assumption that prices would fall which he said might be wishful thinking.\n\n\"Ultimately, everybody in the UK is a taxpayer and an energy consumer. So the cost of this is going to have to be paid by UK citizens,\" he added. \"The question as to whether that's paid for the energy bill, or for general taxation is one for government.\"\n\nThe government has indicated it will decide on what support it will offer before the new energy price cap, which is the maximum rate suppliers can charge for a default tariff, is set on 7 February.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner tells the Commons that Boris Johnson can run but he can't hide\n\nLabour and some Tory MPs are demanding immediate answers on whether Boris Johnson attended a drinks event in the Downing Street garden during lockdown.\n\nIn heated scenes in the Commons, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said the PM \"can run, but can't hide\" from scrutiny over the May 2020 gathering.\n\nAnd Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said Mr Johnson must quit if found to have broken Covid rules.\n\nThe PM has declined to say whether he went to the drinks.\n\nHe will face MPs for what is likely to be a volatile session of Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.\n\nOn Monday, ITV published a leaked email from Mr Johnson's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting 100 staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\" on 20 May 2020 - when lockdown rules in England banned large outdoor gatherings.\n\nThe invitation encouraged people to \"bring your own booze\" and \"make the most of the lovely weather\".\n\nWitnesses have told the BBC the prime minister and his wife Carrie were among about 30 people who attended the drinks.\n\nAn inquiry - led by senior civil servant Sue Gray - is under way into this event and other gatherings that took place on government premises during 2020.\n\n\"We should get rid of him…. We should own the situation. We are the Tory party. We are not delivering good governance.\"\n\nThat stinging verdict from a Conservative MP does not, at least not yet, seem to represent the consensus among the party's ranks on what to do about the current situation in Downing Street.\n\nBut the goodwill-to-all-men moment the Christmas holidays promised is very much over.\n\nThe subject of conversation among Tories on Tuesday was not the government's planned menu of policy fare for the week, but whether or not the moment had arrived when Boris Johnson, election-winner, had become Boris Johnson, discredited liability.\n\nStanding in for Mr Johnson in the Commons on Tuesday, minister Michael Ellis said he expected Ms Gray's work to be \"swift\".\n\nBut he warned it could be \"paused\" if the Metropolitan Police - which says it is in contact with the government over reports of alleged breaches of Covid rules - decided to carry out its own investigation.\n\nMr Ellis added that it was not for him to \"pass judgement or to pass sentence\" before Ms Gray's findings were known.\n\nBut Labour MPs lined up to recount stories of constituents who had suffered during the pandemic and to accuse the government of hypocrisy.\n\nMs Rayner said it was disappointing that Mr Johnson was not there in person to respond, adding: \"But his absence speaks volumes, as do his smirks on the media.\n\n\"The public has already drawn its own conclusions. He can run, but he can't hide.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A DUP MP cries while questioning the government over claims it broke lockdown rules\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey asked: \"Will the minister set out what he thinks should happen if a Conservative MP is found to have flouted and broken a Covid law?\"\n\nAnd DUP MP Jim Shannon was brought to tears when speaking of the death of his mother-in-law during the pandemic.\n\nSNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford called on Conservative MPs to \"force [the PM] from office\" if he did not \"do the decent thing\" and resign.\n\nFew Tory MPs turned up in the Commons to support Mr Johnson, but one who did, Suzanne Webb, said: \"The time of the House is better spent at this moment in time, as we recover from this pandemic... debating how we can build back better and level up.\"\n\nBut Scottish leader Douglas Ross told the BBC he felt \"fury\" over what had happened, adding that Mr Johnson should resign if he \"broke the law\".\n\n\"People gave up so much and they're now seeing at the exact same time, potentially, those at the top in No 10 were enjoying the weather and having a drink in the garden,\" he said.\n\n\"I can't answer the question 'was the prime minister there?' He can, and the public deserve that answer.\"\n\nBoris and Carrie Johnson are alleged to have attended the lockdown drinks gathering in the Downing Street garden\n\nTory MP Nigel Mills told the BBC: \"The idea that during the worst lockdown - when you could only see one other person - that the people organising the rules were having a party is just unacceptable. It's indefensible.\"\n\n\"I think if [Mr Johnson] knowingly attended what he knew to be party, then he can't survive that.\"\n\nConservative former minister Johnny Mercer tweeted about the drinks gathering: \"It's humiliating, and does not reflect the majority of my colleagues who 'at least try' and lead by example.\"\n\nAnother ex-minister told the BBC that Mr Johnson \"tries to lie his way out of everything\", while another said: \"Boris is finished.\"\n\nThe PM's official spokesman refused to comment on claims surrounding the drinks event while the investigation was taking place, but he added that the prime minister retained full confidence in Mr Reynolds.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer is expected to attend Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, having missed last week's session because of a positive Covid test.\n\nDid you miss out on attending an important event due to lockdown restrictions in May 2020? Or were you fined for meeting with others during the first lockdown? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Prince Andrew gave a key interview to BBC Newsnight's Emily Maitlis in November 2019, in which he \"categorically\" denied having any sexual contact with Virginia Giuffre.\n\nMaitlis has since written about the moment she sat down in a Buckingham Palace ballroom posing questions that \"seemed almost too surreal to ask\".\n\nIn an earlier meeting with the prince, prepping for the interview, he had \"volunteered the information to me in that early meeting that he was 'unable to sweat'\", she says.\n\nVirginia Giuffre had alleged she had danced with a sweating Prince Andrew in a London club.\n\nThe royal was also asked to explain his whereabouts on the night Giuffre alleged he had danced with her.\n\n\"His office had checked the date, and told us he couldn't have been with her because he had been at a children's birthday party that same evening.\"\n\nIn the interview, the prince said the party had taken place at a Pizza Express in Woking.\n\nGiuffre's legal team has since asked for proof of the duke's alleged inability to sweat.\n\nIt was an interview that grabbed the attention of the world, and led to the Duke of York stepping back from public life.\n\nFor the BBC's 5 Minutes On, Emily Maitlis describes the 2019 interview and how it might play a crucial role in what happens next to the prince.\n\nVideo caption: Prince Andrew fails to get US civil case dismissed. Prince Andrew fails to get US civil case dismissed.", "The man was seen hitting the statue on Wednesday afternoon\n\nA man has taken a hammer to a statue on the BBC's Broadcasting House in central London.\n\nThe Prospero and Ariel statue was carved by Eric Gill and has been on display at the BBC since 1933.\n\nThere has been a campaign to have the statue removed for several years, because the sculptor recorded sexually abusing his daughters in his diaries.\n\nPolice were called to the scene at about 16:15 GMT and the man was brought down about four hours later.\n\nBBC staff reported hearing the man shout \"paedophile\" as he struck the statue at Broadcasting House, which is connected to New Broadcasting House, the BBC's main headquarters.\n\nA cherry picker was used to bring the man down\n\nA spokesman for the Met said the man was brought down with the help of a fire crew.\n\nHe was checked over by ambulance workers before being arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and taken into custody, he added.\n\nHe said the property owners were examining any damage to the statue and building.\n\nEarlier the force said another man had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage.\n\nA spokeswoman for the BBC declined to comment.\n\nIn recent years, groups such as QAnon have campaigned against the statue carved by Gill, who died in 1940.\n\nThe statue, carved by Eric Gill, has adorned Broadcasting House since 1933\n\nThe attack on the statue comes a week after four people accused of illegally removing a statue of 17th Century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol were cleared of criminal damage.\n\nIt happened during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city in 2020, during a widespread debate about the place of certain historical statues in modern society.\n\nWhat defines an artist - their work or their life? Ever since Eric Gill's crimes have come to light, it's been something to ponder as you walk into the BBC's Old Broadcasting House, entering the building under his looming Prospero and Ariel.\n\nBut when I arrived at work on Wednesday afternoon, a ladder was leaning up against the building and a man stood on the plinth above the doorway, shouting \"paedophile\" and attacking the statue with a hammer, feet first.\n\nHe was also trying to detach the 10ft (3m) sculpture from whatever anchors it to the BBC offices. On the pavement, another man livestreamed it.\n\nWith every loud smash, there'd be a moan or a shout of \"stop\" from someone in the gathering crowd below. It felt brutal; an assault on beauty.\n\nEric Gill was a monster, a depraved paedophile who abused his daughters and others. But as a sculptor he made wondrous creations.\n\nAt a time when statues across the country are being reassessed, there'll be those who believe that if it's legal to tear down a monument to a prominent slaver, as happened in Bristol, it is also time to do the same to an artwork by a man who committed horrific sexual crimes. If that's the case though, where does it end?", "Alliance MP Stephen Farry said the prime minister should resign\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson's apology over a lockdown drinks party is \"too little, too late\", North Down MP Stephen Farry has said.\n\nMr Johnson admitted he attended a drinks party at No 10 during the first lockdown, saying he was there for 25 minutes.\n\nSpeaking at Prime Minister's Questions, he offered a \"heartfelt apology\" but said he believed it was a work event.\n\nMr Farry said the PM should do the \"honourable thing\" and resign.\n\n\"My constituents in North Down and people across the UK feel betrayed by the prime minister,\" the Alliance deputy leader said.\n\n\"We have seen standards in public life trashed.\n\n\"So for once, can the prime minister do the honourable thing and resign, for the sake of the public health message and for standards in our democracy?\"\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson faced anger in the House of Commons on Wednesday\n\nDuring the weekly questions session in the House of Commons, Mr Johnson asked those MPs who called on him to resign to await the results of an inquiry into the matter, carried out by senior civil servant Sue Gray.\n\nMs Gray is a former permanent secretary at Stormont's Department of Finance.\n\nThe prime minister had previously declined to say whether he attended, but witnesses had told the BBC both he and his wife Carrie were there.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I couldn't hug my dying mum - but they partied at Downing Street'\n\nMr Johnson was also urged to resign by SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, who said the prime minister's statement in the Commons was \"pathetic\".\n\nHe said: \"His behaviour has demeaned his office and his arrogance has shredded his authority.\n\n\"Remaining in office is about his ego rather than doing what's right. If he won't leave then he needs to be forced out by his party.\"\n\nThe latest pressure on the prime minister over alleged parties at Downing Street began on Monday, when ITV published a leaked email from Mr Johnson's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds.\n\nIn it, Mr Reynolds invited staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\" on 20 May 2020 - when lockdown rules in England banned large outdoor gatherings.\n\nThe invitation encouraged people to \"bring your own booze\" and \"make the most of the lovely weather\".\n\nThe prime minister's handling of the criticism around the drinks party was defended by Northern Ireland Office Minister Conor Burns.\n\nHe said Mr Johnson had \"done the right thing today\" by apologising in the Commons.\n\n\"He accepts with the benefit of hindsight that the event shouldn't have happened,\" Mr Burns said.\n\n\"Crucially he has asked for space for Sue Gray to complete her report...it is better to wait for the totality of that investigation to be complete.\"\n\nHe added the prime minister could \"rebuild trust\" with the public.\n\nThe PM is set to face questions from MPs\n\nBefore Mr Johnson spoke in the Commons, DUP MP Sammy Wilson told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that if the prime minister did not answer questions over his attendance it would be \"disastrous for himself and for public confidence\".\n\n\"As one senior MP said to me yesterday, look the prime minister, as it's not the first allegations of parties, he must know the full extent of what happened in Downing Street over the lockdown period,\" he said.\n\n\"Rather than to allow this drip-feed of information to come out that something happened on the 20th May and another one happened some other time - he should come clean.\n\n\"People will then make a judgement on the basis of that situation and his honesty about this what his future should be.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Wilson's DUP colleague Jim Shannon broke down in tears in Parliament while questioning the government about fresh revelations that it broke lockdown rules.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jim Shannon MP cried while questioning the government over claims it broke lockdown rules\n\nMr Shannon, MP for Strangford, cried as he said his mother-in-law had died alone with Covid during the pandemic.\n\nThe DUP MP said that the issue of alleged Downing Street parties was \"distracting from all the good work the government is doing and are not getting credit for\".\n\nMr Shannon's effort to struggle through tears to ask his question in the Commons was commended by many other politicians.\n\nOn Wednesday, Mr Shannon tweeted that he had \"received so many good wishes and kind words for which I am deeply grateful, from so many and those who are among the thousands who have experienced loss both during this pandemic, as well as before and after\".\n\n\"I extend my thanks and best wishes to you all,\" he added.\n\nUlster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie has called on the prime minister to resign\n\nThe leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Doug Beattie, has also called on Mr Johnson to resign.\n\n\"Whether the prime minister comes clean or doesn't, his credibility is destroyed,\" Doug Beattie told the BBC's Nolan Show on Wednesday.\n\n\"If it's proven that he attended in that investigation or he comes clean to say he did [attend] then there is no way out and he has to resign.\n\n\"There is no way back from this, he needs to step down and he has to do this quickly to keep continuity in government and start dealing with the issues we still face today.\"\n\nSue Gray is the former permanent secretary at Stormont's Department of Finance\n\nIn December, the prime minister asked for an independent inquiry to investigate a series of allegations about events taking place in government buildings in 2020 despite Covid-19 restrictions being in force.\n\nMs Gray's probe is investigating specific events including a leaving drinks for a No 10 aide on 27 November, a Department of Education gathering on 10 December and a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff on 15 December.\n\nIt is also examining the Downing Street Christmas party on 18 December, and on Tuesday, Ellis said drinks events held in the Downing Street garden on 20 and 15 May 2020 would also be added to the inquiry.", "People are spending a third of their waking time on mobile apps, research suggests\n\nPeople are spending an average of 4.8 hours a day on their mobile phones, according to app monitoring firm App Annie.\n\nIn 2020, UK regulator Ofcom found similar amounts of time spent, although its research included watching TV.\n\nApp Annie's report indicates that apps were downloaded 230 billion times in 2021, while $170bn (£125bn) was spent.\n\nTikTok was the most downloaded app worldwide, with users spending 90% more time there compared to 2020.\n\n\"The big screen is slowly dying as mobile continues to break records in virtually every category - time spent, downloads and revenue,\" said chief executive of App Annie, Theodore Krantz.\n\nThe monitoring firm predicted that, by the second half of this year, TikTok would surpass 1.5 billion monthly active users.\n\nThe average time spent on mobile apps was four hours and 48 minutes, up 30% from 2019, App Annie's State of Mobile report indicated.\n\nThis was calculated across ten markets, including India, Turkey, the US, Japan, Mexico, Singapore and Canada.\n\nUsers in Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea surpassed five hours per day.\n\nOf that time, seven out of every 10 minutes was spent on social, photo and video apps, with TikTok leading the way, the report suggested.\n\nThe mobile eco-system in general remains very healthy - with two million new apps and games launched in 2021 and the number of apps earning more than $100m up by 20%, according to the report.\n\nYouTube was the most popular video streaming app worldwide, clocking up more than a million downloads in 60 different countries. Netflix came second in many regions.\n\nMobile gaming also grew - with people spending $116bn on them. Particularly popular were what the report called hyper-casual games such as Hair Challenge, in which players have to avoid getting their hair cut, and Bridge Race, in which players collect bricks and build stairs.\n\nSome users have complained about the number of ads in such games but app advertising generally is doing extremely well, with global spend topping $295bn last year.\n\nThis suggests that concerns that Apple's privacy crackdown would damage mobile advertising are proving unfounded.\n\nIn its iOS 14.5 update last year, iPhone users were given the option to say 'no' to having their data collected by apps.\n\nMore people were turning to mindfulness apps to help them relax\n\nSome of the trends spotted in the research reflected wider changes, especially in how the pandemic has altered the way people live.\n\nFor instance, people were spending a lot of time in shopping apps - more than 100 billion hours globally, with Singapore, Indonesia and Brazil growing the fastest.\n\nThere was also a huge growth of food and drink apps - such as UberEats and Grubhub.\n\nThe number of sessions on such apps grew to 194 billion in 2021, according to the research - up 50% on the previous year.\n\nHealth and fitness apps also saw growth, as the pandemic meant people couldn't always attend gyms or conduct group exercise classes.\n\nAnd reflecting greater emphasis on mental well-being, meditation apps such as Headspace and Calm proved popular - especially with young people, with the top five most downloaded seeing a 27% growth in 2021.\n\nAnd countries with apps to help handle the Covid-19 crisis, whether vaccine passports or just information tracking, saw huge take-up.\n\nThe NHS app used in England - where it acts as a record of vaccinations - was downloaded by 71% of the fully vaccinated population, while Malaysia's MySejahtera app saw 80% of this same demographic adding it to their phones.", "The Canadian province of Quebec will charge a health tax to residents who are not vaccinated against Covid-19.\n\nQuebec, which has seen the highest number of Covid-related deaths in Canada, is currently struggling with a surge in cases.\n\nOn Tuesday, the premier announced that it would be the first in the nation to financially penalise the unvaccinated.\n\nOnly about 12.8% of Quebec residents are not vaccinated, but they make up nearly a third of all hospital cases.\n\nAccording to federal data, just over 85% of Quebec residents had received at least one vaccine dose by 1 January.\n\nPremier Francois Legault said during a news conference that people who have not received their first dose of vaccine will have to pay a \"contribution\".\n\nThe fee has not yet been decided, but will be \"significant\", he said.\n\n\"I think right now it's a question of fairness for the 90% of the population who made some sacrifices,\" Mr Legault said. \"I think we owe them this kind of measure.\"\n\nLast week, the province announced that it would require proof of vaccination to shop in government cannabis and liquor stores.\n\nA curfew is also in place, the second one of the pandemic, running from 22:00 to 05:00 each day.\n\nIt comes after 62 deaths were recorded in the previous 24-hour period. The daily figure represents a similar rate to January 2021, before widespread vaccinations had begun in the province.\n\nThe percentage of Covid patients in intensive care who have not been vaccinated is 45%, provincial data shows.\n\nThe premier's press conference was attended by his interim public health director, who took over after the long-serving previous director resigned over criticism of his handling of the latest Omicron-driven surge.\n\nHospitals in Montreal, the province's largest city, are nearing 100% capacity and have already started limiting non-Covid related care.\n\nOver 200 members of the city's unhoused population have also tested positive, indicating an outbreak. It comes amid a severe cold snap, which is overwhelming shelters.\n\nQuebec reported 8,710 new cases on Tuesday. The figure represents a 20% positivity rate.\n\nThere are currently 2,742 Covid patients in Quebec hospitals, including 244 in intensive care.\n\nWhile rare, Quebec is not the only region in the world seeking to impose a financial penalty on those unwilling to get jabbed.\n\nStarting later this month, Greeks over age 60 are being required to pay a €100 (£85; C$142; $113) fine for each month that they remain unvaccinated.\n\nSingapore has required Covid patients to pay for their own medical bills if they are not vaccinated.", "\"We should get rid of him…. We should own the situation. We are the Tory party. We are not delivering good governance.\"\n\nThat stinging verdict from a Conservative MP does not, at least not yet, seem to represent the consensus among the party's ranks on what to do about the current situation in Downing Street.\n\nBut the goodwill-to-all-men moment the Christmas holidays promised is very much over.\n\nThe subject of conversation among Tories on Tuesday was not the government's planned menu of policy fare for the week, but whether or not the moment had arrived when Boris Johnson, election-winner, had become Boris Johnson, discredited liability.\n\nWhether or not, in the words of that senior MP, the party should \"get rid of him\".\n\nThe party has not reached that conclusion. The government has an enormous majority. Administrations go through rocky times.\n\nBut the latest, and continuing, stream of revelations, has made the question of the prime minister's survival the central one again.\n\nAnd the frustration burns because the problems seem to many MPs to be self-inflicted.\n\nIt's not that Downing Street and Mr Johnson have reacted badly to a chain of events outside their control.\n\nIn contrast, it's what happened under the prime minister's roof (and in his garden), and how he has responded to the allegations, that have become a fiasco.\n\nDowning Street has chosen to stay silent rather than offer any new information or clarity since the story blew up again on Monday.\n\nThere is no confirmation, therefore, of suggestions from insiders that the prime minister's mood is dark, the atmosphere inside the building terrible.\n\nIt's said that Mr Johnson is still adamant that he personally did nothing wrong. I'm told discussions in No 10 on Tuesday morning still centred around the argument that the drinks on 20 May 2020, which eyewitnesses say the PM attended, can be justified as an office event to thank staff for their hard work during the pandemic.\n\nYet in the absence of additional information or clarity from Downing Street, Tory anger has been on the rise, and the sense of panic has been growing.\n\nNo one raised the issue at Tuesday's cabinet, which tells you how much of an active forum it really is. But MPs privately have been spitting chips, accusing the PM of dishonesty, of tarring the whole party, of failing to get a grip, of - frankly - some things that are too rude to be written down.\n\nFormer ministers have been warning that he has \"one last shot\" at sorting things out.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who of course has his own political need to carve out an identity distinct from No 10, says the PM can't stay if he was at a lockdown party.\n\nAnd a Tory donor has warned the PM to sort it out or step aside.\n\nOn Wednesday, at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson will have to respond to the claims in person.\n\nIt's not in his political DNA to admit mistakes unless it is entirely unavoidable. Yet his attempt to point merely to the investigation into gatherings in No 10 is getting less persuasive by the hour.\n\nAs Labour and some Conservatives are asking - should the country have to wait for an official inquiry to tell him and us, if he attended a gathering in his own garden?\n\nOn previous form, Mr Johnson is unlikely to turn up at the despatch box on Wednesday armed with a mea culpa. There are hints that the PM may give some kind of statement at the beginning of the session - but the full story?\n\nThere will rarely have been a moment when the strength of his answers at the weekly bout of PMQs will have mattered as much.", "John Caudwell donated £500,000 to the Conservatives before the last election\n\nA major Conservative donor has issued an ultimatum to Boris Johnson over revelations about lockdown parties in Downing Street.\n\nJohn Caudwell said: \"Sort it out, Boris, or step aside and let someone else sort it out so that the Tories aren't wiped out at the next election.\"\n\nThe Phones4U founder donated £500,000 to the Conservatives ahead of the 2019 general election.\n\nHe criticised the government's perceived \"arrogance and hypocrisy\".\n\nMr Caudwell was one of the Conservative Party's biggest individual donors at the last general election, and has previously given money to pro-Brexit Tory MP Sir Bill Cash.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"Although I have always obeyed the rules I have never been puritanical about lockdown restrictions so I find it difficult to personally get excited about an outdoor drinks party. But it's the perceived arrogance, hypocrisy and rule breaking that is impossible to justify.\n\n\"While the rest of us were striving to follow the ever-changing rules - including myself, even when I deemed them to be excessive at best, nonsensical at worst - those who were setting those rules were, apparently freely and frequently, disregarding them.\n\n\"Each one of these new revelations gives greater force to the accusation that areas of the government think it's 'one rule for them, one rule for the rest of us'.\n\nHe added that he was not a \"dyed-in-the-wool Tory\" and had been critical of the government's economic recovery plans, urging more investment in apprenticeships and renewable energy.\n\nBut he added: \"I do think the Conservatives are the best party to govern this country, particularly as we look to navigate opportunities post-Brexit.\n\n\"Sort it out, Boris, or step aside and let someone else sort it out so that the Tories aren't wiped out at the next election.\"\n\nAlasdair Locke, who has donated £280,000 to the Conservative Party since Mr Johnson came to power, said the lockdown parties were \"something the media is making a great deal of\" and voters would be concerned with \"serious stuff\" at the next election.\n\n\"I really don't think a leadership change, or challenge, is needed at this stage. A bit more grip would help but that will probably come.\"\n\nThe prime minister is under growing pressure from Labour - and anger from some Conservatives - over his alleged attendance at a previously unreported Downing Street party.\n\nIt comes after ITV published a leaked email from the PM's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting 100 staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\" on 20 May 2020.\n\nThe invitation for the event, which was organised when strict lockdown rules were still in place, encouraged people to \"bring your own booze\" and \"make the most of the lovely weather\".\n\nWitnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife had been among about 30 people who attended the gathering.\n\nBut Mr Johnson has declined to say whether he was one of them.\n\nThe PM's official spokesman also refused to comment on the claims while the investigation was taking place, but he added that the prime minister retained full confidence in Mr Reynolds.\n\nSenior civil servant Sue Gray is investigating lockdown parties in Downing Street, including the event on 20 May 2020, and is expected to report shortly.", "Last updated on .From the section League Cup\n\nAntonio Rudiger also scored in Chelsea's 3-0 Premier League victory at Tottenham in September Chelsea eased into the Carabao Cup final as they closed out a comfortable semi-final win over Tottenham. Spurs never seriously threatened to overturn Chelsea's two-goal first-leg advantage and Antonio Rudiger's bundled finish from Mason Mount's corner after 18 minutes effectively confirmed a Wembley date with either Arsenal or Liverpool. It was a night of frustration for Spurs and their former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte as they saw two penalties, awarded by referee Andre Marriner for fouls on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Lucas Moura, correctly overturned by VAR. Harry Kane also saw a goal ruled out for offside in an improved second-half performance from Spurs but Chelsea always looked in control - and once they had extended their aggregate lead early on, they were able to control affairs without hitting their best form. The game was paused late on following a medical emergency in the crowd and on resumption Chelsea completed the formalities of their victory.\n• None Go straight to all the best Spurs content\n• None Get the best Blues content here Spurs manager Conte has made no secret of the size of his job in rejuvenating this club after their recent decline - and any doubts over that diagnosis were removed by Chelsea's obvious superiority here. It was still a mystery, however, as to why Conte felt the need to rest experienced keeper and captain Hugo Lloris with the tie still on the line and play deputy Pierluigi Gollini instead. Gollini distinguished himself when he saved with his legs from Romelu Lukaku early on but was at fault when he made an unconvincing dash to claim Mount's corner, a move that ended badly when the ball was diverted into net via Rudiger's back. This was surely a job that required the presence of Lloris when Spurs' margin of error was virtually non-existent. Spurs did mount a challenge of sorts after the break but it was too little, too late - and this was a mediocre display that only illustrated how much work Conte needs to do. Kane battled but remains short of his best form while there was a lack of creativity in midfield that allowed Chelsea to contain Spurs with relative comfort. Conte will be expecting serious backing from Spurs chairman Daniel Levy if his drive and fierce ambition is to be satisfied. At present, he has a squad that requires serious investment before there can be thoughts of getting anywhere near the Premier League elite. Chelsea are now in their third successive final under Thomas Tuchel since he arrived to succeed the sacked Frank Lampard almost a year ago. He guided them to the FA Cup final last season, which Chelsea lost to Leicester City, before claiming the biggest European club prize of all by winning the Champions League against Manchester City in Porto. The job of reaching the EFL Cup final was largely done in the first game at Stamford Bridge but Chelsea came out here with the sort of determination and attacking intent that made it clear they were determined to snuff out Spurs' hopes as quickly as possible. Lukaku wasted one chance to do that but the early goal they desired came from Rudiger, which gave Spurs a task they never looked like accomplishing. Tuchel, standards as high as ever, cut a dissatisfied figure at times in the second half when Chelsea's intensity dropped and a little complacency appeared to creep into their game, giving Spurs opportunities they never had in the first 45 minutes. Chelsea's players responded to their manager's demands and this tie was played out in a testimonial atmosphere in the closing minutes as Spurs fans deserted the stadium in droves, leaving one corner packed with joyous, celebrating visiting supporters. The strength of Chelsea's squad was shown once more as Tuchel was able to bring on Thiago Silva, Marcos Alonso, Hakim Ziyech, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and N'Golo Kante in the second half to ensure the door was never left ajar for Spurs. Indeed, it was slammed firmly in their faces. It shows the scale of the job Tuchel has done that in the 350 days since his first game at Chelsea, he has become the first manager in their history to guide them to a Champions League, FA Cup and EFL Cup final. And, on this evidence, Chelsea will take some stopping, whoever they face at Wembley at the end of February.\n• None Attempt saved. Ryan Sessegnon (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is saved in the centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt blocked. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Japhet Tanganga. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Minister Michael Ellis was sent to answer questions in the Commons on Tuesday, but only a few Tory MPs were also there\n\nIt's a new year in Parliament. But things feel rather familiar.\n\nThe government had hoped the Christmas break would mean the anger over allegations of rule-breaking in Downing Street would fade into the background.\n\nThe events of the past 48 hours have made that impossible.\n\n\"We thought things would get better after Christmas\" one grandee said. \"Not yet\".\n\nThe latest revelations - that dozens of Downing Street staff were invited to a BYOB (bring your own booze) event in the No 10 garden during the first lockdown - have left many Tory MPs furious.\n\nOne of those prepared to put that fury on the record was Nigel Mills, who told the BBC: \"I think these revelations are much worse than the previous ones.\n\n\"The idea that during the worst lockdown - when you could only see one other person - that the people organising the rules were having a party is just unacceptable. It's indefensible.\n\n\"Anybody that organised that or who willingly attended it knowing it was a party, clearly can't be in charge of Covid policy.\"\n\nThat is clear message to Boris Johnson; if he was there, and knew that an event had be planned, he'd have to go.\n\n\"I think if he knowingly attended what he knew to be party, then he can't survive that,\" says Mr Mills.\n\nThere are other Conservative MPs who agree - but aren't prepared to say so on the record at the moment.\n\nSome critics say they now think it's a matter of when - and not if - the prime minister will have to stand down.\n\nOne MP, from one of the 'Red Wall' seats traditionally held by Labour, told me they were \"infuriated\". Another MP spoke of waning authority in Downing Street.\n\nSome used language we couldn't publish when venting their fury.\n\nThere is a feeling among some in the Conservative Party that the mood against the leader is hardening - and that is a very risky few weeks for Boris Johnson.\n\nAnd some fear more revelations are coming.\n\nBut not everyone thinks things are terminal for the prime minister.\n\nOthers argue it's unlikely Mr Johnson will ultimately be held accountable for what went on in Downing Street in 2020 - instead, they predict senior staff may carry the can.\n\nThere is a familiar but growing school of thought that the PM needs to shake up his No 10 operation.\n\nA minister said they expected Mr Johnson would survive - but would be weakened by the continuing question of whether his team were following the rules they were setting.\n\nTory MP Charles Walker has been a critic of many of the prime minister's lockdown decision.\n\nHe admits this week's events have been damaging.\n\n\"The prime minister and the No 10 team will know that there were significant errors of judgment made back in May 2020.\"\n\nBut he adds: \"Not in mitigation but it was a fact they were all working extremely hard as many people were - they were working extremely hard in a sort of bunker environment - and I just think there was some poor decision making - I don't think it was malicious in intent.\"\n\nAt the moment, there aren't many Conservatives in Parliament who are offering a passionate defence of the prime minister. That's in part because Number 10 itself hasn't issued its own explanation.\n\nBut there are many Tory MPs who are demanding answers. They will be watching closely to see if they get any at Prime Minister's Questions today.", "Frankie Smith was sentenced to eight years in jail for causing or allowing the death of her 16-month old daughter, Star Hobson\n\nThe jail sentence handed to the mother of murdered toddler Star Hobson was \"too low\", the attorney general says.\n\nStar died in 2020 after months of \"neglect, cruelty and injury\".\n\nHer mother Frankie Smith, 20, was sentenced to eight years for causing or allowing her death. Smith's partner, Savannah Brockhill, 28, was jailed for a minimum of 25 years for murder.\n\nSuella Braverman said she had referred Smith's sentence to the Court of Appeal as she thought it was \"unduly lenient\".\n\nMs Braverman MP said: \"This is a tragic and extremely upsetting case and my thoughts are with all those who loved Star Hobson.\n\n\"This vulnerable and innocent child was subjected to continued physical abuse, and her mother, Frankie Smith, allowed it to happen.\"\n\nSuella Braverman said she had referred Smith's sentence to the Court of Appeal as she thought it was \"unduly lenient\"\n\nHowever, she said she would not be referring Brockhill's sentence to the Court of Appeal.\n\nShe said: \"I can only challenge a sentence if it is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.\n\n\"The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case.\"\n\nA date for the Court of Appeal hearing is yet to be announced.\n\nSavannah Brockhill (left) and Frankie Smith had both denied murder and causing or allowing the death of a child\n\nA seven-week trial at Bradford Crown Court heard the toddler endured a campaign of physical and psychological abuse.\n\nShe bled to death on 22 September 2020 after suffering \"catastrophic\" injuries at the hands of Brockhill, her mother's \"violent-tempered\" girlfriend.\n\nPrior to her death the couple had managed to fend off police and social workers despite five referrals from concerned family members and friends.\n\nSmith's friend Hollie Jones, who regularly babysat for Star and made the first referral in January 2020, welcomed the decision, adding: \"I just hope that she gets a longer sentence, that's what Star deserves really.\"\n\nStar's great-grandfather, David Fawcett, said despite family members feeling Smith's sentence was \"too lenient\", his grand-daughter would have to live with the death of her child \"for the rest of her life\".\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.", "The prime minister's admission and apology in the Commons likely bought him a little time.\n\nA pause until the official inquiry into what parties did or didn't take place in Downing Street is published, in perhaps a week or so.\n\nBut for many on his own side, Boris Johnson has already lost the benefit of the doubt.\n\nGrowing numbers of his own MPs want him out, discussing frantically how and when his exit could take place.\n\nOne minister told me, \"it's over\".\n\nAnother long-term backer of the prime minister, and former cabinet minister, said they can't see a way out.\n\nAnd another former cabinet minister predicted a vote of confidence this month.\n\nMPs are also suggesting that Sue Gray's report, or a further vote on Covid restrictions when they expire at the end of this month in England, could provoke a flurry of demands for him to quit.\n\nIn truth, there is no fixed plan among Boris Johnson's opponents.\n\nThere is a long list of MPs who may put themselves forward for the leadership, many more than the commonly-cited two frontrunners, the chancellor and foreign secretary.\n\nThere is no certainty that there will be enough letters to Tory party grandees to trigger a contest this year.\n\nThere is no central coordination between the different Tory tribes.\n\nBut many conversations in the Commons are about the manner and timing of Boris Johnson's departure, not really the question about whether or not he can survive.\n\nAnd the fiasco over Downing Street events during lockdown has become a proxy for a years' long Tory argument: does Boris Johnson really have the character and integrity to lead the country from No 10?\n\nMore and more Conservatives are saying the answer to that must be no.\n\nMr Johnson has survived intense storms before, and his departure is far from inevitable.\n\nSome of his allies suggest the Sue Gray report could end up providing ballast to his public explanations to the country today.\n\nPolitics in this era is deeply unpredictable. But it's no longer impossible to imagine that Boris Johnson will be gone before too long.", "Matt Hancock said he was self-isolating at home following the test result\n\nFormer Health Secretary Matt Hancock has tested positive for Covid-19 after contracting the virus for a second time.\n\nMr Hancock said he had been self-isolating at home since Monday afternoon following the test result.\n\nThe West Suffolk MP first contracted the virus in April 2020 at the height of the first wave of the pandemic.\n\nMr Hancock resigned as health secretary in June for breaking social distancing guidelines by kissing a colleague.\n\nHe said on Twitter: \"Yesterday afternoon I tested positive for coronavirus. I've been isolating at home since then.\n\n\"Thankfully I feel fine. Much better than last time and that's thanks to the vaccine. Get your booster now if you haven't already.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "About 4.3 million people in the UK had a Covid infection in the week up to 7 January - up from 3.7 million the previous week, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates.\n\nThat is 6.7% of the population, but the rise in people testing positive is slowing down in all four UK nations.\n\nIn London, the ONS says the percentage of people testing positive fell from 9 to 8%.\n\nHowever, across the north of England, infections overtook the capital's.\n\nThese are interim figures based on tests on thousands of people in households whether or not they had symptoms. Further data with more detail will be published by the ONS on Friday.\n\nIt estimates that the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus in the first week of January was:\n\nThis comes after the daily data released by the government shows a 19% fall in infections over the past week - just over 129,500 cases have been reported over the past 24 hours.\n\nBut these are only people who get a lateral flow test or a PCR and report the result - and they do not count reinfections, apart from in Wales.\n\nHospital admissions with Covid in the UK - the key measure - appear to have already plateaued at about 2,200 a day.\n\nIf this is the peak for hospital admissions, it is in line with the best-case scenario models produced for the government ahead of Christmas.\n\nThe fact that appears to have happened in the face of rising infection levels is another illustration of just how different the Omicron surge is, and how much vaccines have helped.\n\nExperts, however, have warned that there is a risk the increase in mixing with the return of schools and people going to work following the festive period could cause another rise or create a long, flat peak.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Boris Johnson admit to attending the No 10 party in May 2020\n\nBoris Johnson has apologised for attending a \"bring your own booze\" party in Downing Street during the first Covid lockdown.\n\nAhead of Prime Minister's Questions, he told MPs he had attended the gathering, held in the No 10 garden on 20 May 2020, for 25 minutes.\n\nHe asked for senior official Sue Gray, who is investigating that and other events in government buildings, to be allowed to complete her inquiry.\n\nHere is his full statement to MPs, made on Wednesday 12 January 2021.\n\nMr Speaker, I want to apologise. I know that millions of people across this country have made extraordinary sacrifices over the last 18 months.\n\nI know the anguish that they have been through - unable to mourn their relatives, unable to live their lives as they want, or do the things they love.\n\nAnd I know the rage they feel with me and with the government I lead, when they think that in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules.\n\nAnd though I cannot anticipate the conclusions of the current inquiry, I have learned enough to know there were things we simply did not get right and I must take responsibility.\n\nNo 10 is a big department with the garden as an extension of the office - which has been in constant use because of the role of fresh air in stopping the virus.\n\nAnd when I went into that garden just after six on the 20th of May 2020, to thank groups of staff before going back into my office 25 minutes later to continue working, I believed implicitly that this was a work event.\n\nBut, Mr Speaker, with hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside, I should have found some other way to thank them, and I should have recognised that even if it could be said technically to fall within the guidance, there would be millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way.\n\nPeople who suffered terribly, people who were forbidden from meeting loved ones at all, inside or outside.\n\nAnd to them and to this House [of Commons], I offer my heartfelt apologies.\n\nAnd all I ask is that Sue Gray be allowed to complete her inquiry into that day and several others, so that the full facts can be established. And I will of course come back to this House and make a statement.\n• None No 10 parties: How many wine bottles fit in a suitcase?", "An Indian actor has apologised to badminton star Saina Nehwal after his \"sexist\" tweet to her kicked up a social media storm.\n\nSiddharth, who uses only one name, said he was trying to make a \"rude joke\" in response to a tweet by Nehwal.\n\nBut his \"tone and words\" couldn't be justified, he added in an apology tweeted on Tuesday night.\n\nSiddharth's tweet had drawn outrage for an alleged sexual slur, a charge the actor denies.\n\nThe controversy began when Siddharth responded to a tweet by Nehwal on a security breach faced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.\n\nMr Modi was briefly trapped on a flyover in the north Indian state of Punjab on his way to a rally as a group of protesting farmers blocked the roads.\n\nHe later returned to Delhi without attending the programme.\n\nThe incident, described as a \"serious lapse\" by the home ministry, set off a political firestorm over who was responsible for the breach.\n\nMembers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the government of Punjab, ruled by the opposition Congress party, of deliberately trying to undermine the prime minister's security.\n\nThe controversy spilled over into social media as well, as supporters and critics of the BJP weighed in.\n\nSaina Nehwal is one of India's most celebrated sports stars\n\nNehwal, who joined the BJP in 2020, tweeted that she strongly condemned the \"cowardly attack on PM Modi by anarchists\", without naming anybody in particular.\n\nSiddharth, a critic of Mr Modi, then quote-tweeted her comment with: \"Subtle cock champion of the world... Thank God we have protectors of India.\"\n\nThe 6 January tweet began gaining attention over the weekend and soon drew outrage from all sides of the political spectrum for the alleged sexual wordplay on Nehwal's sport (badminton players use a shuttlecock).\n\nSinger Chinmayi Sripada, who has often spoken about harassment faced by women, told Siddharth the comment was \"crass\".\n\n\"You just contributed to what a lot of us women are fighting against,\" she said.\n\nIndia's National Commission for Women (NCW) even wrote to Twitter, asking them to block Siddharth's account.\n\nIt also wrote to police in Maharashtra state, where the actor is based, asking them to take action against him.\n\nSiddharth then attempted to clarify his tweet, saying he was referring to the idiom \"cock and bull\".\n\n\"Reading otherwise is unfair and leading! Nothing disrespectful was intended, said or insinuated. Period,\" he tweeted on 10 January.\n\nBut not many bought that explanation.\n\nSeveral TV channels invited political leaders to weigh in on the comments - some BJP leaders alleged that the actor had allowed his \"hatred for the PM\" to get the best of him.\n\nOthers continued tweeting about the controversy, using hashtags such as #NarendraModiPunjabvisit, ensuring it remained a Twitter trend.\n\nSome right-wingers even tagged Bollywood actor Swara Bhasker - another critic of Mr Modi - asking her to weigh in on the comments.\n\nNehwal told news agency PTI that the comments were \"not nice\".\n\n\"He can express himself with better words but I guess it's Twitter and you remain noticed with such words and comments,\" she said.\n\nSiddharth deleted both tweets - the one that kicked off the controversy and his explanation - later.\n\nLate on Tuesday night, he tweeted a letter apologising to Nehwal.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Siddharth This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSiddharth has acted in several movies since his debut in a Tamil film almost two decades ago. While he is more popular in the southern film industry, his character in a 2006 Bollywood hit, Rang De Basanti, has made him recognisable to Hindi movie-watchers as well.\n\nNehwal, the first Indian badminton player to have won an Olympic medal, is one of the country's most celebrated sports stars. She is often credited with inspiring many young women to play badminton in a cricket-obsessed country.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"I offer my heartfelt apologies\" - watch Boris Johnson admit to attending the No 10 party in May 2020\n\nBoris Johnson offered a \"heartfelt\" apology for attending drinks in the Downing Street gardens during lockdown in 2020 - something he said he thought was a work event.\n\nBut will that apology and explanation wash with Conservative MPs?\n\nMany of his cabinet colleagues rallied in support of the PM in the hours following the statement.\n\nCulture Secretary Nadine Dorries and Health Secretary Sajid Javid praised him on Twitter for offering an apology, while Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove faced the 1922 committee of backbench MPs to remind them of Mr Johnson's plus points.\n\nBut earlier in the day, some others in the party who chose to speak publicly offered conditional support for their leader in his hour of need.\n\nMinister Rachel Maclean said the PM's statement showed he \"recognised the anger and sense of injustice\" of the public, which were feelings she shared.\n\n\"I also feel the same, as anybody would,\" she told BBC Two's Politics Live programme. \"I was following the rules. I couldn't see my own children. My own mother was in a nursing home [and] I couldn't see her.\"\n\nBut Ms Maclean said the PM shouldn't resign, and that any conclusions - or punishments - needed to be decided by the inquiry into Westminster lockdown parties, led by senior civil servant Sue Gray.\n\nSenior Tory Christopher Chope told the same programme he had \"never heard such an abject apology\" during his long years in Parliament, and he believed it was \"genuinely sincere\".\n\nHe said: \"I think the prime minister showed contrition and had realised he had done the wrong thing in not intervening at the time.\n\n\"So, I think when someone makes an apology like that, then reasonable people accept the apology.\"\n\nSir Christopher also added the \"caveat\" implied by Ms Maclean, saying the party could revisit the issue of the prime minister's future depending on the outcome of Ms Gray's inquiry.\n\nBut, he said, \"in the short-term\", the statement was \"a monumental relief... because we didn't think he'd be able to carry on if he didn't answer the basic question of if he was there\".\n\nThat caveat seemed to be a running theme for those Tories speaking after Mr Johnson's Commons appearance.\n\nStephen Hammond told BBC Radio 4's World at One that he was pleased to hear \"an apology and some transparency\" from the prime minister, saying it was \"important he cleared up some of the speculation about his attendance\".\n\nHe said he would \"take his word\" that the PM thought the gathering was a work event.\n\nBut he said others would find it \"surprising\", adding: \"Many of my constituents quite rightly will be sitting here today feeling they've had a bit of an apology, but still feeling very let down.\n\n\"And like a number of people, I am still very very concerned that people in Downing Street thought it was acceptable to break the rules.\n\n\"But I think the prime minister has at least earned the right for us to wait and see what Sue Gray says.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Politics This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOthers in the Tory ranks were less kind about the PM's performance.\n\nIn fact, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross went as far as calling for his resignation - actually phoning Mr Johnson to tell him his position was untenable.\n\nThe chair of the Public Affairs and Constitutional Affairs Committee, William Wragg, echoed his call, telling BBC Radio 4's PM that Tory MPs were \"frankly worn out of defending what is invariably indefensible\", and that \"for their sakes\" he should resign.\n\nAnd Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi - a long standing critic of Mr Johnson - said any minister, MP or member of staff at any Downing Street party must resign, \"no ifs no buts\".\n\nShe added: \"The rule of law is a fundamental value - the glue that hold us together as a nation. Once that is trashed by those in power the very essence of our democracy is at stake.\"\n\nWhile welcoming the apology, Tory MP Dan Poulter - who also works as a doctor - said it was \"not much consolation to those of us who cared for patients on the frontline of the NHS and saw them die of Covid\".\n\nHe said if the PM was \"found to have actively misled Parliament, or if he faces criminal sanction (or both), then his position would be untenable\".\n\nSir Roger Gale, who has already written a letter to the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers - the method for MPs to call for a leadership challenge - said that, politically speaking, \"the prime minister is a dead man walking\".\n\nHe told World at One that Mr Johnson had \"misled the House\" in December when claiming allegations of Covid rule-breaking parties were unfounded - breaking the ministerial code - and that he had left his MPs in \"an impossible situation\".\n\nAnd there were MPs happy to make their critical views known to the BBC privately, with a senior Tory source saying the PM \"had lost what made him so successful with his party\".\n\nOthers said his performance at PMQs was \"weak\" and \"terrible\", while another said: \"It's growing and growing. He'll have to go.\"\n\nOne Conservative MP told Nick Watt, the political editor at Newsnight, that: \"The PM's statement isn't enough. It won't do the trick.\n\n\"He can usually find a small piece of Teflon to help him slip away from trouble. But I think he has finally run out of Teflon.\"\n\nActions also sometimes speak louder then words too.\n\nDuring the PM's stint at the dispatch box, the Conservative MPs sat behind his were subdued, avoiding the traditional cheers of support.\n\nAnd they stuck firmly to questions about local projects, like bus routes, and even washing machines.\n\nBut remember, between the calls for Mr Johnson to quit and others offering tentative support, the majority of the 360 Tory MPs in Parliament are keeping quiet and could fall into either camp.\n\nThe response to Mr Johnson from the opposition was perhaps unsurprising, with no fewer than eight MPs using PMQs to call for his resignation.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the prime minister \"a pathetic spectacle of a man who has run out of road\", the SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford said he had \"betrayed the nation's trust\", and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called it a \"shameful attempt\" at an apology.\n\nOther MPs joined the vocal outcry, with Green MP Caroline Lucas accusing Mr Johnson of only saying sorry to \"save his skin\", while Labour's Jess Philips said: \"He's not sorry, he's sorry he got caught.\"\n\nBut it is the Conservative Party that will decide Mr Johnson's future, and the conclusions of those MPs which will seal his fate.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mr Durkan, of the SDLP, told the committee that there had been \"clear failings in communication\".\n\nA £2m emergency winter fuel scheme has been capped at 330 payments daily to prevent it from becoming overwhelmed, a Stormont committee has been told.\n\nThe scheme was launched last week but people have been struggling to apply because within as little as 15 minutes after it opens, it shuts again.\n\nMLAs Andy Allen and Mark Durkan said they had been \"inundated\" with calls from people blocked from applying.\n\nMr Allen, from the UUP, said he felt the scheme was not \"fit for purpose\".\n\nHowever David Polley, from the Department for Communities, told the Stormont committee on Tuesday that this was \"an immediate crisis fund for those facing disconnection in the next few days\".\n\nHe said there are about 200,000 to 300,000 households living in fuel poverty in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"It is not our expectation that this scheme will be able to cater for all those households,\" he stressed.\n\nAndrea Maxwell has been trying to register every day since the scheme opened.\n\nOn Monday, she got as far as filling out the form before she was told applications had been disabled - within five minutes of the portal opening.\n\nThe Newtownards mother-of-three is a full-time carer for her son.\n\nHer electricity bill for the past six days has already topped £90 - just £5 less than her weekly income support.\n\nThat is double what it cost before Christmas.\n\n\"When the kids aren't here and they're at school, I sit with no heating on so I have enough oil for when they come home,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\n\"My son is disabled and trying to explain to him you can't play your game because we have no electric, or trying to explain to the wee ones you can't have a bath because we haven't had the heat on all day, [because] you're sitting here thinking you've put £91 into the electric.\n\n\"The kids are well fed this week and I'll have beans on toast.\"\n\nShe said the process was needlessly complicated.\n\n\"The government know exactly who is on benefits and what benefits they're on, so all they need to do is go into their database.\n\n\"They ask you your gross income on benefits - I don't know what it is so I have to get onto the benefits office, they won't tell you over the phone, they have to mail it out.\"\n\nShe added: \"What annoys me the most is if I was in England, Scotland or Wales you get help by the companies that you're with so if you're on benefits they have a scheme and you can apply for it every year.\n\n\"I know friends of mine who've been trying since the scheme opened and now said it's not worth the hassle or the stress of it.\"\n\nMr Polley told the communities committee that a similar scheme launched last year had a weekly cap but was overwhelmed within the first hour of its opening on a Monday.\n\nPeople are struggling to access an emergency fund to tackle fuel costs\n\nThe daily cap means it should be available every day for someone who is at risk of disconnection, he said.\n\n\"In order for payments to be available until the end of March, there is a maximum number of applicants who can apply,\" he said.\n\n\"The cap was quickly reached on the first few days but half of the applications weren't eligible.\"\n\nThe scheme has already helped hundreds of people, he said, but added that this was \"a relatively small part of the support available from the Department for Communities\".\n\nThere have been calls for Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey to make more money available\n\nMr Polley said that following technical issues on their website, the Bryson Charitable Group, which is managing the fund, had increased its capacity.\n\nThe scheme was launched on 6 January and is due to run until 31 March. It offers £100 towards energy costs for anyone who is eligible.\n\nThe DfC has bid for a further £55m to help those struggling with fuel poverty and a final decision is expected in the January monitoring round.\n\nMr Durkan, of the SDLP, told the committee that there had been \"clear failings in communication\".\n\n\"The scheme was announced on 29 December with no eligibility criteria. Anyone could see the flaws with delivery,\" he said.\n\nHe said his office had been \"inundated with people in desperate need\".\n\n\"It's shocking that we haven't learnt lessons on how to support the most vulnerable in society,\" he said.", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "The boss of Ovo Energy has blamed a \"bad day\" for ridiculous advice to customers on how to stay warm amid soaring bills.\n\nStephen Fitzpatrick told the BBC he felt \"really embarrassed\" about the 10-point plan, which included \"doing a few star jumps\" and cuddling pets.\n\nOvo apologised on Tuesday, and Mr Fitzpatrick went on BBC TV and radio on Wednesday to repeat how sorry he was.\n\n\"We're a large company and somebody had a bad day,\" he said.\n\nHe said he was \"really embarrassed\" by the \"ridiculous\" advice emailed to customers of its SSE Energy division on \"simple and cost-effective ways to keep warm this winter\".\n\nIt comes after concerns over the cost of living amid rising energy bills.\n\n\"I'd like to apologise again, I think this is what we're going to be apologising for, for a little while,\" Mr Fitzpatrick told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme.\n\nHe said the email \"should never have been written\", although he added he thought it was \"probably meant with good intentions\".\n\n\"The truth is we should have caught it,\" Mr Fitzpatrick continued.\n\nOn a now-deleted SSE webpage, which offered tips on \"keeping warm in winter without turning up the heating\", SSE suggested wearing extra layers and to keep moving by \"cleaning the house, challenging the kids to a hula-hoop contest, or doing a few star jumps\".\n\nAlongside stopping draughts, SSE said people could find \"extra heat\" by leaving your oven open after you've finished cooking and by having \"a cuddle with your pets and loved ones to help stay cosy\".\n\nHousehold and businesses have seen their energy bills rise in recent months as energy suppliers pass on a sharp rise in wholesale gas prices.\n\nThe Ovo boss won plaudits on social media for the honesty of his apology, with one Twitter user saying it appeared sincere.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nigel Ingledew This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnother user wrote that it was the correct response to \"accept responsibility, take the flak, apologise and commit to doing better\".\n\nNik Govier, founder and chief executive of PR consultancy Blurred, which helps companies with crisis management, said the firm was \"right to be embarrassed\".\n\nShe said Mr Fitzpatrick's \"genuine\" and \"very human apology\" was the \"right way\" to tackle the mistake, considering the enormous toll on customers.\n\n\"Often people hide behind overtly manufactured and carefully crafted quotes rather than speaking themselves to honestly handle the situation\".\n\n\"I think this genuine, open acknowledgement of the terrible lapse in judgement will go a long way with customers\".\n\nNow more than ever, Ms Govier said, corporate leaders need to speak in a human voice rather than from a \"position of disconnect\" to the millions of people suffering the impact of these difficult times.\n\nStephen Fitzpatrick was praised on social media for the \"sincerity\" of his apology.\n\nOn Monday, the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group called on the government to prioritise energy saving through home improvements, saying better insulation could save UK households more than £500 a year on energy bills.\n\n\"Unless the government comprehends how significant this is in the coming weeks, we're going to face a tragic situation where UK households cannot afford to heat their homes,\" Mr Fitzpatrick added.\n\nIncreased oil and gas demand in Asia, a rapid recovery of some economies after lockdown, and a summer with little wind to generate alternative power, have all contributed to rising energy costs.\n\nHowever, Mr Fitzpatrick said he expected wholesale energy prices to begin drifting lower in 2022.", "Cwtches were a common sight in hit BBC show Gavin and Stacey, about the love affair between an Essex boy and Barry Island girl\n\nThe popular Welsh word cwtch has been used for the first time in the UK Parliament.\n\nIt commonly means a hug or cuddle but has no literal English translation.\n\nBrecon and Radnorshire MP Fay Jones said cwtch while questioning Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the House of Commons on 5 January.\n\nIt is the only time the word has been recorded in Hansard, which publicly publishes a record of all parliamentary debates verbatim.\n\nThe Conservative politician was criticising Wales' Covid regulations last Wednesday and said: \"On Friday, I will be holding my team meeting in the local pub because under Welsh government rules we are not allowed to go to our socially distanced office.\n\n\"We cannot do Parkrun and we cannot watch outdoor sport on the touchline - but we can cwtch up together in the clubhouse to watch it.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Fay Jones MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"May I commend the prime minister for his bold decisions, and ask whether he agrees that the inconsistencies in the rules in Wales are not just ludicrous, but are harming the Welsh economy?\"\n\nMr Johnson replied referring to the country's rules, which include mask-wearing indoors and the two-metre rule in public venues, as \"baroque eccentricities\".\n\nMs Jones tweeted: \"Absolutely delighted to learn this morning that my use of the word 'cwtch' in the Commons last week was the first time that word has ever been used in Parliament.\"\n\nIn 2019, another Welsh MP, Rhondda's Chris Bryant, was making an ultimately unsuccessful run for election as Commons Speaker when he said that MPs \"need more of a cwtch\" - although he said it in interviews outside the chamber.", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nAn England rugby international has been arrested on suspicion of raping a teenager.\n\nPolice officers were called shortly before 11am on Sunday 9 January to reports of a sexual assault.\n\nA 41-year-old woman has also been arrested \"on suspicion of administering a substance with intent to cause a sexual offence.\"\n\nBoth suspects have been released on bail as \"as enquiries continue\".\n\nA police spokesperson said: \"Officers were called shortly before 11am on Sunday 9 January 2022 to a report of a sexual assault on a female.\n\n\"A woman in her late teens was reported to have been sexually assaulted. She is currently being supported by specialist officers.\n\n\"A man was arrested on suspicion of rape and a 41-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of administering a substance with intent to cause a sexual offence.\n\n\"Both have since been released on bail as enquiries continue and a number of lines of enquiry are being followed up by detectives.\"", "Saad al-Hilli was shot dead with his wife and mother-in-law\n\nA man arrested in France this week over the unsolved 2012 murder of a British family and a French citizen in the Alps has been freed.\n\nProsecutors said the man had been ruled out as the killer and his detention ended at 17:30 local time (16:30 GMT).\n\nThe arrest had fuelled hopes of a breakthrough in the high-profile case.\n\nSaad al-Hilli, his wife Iqbal, Mrs al-Hilli's mother Suhaila al-Allaf and a cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, were found shot dead on a road near Lake Annecy.\n\nThe al-Hillis' two young daughters survived the attack.\n\nZeena, then aged four, was discovered hiding under her mother's body inside the family car.\n\nZainab, seven at the time, was found with serious head injuries after being shot and beaten.\n\nThe have since been given new identities and in 2020 were interviewed again to try to make progress on the case.\n\nFrench investigators have explored several theories, such as a family feud or Mr al-Hilli's work as a satellite engineer, as reasons for the attack but the case remains a mystery.\n\nInvestigators have said that Mollier had no link to the British family and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.\n\nA number of people have been arrested in connection with the deaths but no charges have ever been brought.\n\nOn Thursday prosecutors said in a statement: \"Investigations continue to identify those who committed these crimes.\"\n\nHowever, they said that the recently arrested man had provided explanations and proof that excluded his possible participation in the killings.", "Andrew Gosden was last seen on CCTV at King's Cross train station in London\n\nNumerous devices were seized from two men arrested in the case of a teenager who went missing 14 years ago.\n\nPolice investigating the disappearance of Andrew Gosden took the electronics as the pair were held on suspicion of kidnap and human trafficking.\n\nOfficers said the devices could take \"six to 12 months\" to analyse.\n\nAndrew, 14, from Doncaster, was last seen on 14 September 2007. His father Kevin said the arrests had intensified the family's \"emotional journey\".\n\nThe men, aged 38 and 45, were arrested in London on 8 December with the assistance of officers from the Metropolitan Police. It is believed they are the first arrests in the case.\n\nThe older man was also arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, South Yorkshire Police said.\n\nAndrew disappeared when he was 14 years old\n\nIn a statement Mr Gosden said: \"We understand that police investigations will take several months to complete, so until that is the case, we do not know what to think and do not wish to speculate on any possible outcome.\"\n\nHe added: \"We have carried the burden of not knowing for many years and recent potential developments represent a more intensified period of this emotional journey for us.\"\n\nOn the day of his disappearance on 14 September, 2007, Andrew skipped school and withdrew just under £200 from his bank account before buying a one-way ticket to London.\n\nHe was last seen on CCTV footage arriving at King's Cross Station and since then police have been unable to corroborate his movements.\n\nAndrew's motive for travelling to London on the day he was last seen has never been established.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Linda Maggs suffered at least 15 stab wounds to her neck, chest and hands\n\nA husband stabbed his wife to death before dialling 999 to say he had \"just killed\" her, a court has heard.\n\nLinda Maggs, 74, suffered at least 15 stab wounds to her neck, chest and hands on Saturday 6 February, 2021.\n\nCardiff Crown Court heard David Maggs, of Sebastopol, Pontypool, took two large kitchen knives to Mrs Maggs' bedroom, stabbing her in bed.\n\nMr Maggs, 71, admits manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, but denies murder.\n\nHe claims he \"blanked out\" and does not recall the event.\n\nWhen police arrived at Mr Maggs' home at about 09:15 GMT last 6 February, he told them he had \"had enough\".\n\nThe court heard he said: \"She tried to steal two houses from me, two houses. I am responsible for the death of her. I've killed my bloody wife.\"\n\nThe couple were going through \"acrimonious\" divorce proceedings.\n\nA decree nisi was due to be granted a month after Mrs Maggs' death on the grounds of Mr Maggs' unreasonable behaviour.\n\nThe court heard Mr Maggs was angered by probes into his finances that were part of divorce proceedings and didn't want her to benefit from a settlement.\n\nShe was found dead at the home she shared with David Maggs last year\n\nMr Maggs is said to have become obsessed by the idea his wife had hidden money from him and would gain dishonestly from their divorce.\n\nThe couple remained living at their home at in Landsdowne, Sebastopol, with Mr Maggs taking the living room and bedroom, which were both fitted with locks.\n\nHis wife took other rooms, including a bedroom. She had a lock for it but it was not fitted.\n\nMr Maggs told officers he had gone into her bedroom on the morning of her death because he wanted to talk about the divorce, but Mrs Maggs told him to get out and refused to talk about it.\n\nThey had not spoken for two months.\n\nWhen officers took him to Ystrad Mynach hospital to be examined he said: \"Thirty years we've been married and she couldn't keep her mouth shut, so I topped her.\"\n\nReminded he was under caution said: \"I can't remember it mind.\"\n\nThe court was told Mr Maggs repeatedly told people he wanted to stab his wife.\n\nThe prosecution said he told a housing association support worker, an estate agent and a friend of the couple he wanted to kill her.\n\nThe support worker was so concerned, the court heard, he contacted police and his GP.\n\nThe police spoke to Mr Maggs in November 2020 but no action was taken.\n\nMike Jones QC, prosecuting, told the jury Mr Maggs was going through his third divorce and did not want his wife to benefit from an asset split.\n\nHis finances were under investigation as part of the divorce proceedings.\n\nWhen Gwent Police looked at paperwork they found discrepancies between what it said and what Mr Maggs had declared.\n\nGwent Police discovered he had not revealed a savings account containing £14,000.\n\nMr Jones told the court Mr Maggs had expressed neither regret nor remorse.\n\n\"He knew exactly what he was doing when he took those knives from the kitchen and stabbed her to death,\" he said.\n\n\"He threatened to do it more than once in the months and days before.\n\n\"He made good that threat on February 6th and murdered his wife.\"", "Would the Six Nations rugby have gone south?\n\nThis is clearly the news that major sporting bodies and fans were hoping for. There were genuine fears, from within football at least, that the first minister would push the date back once again. It now appears that the increase in Covid passport checks outside stadia has allowed her to throw the doors back open, but with a sense of continued caution. The Scottish government say the decision is based purely on the science but there’s no doubt that the move is timely, from a political perspective. With the Six Nations fast approaching, could the first minister really have watched on if Scotland’s home games had been moved south for the sake of attendance? It was certainly being discussed. As talk now turns to how we learn to live with Covid, this latest sporting sigh of relief will be accompanied by the hope that fans are be back for good.", "John William Jones was pronounced dead at the scene\n\nA 68-year-old man has died after being bitten by dogs.\n\nJohn William Jones was pronounced dead at a house in Pleasant Hill in Lampeter, Ceredigion.\n\nDyfed-Powys Police said officers were called just after 17:00 GMT on 10 January to reports that a man had been bitten by dogs within the house.\n\nA woman was arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control and has been released under investigation.\n\nDyfed-Powys Police said the three dogs involved did not fall under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and have been removed from the property.\n\nAn inquest into Mr Jones's death has been opened and adjourned.", "The government previously planned to make all future smart motorways \"all-lane\" running\n\nNew \"all-lane running\" smart motorways have been paused while their safety is assessed, the government has said.\n\nUsing the hard shoulder as a permanent live traffic lane increases capacity, but critics say it has contributed to road deaths.\n\nFive years of safety and economic data for the schemes will now be collected from the motorways built before 2020.\n\nHowever, hard shoulders will not be reinstated on current stretches of all-lane running motorways.\n\nThe government's move comes after MPs said in November there was not enough safety and economic data to justify continuing this type of scheme.\n\nIf a car breaks down on all-lane running smart motorways, drivers are meant to aim for emergency refuge areas.\n\nBut critics say the schemes can leave cars stranded in fast-moving traffic.\n\nHighways England said there are roughly 400 miles of smart motorway already in action.\n\nAbout 200 miles of these lack a permanent hard shoulder, and 63 miles use it as a live running lane some of the time.\n\nWednesday's decision means that another 100 miles of all-lane running currently in construction can still be completed, while 57 miles are paused for now.\n\nThe pause applies to smart motorways in England. Responsibility for motorways in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales is devolved.\n\nA smart motorway is a stretch of road where technology is used to regulate traffic flow and - hopefully - ease congestion. There are three main types:\n\nAll three models use overhead gantries to direct drivers. Variable speed limits are introduced to control traffic flow when there is congestion, or if there is a hazard ahead. These limits are controlled by speed cameras.\n\nAccording to government figures, 38 people were killed on smart motorways between 2014 and 2019.\n\nThe roll-out pause means work on the M3 between junctions 9 and 14, the M40/M42 interchange, on the M62 between junctions 20 and 25, and on the M25 between junctions 10 and 16 will be suspended.\n\nSchemes that are already under construction will be completed, the government said, and on existing all-lane running motorways, £390m of public funds will be provided for more refuge areas and technology to detect stopped vehicles.\n\nRefuge areas should be no more than 1.5km apart, and should be 1km apart where possible, it said. At the moment there can be up to 2.5km between them.\n\nClaire Mercer, from Rotherham, has campaigned against the use of smart motorways since her husband's death\n\nThe Department for Transport (DfT) said where hard shoulders have been removed, they won't be reinstated, as they \"do not always provide a safe place to stop\" and could also push more traffic onto local roads.\n\nBut campaigner Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason was killed on a stretch of smart motorway near Sheffield in 2019, said: \"The only acceptable thing would be for all hard shoulders to be returned permanently, 24/7, on all motorways.\"\n\nIf that doesn't happen, she said: \"We'll carry on fighting, and pushing the legal challenge.\"\n\nJason was killed when he and another driver stopped in a live lane of an all-lane running motorway after a minor collision and were hit by a lorry.\n\nTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said: \"While our initial data shows that smart motorways are among the safest roads in the UK, it's crucial that we go further to ensure people feel safer using them.\"\n\nAs part of its review, the government said it will look at how controlled motorways, which have a hard shoulder, compare with all-lane running ones.\n\nLouise Haigh, Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary, called for hard shoulders to be reinstated, adding that smart motorways are \"putting lives at risk\".\n\nMichael Patterson broke down on the M5 in August 2020\n\nMichael Patterson broke down on an all-lane running stretch of the M5 in August 2020 and \"couldn't find\" a refuge bay so \"just came to halt, mercifully on the inside lane\".\n\nHe said there was \"no immediate closure of the lane\" he had stopped in, which led to \"three very scary near-misses\".\n\n\"I had abuse hurled at me, horns sounding at me,\" he added.\n\n\"Nothing happened for five or 10 minutes in terms of the lane being controlled so I dialled 999, and the emergency services sorted it out, but the highways people didn't turn up for about 20 minutes.\n\n\"I got myself over the crash barrier, but if I'd had my youngest son with me, who is physically disabled, learning disabled, and autistic, I never would have got him out of the car.\"\n\nThe government said in March 2020 that all new smart motorways would be all-lane running, but in November that year MPs on the Commons transport select committee said more safety data was needed.\n\nCommittee chairman Huw Merriman said the committee first raised safety concerns in 2016.\n\nSir Mike Penning, who supported smart motorways when serving as roads minister between 2010 and 2012, said on Wednesday the government had not gone far enough, and should bring back hard shoulders while it was reviewing the data.\n\nMotoring organisation the AA said drivers become \"sitting ducks\" if there are not enough refuges and not accurate enough technology to warn of dangers.\n\nMeanwhile, the RAC said many drivers \"have deeply held concerns over the safety of motorways where the hard shoulder is permanently removed\" and added it was pleased the pause button had been hit.\n\nDuncan Smith, executive director of operations at National Highways, told the BBC he was \"convinced\" smart motorways were safe and that there was \"more we can do convince people that they are safe\".\n\nThe government agency, which monitors major roads, is putting up more signs for emergency bays and rolling out a radar-based system which should alert its control room about a stranded vehicle within 20 seconds.\n\nThe point of smart motorways is to increase capacity and cut congestion, without the cost and disruption of building new roads or widening existing ones.\n\nThis a significant moment in their journey. The rollout of \"all-lane running\" won't go into reverse, but the brakes have been applied.\n\nFurther safety and economic data will be gathered, and the effectiveness of planned improvements assessed, before any new projects get under way.\n\nSome campaigners will never accept anything less than hard shoulders being reinstated where they've already made way for an extra lane of traffic.\n\nThe government's view remains that this would not be the right thing to do, and the focus should be on upgrading safety instead.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Brooke McMaw will turn six in June and will then hopefully become eligible for Kaftrio\n\nA \"life changing\" drug for people with cystic fibrosis has been approved for use for eligible children in Northern Ireland according to the charity Cystic Fibrosis Trust.\n\nThis has yet to be confirmed by the Department of Health.\n\nThe charity said Kaftrio will soon be available for six to 11 year olds.\n\nLynsey McMaw, from Carrickfergus in County Antrim, said the will hopefully give her daughter \"the chance to live a more normal life\".\n\n\"It's fantastic news, we've been waiting to hear this obviously since it was approved last year for older patients,\" Lynsey McMaw told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.\n\n\"This is fantastic knowing that hopefully Brooke will have less hospital admissions going forward.\"\n\nCystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited disease that causes thickened mucus to build up in the lungs as well as pneumonia and bronchitis.\n\nKaftrio, a three-drug combination, has been shown to be effective at helping ease symptoms of CF and improving quality of life.\n\nExperts have said nine in 10 people with the genetic condition could benefit from it.\n\nBrooke's mum Lynsey said the reported approval of Kaftrio was \"fantastic\"\n\nBrooke McMaw will turn six in June so should be eligible for the drug from then.\n\nHer mother said that while there is no cure for cystic fibrosis, the drug was \"the next best thing\".\n\n\"The younger she is, the less damage there is to her lungs, so the sooner we get something like this the more preventative it is,\" she said.\n\n\"As she gets older, her therapies and things won't be as intense for her.\"\n\nMs McMaw said Brooke loves swimming, but at the minute is limited by her condition.\n\n\"Where other kids can swim lengths of the pool under the water without coming up for air, Brooke struggles,\" she said.\n\n\"This should allow the capacity in her lungs and the genes and stuff to work more efficiently, so something like swimming may become easier as she gets older.\n\n\"So she might get the chance to do things better, at a better level, at a higher level.\"\n\nBrooke had to spend two weeks in hospital before Christmas\n\nBrooke developed a bad flu and had to be admitted to hospital in Belfast before Christmas.\n\nShe was there for about two weeks and was on oxygen for several days.\n\n\"She wasn't allowed to move without the oxygen - very concerning,\" Lynsey said.\n\n\"The likes of these drugs will hopefully eliminate that and mean that she lives a life without visits to hospital for 10 days, 12 days for IVs, steroids and things like that.\n\n\"It just prolongs her whole life.\"", "Sofia Bekatorou's decision to speak out led to a taboo being shattered in Greek sport\n\nA Greek sailing coach has gone on trial in Athens accused of raping an 11-year-old girl, in a case that came to light when a gold medal-winning athlete spoke out about sexual abuse in sport.\n\nCoach Triantafyllos Apostolou appeared in court on Wednesday, almost 12 years after the alleged rape took place.\n\nThe victim and her family were also in court, along with former Olympic sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou.\n\nBekatorou's decision to highlight sexual abuse led to a MeToo campaign.\n\nUsing the hashtag #metisofia - on Sofia's side - athletes went public with their experiences in December 2020, shattering a taboo over sexual violence.\n\nIt was Bekatorou's stand that prompted the young woman to take legal action against her former coach. She was pictured walking to the court building hand in hand with members of her family.\n\nTriantafyllos Apostolou, 39, revealed his identity in an interview with Greek media in January 2021 shortly before being arrested. He told Protothema website that the girl had been older than 11 and that he had been keen to marry her until the case emerged. He has been held in pre-trial detention ever since.\n\nThe young woman, now aged 21, told Greek TV on the eve of the trial that she had been raped and sexually and verbally abused from the age of nine.\n\n\"It took me 10 years to understand that a child cannot be to blame,\" she told ANT1 TV.\n\nShe hoped her decision to come forward would provide others with the same courage that she herself had gained from Sofia Bekatorou's initial move. \"We have to break the silence, punish the abusers and bring to an end any stigma for victims of sexual abuse.\"\n\nBekatorou spoke out during an online video conference, detailing how she had been subjected to \"sexual harassment and abuse\" in the hotel room of an unnamed Hellenic Sailing Federation (HSF) executive in 1998.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ex-Olympic champion Sofia Bekatorou tells a video conference how she was abused\n\n\"I tried to push him away to show him there was no consent,\" she said, \"but whatever I said he didn't stop.\"\n\nBekatorou explained how she had stayed silent in order to keep on sailing and that she had since had years of therapy.\n\nA celebrated sportswoman in Greece, she won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics and became the first female flag-bearer to lead the Greek Olympic team at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.", "The PM is set to face questions he has so far declined to answer\n\nConservative and opposition MPs are demanding answers from Boris Johnson over whether he attended a drinks event in the No 10 garden during lockdown.\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said that if he was there, and he lied about it, his position is \"untenable\".\n\nAnd Tory MPs have been expressing their anger and concern over the reports.\n\nMr Johnson will take Prime Minister's Questions at noon - his first public appearance since details of the May 2020 event emerged.\n\nThe prime minister has so far declined to say whether he attended the gathering, but witnesses have told the BBC both he and his wife were among 30 people at the drinks.\n\nThe PM's performance in the Commons will be closely watched by Conservative MPs, some of whom are understood to have privately called for a leadership challenge to Mr Johnson.\n\nA contest will take place if 54 Conservative MPs send letters to the backbench 1922 committee.\n\nSenior Tory backbencher Tobias Ellwood said the prime minister needed to apologise for his actions, \"show some contrition\" and get a grip of the situation or he will be \"out of office\".\n\nConservative MP David Simmonds told BBC London: \"We're all pretty frustrated with the situation. The PM is going to have to start answering some questions about it today.\"\n\nHe said holding a party in lockdown was \"clearly indefensible\" and it should not be impossible for Mr Johnson to say whether he was there or not.\n\nBackbencher Nigel Mills told BBC Newsnight: \"If the prime minister knowingly attended a party, I can't see how he can survive.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said Mr Johnson must quit if he was found to have broken Covid rules.\n\nOn Monday, ITV published a leaked email from Mr Johnson's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting staff to \"socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden\" on 20 May 2020 - when lockdown rules in England banned large outdoor gatherings.\n\nThe invitation encouraged people to \"bring your own booze\" and \"make the most of the lovely weather\".\n\nMr Johnson has said it is a matter for Sue Gray - the senior civil servant investigating a series of reported parties in Downing Street and in Whitehall in 2020 - to determine what happened.\n\nThe PM's official spokesman has also refused to confirm whether Mr Johnson attended the May 2020 Downing Street gathering. He added that the prime minister retained full confidence in Mr Reynolds.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"Boris Johnson must now resign,\" says Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey\n\nConservative MP Huw Merriman insisted \"more clarity\" was needed from the prime minister on what took place and whether he attended, adding that people were \"in the dark\" about what went on.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he didn't believe Mr Johnson should resign, hailing government achievements including the successful vaccination rollout and the prime minister \"holding his nerve\" on refusing to introduce further Covid rules in England.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC speaks to families of people who died the same month of the No 10 party\n\nAnother Conservative, Christian Wakeford, tweeted: \"How do you defend the indefensible? You can't! It's embarrassing and what's worse is it further erodes trust in politics when it's already low.\"\n\nAnd in an email to her constituent, Caroline Nokes said: \"I have no words that can adequately express how angry I am at the 'don't do as I do, do as I say' attitude that appears to have prevailed in Downing Street.\"\n\nQuestions are being raised about the role of the civil service too, with former senior civil servant Sir David Normington telling Radio 4's Today programme calling a party in the middle of lockdown was \"inexplicable\".\n\n\"It's a terrible misjudgement, brings disrepute on the civil service. This isn't just about the responsibilities of PMs and politicians, it's also about the behaviour and responsibilities of senior civil servants. That's a very serious matter.\"\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner told BBC Breakfast if Mr Johnson had broken Covid rules and lied to the public and parliament, then his position as prime minister was now \"untenable\".\n\n\"The prime minister cannot break the law, lie to the British public and not be held to account for that,\" she added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A DUP MP cries while questioning the government over claims it broke lockdown rules\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told BBC Breakfast if the prime minister had a \"shred of decency left\", he should resign today.\n\nHe added Mr Johnson was \"incapable of leading our country through this public health crisis\", accusing him of being a \"threat to the health of the nation\" as the public would not listen to anything he had to say.\n\nIf the prime minister won't resign, it was the duty of Conservative MPs to \"do the right thing\" and ensure he does \"in the interests of the country\", Sir Ed argued.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer will return to Prime Minister's Questions later, having missed last week's session after contracting Covid.\n\nThe BBC has been told that Mr Johnson will not make a separate statement on parties in the House of Commons but a senior government source didn't rule out him making some remarks at the start of Prime Minister's Questions.\n\nThe goodwill-to-all-men moment the Christmas holidays promised is very much over.\n\nThe subject of conversation among Tories on Tuesday was not the government's planned menu of policy fare for the week, but whether or not the moment had arrived when Boris Johnson, election-winner, had become Boris Johnson, discredited liability.\n\nWhether or not, in the words of that senior MP, the party should \"get rid of him\".\n\nThe party has not reached that conclusion. The government has an enormous majority. Administrations go through rocky times.\n\nBut the latest, and continuing, stream of revelations, has made the question of the prime minister's survival the central one again.\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Johnson sent Paymaster General Michael Ellis to respond on his behalf to an emergency Commons question on the issue tabled by Labour.\n\nThe Conservative benches were sparsely populated, while no senior ministers appeared publicly to defend Mr Johnson.\n\nDuring the session, DUP MP Jim Shannon was brought to tears when speaking of the death of his mother-in-law during the pandemic.\n\nIn December, the prime minister asked for an independent inquiry to investigate a series of allegations about events taking place in government buildings in 2020 despite coronavirus restrictions being in force.\n\nMs Gray's probe is investigating specific events including a leaving drinks for a No 10 aide on 27 November, a Department of Education gathering on 10 December and a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff on 15 December.\n\nIt is also examining the Downing Street Christmas party on 18 December, and on Tuesday, Mr Ellis said drinks events held in the Downing Street garden on 20 and 15 May 2020 would also be added to the inquiry.\n\nAre you affected by issues covered in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Earlsdon Primary School has been closed since Monday because of the stand-off\n\nA school remains closed, a library is given over to police use and businesses are shut as an armed stand-off continues into a fourth day.\n\nA 41-year-old man barricaded himself in a flat in Coventry with his eight-year-old son on Sunday.\n\nIt is believed there are weapons in the property on Earlsdon Avenue North amid what police describe as a really sensitive policing operation.\n\nSafety is the main concern, West Midlands Police said.\n\nResidents said they had been getting calls from friends and family concerned for their welfare.\n\nStuart Taylor, who has a butcher's business on nearby Newcombe Road, said he had been forced to close his doors and was trying to get deliveries to his regular customers, with the assistance of the police.\n\nHe said, it is not the end of the world but he is worried about the impact on the community if the stand-off continues.\n\n\"It can't carry on like this,\" he said.\n\n\"Some people can't even get to their own houses and have been told to contact homeless shelter if they can't find somewhere to stay.\"\n\nHe also said he was concerned about the cost of the ongoing police operation.\n\nOne couple, who have lived in the area for more than 30 years, said normally things were quiet.\n\nA woman, who did not give her name, said: \"In the daytime it's like a village really, everybody knows each other.\n\n\"I'm in a book group in the library and we were due to meet tomorrow evening, but clearly the library is being used as a sort of rest station for the police.\"\n\nArmed officers have been outside the property since Sunday\n\nSupt Ronan Tyrer said the safety of all involved was of \"prime importance\"\n\nWest Midlands Police said armed response officers remained outside the property and specialist negotiators were continuing to speak to the man in an effort to bring the situation to a safe conclusion.\n\nSupt Ronan Tyrer said on Wednesday: \"I appreciate for residents, but for also the wider community, including those parents of children at Earlsdon Primary School, that it is incredibly frustrating.\n\n\"What I will say is that this is a really sensitive policing operation.\"\n\nAnd he added: \"We have to have the cordons in place and we are working incredibly hard to bring to a conclusion swiftly, but of prime importance safely, this incident.\"\n\nHe also said that while it was a \"significant policing response\" the operation had not affected \"overall resourcing levels.\"\n\nAre you in the area? Is there any information you'd like to share? Contact us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Aya Youssef said she had returned to work as a teacher on Tuesday\n\nIn Egypt, a viral video of a teacher belly-dancing has sparked a national debate about women's rights and the country's socially conservative values.\n\nAya Yousef was sacked, and divorced by her husband, after she was filmed by a colleague at a work social event on a Nile boat without her permission.\n\nFootage shows her moving to the music alongside male teaching staff.\n\nBelly-dancing is said to date back to Pharaonic times but it is often frowned upon now for women to dance in public.\n\nThe video of Ms Yousef, who is wearing a headscarf and a long-sleeved dress for the daytime river trip, looks very tame by Western standards.\n\nHowever, as it was widely shared on Arab social media in the past week, it prompted an outcry among Egyptian conservatives.\n\nHer critics claimed she had acted shamefully: \"It clearly expresses the poor times we live in!! Anything is permitted,\" wrote one Twitter user.\n\n\"Education has reached a low level in Egypt,\" another commented, calling for intervention by the relevant authorities.\n\nMs Yousef was then sacked by the primary school in Dakahlia Governorate in the Nile Delta, where she had worked for several years teaching Arabic.\n\nShe has vowed she will never dance again and said that she had contemplated suicide during her recent ordeal.\n\n\"Ten minutes on the boat in the Nile cost me my life,\" she told journalists.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Five Egyptian women shared their stories of sexual harassment and abuse with BBC Arabic (October 2018)\n\nWomen's rights advocates in Egypt also spoke out strongly, insisting the teacher did nothing wrong and saying that she was the victim of a witch hunt.\n\nIn her support and in defence of personal freedoms, the deputy head of another school posted photographs on social media of herself dancing at her daughter's wedding.\n\nThe head of the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, Dr Nihad Abu Qumsan, offered Ms Yousef a job in her office and asked her to bring her contract from the education ministry in order to file a legal complaint against her dismissal.\n\nThis may have helped prompt a rethink. Local authorities have now appointed Ms Yousef to a position at a new school.\n\nThe teacher complained the affair was \"a transgression of [her] privacy\".\n\nShe pointed out that she did not dance at a public institution or in front of students and said she planned to sue the person who filmed the video last month.", "A US man, who has become the first person in the world to receive a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig, is \"doing extremely well\" after the procedure, according to his son.\n\nDavid Bennett, 57, underwent the experimental seven-hour procedure as a \"last choice\", after being deemed ineligible for a human transplant.\n\nSpeaking outside the University of Maryland, Mr Bennett's son, David Bennett Jr., gave the BBC an update on his father's condition.", "Watch Boris Johnson as he offers his \"heartfelt apologies\" over attending drinks in Downing Street's garden on 20 May 2020 - during lockdown.\n\nHe admitted to MPs that he was there for 25 minutes, saying he believed it was a \"work event\".\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer later called for the PM to resign, saying he had \"run out of road\".\n\nClick here to follow the latest updates.", "Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who played in the prisoners' orchestra at Auschwitz, is among those being painted\n\nThe Prince of Wales has commissioned seven artists to paint portraits of seven Holocaust survivors, in a tribute to their passing generation.\n\n\"As the number of Holocaust survivors sadly but inevitably declines, my abiding hope is that this special collection will act as a further guiding light,\" Prince Charles said.\n\nThe paintings will be put on public display in Buckingham Palace.\n\nAnd the art project will feature in a BBC Two documentary later this month.\n\nAs well as providing a reminder of \"history's darkest days\", Prince Charles said the portraits would show \"humanity's interconnectedness, as we strive to create a better world for our children, grandchildren and generations as yet unborn - one where hope is victorious over despair and love triumphs over hate\".\n\nThe documentary will feature the survivors' accounts of what the Nazis did to them and their Jewish families.\n\nMany are now over 90, having been in concentration camps as children and then spent much of their adult lives in Britain.\n\nPaul Benney has painted Helen Aronson, 94, who survived the incarceration of Jewish people in the Lodz ghetto, in Nazi-occupied Poland.\n\nPrince Charles wants the paintings to show \"hope is victorious over despair\"\n\nPeter Kuhfeld has painted Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, 96, a musician from a German Jewish family who played in an orchestra of inmates in the Auschwitz concentration camp, also in Nazi-occupied Poland, and was later held at Bergen-Belsen, in Germany.\n\nThe other paintings are by Ishbel Myerscough, Clara Drummond, Massimiliano Pironti, Stuart Pearson Wright and Jenny Saville.\n\nHolocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock said: \"Holocaust survivors endured the very worst.\n\n\"To survive the concentration and death camps and 77 years later see their portraits displayed in Buckingham Palace is very special indeed and a poignant and fitting testament to their lasting contribution to this country.\"\n\nPrince Charles has made a personal cause of promoting tolerance and building bridges between religions and has often warned against the dangers of extremism and persecution.\n\nAnd in a speech marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he said the lessons of the Holocaust were still \"searingly relevant\".\n\nSurvivors: Portraits of the Holocaust is on BBC Two at 21:00 on 27 January, marking Holocaust Memorial Day. The paintings will be at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, between 27 January and 13 February, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, in Edinburgh, from 17 March to 6 June.", "Northern Ireland has one of the youngest primary school starting ages in Europe\n\nThere has been overwhelming support for a move to allow some children to delay starting school for a year.\n\nThat is according to the results of a consultation on the plans by the Department of Education.\n\nThe change would allow children born between 1 April and 1 July to defer starting pre-school and school for a year if their parents wished.\n\nNorthern Ireland has one of the youngest primary school starting ages in Europe.\n\nMost children in Northern Ireland start school in September of the school year after their fourth birthday.\n\nHowever, children whose birthdays fall between 2 July and 31 August usually start in the September after their fifth birthday.\n\nIt means children can start primary school from ages ranging from four years and two months to more than five years old.\n\nThe department wants to change that to allow more flexibility in the school starting age for children born between 1 April and 1 July.\n\nThe current law would be amended so that deferred children do not reach compulsory school-starting age until 1 September after their fifth birthday.\n\nThe consultation on the proposed change attracted over 750 responses, two-thirds of which were from parents.\n\nIt also received responses from 78 principals and 89 teachers.\n\nMost children in Northern Ireland start school in September of the school year after their fourth birthday\n\nOverall, nine in every 10 respondents were in favour of giving parents the option to delay their child starting pre-school or school if they were born between 1 April and 1 July.\n\nA majority of those who responded also said that any child born prematurely, as well as looked after children - also known as children in care - should have the option to defer starting school.\n\nSome teaching unions and the Tiny Life charity for premature babies have previously backed the department's plans.\n\nHowever, a small minority of those who responded to the consultation objected to the proposals.\n\nAmong the reasons they gave were that \"there is little research to suggest that deferring school starting age has a significant positive impact on a child's education and development\" and that \"early diagnosis of any special educational needs for a child is beneficial\".\n\nIn many other European countries, children do not start formal primary education until they are aged six or even seven.\n\nAccording to research by the European Commission, children do not start primary until they are six in almost 30 countries - including Germany, Belgium, Spain and France.\n\nIn some, like Finland, children do not formally start primary school until they are seven - but most children go to some form of pre-school in those countries before those ages.\n\nThe Department of Education will now bring forward a bill to change the law on school starting age in Northern Ireland.\n\nBut it faces a race against time to be passed before the next Stormont election, which is due in May.", "The baby was found abandoned in an egg box on a remote road near the village of Sosnovka\n\nA baby abandoned in temperatures as low as -20C (4F) in Siberia is doing well, according to Russian officials.\n\nThe newborn was found by five teenagers in an egg box on a remote road near the village of Sosnovka outside Novosibirsk on Friday, local reports say.\n\nThe baby girl was rushed to hospital by one of the teenagers' parents where she was declared fit and well.\n\nPolice looking for the mother have opened a criminal investigation into the attempted murder of a minor.\n\nThe parents of one of the teenagers who found the baby wish to adopt her but must wait to see whether her relatives can be found.\n\nTalking to Russian newspaper NGS, the father of one of the teenagers, Dmitry Litvinov, said the five friends had gone out for a walk on Orthodox Christmas Day.\n\n\"It was already dark, they were shining their phones, looking at what was in the box,\" said Mr Litvinov.\n\nInside was a baby girl left with a rag-like blanket and a bottle, he added.\n\nHe and his wife Anna were called to the scene by their son, Renat. They took the baby by car to a city hospital.\n\nThe fear was that the baby girl, who is believed to have been about three days old when she was found, might have suffered frostbite and would not survive.\n\nUpon arriving at the hospital, a doctor quickly examined the baby and warmed her by gently rubbing her arms and legs, a statement by the regional health ministry said.\n\nThe girl turned pink and was found to be healthy, and was later transferred to a children's hospital where she is now being cared for.\n\nDmitry Litvinov (left) and his wife Anna (right) wish to adopt the child if relatives cannot be found\n\nTalking to NGS, Mrs Litvinova said that she and many of the hospital staff had cried when they heard that the child was in good health.\n\nThe couple, who already have three sons, now wish to adopt the child. But they must first wait to find out whether the child's relatives can be found.\n\nNGS reports that if relatives are not found, the new parents must gather documents and take special courses before being allowed to adopt.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Siberia climate change: Behind the scenes reporting from Yakutia", "BBC director general Tim Davie has said personal error was to blame for the broadcaster interviewing Jeffrey Epstein's former lawyer last month.\n\nAlan Dershowitz was interviewed shortly after Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of trafficking young girls to late US financier Epstein.\n\nMr Dershowitz himself has been accused of sexual abuse by one of Epstein's accusers - but denies that allegation.\n\nThe BBC later decided the interview had breached its own editorial standards.\n\nAfter the broadcast, the corporation admitted that the US lawyer had not been \"a suitable person to interview as an impartial analyst\" at that time.\n\nMr Davie was appearing before the House of Lords communications and digital committee to answer parliamentarians' questions about impartiality and the Serota review on editorial processes, governance and culture.\n\nWith BBC News in the midst of a programme of job cuts and restructuring, he was asked whether \"centralisation\" had risked \"amplifying\" editorial errors.\n\nReferring to the interview with Mr Dershowitz, which happened in the week after Christmas, Mr Davie said: \"We looked at what happened but there was no investigation.\n\n\"We admitted immediately it was in breach of our editorial guidelines and straight away said it was a mistake.\n\n\"Then you get to why it was a mistake. You can argue a little bit in terms of the amount of seniority and cover we had during Christmas, during Covid.\"\n\nBut he said: \"This was simply about the amount of due diligence that was done by the planner and the knowledge level of the person who was putting the person on air.\"\n\nMr Davie told peers \"not everything gets centralised\" under the BBC's plans to make savings.\n\nThe interview with Mr Dershowitz, 83, was broadcast on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel, shortly after the Maxwell verdict was announced.\n\nMr Dershowitz used the airtime to denigrate Virginia Giuffre's claims against himself and Prince Andrew. Both men deny her allegations of sexual abuse.\n\nHe was introduced on the news segment as a \"constitutional lawyer\" to provide analysis on the verdict - and his connection with Epstein and Ms Giuffre was not made clear in the interview.\n\nThe interview was also featured on the BBC News live page about the trial, and a short clip was played twice on Newsday on World Service English, but those instances gave some context about who Mr Dershowitz was.", "Why have police not fined Downing Street staff yet?\n\nThe police approach to the Coronavirus Health Protection Regulations from the start was to encourage people to comply over enforcement and fines. The Metropolitan Police have been reluctant to do retrospective investigations into events many months ago. It could also be seen as disproportionate for officers to start seizing emails and mobile phone messages from Downing Street staff while the Civil Service is already conducting its own investigation. So if there is any greater police involvement it is likely to wait until Sue Gray’s investigation is complete. Whether any regulations were actually breached that day is far from clear, as the regulations in force at the time applied to gatherings “in a public place” while the garden of No 10 Downing Street was many of the alleged participants’ workplace. There is also the question of whether police officers working in Downing Street at the time noticed that people were arriving at No 10 that evening with bottles bought at the local Tesco Express. If officers were aware of the drinks do, did they inform anyone or do anything about it at the time to ensure Health Protection Regulations were not being broken? The Metropolitan Police has not yet answered that question.", "Nightclub owners have criticised the slow rollout of financial support for their businesses, which have been closed again under Covid restrictions.\n\nClubs have been closed since 27 December with Nicola Sturgeon announcing the shutdown will remain in place until at least 24 January.\n\nBut trade groups said Scottish government funding promised before Christmas has not yet materialised.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said the grants will be paid \"very soon\".\n\nRestrictions on large outdoor events in Scotland, including football matches and concerts, are to be lifted from next Monday.\n\nBut limits on indoor events and venues will remain in place for at least another week as part of a phased approach to lifting measures brought in to help deal with a surge in Covid cases caused by the Omicron variant.\n\nGavin Stevenson, vice-chairman of the Night Time Industries Association Scotland (NTIAS) and director of the Mor-Rioghain Group of hospitality venues, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"As of today not a single penny of the funds promised before Christmas have reached businesses.\n\n\"It is putting businesses in an incredibly difficult situation, wondering how on earth they are going to pay their staff this week when they've got no money in the bank because they have been forced to close or trade is unviable by the current round of restrictions.\"\n\nMr Stevenson claimed the forms for the Scottish government's nightclub closure fund had not been issued yet, adding this is putting business owners and their staff \"in an untenable position\".\n\nConfetti raining down on people queueing outside the Buff Club in Glasgow which is among the venues affected by lengthy periods of closure over the last two years required by Covid rules\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney told Good Morning Scotland that the funding issue \"has got the attention of ministers\".\n\nHe added: \"We're moving as quickly as we possibly can do to make the financial support available to the sectors which have been affected by the restrictions.\n\n\"We work closely with local authorities to make sure such funding arrangements can be put in place.\n\n\"The timescale should be very soon, it's difficult to give a precise timescale but I would think within the next two weeks would be a reasonable expectation.\"\n\nMr Swinney said the delay was partly down to setting up the payment process and the public holidays over the Christmas period.\n\nThe government's nightclub closure fund allows venues to apply for a grant up to £55,000.\n\nOther hospitality businesses have also spoken of the impact restrictions have had on trade.\n\nRestrictions were introduced for pubs, restaurants and other indoor public places on 27 December.\n\nIndoor hospitality and leisure venues have to ensure there is a one-metre distance between different groups of people, and table service is required where alcohol is served.\n\nScott Mitchell, managing director of Surgeons Quarter, which runs a hotel and events business in Edinburgh, said it had lost £225,000 in sales due to cancellations of Christmas and Hogmanay events.\n\nHe said: \"While we welcome the apparent mindset shift towards gearing up for living with the pandemic, the government simply isn't doing enough to save hospitality.\n\n\"The first minister is leaving the sector with support measures that are not fit for purpose and arbitrary restrictions that will result in countless lost jobs and livelihoods.\n\n\"The support we are receiving equates to roughly 3% of the sales we have lost, which are in excess of £225,000.\"\n\nDr Liz Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, added: \"Businesses urgently need the financial support promised to them to be delivered as quickly as possible and additional financial support is made available should restrictions remain in place any longer.\"\n\nScottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said many hospitality businesses were struggling and needed urgent support.\n\nHe continued: \"It's unacceptable that struggling businesses already on their knees as a result of Scottish government restrictions are still waiting to receive a penny in financial support - and are now being told it may be a further fortnight before they do so.\n\n\"Many of these businesses are in danger of going under, so every day counts.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the Scottish government is also facing calls to end the outdoor restrictions earlier than Monday.\n\nPartick Thistle has said it faces \"significant financial impact\" as a result of crowd limits still being in place on Saturday.\n\nIndoor sports clubs have also questioned why they are still facing restrictions.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRestrictions on large outdoor events in Scotland, including football matches and concerts, are to be lifted from next Monday.\n\nThe move will allow fans to return to stadiums when the Scottish Premiership's winter break ends.\n\nIt will also avoid Scotland's Six Nations rugby matches having to be played behind closed doors at Murrayfield next month.\n\nA limit of 500 people at outdoor events has been in place since Boxing Day.\n\nPremiership football teams started their winter break early after the crowd limit was imposed, with many fans believing the sport was unfairly singled out by the restrictions.\n\nLarge Hogmanay events, including the famous street party in Edinburgh, were also cancelled.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament that the limit of 500 people would be removed from Monday 17 January - which will allow Celtic's match with Hibernian on that day to be played before a full crowd at Celtic Park.\n\nEvent organisers will now have to check the vaccine certification of at least 50% of attendees, rather than the current 20%, or at least 1,000 people - whichever figure is higher.\n\nFrom Monday, the definition of \"fully vaccinated\" for the purpose of vaccine passports will include having a booster if the second dose was more than four months ago.\n\nAnd the government will also continue to consider whether the vaccine passport scheme should be extended to more venues.\n\nRestrictions on indoor events and venues will remain in place until at least 24 January, when Ms Sturgeon said she hoped to be able to lift them too.\n\nThe Scottish Licensed Traders Association said the industry had been left in limbo by the first minister's statement, and warned that any extension of the vaccine passport scheme would have a \"major negative impact\" on businesses.\n\nThe Scottish Premiership started its winter break early to avoid playing more matches without fans\n\nPeople will also still be required to wear face coverings in indoor public places, to work from home when possible, and to only meet indoors in groups of up to three households.\n\nThe measures were imposed by the Scottish government in an attempt to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, with the first minister saying there were now signs that the country was \"starting to turn the corner\" after a huge spike in cases.\n\nLimits of 100 people were placed on indoor standing events or 200 if they were seated, while nightclubs had to close and pubs and restaurants had to bring back table service for alcohol and a one-metre distance between different groups of people.\n\nBut the latest Scottish government Covid report showed that average daily cases in Scotland (2,824 per one million population in the week to 6 January) were higher than in England (2,615 per one million), which has fewer Covid restrictions.\n\nThis is clearly the news that major sporting bodies and fans were hoping for. There were genuine fears, from within football at least, that the first minister would push the date back once again.\n\nIt now appears that the increase in Covid passport checks outside stadia has allowed her to throw the doors back open but with a sense of continued caution.\n\nThe Scottish government says the decision is based purely on the science, but there's no doubt that the move is timely, from a political perspective.\n\nWith the Six Nations fast approaching, could the first minister really have watched on if Scotland's home game's had been moved south for the sake of attendance? It was certainly being discussed.\n\nAs talk now turns to how we learn to live with Covid, this latest sporting sigh of relief will be accompanied by the hope that fans are be back for good.\n\nSome business leaders say said that the tougher coronavirus rules have failed to make a \"meaningful difference\" to infection levels and were causing \"enormous damage\" to some sectors.\n\nAnd pressure has been growing on the first minister to set out how Scotland can begin to \"live safely\" with Covid and loosen restrictions.\n\nMs Sturgeon insisted that the restrictions had \"helped to mitigate to some extent the impact of the Omicron wave\", with positive cases estimated to be about 30,000 a day in early January rather than the initial projection of 50,000 per day .\n\nShe added: \"It is very likely that the situation we face now, though serious, would have been even more challenging without the renewed sacrifices made by people across the country over these last few weeks.\"\n\nThe first minister also told MSPs that a revised framework for dealing with the virus will be released in the coming weeks, following input from parliament and business organisations.\n\nIn a marked change of language to earlier stages of the pandemic, the first minister said this would set out how the country might be able to live with the virus without the need for restrictive measures \"that we are all tired of and which do harm in other ways\".\n\nPubs had to reintroduce table service and ensure distancing between groups of customers as part of measures aimed at slowing the spread of Omicron\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said it was \"disappointing\" that restrictions such as the vaccine passport scheme were continuing despite Scotland being in a \"far more positive position than the government were expecting\".\n\nHe said: \"The outlook is much better now not because of government restrictions, but because of people's good sense. The people of Scotland got this right, not the government.\"\n\nMeanwhile Labour's Anas Sarwar said that \"a new phase of the pandemic must mean a new approach\".\n\nHe added: \"People can no longer live their lives waiting to hear on an ad hoc basis what the rules will be day by day.\n\n\"Businesses and workers cannot plan for the future properly if they cannot predict the government's response.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Seth was in intensive care when his lung collapsed and his family \"feared the worst\"\n\nA thirteen-year-old boy with a life-long progressive condition can finally celebrate Christmas, after weeks in hospital with Covid.\n\nSeth Burke caught the virus just days after becoming the first wheelchair user to become a member of the Welsh Youth Parliament.\n\nHe's more vulnerable to the effects due to his condition and had been fighting for his life in intensive care.\n\nSeth said he did not want anyone else to go through this \"scary\" experience.\n\nHe urged people to get vaccinated.\n\nSeth, from Dinas Powys in the Vale of Glamorgan, has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which made his treatment for Covid more complex.\n\nHe tested positive for Covid on 13 December and started to go downhill a few days later when his temperature rose and he felt very unwell.\n\nThe teenager was taken into the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and, after deteriorating further, was admitted to intensive care where he was put on non-invasive ventilation to help him breathe.\n\nSeth joined the Welsh Youth Parliament to work on mental health and environmental issues\n\nOn Christmas Day, his parents were braced for the worst when his lung collapsed, but he pulled through and, on Wednesday, he will finally go home.\n\nSeth said the whole situation was \"quite scary\".\n\n\"I didn't really know what was going on at the time, it's a bit of a blur,\" he said.\n\n\"There were a lot of machines and beeping. It was very loud, it wasn't very nice and I just wanted to go home.\"\n\nSeth's mother and father, Lisa and John Burke, said they had to face the possibility they might lose him.\n\nMr Burke said: ''I think on that really early Christmas morning when I had to phone Lisa and say he's really gone downhill, I was really scared.\n\n\"All these things flash through your mind and there is the potential you might lose him and it was touch and go.\n\n\"Thankfully he had all the support of the doctors and nurses in the intensive care unit who were really brilliant and we managed to get him through it.\n\n\"I'm just glad he was in the right place at the right time.\"\n\nSeth is finally coming home after weeks in hospital but his parents said he will be feeling the effects of Covid for some time\n\nBy New Year's Day, Seth had bounced back and was out of intensive care and back on a hospital ward playing with Lego and his favourite video games, and watching TV.\n\nHowever, he will feel the impact of Covid for some time as his parents said he is much weaker and he gets very tired.\n\nHis lungs need to repair and he has ventilation support to help him breathe at night.\n\nSeth will not be able to join his friends back at school just yet either due to family fears of other strains of the virus. He will have his first jab next month.\n\nMr Burke said his son was a \"real fighter\", adding: \"I'm incredibly proud of him.\n\n\"I know adult patients who wouldn't put up with half of what he has.\n\n\"He's really resilient, really strong, always got a smile on his face, and just wants to crack a joke and have chat with people.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Seth has never let his lifelong progressive condition hold him back\n\nThe family will now have belated Christmas celebrations, finally getting to open their presents together and have a proper Christmas dinner - it was a Pot Noodle in hospital for Seth's dad on 25 December.\n\nSeth said he hopes his story is a strong message.\n\n\"I don't want anyone to get as ill as I was and I want people to stay well,\" he said.\n\n\"If you feel unwell, get a test and if you can get a vaccination, get a vaccination.\n\nThe family is having a belated Christmas celebration\n\n\"Children can get Covid. I know people say they can't, but they definitely can and I know because I've had it.\n\n\"I want to say thank you to all the doctors and nurses who've helped me get better.\n\n'I've had really good care, they've made me feel a lot better and all the doctors and nurses are really nice.\"", "Senior Downing Street political staff had to intervene during the first half of 2021 to prevent events at No 10 - such as leaving parties - going ahead, sources have told the BBC.\n\nThe proposed events - suggested by staff, not politicians - would have taken place during the roadmap out of lockdown, which saw restrictions gradually lifted.\n\nIndoor hospitality in England was banned until 17 May 2021 and outdoor mixing - in groups of six - wasn't permitted until 29 March 2021.\n\nThe prime minister is coming under pressure, following allegations he attended a lockdown drinks in the Downing Street garden on 20 May 2020.\n\nOn Monday, ITV published an email from the prime minister's principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds, inviting around 100 staff to the \"socially distanced drinks\".\n\nWitnesses have told the BBC Boris Johnson and his wife had been among about 30 people at the event.\n\nMr Johnson has not denied he was at the party, instead pointing to an ongoing investigation into gatherings held in Downing Street.\n\nFormer No 10 insiders say those \"socially distanced drinks\" set a precedent: if a senior civil servant such as Mr Reynolds could give approval to this event, it was unsurprising that more junior staff felt it was acceptable to hold a Christmas party later that year.\n\nOne of them said the 20 May drinks had \"lowered the bar\" for future events.\n\nLast Friday, the former senior Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings said he had made it clear in writing that the 20 May event should not go ahead.\n\nBut it has now become apparent he was not a lone voice.\n\nA fellow adviser told the BBC that they were \"furious\" that the drinks took place.\n\nAnd another senior member of the political staff at No 10 also tried unsuccessfully to have the event called off.\n\nA former senior staff member said there had been detailed discussions about meetings which took place outdoors to ensure regulations were observed, but - in their opinion - there had been \"no legal basis\" for the \"bring your own bottle\" event on 20 May 2020.\n\nA long-standing Conservative MP predicted that Sue Gray, the civil servant who is conducting the internal inquiry, would \"let the PM off on a technicality\" - that Downing Street was both a household and a place of work.\n\nHowever, some of those who worked at No 10 at the time maintain that no such loophole would have been credible.\n\nThe latest revelations have resulted in a high degree of jeopardy for Boris Johnson.\n\nOne former member of his staff questioned whether the 20 May event could have gone ahead without his approval, given the resistance to it from key political staff.\n\nA Conservative MP who is well placed to gauge backbench opinion told the BBC that the mood was now hardening against the prime minister.\n\nHe suggested that Mr Johnson's behaviour was \"impugning the reputations of Conservative MPs\".", "Thousands of residents have had to leave their homes across the state\n\nLandslides and flooding caused by torrential rains have killed at least 15 people in south-eastern Brazil, officials say.\n\nThe victims died between Sunday and Tuesday in Minas Gerais state, where rivers have overflowed, leaving towns partially submerged.\n\nMore than 28,000 people have had to leave their homes.\n\nAuthorities are monitoring dams that could burst, as more downpours could affect the hardest-hit areas.\n\nFive people from the same family, two of them children, were found buried on a hillside near the state capital, Belo Horizonte. In the city of São Gonçalo do Rio Abaixo, an 11-year-old girl was killed when a wall collapsed on her bedroom as she was sleeping.\n\nTwo other deaths were reported in the city of Caratinga, including a 41-year-old man who was killed when his car fell into a river while he tried to cross a bridge. In Perdigão, two women, 55 and 79, died when the car they were in was dragged away by floods.\n\nIn the town of Juatuba, the Paraopeba river burst its banks, leaving entire neighbourhoods flooded. \"We lost everything. My wife and children left the house in a boat,\" Daniel Valeriano de Oliveira told AFP news agency.\n\nParts of the town of Juatuba were partially submerged after a river broke its banks\n\nHouses were also flooded in the town of Raposos\n\nBrazil's mining agency said 36 mining dams were in a state of emergency in the state. On Saturday, a dam at an iron ore mine in Nova Lima overflowed, disrupting traffic on a major highway for two days.\n\nIn the city of Pará de Minas, authorities were monitoring the Carioca hydroelectric dam amid concerns it could burst.\n\nAuthorities were monitoring the Carioca dam in the city of Pará de Minas\n\nThe civil defence authority said 341 out of the state's 853 municipalities had declared a state of emergency because of the severe weather.\n\nMeteorologists say the excessive rain was a result of a summer phenomenon - the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) - that causes heavy rainfall. Belo Horizonte saw 241.7mm (9.5 inches) of rain in 72 hours, when the average for the entire month of January is 329mm.\n\nThe bad weather is also a result of La Niña, a climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean that can affect weather worldwide.\n\nExperts also say climate change is contributing to extreme weather events across the world.\n\nIn the last two months, heavy rains have affected other areas of Brazil, leaving dozens dead and thousands displaced, with the north-eastern state of Bahia one of the hardest hit.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Residents in a city in Bahia use rafts to bring each other supplies after flooding hit the area", "The request for military medics' assistance was made by Stormont's Department of Health\n\nThe Ministry of Defence (MoD) is considering a new request for military support to help the health service deal with Covid-19 pressures.\n\nIt is understood that upwards of 100 military personnel have been requested by Health Minister Robin Swann.\n\nThe MoD has agreed to several appeals for assistance during the pandemic.\n\nThe Department of Health has confirmed it has requested assistance and is now awaiting a final decision by the MoD in London.\n\nA spokesperson for the Health Department said: \"Our health and social care system is under severe pressure.\n\n\"The current pressures involve a number of factors including Covid and wider winter pressures on services and Covid-related staff absences\".\n\n\"The minister and department are liaising very closely with trust and board colleagues in relation to the current situation\".\n\nThe BBC understands Robin Swann has requested between 100 and 150 personnel\n\nThe BBC understands the number of personnel being requested is between 100 and 150 and would be a mix or medical and non-medical staff for deployment in Northern Ireland hospitals.\n\nMilitary personnel have been used in earlier stages of Northern Ireland's response to the health emergency.\n\nIn total, more than 500 armed forces personnel have been deployed in Northern Ireland during the pandemic.\n\nOne request involved 100 medics being sent to the mass vaccination centre at the SSE Arena in Belfast.\n\nFor two months at the beginning of 2021, armed forces personnel also worked alongside nurses at three local hospitals - the Ulster, Belfast City and Antrim Area.", "Strong sales of premium food and champagne over Christmas have put Sainsbury's on track to boost profits.\n\nBritain's second biggest supermarket has raised its full-year profit guidance to \"at least\" £720m before tax, up from £660m.\n\nCustomers spent more on treats, as well as record amounts on champagne and sparkling wine for festivities.\n\nGrocery sales over Christmas rose by 0.1% in the six weeks to 8 January, compared to the year before.\n\nSales of food and drink saw a boost of 6.8% in comparison with pre-pandemic levels.\n\nThe retailer's chief executive said it was down to more people eating at home, although formal rules restricting gatherings weren't in place this last Christmas.\n\nSimon Roberts said: \"I am really pleased with how we delivered for customers this Christmas.\"\n\nHe added that shoppers had splurged more on party food and desserts from its premium Taste the Difference range over the holidays.\n\nWhile Christmas trading saw some bright spots in food, Mr Roberts said in a call with journalists that supply chain problems had affected the availability of toys and electrical good at Argos in particular, with \"significant challenges\" expected in 2022 as well.\n\nIn the grocery aisles, consumers opted for more meat-free products, with Plant Pioneers' No Gammon Joint and No Salmon Encroute proving popular Christmas centrepieces.\n\n\"The backdrop was challenging and our teams worked hard throughout the year to make sure we had all of the products everyone wanted,\" Mr Roberts said.\n\nThe supermarket said on Wednesday that spiralling cost inflation had been offset by savings as well as the better-than-expected grocery sales.\n\nOverall though, Sainsbury's said that like-for-like sales, excluding fuel and the effect of new shops opening, fell by 4.5% in the three months to 8 January.\n\nGeneral merchandise, which includes homeware, toys and other goods from Argos, fell by 16% year-on-year.\n\nThe group said that it was down to comparisons with a \"strong performance\" during lockdown the previous Christmas, as well as a decision to offer fewer discounts.\n\nToys and tech gadgets in particular suffered with declines seen in the double digits.\n\nThe retailer said in a statement on Wednesday that global supply chain issues had affected the availability of in-demand products.\n\nBut the group said cost reductions at Argos, driven by the group's decision to shut 420 of the brand's branches, helped strengthen its profits.\n\nRoss Hindle, analyst at Third Bridge, said: \"December's trading was particularly strong for UK supermarkets, with home working translating into home eating and fewer consumers dining out as Omicron swept the country.\n\n\"Sainsbury's should be able to hold on to its gains thanks to its loyal customer base and innovation around product lines\", he said, noting that the retailer had added more than 600 new products during the last few months.\n\nBut he said that rapid delivery firms and discount supermarkets like Aldi or Lidl could still pose a threat.\n\nOver the festive period, Sainsbury's fulfilled more than 700,000 online orders per week, with orders on its website and app jumping 41% in the week to Christmas.\n\nIt also introduced a \"price match\" campaign, which included matching around 150 prices with Aldi in a bid to keep prices lower for customers.\n\nThe firm recently said that it would become the latest UK supermarket to pay shop workers at least £10 an hour.\n\nIt will increase its basic rate from £9.50 to £10 an hour for staff across its supermarkets and Argos stores from 6 March, following similar moves by Lidl and Aldi last year.\n\nSainsbury's shares were up 1.75% in early trading in London on Wednesday following its trading update. Tesco and Marks & Spencer are due to release Christmas trading updates on Thursday.\n\nOther companies updating on their Christmas performance on Wednesday included JD Sports, Dunelm and Whitbread:", "Kate Josephs left the Cabinet Office to work for Sheffield City Council in December 2020\n\nThe chief executive of Sheffield City Council must resign over revelations that she hosted a lockdown party, a former leader of the council has said.\n\nKate Josephs, who led the government's Covid-19 taskforce, held leaving drinks in the Cabinet Office in December 2020, it emerged on Friday.\n\nLord Paul Scriven, Lib Dem leader of Sheffield Council from 2008 to 2011, said Ms Josephs must now stand down.\n\nHe said her admission left him in \"disbelief and anger\".\n\nMs Josephs served as director general of the taskforce responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions from July 2020 until she became chief executive of Sheffield City Council the following December.\n\nShe said she was \"truly sorry\" for joining the drinks reception which is understood to be among the events being investigated by senior civil servant Sue Gray.\n\nMs Josephs said she was co-operating fully with the investigation into gatherings in government buildings.\n\nAt the time of her Cabinet Office departure London was subject to restrictions preventing most indoor mixing between those from different households.\n\nLord Scriven, Lib Dem leader of Sheffield City Council from 2008-11, said Kate Josephs' apology was \"forced\" by reports in The Daily Telegraph\n\n\"Ms Josephs was the most senior civil servant leading the national Covid taskforce,\" Lord Scriven said.\n\n\"She pre-organised a drinks party on the day 567 people died.\"\n\nLord Scriven said the chief executive had \"undermined the name of the city\" and \"whenever she says something to support Sheffield's fight against Covid or the NHS, no-one will believe her\".\n\nHe added: \"I have written to Ms Josephs asking her to step down.\"\n\nOn Friday, Ms Josephs posted an apology for her actions on Twitter, in which she wrote: \"On the evening of 17 December, I gathered with colleagues that were at work that day, with drinks, in our office in the Cabinet Office to mark my leaving the Civil Service.\n\n\"I am truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result.\"\n\nSpeaking after Ms Josephs' admission, Sheffield City Council's leader, Terry Fox, expressed his \"deep disappointment... after everything Sheffield has been through during the pandemic\".\n\n\"People will rightly feel angry and let down. I get that completely,\" he said.\n\nHe said Ms Josephs had been an \"asset\" to the city for the last year but stated residents' questions would have to be addressed.\n\nKate Josephs posted a picture of herself outside 10 Downing Street on 18 December 2020, the day after the leaving drinks were held\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Nino Cerruti - one of the great Italian designers and fashion entrepreneurs - has died aged 91.\n\nReports say he passed away in hospital in Piedmont where he had checked in for a hip operation.\n\nHe always insisted on trying on his own creations first. Many of them were kept at the textile factory his grandfather founded in the town of Biella in 1881.\n\n\"I have always dressed the same person, myself,\" he once said, according to AFP news agency.\n\nWith his experience in producing excellent fabrics at his family's textile mill, Cerruti went into the clothing business in the late 1950s.\n\nWith a model in Capri in September 1968\n\nHe opened his first boutique in Paris in 1967.\n\nWhen he asked male and female models to walk down the catwalk in the same clothes, he revolutionised fashion, AFP notes.\n\nRiding his bike on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice in 1985\n\nIn the '80s, he branched out into Hollywood, designing clothes for stars including Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks.\n\nAt the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 with Antonio Banderas (L) and Prince Albert II of Monaco\n\nWith Catherine Deneuve (C) and Fanny Ardant in Paris in 1999\n\nFrom a portrait session in Italy in July 1987\n\nAt home with his wife and son in Rome in 1988", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Graham Reagan says he struggled to get an ambulance after suffering a heart attack\n\nAn ambulance trust has apologised after a man having a heart attack said he was advised to get a lift to hospital or face a long wait.\n\nGraham Reagan said he was on the verge of collapsing when he finally got to York hospital after a lift from his son.\n\nMr Reagan said he was concerned about the impact on patients with potentially life-threatening conditions.\n\nYorkshire Ambulance Service said it was under \"significant pressure\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire's Politics North programme, Mr Reagan described his experience as \"scary\".\n\n\"I'd had indigestion, or so I thought, for a couple of days, and then on 17 December I went to bed early feeling rough,\" he said.\n\nIn the early hours, Mr Reagan said the pains in his chest grew worse and he asked his wife to call for an ambulance.\n\n\"I couldn't take it any more,\" he said.\n\nMr Reagan faced a second delay while waiting for an ambulance to transfer him from York to Hull for treatment\n\nMr Reagan, from Malton in North Yorkshire, said his wife was asked \"can you get to hospital\" as the nearest ambulance was about 20 to 30 miles away.\n\n\"My wife doesn't drive, but fortunately my son was with us and he drove me to York hospital.\"\n\n\"I'm in the back of the car - the pain is getting worse and I'm now getting quite upset,\" he said.\n\nOn arrival Mr Reagan said they found the entrance to A&E had also been re-routed.\n\n\"So, we then had to walk out of the hospital grounds and back in - by which time I'm collapsing,\" he added.\n\nHe said staff at the hospital were \"absolutely brilliant\" and arranged for him to be transferred to Hull for treatment after a heart attack was confirmed.\n\nHowever, he said he was faced with a further 35-minute delay while he waited for an ambulance to take him.\n\nMr Reagan said he wanted to share his experience to raise awareness.\n\n\"Today might be the day when there aren't enough ambulances, and you might be the person who is waiting for one,\" he added.\n\nYorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) said staff were doing their best to respond as quickly as possible to all emergencies\n\nA spokesperson for Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust said they were sorry to hear of Mr Reagan's concerns.\n\nThey said, in common with other ambulance services, they had been under \"significant operational pressures for some time\" and, while staff did their best to respond quickly, they acknowledged \"some patients are having to wait longer for an ambulance response\".\n\nOn Thursday, it was announced the service is to get support from military personnel amid pressure on staffing due to Covid-related absences.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nFifth Ashes Test, Hobart (day three of five)\n\nEngland's miserable Ashes tour ended with one last calamitous batting failure as Australia surged to a 146-run victory in the final Test to claim a 4-0 series win.\n\nSet 271 to win, England reached 68-0 but then lost all 10 wickets for the addition of another 56 runs in Hobart.\n\nNine wickets fell in the final session of the third day, England collapsing with breathtaking speed and ineptitude - even by their recent standards - to be bowled out for 124.\n\nPat Cummins, who lifted the urn in his first series as captain, took three wickets and Scott Boland and Cameron Green also picked up three apiece.\n\nMark Wood's superb 6-37 earlier helped dismiss Australia for 155 in their second innings to give England an outside chance of a remarkable win.\n\nInstead, Australia repeated their margin of victory from the series four years ago and extend England's winless run down under to 15 Tests.\n\nOverall, Joe Root's side have won only one of their past 14 Tests since February last year.\n\nBy the time they return to Australia in 2025 it will be 14 years since their last success in an away Ashes Test.\n• None Root wants to stay as England captain\n• None Cummins says Australia are 'building to something big'\n\nThere were times on another freewheeling day of an entertaining Test that England might have had hope of salvaging a consolation win from their demoralising tour.\n\nA key decision went against them when Chris Woakes was judged to have marginally over-stepped when he bowled Alex Carey for 19. Had Carey been dismissed then, it would have left Australia 91-7 - but the wicketkeeper went on to make 49.\n\nHowever, that moment was rendered irrelevant by the way England spinelessly capitulated, ending the series with another batting collapse that has become a characteristic of their Test cricket.\n\nSix times in 10 innings in this series they have failed to pass 200 and they have not once managed 300.\n\nThis tour may well be remembered for the time in which it was played, with the Covid pandemic casting doubt firstly on whether England would take part and then played a role in their disrupted preparation.\n\nStill, that should not be an excuse for their substandard performance and all aspects of English cricket will come under review in the aftermath of yet another drubbing down under.\n\nAustralia, a team who had played only four Tests in the previous 18 months and had to replace captain Tim Paine with Cummins on the eve of the series, were vastly superior and will be favourites to end a 22-year wait for an Ashes victory in the UK when they travel in 2023.\n\nTo ask this England team to complete their highest chase in Australia for 60 years, and largest in all of the day-night Tests ever played, on a pitch offering so much for the seam bowlers seemed fanciful.\n\nYet Rory Burns - with his long hair untied, perhaps feeling like a man with nothing to lose - and Zak Crawley rattled along at more than four an over to put Australia under genuine pressure.\n\nHowever, England batting failures are so regular that a clatter of wickets was inevitable. Sure enough, when Burns inadvertently deflected Green on to his stumps for 26, the rest followed in just 22.5 overs.\n\nDawid Malan, batting after his daughter was born six weeks early in Harrogate, played on off the same bowler, while Crawley walked into an edge off Green for 36.\n\nBen Stokes needlessly pulled Mitchell Starc to deep square leg, Root was undone by a scuttler from Boland, while Sam Billings also looked accusingly at the pitch when he chipped the same bowler to mid-on.\n\nThe tail competed to find the worst way to get out, each stroke more ridiculous than the last to hasten the beginning of Australia's celebrations.\n\nFast bowler Wood has been one of the few positives for England on this tour, not only by carrying a persistent threat with the ball, but also with an upbeat attitude and permanent smile despite the dispiriting results.\n\nBefore this match he had not got the rewards his endeavour deserved and even had figures of 0-74 from his opening 10 overs in the first innings, but after that reeled off 9-78.\n\nWhen Wood had the ball, the game was entirely different compared to when any other England bowler was operating. His sustained short-pitched, hostile attack discomforted, intimidated and ultimately removed Australia's batsmen.\n\nNightwatchman Boland poked behind, Travis Head gloved down the leg side, Steve Smith skittishly top-edged a hook and Starc popped a catch to short leg.\n\nThe reprieved Carey played nicely through the off side, sharing crucial stands of 49 with Green and 20 with Cummins.\n\nStuart Broad accounted for Green and Carey, leaving Wood to bowl the swiping Cummins for his sixth wicket.\n\nAustralia captain Pat Cummins: \"These are the series you have in your diary years out. Winning 4-0 is huge. I am really pumped.\n\n\"Not only the 11 guys playing but the 15 players in the series. It feels like we are really building to something big.\"\n\nEngland captain Joe Root: \"It's been a really tough tour. We've been outplayed and credit to Australia.\n\n\"They deserve to win this series. Sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say a team outplayed us.\"\n\nFormer England bowler Steven Finn on Test Match Special: \"The most disappointing thing is that it was such a fantastic start from Burns and Crawley. They had Australia on the ropes and the crowd was quiet. But that was feeble from England in the end.\"\n• None Find out how far your decisions would take Phoenix FC's bid for glory\n• None Is cutting carbs really a healthy diet to follow? Discover the facts behind one of the most searched health regimes", "Judith Criddle uses a volunteer-run community food store in Cardiff to do her weekly shopping\n\nMoney has been so tight for grandmother Judith Criddle, she only ever puts her heating on when her six grandchildren visit - despite the cold weather.\n\nEven then, Judith can only afford to put it on for an hour so she wraps her grandchildren in a blanket on the sofa with hot water bottles to keep warm.\n\n\"To them it's a movie night, cuddling in to nan - but to me, I'm doing it to save the money,\" said the 51-year-old.\n\nJudith is one of the millions affected by the UK's cost of living crisis.\n\nPrices are rising at the fastest rate in more than 10 years and one think tank has warned it could get worse with predictions that higher energy bills, stagnant wages and tax rises could leave households with an extra £1,200-a-year hit to their incomes.\n\nJudith, who is on universal credit, said she was trying to cut back on using energy as much as she can, but \"if it goes up any more I can't afford to live\".\n\nA report from the Resolution Foundation also warned a rise in the energy price cap - where energy bills could more than double - and National Insurance contributions in April means families are facing a \"year of the squeeze\" in 2022.\n\nEven now Judith can't afford a haircut or to have an occasional social drink with friends in Cardiff.\n\nJudith says she can't afford a hair cut and worries every months about how to pay her bills\n\nShe is one of the four in 10 families in Wales living below the poverty line, according to poverty campaigners Bevan Foundation.\n\nSo while Judith's grandchildren think their movie night is a bit of fun with their nan, the actual reason is far from that.\n\n\"I'll put the heating on, say for an hour, to take the chill off,\" she said. \"But then I'll put blankets on because I couldn't afford to have it on all the time.\n\n\"I'm worried about the month ahead, never mind the year.\"\n\nJudith does her weekly shopping at a community food store, run by a local charity, in the Caerau area of Cardiff.\n\nThe community food store where Judith shops sells a food parcel with £20 worth of food for £5\n\nYour Local Pantry - which helps families in Ely and Caerau, parts of which are among Wales' most deprived areas - relies on donations of groceries and food schemes to keep prices down.\n\nA weekly shop costs a fiver but its 132 members get around four times that price in food.\n\nAlex Withey has been volunteering at the Pantry and, like Judith, the 52-year-old receives universal credit.\n\nThe Pantry in Cardiff is run by a local poverty charity Action Caerau and Ely\n\n\"This is 2022 and people are having to decide whether to put their heating on or have a meal,\" he said.\n\n\"Every month I'm thinking how much to pay for food, how much to pay for fuel. As it goes up, obviously it's going to have to be less for food and more for fuel.\n\n\"That's wrong. It's always the poor that get hit first.\"\n\nAlex says he has £100 to spend on bills and he can't afford both food and electric or gas\n\nInequality campaigners say people's health and living standards will suffer because of the cost of living rise, with the Bevan Foundation estimating a third of Welsh families are already cutting their energy use while a quarter are cutting back on food.\n\nThe Bevan Foundation also claims the impact of the Covid pandemic is pushing more households - about 40,000 - into poverty.\n\n\"Around a quarter of families in Wales were living in poverty before the pandemic,\" said Dr Steffan Evans, the foundation's head of policy.\n\n\"A lot of them were having to make these difficult decisions anyway, but more people have been affected.\"\n\nFamilies are bracing themselves to pay more for their energy as industry experts predict those that were paying £850 on average last year will see their bills rise to more than £1,700.\n\nFuel poverty charity National Energy Action is calling on the UK government to consider \"meaningful\" targeted financial support for the most vulnerable customers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rising costs resulting in \"nerve-racking\" times for families on a budget\n\n\"That could include increasing the warm home discount, it could mean extending the winter fuel payments to those who might not otherwise be eligible for that, or it could also mean helping clear energy debts,\" said Ben Saltmarsh, of National Energy Action.\n\n\"The key thing is we need targeted support to those who need it the most, and urgently. People simply will not be able to cope.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said it was aware households in Wales were under \"unprecedented financial pressure\" due to the cost of living \"crisis\" and the UK government's \"cruel\" decision to end the Universal Credit uplift.\n\nThe Treasury said it had helped provide more than £4.2bn of support to families per year, on top of other support for living standards.\n\n\"We know people are facing pressure with the cost of living - which is why we're taking billions of pounds worth of decisive action to help,\" said a UK government spokesperson.\n\n\"Our support includes reducing the universal credit taper - a tax cut worth over £2bn - increasing the minimum wage and supporting households with their bills... as well as freezing alcohol and fuel duty.\"", "Cladding being removed from a tower block in Manchester\n\nCampaigners have urged Norway's giant state investment fund to pressure cladding firms and builders to fix fire safety issues.\n\nGrenfell survivors and leaseholders affected by the cladding crisis called on Norges Bank to pull £5.7bn of funds from companies if they fail to do so.\n\nLucy Brown-Cortes of the End Our Cladding Scandal campaign said pressure from shareholders was \"overdue\".\n\nNorges said it had raised product safety with several of the companies.\n\nThe cladding crisis has left many people with huge bills to fix unsafe homes.\n\nAfter the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in hundreds of blocks of flats across the UK.\n\nRemoving cladding can cost millions of pounds per block. The cost has often been passed on to flat owners under the leasehold system in England and Wales.\n\nMany leaseholders have also seen sharply increasing service charges, and some have had to pay for so-called \"waking watch\" fire wardens.\n\nA letter was sent to the boss of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) demanding action on Friday, as first reported by the Sunday Times.\n\nIts signatories include End Our Cladding Scandal, UK Cladding Action Group, Grenfell United, Action for Fire Safety Justice, the National Leasehold Campaign, Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley.\n\n\"This crisis has meant that at least 3,000,000 leaseholders are trapped in flammable flats they cannot sell, they are financing interim fire safety costs that they cannot afford to pay, and facing repossession/forfeiture over life-changing bills to make homes safe,\" the letter says.\n\nNicolai Tangen, the chief executive of NBIM, should \"leverage its position as major shareholder\", it says, to push 11 firms to fix safety issues and provide compensation to victims of the Grenfell fire.\n\nNBIM should \"divest its holdings in these firms if they fail to do so\", the letter adds.\n\nThe fund is an investor in three companies that were involved in producing materials used on Grenfell Tower: Kingspan, Arconic and Saint-Gobain.\n\nNBIM also has stakes in different housebuilders, as pointed out by the campaigners, such as Barratt, Bellway, Berkeley, Crest Nicholson, LendLease, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry.\n\nMs Brown-Cortes told the BBC that campaigners wanted to see NBIM \"live up to their environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials and leverage their position\" as a major shareholder in some property developers.\n\nThe biggest sovereign wealth fund in the world promotes itself as a \"responsible\" investor in more than 9,000 companies globally. It has previously cut tobacco companies from its portfolio, for example.\n\nIn its response to the campaigners, NBIM said it had \"raised product safety with several of the companies mentioned in your letter\" and it was a topic it would continue to monitor.\n\nNBIM added: \"In accordance with the Fund's Ethical Guidelines, companies may be put under observation or be excluded if there is an unacceptable risk that the company contributes to or is responsible for serious or systemic violations of human rights.\n\n\"The independent Council on Ethics is responsible for assessing whether our investments are inconsistent with these guidelines. In line with our procedures, we have shared the information you have provided us with the Council of Ethics.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We are coming for you\" - Michael Gove's warning to firms that cut corners, sought to profiteer and mis-sold dangerous products\n\nHousing Secretary Michael Gove backed the campaigners' \"call to action\" on Sunday.\n\n\"Developers and cladding companies who caused these problems must pay to fix them. We want these companies to do the right thing and help end this scandal,\" he said.\n\nIt was confirmed last week that firms would be given until March to agree how to help leaseholders trapped in \"unsellable homes\".\n\nMr Gove warned those who had mis-sold unsafe cladding or cut corners on homes that the government was \"coming for you\".\n\nResidents in blocks 11-18m high had been ineligible for government support to remove unsafe cladding, but the Housing Secretary said earlier this week that the government was scrapping \"the proposal for loans and long-term debt for medium rise leaseholders\".\n\nMr Gove said some building companies had shown leadership and covered the costs but others \"had not shouldered their responsibilities.\"", "The Duke of York's lawyers want to question a psychologist who treated the woman accusing him of sexual assault, claiming she may \"suffer from false memories\".\n\nCourt documents show they want Virginia Giuffre's husband, Robert, and psychologist Dr Judith Lightfoot to be examined under oath.\n\nMs Giuffre's legal team want to call the prince's former assistant.\n\nWith a trial due to go ahead after a judge threw out the prince's motion to dismiss the civil case, both parties are requesting help with calling witnesses overseas to give evidence.\n\nJudge Lewis Kaplan, who is hearing the case in New York, has asked for witnesses' evidence to be taken by lawyers by 14 July and said a trial could take place in court later this year.\n\nPrince Andrew, 61, faces allegations by Ms Giuffre that he was one of the men who had sex with her while she was being trafficked by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein at the age of 17 - a minor under US law.\n\nThe prince's lawyers want to question his accuser's husband, Robert Giuffre, about their household finances and how he met his wife around 2002, according to court documents.\n\nThey also want to ask her psychologist, Dr Judith Lightfoot, about subjects they discussed at her sessions and see her doctors' notes and medicines prescribed.\n\nThe legal team argue Ms Giuffre, now 38, \"may suffer from false memories\", and also want to examine Dr Lightfoot about the \"theory of false memories\".\n\nDr Lightfoot and Mr Giuffre, who both live in Australia, would be requested to be examined under oath in person or by videolink, the documents show.\n\nA false memory expert, psychologist Dr Elizabeth Loftus, testified at the trial of Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell in December, before Maxwell's conviction on sex-trafficking charges.\n\nShe said people continually reconstructed their memories rather than retrieving them as if from a recording device, and they could be subject to \"post-event suggestion\".\n\nBut she conceded while \"peripheral memories\" of traumatic events may be forgotten, core memories may get stronger.\n\nMeanwhile, court documents show lawyers for Ms Giuffre are seeking testimony from two people in the UK.\n\nHer legal team want Robert Olney, the prince's former assistant, to provide a statement.\n\nA letter submitted to the Royal Courts of Justice in London says Ms Giuffre has reason to believe Mr Olney has relevant information about Prince Andrew's relationship with convicted child sex offender Epstein.\n\nThis is because Mr Olney's name appears in publicly-available copies of Epstein's phone book, her lawyers say.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Why Prince Andrew's military titles and royal patronages meant so much\n\nAnother letter seeks testimony from Shukri Walker, explaining she stated in the press that she was a potential witness to Prince Andrew's presence at the Tramp nightclub around the time Ms Giuffre said she was abused.\n\nMs Giuffre has said they visited the club in London before she was assaulted in 2001, but the court documents note the duke has denied being at Tramp on the night in question or ever having met Ms Giuffre.\n\nThe developments come after Buckingham Palace announced on Thursday that Prince Andrew's military titles and royal patronages have been returned to the Queen.\n\n\"The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen,\" the palace said in a statement.", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "The man who received the world's first pig-heart transplant once stabbed a man leaving him paralysed, his victim's family have said.\n\nDavid Bennett, 57, was convicted of stabbing of Edward Shumaker in 1988, his sister told the BBC's Today show.\n\nLeslie Shumaker Downey, whose brother died in 2007, said she thought Mr Bennett was unworthy of the surgery.\n\nBut the transplant team said that a person's criminal past could never be grounds for refusing treatment.\n\n\"It is the solemn obligation of any hospital or health care organization to provide lifesaving care to every patient who comes through their doors based on their medical needs,\" officials at the University of Maryland Medical Centre told The New York Times.\n\n\"Any other standard of care would set a dangerous precedent and would violate the ethical and moral values that underpin the obligation physicians and caregivers have to all patients in their care.\"\n\nThe attack took place in April 1988 when Mr Bennett's wife sat on the lap of Mr Shumaker, who was 22, Ms Downey said.\n\nIn an apparent jealous rage, Mr Bennett stabbed Mr Shumaker in the back repeatedly.\n\nMr Bennett was found guilty of battery and carrying a concealed weapon and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.\n\nMs Downey said nobody had contacted her about Mr Bennett receiving the pig heart, and only heard the news when her daughter messaged her.\n\n\"My second daughter sent me an instant message and said: 'Mum, this is the man who stabbed uncle Ed.' I then read the story and got angry because he had received the heart,\" she said.\n\nThe operation, carried out in Baltimore, Maryland, took more than seven hours to complete\n\nMr Bennett is recovering after the experimental seven-hour procedure in Baltimore.\n\nThe transplant was considered the last hope of saving Mr Bennett's life, though it is not yet clear what his long-term chances of survival are.\n\nBut Ms Downey said coverage of the story had upset her.\n\n\"They're putting Bennett in the storylines, portraying him as a hero and a pioneer but he's nothing of that sort,\" she said.\n\n\"I think the doctors who did the surgery should be getting all the praise for what they have done, not Mr Bennett.\"\n\nMr Shumaker used a wheelchair as a result of the attack, before he had a stroke in 2005 and died two years later.\n\nDoctors around the world are sworn to treat patients who need care equally, regardless of their past crimes or activities.\n\nThe Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which operates the US transplant list, says \"punitive attitudes that completely exclude those convicted of crimes from receiving medical treatment, including an organ transplant are not ethically legitimate.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Muhammad Mohiuddin from the University of Maryland calls the transplant a \"game-changer\"", "Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has said the next announcement about the BBC licence fee will be the last - and it was time to discuss new ways to fund and sell \"great British content\".\n\nShe said \"the days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors\" were over.\n\nHer comments come as unconfirmed reports say the government is expected to freeze the £159 fee for two years.\n\nA BBC source said there had been similar speculation before.\n\nThe licence fee's existence is guaranteed until at least 31 December 2027 by the BBC's royal charter, which sets out the broadcaster's funding and purpose.\n\nThe annual fee is then set by the government, which announced in 2016 that it would rise in line with inflation for five years from April 2017.\n\nMoney raised from the licence fee pays for BBC shows and services - including TV, radio, the BBC website, podcasts, iPlayer and apps.\n\nLengthy negotiations have already taken place between BBC bosses and the government over a future funding settlement, with the idea of freezing the licence fee discussed back in October.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nadine Dorries This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA government source confirmed the BBC discussions over the licence fee were ongoing.\n\nBut they said the culture secretary recognised pressure on people's wallets - and the licence fee was an \"important bill\" for people on low incomes and pensioners, which ministers could control.\n\nA BBC source said of the fee freeze: \"Anything less than inflation would put unacceptable pressure on the BBC finances after years of cuts.\"\n\nThey added there were \"very good reasons for investing in what the BBC can do for the British public, and the creative industries and the UK around the world\".\n\nPreviously, Ms Dorries, who was appointed culture secretary last September, said she thought the BBC should exist, but it needed to be able to take on competitors such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.\n\nAt the Conservative party conference in October, Ms Dorries said the broadcaster needed \"real change\" in order to represent the entire UK and accused it of \"groupthink\".\n\nThe BBC was \"a beacon for the world\", she said, but she thought people who had worked their way up had a similar background, a certain political bias and thought and talked the same.\n\nLabour's shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell accused the prime minister and Ms Dorries of seeming \"hell-bent on attacking this great British institution because they don't like its journalism\".\n\n\"British broadcasting and our creative industries are renowned around the world and should be at the heart of global Britain,\" she said.\n\nLiberal Democrat culture spokesperson Jamie Stone said freezing the licence fee would be a \"stealth cut of almost £2bn\" that would put services at risk.\n\n\"The government must stop this reckless ideological crusade and back off our BBC,\" he added.\n\nIn 2020, people over 75 began paying for their TV licence, which had previously been free.\n\nFunding for this had come from the government, but responsibility for this policy was handed to the BBC after the last funding settlement.\n\nIn 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the BBC should \"cough up\" and pay for TV licences for all over-75s but the BBC said doing so would force \"unprecedented closures\" of services. Now, only over-75s on pension credit are eligible for a free licence, paid for by the BBC.\n\nTV licence evasion itself is not an imprisonable offence. However, the government says non-payment of the fine, following a criminal conviction, could lead to a risk of imprisonment - \"a last resort\" after other methods of enforcement have failed.\n\nLast year, the government decided not to move ahead with plans to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee, but said it would \"remain under active consideration\".\n\nAnd so as the BBC turns 100, a British government officially turns against the licence fee as the best way to fund it.\n\nNadine Dorries is not arguing against the existence of the BBC, but is now formally opposed to a compulsory levy on households that watch TV. She argues that it potentially criminalises the vulnerable, including the elderly.\n\nDefenders of the licence fee argue it is the least bad mechanism, and moving to a Netflix-style subscription model would force the BBC to serve subscribers rather than be universal.\n\nIt comes after lengthy negotiations between the government and the BBC over the future funding settlement.\n\nThe actual negotiation over how the BBC is funded after 2027 is still several years away.\n\nDorries tweeted a link to a Mail on Sunday article suggesting that, amid a cost of living crisis, the fee would be held at £159 for two years - amounting to a real terms cut of hundreds of millions.\n\nThe BBC is also under relentless financial and creative pressure from streaming giants such as Apple and Amazon.\n\nIts future depends above all on whether it can persuade young people to pay for it.", "As part of a tradition of \"uncertain origin\" the new licensee will sit on a \"throne\" and have alcohol poured over their head\n\nA search has begun to find a \"monarch\" to run a remote island and 300-year-old pub off the coast of Cumbria.\n\nA partnership organisation stepped in to run the Ship Inn on Piel Island in July after the previous publicans left.\n\nApplicants can now apply for a 10-year lease to run the pub and manage the island, which features a ruined 14th Century castle and a campsite.\n\nBarrow Borough Council said the person would be \"crowned\" by having alcohol poured over their head.\n\nThe council is the custodian of the island - accessible only by ferry - and wants a new operator in place for the summer season.\n\nIt described Piel Island as \"a great asset to Cumbria\", but warned it was \"a unique place and any operator needs to appreciate the constraints offered by power and weather\".\n\nIt stated the successful applicant's duties will include \"maintenance of the Ship Inn, grounds maintenance of the surrounding area and management of camping and the toilet and shower block\".\n\nHowever, the new operator would not be responsible for external urgent repairs to the buildings and jetty.\n\nBy the time the successful applicant takes over there would be new toilet block and possibly a green energy supply to the pub, the council said.\n\nPiel Island only covers about 50 acres (20 hectares) and the only other buildings are three houses and the ruins of a 14th-Century castle\n\nSupporters started a petition to save the island, off the southern tip of the Furness Peninsula, after the previous leaseholders quit.\n\nThe campaigners called it \"the jewel in the crown\" of the area and a \"vital part of our heritage\".\n\nOn its tourism website Barrow Council said: \"One of the most enduring aspects of the Ship Inn is the tradition of the king and knights of Piel.\n\n\"The tradition holds that each new landlord is crowned King of Piel in a ceremony of uncertain origin, in which they sit in an ancient chair, wearing a helmet and holding a sword while alcohol is poured over their head.\n\n\"By the 19th Century it had become an important aspect of the island's history to such an extent that responsibility for looking after the helmet and chair fell within the tenancy agreement.\"\n\nPiel Island lies half a mile (just under 1km) off the coast of Cumbria\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A vigil for Ms Murphy was held outside the London Irish Centre in Camden on Saturday afternoon\n\nMore vigils are taking place across the island of Ireland and the United Kingdom in memory of murdered teacher Ashling Murphy.\n\nThe 23-year-old was killed on the banks of the Grand Canal outside Tullamore, County Offaly, on Wednesday.\n\nParkrun runners across Ireland held moments of silence on Saturday morning for Ms Murphy.\n\nRTÉ have reported that gardaí (Irish police) have identified a new person of interest who is currently in hospital.\n\nThe Irish broadcaster said gardaí were waiting to speak to him.\n\nAbout 5,000 people attended a vigil and walk in Cork this morning\n\nThousands of people attended vigils in Cork and Dublin on Saturday.\n\nIn County Offaly two walks took place along the Grand Canal in her memory.\n\nOn Friday, the police force said it had made \"significant progress\" in its investigation but were not releasing specific details due to operational reasons.\n\nThey said the Murphy family was \"appreciative and overwhelmed by the national outpouring of support show to them\" .\n\nThe family attended a candlelit vigil near the murder scene on Friday.\n\nVigils are also due to take place in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Brisbane, Australia.\n\nWell wishers lit candles in memory of Ashling near the scene of her murder in Tullamore\n\nThe Irish Independent reported that her father paid a poignant tribute to the talented young musician, by performing her favourite song.\n\nRay Murphy reportedly broke down in tears while playing the final chords of \"When You Were Sweet Sixteen\".\n\nA 40-year-old man arrested after Ms Murphy's murder was released without charge on Thursday night \"and is no longer a suspect\", according to gardaí.\n\nHis solicitor has said he is now in hiding after he was vilified on social media.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, Donal Farrelly said his client was escorted to the hotel by gardaí on Thursday night because of concerns about possible \"retribution\" from members of the public.\n\nThe National Women's Council of Ireland had announced details of vigils at dozens of locations on Friday and many event attracted very large crowds.\n\nMany of the vigils began at 16:00 local time, organised to coincide with the time Ms Murphy was fatally attacked.\n\nPark runners at Orangefield Park in Belfast held a moments silence in memory of Ms Murphy on Saturday\n\nOne of the biggest events took place outside the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) buildings in Dublin.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin was among those in attendance.\n\nSpeaking on the Late, Late Show on RTÉ on Friday night Mr Martin said men needed to \"listen more to women\".\n\n\"We need to listen to what women are saying to us,\" he added.\n\n\"Men want to step up to plate here and make sure we can create a different kind of society where people do feel safe and transform the culture that underpins bad behaviour and violence towards women.\"\n\nA photo of Ms Murphy was displayed on the big screen at half-time during the Heineken Champions Cup in Galway on Saturday\n\nAcross Northern Ireland on Friday, large crowds gathered and traditional Irish musicians performed in tribute to Ms Murphy who was a talented multi-instrumentalist and member of the National Folk Orchestra of Ireland.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch a briefing by an FBI agent after the stand-off in Colleyville, Texas\n\nFour people who were held hostage at a synagogue in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, have been freed unharmed after a 10-hour stand-off with police.\n\nThey were taken hostage during a morning service in Colleyville on Saturday.\n\nPolice deployed special weapons teams, while FBI negotiators spent hours talking to the assailant.\n\nExplosions and gunfire could be heard before the incident ended. The hostage-taker has since died, police say.\n\nThe four people taken hostage included the synagogue's rabbi, according to US media reports.\n\nThe service was being streamed online when the incident began. One of the hostages was released unharmed six hours later, with the other three being led to safety by police several hours after that.\n\nThe rescue team breached the synagogue but it is not yet clear how the hostage-taker died or who he was.\n\nPresident Joe Biden was briefed about the developing situation.\n\nThe incident began at around 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) when police were called to the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue. People were evacuated from the area shortly after.\n\nA live stream of the Shabbat morning service on Facebook captured audio of a man talking loudly. He could be heard saying: \"You get my sister on the phone\" and \"I am gonna die\".\n\nHe was also heard saying: \"There's something wrong with America.\" The feed has since been taken down.\n\nThe hostage-taker was also heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who is currently serving an 86-year prison term in the US, law enforcement officials told local media.\n\nSiddiqui was convicted of trying to kill US military officers while in custody in Afghanistan.\n\nBarry Klompus, a member of the congregation since it opened in 1999, said he had been told about the incident by another member and had quickly turned to the live feed until it was taken down.\n\n\"It was horrible listening and watching, and it's that much more horrible not knowing,\" he told Reuters news agency.\n\nVictoria Francis told the Associated Press that she heard the man rant against America and claim he had a bomb during the live stream. \"He was pretty irritated and the more irritated he got, he'd make more threats,\" she said.", "Lord Myners has died at the age of 73\n\nFormer city minister and business leader Lord Myners has died at the age of 73.\n\nHe \"passed away peacefully\" at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in the early hours of Sunday, a statement from his five children said.\n\nLord Myners was born in 1948 and was brought up by his adoptive parents, a butcher and a hairdresser, in Cornwall.\n\nIn December he stepped down as Chancellor of the University of Exeter after five years in the role.\n\nHis extensive financial career included stints with investment bank NM Rothschild and fund manager Gartmore.\n\nHe later held prominent chairing positions, including at Marks & Spencer, the Guardian Media Group, Land Securities and Tate art galleries.\n\nHe also held directorships of companies including NatWest, Coutts & Co, Lloyds of London, the Bank of New York and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, as well as a membership of the Court of the Bank of England.\n\nFormer prime minister Gordon Brown appointed him financial services secretary in 2008, with the task of managing the national response to the global banking crisis.\n\nIn a tribute, Mr Brown tweeted: \"I worked with Paul Myners during the global financial crisis while in government back in 2008 and he was a real tower of strength throughout that time.\n\n\"My thoughts are with his family at this sad time.\"\n\nAlso in 2008, he was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Myners of Truro and later became a crossbench peer.\n\nThe statement from his family said: \"With great sadness we announce the loss of our beloved father Lord Paul Myners.\n\n\"He passed away peacefully in the early hours of this morning at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital.\n\n\"He will be deeply missed and in our hearts forever.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk", "This is the moment judges revealed Novak Djokovic had lost his last-ditch attempt to avoid being deported ahead of the Australian Open.\n\nHe will not appeal the decision.", "The powerful storm uprooted trees, making some roads impassable in Charlotte, North Carolina\n\nA major winter storm has brought heavy snow and ice to parts of the US and Canada, putting more than 80 million people under weather warnings.\n\nMore than 145,000 people are without power in some south-eastern states, and thousands of flights are cancelled.\n\nVirginia, Georgia, and North and South Carolina have all declared states of emergency.\n\nThe US National Weather Service (NWS) says more than 1ft (30cm) of snow is expected in some areas.\n\nSnow and ice could result in \"dangerous travel, power outages, and tree damage\", the NWS warned.\n\nHighway patrols reported hundreds of vehicle accidents, according to the Associated Press news agency.\n\nThere were also forecasts of possible coastal flooding in some areas, including in New York City and parts of Connecticut, with warnings that roads and infrastructure could be affected.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. More disruption possible from US Storm\n\nIn Canada's Ontario province, which shares a border with New York state, officials issued storm warnings on Sunday morning for much of the south. Toronto, the capital of the province and Canada's largest city, is forecast to get seven inches (20cm) of snow.\n\nMore than 3,000 flights into and out of the US were cancelled on Sunday, according to the FlightAware data tracking website.\n\nCharlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina was among the worst hit, with almost 90% of flights scrapped, and a message on its website urged passengers to check with their airlines before travelling to the airport.\n\nIn South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster called on residents to stay off the roads.\n\n\"This is going to be a pretty bad storm in the upper part of the state,\" he said, adding that it was \"good news\" that the storm was forecast to hit on a weekend and on a public holiday on Monday, when fewer people would need to travel.\n\n\"Hopefully, the storm will underdeliver, but it could overdeliver. We just don't know,\" Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said as he announced preparations for his state.", "Peter Seabrook, pictured here in 1997, died on Friday at his home in Essex\n\nTributes have been paid to influential gardening writer and broadcaster Peter Seabrook, who has died aged 86.\n\nMr Seabrook, who lived in Chelmsford, Essex, was still working as a gardening columnist when he died of a suspected heart attack on Friday.\n\nA former BBC Gardeners' World presenter, he also authored numerous gardening books and wrote regularly for horticultural trade titles.\n\nHis daughter Alison Seabrook Moore described him as \"an inspiration\".\n\nShe said: \"He was working at full throttle until the end.\"\n\nHe had worked as the Sun newspaper's gardening editor since 1977.\n\nThe Sun's royal photographer Arthur Edwards, who worked alongside Mr Seabrook for decades, said: \"Peter was never happier than when the garden soil was between his fingers.\n\nPeter Seabrook (back) with fellow Gardeners' World presenters Kathy Taylor, Toby Buckland, and David Stevens (front) in 1997\n\nCassie King, who worked with him on the creation of gardens for the Chelsea Flower Show, tweeted that she was \"absolutely devastated\".\n\nShe wrote: \"I've worked with Peter Seabrook many times, the highlight being asked to project manage four industry gardens at Chelsea in 2016.\n\n\"He was an inspiration to me and gave me many opportunities for which I will be forever grateful for.\"\n\nHorticulture Week editor Matthew Appleby, who first reported his death, said: \"The whole of horticulture will be shocked and saddened by this news.\n\n\"Peter was the most respected and the greatest gardening writer of his time and will be much missed.\"\n\nThe Royal Horticultural Society described Mr Seabrook as \"one of the greatest champions of horticulture\".\n\nThroughout his career, Mr Seabrook touched the lives of many people including David Turner, who revealed the horticulturalist's kindness in his tribute.\n\nHe tweeted: \"A true gentleman who I had the pleasure of meeting many times since I started in horticulture over 30 years ago.\n\n\"In 2020, despite having just lost his wife, he hand wrote me a letter when I lost mine. He will be greatly missed.\"\n\nMr Seabrook had been married to Margaret and the couple's children, Alison and Roger, issued a joint statement in which they said he \"spent many years caring for our mother through Alzheimer's\".\n\nThey added: \"He leaves a big gap in our lives. We are grateful that he was able to live a long and active life, pursuing what he loved right up to the end.\n\n\"The messages of appreciation that have come from people who worked with him - some going back many years and some very recent - are overwhelming.\"\n\nPeter Seabrook last summer at Hyde Hall in Essex where he was involved in a trial of calendula sown from seed\n\nBorn in 1935, he nurtured a passion for horticulture from a young age.\n\nHe began working in the industry even before studying the subject at Writtle College in Essex and embarked on his broadcasting career with the BBC in 1965.\n\nHe was appointed an MBE for his services in 2005.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Rafael Benitez says he did not realise the \"magnitude of the task\" at Everton following his sacking on Sunday after less than seven months in charge.\n\nThe Toffees appointed the former Liverpool manager, 61, as Carlo Ancelotti's successor in June.\n\nEverton have won only one of their past 13 Premier League games and are 16th in the table, six points above the relegation places.\n\n\"We knew it wouldn't be easy,\" Benitez said following his departure.\n\n\"It was a big challenge, both emotionally and in terms of sport. My love for this city, for Merseyside and its people, made me accept this challenge, but it is only when you are inside that you realise the magnitude of the task.\n\n\"From the very first day, my staff and myself worked as we always do, with commitment and full dedication. We didn't only have to get results, but we also had to win over people's hearts.\n\n\"However, the financial situation and then the injuries that followed made things even harder.\"\n\nEverton, who say an update on a permanent replacement will be made in due course, held an emergency board meeting on Saturday to discuss Benitez's future following Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Norwich, which was a ninth loss in the club's past 12 league games.\n\nEverton's travelling contingent demanded Benitez \"get out of our club\", while a supporter invaded the pitch in an attempt to confront the Spaniard.\n\nBenitez has been denied the services of several key players throughout the season, with key forwards Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and defender Yerry Mina having been out with injuries.\n\nThe Toffees have brought in three players this month - Vitalii Mykolenko from Dynamo Kyiv, Nathan Patterson from Rangers, and winger Anwar El-Ghazi on loan from Aston Villa, with Lucas Digne making a permanent move in the other direction.\n\n\"I am convinced that we would have been better once the injured players were back and with the arrival of the new signings,\" added Benitez.\n\n\"The road to success isn't easy and, sadly, nowadays in football there is a search for immediate results and there is always less and less patience; unfortunately circumstances have determined the results and it won't be possible to continue this project.\n\n\"In any case, thank you to the board, to the staff, to the players, and to those fans who have supported us during this time.\"\n\nBenitez, whose last job in the Premier League before Everton was at Newcastle United, leaves the Toffees with an overall win percentage of 31.8% - his lowest record in charge of an English club.\n\nEverton have 19 points after 19 games and only twice previously have they had fewer points at this stage of a Premier League campaign (17 in 1997-98 and 2005-06).\n\nFormer Toffees striker Wayne Rooney, now manager at Derby County, has already been linked with the job.\n\nAnother potential candidate is Belgium coach Roberto Martinez. He was the first Everton manager sacked by owner Farhad Moshiri in 2016 but BBC Sport understands he still has admirers among the club's hierarchy.\n\nEverton are now searching for their seventh permanent manager since the departure of David Moyes in 2013.\n\nFormer England captain Alan Shearer said on Match of the Day the night before Benitez was sacked: \"He has been in the game long enough to know you have to get results, and if you don't you will probably lose your job.\n\n\"Yes the results have been dreadful but the problems lie deeper than the manager. If you look at the amount of managers they have been through and money that has been spent of players... absolute madness.\"\n\nFormer Premier League defender Stephen Warnock believes former Toffees striker Rooney could be considered - but Brighton's Graham Potter should be top of Everton's list.\n\n\"Wayne Rooney will get a mention and it is up to Wayne where he feels he is at if he was offered the job,\" Warnock told BBC Radio 5 Live.\n\n\"It would be very difficult to turn down, from a club and fans point of view. Is he experienced enough? He would get the respect of the fans and the players.\n\n\"The choice I look at, and Brighton fans won't want me to say this, is Graham Potter. Everton fans want open and expansive football, and you would get that with him.\n\n\"This appointment has to be the right one. I don't think [assistant manager] Duncan Ferguson is the right choice - they need to look elsewhere.\"\n\nEverton won four of their first six league games under Benitez, taking 13 points from a possible 18, but their form has collapsed since October.\n\nThey finished 10th with 59 points last season with current Real Madrid boss Ancelotti as manager.\n\nDirector of football Marcel Brands departed in December as owner Farhad Moshiri attempted to tackle the crisis surrounding the club.\n\nFormer Premier League striker Clinton Morrison added: \"There has not been a plan at Everton for years. They have not spent well and that is why the director of football had to go.\n\n\"I knew it would be a big struggle for Rafa going there. He started ever so well but once you have been a legend at Liverpool, it's always going to be difficult when you start losing games. It wasn't good enough against Norwich. Top six? No chance. They could be in a relegation battle.\"\n\nLeft-back Lucas Digne also left the club, for Aston Villa in a £25m deal earlier this week after falling out of favour and said he did not expect his time at Everton \"to end this way\".\n\n\"Benitez was always climbing a mountain,\" Danny Murphy told BBC Radio 5 Live. \"It looked like they were backing him, they let him sell Lucas Digne and sign players so to disregard that, well, it is an absolute shambles and there is no real candidate for someone to come in and guarantee success.\n\n\"They are a massive club but with obvious massive problems.\"\n• None Our coverage of Everton is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Everton - go straight to all the best content", "A hostage situation at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, was \"not related\" to the Jewish community, according to the FBI's Matt DeSarno.\n\nFour people were taken hostage by a man at the synagogue on Saturday, and were released safely after an 11 hour stand-off. The suspect died at the scene.\n\nUpdate: The FBI's director, Christopher Wray, later said on 20 January that the FBI \"is, and has been, treating the event as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.\"", "A community trust in Glasgow is having to choose between paying energy bills and paying staff, its manager said.\n\nDramatic increases in the price of electricity have blown apart the budgets at Govanhill Baths Community Trust.\n\nTrust Manager Fatima Uygun said price increases meant it now costs the same to provide power to some areas as it did to pay for a staff member.\n\nWithout help, she fears the charity will be forced to make more cuts.\n\nThe community trust provides a range of mental health support as well as food and other services to people who need them.\n\nLike every household, it is affected by recent soaring energy costs.\n\nMs Uygan told BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Show: \"Almost overnight, it has dramatically affected our work.\"\n\n\"Our budgets are usually set at the start of the financial year and very quickly we have had to adjust to prioritising our energy bills over delivering services, sometimes quite vital services around mental health which has come as a bit of a shock to us.\"\n\nLike many charities in the same position, the trust has been forced to make urgent adjustments.\n\nMs Uygun said: \"In one venue our prices went up by 50% overnight because our energy provider went bankrupt. We were put on a different provider and where we had been paying £200 a month it went to £400 a month.\n\n\"That is the equivalent to someone doing sessional work or part-time work to deliver mental health services.\"\n\nHaving to pay more in bills means the trust has had to cut back on fresh fruit and vegetables for its People's Pantry food bank.\n\nMrs Uygun said the trust has had to cut back on fresh fruit and vegetables for its food bank\n\nLast week, British Gas owner Centrica warned that high energy bills could affect household bills for the next two years.\n\nChief executive Chris O'Shea said there was \"no reason\" to expect gas prices would come down \"any time soon\".\n\nHouseholds and businesses are not the only ones feeling the pinch. Charities and volunteer groups are also struggling.\n\nThose working out of old buildings which are not energy efficient are finding that heating them with increased prices puts a dent in the running costs.\n\nAnd volunteer and community services are already stretched due to Covid.\n\nThe Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations told BBC Scotland that rising costs were already having a significant impact on the services its members could provide.\n\nIt is likely to mean an increase in demand for things like money advice services and mental health support.\n\nMs Uygun said: \"We'll have to make cuts if things don't change and that usually affects projects which are already a bit under-funded and are difficult to find funding for.\n\n\"So mental health support groups such as the local knitting club, or the lunch club, or cutting back on the variety of fresh fruit and vegetables for the People's Pantry, people will notice the difference unfortunately.\"\n\nMental health support groups such as the local knitting club are likely to be affected, Mrs Uygun said\n\nSo far, Govanhill Baths Trust has had no support from the local council or the Scottish government.\n\nThe charity feels it is something which will have to be addressed at a government level.\n\n\"The idea that energy companies are out of the goodness of their heart will cut profit - which is where this is all going - is not going to happen, Ms Uygun said.\n\n\"We are hoping the voluntary sector is putting enough pressure on the Scottish government to at least offer a price freeze or a reduction through some kind of exemption or subsidy.\n\n\"Without it, organisations like us at the coal face who provide these services are going to have to make difficult decisions and that is going to mean quite a lot more people are going to fall through the cracks.\"\n\nKirsten Hogg, Head of Policy at the SCVO said: \"It can be difficult for organisations to secure funding to cover overhead costs. Funding is often available for the direct costs of providing a project, but not the core costs of running the organisation, which could include heating and lighting of buildings.\n\n\"And it is common for voluntary sector contracts and grants not to be uplifted for inflation. We are aware of organisations that have received the same amount of money for up to six years, and have been expected to deliver the same service with no increase to cover rising costs.\n\n\"A dramatic increase in costs, such as we are currently seeing in relation to energy prices, is therefore unlikely to be covered by existing funders and will have a significant impact.\"\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said: \"The third sector is a valued partner and we recognise the impact of rising fuel costs on our charities and voluntary organisations.\n\n\"Pricing in the gas and electricity markets is reserved, meaning the Scottish government's options to mitigate these costs are limited. Ministers have written to the UK government to call for urgent action to tackle rising energy costs.\"", "Rallies have been held outside the Park Hotel, where Djokovic is being held in Melbourne\n\nThe story of the world's top ranked tennis player being held at an immigration detention centre after arriving in Australia last week caused dismay and anger on all sides.\n\nMost of it has been directed at the authorities, be they in the federal or the Victorian state government.\n\nThere's almost a sense of incredulity at how the situation has been mishandled - the monumental breakdown in communication and the political tussling.\n\nDjokovic, who is not the most popular of tennis players here, was expected to land late on Wednesday to a wave of Australian ire.\n\nAt that point the story seemed fairly straightforward.\n\nA world-famous athlete, who has publicly said he is opposed to vaccination, granted an exemption to play at the Australian Open in a country that has implemented some of the world's strictest Covid-19 measures.\n\nIt was hardly surprising that it caused an outcry in a country whose citizens had been told that full vaccination was the condition to freedom of movement and travel.\n\nBut after Djokovic touched down at Melbourne Airport, things became a little murky.\n\nOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded to the public outcry by saying the decision to grant Djokovic a vaccine exemption certificate was a matter for the state government of Victoria.\n\nA few hours later, a statement from Australia's Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews appeared to contradict Mr Morrison - saying that \"while the Victorian government and Tennis Australia may permit a non-vaccinated player to compete\", the federal government would enforce its requirements at the border.\n\nThe following day, Mr Morrison's stance changed as it was revealed that Djokovic's visa had been cancelled, and that the 34-year-old was facing deportation.\n\n\"Rules are rules,\" the prime minister said.\n\nIn less than 24 hours, Mr Morrison had U-turned from initially accepting that the Serbian's exemption - and participation in the Australian Open - was a matter for the state of Victoria, to putting his foot down on the federal government's right to enforce its border rules.\n\nIt's impossible to ignore the politics at play here.\n\nThe tension between state and federal authorities exists because each wants something different from this.\n\nVictoria wants the world number one to compete in one of the state's most important events.\n\nThe federal government, feeling the anger at Djokovic being allowed to fly in, wants to show Australians that they are in control of who comes in and out of the country and that everyone - including the tennis star - is expected to follow the Covid rules.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shaimaa Khalil reports from Melbourne's Park Hotel on the latest twist in the Djokovic visa row\n\nThis is an election year, Mr Morrison has been under immense political pressure over the handling of the Omicron coronavirus wave, amid rocketing case numbers and chaos at testing clinics. Observers suggest he may have chosen to use this as an opportunity to appear tough on the country's border policies.\n\nBut in trying to appear firm on Covid rules and visa requirements, Mr Morrison and his government has created more chaos. Every statement that comes out, every detail that emerges, seems to bring yet another layer of uncertainty.\n\nDjokovic's legal team ended up successfully challenging the decision to deport him in court on Monday, five days into the saga.\n\nJudge Anthony Kelly ordered Djokovic's release after the government acknowledged in court that he was not given enough time to respond following the notification to cancel his visa.\n\nHowever, Australia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.\n\nThere has been a lot of blaming and finger pointing but no one has come out to clearly answer any of the basic questions around this story. Not the federal or state government officials - not even Tennis Australia.\n\nThe way he's been treated in the past few days seems to have shifted the sentiment towards him.\n\nThe Australian player Nick Kyrgios, who had previously criticised Djokovic for his response to the pandemic, came to his defence - calling Australia's treatment of him \"really bad\" and urging authorities to \"do better\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nicholas Kyrgios This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRights groups have also weighed in - Sophie McNeill of Human Rights Watch in Australia tweeted that she felt \"very uncomfortable\" with the way Djokovic had been treated.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Sophie McNeill This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe authorities are reportedly investigating a number of visas. On Saturday, another Australian Open hopeful, Renata Voracova from the Czech Republic, left Australia after her visa was cancelled.\n\nThe Australian Open begins on 17 January in Melbourne.\n\nBut one of the biggest and most important sporting events in the country is turning into a big international embarrassment. The eyes of the world will be on Australia for all the wrong reasons.", "Australian journalist Paul Sakkal, who has covered Novak Djokovic's visa saga on the ground for Melbourne paper The Age, says it has caused \"anger\" and \"embarrassment\" and cast a shadow over the tennis tournament.\n\nSakkal was speaking to the BBC's Sunday Morning from Melbourne.\n\nHe says the \"visceral reaction\" to Djokovic's arrival in the country without a vaccine is partly down to the \"really large Covid wave\" which has driven 35,000 daily cases in Victoria where the Australian Open will be held.\n\n\"There was a sense that Djokovic, a wealthy entitled person [...] had somehow found a loophole to get into Australia through a back door,\" he says.\n\n\"I think that fed a lot of the anger and that anger hasn't really dissipated, even though he had his first legal challenge that was successful.\n\n\"I think the government made the political calculation that they were still on quite popular political grounds in deporting him and they made that decision on Friday and a court has upheld it today.\"\n\nHe says there is \"no doubt this casts a significant shadow over the tournament\".\n\nIt is \"an embarrassment for the organisers\" and makes \"our government and our federation... look like a bit of a farce\", he says.", "The moment an underwater volcano violently erupted in Tonga has been captured by satellite imagery.\n\nSpeeded-up footage from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the eruption two times.\n\nHunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai has triggered a widespread tsunami threat - including in neighbouring New Zealand.\n\nRead more: Latest news on tsunami warning after giant eruption", "The volcano erupted for several days. This photo was taken a day before the eruption that caused the tsunami\n\nNew Zealand has sent a plane to Tonga to assess the damage after a huge volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami.\n\nThe eruption has covered the Pacific islands in ash, cut power and severed communications.\n\nUp to 80,000 people there could be affected, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) told the BBC.\n\nNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the tsunami had wreaked \"significant damage\".\n\nNo deaths have been reported so far.\n\nInformation remains scarce, however, and New Zealand and Australia are sending surveillance flights to assess the extent of the damage.\n\nThe New Zealand Defence Force tweeted that an aircraft had left to \"assist in an initial impact assessment of the area and low-lying islands\".\n\nKatie Greenwood of the IFRC in Fiji said that help was urgently needed.\n\n\"We suspect there could be up to 80,000 people throughout Tonga affected by either the eruption itself or from the tsunami wave and inundation as a result of the eruption,\" she said.\n\n\"That was a shock to people, so we do hold some concern for those outer islands and we're very keen to hear from people.\"\n\nThe underwater volcano erupted on Saturday, sending a plume of ash into the sky and triggering warnings of 1.2m (4ft) waves reaching Tonga. The eruption was so loud it could be heard in New Zealand, some 2,383km (1,481 miles) from Tonga.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNew Zealand's Acting High Commissioner in Tonga Peter Lund has said the island nation looks \"like a moonscape\" after it was coated in a layer of volcanic ash.\n\nThe dust was reportedly contaminating water supplies and making fresh water a vital need, Ms Ardern said on Sunday.\n\nAid charities said the ash had prompted authorities to tell people to drink bottled water and wear face masks to protect their lungs.\n\nAs the sky darkened with ash, videos showed traffic jams as people fled low-lying areas by car. Hours later, Tonga's internet and phone lines went down, making the island's 105,000 residents almost entirely unreachable.\n\nConsulate of the Kingdom of Tonga Images on social media showed flooding as the tsunami waves began\n\nPrior to the largest eruption, the volcano had been erupting for several days. The Tonga Meteorological Agency had warned that the smell of sulphur and ammonia was being reported in some areas.\n\nMs Ardern said power was being restored to some parts of the island and mobile phones were slowly starting to work again. But the situation in some coastal areas remained unknown.\n\nUnable to speak to their friends and family, many Tongans in Australia and New Zealand have grown concerned for their safety.\n\nFatima said she had not heard anything from her colleague who runs a seafront restaurant in Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa.\n\n\"It's all very sad, we are hoping for the best,\" she told the BBC. \"This will hit them so hard as they have been in lockdown a long time with no tourists visiting and now this.\"\n\nSatellite images suggest some outlying islands have been completely submerged by seawater.\n\nExperts say the eruption of the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcano is one of the most violent in the region in decades.\n\nIt triggered tsunami warnings in several countries, including Japan and the US, where flooding hit some coastal parts of California and Alaska.\n\nUK Foreign Office minister Zac Goldsmith called the situation in Tonga \"shocking\" and said Britain stood \"ready to help and support our Commonwealth friend and partner in any way we can\".\n\nScientists got their first look at Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai post-eruption on Saturday when the EU's Sentinel-1A satellite flew overhead.\n\nThis spacecraft is a radar platform and can see through obscuring cloud and ash to the surface below.\n\nIt showed clearly that much of the crater rim that stood above the ocean waters had been destroyed - a testament to the ferocity of the blast.\n\nResearchers will be keen to understand the cause of a tsunami that produced waves not just on nearby islands but at beaches right around the Pacific.\n\nTo what extent was the explosion itself responsible? Pressure waves can make what are termed \"meteotsunami\". Or perhaps the displacement of water was the result of an unseen collapse of part of the volcano below the ocean surface.\n\nMore data in the coming days and weeks will establish the facts.\n\nHave you been affected by the tsunami? Are you in Tonga, or concerned for relatives in the area? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "What a find! The newest - and oldest - member of the school\n\nA 120-year-old skeleton of a crocodile discovered under a school classroom has gone on display.\n\nThe bizarre find was made when builders lifted the floorboards of a Rhondda Cynon Taf school during renovation work.\n\nUntil then the story of a creature buried beneath Ysgol Bodringallt in Ystrad was long thought to be a myth.\n\nNow the \"legendary\" saltwater crocodile has pride of place in the school after more than two years of restoration.\n\n\"I'd heard a story that parents and school staff had buried a crocodile under the school some time between the two world wars,\" head teacher Dr Neil Pike said at the time.\n\n\"But I thought it was a myth and didn't take any notice - until laid on the floor of the hall was the crocodile!\"\n\nMyths had surrounded the burial of a skeleton at the school for decades\n\nThe origin of the skeleton and why it came to lay beneath the floor of a south Wales school remain uncertain.\n\nHowever, the tale told by locals is that a man, returning from serving in World War One, brought back with him the body as a curious souvenir for the school.\n\nThe story goes that the crocodile was initially put on display, but then hidden beneath the floorboards to protect it during any later times of conflict.\n\nNatural history conservation company Pure Conservation dated the remains, which had suffered significant damage after so long unprotected, to the 19th Century.\n\nThen: The skeleton was badly damaged after possibly 100 years under the floor\n\nNow: the crocodile after two years of painstaking restoration work\n\nThe skeleton was initially frozen, to remove pests, and tested for dangerous materials before it was cleaned, vacuumed and then repaired. The restoration was completed in December.\n\nCouncillor Joy Rosser said: \"The story of the crocodile at Ysgol Bodringallt is absolutely incredible - it was the last thing workmen thought they'd find underneath a classroom.\n\n\"I'm delighted its conservation is now complete and the legendary crocodile which was rumoured to have been associated with the school is now proudly on display.\n\n\"It was fantastic to see the excited look on pupils' faces when they saw the crocodile on display.\n\n\"I'm sure it will become a cherished part of the school, representing a one-of-a-kind, real piece of local history which can be enjoyed by pupils and staff members for generations to come.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\n\"That has to be our rock bottom.\"\n\nThose were the words of former England captain Sir Alastair Cook after the tourists' Ashes misery finally came to an end in a familiar fashion.\n\nSet 271 to win on the third day of the fifth Test in Hobart, England reached 68-0.\n\nWith an England opening pair who, at long last, looked settled at the crease, that glimmer of hope started to shine a little more brightly.\n\nThere was an opportunity to end the series on a high, prove some doubters wrong and head home with a smidgen of respect.\n\nBut then England lost all 10 wickets for just 56 more runs. The Test was over inside three days, the series lost 4-0.\n\n\"Feeble\", said former England bowler Steven Finn. \"Appalling\" and \"ghastly\" said Mark Butcher, the former England batter.\n• None The Ashes: England crushed by Australia in final Test\n• None Root wants to stay as England captain\n\nBlame for the collapse can firmly be placed on shot selection and judgement.\n\nTo name just a few: Ben Stokes played a wholly unnecessary pull and was caught on the boundary, Sam Billings tamely chipped to mid-on and Ollie Pope got into an almighty tangle as he moved across his stumps and was bowled.\n\nSpeaking on BT, two-time Ashes winning captain Cook did not hold back.\n\n\"It is a batting line-up devoid of all confidence and belief. Nobody seems to be able to step up and stop that slide once or two wickets are lost,\" he said.\n\n\"That has to be our rock bottom. Until people grab this team by the scruff of the neck I can't see them changing.\"\n\n'Enough is enough'\n\nIt was one of the worst collapses of all time. Only once since 1908 have England lost all 10 wickets for fewer than 56 against Australia, at The Oval in 1948.\n\nBut as an indication of their flurry of recent collapses, it is the fifth time in four years England have lost all 10 wickets for less than 65.\n\n\"Enough is enough. This is the line in the sand,\" BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said.\n\n\"We can't keep going back after a hammering in Australia and say things need to change, and then nothing happens.\"\n\nAs Cummins lifted the Ashes urn, a deflated England camp looked on. Finn had some sympathy for the losers.\n\n\"It's a watershed moment for the England players,\" he said on TMS.\n\n\"You have green and gold confetti over the pitch, Australia spraying champagne, and you just wish it was you.\"\n\nEngland's next assignment in red-ball cricket is a three-Test series against West Indies in the Caribbean.\n\nDespite Joe Root saying he wants to continue as captain, Cook is expecting some changes to the team and coaching set-up.\n\n\"I will be very surprised if England go to the West Indies with the same structure in place,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm not saying Joe Root won't be captain but we've had the same set-up for 18 months now and I've not seen any improvement.\n\n\"You have to ask questions of Graham Thorpe, the batting coach, and the others. If they lose in the West Indies their positions will be untenable and there has to be change.\"\n\nFinn says the manner of England's latest defeat is likely to influence change.\n\n\"Had England won [in Hobart], there would have been three or four people who would have put in significant performances in this game and there would be something to cling on to going to the the West Indies,\" he said.\n\n\"But it now feels like there will be some degree of change.\"\n\nEngland will host the next Ashes in 2023, and have not lost a series against Australia on home soil since 2001.\n\nBut having lost 5-0, 4-0 and 4-0 in the past three Ashes series down under, a huge amount of work needs to be done to compete in Australia again in 2025-26.\n\nBut Finn says England would be \"fools to start thinking that far ahead\".\n\nHe added: \"You have to think short term and find those players capable of being there in four years. Plus it's disrespectful to the other teams you're playing in between.\"\n• None Find out how far your decisions would take Phoenix FC's bid for glory\n• None Is cutting carbs really a healthy diet to follow? Discover the facts behind one of the most searched health regimes", "Alliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood are against the plan\n\nFour of the five parties in the Stormont Executive have said they are against a move allowing MPs to be elected to the NI Assembly but keep their Westminster seats.\n\nDetails of the plan were outlined in a letter from government peer Lord Caine to fellow lords on Friday.\n\nIt will bring Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK.\n\nThe return of the dual mandate will last until the next Westminster election due in 2024.\n\nDual mandates, also known as double jobbing, were banned in Northern Ireland in 2016, when a number of MPs were forced to give up their seats in the assembly.\n\nDouble jobbing allowed politicians to hold seats in different legislatures, for example in the House of Commons and the Northern Ireland Assembly.\n\nThe move will allow DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May while retaining his seat at Westminster.\n\nUnder existing rules if he was elected to Stormont he would have had to stand down as an MP, leading to a by-election in his Lagan Valley constituency.\n\nHowever, the four other parties in the executive - Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and Alliance - have strongly condemned the plans.\n\nSinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill called it \"blatant and disgraceful interference\".\n\n\"It represents a major step backwards for politics here and will deny more people, particularly young men and women, the opportunity to step forward into elected politics,\" she said in a statement.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Michelle O’Neill This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe SDLP and Alliance Party said their three MPs will vote against the mandate when comes to the House of Commons.\n\nAlliance Party leader Naomi Long called it a \"seriously retrograde step\" while SDLP MP Claire Hanna tweeted: \"Being an MP is a full time job, and then some, as is being an MLA.\n\n\"People deserve representation at both levels, and dual mandates were abolished for good reason. NIO (Northern Ireland Office) should not be facilitating DUP threats and gambling with devolution.\"\n\nThe move will allow DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May while retaining his seat at Westminster\n\nUlster Unionist Party Leader Doug Beattie tweeted: \"The fact NIO now directly supporting DUP election campaign means they are not a neutral department.\"\n\nThe leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) Jim Allister, whose party is not executive but could rival the DUP in a number of constituencies, called the plan a \"shameless fix\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jim Allister This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHe tweeted: \"Last throw of the dice for some.\n\n\"Dual mandates were abolished for good reason. That reason hasn't changed. Only the desperation of the DUP has changed. What price has the DUP paid for this?\"\n\nLord Caine's letter, seen by the BBC, sets out how the government is proposing an amendment to the Northern Ireland Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern Bill which is currently passing through the House of Lords.\n\nThe bill provides for other changes at Stormont agreed under the New Decade, New Approach deal.\n\nLord Caine said the amendment he is tabling would \"enable MPs to become MLAs [members of the legislative assembly] at Stormont and hold both seats for the duration of the remainder of that parliament\".\n\n\"As was previously the case a person who holds office as both MP and an MLA will not be able to claim their salary as an MLA,\" he added\n\nThe letter adds: \"The provision for dual mandates is intended to facilitate a move from the House of Commons to the Northern Ireland Assembly without triggering by-elections.\n\n\"It is therefore consistent with the assessment made by the UK government in the Northern Ireland Act 2014 that the holding of a dual mandate across parliament and the assembly is not practical on an indefinite basis.\"\n\nLord Caine, who is also the under secretary of state for Northern Ireland, added: \"There is no appetite or consensus in Northern Ireland to allow dual mandates to continue indefinitely or to return to a situation in which the overwhelming majority of MPs from Northern Ireland were also members of the assembly.\"\n\nHe said the objective was to \"support further the functioning of the devolved institutions by providing stability where Northern Ireland parties need to reconfigure their representation across Parliament and Stormont without the triggering of parliamentary by-elections\".", "Salt floats, or salt baths, help in the treatment of some seal pups\n\nAn animal charity said it was \"going through bags of salt like no other\" to treat dozens of injured seal pups.\n\nRSPCA East Winch Wildlife Centre in Norfolk is helping 45 grey and common pups, with eight that need daily salt baths, after they were found hurt.\n\nFive had dog bites on their flippers, including one with \"severe wounds\", and another four had eye injuries, it said.\n\nThe charity has appealed for donations of a specific type of salt through its social media channels.\n\nThe bags usually cost about £15 each and up to nine are needed every day, it said.\n\nOn 2 January the centre took in the first pup of the year, Jasper John, who had \"multiple bite wounds\".\n\nCentre manager Evangelos Achilleos, said: \"Dog bites are becoming more of a concern, especially with young pups during pupping season.\n\nA grey seal being treated for dog bites at the centre close to King's Lynn\n\n\"We fully appreciate the excitement of owners having their dogs off a lead on the beach, but we are urging the public to keep dogs on leads around seals.\n\n\"Seals can also cause major injury to dogs, so keeping the dog on a lead around them will benefit both the dog and the seals.\"\n\nThe animals are a common sight on the Norfolk coastline and in December an appeal was put out by Friends of Horsey Seals after children were seen trying to stroke them.\n\nJasper John was admitted with injuries on 2 January\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe US and Japan have advised people on their Pacific coastlines to get away from the shore as a precaution against tsunami waves caused by a volcano eruption in the South Pacific.\n\nJapan has warned of waves as high as three metres, and waves of 1.2 metres hit the south of the country.\n\nThe US warned of strong currents and waves, and coastal flooding.\n\nThe huge underwater volcanic eruption caused waves of more than a metre to crash into Tonga.\n\nThe eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano was heard across the South Pacific, and eventually as far away as the US.\n\nMany parts of Tonga, whose capital is just 65km (40 miles) south of the eruption, are covered in ash and are experiencing a near-total blackout of power, phone lines and internet services. The extent of any injuries or damage is still unclear.\n\nSocial media footage showed water washing through a church and several homes, and witnesses said ash was falling over the capital, Nuku'alofa.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jese Tuisinu This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nVideos on social media showed traffic jams as people tried to flee low-lying areas by car.\n\nOne resident, Mere Taufa, said the eruption had hit as her family was preparing for dinner, and her younger brother had thought bombs were exploding nearby.\n\n\"My first instinct was to take cover under the table, I grabbed my little sister, and screamed at my parents and others in the house to do the same,\" New Zealand news site Stuff.co.nz quoted her as saying.\n\nMs Taufa said the next thing she knew, water was rushing into their home.\n\n\"You could just hear screams everywhere, people screaming for safety, for everyone to get to higher ground,\" she added.\n\nThe plumes of gas, smoke and ash pouring from the volcano reached 20km into the sky, Tonga Geological Services said.\n\nIn Japan, the 1.2m tsunami was recorded in the Kominato district of Amami-Oshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture at 23:55 (14:55 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nSo violent was the initial eight-minute eruption that it could be heard as \"loud thunder sounds\" in Fiji, more than 800km away, according to officials in the capital, Suva.\n\nThe Fijian government issued a tsunami advisory and opened evacuation centres for people in coastal areas. Vanuatu, another island nation in the Pacific, issued a similar warning.\n\nProf Shane Cronin, a volcanologist at the University of Auckland, said the eruption was one of the biggest in Tonga in the past 30 years.\n\n\"This is a pretty big event - it's one of the more significant eruptions of the last decade at least,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"The most remarkable thing about it is how rapidly and violently it's spread. This one was larger, a much wider lateral spread, much more ash was produced. I expect there to be many centimetres of ash that have been deposited on Tonga.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Australian government said the prime minister and minister for foreign affairs were monitoring the situation and ready to provide support on request.\n\nA tsunami warning has been issued for parts of Australia's east coast and Tasmania.\n\nIn New Zealand, which is more than 2,300km away from Tonga, the National Emergency Management Agency said coastal areas on the north and east coast of the North Island could see \"strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore\".\n\nLocal forecaster Weather Watch tweeted about the eruption: \"The energy release is simply astonishing\", adding: \"Reports of people hearing the sonic booms across New Zealand.\"\n\nDid you witness the volcano? If it is safe for you to do so email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The late Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, who was shot dead inside his home on 7 July 2021\n\nJamaican authorities have arrested a former Haitian senator who is a prime suspect in the murder of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.\n\nJohn Joel Joseph was arrested on Friday, Jamaica Constabulary Force spokesman Dennis Brooks said.\n\nMr Moïse was shot dead on 7 July by gunmen who stormed his residence in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.\n\nSoon after, then-National Police Chief Leon Charles said Mr Joseph supplied weapons and planned meetings.\n\nMr Brooks declined to comment on whether the arrest happened following a request by the FBI in the United States, which is also investigating the murder.\n\nA 124-page Haitian police investigative report states that Mr Joseph \"was instrumental in his fierce will to kill the president\", the Miami Herald reports.\n\nFormer Colombian military officer Mario Antonio Palacios was charged in the US earlier this month with being part of the plot.\n\nWhile several arrests have been made in Haiti in connection with the killing, Mr Palacios was the first suspect to face charges.\n\nPrevious suspects detained were also former members of the Colombian military, many of whom said they were hired to provide \"security services\" in Haiti and were not told about a plan to kill the president.\n\nThe investigation into the murder of Mr Moïse, who was 53, has been slow and has been further set back by the resignations of key officials.\n\nInvestigators have also reported receiving death threats and being intimidated.\n\nThe rise in violence in Haiti and a dire economic situation in the country - made worse by several natural disasters in recent years - have led to a growing number of Haitians seeking opportunities in other countries.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The world's number one male tennis player has now had his visa cancelled - again\n\nThe Australian government was never going to come out of this saga looking good.\n\nThey've been on the back foot ever since Novak Djokovic announced he was coming to defend his Australian Open title.\n\nThe decision to cancel Djokovic's visa - after a court previously ruled in his favour - is largely about saving face with Australian voters in an election year.\n\nTo achieve this, the government is prepared to endure any diplomatic fallout, international embarrassment and the wrath of Djokovic's supporters.\n\nThroughout the past two weeks, the federal government has been adamant to make a point: no-one is above the rules. Not even the men's world number one.\n\nA simple, straightforward principle. But the way it's been handled has been anything but.\n\nOn the afternoon before Djokovic arrived, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the player would \"be on the next plane home\" if his documents were not in order on arrival in Melbourne.\n\n\"Rules are rules,\" Mr Morrison reiterated when Djokovic's visa was revoked the next day, on 6 January.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Scott Morrison This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhen Djokovic challenged the decision, Mr Morrison said it was up to the court.\n\nBut suddenly the government's position began to look very shaky as it asked for more time - denied by a judge - to compile its legal case amid questions over federal procedures. It also faced scrutiny over why Djokovic had been allowed to get on a plane in the first place.\n\nThe whole thing could have ended when judge Anthony Kelly decided in Djokovic's favour - citing a bungle in the process at Melbourne Airport - and ordered the government to reinstate his visa and get him out of detention.\n\nThe immigration minister, Alex Hawke, had the option to use his executive powers to cancel the visa and deport Djokovic and he did.\n\nA lot has been said about the motivation behind this - mainly that it's political. And it is. The blaring politics is impossible to escape.\n\nThere are two things to consider here on the government's front.\n\nFirst, the deep embarrassment this has caused the Morrison administration. To Australians and indeed to the world, politicians look like they are enforcing rules they themselves don't understand or are unclear about. They also seemed to not talk to each other.\n\nThe decision comes as an election is just around the corner for Mr Morrison\n\nOne layer of government - the state of Victoria - was making decisions with Tennis Australia, in isolation. Federal officials were saying something entirely different. And the tournament organisers were complaining they'd been caught in between.\n\nThe second has to do more with Covid and less with tennis. The mood in the country is one of shock and fury. Australia's two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, have been reporting tens of thousands of cases for weeks now.\n\nTesting clinics are still struggling and the number of deaths is also rising. Though it's not at the rate of, say, Europe or the US, this is Australia - a country that imposed some of the strictest Covid rules in the world. A country where, at times, a single case could push a whole city or state into lockdown.\n\nAustralians feel abandoned. They feel like things have turned so bad, so quickly. Many also say they've done everything that's been asked of them.\n\nThey got vaccinated and are now getting their boosters, But still, the Omicron variant is rampant around them leaving many asking what more they could've done.\n\nNow juxtapose that picture against a tennis star who publicly said he opposed the vaccine and who admitted to breaking isolation rules while Covid positive, and to providing false information on his travel declaration form.\n\nThere's also that discrepancy about when he found out he had Covid. He said in his statement that week that he knew on 17 December. But the sworn affidavit he presented to the court said the positive test was confirmed on 16 December.\n\n\"If it were you or me,\" someone said on my Twitter feed, \"Would they allow us in after all that?\"\n\nThere's no doubt that Scott Morrison's government has been bruised by this controversy.\n\nThe political tussling between state and federal governments; the breakdown of communication; the opaqueness of which rules apply to whom; an unvaccinated famous athlete that has broken Covid rules. It all makes for a messy picture that politicians have been trying to straighten out.\n\nGiven all that we know now, the government would have had a lot more to explain if they didn't cancel Novak Djokovic's visa.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nNovak Djokovic has never hidden how much he craves ending his career with the most Grand Slam men's titles of all time.\n\nBut he has been denied the chance to win a record 21st major at next week's Australian Open after his visa was revoked by the country's government.\n\nThe row stopped the 34-year-old Serb having a shot at making more tennis history - but also raises further questions for Djokovic, plus other players who are reluctant to be vaccinated against Covid-19, for the season ahead.\n\nWill other countries stop Djokovic entering if he is not vaccinated? Could it prevent him playing in the other Grand Slam tournaments? For how long?\n\nAnd what does it mean for the nine-time Australian Open champion's future?\n• None How tennis reacted to court's decision over Djokovic visa\n\nWill Djokovic be stopped playing anywhere else?\n\nAfter losing his bid to have his visa cancellation overturned, Djokovic will be denied the opportunity in Australia to become the man with the most Grand Slam titles.\n\nLevel with Switzerland's Roger Federer and Spain's Rafael Nadal on 20, the world number one was aiming to move clear of his long-time rivals for the first time by winning his 10th title at Melbourne Park, although it seems extremely unlikely Djokovic will not play another Grand Slam.\n\nNadal, 35, could move ahead by winning for the first time since his only triumph there in 2009, while 40-year-old Federer is missing with a long-term knee injury.\n\nThe issue with Djokovic's entry into Australia also raises questions about whether he will face difficulty entering other countries.\n\nBut, as Nadal pointed out, Djokovic would face no such problems if he decided to get the vaccination.\n\nSome governments have made vaccinations mandatory for foreign visitors, with others allowing unvaccinated travellers if they provide negative tests and spend time in isolation on arrival.\n\nGenerally throughout his career, Djokovic has taken a few weeks off after the Australian Open before returning for the ATP Masters tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami in March.\n\nNon-US citizens must be fully vaccinated to travel to the United States, according to the US Department of State.\n\n\"Foreign national air travellers to the United States will be required to be fully vaccinated and to provide proof of vaccination status prior to boarding an airplane to fly to the United States, with only limited exceptions,\" it states.\n\nLimited exceptions include people with \"documented medical contraindications to receiving a Covid-19 vaccine\" and those whose entry would be in the national interest.\n\nAfter Miami, the season moves into the European clay-court swing. The first key tournament is in Monte Carlo, where Djokovic resumed his 2021 season after winning the Australian Open two months earlier.\n\nCurrent rules state unvaccinated people can enter the principality if they have proof of a positive PCR test more than 11 days ago and in the past six months, but must otherwise complete a quarantine period that can be cut short by tests.\n\nAfter Monte Carlo, there are two more Masters events in Rome and Madrid before the European clay-court season culminates with the French Open in Paris at the end of May - and fresh doubt has been thrown on Djokovic's participation in that event.\n\nUnvaccinated travellers have been able to enter Spain, France and Italy in various circumstances, enabled by PCR and antigen tests while, potentially, having to complete quarantine periods.\n\nHowever, on Monday, the French sports ministry said there would be no exemption from the country's new vaccine pass law.\n\nThe law, passed by the French government on Sunday, will require all athletes wishing to compete in France to be vaccinated against Covid-19.\n\n\"The rule is simple. The vaccine pass will be imposed, as soon as the law is promulgated, in establishments that were already subject to the health pass,\" the ministry said.\n\n\"This will apply to everyone who is a spectator or a professional sportsperson. And this until further notice.\"\n\nHowever, the ministry added that the situation may change before the French Open gets under way.\n\n\"Now, as far as Roland Garros is concerned, it's in May,\" it added. \"The situation may change between now and then and we hope that it will be more favourable. So we'll see, but clearly there's no exemption.\"\n\nDjokovic is the reigning Wimbledon champion after winning his sixth title at the All England Club last year.\n\nWith just under six months until this year's tournament, it is too early to say exactly what restrictions - if any - players will face in order to participate.\n\nThere will be many more developments in the pandemic which will have subsequent knock-on effects for travelling and major sporting events.\n\nThe Australian Open said players would have to be vaccinated to enter - unless they successfully applied for an exemption -- but it is anticipated Wimbledon's entry requirements would be led by relevant government guidance.\n\nCurrently, non-vaccinated people can enter England but they must complete 10 days of quarantine. They must also hold a negative pre-departure test and two more PCR tests - on day two and day eight - after arriving.\n\nThe test-to-release scheme is still an option to those who want to shorten their isolation period.\n\nAsked if he would allow Djokovic to play at Wimbledon this summer, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: \"It's important for the Australian authorities to make their own dispositions.\n\n\"All I would say about Novak Djokovic is I believe in vaccination and I think it's a wonderful thing to do.\"\n\nWill Djokovic play in Australia again?\n\nDjokovic has long spoken of his affection for Australia and the self-marketed 'Happy Slam' held there.\n\nWinning a record nine Australian Open men's titles is largely why. Last year he described Melbourne Park, where there is always a large band of Serbian support, as \"feeling like home\".\n\nAfter the visa cancellation was initially overturned in a court appeal on Monday, Djokovic said it was \"always an honour and privilege\" to play in Australia.\n\nBut this has been a damaging episode and raises questions about whether he will ever return to play.\n\nDjokovic could, in theory, face a three-year ban after having his visa revoked. By that time he would be 37.\n\nWhat does this mean for his relationship with Australia?\n\n\"I love you each year more and more. The love affair keeps going,\" he told the Rod Laver Arena crowd after winning the title last year.\n\nIf Djokovic had avoided deportation and took to the court on Monday, it would have been fascinating to hear and see the reaction of the fans at Melbourne Park.\n\nThere has been anger among the Australian public, who have endured some of the toughest lockdown rules in the world.\n\nAustralian Open organisers and politicians have also been heavily criticised for their roles in the saga.\n\nTennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley has built a strong relationship with Djokovic and, speaking before Djokovic landed in Melbourne, he denied accusations the governing body had helped the player obtain the exemption.\n\nThere were claims Tennis Australia had been told by the Australian government in November that border officials would not accept a previous case of Covid as a valid exemption reason to be unvaccinated.\n\nLast week, Acting Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan claimed Tiley and Tennis Australia did not inform the state government about this guidance from the federal government.\n\nAmid criticism of his role in the saga, Tiley said the confusion had arisen from \"conflicting information\" in a \"changing environment\". He denied Tennis Australia had deliberately misled players seeking exemptions.\n\nDavid Prince, an Australian immigration lawyer, said there was \"egg on faces\" for the authorities.\n\n\"The handling of the affair looks collectively very bad from Tennis Australia, the Victorian government and Australian federal government,\" he said.\n• None Find out how far your decisions would take Phoenix FC's bid for glory\n• None Is cutting carbs really a healthy diet to follow? Discover the facts behind one of the most searched health regimes", "A mini-tsunami reached as far as Japan after Saturday's eruption, damaging boats in Kochi prefecture\n\nThe threat of further tsunamis around the Pacific after Saturday's huge underwater volcano eruption near Tonga has passed, a monitoring group says.\n\nOn Sunday, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) said the threat had receded but coastal areas should remain alert for strong or unusual currents.\n\nThe US and Japan earlier warned people to move away from coastal areas.\n\nBut while further tsunamis may be unlikely, there are mounting fears over how badly Tonga has been hit.\n\nAt a news conference on Sunday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said boats and large boulders had washed ashore in the island nation's capital Nuku'alofa.\n\n\"Nuku'alofa is covered in a thick film of volcanic dust - but otherwise conditions are calm and stable,\" she said adding that communications with the tiny Pacific nation remained very limited.\n\nMs Ardern said New Zealand was preparing to send an air force reconnaissance aircraft to assess the scale of the damage on Monday morning providing it is safe to do so.\n\nSo far there have been no reports of injuries or deaths in Tonga.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAlso on Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was \"deeply concerned\" about the potential damage and was ready to send support.\n\nThe eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano, about 65km (40 miles) north of Nuku'alofa, caused waves of more than a metre to crash into the island.\n\nSocial media footage showed water washing through a church and several homes in the city.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jese Tuisinu This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nVideos on social media showed traffic jams as people tried to flee low-lying areas by car.\n\nOne resident, Mere Taufa, said the eruption had hit as her family was preparing for dinner, and her younger brother had thought bombs were exploding nearby.\n\n\"My first instinct was to take cover under the table, I grabbed my little sister, and screamed at my parents and others in the house to do the same,\" New Zealand news site Stuff.co.nz quoted her as saying.\n\nMs Taufa said the next thing she knew, water was rushing into their home.\n\n\"You could just hear screams everywhere, people screaming for safety, for everyone to get to higher ground,\" she added.\n\nThe plumes of gas, smoke and ash pouring from the volcano reached 20km into the sky, Tonga Geological Services said.\n\nThe eruption of the volcano was heard across the South Pacific, and eventually as far away as the US.\n\nIn Japan, the 1.2m tsunami was recorded in the Kominato district of Amami-Oshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture late on Saturday.\n\nSo violent was the initial eight-minute eruption that it could be heard as \"loud thunder sounds\" in Fiji, more than 800km away, according to officials in the capital, Suva.\n\nDid you witness the volcano? If it is safe for you to do so email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The first 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to book their booster jabs or attend a walk-in vaccination centre from Monday, NHS England has said.\n\nInvitations will initially be sent to the 40,000 teens who had a second vaccine dose at least three months ago.\n\nEventually more than 600,000 people aged 16 and 17 who have had two doses will be eligible for the booster.\n\nMore than seven in 10 people in this age group in England have had at least one dose - 889,700 in total.\n\nVaccinations have been offered to this age group since August, but previously the booster jab was only recommended by the experts on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) for 16 and 17-year-olds who were deemed clinically vulnerable.\n\nA decision to expand the booster campaign was taken after data showed that two doses of a Covid vaccine were not enough to stop people getting ill with the Omicron variant.\n\nBut a booster jab was shown to prevent about three-quarters of people getting any Covid symptoms.\n\nDr Nikki Kanani, GP and deputy lead for the NHS vaccination programme, said Covid had caused \"so much disruption for so many families over the past two years, affecting young people's lives and education\", but getting vaccinated protects them, \"letting them stay at school and continue socialising\".\n\nSchools have seen high levels of absences from staff and students as the Omicron variant sent infection rates soaring across the UK, with 315,000 secondary pupils missing classes for Covid-related reasons at the start of the new term.\n\nVaccines Minister Maggie Throup said: \"Omicron has spread rapidly across the UK and we're doing everything we can to keep schools, sixth forms and colleges open as face-to-face teaching is so important.\"\n\nBut high infection rates could also delay the booster jab for some young people.\n\nFollowing the recommendation of the JCVI, the NHS will not give a booster jab to 16- and 17-year-olds within 12 weeks of a positive Covid-19 test.\n\nThis increased waiting period was introduced in November after data suggested it could reduce further the \"very, very small risk\" of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, in under-18s.\n\nMyocarditis has been seen in only about nine in every million vaccinations of young people and cases have been \"relatively mild\", officials have said.\n\nFor a clinically vulnerable person aged 16 or 17, the waiting period is four weeks.", "Prince Harry is seeking a judicial review against a refusal of the Home Office to allow him to personally pay for police protection when in the UK.\n\nThe US-based Duke of Sussex says his private security team does not have adequate jurisdiction abroad.\n\nHe lost his taxpayer-funded police security after stepping back from royal duties in 2020.\n\nPrince Harry says he wants to visit his home country with his family, but needs to \"ensure\" their safety.\n\nThe application for a judicial review - a challenge in the High Court against the decision of a public body or government department - follows a security incident in London in July 2021 when the duke's car was chased by photographers as he left a charity event.\n\nA legal representative for Prince Harry said the legal claim was filed in September \"to challenge the decision-making behind the security procedures, in the hopes that this could be re-evaluated for the obvious and necessary protection required\".\n\nPrince Harry wants to personally fund police protection, \"not to impose on the taxpayer\", they said.\n\nThe duke, who is now based in California, is arguing that his private security team cannot replicate the work of police protection in the UK, with their access to local intelligence and legal jurisdiction.\n\nA statement said: \"Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life.\n\n\"He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats.\"\n\nHis legal representative said he offered to pay the costs of police protection in January 2020 at Sandringham, when talks with the Queen were being held over the Sussexes' future role. But the offer was dismissed, the representative said.\n\n\"The UK will always be Prince Harry's home and a country he wants his wife and children to be safe in. With the lack of police protection, comes too great a personal risk,\" the statement said.\n\nThe Sussexes' daughter, Lilibet, is now seven months old and has yet to meet her great-grandmother the Queen, grandfather the Prince of Wales and other members of the family.\n\nThe couple were forced to disclose they had put in place \"privately funded security arrangements\" for their move to the US, after then-president Donald Trump said the country would not pay for their protection.\n\nA government spokesperson said the UK's \"protective security system is rigorous and proportionate\".\n\nThey added: \"It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements. To do so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals' security.\"", "The government has faced intense pressure over events held in an around Downing Street.\n\nBoris Johnson announced a plan to take the “first careful steps\" out of the lockdown that began in March 2020. But he said people should continue to \"obey the rules on social distancing and to enforce those rules we will increase the fines for the small minority who break them”. Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said, “those people were at work talking about work”. About 100 people were invited by email to “socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden” on behalf of the prime minister’s principal private secretary, Martin Reynolds. Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson has confirmed he attended the event, saying he was there for 25 minutes and “believed implicitly that this was a work event”. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had “gathered briefly\" to \"wish the prime minister a happy birthday\", adding that he had been there \"for less than 10 minutes”. Rules at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. Boris Johnson announced plans for a “significant return to normality\" in England by Christmas \"through targeted, local action” instead of national lockdowns. But he added that the timetable relied on “every one of us staying alert and acting responsibly”. With cases of coronavirus rising again, the prime minister told people in England that “we are once again asking you to stay at home” as a new national lockdown began. He said people should only leave their homes “for work if you can’t work from home, for education, and for essential activities and emergencies”. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. Sources told the BBC that Downing Street staff members attended a gathering with Carrie Johnson in the flat where she and the prime minister live. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. The second national lockdown ended after four weeks but Boris Johnson replaced those restrictions with “tough tiers to keep this virus down”. London was placed in tier two, which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. The Conservative Party has admitted that an “unauthorised gathering” took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. The Metropolitan Police is to speak to two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - showed Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher London moved into the highest tier of restrictions and Matt Hancock, who was health secretary at the time, said it was important “everyone is cautious” ahead of the festive period. The Department for Transport apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices that day, calling it “inappropriate\" and an \"error of judgment” by staff. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was “truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result”. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton, joking about reports of an event, saying: “This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced.” A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. Lockdown restrictions were eased in England, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen with outdoor service only. However, working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it “should not have happened at the time that it did”. Boris Johnson was not at either party.", "The shooting happened on Barony Drive in Baillieston\n\nA 31-year-old man has been seriously injured after being shot in a targeted attack in Glasgow.\n\nPolice were called to Barony Drive in the Baillieston area at about 00:10 on Saturday after the man was found with serious injuries.\n\nThe man was taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, before being transferred to Glasgow Royal Infirmary.\n\nDet Insp Andy Wright said the man was shot shortly before he was found.\n\nHe said: \"This was a targeted attack and the 31-year-old man would appear to be the intended victim, however we realise that such incidents do cause alarm.\n\n\"The roads in the area will be opened today, however we will have increased patrols thereafter and I would like to reassure the local community that everything is being done to trace whoever is responsible.\n\n\"We would ask anyone with any information to get in touch with us, if you were in the area at the time and have not already spoken to police, we would urge you to come forward. You may have information that can help us.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Marmite is one of Unilever's many brands\n\nGlaxoSmithKline has rejected three Unilever offers to buy its consumer goods division, including one worth £50bn.\n\nGSK said the proposals \"fundamentally failed\" to reflect the value of the division.\n\nWith a successful bid, Unilever - which owns Marmite, Dove and PG Tips - would add Sensodyne toothpaste and Panadol to its list of household brands.\n\nSuch a deal would be one of the biggest ever involving London-listed firms.\n\nGSK said in a statement the most recent proposal from Unilever on 20 December contained an offer for £41.7bn in cash and £8.3bn in Unilever shares.\n\nThe global healthcare company, which has its headquarters in London, has already been preparing to separate its consumer goods division from its pharmaceutical business in the middle of this year.\n\nThe firm has come under pressure from investors for failing to develop a Covid vaccine.\n\nUnilever said in a statement the GSK consumer arm \"would be a strong strategic fit as Unilever continues to reshape its portfolio\".\n\nThe consumer goods giant, which became a fully British company in 2020 after previously being separated between the UK and the Netherlands, also approached Pfizer about the potential deal, since the American pharmaceutical giant owns a 34% stake in GSK's consumer goods business.\n\nNeither GSK nor Pfizer has any ideological objection to selling to Unilever. GSK had planned to spin off its consumer business later this year anyway through a demerger creating a separate publicly listed company but always said it would have an open mind to a trade sale to another party if the price was right.\n\nGSK's problem with the Unilever bid is that the price isn't right.\n\nBoth Barclays and Goldman Sachs analysts have valued the business at around £50bn. However, that does not include a few important things.\n\nFirst, the premium you would normally expect to pay for taking control of a business - somewhere in the range of 30% - although that might be reduced by the debt of about £10bn GSK was expected to leave on the books of the consumer business.\n\nSecond, the value of the cost savings GSK admits could be made to make the business more profitable.\n\nThird, it may not reflect the higher sales growth targets GSK boss Emma Walmsley has said are possible for the business.\n\nShe has also said the benefit of a demerger is current GSK shareholders would get shares in the demerged business so retain their participation in any future growth in the consumer business.\n\nSome will say if higher growth and greater cost reductions are possible, why haven't they happened already? Emma Walmsley has been in charge for more than four years. That's one of the questions activist shareholder Elliot Management has implicitly asked by encouraging other shareholders to agitate for a more radical greater break up of one of the UK's most valuable companies.\n\nThe BBC understands the very different ideas on what this business is worth means there are no active and ongoing discussions between GSK and Unilever.\n\nBut Unilever's intentions are very clear.\n\nThe \"for sale\" sign is now very visible and the elbows will get sharper as this basket of household consumer goods gets closer to the checkout.\n\nRuss Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said Unilever's chief executive Alan Jope was under pressure because the business had recently missed targets for sales and profit margins.\n\n\"Unilever has strong cashflow, but the heat is on Mr Jope. He wants to be seen to do something,\" Mr Mould said.\n\n\"But this is a high risk deal. Many investors see GSK as underperforming. But at a time when inflation is rising, consumer goods with loyal customers represent a good way for firms to try to manage profits.\"\n\nThe move was first reported in the Sunday Times.\n\nGSK said its consumer goods division had the potential to increase sales by up to 6% a year in the medium term, and Unilever's offers did not take that into account. It said the proposals were not in the best interests of GSK shareholders.\n\nOther brands in the division include Centrum vitamins, Aquafresh toothpaste and Nicorette gum.\n\nThe company has said it is in late stage trails of a Covid vaccine it was developing with the French pharmaceutical firm, Sanofi.", "Last updated on .From the section Snooker\n\nAustralia's Neil Robertson claimed the Masters title for the second time by coasting past England's Barry Hawkins 10-4 at London's Alexandra Palace.\n\nRobertson's success comes 10 years after he won the prestigious invitational event for the first time.\n\nHe opened up a 5-3 lead in the first session and converted the advantage with little trouble in the evening, aided by numerous errors from Hawkins.\n\nRobertson becomes the 10th player to lift the trophy more than once.\n\nHe also collects a hefty £250,000 in prize money, while runner-up Hawkins takes home £100,000.\n\nRobertson said on BBC Two: \"With the players I have had to beat, it has to be right up there. Every match has thrown up a lot of challenges.\n\n\"Coming here, when it was announced we were having the crowds back I was so excited. It was fantastic to hear the crowds cheer again.\"\n• None World champion Selby 'needs help' with mental health\n\nRobertson further solidified his status as snooker's most successful non-British player by claiming his sixth Triple Crown event title - his two victories in this event going alongside his 2010 World Championship and three UK Championships.\n\nThe 39-year-old has been the form player this season, picking up his second trophy after the English Open in November as well as finishing runner-up to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the World Grand Prix.\n\nRobertson gained revenge by ousting record seven-time champion O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals at Alexandra Palace and followed it up with a remarkable semi-final victory over Mark Williams on the final black, having needed two snookers in the deciding frame.\n\nHe was visibly emotional after that match, saying spectators would \"probably never see\" a finish like that again and urging any kids watching to \"never give up\".\n\nRobertson was not fully firing in the final yet still compiled two centuries and six breaks of 50 or more to punish Hawkins.\n\nRobertson added: \"I got about 300 text messages tell me I have never seen anything like it [the semi-final] and coming in everyone was saying 'what about yesterday?'\n\n\"I think Barry was a little bit unlucky being in the second semi-final where he wins 6-5. Roles reversed, he could have won today.\"\n• None Comebacks, 147s and streakers: Try our Masters quiz\n\nHawkins is a consistent performer who regularly reaches the latter stages of events, but the world number 10 is becoming a major event 'nearly man'.\n\nHe reached the semi-finals of the UK Championship in York last month and this was his third loss in a Triple Crown final after defeats by O'Sullivan at the Crucible in 2013 and again - a 10-1 crushing - at this event three years later.\n\nHawkins seemed full of confidence when he too reached the final by winning a decider against world number two Judd Trump, but was out of sorts in the showpiece.\n\nAlthough he took the opening frame of the contest, missing straightforward pots against an opponent of Robertson's calibre was always going to prove costly and just two half-centuries with a top break of 69 highlighted his struggles.\n\nHawkins said: \"I am not too disappointed because I've had a great week - one of the best of my life. There's been an unbelievable atmosphere and I've played some unbelievable matches.\n\n\"I made too many mistakes today and you can't do that against someone like Neil because he's a wonderful player.\"\n\nThe story of the match\n\nLast year's Masters took place behind closed doors in Milton Keynes because of the coronavirus pandemic and the return to Alexandra Palace was a roaring success with the crowd creating a boisterous atmosphere throughout the tournament.\n\nBoth players were given another tremendous reception in the final and although neither were at their best in the opening session, Robertson opened up a 5-3 advantage with breaks of 50, 105 and two runs of 54.\n\nTied at 2-2, the fifth frame was pivotal with Hawkins making 60 but fouling the green with his sleeve, leaving Robertson a free ball and allowing him to pinch it with a clearance from the final red.\n\nRobertson found his groove in the evening session with runs of 50 and 68 extending his advantage to 8-4 and he finished it off with further breaks of 114 and 47 to clinch a dominant win.", "Three-year-old Miles was found walking the streets during school time\n\nThe parents of a three-year-old boy who wandered home from school alone are demanding answers from the authorities.\n\nGeorgia Wilcox said her family were shocked when Miles turned up at their home in Trealaw, Rhondda Cynon Taf, during school time.\n\nA woman followed Miles, who is non-verbal, to make sure he got home after being spotted walking alone.\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf council said a full investigation into the \"serious incident\" was under way.\n\nMs Wilcox was at home with her partner and two-year-old son when the woman knocked on the door just before 11:00 GMT on Friday.\n\nShe said: \"I was upstairs when the door went and my partner came in with Miles.\n\n\"He said 'you need to get on to the school' because a woman had found him on the hill.\n\n\"I went up to the school and the receptionist looked shocked.\"\n\nMiles is too young to understand the dangers, says his mother\n\nMs Wilcox said they had not been contacted by Trealaw Primary School, about a 10-minute walk away, to say Miles was missing.\n\n\"They were adamant they had been looking for Miles, but the school has refused to let us see the CCTV,\" she said.\n\n\"We are definitely under the impression they didn't know he was gone.\n\n\"The woman had found him on of the hills near our road, he would have been walking on his own.\"\n\nMs Wilcox said Miles had been been spotted \"running in and out of the road\" in footage found on neighbours' CCTV.\n\nShe added: \"We feel really shaken up. We just want them to realise they should be held accountable. He must have wanted to go home but the gate shouldn't be open.\n\n\"He is his normal self, but he doesn't understand that he shouldn't have left [or] the dangers of it all.\"\n\nAn investigation is under way into how Miles was able to walk out of the school\n\nA council spokesman told Wales Online the safeguarding of pupils was of \"paramount importance\".\n\nThey added: \"Council officers and social services staff will work meticulously to understand how this incident occurred and, where issues are identified, immediately put in place measures to prevent this from happening again, and address any additional concerns that are identified as a result of the investigation.\n\n\"We fully share the concerns of parents and guardians of pupils and they will shortly be receiving a letter regarding the incident.\"", "The star said she had been \"awake for 30 hours\" trying to find a solution\n\nAdele has postponed her entire Las Vegas residency, just 24 hours before the opening night.\n\n\"I'm so sorry, but my show ain't ready,\" the star told fans in a tearful update on Instagram.\n\n\"Half my team have Covid and it's been impossible to finish the show,\" she said, adding that \"delivery delays\" had also played havoc with her plans.\n\nShe was due to play the first of 24 concerts at the Caesars Palace's Colosseum on Friday.\n\nAnnounced late in November, the Weekends With Adele series was scheduled to have the singer performing two shows every weekend until April.\n\nTickets ranged from $85 (£60) to $685 (£500), and Adele was forecast to make more than £500,000 per performance.\n\nThey would have been her first live concerts in five years. Along with two dates in London's Hyde Park this summer, they are the only shows she has announced to promote her blockbuster fourth album, 30.\n\nSpeaking on Instagram, Adele said she had been \"awake for 30 hours\" trying to rescue the production, but had simply \"run out of time\".\n\n\"It's been impossible to finish the show,\" she added. \"I can't give you what I have right now and I'm gutted.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by adele This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAdele also apologised to fans who had already arrived to Las Vegas for the opening weekend.\n\n\"I'm sorry, it's last minute. I'm so upset and I'm really embarrassed and I'm so sorry to everyone that's travelled again.\"\n\nShe added: \"We're going to reschedule all the dates, we're on it right now. And I'm going to finish my show. I want to to get it to where it's supposed to be [but] we've been up against so much and it just ain't ready.\"\n\nMany fans have been supportive on social media - saying it was the right decision and wishing her and her team well.\n\nBut some are facing losing hundreds of dollars from flight and hotel bookings.\n\nGillian Rowland-Kain, 32, was already on her flight to Las Vegas from New York for Friday's opening night show when she found out about the cancellation via social media.\n\n\"I was furious that Adele waited so last minute to make this call,\" she said. \"I recognise it's not a call any artist wants to make but she would've known yesterday that the show wouldn't be ready by tomorrow.\n\n\"Her lack of notice is astounding. I'm angry and frustrated.\"\n\nMs Rowland-Kain, who is from Brooklyn and travelling to Vegas with her twin sister, added that while she recognised the impact of Covid, the last-minute cancellation felt \"like a slap in the face\".\n\nGillian and her twin sister on the plane, minutes before finding out the show was cancelled\n\nJosh Chavis, from Kansas City, says his wife Heather paid almost $1,800 (£1,300) for her hotel and flights to Vegas for a show this weekend.\n\nWhile Heather was on hold with the hotel company, Mr Chavis told the BBC she was disappointed - and even Adele announcing it a few days sooner \"would have made all the difference\" in terms of refunds.\n\n\"We recognise that things are hard for everyone, but this is a huge misstep on the part of both the performer and those responsible for putting the show together,\" he said.\n\nThe star was previously forced to cancel the final two dates of her previous tour, at Wembley Stadium in 2017 after damaging her vocal cords.\n\nWhile Adele has apparently been beset by production problems and illness within her crew, other Vegas shows have been running as normal.\n\nThree weeks ago, Katy Perry smoothly rolled out her own residency on the strip, to largely positive reviews.\n\nHer elaborate and playful production - which she has dubbed \"Perry Playland\"- includes oversized talking furniture, a giant red rocking horse, a dancing alarm clock and a bra that serves beer on tap.\n\nBillboard magazine described the two-hour show as \"part fantasy, part hallucination and thoroughly high-camp\", while the Las Vegas Review-Journal called it a \"glorious example of what an unbridled imagination can achieve\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Superdry have teamed up with influencers such as singer beabadoobee to drive sales among older teens\n\nSuperdry's boss has warned that shoppers should expect higher prices due to rising costs and says the chain will have no more sales in its shops.\n\nJulian Dunkerton said it would increase prices on some clothing items by about 2% due to rising inflation.\n\nIt hopes to offset price rises by cutting the number of items it puts on sale online too.\n\n\"We are a fantastic value brand and will remain so,\" Mr Dunkerton told the BBC.\n\nOther companies, such as Kingsmill bread-owner AB Foods, Greggs and Next have all said that spiralling costs of wages, manufacturing and raw materials mean they have either put prices up or are planning to do so in the future.\n\nOfficial figures released on Wednesday showed that soaring food costs and energy bills had pushed up the cost of living at its fastest rate in nearly 30 years.\n\nInflation, which measures how costs change over time, jumped to 5.4% in the 12 months to December - up from 5.1% the month before,.\n\nBut Mr Dunkerton's comments came as Superdry reported a return to profit, with trading helped by new clothing ranges and a social media push using influencers.\n\nIt reported a pre-tax profit of £4m in the six months to late October - up from a nearly £19m loss one year before when non-essential shops were closed during lockdown.\n\nSales across the company dropped, however, by 1.9%. The company said that was down to the fallout of the pandemic, as well as its move to reduce discounts.\n\nIt pointed to bright spots in Christmas trading, with jacket sales up 40% year-on-year, for example.\n\nThe company is also looking to draw in younger shoppers with a mix of different products, and Mr Dunkerton said he hoped the brand \"is just becoming cool again\".\n\nSuperdry said that mini skirts and \"70s vibe\" flares had been performing well with older teens - one of their key target markets.\n\nTo capture the imagination of younger fashionistas, it has stepped up its social media marketing on Instagram and TikTok, taking cues from the likes of online giants Boohoo and Asos.\n\nThe company now works with about 2,000 influencers, up six-fold year-on-year, and said its Instagram followers had increased by nearly a quarter.\n\nMr Dunkerton told the BBC that Superdry's launch on TikTok had gone well.\n\n\"That will see huge growth for us,\" he said.\n\n\"We only started on there in September and we've got nearly 100,000 followers already - it's a key way of talking to our teenage demographic.\"\n\nSuperdry, which started out as a market stall in Cheltenham, was set up by by Mr Dunkerton and James Holder, and went on to enjoy huge commercial success.\n\nBut clashes followed between Mr Dunkerton and the board, leading to his resignation from the board and eventual return in 2019 to \"steady the ship\" after huge losses.\n\nIncreasing engagement on social is understood to be a key part of his strategy, with the brand working with influencers and on tie-ups with celebrities such as Brooklyn Beckham and football superstar Neymar Jr.\n\n\"We want to build up our influencer base throughout Europe and start in American the tail end of this year. We will end up with an army of influencers because that's a key part of our strategy,\" Mr Dunkerton said.\n\nIts influencers are often sent free clothing, or might receive payment for their sponsored ads online.\n\nRichard Lim, chief executive of Retail Economics, said: \"The battle for customers' attention is increasingly being fought online as the pandemic has accelerated the influence of digital across the entire customer journey.\n\n\"Retailers are leveraging the reach offered by influencers across social media platforms to connect with new customers and new markets.\"\n\nSuperdry's new flagship store on London's Oxford Street has also put selfies and reels at its centre.\n\nHaving opened in November, it features an entire floor closed to the public, instead dedicated to hosting social stars in its showroom and a gin bar.", "The restrictions introduced to curb the Omicron wave are being scrapped in England.\n\nMandatory face coverings, Covid passes and working-from-home guidance - the so-called Plan B - are all going.\n\nIt leaves England - in the words of Health Secretary Sajid Javid - the most open country in Europe. But is it too soon to take such a step?\n\nInfections levels, while falling, are still well above what they were at the height of the peak last winter.\n\nWhat is more, the progress being made varies between regions. The Midlands, North East and Yorkshire are yet to see hospital admissions start falling, despite a drop in the overall national figure.\n\nIt is why some scientists and public health experts have expressed concern the easing may be too much and risks a rebound in infections .\n\nAnd one has to wonder what influence the political considerations have had - the Tory backbenchers were unlikely to vote to keep any part of Plan B.\n\nBut, in the end, it also comes down to a judgement about what is proportionate.\n\nA trade-off has to be made between the costs of such restrictions and the benefits they bring.\n\nAnd with the worst of the Omicron wave almost certainly over, the benefits were reducing.\n\nDo you think it is too soon to lift restrictions? Share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk\n\nEngland - and the rest of the UK, for that matter - is one of best protected nations when you combine the immunity built up by vaccination and previous infection.\n\nMore than 97% of the population has antibodies, the latest Office for National Statistics data suggests. When the pandemic began, that was, of course, 0%.\n\nThis does not necessarily mean people are immune to infection, but our bodies have become better at fighting the virus. The result is Covid is now causing milder illness and the proportion of infected people dying has dropped markedly.\n\nAlthough there are also signs this is partly down to Omicron being intrinsically less severe too.\n\nThis has helped keep the number of deaths in recent weeks much lower than previous waves and at a similar level to a bad flu season.\n\nIt is very much the best-case scenario in terms of what we were told we could see when this variant, first identified in South Africa, took off.\n\nHospital admissions appear to have peaked at just over 2,000 a day, when modelling suggested they could reach three to four times that in the worst case and even the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), the government's official advisory body, said it expected them to hit 3,000 at least.\n\nBut there are still huge pressures on the NHS. More than 15,000 people in England are in hospital with Covid, although this is not entirely what it seems as close to half of them have been admitted for something else rather than being seriously ill with the virus.\n\nSo there are plenty of reasons for ministers and their advisers to say the data supports the case for a relaxation.\n\nThe restriction that reduces spread of the virus most when infected - the requirement to isolate - remains, remember.\n\nThe outgoing Plan B measures, by comparison, all have a more marginal impact, if any.\n\nOf these, working from home was the measure government scientists always argued had the most effect - but the jury was out over the exact effectiveness of the others.\n\nFor example, the Department for Education's own evidence review admitted the data on the ability of masks in classrooms to reduce the spread of the virus was inconclusive, with studies showing mixed results. What is more, their use could harm communication and learning.\n\nMeanwhile, the rise of Omicron meant the effectiveness of two vaccine doses in preventing infection has been significantly reduced, weakening the argument for Covid passes to access events.\n\nInstead, what many experts believe will be crucial now is the behaviour of the public.\n\nJust because the government is giving people more freedom, it does not mean there will be a headlong rush back to normal.\n\nThis has been seen throughout the pandemic. Even after England's 19 July \"Freedom Day\", mixing patterns did not rebound back to pre-pandemic levels, when people would average 10 contacts a day, helping keep the virus largely in check until the arrival of Omicron.\n\nBy the end of December, as the Omicron wave was peaking, daily contacts were actually close to the levels seen in the first lockdown, curbing the spread in the process.\n\nNow the public is again being asked to manage the risks, and that behaviour will determine the course of the pandemic over the coming weeks.", "Glasgow has been transformed into a dark, wintry Gotham City as filming takes place for the upcoming Batgirl movie.\n\nScene dressers have erected shop fronts, positioned police cars and cabs and brought in a graffitied Batman mural to bring the fictional universe alive.\n\nThe film is based on the DC Comics character Barbara Gordon - or Batgirl - played by Leslie Grace, alongside Michael Keaton as Batman, Brendan Fraser as villain Firefly and JK Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon.\n\nIt is expected to be released some time in 2022.\n\nDirectors Bilall Fallah (right) and Adil El Arbi pictured on set on 13 January", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Christian Wakeford says he was threatened to vote in a certain way\n\nAn ex-Tory MP who defected to Labour said he was threatened he would not get a high school in his constituency if he did not vote in a certain way.\n\nBury South MP Christian Wakeford said it made him start to question his place within the Conservative Party.\n\nIt comes after MP William Wragg accused the government of trying to \"blackmail\" its own MPs to stop them plotting against the prime minister.\n\nBut Boris Johnson said he had not seen any evidence to support the claim.\n\nMr Wakeford, who had been a Conservative Party member for nearly 20 years, announced his decision to switch sides moments before Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.\n\nHe took the Bury South seat from Labour at the 2019 general election by just 402 votes but will now sit as a Labour MP.\n\nSpeaking to BBC North West Tonight in Bury earlier, he said: \"I was threatened that I would not get the school for Radcliffe if I did not vote in one particular way.\n\n\"This is a town that's not had a high school for the best part of 10 years.\n\n\"How would you feel when holding back regeneration of a town for a vote, it didn't sit comfortably.\n\n\"That was really starting to question my place where I was and ultimately to where I am now.\"\n\nA Labour source said the vote in question related to free school meals.\n\nMr Wakeford said the country needs a government that \"upholds the highest standards of integrity and probity\"\n\nBury county councillor Mike Smith, who represents Radcliffe West on the local authority, said planning permission was due to be sought for the school early this year and the first intake of pupils should be in September 2024.\n\nHe said it \"would be disappointing\" if the school's funding had been used as a threat.\n\nMr Smith, part of the independent party Radcliffe First, added: \"I have emailed both the councillor at Bury who is in charge of regeneration and the person who is in charge of the school asking for their input as to whether there is any truth to this, and whether there is any threat to the funding.\n\n\"Reading his comments, it would be very surprising if there was. I'm taking it that this is quite historical.\"\n\nMr Wakeford made the comments after introducing Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves for her speech at The Met theatre in the town.\n\nDuring his speech, Mr Wakeford said Labour was \"ready to provide an alternative government that this country can be proud of\" and had become \"the party of economic competence\".\n\nMr Johnson is facing down an attempt from some Tory MPs to oust him as leader over lockdown parties held in Downing Street.\n\nEarlier, Conservative MP Mr Wragg, who is among those calling on the prime minister to resign, said rebels had faced \"pressures and intimidation\" from ministers.\n\nHe said the conduct of the Government Whips' Office threatening to withdraw public funding from MPs' constituencies may have breached the ministerial code.\n\nBut Mr Johnson insisted he had not seen any evidence to support Mr Wragg's claims of intimidatory tactics against Tory critics.\n\nHe said he would \"of course\" look for evidence to support the allegations made by Mr Wragg.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The self-isolation period will be cut to five days, according to the Northern Ireland First Minister\n\nThe minimum self-isolation period for people in Northern Ireland who have Covid is to be cut from seven full days to five, the first minister has said.\n\nPaul Givan said the change would take effect from Friday, 21 January.\n\nBut people will need to produce negative lateral flow tests on days five and six of their isolation.\n\nMr Givan said he was also hopeful more Covid restrictions could be lifted when the executive meets on Thursday.\n\nEngland had already moved to change its policy on self-isolation rules earlier this month.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Paul Givan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPeople who still test positive on these days must stay in isolation until they have had two negative tests taken on consecutive days, or after 10 days.\n\nThe rules apply whether someone is vaccinated or not.\n\nThe Stormont Executive had been facing calls from businesses facing staff shortages due to the Omicron variant, to bring its policy into line with England.", "The children's commissioner for England is calling for every child to have a single identifying number that can be used by schools, health authorities and the police\n\nAn inquiry is being launched into children who are not attending school in the wake of national lockdowns, the children's commissioner for England has said.\n\nBetween 80,000 and 100,000 children missed more school than they attended in autumn 2020, according to Dame Rachel de Souza's office.\n\nHowever, the number of children who are not on any school rolls is not known.\n\n\"Literally, I am going to go out and find them,\" Dame Rachel told BBC News.\n\nThe Department for Education (DfE) said its \"top priority\" was supporting children to attend school and college.\n\nDame Rachel told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme about 95% of children were usually in school at this time of year - but now, this figure was about 87%.\n\nSome absences were down to illness and Covid, she said, but other children had simply failed to return following classroom closures during the pandemic.\n\nSome may have problems with anxiety and bullying, Dame Rachel said.\n\nOthers were \"not even on any school roll\" - and she would \"go out and find them\".\n\n\"I am going to use the police, or the local safeguarding boards,\" she said.\n\n\"We are going to find the children because I want to talk to them to ask them what's going on and get them in.\"\n\nDame Rachel, a former head teacher, said she was worried vulnerable children could fall into criminality.\n\nSchool was the best place to keep children safe, she said, referring to the case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, who was tortured and killed by his father and stepmother during the first national lockdown.\n\nA serious case review was launched into circumstances around the six-year-old's death, after it emerged social workers had visited the house in the months before he died and found no cause for concern.\n\nThe father and stepmother of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes were jailed last month\n\nDame Rachel also said she had received commitment from Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi to create a national database to see attendance data in real time.\n\n\"I know, and the DfE knows, how many - what percentage - of children are in school on a day-to-day basis, morning and afternoon session,\" she said.\n\n\"We don't know nationally if it's the same children as yesterday - and that's the problem.\"\n\nDame Rachel said she had written to local authorities and safeguarding boards across England and was meeting with representatives from 10 local authorities on Wednesday.\n\n\"When I asked the 10 local authorities to send me very simple data [such as] how many children have you got in your area, how many children are not on roll, how many children are waiting for school places, they could not all give me that answer,\" she said.\n\n\"I cannot believe that we can't actually manage to find every child in this country.\"\n\n\"Our top priority continues to be supporting all children to attend school or college,\" she said.\n\nNational leaders were part of an \"attendance alliance\" aiming to \"spread best practice [to] improve attendance right across the country\", the spokeswoman said.\n\n\"They will be responsible for making sure everyone working on the ground with children, as a teacher, football coach, mental-health worker or in any other role, has the tools and resources they need to break down barriers to children attending school,\" she said.\n\n\"We welcome the children's commissioner's support with this work and will continue to prioritise taking action to make sure children have the opportunity to spend time in class with inspirational teachers and good friends - simply because it is the single most powerful tool at our disposal to make sure every child fulfils their potential.\"\n\nUpdate 25 February: This article originally reported that children's commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza told BBC Woman's Hour that between 80,000 and 100,000 children were not on any school rolls at all. The Office of the Children's Commissioner for England subsequently confirmed that Dame Rachel misspoke and that this figure actually relates to the number of children who were persistently absent from school in autumn 2020, following the first Covid-19 lockdown. They also confirmed that the number of children not on school rolls is unknown and so we have updated our article.", "Boris Johnson was asked about the claims on a visit to Somerset\n\nBoris Johnson says he has \"seen no evidence\" of blackmail in his party after claims by one of his own MPs.\n\nWilliam Wragg - who has called on the PM to resign over parties at No 10 - said suspected plotters against the PM have been threatened with bad publicity and cuts to constituency funding.\n\nHe has advised colleagues who feel threatened to go to the police.\n\nAn ex-Tory MP who defected to Labour, Christian Wakeford, also said he was threatened over funding for a school.\n\nMr Johnson told reporters on Thursday he had \"seen no evidence [and] heard no evidence\" of Mr Wragg's claims, but he would look into them.\n\nOn Friday, the Times reported rebels have met to discuss the tactics of government whips, the MPs in charge of party discipline.\n\nThe newspaper reported the plotters discussed whether to make public text messages and other evidence of how they have been treated.\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner called Mr Wragg's claims \"shocking\" and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey accused Mr Johnson of \"acting more like a mafia boss than a prime minister\".\n\nScotland's First Minister, the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon, said: \"If Tories are threatening to withhold public investment from constituencies as a way of keeping MPs in line then, yes, that's blackmail and intimidation - but it is also corruption.\n\n\"The moral decay at the heart of Johnson's government may be even worse than we thought.\"\n\nBut Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries accused Mr Wragg of \"attention-seeking behaviour\", calling his accusations \"nonsense\".\n\nAnd Energy Minister Greg Hands, who used to work as a government whip, said Mr Wakeford was not a \"credible source\" because his defection meant his job was now to \"do down the Conservative Party\".\n\nHe added that Mr Wragg's claims had \"not been borne out by anybody else\", adding: \"This is not something that happens.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Johnson is facing down an attempt from some Tory MPs to oust him as leader over lockdown parties held in Downing Street.\n\nHe has called on potential rebels to wait for the outcome of civil servant Sue Gray's inquiry into parties, expected next week, before passing judgement on him.\n\nBut prominent Tory backbencher, Steve Baker, told the BBC's Political Thinking podcast that it \"looks like checkmate\" for the prime minister.\n\n\"Honestly, at the moment, I'm looking to the cabinet for leadership,\" he told host Nick Robinson.\n\n\"At the moment, I'm afraid it does look like checkmate - but whether he can save himself, we'll see.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. MPs should report intimidation tactics to the police, says William Wragg\n\nMr Wragg launched a stinging attack on the way the government has handled dissent among Tory MPs on Thursday, in another sign of worsening relations between Mr Johnson and his backbenchers.\n\nSpeaking at a Commons committee that he chairs, the MP for Hazel Grove accused government whips of threatening those suspected of plotting with the removal of government investment in their constituencies.\n\nHe also said he had received reports of government ministers, advisers and staff at No 10 \"encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass\" those suspected of lacking confidence in the PM.\n\nMr Wragg claimed the reports \"would seem to constitute blackmail\" - and as well as contacting police, affected MPs should contact the Commons Speaker.\n\nAfter the appearance, Mr Wakeford - who defected to the Labour Party on Thursday - said he had been threatened into supporting the government when sitting as a Tory MP.\n\n\"I was threatened that I would not get the school for Radcliffe if I didn't vote one particular way,\" he told BBC North West Tonight.\n\n\"This is a town that's not had a high school for the best part of 10 years and how would you feel with holding back the regeneration of a town for a vote?\"\n\nHe said the incident \"didn't sit comfortably\" and it led to him \"starting to question my place where I was and ultimately to where I am now\".\n\nBlack books and dark arts, quiet words and not so quiet words.\n\nThe art of persuasion is as old as the stones in Parliament's walls.\n\nBut William Wragg's intervention stands out because it alleges blackmail, potential criminal wrongdoing and breaches of the ministerial code.\n\nOne or two are whispering privately here that Mr Wragg is overcooking his argument and has long been outspoken about the prime minister.\n\nAnd a few are saying similar stuff publicly.\n\nIt's a reminder that while the imminent pressure on Boris Johnson has eased for now, the anger and vitriol provoked by these rows is still very real, very live.\n\nCommons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said \"serious allegations\" had been made, and MPs with concerns should write to him.\n\nHe said government ministers and those who work for them \"are not above the criminal law,\" after Mr Wragg said MPs concerned about potential blackmail should contact the Metropolitan Police.\n\nBut the Speaker added: \"The investigation of allegedly criminal conduct is a matter for the police and decisions about prosecution are for the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service].\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Christian Wakeford says he was threatened to vote in a certain way\n\nOne rebel MP told the BBC that some dissenters had been threatened with funding cuts, whilst an impending shake-up of parliamentary boundaries due next year had also been used to put down rebellion.\n\n\"It's been done to the weakest to make an example,\" they added.\n\nHowever, Tory MP Anthony Mangnall, said he had never been threatened, despite rebelling against the government on \"quite a lot of matters\".\n\nMs Dorries also called Mr Wragg's accusations \"disappointing\" and told BBC West Midlands: \"That is nonsense because that is not how government works, and we are the party of government.\n\n\"The whips have no say over what happens in individual constituencies.\n\n\"And not only is it nonsense, it is just attention seeking behaviour from William Wragg, who has been a constant critic of the prime minister.\"\n\nIt follows a dramatic day in Westminster on Wednesday, when Tory MP Christian Wakeford defected to Labour, describing the PM as incapable of leading.\n\nTory grandee and former ally of Mr Johnson David Davis told the PM: \"In the name of God, go.\"\n\nSo far six Conservative MPs have publicly declared no confidence in the PM, but more are thought to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, who organises Tory leadership contests.\n\nThere are claims that the threshold of 54 letters needed to trigger a no-confidence vote and leadership election could soon be reached, but no official word has been given.\n\nHowever, some Conservatives have told the BBC the mood has changed, following the defection of Mr Wakeford.\n\nNorthern Ireland Minister Conor Burns - a close ally of Mr Johnson - claimed Tory MPs were \"stepping back\" from calling for the PM to go now, and were waiting for Ms Gray's report.", "Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga An image from the capital, Nuku’alofa, shows damage following Saturday's tsunami\n\nNew pictures have emerged from Tonga, revealing the damage wreaked by tsunami waves triggered by an undersea volcano.\n\nThey show the Pacific islands blanketed in a layer of volcanic ash, while in coastal areas the waves have torn down trees and ripped buildings apart.\n\nSaturday's tsunami left at least three dead - including a British national - and crippled communications.\n\nInternational phone links are said to have been restored but a severed undersea cable may take weeks to fix.\n\nThat means Tonga remains largely cut off from the outside world, with little known about the scale of destruction.\n\nBut the new images, released by Tonga's consulate in the EU, show cars, roads and buildings in the capital Nuku'alofa coated in a film of ash. The dust has hampered relief planes from landing and delivering much-needed food and drinking water.\n\nConsulate of the Kingdom of Tonga The island of Tongatapu has been coated in a layer of volcanic ash\n\nThe pictures also show the aftermath of the tsunami waves, described by Tonga's government as \"an unprecedented disaster\", on coastal areas on the island. Debris is scattered across the shoreline, after waves more than a meter tall struck on Tonga.\n\nConsulate of the Kingdom of Tonga\n\nAerial images taken by the New Zealand Air Force, meanwhile, indicate that several villages have been wiped out on islands that have yet to be reached.\n\nTeams have been working around the clock to get vital supplies to the region and repair the damaged undersea cable.\n\nEfforts to clear thick ash from Tonga's main airport runway finished on Wednesday, AFP news agency reports, after rescue teams and hundreds of volunteers desperately worked to clear dust from the tarmac using wheelbarrows and shovels.\n\nOfficials hoped to have emergency aid flights landing soon.\n\nScant communication has been established since the eruption, enabled only through a few satellite phones mainly held by foreign embassies in the capital city Nuku'alofa. Many Tongans abroad have since been waiting to hear news from loved ones.\n\nTelecom firm Digicel said on Wednesday that it had managed to restore international calls, though the BBC has not been able to able to reach numbers in Tonga.\n\nFull connectivity - including the internet - could take four weeks or more to restore after the sole cable to the islands was damaged in two places.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nOn Wednesday morning, the Red Cross said it had \"joyfully and happily\" been able to make contact with its team in Tonga for the first time since the eruption.\n\n\"Unfortunately there is devastating news from Tonga overnight with the loss and destruction of homes,\" its Pacific Head of Delegation Katie Greenwood told the BBC's Newsday programme.\n\nMs Greenwood added that Red Cross teams were working to distribute clean water, and that a recent campaign telling people to cover their rain water tanks to protect them from ash had worked and provided a boost to bottled water supplies.\n\nConsulate of the Kingdom of Tonga Images from Tonga's shoreline show damage to structures and trees following the tsunami\n\nThe first aid ships from New Zealand and Australia are expected to arrive on Friday.\n\nNew Zealand Defence Minister Peeni Henare told the BBC the ships would bring more than 250,000 litres of fresh water and desalination equipment, used to separate salt from water.\n\n\"The most pressing matter that's come through from the Tongan government is the need for fresh water,\" he said.\n\nBut Tongan officials have also expressed concern that deliveries could result in a spread of Covid, with the country only recording its first case in October.\n\nThere have been reports of food supplies at shops running low and deliveries have been deemed a priority.\n\nThe explosion of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano was felt as far away as the US. In Peru, two people drowned in abnormally high waves while beaches near the capital Lima were closed off following an oil spill.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A Tongan Olympian has started a fundraiser for his home islands", "Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed Christian Wakeford to the party\n\nChristian Wakeford was elected as the Tory MP for Bury South at the 2019 general election but has now defected to the Labour Party. He was cheered by Labour MPs as he crossed the floor of the Commons chamber to join his new colleagues. But what do the people of Bury make of his decision?\n\nAt Rosylee coffee house opposite the MP's office in Radcliffe, where the shutters are up, there was a feisty conversation about his defection.\n\nDebbie Clark, 52, who lives in the Radcliffe area of Bury, voted Conservative for the first time at the last election.\n\n\"I voted for the party. He should resign and we should have a by-election.\"\n\n\"He should not have the right to go to Labour,\" he says.\n\nMaxine Ballington, 51, also voted Conservative because the previous MP stood as an independent.\n\nShe says she is shocked by Mr Wakeford's defection but agrees with his calls for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign.\n\n\"I've lost two people to Covid. People were fined for having house parties. How can he go to a party at Downing Street?\"\n\nDebbie and Fred Clark believe there should be a by-election\n\nNick Hubble, from Prestwich, says he has \"respect\" for the MP's decision after reading his letter resigning from the Conservative party.\n\n\"I thought fair play to him, he had obviously been plagued by his conscience,\" he adds.\n\n\"I understand people have voted for a Tory MP and they now have a Labour MP but it is more complex than that.\"\n\nMr Hubble, 49, believes some people \"vote for personalities\" rather than political parties so his defection \"may not be [so] drastic\".\n\nThe translator says Mr Wakeford has been a \"good constituency MP\" and \"puts his back into it... which should stand him in good stead\".\n\nMr Hubble is part of Walk Ride Prestwich and Whitefield, which is campaigning for better cycling lanes, and hopes the defection will not have an impact on its work.\n\n\"He was due to go on a ride with us this week. We hope he can still commit to support [our campaign],\" he says.\n\nDavid Collins runs Marie's Coffee Shop close to Mr Wakeford's constituency office, which is painted Tory-blue.\n\n\"I probably wouldn't vote for either of them anyway, Labour or Conservative. They're all as bad as each other,\" he says.\n\n\"They all promise they're going to do things and none of it ever materialises.\n\n\"You wouldn't think you were able to jump ship halfway through, would you?\"\n\nMeanwhile, Bury North's Conservative MP James Daly said in a statement on his defecting neighbour he was \"extremely disappointed having only heard in the press a minute before he walked across the Commons\".\n\n\"I'm astounded he's abandoned the party that's brought millions to Bury,\" he added.\n\n\"Bury Labour Party has done nothing for local people and I will ensure the town still has a Conservative representative.\"\n\nHe said the new Labour MP \"should resign so a by-election can take place\".\n\nLabour-controlled Bury Council said it welcomed Mr Wakeford into \"the family\".\n\n\"This defection is a damning indictment of a Tory government and a hapless prime minister that are out of touch with the people of places like Bury,\" councillor Eamonn O'Brien, leader of Bury Council, added.\n\nThe Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham also thanked the MP for \"having the courage to call out a government failing to deliver on its promises to level up the north of England\".\n\n\"People in Bury South deserve better and together we will make sure their voice is heard,\" he said.\n\n\"It is also a clear warning to the government that they walk away from their promises to the north at their own peril.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Freda Walker died at the scene while Ken Walker remains in hospital\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after an 86-year-old woman was killed and her husband left with life-threatening injuries.\n\nFreda Walker was found dead at her home in Langwith Junction, Derbyshire, on Saturday morning.\n\nHer 88-year-old husband Ken, a former district councillor, remains in hospital in a critical condition.\n\nDerbyshire Police said the man arrested was also being held on suspicion of the attempted murder of Mr Walker.\n\nHe is 33 years old and was arrested in Church Warsop in Nottinghamshire, the force added, where an address is being searched as part of the investigation.\n\nThe motive of the attack is not yet known, but police believe it could have happened during a burglary.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Dave Kirby said: \"The man was arrested in the early hours and, as you would expect, there will be interviews and so on, and if we can give any more information about motive then we will do, but at this time we can't be conclusive.\n\n\"One of the leading lines of inquiry is that it may have been a burglary, and that remains a leading line of inquiry.\"\n\nPolice were called to the couple's house in Station Road shortly after 09:00 GMT on Saturday after being alerted by paramedics.\n\nACC Kirby said officers were still appealing for potential witnesses to come forward, despite the arrest.\n\n\"Today's arrest is clearly a significant breakthrough in the case but the investigation continues into this most appalling crime,\" he said.\n\nThe couple were attacked at their home in Station Road\n\nOn Wednesday, the force appealed for people who were in Station Road between 16:30 on Friday and 09:00 GMT on Saturday to come forward urgently.\n\n\"That request still remains, so if you were on that street, either on foot or in a car, then please contact us as soon as possible,\" ACC Kirby said.\n\nSpeaking about the arrest, he added: \"It comes from a lot of help and support from this community, and I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has helped us so far.\"\n\nMr Walker is a councillor for Shirebrook Town Council and was formerly a councillor for Bassetlaw District Council.\n\nBolsover District Council leader Steve Fritchley said Freda and Ken Walker were \"a lovely couple\"\n\nHe was also chairman of Bolsover District Council and was last month made an Honorary Alderman for his services.\n\nBolsover District Council leader Steve Fritchley, who knew the couple well, said he was very upset and angry about what had happened.\n\n\"Ken retired from being a district councillor in 2019 and just when they should both be enjoying their twilight years together, this terrible incident has happened,\" he said.\n\n\"Freda was lovely. Always wanting to help people, always had the time of day to say 'hello' and speak to them as they walked past.\n\n\"We have heard many people say 'Oh Ken and Freda, what a lovely couple', and they really were. This has sent shockwaves through the local community.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook,Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The public are rightly furious, says Conservative MP\n\nBoris Johnson will probably be forced out of office over the lockdown party row, a senior Tory MP has predicted.\n\nSteve Baker told the BBC's Nick Robinson a growing rebellion from Tory MPs over gatherings in No 10 \"looks like checkmate\" for the prime minister.\n\nThe former Brexit minister - seen as influential backbench figure - said the current situation was \"appalling, and the public are rightly furious\".\n\nAllies of the PM say he has seen off a plot to remove him for the time being.\n\nMr Johnson has urged MPs to wait for a report by civil servant Sue Gray, expected next week, before deciding his fate.\n\nBut the pressure on him is continuing to grow on the backbenches, with one of his MPs quitting the party to defect to Labour.\n\nAnother senior Tory, David Davis, used his Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday to tell the prime minister: \"In the name of God, go\".\n\nAnd new claims over ministers \"blackmailing\" MPs to stop them plotting against Mr Johnson were revealed on Thursday by another leading Tory, William Wragg.\n\nBut Mr Johnson told reporters he had seen \"no evidence\" of blackmailing in the party.\n\nMr Baker said he was not rebelling against the PM - but he would take action if he is found to have broken Covid rules or misled MPs.\n\nThe MP for Wycombe, a ringleader in an ultimately unsuccessful plot to remove Theresa May as Tory leader and PM , said he would not be \"organising\" against Mr Johnson.\n\nHe told the BBC's Political Thinking podcast his \"heart wouldn't be in it\", and he was not \"under a duty\" to lead every Tory rebellion.\n\n\"Honestly, at the moment, I'm looking to the cabinet for leadership,\" he told host Nick Robinson.\n\n\"At the moment, I'm afraid it does look like checkmate - but whether he can save himself, we'll see\".\n• None Downing Street not in control after day of chaos", "The funeral of primary school teacher Ashling Murphy has taken place in County Offaly in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nCrowds, including schoolchildren holding pictures of Ms Murphy, lined the streets as the cortege made its way to St Brigid's Church, Mountbolus.\n\nHer death has shocked the nation and tens of thousands of people have attended vigils in Ireland and further afield in her honour.\n\nMourners came out in force to pay their respects to the talented primary school teacher.\n\nThere has been an outpouring of grief and shock across the island of Ireland since Ms Murphy's death. The 23 year old was killed while out exercising on the towpath of the Grand Canal outside Tullamore on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nPupils from Durrow National School form a guard of honour for their beloved teacher.\n\nMs Murphy's family, including her sister Amy, were pictured comforting one another.\n\nTaoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin was among the political dignitaries who came to pay their respects.\n\nRain did not stop the mourners, including these girls in the colours of Ms Murphy's Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club, where she played camogie.\n\nOther Kilcormac Killoughey camogie teammates provided a sea of colour on a dark day.\n\nMs Murphy was a talented fiddle player and her fellow musicians lined the route of the funeral procession and gave her a fitting send-off.\n\nBefore Mass began, Irish President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina hugged Ms Murphy's parents Raymond and Kathleen, her sister Amy, brother Cathal and boyfriend Ryan. The service, which was livestreamed, featured traditional Irish singers and musicians.\n\nDuring the service, mourners were told a \"depraved act of violence\" which deprived Ms Murphy of her life has united the country in grief and support.\n\nOther tributes to Ashling Murphy were held around Ireland - schools held a minute's silence and artist Sean Corcoran created this piece of sand art in Waterford.\n\nAll pictures are subject to copyright.", "Former Pope Benedict XVI failed to act over four child abuse cases when he was archbishop of Munich, a German probe into the Catholic Church has alleged.\n\nPope Benedict, then called Josef Ratzinger, held the position from 1977 to 1982. He has denied the accusations.\n\nBut a new report into historical abuse allegations carried out by a German law firm incriminated the former pontiff.\n\nAbuse continued under his tenure, it is alleged, and the accused priests remained active in church roles.\n\nThe former pope, now aged 94, became the first Church leader to resign in more than 600 years in 2013, citing exhaustion. Since then, he has led a largely quiet life in the Vatican City and is known as pope emeritus.\n\nThe new report from German law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl was commissioned by the Catholic Church.\n\n\"Two of these cases concern abuses committed during his tenure and sanctioned by the state,\" lawyer Martin Pusch said as he announced the report.\n\n\"In both cases, the perpetrators remained active in pastoral care.\"\n\nIn one instance, it is alleged he knew about a priest accused of abusing boys who was transferred to his diocese, but who then continued to work in pastoral care roles - this often involves visiting and supporting people within the community.\n\nThe former pope is reported to have submitted dozens of pages of answers to the law firm's questioning, in which he expressed support for the inquiry but denied any knowledge or lack of action around the abuse allegations.\n\nThe report, however, contains minutes which strongly suggest he was present at a meeting at which the subject was discussed.\n\nThe Vatican said in a statement that it would examine the details of the report once it had been published.\n\n\"As we reiterate the sense of shame and regret for the abuses on minors by priests, the Holy See expresses its support for all victims and it confirms the path to protect minors, guaranteed safe spaces for them,\" the Vatican added.\n\nA previous report into historical abuse in Germany concluded that more than 3,600 people nationwide had been abused by clergy members between 1946 and 2014. Many of the victims were very young and served as altar boys.\n\nThe new report looking into the Munich and Freising areas specifically found at least 497 abuse victims from 1945 to 2019.\n\nIn addition to the former pope, the report criticised other Church figures, including the region's current archbishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx. He was found to have failed to act in two cases of alleged abuse.\n\nThe cardinal already offered Pope Francis his resignation in June 2021, saying he should share responsibility for the \"catastrophe\" of abuse which was coming to light.\n\nPope Francis, however, refused to accept the resignation. Days earlier, the pope had changed the Vatican's criminal laws, toughening the Church's stance on sexual abuse.", "Fans will be able to return to watch when Wales kicks-off its Six Nations in February\n\nMore restrictions to people's daily lives have been eased in Wales as Omicron cases continue to decline.\n\nPubs and restaurants in Wales can now operate outdoors without the rule of six or social distancing.\n\nAll limits on sports events have been scrapped meaning thousands of fans are set to return to watch fixtures across the country.\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford said: \"We have passed the peak and the situation has improved significantly.\"\n\nIt is the second part of a three-week roadmap to scrap restrictions imposed because of the Omicron variant.\n\nFrom a peak of more than 2,300 cases per 100,000 people in Wales, the rate has dipped below 500 on Friday.\n\nThe latest infection survey from the Office for National Statistics also estimates a fall in the number of people in Wales with Covid - affecting one in 25 of the population.\n\nThe number of people in hospital and in intensive care with Covid are also both declining.\n\nThe first minister said: \"Omicron was another unpleasant twist to this long-running pandemic.\"\n\nMr Drakeford said decisions to lift rules in England are being to made to deflect from the \"dire difficulties the Prime Minister has created for himself\"\n\n\"We have weathered this storm together in Wales by following the rules and these measures that have kept us safe for nearly two years,\" added Mr Drakeford.\n\n\"Sadly the pandemic is not over and coronavirus is still with us but we can look forward to the future with renewed hope and with better and brighter days ahead of us.\"\n\nHe previously laid out a roadmap for which restrictions will be eased and when.\n\nBut the Welsh Conservatives said Mr Drakeford should set a date for all Covid-related laws - including mask wearing and self-isolation rules - to be lifted.\n\nPlaid Cymru said the Welsh government needed to set out what else it will do to help the hospitality sector.\n\nAnyone over 18 will still have to show a Covid pass to go to larger outdoor event, so they can show they are either fully vaccinated or have had a negative lateral flow test in the past 24 hours.\n\nThe passes, which are being scrapped in England, will also still be required in cinemas and theatres until at least the next review on 10 February.\n\nThe rule of six will be lifted for pubs and restaurants outdoors from Friday\n\nBefore Mr Drakeford set out his plans to phase out the post-Christmas rules, he had faced growing pressure to ease sporting restrictions, including from the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), which threatened to move Wales' Six Nations home games to England.\n\nHe told Radio Wales Breakfast: \"I don't think anybody watching objectively what is happening in England could imagine that their decisions have been made by a careful attention to public health advice and some long-term plan.\n\n\"Their announcements are entirely down to the astonishing mess they find themselves in and an effort to create headlines that will distract the public's attention from the prime minister's failings.\n\n\"Covid passes encourage people to get out and about, using venues where they know everyone else has taken precautions.\"\n\nThe changes mean sports fans can return to Welsh stadiums from Saturday, with Swansea City's home game against Preston North End among the first to welcome back supporters.\n\nSeason ticket holder Simon Williams said: \"It's been strange when you could do a 500 mile roundtrip to go watch us away but you couldn't go 10 minutes down the road to watch at us at home.\"\n\nWhile Lorraine Dyer said her \"football mad\" grandsons were excited to return to the Swansea.com stadium.\n\nSwansea City season ticket holder Simon Williams said: \"Football's not the same without fans in the stadium\"\n\nCalum Darling, of Club One47 in Llandudno, has said his nightclub has lost up to 95% of its trade since restrictions had come into force.\n\n\"We've always got the most restrictions imposed on us as opposed to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland,\" he said.\n\n\"It just doesn't make sense that we're always five steps behind. There's just no logic to the reasoning behind it.\"\n\nAlert level zero is the lowest level of measures, where all businesses are allowed to reopen without two-metre social distancing rules in place.\n\nIf all goes to plan, the rule of six will not apply in pubs, restaurants, cinemas and theatres from 28 January.\n\nHowever, face masks will still be required in most indoor public places, unlike England where they will not be compulsory from Thursday.\n\nSelf-isolation rules also remain in force, and work from home guidance will remain advice but will not be law.\n\nWales, along with Scotland and Northern Ireland, brought in new Covid restrictions over Christmas because of a rapid rise in cases driven by the Omicron variant.\n\nThe decision to continue easing the rules comes as Wales sees the \"fastest rate of decline\" in case numbers and the lowest rate in the UK, according to Mr Drakeford.\n\nIt is down 61% in a week to 490.8 cases per 100,000, the lowest since 9 December.\n\nThe ONS infection survey estimates numbers infected in Wales have fallen 34% over the week, with 3.69% of the population having Covid in the week ending 15 January.\n\nThe number of patients with Covid in hospital is at an average of 722, an 16% fall on last week, while numbers in critical care are the lowest since 11 August.\n\nHowever, Mr Drakeford added: \"We are not out of the woods yet. There are still more than 1,000 people in hospital with Covid and that is putting additional pressure on the NHS.\"\n\nBut the former head of Public Health Wales' communicable disease surveillance centre said the restrictions had been unnecessary and \"should have been lifted three weeks ago\".\n\nDr Roland Salmon said: \"I've been a long time sceptic of these long-term measures such as lockdown.\n\n\"They've contributed very little while, in contrast, the vaccination programme has contributed a great deal.\"\n\nThe UK government said it intended to end the legal requirement for people who test positive for Covid to self-isolate in England - and replace it with advice and guidance.\n\nThe current regulations around self-isolation expire on 24 March, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggesting he would not renew them - and that the date could be brought forward if the data allows.", "Kelly Butler was 32 weeks pregnant with Milly-May when she found out she had leukaemia following a routine blood test\n\nA mum who discovered she had leukaemia while pregnant has found a bone marrow donor.\n\nKelly Butler was 32 weeks pregnant with Milly-May in October 2020 when a routine blood test led to a diagnosis of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML).\n\nThe 41-year-old, from Rugeley, Staffordshire, said a media appeal led to more donors coming forward.\n\nShe cried when told she had a match, and said: \"It was just the news I had been waiting to hear for so long.\n\n\"It was tears of happiness, tears of sadness, of what is to come but it was just amazing news.\"\n\nSince Milly-May was born in November, Mrs Butler has been worried her condition would worsen.\n\nShe said she kept thinking \"am I going to be here to see her grow up?\". Waiting to see if she would find a donor \"has just been agonising\", she added.\n\nStem cell transplants can be a potential cure for CML but two possible transplants fell through after the donors failed their medicals.\n\nKelly Butler said despite knowing a donor had been found, she felt \"every minute is so precious\" with her daughter\n\nFollowing an interview on BBC Radio Stoke in July, Mrs Butler said there had been a massive sign up of potential donors and a review of the donor register revealed seven potential matches.\n\nOn Thursday, she was told a woman in the UK had passed all tests and her surgery would begin on 14 October.\n\nShe has been told she will have chemotherapy for a week and then the transplant would happen a day later.\n\nWith Milly-May now 10 months-old, Mrs Butler said even knowing she had a donor \"every minute is so precious with her\".\n\n\"You do not know what is around the corner and life has this way of just throwing things at you that you just have to deal with,\" she said.\n\n\"I want to be there for her, I want to see her grow up, I want to see all the firsts.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The UK government has refused permission for a £1.2bn electricity link between England and France.\n\nAquind Ltd wanted to lay cables through Portsmouth, Hampshire, to Normandy.\n\nBut a decision notice posted on the government's website said Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng was not satisfied \"more appropriate alternatives to the proposed route\" had been fully considered.\n\nAquind said it was \"disappointed\" and would consider a legal challenge.\n\nThe company - which is part-owned by Russian-born Victor Fedotov - and another of his businesses, have donated £700,000 to 34 Conservative MPs since the Aquind project began, the BBC Panorama programme reported in October.\n\nAnother director, Ukrainian-born Alexander Temerko, has donated a further £700,000 to the party.\n\nAquind has previously said the planned 2GW interconnector could supply up to 5% of the UK's energy needs.\n\nThe decision letter said the project's \"proposed landfall in an urban location\" was of particular concern to Mr Kwarteng.\n\nIt said: \"The Secretary of State considers that in the circumstances of this particular application it is exceptionally necessary to consider whether sufficient consideration has been given to whether there are more appropriate alternatives to the proposed route.\"\n\nBoth Portsmouth MPs, Labour's Stephen Morgan and Conservative Penny Mordaunt, have objected to the scheme.\n\nMs Mordaunt, also a trade minister, celebrated the decision by tweeting \"we did it\".\n\nShe said: \"Thank you to everyone who campaigned against Aquind and this ridiculous proposal that would have damaged our city and it would have damaged the country.\"\n\nFlick Drummond, MP for West Meon, said the decision was \"extremely good news\".\n\n\"It was going to be very disruptive to my constituents so they will be very pleased,\" she said.\n\nMP Stephen Morgan, pictured with a megaphone, has supported local protesters against the project\n\nMr Morgan said: \"The government have finally seen sense and stopped the disastrous Aquind project.\n\n\"This is a victory for the people of Portsmouth over years of uncertainty and Tory cronyism.\"\n\nPortsmouth protest group Let's Stop Aquind also voiced opposition to the project.\n\nIt said: \"The Pandora Papers investigation revealed the hidden wealth of Aquind's owner and cast further doubts on the suitability of this company for a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project.\"\n\nLawyers for Aquind and Mr Temerko previously said their donations were \"entirely lawful, properly declared and have not been made in return for any special treatment\".\n\nMr Fedotov said that he \"has never had any interest in British politics and has operated in an open and transparent manner\".\n\nThe Conservative Party said fundraising was a legitimate activity and did not influence political policy.\n\nIn a statement released following the announcement, an Aquind spokesperson said: \"We disagree with the decision of the secretary of state, and the rationale behind it.\n\n\"We are considering the decision, the grounds for the refusal, and a potential legal challenge (judicial review).\n\n\"We believe our application for a development consent order to be accurate and robust, and it has met all the requirements.\n\n\"We will continue the development of Aquind Interconnector, and we will be engaging with the relevant parties in the coming weeks.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The AA says the safety of women is \"100% at the top\" of its priorities after claims it no longer prioritised call-outs to lone female drivers.\n\nThe firm faced a backlash after customer Helen Mott was told lone male and female drivers were given the same priority as \"that's equality\".\n\nResponding to her story on Twitter, the AA said it didn't \"prioritise based on gender\" but would consider the location of where someone had broken down.\n\nMs Mott posted about her experience on Tuesday, believing the long standing practice was still in place.\n\nShe wrote: \"I am a lone woman whose car has broken down at night in the dark.\n\n\"Your call handler has told me you treat lone women and lone men as exactly the same priority in such circumstances because 'that's equality'.\"\n\nThe AA replied to her tweet saying she had been \"advised correctly\".\n\nThey added: \"We don't prioritise based on gender, we do consider the location so as an example we would prioritise someone on a motorway over someone in a supermarket car park.\"\n\nThe response attracted a lot of attention on social media, including from Labour MP Rosie Duffield.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Ms Duffield said: \"The AA calls itself the fourth emergency service. We just need to know that at that end of the phone is someone prioritising our safety.\n\n\"We are more at risk physically than men in that situation. It's just a fact, I'm afraid.\"\n\nThe MP wrote to the company's president, Edmund King, saying the reply had \"provoked a huge response from women, and many men, who had understood that a lone woman would always be given priority... due to the reality of gender-based violence and the current huge publicity surrounding violence against women and girls.\"\n\nReplying to her letter, Mr King, said \"the safety of women, and all vulnerable customers, is 100% at the top\" of its priorities.\n\nHe said the AA had \"reminded staff\" of its \"vulnerable customer processes and procedures\", and said if there was a breakdown involving a lone woman, \"where there is any concern raised by the customer, they receive the highest level of care and priority.\"\n\nGreen Flag and the RAC both said they prioritised people in vulnerable situations, including lone women.", "BT has said most customers will see bills rise by more than 9% from the end of March as households are squeezed by cost of living pressures.\n\nThe telecoms giant said broadband and phone bills will jump by 9.3% following a \"dramatic increase\" in data usage over the last few years.\n\nAffected customers will pay an extra £3.50 a month on average from 31 March.\n\nBut households on certain packages, as well as those claiming benefits, will be exempt.\n\nAround two years ago, BT changed how it raised bills, saying it would make one increase a year at the end of March of 3.9% plus inflation as measured by the consumer price index to reflect \"rising costs to the business\".\n\nInflation is running at a 30 year-high of 5.4%.\n\nOn Thursday, Nick Lane, BT's managing director for consumer customer services, wrote in a blog post: \"Price rises are never popular, but are sometimes a necessary part of business, if we're to keep up with the rising costs we face.\"\n\nCustomers' data usage had \"increased dramatically\" with a 90% increase on broadband usage since 2018, and a 79% increase on mobile phones since 2019.\n\nWorking from home, online education and TV streaming has led to more demands on BT's network, he said.\n\n\"Unlike most things we buy, like food, electricity or fuel, you don't pay more for using more as our data plans are unlimited, but we need to keep investing in our networks so they can handle this huge increase in demand,\" he said.\n\nHowever, customers on BT's at-cost social tariff, BT Home Essentials, will not see a rise in prices, and neither will those on BT Basic.\n\nTo qualify for these packages, customers need to be claiming benefits such as Universal Credit.\n\nCustomers with just a landline will also not experience an increase.\n\nBT said it will write to customers to tell them about the increases.\n\nRival Virgin Media said earlier this month that prices will rise for broadband customers from the beginning of March.\n\nPrice comparison website Uswitch said this would add £56 per year to bills for millions of customers.\n\nVulnerable customers, including those on benefits, will not see prices rises, a Virgin Media spokesman said.\n\nVirgin will hike its prices for mobile customers from the beginning of April by 3.9% plus inflation as measured by the retail price index inflation rate for February.\n\nThe price hikes from broadband providers will pile more pressure on household finances, with the cost of other utilities also set to increase. Energy customers are facing the prospect of a 50% increase in their gas bills from April.", "A mass transit network in Glasgow and bridges or tunnels to some of Scotland's islands are among the ideas in the Scottish government's new transport strategy.\n\nMinisters have made 45 recommendations to guide transport investment decisions over the next 20 years.\n\nImproving public transport links in the biggest city regions is at the heart of the blueprint.\n\nSchemes to encourage more people to walk and cycle are also prioritised.\n\nThe Scottish government hopes that shifting the priorities of transport spending to greener projects will help tackle climate emissions in the coming years.\n\nThe strategy does not give timescales or funding commitments for its recommendations.\n\nThe ideas to be explored over the next two decades include:\n\nThe creation of more segregated cycle routes is included in the transport strategy\n\nMichael Matheson, the cabinet secretary for transport, said: \"The investment decisions we make now have never been more important.\n\n\"A green recovery from Covid-19 will set us on a path to delivering a fair and just transition to Net Zero.\n\n\"This review represents a repositioning of our transport investment priorities - the focus is firmly on how transport can help us protect our climate and improve lives. It takes a balanced and fair approach to all modes of transport, and all areas of Scotland.\"\n\nThe idea of a city-wide metro system in Glasgow was first proposed in 2019 and would involve reviving abandoned rail routes, converting heavy rail to light rail and developing on-street trams.\n\nScottish Labour and Glasgow MSP Pauline McNeill said: \"Today's announcement failed to provide answers on what the Glasgow metro project will look like, when work will begin and how the work will be funded.\n\n\"Glasgow is in desperate need of investment to help it recover from the pandemic and make up for the chronic lack of investment over the last 15 years.\"\n\nA spokesman for Glasgow Airport said the new transit system would \"have a transformative effect in reducing carbon emissions, boosting public transport and alleviating congestion on the M8, one of Scotland's busiest sections of road.\"\n\nElectrifying more rail routes is part of the blueprint\n\nColin Howden, director of the Transform Scotland lobby group, said: \"Scottish transport spending has in recent years been massively skewed towards high-carbon road-building.\n\n\"So today's focus on active travel, decarbonised public transport and new light rail in the cities is a welcome change of course.\"\n\nOn the proposed studies into bridges or tunnels for the Sound of Barra and Sound of Harris, Mr Howden added: \"I doubt any of these suggested crossings will ever be built. They look as improbable as Boris Johnson's failed Irish Sea Bridge proposal.\"\n\nMeanwhile, it has been revealed nearly £900,000 of taxpayers' money was spent on a study commissioned by Boris Johnson which found it would be too expensive to build a bridge or tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe UK government Department for Transport said the research into the feasibility of a fixed link - which was later dismissed as \"impossible to justify\" - cost £896,681.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ben John must hand himself in to police by 16:00 GMT on Thursday\n\nA man told by a judge to read classic literature after being found guilty of a terrorism offence will be jailed after a suspended sentence was quashed.\n\nBen John, who police described as a white supremacist, was given a two-year suspended sentence in August.\n\nThe 22-year-old was convicted of having a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook on a computer hard drive.\n\nThe Court of Appeal ruled the original sentence was unlawful and ordered John to serve two years in prison.\n\nHe will also spend a further year on extended licence.\n\nLord Justice Holroyde said: \"We are satisfied that there must be a sentence of immediate imprisonment.\"\n\nJohn, of Addison Drive, Lincoln, who attended the hearing via videolink, must hand himself in to police by 16:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nBen John took a copy of Pride and Prejudice with him to his first review hearing at Leicester Crown Court\n\nLast year, police said John had collected tens of thousands of documents in bulk downloads on to hard drives, which contained \"a wealth\" of white supremacist and anti-Semitic material.\n\nThe ex-student was charged under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act, and found guilty by a jury of one count.\n\nAlongside a suspended sentence he was handed a five-year serious crime prevention order, with Judge Timothy Spencer QC ordering him to read famous works such as Shakespeare plays and Pride and Prejudice.\n\nAt a review hearing earlier this month the judge quizzed John about his literature reading, having received a \"largely positive\" report about him.\n\nThe defendant explained he had \"enjoyed Shakespeare more than Jane Austen\", and the judge concluded there had been \"encouraging\" progress.\n\nBen John was described by police as a white supremacist with a neo-Nazi ideology\n\nThe Attorney General's Office (AGO) referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme.\n\nIt came after campaign group Hope Not Hate wrote an open letter calling for a review of the case.\n\nSolicitor General Alex Chalk QC, who presented the AGO's case to the Court of Appeal, said there were \"real concerns\" over John's online activity, with him liking far-right material on social media days after telling the judge he had abandoned such thoughts.\n\nRichard Wormald QC, representing John, said his client was \"a young child\" when he first came across the document, which was one of thousands among an \"electronic library\" that also included Marxist literature.\n\nPointing to the effect being held in remand had on the defendant, he said the judge's decision to suspend the sentence was \"entirely sensible, carefully constructed and appropriate\", with a \"robust\" rehabilitation programme also in place.\n\nLord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice Lavender and Sir Nigel Davis, said certain offences required a mandatory year on licence, but a suspended sentence and licence cannot last for longer than two years, making John's sentence \"unlawful\".\n\n\"The judge had no power to impose a suspended sentence as he did,\" he said.\n\nAfter his trial in August, the judge said he thought John wasn't a \"lost cause\", and believed he stood a greater chance of rehabilitation without being incarcerated.\n\nWhen the 22-year-old last appeared in court - on 6 January - he brought with him copies of Twelfth Night and Pride and Prejudice.\n\nHe was due to return to Leicester Crown Court in July to update the judge on his reading list.\n\nWe may never know what he was going to tackle next, or whether he will continue to plough through the classics in the prison library.\n\nIn what was an extremely unusual case, the former student appeared today via video link, but had to leave for several hours to go to work in a butcher's shop, before returning to hear that he will, after all, be going to prison.\n\nAfter the hearing Mr Chalk said he was \"pleased\" to see the judges find the original sentence \"unduly lenient\".\n\n\"The government is committed to confronting terrorism in all its forms, including from the extreme right wing,\" he said.\n\n\"We remain focused on disrupting the activities of the most dangerous extremists, supporting those who stand up to their hateful rhetoric, and protecting vulnerable people being drawn into terrorism.\"\n\nNick Lowles, from Hope Not Hate, welcomed the new sentence, describing far-right extremism as \"the fastest growing threat of violence in Britain today\".\n\n\"The priority must be a focus on countering radicalisation, especially online, and making it harder for far-right activists to organise and recruit,\" he said.\n\n\"Ultimately, the main deterrent to most offenders comes in the social cost associated with being caught and convicted.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted on sexual abuse charges on 30 December\n\nGhislaine Maxwell has officially requested a retrial, weeks after she was convicted on sexual abuse charges.\n\nThe 60-year-old was found guilty of recruiting and trafficking young girls to be sexually abused by the late American financier Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nShe has yet to be sentenced and faces up to 65 years in jail.\n\nThe retrial request comes after a juror in the case told media that he used his own experience of being sexually abused to influence jurors reaching a verdict.\n\nIn Wednesday's court filing in New York, one of Maxwell's lawyers asked for it to remain publicly released until the court rules on \"submissions pertaining to Juror 50\". They did not name the juror.\n\nMaxwell was found guilty on five of the six counts she faced - including the most serious charge, that of sex trafficking a minor.\n\nHer jail term will be decided by US District Judge Alison Nathan, who has not yet set a sentencing date.\n\nFor the moment, Judge Nathan will be waiting to receive a pre-sentence report. This will be compiled by an impartial investigator who will look into things like Maxwell's background, family, education and employment history to determine if any of these should influence the severity or leniency of the sentence.\n\nShe was found not guilty of one count - enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sarah Ransome describes the moment she locked eyes with Ghislaine Maxwell in court", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tory MP David Davis to PM: In the name of God, go\n\nFormer cabinet minister David Davis has joined calls for Boris Johnson to stand down, telling the prime minister: \"In the name of God, go.\"\n\nHe said the PM had failed to take responsibility for his actions over lockdown parties in Downing Street.\n\nMr Davis's remarks came after backbench Tory MP Christian Wakeford defected to Labour, minutes before Prime Minister's Questions began.\n\nThe PM batted away repeated calls to quit during the stormy Commons session.\n\nMr Davis's criticisms and Mr Wakeford's defection come as Mr Johnson fights to save his premiership after admitting attending a drinks event in Downing Street during the first lockdown.\n\nSo far six Conservative MPs have publicly declared no confidence in the PM, but more are thought to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, who organises Tory leadership contests.\n\nThere are claims that the threshold of 54 letters needed to trigger a no-confidence vote and leadership election could soon be reached, but no official word has been given.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, one of those who has called for Mr Johnson to quit, said a no-confidence vote was \"near\" and \"getting closer\".\n\nBut a former cabinet minister told the BBC that Mr Wakeford's defection seemed to be backfiring, as his actions had \"provided an alternative target for rage\" among Tory MPs.\n\nAnother Tory MP said he had been \"let down by a good friend\" and that his now ex-colleague had \"unified the party\".\n\nThe prime minister is urging fellow Conservatives not to pass judgement on him until a report on parties at No 10, by senior civil servant Sue Gray, comes out next week.\n\nIn his letter to Mr Johnson, Bury South MP Mr Wakeford, said: \"You and the Conservative Party as a whole have shown themselves incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves.\"\n\nThe last MP to defect from the Conservatives to Labour was Quentin Davies in 2007, when Gordon Brown was prime minister.\n\nAt Prime Minister's Questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed Mr Wakeford to his party and repeated his call for Mr Johnson to quit, saying his \"absurd and unreliable defences\" of No 10 parties were unravelling.\n\nBut the most dramatic intervention came towards the end of the session, when Mr Davis told Mr Johnson he had spent weeks defending him from \"angry constituents\".\n\nHe added: \"I expect my leaders to shoulder the responsibility for the actions they take. Yesterday he did the opposite of that. So, I will remind him of a quotation which may be familiar to his ear: Leopold Amery to Neville Chamberlain.\n\n\"'You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go.'\"\n\nA defection is a rare thing. A coup for Labour. A temporary triumph for Sir Keir Starmer.\n\nThere were whispers that Christian Wakeford was spotted talking to a former Labour MP over drinks this week, a few murmurs that he might be thinking about taking such a dramatic step.\n\nBut for it to happen, to see that crossing the floor moment, is unusual indeed.\n\nTraditionally a defection can in fact unite the party who the MP has left behind - it's so drastic.\n\nBut the Wakeford departure adds to the real sense of chaos in Westminster. And the reaction among his now former colleagues elected in 2019 may not follow that traditional path.\n\nThe PM said he did not \"know what [Mr Davis] is talking about\", but insisted he took \"full responsibility for everything done in this government and throughout the pandemic\".\n\nSpeaking afterwards to the BBC, Mr Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said he had supported Mr Johnson until his interview on Tuesday, when he said he had not been told a party in the Downing Street garden risked breaking Covid rules.\n\nJake Berry, chairman of the Northern Research Group of Red Wall Tory MPs, most of whom won their seats from Labour at the 2019 general election, said he thought Mr Davis had \"misjudged the mood of colleagues\".\n\nBut he added that \"the next few weeks and months\" would prove whether the former minister was correct.\n\nHouse of Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg described Mr Davis's message to MPs as \"too theatrical\", telling Channel 4 News he had \"always been a lone wolf\".\n\nWho else has used the phrase, 'In the name of God, go'?\n\nThe phrase was first used by Oliver Cromwell in the 17th Century.\n\nConservative MP Leo Amery used the words during a Commons debate in 1940, following the UK's failed campaign against Nazi forces in Norway. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned two days later.\n\nMs Gray's team are talking to the PM's former aide Dominic Cummings, who says he warned the PM that the Downing Street garden party in May 2020 risked breaking Covid rules.\n\nMr Cummings has also accused Mr Johnson - who insists he thought the party was a work event - of misleading Parliament.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAt PMQs, Sir Keir said the prime minister's defence requires the public to believe that \"as he waded through the empty bottles and platters of sandwiches, he didn't realise it was a party\".\n\nHe added: \"If a prime minister misleads Parliament, should they resign?\"\n\nMr Johnson said: \"[Sir Keir] is continuing to ask a series of questions which he knows will be fully addressed by the inquiry. He is wasting this House's time. He is wasting the people's time.\"\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: \"The prime minister is taking the public for fools. Nobody believes him. Will the prime minister finally take responsibility? Resign, go, prime minister.\"", "Boris Johnson's allies say he has seen off a plot to remove him for now but his future could depend on the outcome of Sue Gray's report on No 10 parties.\n\nThe senior civil servant is set to publish her findings on Covid-rule breaking in Downing Street next week.\n\nMr Johnson urged MPs to wait for the report after he was hit by further calls for him to quit.\n\nTory grandee and one-time ally David Davis told him: \"In the name of God go\".\n\nAnd backbench Tory MP Christian Wakeford defected to Labour, describing the PM as incapable of leading.\n\nSpeaking to the Today programme on Thursday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: \"If there were people at the heart of government who were not following the rules they should be disciplined and I look forward to that disciplinary action taking place\" but added it was \"right to wait for the outcome\" of the investigation.\n\nHe added that the emergence of stories about parties inside No 10 had been \"damaging\" to the country's democracy.\n\nMr Johnson has come in for severe criticism since admitting he attended a garden party held by No 10 staff in the Downing Street garden during the May 2020 lockdown.\n\nSo far six Conservative MPs have publicly declared no confidence in the PM, but more are thought to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, who organises Tory leadership contests.\n\nThere are claims that the threshold of 54 letters needed to trigger a no-confidence vote and leadership election could soon be reached, but no official word has been given.\n\nHowever, some Conservatives have told the BBC the mood has changed, following the defection of Mr Wakeford.\n\n\"I don't think anything could have united us more than watching someone cross the floor like that,\" said Tory MP Joy Morrissey, who, like Mr Wakeford, won her seat in 2019.\n\nNorthern Ireland Minister Conor Burns told BBC Newsnight: \"What's happened over the last 24 hours is that colleagues have started to look at what's going on and started asking themselves the question, 'What are we doing, and where is this going?'\n\n\"And I think there is a real sense of stepping back and realising that the right thing to do is to wait for Sue Gray's report to then question the prime minister, as he's quite properly said he will come to the House of Commons and make a statement and answer for it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tory MP David Davis to PM: In the name of God, go\n\nRichard Holden, the Tory MP for North West Durham, agreed that the mood was \"much calmer\" and \"things are settling down\".\n\nBut he added to the Today programme: \"I think things will definitely come to a head with the Sue Gray report. That's going to be a very important moment.\"\n\nBusinessman John Caudwell - who donated £500,000 to the Conservatives ahead of the last election - said he would like to see Mr Johnson stay on, but added he \"either needs to go or everybody needs to get behind him and drive the policies forward that we elected him for\".\n\nThe PM batted away the repeated calls to quit during the stormy Commons session on Wednesday.\n\nHe said he took responsibility for his handling of Downing Street parties but insisted critics should wait for the findings of an official inquiry before reaching judgement.\n\nLater on Wednesday, No 10's press secretary confirmed Mr Johnson would also fight any no-confidence vote by his party.\n\nBut Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, one of those who has called for Mr Johnson to quit, earlier said a no-confidence vote was \"near\" and \"getting closer\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Christian Wakeford said he had \"many sleepless nights\" over his decision to defect to Labour\n\nMs Gray's team are talking to the PM's former aide Dominic Cummings, who says he warned the PM that the Downing Street garden party on 20 May 2020 risked breaking Covid rules.\n\nMr Cummings has also accused Mr Johnson - who insists he thought the party was a work event - of misleading Parliament.", "Pamela Armillei said it was important to know what to expect when battling a serious illness\n\nA woman who recently returned to her home on the Isle of Man after a seven-month battle with cancer has said she wants \"to share some hope\" with others.\n\nAfter being diagnosed with leukaemia in April, Pamela Armillei was admitted to Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.\n\nThe 40-year-old from Onchan returned to the island last week after the disease went into full remission.\n\nShe now wants to share her experiences to help other patients \"find ways of dealing with it\".\n\nAt one point during her fight against the disease at the Liverpool hospital, Ms Armillei had to be admitted to the intensive care unit for four weeks after suffering a cardiac arrest.\n\nShe said: \"When I came round everyone was just so happy... I do not remember any of the really bad stuff.\n\n\"My worst part of it all was the 10 days initial chemo, which was horrendous.\"\n\nUnable to have visitors due to Covid-19 restrictions, she set up an online blog to share her experiences with other cancer patients, enabling those in the group to offer support to one another.\n\nThe 40-year-old shared her experiences with other patients over social media\n\nOn her return to the island by ferry she was given a surprise visit by her sister, before being driven home in an Aston Martin, which had been sent to pick her up from the Sea Terminal by a local car dealer.\n\nDuring the journey through Douglas, colleagues from the bank where she works lined the street outside the branch to cheer her return.\n\nMs Armillei said it was important to \"acknowledge the journey people with cancer have, from diagnosis through the treatment, and to know what expect when you are in hospital with a serious illness\".\n\n\"I have been really fortunate. It is lovely that I got to come home, and that I am okay,\" she added.\n\nWhy not follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and Twitter? You can also send story ideas to IsleofMan@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The first foreign aid planes have arrived in Tonga, bearing much-needed supplies for the Pacific nation which was left devastated by a volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami on Saturday.\n\nNew Zealand said its military plane landed at Tonga's main airport after workers cleared ash from the runway.\n\nAustralia also confirmed the first of its relief planes had arrived.\n\nAid efforts had initially been hampered by ash from the volcano.\n\nAt least three people have died and communications have been crippled, and Tonga has only just begun to re-establish global contact after five days cut off from the rest of the world.\n\nOn Thursday, New Zealand's Defence Force confirmed its C-130 Hercules plane touched down in Tonga just after 16:00 local time (03:00 GMT). It was loaded with water containers, temporary shelter kits, electricity generators, hygiene and family kits and communications equipment.\n\nHours afterwards, Australian defence minister Peter Dutton tweeted the first plane despatched by the Australia Defence Forces had landed, carrying \"humanitarian assistance and disaster relief supplies.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Peter Dutton This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAustralia said the first of its two Boeing C-17 Globemaster relief planes also had a \"sweeping\" device on board to help keep the runway clear.\n\nRescue teams and hundreds of volunteers had for days desperately worked to clear the thick layer of ash at the airport runway in the capital Nuku'alofa that had prevented planes from landing.\n\nVolunteers used wheelbarrows and shovels, in what New Zealand's commander of joint forces Rear Admiral Jim Gilmour called a \"mammoth effort\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Get ready to run\": Watch Tongan journalist Marian Kupu recount the moment the undersea volcano erupted\n\n\"After the eruption, all of Tonga just turned grey,\" Tongan journalist Marian Kupu told the BBC from the capital Nuku'alofa. \"We're talking about dogs and cars and buildings, they were all covered in ashes.\"\n\nMs Kupu said the thickness of the ashfall made clearing the runway \"difficult\", and posed a possible health threat to those engaged with the task, who were \"mainly young boys\".\n\nBoth Australian and New Zealand authorities have confirmed that the aid drops will be contactless, to prevent the risk of Covid spreading to the island which has seen just one case of the virus so far in the pandemic.\n\n\"The aircraft is expected to be on the ground for up to 90 minutes before returning to New Zealand,\" said New Zealand's Defence Minister Peeni Henare.\n\nRear Adm Gilmour said no-contact Covid protocols were \"being adhered to rigorously\", adding that relief procedures would include making sure the airplane crew would have no contact with anyone on the ground, and that everyone would be wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).\n\n\"We are very respectful that the last thing that Tonga would need now is a Covid outbreak on top of this disaster,\" he added.\n\nAustralia has also said no personnel would disembark from their planes.\n\nA New Zealand naval ship is also due to arrive in Tonga on Thursday, ahead of other supply ships.\n\nMr Henare earlier told the BBC the supply ships would bring more than 250,000 litres of fresh water and desalination equipment, used to separate salt from water.\n\nTongans have been clearing away the thick layer of ash that has blanketed the Pacific Island nation since the eruption\n\n\"The most pressing matter that's come through from the Tongan government is the need for fresh water,\" he said.\n\nMs Kupu echoed similar fears that water supplies on the Pacific island nation would run out, saying they were \"praying for water, for heavy rain ... we do not have enough water.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the heavily Mormon nation says it has been providing significant shelter and clean water supplies to locals in the past days.\n\nContact with Tonga remains limited. A 2G connection has been restored by a telecommunications provider Digicel but the line is being overwhelmed by the demand.\n\nThe main severed undersea cable connecting the remote island nation to the outside world may also take weeks to fix.\n\nRecently released pictures from Tonga's consulate in the European Union, have shown the extent of the damage including cars, roads and buildings in Nuku'alofa coated in a film of ash.\n\nThe undersea volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami that wreaked widespread devastation on homes and buildings in Tonga\n\nAerial images taken by the New Zealand Air Force, meanwhile, indicate that several villages have been wiped out on islands that have yet to be reached.\n\nThe explosion of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano was felt as far away as the US. In Peru, two people drowned in abnormally high waves while beaches near the capital Lima were closed off following an oil spill.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A Tongan Olympian has started a fundraiser for his home islands\n\nDo you live in Tonga or do you know someone who has been affected? Get in touch haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:\n\nOr use this form to get in touch:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your comment or send it via email to HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any comment you send in.", "Antibiotics may no longer work because the bacteria they are intended to kill is becoming resistant\n\nMore than 1.2 million people died worldwide in 2019 from infections caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to the largest study of the issue to date.\n\nThis is more than the annual death toll from malaria or Aids.\n\nPoorer countries are worst affected but antimicrobial resistance threatens everyone's health, the report says.\n\nUrgent investment in new drugs and using current ones more wisely are recommended to protect against it.\n\nThe overuse of antibiotics in recent years for trivial infections means they are becoming less effective against serious infections.\n\nPeople are dying from common, previously treatable infections because the bacteria that cause them have become resistant to treatment.\n\nUK health officials recently warned antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was a \"hidden pandemic\" that could emerge in the wake of Covid-19 unless antibiotics were prescribed responsibly.\n\nThe estimate of global deaths from AMR, published in the Lancet, is based on an analysis of 204 countries by a team of international researchers, led by the University of Washington, US.\n\nThey calculate up to five million people died in 2019 from illnesses in which AMR played a role - on top of the 1.2 million deaths it caused directly.\n\nIn the same year, Aids (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is thought to have caused 860,000 deaths and malaria 640,000.\n\nMost of the deaths from AMR were caused by lower respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, and bloodstream infections, which can lead to sepsis.\n\nMRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) was particularly deadly, while E. coli, and several other bacteria, were also linked to high levels of drug resistance.\n\nUsing patient records from hospitals, studies and other data sources, the researchers say young children are at most risk, with about one in five deaths linked to AMR being among the under-fives.\n\nDeaths from AMR were estimated to be:\n\nProf Chris Murray, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said the new data revealed the true scale of antimicrobial resistance worldwide and was a clear signal immediate action was needed \"if we want to stay ahead in the race against antimicrobial resistance.\n\nOther experts say better tracking of resistance levels in different countries and regions is essential.\n\nDr Ramanan Laxminarayan, from the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, in Washington DC, said global spending on addressing AMR needed to rise to levels seen for other diseases.\n\n\"Spending needs to be directed to preventing infections in the first place, making sure existing antibiotics are used appropriately and judiciously, and to bringing new antibiotics to market,\" he said.\n\nMuch of the world faced the challenge of poor access to affordable, effective antibiotics - and that needed to be taken seriously by political and health leaders everywhere, Dr Laxminarayan added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The culprit thanked Mr Barr for \"not bringing shame on my ma and da\" by exposing the crime\n\nJanuary tends to be the month when many of us re-evaluate our lives and resolve to take action.\n\nAnd so it was for an anonymous person who chose now as the time to ease his or her conscience for a misdemeanour carried out in Londonderry almost 30 years ago.\n\nThe person sent a card to a shop owner in the city's Carnhill area to apologise for stealing £10 from him \"many years ago\".\n\nJim Barr was surprised by the message, which thanked him for \"not bringing shame on my ma and da\" by exposing the crime.\n\nThe culprit suspected Mr Barr knew he was being duped, saying: \"I'm sure you knew. I'm sure your till was down a tenner that day.\"\n\nBut the Derry man told the BBC he had no recollection of it.\n\n\"I haven't a clue who it was, but a friend of mine who's a teacher pointed out that it's probably a fella [boy] as a girl in Derry would tend to say 'mammy and daddy' rather than ma and da.\n\n\"And I'm guessing they were about 12 or 13 so they're probably in their early 40s now.\"\n\nJim Barr says he would love to secretly meet the person who sent the letter\n\nHe explained that in the nineties, pupils from the nearby St Columb's College were the most regular customers in the mornings.\n\n\"There was just one shop and 250 odd houses here, so we would have had a lot of boys calling in for sweets and crisps before school,\" he said.\n\n\"I don't need to know who it was because it's not important, but what I would love is for the person to meet up with me on the quiet so we could go down memory lane and have a laugh about it and say nothing to anyone.\"\n\nThe letter continued: \"I pretended my ma and da gave me a £20 when they only gave me £10.\n\n\"You knew. You told me to double check. I pretended I did and so you gave me the extra £10.\"\n\nHe or she then thanked him for not mentioning it to their parents and for being \"a pillar of the community\".\n\nThe message ended with the words: \"God bless!\"\n\nRemarking on this, Mr Barr said: \"This is a person of faith and this must have been playing on his conscience for years.\n\n\"He gave me back £40, that's the tenner and a pound of interest for every year.\"\n\nIn a week when questions have been asked about the integrity of some figures in Downing Street, Mr Barr suggested most people were innately honest.\n\n\"Most people are good deep down,\" he said.\n\n\"You get the odd bad apple, but the way I look at it is that person might have had a hard life and it's probably just the way they were brought up.\"\n\nThe story has attracted a huge positive response on social media since it was first reported in the Derry Journal on Tuesday,\n\n\"You can barely get a Derry Journal around here today because so many people have been going out to read the story and it's been lovely to hear these messages from people, some of them I don't even know, saying nice things about me,\" said Mr Barr.\n\n\"Maybe with all the doom and gloom of January, people just like to hear a good news story.\"", "Tracey Emin is best known for her headline-grabbing 1990s works, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With and My Bed\n\nTracey Emin has asked the government to remove her neon artwork from 10 Downing Street, saying it did not need \"any encouragement\" for a party atmosphere.\n\nMore Passion, her 2011 gift to David Cameron's government was meant to evoke such an atmosphere, like \"funfairs, casinos, bars\", she told Woman's Hour.\n\nBut given the row over drinks parties at Downing Street during lockdown, she has asked for it to be taken down.\n\n\"People are really genuinely upset about this,\" she told the Radio 4 show.\n\n\"It's not about a political thing, it's a moral, ethical thing,\" she said.\n\n\"People had to watch their loved ones be buried on their telephone, or be cremated on their telephone,\" she added, noting how Her Majesty, The Queen had \"sat there stoically alone\" during Prince Philip's funeral.\n\nEmin was speaking after making her feelings clear about the piece on Instagram on Wednesday, writing that the \"current situation is shameful\".\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by traceyeminstudio This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPrime Minister Boris Johnson recently apologised to Buckingham Palace for two staff parties in No 10 on the night before the Royal funeral. In January he apologised for attending a \"bring your own booze\" party in Downing Street during the first Covid lockdown.\n\nAhead of Prime Minister's Questions, he told MPs he had attended the gathering, held in the No 10 garden on 20 May 2020, for 25 minutes.\n\nHe is now facing down an attempt from some Tory MPs to oust him as leader over lockdown parties held in Downing Street.\n\nThe government is facing mounting pressure over several events that are alleged to have been held during lockdowns.\n\nSenior civil servant Sue Gray is expected to publish the findings of her report into the potential breaking of Covid rules at Downing Street this week.\n\nThe PM, Emin revealed to presenter Emma Barnett, once told her he likes the artwork in question - which now belongs to the Government Art Collection.\n\nHis official spokesman told the BBC \"we will discuss its location with the artist, my understanding is it will remain part of the collection\".\n\nA spokeswoman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) told BBC News: \"When an artwork comes into the Government Art Collection, the Collection can display the work at any of its 365 locations.\n\n\"On occasions the collection may consult with an artist when a work is going to a specific location.\"\n\nWhile Emin is not asking for it back, she does want it to be removed from Number 10 at the moment.\n\n\"I don't actually want the neon back because I donated it to the government's art collection and what people have to understand is, if [Labour leader] Keir Starmer was to become prime minister next week, and he liked my neon, it's still hanging in there,\" she said.\n\n\"When the Government Art Collection has a work of yours, it's for any government, it's for time immemorial. They hang it in embassies, schools, hospitals all over the place. So I don't want the work back because I don't need it.\n\n\"I would simply like at the moment for it to be taken down. Because the neon is notoriously for a party atmosphere. You have them in funfairs, casinos, bars or whatever and I really do not feel that Number 10 needs any encouragement on this level.\"\n\n\"This government, they need more compassion,\" she continued, with reference to the work's title. \"That's what they need, not more passion, they don't need more party atmospheres.\n\n\"Most of us are obeying the rules in every single way because this pandemic has affected everybody so terribly - whether it's financially, whether it's health-wise, you know, whether it's people dying, and this government doesn't seem to care about that.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "A man has appeared at a special court in the Republic of Ireland charged with the murder of Ashling Murphy.\n\nHe is Jozef Puska, 31, with an address in Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Tullamore.\n\nMr Puska was heckled as he was taken from a Garda car to a special sitting of Tullamore District Court on Wednesday evening.\n\nThe 23-year-old teacher was attacked while exercising beside a canal in Tullamore, County Offaly, just before 16:00 local time last Wednesday.\n\nJozef Puska was brought into a special sitting of Tullamore District Court on Wednesday evening\n\nIn court, a detective sergeant gave evidence of the arrest, charge and caution.\n\nThe court heard that when the charge was put to the defendant, he replied \"no\".\n\nHis defence solicitor applied for free legal aid and for the services of an interpreter.\n\nHe said Mr Puska was a Slovakian national living on €200 (£166) a week.\n\nJudge Catherine Staines remanded Mr Puska in custody to appear again at Clover Hill District Court on 26 January.\n\nA second man in his 30s who was arrested earlier on Wednesday has been released without charge.\n\nGardaí (Irish police) say a file will be prepared for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. No individual should die like Ashling, says Bishop Tom Deenihan", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. His owner could hear him crying and barking when he was stuck down the crevice.\n\nA pup who was trapped down a 10ft (3m) crevice for 34 hours has been rescued.\n\nReggie the sprocker spaniel was enjoying his regular walk in Clydach forestry, Rhondda Cynon Taf, on Tuesday when he fell in.\n\nThe 11 month old was stuck until rescuers finally freed him at 01:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nFollowing Reggie's ordeal, family member Leah Davies said: \"He's the kindest, loving little boy ever, he's my best friend, he's amazing.\"\n\nReggie was absolutely exhausted after being trapped for about 34 hours\n\nThe drama unfolded on Tuesday when Reggie started sniffing by the gap in the path.\n\n\"The next minute his bum was up in the air and he was down the hole,\" Leah said.\n\n\"He fell off the lip, fell down and we couldn't see him.\n\nEveryone from locals to emergency rescue teams were trying to rescue the puppy\n\n\"I was absolutely petrified and felt so helpless because I couldn't do anything for him.\n\n\"He was whimpering, crying and very vocal.\"\n\nNo one could fit down the \"narrow gap\", Leah says\n\nA fire and rescue crew arrived about 30 minutes after Leah called at 15:00, but she said \"there was nothing they could really do because of the complexity of the hole\".\n\nAfter failed attempts to rescue Reggie by manoeuvring down the hole to chip away at the ground, the decision was made to leave him overnight, with food being thrown down the gap.\n\n\"I was absolutely traumatised, I couldn't sleep that night I went home. Hearing him panting was awful, it was terrible,\" Leah said.\n\nReggie was rescued at about 01:00 on Thursday\n\nLeah says the whole experience \"has been an absolute wow\"\n\nIn a desperate plea for help, Leah took to social media which resulted in \"the whole Rhondda community\" bringing food and supplies to keep Reggie going.\n\nLocal business Drainforce brought camera equipment, which meant they were able to see Reggie for the first time since his fall.\n\nWith extra help from other volunteers, including one who brought ropes, they were able to reach Reggie and lift him to safety.\n\n\"Everyone was shouting 'he's out, he's out!'\" Leah said.\n\n\"If it wasn't for the Drainforce guys we wouldn't have got him out.\n\n\"In the car on the way down (the mountain), his eyes were huge, his heart beat was really fast. I was feeding him water out of my hand.\"\n\nLeah said Reggie was \"absolutely exhausted\" but quickly recovered.\n\n\"He was so excited to see us, rubbing against him. He was so happy,\" she said.\n\nReggie and his owner Dayne on their way to the vet\n\nReggie is recovering after his 34-hour ordeal\n\nLeah said the scare made her think twice about venturing up the mountain again.\n\n\"Imagine you took your child up walking and that was your child,\" she said.\n\n\"The more people know about these crevices, the better.\"", "Cancer specialists say a new form of personalised treatment is producing promising results in adults with leukaemia.\n\nThe treatment, known as CAR-T, involves reprogramming the patient's own immune system to attack their cancer.\n\nThe team at University College London say the \"transformative\" treatment may offer hope where others have failed.\n\nClaire Evans believes she was \"very lucky\" to have the therapy two years ago; she is still in remission.\n\n\"I don't think I'd be here if I hadn't had CAR-T,\" says Claire, from Hampshire. \"I was very, very lucky that the trial was there at the time.\n\n\"If the CAR-T option hadn't been available, I would have had, probably, a finite amount of time left.\"\n\nThe treatment is designed for patients whose cancer has returned, leaving them with a unpromising prognosis.\n\nCAR-T works by removing a type of immune system cell, called a T cell, from the patient's blood.\n\nThose cells are then genetically modified in the lab to make them more effective at targeting cancer cells, multiplied, and infused back into the patient drop by drop.\n\nAt present, CAR-T is only licensed for some people with leukaemia in the UK because the side effects are so severe.\n\nThe team at UCL have tweaked it so that it produces a less toxic reaction.\n\nThe UCL team, in partnership with University College Hospital, plan a much bigger trial, and hope the treatment will be approved within two years.\n\nOne of the researchers, Dr Claire Roddie, said the treatment was \"absolutely transformative\" and probably the biggest breakthrough in the past 20 years in malignant blood cancers.\n\n\"It is an absolute delight to be able to offer new therapies to these patients who otherwise have no treatment option available to them,\" she said.\n\nThe hope is that CAR-T will eventually be able to treat many types of cancer.\n\nThe BBC podcast You, Me and the Big C, which features open, honest and informative discussions about cancer, is back for an 8th series. You can find the latest episode on BBC Sounds.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, represented himself at the trial at the Royal Courts of Justice\n\nPeople owed an estimated £2m by English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson have appointed an independent insolvency expert to try to recover their money before a March deadline.\n\nRobinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, declared himself bankrupt last March.\n\nIn July, a judge ordered him to pay £100,000 to a refugee schoolboy he had wrongly accused of attacking a girl.\n\nHe also owes an estimated £1.5m in legal costs for the boy's lawyers.\n\nRobinson failed to convince the High Court his claims that Jamal Hijazi had attacked \"young English girls\" in his school in Huddersfield were true.\n\nThe legal costs are before any accrued interest.\n\nOther creditors include HMRC, a former business partner and Barrow-In-Furness Borough Council.\n\nThe anti-fascism campaign group Hope not Hate is fundraising to pay for the cost of the independent insolvency expert, Heath Sinclair of Richard Long & co.\n\nThe expert has until 3 March to try to find any assets or money that Robinson could be hiding, otherwise he will come out of bankruptcy, and it may become harder to recover the money he owes.\n\nBankruptcies are usually for 12 months, but the independent expert can apply to court to have the discharge from bankruptcy suspended. This can be for a lack of co-operation on the part of the bankrupt, for example.\n\nUntil now the work has been done by the official receiver, but the creditors hope the independent expert will uncover more assets.\n\nThe expert has the power to look at Robinson's bank records, to interview people under oath and apply for search warrants if necessary.\n\nHe and his wife Jenna Lennon divorced in February last year, just before he declared himself bankrupt, and before he lost the libel case.\n\nShe owns a large detached house in Bedfordshire where there have been extensive building works over the autumn and winter, including the creation of a gym in the old double garage, and a games room above a new garage being built in the garden.\n\nThe house was worth £705,000 when she bought it in November 2020, although she does have a mortgage.\n\nRobinson has been seen at the house talking to builders, sometimes with his ex-wife and sometimes alone, according to anti-fascism activists.\n\nHope not Hate believes he may have access to up to £3m in assets earned through property, investments, donations and book sales.\n\nIt thinks the Bedfordshire house alone could now be worth £1.2m.\n\nThe campaign group's chief executive Nick Lowles said it was helping to fund the independent insolvency expert, because Robinson's videos and online comments had \"turned Jamal's life upside down\".\n\nIt added: \"Jamal and his family had to move, had to start all over again, got all sorts of threats.\n\n\"It just seems outrageous that the person who did that, and then lost a libel case, can walk away scot-free.\n\n\"So partly it's about holding him to account and giving some justice to Jamal.\n\n\"We need to demonstrate to him and others there are consequences for doing this. You cannot get away with making people's lives a misery, creating lies, dividing communities, whipping up hatred, inspiring others to do attacks and not be held accountable for your actions, and I think for us this is a way to hold him to account.\"\n\nDuring his years as an activist espousing far-right views and campaigns, Robinson built up a strong social media following.\n\nHe used crowdfunding techniques and advertising on his social media channels to earn money, but this dried up when he was banned by Facebook and other social media companies.\n\nHis main outlet is now on Gettr, a platform set up by Jason Miller, a former aide to former US President Donald Trump.\n\nIn November 2013, Robinson pleaded guilty to fraud, and he was subsequently jailed for 18 months.\n\nHe also has convictions for stalking, assault, using someone else's passport, using threatening behaviour and contempt of court.", "In late 2020, the iceberg was bearing down on South Georgia\n\nThe monster iceberg A68 was dumping more than 1.5 billion tonnes of fresh water into the ocean every single day at the height of its melting.\n\nTo put that in context, it's about 150 times the amount of water used daily by all UK citizens.\n\nA68 was, for a short period, the world's biggest iceberg.\n\nIt covered an area of nearly 6,000 sq km (2,300 sq miles) when it broke free from Antarctica in 2017. But by early 2021, it had vanished.\n\nOne trillion tonnes of ice, gone.\n\nResearchers are currently busy trying to gauge the impact A68 had on the environment.\n\nAnd a team led from Leeds University has been back through all the satellite data to calculate the behemoth's changing dimensions as it moved north from the White Continent, through the Southern Ocean and up into the South Atlantic.\n\nThis has enabled the group to assess varying melt rates during the course of the megaberg's three-and-a-half-year existence.\n\nOne of the key periods, obviously, was towards the end, as A68 approached the warmer climes of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The RAF flies over the huge iceberg\n\nFor a while, there were fears the giant block could ground in the surrounding shallows, blocking the foraging routes of millions of penguins, seals and whales.\n\nBut it never quite happened because, as the team can now show, A68 lost sufficient depth of keel to stay afloat.\n\n\"It does seem that it briefly touched the continental shelf. That's when the berg took a turn and we saw a small piece break off. But it wasn't enough to ground A68,\" lead author Ms Anne Braakmann-Folgmann from the Nerc Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at Leeds told BBC News.\n\n\"And I think you can see why in the thickness estimates,\" added co-author Prof Andrew Shepherd. \"By that stage the berg's keel was 141m, on average, and the bathymetry (depth) charts in the area showed 150m. It was a close call in the end.\"\n\nBy April 2021, A68 had broken into countless small fragments that were beyond tracking. But its ecosystem impacts will have been much longer-lived.\n\nWide but extremely thin: In the beginning, A68 had an average thickness of 235m\n\nGiant tabular, or flat-topped, bergs are now recognised to have considerable influence wherever they roam.\n\nTheir freshwater inputs will alter local currents. And all the iron, other minerals, and even organic matter picked up through their lives and subsequently dropped into the ocean will seed biological production.\n\nThe British Antarctic Survey managed to place some robotic gliders in the vicinity of A68 to monitor conditions before the ice mass totally wasted away.\n\nThe data retrieved from these and other instruments, although not yet fully analysed, was revealing some interesting features, said biological oceanographer Prof Geraint Tarling.\n\n\"We think there's a really strong signal in the changing flora of the phytoplankton species around A68, and also in the actual deposition of material to the deeper parts of the ocean. The particle sensor on the glider was picking up some very strong signals of deposition coming from the berg,\" he told BBC News.\n\nDetails of A68's changing shape and freshwater fluxes are contained in a paper published in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment.", "US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Russia could attack Ukraine \"on very short notice\" and warned again of tough sanctions if it did.\n\nHe was speaking on a visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after months of tension over a Russian military build-up near Ukraine's borders.\n\nStressing the US's close ties with Ukraine, Mr Blinken vowed \"relentless\" diplomacy to stop Russian aggression.\n\nMoscow has denied any plans to attack or invade.\n\nRussia has made a raft of demands to Western governments, including that Ukraine should never join Nato and that the defensive alliance's military activities should be limited in member states including Poland.\n\nTalks between the West and Russia last week failed to reach a breakthrough, with some of Moscow's demands rejected as non-starters.\n\nRussia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014 after the overthrow of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine. It has supported pro-Russian rebels who control parts of eastern Ukraine after they fought a bloody war with government forces.\n\nThere are fears that the conflict, which cost at least 13,000 lives and caused at least two million people to flee their homes, may reignite, with the Russian military openly intervening.\n\nMr Blinken said Russia had built up troops near Ukraine's borders with \"no provocation, no reason\".\n\n\"We know that there are plans in place to increase that force even more on very short notice, and that gives President [Vladimir] Putin the capacity, also on very short notice, to take further aggressive action against Ukraine,\" he said.\n\nHe accused Russia of trying to weaken Ukraine's diplomatic institutions and divide Ukrainian society \"using everything from election interference to disinformation to cyber attacks\".\n\nHe pledged \"relentless diplomatic efforts to prevent renewed aggression and to promote dialogue and peace\", and repeated a warning of tough sanctions against Russia in the event of an invasion.\n\nMr Blinken will meet his Russian counterpart in Geneva on Friday, after talks with European allies in Berlin.\n\nA picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. So on a day when the White House warned that a Russian attack on Ukraine could come \"at any point\", American Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew almost 8,000km to appear in front of cameras with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and reiterate the close ties between the two nations.\n\nHe cautioned Russian President Vladimir Putin that there would be severe consequences if he opted for military action and promised continued defensive and financial support for the Ukrainian government.\n\nGiven evidence of a Russian disinformation campaign to convince Ukrainians that the US is abandoning the Eastern European nation - drawing comparisons to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan - such a show of support was particularly welcomed by senior Ukrainian officials.\n\nMeanwhile, on the streets of Kyiv, everyday life is continuing as normal. Pedestrians waved and took photographs of Mr Blinken's motorcade as it passed along ice-encrusted streets. There is no sense of panic or undue concern even amid headlines of Russian troops amassing along the nation's borders.\n\nTime may tell whether this is mass denial or a sense of steely resolve for the challenges that lie ahead.\n\nRussia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led recent negotiations with the US in Geneva, said his country did not \"intend to take any aggressive actions\".\n\n\"We will not strike, attack or invade Ukraine,\" he said at a meeting on Moscow.\n\nHe said the US could not force Moscow to move its troops away from the Ukrainian border. \"They are on our territory and we won't be making any changes to their movement because of external pressure,\" he added.\n\nMr Ryabkov also called on Washington to stop its military support for Ukraine, which he said posed a direct threat to Russian security.\n\nMr Blinken's visit to Kyiv was described as a bid to \"reinforce the United States' commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity\", before talks in Berlin on Thursday with German, French and British counterparts.\n\nGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who visited Moscow on Tuesday, has warned that any further military escalation \"would carry a high price for the Russian regime - economic, political and strategic\".\n\nUkraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has urged Western governments to impose immediate sanctions on Moscow.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's HardTalk programme, he warned that a Russian invasion of the country could lead to bloodshed and a refugee crisis for Europe.\n\nA consignment of light anti-tank missiles arrived in Kyiv from the UK on Tuesday as British ministers urged Moscow to reflect on the brink of a potential conflict in which thousands could die.\n\nIn an essay published this week, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace accused Russia of using Nato as a \"strawman\" to justify an invasion of Ukraine, accusing President Putin of being motivated by \"ethnonationalism\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ukraine ambassador Vadym Prystaiko says they are \"facing the biggest army in Europe by ourselves\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Zara Rutherford, 19, landed at Kortrijk-Wevelgem in Belgium to complete her round-the-world challenge\n\nA teenage pilot has become the youngest woman to fly solo around the world following a five-month challenge.\n\nZara Rutherford, 19, landed in Kortrijk-Wevelgem in Belgium, two months later than planned as a result of adverse weather.\n\nDuring the trip she spent a month stuck in Nome, Alaska, and 41 days in Russia.\n\nOn her return to Belgium, the former pupil of St Swithun's School, Winchester, was greeted by her family, journalists and well-wishers.\n\nShe was accompanied in her landing by four planes from the Belgian Red Devils aerobatic display team.\n\nAfter landing, she wrapped herself in British and Belgian flags and told reporters: \"It's just really crazy, I haven't quite processed it.\"\n\nThe Shark UL ultralight sport aircraft was accompanied by the Belgian Red Devils before landing\n\nShe told a press conference she was \"so glad\" she took on the challenge of flying 32,000 miles (51,000 km).\n\n\"The hardest part was flying over Siberia - it was extremely cold and if the engine was to stall I'd be hours away from rescue. I'm not sure I would have survived,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm looking forward to telling people about my experiences and encouraging people to do something crazy with your life.\n\n\"If you have the opportunity - go for it.\"\n\nMs Rutherford was interviewed by journalists on arrival in Seoul\n\nThe circumnavigation included more than 60 stops across five continents, and began on 18 August.\n\nThe British-Belgian aviator, whose parents are both pilots, said she hoped to inspire other girls to get into STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) occupations.\n\nThe challenge was made possible by sponsors including her former school in Hampshire, and Shark - the Slovakian manufacturer of her Shark UL aircraft.\n\nHer former school was among the first to congratulate Zara, tweeting it was \"super proud\" of her achievement.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by St Swithun's Finlay House This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nExtreme weather meant Ms Rutherford was stranded in Ayan for a month\n\nPreviously, the youngest woman to fly solo around the world was American Shaesta Waiz, who was 30 at the time of her challenge in 2017. The youngest male record holder was 18.\n\nAs well as being the youngest woman to complete the challenge, Ms Rutherford is the first woman to circumnavigate the world in a microlight, and the first Belgian to circumnavigate the world solo by air.\n\nThe young pilot carried out aircraft maintenance in Jakarta\n\nThe journey was expected to take three months, but numerous weather delays had a knock-on effect and caused her Russian visa to expire as the Siberian winter approached.\n\nWhen she arrived in Nome, only three out of 39 flights had gone to plan, and she had to wait while her passport was relayed by air to the Russian consulate in Houston.\n\nBut, even with her new visa, it was a further three weeks before she could cross the Bering Strait.\n\nThe teenager, who comes from a family of pilots, began training when she was 14\n\nDuring a video update posted on Instagram, she said: \"It is -18C and my hands are literally so cold. I've been here for almost a month.\n\n\"I've been keeping busy, I've been applying to universities and keeping the plane ready to go.\n\n\"The weather hasn't been great. Every time, either Russia has been looking bad or Nome has been looking bad.\"\n\nOnce in Siberia, where temperatures were as low as -35C on the ground and -20C in the air, a mechanic blocked up some of the air intakes on her aircraft to keep the engine warm in the extreme cold.\n\nIt was unclear how the aircraft would perform in the extreme cold\n\nBut, despite the tweaks, Ms Rutherford was grounded in Magadan for a week, then in Ayan for three weeks.\n\nAnd after the weather forced an unscheduled stop at Bandar Udara Rhahadi Osman in Indonesia, she slept in the terminal for two nights because she lacked the necessary paperwork to leave the airport.\n\nDespite the setbacks, and after spending Christmas and New Year away from her family, the teenager appeared happy and smiling in her Instagram updates.\n\nShe said one new challenge involved flying through wildfire smoke in California.\n\nThe pilot was welcomed by locals throughout her round-the-world trip\n\nHer instruments also malfunctioned in New Mexico due to a blocked pitot tube, and a flat tyre left her stranded in Singapore over Christmas.\n\nWhile in Veracruz, Mexico, she experienced an earthquake in her sixth-floor hotel room.\n\nShe said: \"Suddenly the building started to sway. I don't think I've ever run faster down the stairs. I was really expecting the most dangerous part of this trip to be in the air.\"\n\nZara Rutherford, pictured here 19 years ago with her mother, comes from a family of aviators\n\nJane Gandee, headteacher at St Swithun's School, said pupils and staff had been following Ms Rutherford's journey \"with interest and admiration\".\n\nShe said: \"As if the actual flying and navigation were not challenging enough, she had to contend with extreme weather and tricky bureaucracy.\n\n\"We are immensely proud of the good humour and resilience that she has shown throughout.\n\n\"Fifty of our own students have been inspired by Zara to have a go at flying, and I am sure that her example will serve as inspiration for many more young women around the world.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Peloton has pushed back at a report that it plans to temporarily stop production of its exercise machines.\n\nThe company's shares plunged by more than 20% after the CNBC report, which cited internal documents.\n\nIn a blog, the firm's chief executive said the information was \"incomplete, out of context, and not reflective of Peloton's strategy\".\n\nPeloton saw sales soar during the pandemic as people were forced to stay at home due to lockdowns.\n\nThe firm, which pairs its equipment with streaming and live exercise classes, had struggled to keep up with orders at the start of the pandemic, as gyms shut their doors.\n\nMore recently, however, appetite has dwindled for its bikes and treadmills, which start at nearly $1,500 (£1,100).\n\n\"We worked quickly and diligently to meet the demand head-on at a time when the world really needed us,\" Peloton's co-founder John Foley said on the company's website.\n\n\"We feel good about right-sizing our production, and, as we evolve to more seasonal demand curves, we are resetting our production levels for sustainable growth.\"\n\nIn a separate statement issued with the company's quarterly earnings Mr Foley said: \"As we discussed last quarter, we are taking significant corrective actions to improve our profitability outlook and optimize our costs across the company.\n\n\"This includes gross margin improvements, moving to a more variable cost structure, and identifying reductions in our operating expenses as we build a more focused Peloton moving forward.\"\n\nThe firm was hit last year after the death of a child in a treadmill accident led to a recall and government safety investigation. It also cut prices as people started to return to pre-pandemic exercise habits.\n\nIn November, it told investors it had experienced \"softer than anticipated\" sales and was lowering its expectations for the year.\n\nCNBC reported that Peloton was halting production of its most expensive expensive bike from December until June and its most expensive treadmill for all of its 2022 financial year, which runs through June. It is also pausing production of its standard bike in February and March and its treadmill for six weeks.\n\nCNBC, which also reported that the firm is considering job cuts, said the presentation blamed increased competition and price sensitivity for a \"significant reduction\" in demand.\n\nThe news sent the price of Peloton shares below $29, which is below what they fetched when the loss-making firm floated on the stock market in 2019. The value of the shares are down roughly 80% over the last 12 months.\n\nAt the time, analysts said it was not clear how big the market for Peloton machines was given their cost. The firm also makes money from people who subscribe for classes via its app.", "Carhartt, the work wear and outdoor gear maker, is facing calls for a boycott among conservatives opposed to its vaccine mandate for staff.\n\nThe outcry comes amid fierce debate in the US over Covid-19 jabs.\n\nThis month, the US Supreme Court said the government could not force large employers to make Covid-19 vaccination or weekly testing mandatory.\n\nCompanies including the coffee chain Starbucks have since reversed their plans for such rules.\n\nBut in a recent memo to staff, Carhartt leaders said the Supreme Court decision had not changed company requirements, which went into effect for much of their staff in early January.\n\n\"We put workplace safety at the very top of our priority list and the Supreme Court's recent ruling doesn't impact that core value,\" wrote Carhartt's chief executive Mark Valade, a descendant of the company's founder.\n\n\"While we appreciate that there may be differing views, workplace safety is an area where we and the union that represents our associates cannot compromise. An unvaccinated workforce is both a people and business risk that our company is unwilling to take. \"\n\nAfter copies of the message were circulated on social media, prominent conservatives and Republican figures weighed in.\n\n\"Well Carhartt has labelled the unvaccinated dangerous and implemented a vaccine mandate,\" conservative attorney Molly McCann wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"Pretty rich from a company sustained by the ranchers, farmers, labourers, etc. who make this country great and celebrate her values of freedom and liberty.\"\n\n\"Boycott Carhartt until they break,\" she said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Molly McCann This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFounded in 1889, Carhartt employs more than 5,500 people globally. It is privately-owned and based in Michigan, a state in the middle of the US that is fiercely divided between Republicans and Democrats.\n\nSelf-promoted as a brand for \"hard-working\" people, Carhartt made its name supplying labourers and farm workers. But it has also been embraced by fashionistas in Europe, where it has a longstanding \"Work in Progress\" design line.\n\nIn recent years, which the firm has described as a \"growth period\", Carhartt caps and coats have turned up everywhere from playgrounds to the Golden Globes. A 2017 article in men's magazine Esquire described it as one of the rare brands able to transcend America's political divide - at least so far.\n\n\"Regardless of the boycott, when you think about core American fashion brands, people always mention Ralph Lauren and Levi, but Carhartt is also on that list,\" said Jeff Carvalho, co-founder of men's fashion site Highsnobiety. \"They're just quite important.\"\n\nMr Carvalho, a collector of vintage Carhartt gear, said conservatives represent an important consumer base for the brand, but he believes it will survive the current firestorm, noting that buyers have few alternatives. He asked: \"Who are they going to turn to otherwise?\"\n\n\"It is the uniform, or tuxedo of American industry.\"\n\nCarhartt, which has factories in Kentucky and Tennessee as well as Mexico, said the \"vast majority\" of its staff are fully vaccinated or in the process of getting their jabs. It also granted \"a number\" of religious and medical exemption requests.\n\nA spokeswoman for the company said: \"Carhartt fully understands and respects the varying opinions on this topic, and we are aware some of our associates do not support this policy.\n\n\"However, we stand behind our decision because we believe vaccines are necessary to protect our workforce.\"\n\nJust over a third of US workers are now covered by vaccine mandates, according to a Gallup poll in December.\n\nWhile the Supreme Court struck down the national requirement, courts have been more open to states and companies setting their own policies.\n\nInvestment bank Citigroup and United Airlines are among the firms that have moved forward with vaccine mandates. United Airlines's boss Scott Kirby recently told staff that the policy had saved lives.\n\nOther firms have wavered in the face of opposition.\n\nAbout 55% of US workers support vaccination requirements at work, a Gallup poll found in December. But more than a third were strongly opposed. Divide over the issue is linked to politics, with Republicans leading the opposition.\n\nBusiness groups say companies are worried about compliance costs and staff recruitment. About 63% of Americans are fully vaccinated but that number varies significantly depending on location.", "Boris Johnson said the plan would be withdrawn ahead of a Lords debate on Wednesday\n\nControversial plans to allow double jobbing in Northern Ireland will be withdrawn, the prime minister has said.\n\nBoris Johnson was responding to a question from Simon Hoare, the chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.\n\nThe move would have allowed MPs to be elected as MLAs and hold both jobs until the next general election.\n\nDUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who was set to benefit from it, has denied being angry at the decision.\n\nThe move had been criticised by the majority of parties at Stormont.\n\nThe move would have allowed DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand for election to the assembly in May while retaining his seat at Westminster\n\nIt was part of an amendment that peers in the House of Lords were going to debate on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nSix of the political parties signed a joint letter on Tuesday to Mr Johnson calling for the plan to be withdrawn.\n\nThe leaders of Alliance, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionists, SDLP, Green Party and People Before Profit, believed it was aimed at helping the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - a charge that party denied.\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader told BBC News NI he was yet to speak to the government about its decision, but that he was \"full of energy\" and ready to go to the polls in Lagan Valley.\n\nAlliance leader Naomi Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood came out strongly against the plan\n\nA dual mandate would have allowed Sir Jeffrey to stand for election to the assembly in May, while retaining his seat at Westminster.\n\nUnder existing rules, Sir Jeffrey would have to stand down as an MP if he was elected to Stormont.\n\nThe practice of double jobbing was banned six years ago.\n\nThe withdrawal of the government's proposal will now trigger a by-election in his Lagan Valley seat.\n\nHe said he felt the proposal \"offered an opportunity perhaps for a small number of senior representatives to continue to have a voice at Westminster whilst we're trying to resolve issues such as the protocol\" but that he was \"looking forward\" to the assembly election.\n\nAsked if he was angry about what had happened, he said: \"I'm not angry at all, I'm full of energy, I'm focussed on the job that I have, I count it an honour and a privilege to represent the people of my constituency here at Lagan Valley and I look forward to the opportunity of meeting many of them and many others out on the assembly election campaign.\"\n\nBlink and you would have missed it, but it was a moment that will have mattered politically in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe parties who had been pushing back hard against the double-jobbing proposal are chalking the U-turn up as a win.\n\nBoris Johnson was not for elaborating, but it has likely come about due to government fears the vote could have been lost due to opposition from Labour and the Lib Dems - a defeat it did not need when the PM's future is already perilous.\n\nQuestions remain about why Number 10 had suggested the idea in the first place, knowing the backlash it would spark.\n\nAnd surely the biggest blow from this latest development will be felt by DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.\n\nHe had hoped to benefit from the legislation and keep his Westminster seat while running in the assembly election.\n\nNow that part of his election plan is no more.\n\nThe government was expected to face a battle to get the proposals through the Lords, as Labour and Liberal Democrat peers said they would be voting against it.\n\nIf the plan had progressed, MPs would have been able to once more sit in two chambers with double jobbing back in time for the assembly election in May.\n\nIt would have brought Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK.\n\nIn a social media post, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood described the prime minister's announcement as a \"big defeat for the DUP\".\n\nThe Foyle MP said it was a \"victory for all of us who opposed it\".\n\nUlster Unionist peer Lord Empey said it was a victory \"for positive dialogue and engagement with government and other parties\".\n\n\"You don`t have to threaten to crash the institutions for unionism to have influence with government,\" he said. \"There is another way.\"\n\nAlliance Party MP Stephen Farry said the plan \"should not have ever been tabled\".\n\n\"Pressure from parties across the spectrum in NI, and Labour and Liberal Democrats in parliament have had a major impact,\" he tweeted.\n\nBrandon Lewis had defended the plans to bring back dual mandates in Northern Ireland\n\nOn Tuesday, Secretary of State Brandon Lewis was accused of \"slinging mud\" over the dual mandate proposal .\n\nIn a Twitter post, he insisted the \"principle\" received cross-party support in the Lords.\n\nBut Alliance Party leader Naomi Long hit back at Mr Lewis and accused him of deflecting from the \"appalling decision the government has made to assist the DUP in the run up to the election\".\n• None MPs to be able to sit in Stormont as MLAs", "Brian Harwood was thrown from a vehicle into a river when a wooden bridge gave way\n\nThe partner of a man who was killed when a vehicle fell into a river after a wooden bridge collapsed has said his family are \"devastated\".\n\nBrian Harwood, 73, was among 11 people who were thrown from an all-terrain vehicle pulling a trailer when the bridge gave way in Roeburndale, Lancashire, on Tuesday.\n\nTwo other men, aged in their 60s and 70s, remain in hospital.\n\nMr Harwood's partner said: \"Everyone he knew enjoyed his company.\"\n\nMr Harwood, of Penrith in Cumbria, was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nIn a statement, his partner said: \"Brian meant so much to me and the people around us.\n\n\"We are devastated about what has taken place and fully support the investigation. I ask that people respect our privacy and allow us to grieve in private.\"\n\nEleven people were in an all-terrain vehicle and a trailer when the bridge collapsed\n\nPolice said the bridge, which was supported by scaffolding, collapsed as 11 people in a \"shooting party\" were travelling \"on private land\".\n\nOne of the injured men suffered a serious head injury, while the other had a back injury.\n\nAn investigation is continuing in collaboration with the Health and Safety Executive.\n\nDet Insp Kirsty Wyatt, from Lancashire Police, said: \"Our thoughts remain with Mr Harwood's loved ones and everyone affected by this tragic incident.\n\n\"We are supporting the families of those involved and working with partners to establish what caused the bridge to collapse.\"\n\nShe said investigators were expected to remain at the scene over the coming days.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n• None Man dies and two seriously hurt in bridge collapse\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Prince William and Catherine met Pastor Mick Fleming at Church on the Street\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have shown their support for a charity set up during the coronavirus pandemic to help the grief-stricken and homeless.\n\nPrince William and Catherine met Pastor Mick Fleming, who founded Church on the Street in Burnley, Lancashire, to support those in need.\n\nDuring the visit, Pastor Mick explained how \"so many people in Burnley fall through the gaps with poverty\".\n\nHe told the royal couple that the charity aimed to \"make a real impact\".\n\nThe BBC previously spent 12 months filming with Pastor Mick, a former drug dealer who turned his life around after finding his faith.\n\nPrince William told Pastor Mick that he had watched the programme and had been moved by the charity's work.\n\nIn his 20s, Pastor Mick was a well-established underworld fixer and drug dealer in North West of England but he now dedicates his life to helping those in need.\n\nHe told the Duke and Duchess: \"If we hadn't have been here or something like us hadn't have been here then I daren't even think.\"\n\nThe royal couple also met volunteers, staff and people who rely on the charity.\n\nThis included Deacon, 11, whose mother died during the pandemic.\n\nSpeaking to Deacon, Prince William said: \"I lost my mum when I was 15, it's difficult but it gets easier I promise you.\"\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met 11-year-old Deacon whose mum died during the pandemic\n\nFrom feeding the hungry on a car park in the centre of Burnley, to providing free funerals to those in poverty and securing his own church building to provide essential care for people suffering mental health crisis, it's been a relentless 18 months for Pastor Mick Fleming.\n\nToday his frontline work during Covid in the most deprived parts of the town was recognised by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.\n\nThey had seen the BBC's reporting from the town during the pandemic and wanted to visit Pastor Mick to offer support and understand more about the work that takes place in Church on the Street.\n\nThe centre focuses on drug dependency, homelessness, and mental health support, there's also a food bank and free clothes available.\n\nPrince William and Catherine spent more than an hour in Burnley, speaking to volunteers and listening to people who are going through crisis.\n\nPastor Mick said it was a day of hope after witnessing so much suffering during Covid.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge earlier visited Clitheroe Community Hospital where they thanked staff for their work and met 10-week-old cockapoo Alfie.\n\nThe pup will be trained to support patients and colleagues at the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust alongside therapy dog Jasper.\n\nWilliam told staff: \"We're so grateful for all your hard work.\n\n\"I'm not sure there are enough words to say how grateful everyone is for what you have done.\"\n\nThe royals also paid a visit to Clitheroe Community Hospital\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The Grenfell fire in June 2017 claimed the lives of 72 people\n\nNearly five years after the Grenfell Tower fire, 40% of buildings in England with the same type of cladding have not been made safe, new figures show.\n\nThe flammable cladding panels have been blamed for the rapid spread of the 2017 London fire, which led to 72 deaths.\n\nIn all, 481 buildings have been identified with Grenfell-style ACM cladding and are unlikely to meet building regulations.\n\nAs of December 2021, 289 of those buildings have had work fully finished.\n\nRemoving cladding can cost millions of pounds per block. The cost has often been passed on to flat owners under the leasehold system in England and Wales.\n\nMany leaseholders have also seen sharply increasing service charges, and some have had to pay for so-called \"waking watch\" fire wardens.\n\nThe government had set aside billions of pounds to remove dangerous cladding. Blocks in England above 18 meters tall with cladding defects qualify for the £5.1bn Building Safety Fund.\n\nCladding campaigners say it is taking too long to make homes safe, while leaseholders have told the BBC that accessing funding is a complex process.\n\nRemediation work has been slow to begin and not all blocks are eligible for help.\n\nThe information comes from government figures released on Thursday and analysed by the BBC.\n\nThe number of buildings where the work is done is lower for private sector blocks. Fewer than half, some 48%, have been finished and signed off as safe.\n\nGreater Manchester and London have the biggest clusters of buildings with Grenfell-style ACM cladding: 268 in London, 72 in Manchester and 141 in the rest of England.\n\nFor other types of dangerous materials, known as non-ACM cladding, progress has been slower.\n\nIn all, 970 blocks have been approved for funding from more than 3,000 applications. But so far, just 18 have been completed, amounting to less than 2%.\n\nIn its latest data release, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: \"A series of measures have been taken to ensure that remediation occurs quickly and safely.\n\n\"The government is determined to learn the lessons from the Grenfell Tower tragedy by making funding available to address the fire safety risks of unsafe cladding on homes and bringing forward the most significant building safety reforms in almost 40 years.\"\n\nThe department said it had launched a new online service to allow leaseholders to track Building Safety Fund applications and \"expose building owners who are failing to take action to fix their properties\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We are coming for you\" - Michael Gove's warning to firms that cut corners, sought to profiteer and mis-sold dangerous products\n\nIn recent weeks, leaseholders and Grenfell survivors have campaigned for further action and compensation.\n\nA group including the End Our Cladding Scandal, UK Cladding Action Group and Grenfell United campaigners sent a letter to Norway's giant state investment fund calling on them to pressure cladding firms and builders to fix fire safety issues - and withhold investment if they did not take action.\n\n\"This crisis has meant that at least 3,000,000 leaseholders are trapped in flammable flats they cannot sell, they are financing interim fire safety costs that they cannot afford to pay, and facing repossession/forfeiture over life-changing bills to make homes safe,\" the letter addressed to the boss of Norges Bank Investment Management said.\n\nIt followed the announcement from Housing Secretary Michael Gove that firms would be given until March to agree how to help leaseholders trapped in \"unsellable homes\".\n\nMr Gove warned those who had mis-sold unsafe cladding or cut corners on homes that the government was \"coming for you\".\n\nMr Gove said some building companies had shown leadership and covered the costs but others \"had not shouldered their responsibilities.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The prime minister announces plans to end Plan B measures in England\n\nEngland's Plan B measures are to end from next Thursday, with mandatory face coverings in public places and Covid passports both dropped, Boris Johnson has announced.\n\nThe prime minister also said the government would immediately drop its advice for people to work from home.\n\nThe PM said England was reverting to \"Plan A\" due to boosters and how people had followed Plan B measures.\n\nHe told MPs scientists believed the Omicron wave had peaked nationally.\n\nAt a Downing Street press conference, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: \"This is a moment we can all be proud of.\n\n\"It's a reminder of what this country can accomplish when we all work together.\"\n\nBut, he said, this should not be seen as the \"finish line\" because the virus and future variants cannot be eradicated - instead \"we must learn to live with Covid in the same way we live with flu\".\n\nHe urged people to continue taking steps to keep the virus at bay, including hand washing, ventilating rooms and self-isolating if positive - and pressed those who were unvaccinated to come forward to get their jabs.\n\nEarlier, in a statement to MPs in the House of Commons, the prime minister said:\n\nFurther announcements on the easing of travel rules and restrictions on care home visits in England are expected in the coming days, Boris Johnson added.\n\nThe prime minister also said the government intended to end the legal requirement for people who test positive for Covid to self-isolate - and replace it with advice and guidance.\n\nThe current regulations around self-isolation expire on 24 March. Mr Johnson said he expected not to renew them then - and suggested that date could be brought forward if the data allows.\n\nCiting the latest infection study by the Office for National Statistics, Mr Johnson said its data showed that infections levels were falling in England. He also said hospital admissions had stabilised and scientists believed \"it is likely that the Omicron wave has now peaked nationally\".\n\nHowever, he said he did expect cases to continue rising in primary schools and pointed to significant pressures on the NHS in north-east and north-west England.\n\nLooking ahead, Mr Johnson said the government would set out its long-term strategy for living with coronavirus.\n\nHe urged people to \"remain cautious\" during the last weeks of winter as there were still \"significant pressures\" on the NHS and the pandemic was \"not over\".\n\nIn response, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he would back lifting Plan B measures \"as long as the science says it is safe\" and accused the prime minister of being \"too distracted\" to have a \"robust plan to live well with Covid\".\n\nSchool leaders' unions said Covid remained a challenge for schools, with high numbers of staff and pupils absent.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the end of face coverings in classrooms, but warned the government risked giving the impression the crisis was over when there was still huge disruption in education.\n\nAnd the Royal College of Nursing said dropping Plan B would do \"nothing to ease the pressure on the NHS\".\n\n\"We can't rely on the vaccine alone when the situation is still so precariously balanced,\" its chief executive Pat Cullen said.\n\nBut for the hospitality sector, which suffered as people worked from home and were cautious over Omicron, there was relief. Industry group UKHospitality said businesses could now begin their revival and recovery.\n\nThe whole of Plan B is going. But is it too soon?\n\nInfections levels, while falling, are still well above what they were last winter. And hospital admissions have only just started coming down.\n\nThe fact remains that England - and the rest of the UK for that matter - is one of the best protected nations when you combine the immunity built up by vaccination and previous infection.\n\nThis does not mean people will not catch the virus in the future, but it does limit how many will become seriously ill.\n\nWhat's more, this Omicron wave appears to have peaked at just over 2,000 hospital admissions a day - very much best-case scenario territory.\n\nThis has given both ministers and the scientists advising them confidence that it's at least time to ease restrictions.\n\nOthers will argue this is going too far, too quickly.\n\nBut in the end it comes down to a judgement about what is proportionate.\n\nAnd certainly you have to wonder what impact the politics involved in this has had - the Tory backbenchers were unlikely to vote to keep any part of Plan B.\n\nBut in the end it also comes down to a judgement about what is proportionate.\n\nThere is a trade-off that has to be made between the costs of such restrictions and the benefits they bring.\n\nWith the worst of the Omicron wave almost certainly over, the benefits were reducing.\n\nThe latest Covid restrictions were first introduced in December to try to slow the spread of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant and allow time for the booster vaccine rollout.\n\nUK daily infections remain high but are falling - on Wednesday, the UK recorded 108,069 new cases.\n\nDr Susan Hopkins, the UK Health Security Agency's chief medical adviser, said case rates would largely decline but \"may plateau at some point\".\n\nVaccine uptake and mask wearing around strangers would determine how quickly that happens, she added.\n\nHospital admissions also appear to be decreasing. However, there is a lag between people catching the virus and becoming seriously ill so deaths are continuing to rise - and are up 14.7% on last week.\n\nOn Wednesday, 359 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded.\n\nNearly 37 million boosters have been given across the UK so far.\n\nThe UK's devolved nations set their own Covid restrictions and have moved at different speeds in introducing and easing them throughout the pandemic.\n\nIn Scotland, some restrictions will be lifted from Monday, including allowing nightclubs to reopen and removing limits on indoor events.\n\nIn Wales, crowds will return to sporting events from Friday and nightclubs can reopen the following week. In Northern Ireland, nightclubs remain closed and indoor standing events are not allowed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Listen: Brother tells hostage-taker, \"pack it in and come home\"\n\nThe British gunman who held four people hostage in a Texas synagogue was urged to surrender by his brother in their final phone call, it has emerged.\n\nAn audio recording of the conversation was obtained by the Jewish Chronicle.\n\nIn the call, which gunman Malik Faisal Akram made to his family in Blackburn as the siege was going on, he tells his brother he has \"come to die\".\n\nTwo men were arrested in Manchester and Birmingham on Thursday morning in relation to the attack, police said.\n\nAkram, 44, was shot dead by the FBI after the 10-hour standoff in Colleyville, near Dallas, with all four hostages unharmed.\n\nHe had entered the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue during a morning service by pretending to be homeless, before pulling out a gun.\n\nIn the clip Akram can be heard giving an anti-Semitic rant as his mental state deteriorates and the tension inside the synagogue increases.\n\nIt also reveals the efforts made by Akram's brother Gulbar to get him to surrender - as he tries repeatedly to talk him into giving himself up, telling him that his hostages are innocent people and asking him to think about his children.\n\nBut the gunman tells his brother he has set his heart on dying and he wants to \"go down as a martyr\".\n\n\"I've only been here two weeks and I've got them all at gunpoint,\" he says, later adding: \"I'm coming back home in a body bag.\"\n\nThe recording of the phone call was obtained from a security source, the Jewish Chronicle says. The BBC is unable to vouch for its authenticity but experts believe it to be genuine.\n\nThe incident began at about 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) on Saturday\n\nIn a barely coherent rant, thick with four-letter expletives, Akram rails against Jews and US military actions in the Middle East.\n\nHe repeatedly calls for convicted Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, imprisoned in nearby Fort Worth, to be released. She is serving an 86-year prison sentence over attempts to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan.\n\nAkram also tells his brother: \"I've prayed to Allah for two years for this.\"\n\nMI5 had investigated Akram 18 months ago but decided he did not pose a risk to national security.\n\nHe had been on the British security service's watchlist as a \"subject of interest\" in 2020 and was investigated in the second half of that year.\n\nBut by 2021 Akram, who had a criminal record in the UK, had moved from the active list to the \"former subject of interest\" list and was no longer considered a threat.\n\nThe clip obtained by the Jewish Chronicle is pretty shocking, in a way it's almost voyeuristic.\n\nYou are hearing the last words of a man who is going to be shot soon after, and who is clearly in a disturbed mental state.\n\nThe really crucial thing, I think, is he says he has been praying for two years for this.\n\nMI5, Britain's domestic security agency, investigated him for four weeks in the latter part of 2020 and decided that he was not a threat to national security.\n\nSo unless Malik Faisal Akram has got his dates wrong, which I think unlikely, he was able to hide his intentions during that investigation, which is worrying.\n\nIt does not necessarily mean that MI5 did an incompetent job, it means he was able to keep his intentions secret. He didn't show the signs then of what he intended to do.\n\nMore than a year went by between MI5 closing their investigation of Akram and him setting off to the US to carry out this attack. So this was clearly something that had been brewing in his mind for some time.\n\nHe is thought to have arrived in the US via New York's JFK International Airport two weeks prior to the siege, according to police sources, and is believed to have bought weapons used in the incident \"on the street\" after his arrival.\n\nAkram's brother Gulbar has apologised to the victims, and has said his brother was suffering from mental health issues.\n\nFriends of Akram in Blackburn also said his mental health had been getting worse and expressed surprise that he had been able to travel to the US.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker tells CBS Mornings about being held hostage - and how he escaped\n\nUS President Joe Biden described the hostage-taking as \"an act of terror\", while UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called it \"anti-Semitism\" - a view echoed by the Muslim Council of Britain which expressed its solidarity with the Jewish community.\n\nGreater Manchester Police said the pair who were arrested on Thursday remained in custody for questioning.\n\nTwo teenagers who were previously arrested in south Manchester as part of the investigation have since been released without charge.", "Classes were suspended at Hong Kong's primary schools last Friday Image caption: Classes were suspended at Hong Kong's primary schools last Friday\n\nAll secondary schools in Hong Kong are to close from Monday because of rising Covid-19 infections, the city's education bureau has said.\n\n“The epidemic situation is getting severe,” it said, and advises that from next week, schools “flexibly deploy various teaching modes and provide respective support to sustain students’ learning at home”.\n\nNursery and primary school classes were already suspended in the city last Friday and Hong Kong has moved to impose new restrictions over the last couple of weeks.\n\nOn 7 Jan, bars and gyms were ordered to closed, and a 6pm restaurant curfew was introduced. Hong Kong has also this month introduced bans on flights from multiple countries, including the UK.\n\nThe government has warned this week of “an imminent threat of both the Delta and Omicron mutant strains spreading in the community” . Sixteen local cases were recorded on Tuesday, two of unknown origins.", "Delays in prosecuting suspected criminals have hit a record 708 days for the average time it takes to go from offence to completion of a case.\n\nIn the three months to September 2021, the average time it took to deal with a crime rose 15%, up from 620 days.\n\nThe figures are a blow to the Ministry of Justice which is battling to reduce the massive backlog of serious crimes waiting to be dealt with by judges.\n\nThe Ministry of Justice says its latest measures will restore swift justice.\n\nThe government figures show that while more cases are being listed for trial at Crown Court, they are not being dealt with fast enough to prevent the average wait for justice from increasing.\n\nThe overall backlog has fallen by around 1,000 to 59,928 outstanding Crown Court prosecutions.\n\nJudges set provisional dates for almost 6,200 new cases in the three months to September - a significant improvement.\n\nBut, at the same time, 6,009 other prosecutions did not progress for a combination of reasons including postponements.\n\nCriminal barristers say those postponements are being driven by a combination of a lack of court time, judges and available lawyers to run each prosecution.\n\nJo Sidhu QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said that victims and defendants in some rape and domestic violence cases were now waiting up to five years for a prosecution to end in a verdict.\n\n\"These devastating figures of backlog and delay are only the tip of the iceberg,\" said Mr Sidhu. \"The criminal justice crisis that long predated the pandemic has now escalated to a perfect storm across the country while trial delays grow.\n\n\"We simply do not have sufficient judges, prosecutors and defenders available to deal with the huge backlog. This is all entirely of the government's own making. It is the victims of crime and defendants alike who pay the price.\"\n\nEarlier this week, the government announced it would soon allow the lower magistrates courts to sentence some offenders for up to a year - a move to reduce the flow of less serious cases to judges in the Crown Courts.\n\nA Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: \"Our decisive action kept justice moving despite the unprecedented impact of the pandemic.\n\n\"As a result, the Crown Court backlog has stabilised and fallen slightly in recent months, while in the magistrates' court it is now back to pre-pandemic levels.\n\n\"With super courtrooms, increased sentencing powers for magistrates and unlimited sitting days in Crown Courts this financial year, we will restore the swift access to justice that victims deserve.\"", "Ian Black said his wife Sandra \"went white\" when she found out they had won £2m\n\nA lottery winner who scooped £2m has revealed he nearly missed out on the life-changing prize because of roadworks outside his regular stop-off.\n\nIan Black, 61, from Carlisle, had just finished a nightshift and thought it would take too long to call in for a paper and a scratchcard.\n\nBut something told him to stick to his routine and he landed the jackpot.\n\nMr Black and his wife Sandra, 55, said top of their shopping list was an operation for their beloved rescue dog.\n\nLabrador-Staffie cross Meg has already had one operation on one of her legs which cost £2,500 and will undergo surgery on the other on Friday.\n\nMr Black, a former tyre factory worker, said that on the fateful day, 13 January, there were roadworks outside the garage where he would usually stop on his way home.\n\nHe almost decided to break his routine - but at the last minute changed his mind.\n\n\"I went out of the shop and sat and scratched it - I just could not believe what I was seeing. I let out a scream and immediately drove home,\" he said.\n\nOnce back at the house, he shouted to his wife to come downstairs, but she thought something had happened to Meg.\n\n\"I said no, we have won £2m.\n\n\"She just thought it was all a joke - but then she looked at the card and almost fainted. Sandra just went white.\"\n\nThe first thing the couple want to do is fund an operation for their rescue dog Meg\n\nMrs Black checked the scratchcard twice before telling her husband to call Camelot, which confirmed the win.\n\nShe said: \"I just couldn't believe it. I thought that doesn't happen to us, there must be something wrong with the card.\n\n\"When I looked at him he was white and shaking and I knew he wasn't having me on.\"\n\nThe couple, who have five children and 10 grandchildren, aim to help their family get on the property ladder and build their own \"dream home\".\n\nMr Black immediately handed in his notice as a production operator at Pirelli Tyres, where he had worked for 42 years.\n\nHe said he and his wife, a retired care worker, are now looking forward to the life they had always dreamed of.\n\n\"I don't think I have even seen that many zeros,\" he said.\n\n\"I kept questioning, is this really £2m? I immediately phoned work and said to them I wouldn't be in that day - adding, actually I don't think I will be in this week, or actually ever again.\n\n\"My boss, understandably, sounded really shocked and just said 'Why, what on earth has happened?'.\n\n\"That feeling when I could just say 'I have won the National Lottery' is a moment I will never forget.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n• None What do lottery winners spend their money on?", "What do we know for sure, after a chaotic Wednesday at Westminster?\n\nWe know there is political distress - an unknown number of Tory MPs have put in private letters trying to trigger a vote to oust the prime minister.\n\nWe know that he would fight to stay, if that came to pass.\n\nWe know there are significant numbers of other Conservative MPs, who hold the power here, who are contemplating whether to join those efforts and considering whether his time might really be up.\n\nMany of them are reflecting what they believe is deep public anger towards the PM over what happened under his roof during the pandemic - and their own frustrations with how it has been handled by what they see as a faulty political operation.\n\nYet we know, too, that there are some ministers who believe the threats are hysterical and overblown - that with time, Boris Johnson may be able to pull through this danger. Damaged, yes, but not necessarily finished.\n\nWe know as well that what all of the interested parties have in common is a desire to see what the official verdict from the senior official Sue Gray is on what really went on regarding gatherings at No 10.\n\nHer report could determine the pace and outcome of what happens next.\n\nWith so much unknown still, another important thing is clear: after a day of chaos, Downing Street itself is not in control.", "An American man believed to have faked his own death before fleeing to Scotland has been arrested at a property in Glasgow.\n\nNicholas Rossi, 34, is facing extradition over a charge of rape in Utah in the United States.\n\nHe was first arrested on 13 December after being admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow with Covid-19.\n\nA further hearing in his case was heard at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday.\n\nMr Rossi did not attend the hearing, and he was later re-arrested at an address in West End Park Street in the Woodlands area of Glasgow after a warrant was issued.\n\nA Police Scotland spokesperson said: \"Officers arrested a 34-year-old man in the Woodlands area of Glasgow today, Thursday, 20 January, 2022, in connection with an arrest warrant.\n\n\"He is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday\".\n\nMr Rossi - who is wanted by Interpol - told US media in December 2019 that he had late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma and had weeks to live. Several outlets reported that he had died in February 2020.\n\nHe used the alias Arthur Knight when he was admitted to the QEU hospital in Glasgow and is believed to have been on a ventilator in the intensive care unit when he was traced.\n\nPolice arrested Mr Rossi in the Woodlands area of Glasgow on Thursday evening\n\nUtah County Attorney David Leavitt said: \"It is confirmed that a warrant was granted this morning at Edinburgh Sheriff Court for the arrest of Nicholas Alahverdian/Rossi.\n\n\"He was apprehended at the Scotland address and is due to appear at court tomorrow.\n\n\"We again express our gratitude to the law enforcement agencies for their diligent efforts in this matter to bring this individual to justice.\n\n\"We do not comment on extradition proceedings or on the details of the work done in the course of this ongoing investigation.\"", "French actor Gaspard Ulliel, who is set to appear in Marvel's forthcoming TV series Moon Knight, has died aged 37.\n\nHis family told news agency AFP he died on Wednesday following a skiing accident in the Alps.\n\nUlliel, one of France's best-known actors, has appeared in It's Only the End of the World and Saint Laurent, the biopic of the French fashion designer.\n\nThe actor was skiing in the Savoie region on Tuesday when he collided with another person.\n\nHe suffered severe brain trauma and was airlifted to a hospital in Grenoble, where he died the next day.\n\nThe other skier was not hospitalised and an investigation is now under way.\n\nThe news of his death came just a day after the trailer for Moon Knight, in which he stars as Midnight Man, was released online.\n\n\"French cinema is losing a huge talent, full of charm and energy,\" tweeted French finance minister Bruno Le Maire.\n\nWriter and critic Caspar Salmon also paid tribute, describing Ulliel as \"an actor of considerable magnetism, talent and beauty, who had already carved out an impressive and varied career\".\n\nAs well as being a movie star, Ulliel also appeared as a model. As the face of the Bleu de Chanel fragrance, he was directed by Martin Scorsese for a 2010 television advertisement.\n\nGaspard Ulliel pictured at the Cannes Film Festival premiere of La danseuse (The Dancer) in 2016\n\nBorn just outside Paris in 1984, Ulliel appeared on screen from from the age of 11 but garnered international acclaim for his performance as a young Hannibal in 2007's Hannibal Rising.\n\nHe won the best actor Cesar - the French equivalent of an Oscar - in 2017 for his performance opposite Marion Cotillard and Lea Seydoux in It's Only the End of the World.\n\nIn 2005, he won most promising actor for his performance in the World War One drama A Very Long Engagement, which also starred Audrey Tautou.\n\nSaint Laurent, one of two 2014 biopics about French designer Yves Saint Laurent, was one of the films in competition for the top prize at that year's Cannes Film Festival.\n\nUlliel was praised for his performance but lost out at the subsequent Cesars to Pierre Niney - star of the rival film, titled Yves Saint Laurent.\n\n\"Broken heart,\" tweeted Niney on hearing the news of his fellow actor's death. \"Gaspard was benevolence and kindness. Beauty and talent.\"\n\nGaspard Ulliel, alongside Lea Seydoux, Marion Cotillard, Xavier Dolan, Nathalie Baye and Vincent Cassel at the Cannes Film Festival, where their film, It's Only the End of the World, was showing in-competition in 2016\n\nIn a 2014 interview with IndieWire, Ulliel spoke about the differences between the two films.\n\n\"I waited until we finished our shooting to discover the other film,\" he said. \"I remember arriving at the theatre very nervous, and very quickly felt relieved when I realised quickly how different they were. They're two different visions, two films that never really meet.\n\n\"So in a way, it's legitimate for both films to exist. Maybe it's the best way to celebrate the diversity of such an iconic man as Saint Laurent.\n\n\"I think Pierre Niney did a great job and I was relieved that he was proposing something quite different from what I decided to do.\"\n\nHe said he \"decided very early in the preparation process to take some distance with the reality\" and to \"nourish this character\" with elements of his own life and personality.\n\nUlliel was bitten by a dog as a child, and he later said he felt the scar helped him in his life and career as it looked like a dimple.\n\nHe is survived by his young son and his girlfriend, the model and singer Gaëlle Piétri.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data.\n\nPatients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted.\n\nThis data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available.\n\nIf a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed.\n\nIn Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data.\n\nData for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities.\n\nWhen you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board.\n\nComparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nConservative MP Daniel Kawczynski has been given a one-day suspension from sitting in Parliament.\n\nIt follows an apology to the House of Commons from the member for Shrewsbury and Atcham earlier for undermining an initial apology for bullying staff.\n\nHe had been investigated over claims he had bullied parliamentary committee staff as he struggled with IT issues during the first lockdown.\n\nMr Kawczynski will not be allowed to sit in Parliament on Thursday.\n\nSir Bernard Jenkin, chair of the Liaison Committee and member of the Standards Committee, told the House that the suspension would have been for a \"significant period but there were significant mitigating circumstances\".\n\nMr Kawczynski has been \"candid in discussing his mental health issues\", Sir Bernard said.\n\nThe MP first apologised to the Commons in June but faced a fresh investigation over comments given to the media.\n\nParliament's standards commissioner found comments made to BBC Radio Shropshire had failed to protect complainants' anonymity and had caused \"significant damage\" to the Commons' \"reputation and integrity\".\n\nLast year, Parliament's Independent Expert Panel (IEP) had concluded he should make an unreserved apology in the House of Commons after ruling his behaviour in April 2020 was \"grossly unprofessional\" and a significant breach of Parliament's Behaviour Code.\n\nBut speaking to a BBC reporter on the 14 June 2021, he said: \"I have no alternative but to apologise, because if I don't apologise then I risk the option of being sanctioned further.\"\n\nHe was referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, which noted: \"This is the first occasion on which an allegation of non-compliance with an Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS) sanction has been referred to the Committee.\"\n\nIn concluding Mr Kawczynski had failed to comply with the findings of the IEP it called for him to make an apology to the House and recommended a one-day suspension.\n\nSpeaking after Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, Mr Kawczynski said: \"I acknowledge that in speaking to journalists and the radio I undermined the sincerity of the apology I gave to the House on the 14 June 2021.\n\n\"I am sorry that my conduct will have had a further harmful effect on the complainants and that it may have diminished public confidence in the process.\"\n\nHe promised a written apology to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, the chairman of the Independent Expert Panel and the original complainants.\n\nThe Commissioner for Standards had said a longer suspension could have been expected, but it took in to account mitigating evidence from Mr Kawczynski, who said he had been suffering mental health problems at the time.\n\nIn his statement to the Commons, Mr Kawczynski added: \"I am conscious that my conduct may have merited suspension from the service of the House for a longer period and appreciate the committee's consideration of the difficulties that I was experiencing in my personal life at the time and the mental health issues I explained to them.\n\n\"I deeply regret my actions. I am committed to learn from the mistakes I have made and to work on my personal development, especially in my communication with others in every interaction that I have.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Ivanka Trump speaking at a campaign event in Georgia\n\nUS congressional investigators have asked Ivanka Trump, the daughter of the former president, to testify about the 6 January riot at the US Capitol.\n\nThe move to request testimony from a Trump family member marks an escalation of the committee's probe of the riot.\n\nIn a letter, lead investigator Bennie Thompson said Ms Trump was there when her father allegedly pressed his vice-president to reject election results.\n\nA mob stormed the Capitol as lawmakers met to confirm President Biden's win.\n\nIvanka Trump, Donald Trump's eldest daughter, served as one of his senior advisers during his presidency, alongside her husband Jared Kushner.\n\nThe committee says she participated in efforts to convince Mr Trump to call off his supporters during the violence.\n\n\"The Committee would like to discuss any other conversations you may have witnessed or participated in regarding the President's plan to obstruct or impede the counting of electoral votes,\" says the nine-page letter to Ms Trump from Mr Thompson, a Mississippi congressman.\n\n\"Testimony obtained by the Select Committee indicates that members of the White House staff requested your assistance on multiple occasions to intervene in an attempt to persuade President Trump to address the ongoing lawlessness and violence on Capitol Hill,\" he adds in the letter, which asks her to speak to the committee next month.\n\nA representative for Ms Trump told US media that she had just learned that the 6 January committee had issued a public letter asking her to appear.\n\n\"As the Committee already knows, Ivanka did not speak at the January 6 rally,\" the spokesperson said.\n\n\"As she publicly stated that day at 3:15pm, 'any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable. The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful.' \"\n\nThe representative did not say whether she would comply with the voluntary request.\n\nThe panel is also seeking the phone records of Mr Trump's son Eric Trump, as well as Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Mr Trump's other son, Donald Trump Jr.\n\nAccording to testimony by Keith Kellogg - an adviser to former Vice-President Mike Pence who was also with Mr Trump in the White House during the riot - Mr Trump called Mr Pence that day to say he was \"not tough enough\" to block the congressional certification of the election.\n\n\"Mike, it's not right. You can do this. I'm counting on you to do it. If you don't do it, I picked the wrong man four years ago. You're going to wimp out,\" Mr Trump reportedly said, according to Mr Kellogg's interview transcript.\n\nHe also said that Ms Trump was present during the call, and turned to him afterwards to say \"Mike Pence is a good man\".\n\nIn an interview earlier this month, committee vice-chairwoman Liz Cheney said that the committee heard that Mr Trump denied multiple requests from aides to step in to attempt to halt the violence.\n\n\"We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence,\" the Republican congresswoman told ABC News.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ros Atkins on... the US Capitol riot anniversary", "Prince Harry and Meghan are among the celebrities misused in fake investment adverts\n\nFake endorsements from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are being used on social media to promote Bitcoin-related investment schemes.\n\nPhotos and bogus interviews with Prince Harry and Meghan and other celebrities are being used to attract investors.\n\nThe Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says it is increasing worries about scam advertisements.\n\nThe number of consumers reporting possible scams to the watchdog has risen by more than 400% in five years.\n\nIn 2021, there were more than 34,000 reports from consumers with suspicions about possibly fraudulent investment offers, the FCA says. In 2016, it had been 8,000.\n\n\"People should be very wary when they see investment ads offering high returns, even if they appear to be endorsed by celebrities,\" a spokeswoman for the financial services regulator said.\n\nThe watchdog warns of growing concerns about get-rich-quick scams being advertised through social media or search engines.\n\nFabricated interviews with Prince Harry and Meghan have previously been used in investment claims - and there appear to be new attempts to use their names in online articles promising instant profits, shared on social-media platforms.\n\n\"People earning millions from home by using Harry and Meghan latest advice,\" says one of the latest fake headlines, in a story also using the logos of news brands, including the BBC, the Daily Mail, the Sun, Forbes, Good Morning Britain and the Guardian.\n\nAnother was headlined: \"Harry and Meghan shocked everyone in the studio by revealing how they making an extra £128,000 every month.\"\n\nArticles claim falsely that in TV interviews the couple backed investment schemes related to Bitcoin and crypto-currency trading.\n\n\"I let the software run and my profits stacked up like pancakes,\" a supposed investor is quoted as saying.\n\n\"It feels incredible having money rush in this fast and hard.\"\n\nAnother says: \"My ex-girlfriend dumped me because I was too poor.\n\n\"Now I'm a multi-millionaire and I have an even better girlfriend.\"\n\nThe online articles carry bogus claims of the backing of other wealthy figures, including Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg.\n\nThe investment articles, seen by the FCA, appear to be linked to a website in Eastern Europe.\n\nThe website was contacted but has not replied - and the online link now goes to a general feature on the Royal Family.\n\nRepresentatives of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been alerted.\n\nThe FCA wants consumers to be more aware of the threat of scams and to check if a company is regulated in the UK and on the financial-services register.\n\n\"If it isn't, you are very unlikely to have any protection if things go wrong,\" the FCA spokeswoman said.\n\nThere are warnings of increasing numbers of bogus adverts using celebrity endorsements\n\nAction Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cyber-crime, says scammers are using social media to target a younger age group.\n\nThis can involve \"fake testimonials\" and pictures of famous people to \"help the investment seem legitimate\", it says.\n\nIn the financial year between April 2020 and March 2021, there were were 500 investment frauds found using bogus celebrity endorsements, with losses of over £10m, according to Action Fraud.\n\nCitizens Advice director of policy Matthew Upton said the \"consequences can be truly devastating\".\n\n\"These schemes are becoming ever-more sophisticated and can leave people feeling incredibly vulnerable and isolated - to the point where they can't even tell their family and friends what has happened,\" he added.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nCoverage: Daily radio commentaries on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Sport website and app, with selected live text commentaries online; TV highlights from middle Saturday.\n\nEmma Raducanu was warned by her team not to play in the Australian Open second round because of a blister on her racquet hand that hampered the Briton in the defeat by Danka Kovinic.\n\nThe US Open champion, 19, raced into a 3-0 lead before needing treatment on her hand and losing the opening set.\n\nShe fought back to win the second set but was beaten 6-4 4-6 6-3 by the world number 98 on Margaret Court Arena.\n\nRaducanu says she has been nursing the blister for about five days.\n\nShe has been \"trying every solution\" to tape the affected area because it \"kept ripping off\".\n\n\"It has been a challenge, for sure,\" she told BBC Sport. \"The past few days I have been really hindered in my practice and couldn't hit any forehands or serves at all.\n\n\"Some people in my team didn't really want me to go out there. I wanted to go and fight and see how far that would take me.\"\n\nHowever, Raducanu says the experience showed she is \"probably tougher than I thought in terms of playing through that much pain\".\n\n\"I also learnt that I have got some hand skills, even though some people tell me I've got the hands of a bricklayer,\" she added.\n\n\"If I can use these sort of hand skills, and improve it going forward and mix it with my aggressive game, I think I can be pretty dangerous.\"\n• None Evans into third round as Watson loses\n• None Andy Murray loses in straight sets to Taro Daniel in Melbourne\n\nMontenegro's Kovinic is into the last 32 of a Grand Slam for the first time.\n\nRaducanu had only lost one Grand Slam match before this meeting and while she may ultimately have been defeated, the Briton will surely have won even more admirers for her gutsy display.\n\nThe teenager has been spending almost 12 hours on site every day to \"get my business done\", which she says means training, having lunch, doing recovery, more training, gym work and then more recovery.\n\nThat extra work initially paid dividends as Raducanu delivered the perfect start, breaking in the opening game and storming into a 3-0 lead.\n\nShe looked set to replicate her first-round meeting against Sloane Stephens, where she claimed the opening set without dropping a game, although she was then taken to a deciding set by the American for the first time in her Grand Slam career.\n\nThe blister then started to affect Raducanu and, at 3-2 after Kovinic had responded by winning two games, the Briton took a medical timeout for treatment.\n\nShe double faulted on her return to the court and looked tentative as Kovinic broke again to level and completed the turnaround by winning five games in a row.\n\nA toiling Raducanu strung together a series of cleverly constructed points to break for the third time, but that resistance was short lived as Kovinic closed out the set.\n\nRaducanu digs in despite the pain\n\nIf Kovinic believed the second set would continue as a similar procession then Raducanu, smiling through gritted teeth, had other ideas.\n\nThe teenager seemed to be effectively playing with just a backhand at times, jabbing and slicing on her forehand side to minimise the discomfort as she opened up a 3-1 lead.\n\nFirst-round opponent Stephens, a former US Open champion herself, warned Raducanu after their meeting that the teenager will have to learn to deal with \"ups and downs\".\n\nBut Raducanu is a star student and showed during this chapter of her early Grand Slam education that she can learn on the job, letting out a huge \"come on\" after her adapted approach made it 4-2.\n\nThe world number 18 had a chance to extend that advantage with break point on Kovinic's serve, but the Montenegrin displayed tactical nous and composure of her own to hold.\n\nRaducanu appeared to be grimacing with every forehand yet still chalked up another two break points at 4-4 and converted a superb winner off the troublesome side.\n\nThe guile and desire that made her the first British woman to win a Grand Slam since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977 then shone through.\n\nRaducanu complemented a punchy serve with aggressive groundstrokes to fend off two break-back points and take the second set, shaking her blistered hand in celebration.\n\nKovinic took a long bathroom break before the decider, no doubt wondering how she had failed to close out the match in two sets against an injured opponent.\n\nIndeed it was Raducanu who missed early break points and then, on a sweltering day in Melbourne where temperatures touched 30C, the Briton began to look fatigued for the first time as Kovinic converted her own to open up a 3-1 lead.\n\nBoth players looked on as the crowd cheered a seagull circling inside the arena, and it looked like the breather Raducanu needed, as she broke back to love.\n\nBut it was Kovinic who outlasted her opponent in the final set.\n\nShe teed up two match points and although she watched the first scream back past her off a Raducanu forehand winner, she then found the corner with a backhand to cap a fine display and reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.\n\n\"It was a really nice experience to play Emma here and make the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time after many years,\" said Kovinic, the world number 98.\n\n\"Emma has had amazing results, winning a Grand Slam at such a young age. She is an amazing talent. I'm just so happy I could play such a high level.\n\n\"I was a little bit low in my energy through the third set so I tried to focus on myself, not show much emotion and save my energy.\"\n\nThere was a brief period, midway through the first set, when Emma Raducanu looked quite agitated about the blister that was preventing her playing her natural game.\n\nUnable to hit her usual topspin forehand, because of a red raw blister on her serving hand, she began to improvise.\n\nShe hit virtually every single forehand with slice in the second set, and was able to level the match, even though she says she has been told in the past that she has the \"hands of a bricklayer\".\n\nThe 19-year-old has gained some more invaluable Grand Slam experience here in Melbourne, even though her Australian Open debut lasted just two matches.\n\nShe beat a fellow Grand Slam champion - Sloane Stephens - for the first time in the first round, and won a deciding set in a Slam, which was also a first.\n\nAnd then against Danka Kovinic she had to think on her feet in the face of adversity - and in the process developed a new trick which could prove very useful in future matches.\n• None The Football News show brings you the biggest stories every day\n• None 'I'm here for you': Men from the world of sport and social media open up about their mental health", "A man in his 30s has been arrested by gardaí (Irish police) investigating the murder of Ashling Murphy.\n\nThe 23-year-old primary school teacher was attacked while out exercising beside a canal in Tullamore, County Offaly, last Wednesday.\n\nThe man is being questioned in relation to the potential withholding of information.\n\nAnother man in his 30s, who was arrested on Tuesday, continues to be questioned on suspicion of murder.\n\nA 40-year-old man was arrested last week, but was later released and eliminated from police enquiries.\n\nThe man in his 30s being questioned on suspicion of murder was arrested after he was deemed medically fit to be discharged from St James's Hospital in Dublin on Tuesday, RTÉ reports.\n\nHe had presented himself to the hospital last Thursday night with serious and suspicious injuries, says the Irish broadcaster.\n\nGardaí were alerted, having contacted hospitals after Ashling's killing, asking medical officials to contact them if they had suspicions in relation to a wounded patient.\n\nEvidence has been gathered from the post-mortem examination, the forensic examination of the scene, information from public appeals and interviews with witnesses, RTÉ reports.\n\nMourners lined the streets on Tuesday for Ms Murphy's funeral with Irish President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach (PM) Micheál Martin among those who attended.\n\nPupils from Durrow National School where she taught, along with musicians she had played with as well as friends from her local GAA club turned out to pay their respects.\n\nMourners came out in force to pay their respects to the young woman\n\nA priest at the funeral said her family had been robbed of their \"most precious gift\" .\n\nThe Bishop of Meath Tom Deenihan said the killing had also shone a light on the issue of violence against women within Irish society.\n\nMs Murphy's 23-year-old boyfriend, Ryan Casey, spoke of the loss he had endured and said she \"was so much more to me than a girlfriend\".\n\n\"She was my soul mate. She is my soul mate. She will always be my soul mate,\" he said in his emotional tribute.\n\n\"She is the greatest love of my life. I will cherish the last five years we spent together for my entire life and hope that some day, God willing, we can be reunited once more.\"\n\nThe Murphy family and Ashling's boyfriend, Ryan, walked behind the hearse as it left St Brigid's Church\n\nTens of thousands of people have attended vigils across the island of Ireland and further afield following Ms Murphy's killing.\n\nIn the wake of her death, there have been calls for more to be done to tackle violence against women in Ireland.\n\nThe Republic's justice minister has said she intends to publish a new national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in March.", "James Watt (right) and co-founder Martin Dickie at the BrewDog brewery in Ellon in May 2020\n\nScottish beer giant Brewdog sent multiple shipments of beer to the US, in contravention of US federal laws, a BBC investigation has found.\n\nStaff at its Ellon brewery told the BBC they were put under pressure in 2016 and 2017 to ship beer with ingredients that had not been legally approved.\n\nOne US-based importer said they had been deceived by Brewdog.\n\nIn a social media post on Wednesday, Brewdog CEO James Watt admitted to \"taking shortcuts\" with the process.\n\nBBC Scotland's Disclosure programme has been told that staff at the Ellon brewery in Aberdeenshire knew that two of its flagship products, Elvis Juice and Jet Black Heart, contained extracts which were not approved in the US.\n\nOne former worker told the investigation: \"The pressure was enormous. 'Just make it happen', that was the culture. It was clear to us this was coming from the top - from James [Watt].\"\n\nAnother said: \"We were continually told to ship beer to the USA, despite everyone knowing the beers hadn't been approved.\n\n\"Everyone was worried they'd be [fired] if they didn't do what was asked.\"\n\nThe BBC has seen evidence that suggests US treasury officials from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) were given false information on at least five occasions during a six-month period, which meant that potentially hundreds of kegs of beer were sent with incorrect labelling - a violation of TTB laws.\n\nElvis juice was one of the beers that contained extracts which would not be approved in the US\n\nAll beer imported to the US needs to be declared to the TTB and given an official label before being shipped.\n\nUK breweries provide the details of their beers to a US-based importer, who make the label application on the brewery's behalf.\n\nIf the beer has any unusual ingredients, like flavourings or extracts, these need to be declared so that a special label, referencing the beer's formula, can be approved before it can be shipped.\n\nEach extract needs to be deemed safe for consumption in the US before an approval is granted, and this process can sometimes take months.\n\nFalse information provided to the TTB can be prosecuted under US perjury laws.\n\nThe beer was imported to Brewdog's new US brewery which it was setting up in Ohio\n\nBrewdog sources have told the BBC that the only way to have shipped Elvis Juice and Jet Black Heart to the US in that period was to not declare the extracts.\n\nFormer TTB labelling specialist Battle Martin said: \"I think it's serious. There's a lot of people out there putting a lot of effort into complying with the regulations.\n\n\"There has been a deception here,\" he said. \"In my view, based on the number of products and based on the number of times this has happened, I think it warrants further investigation, because it shows a pattern.\"\n\nThe claims are to be broadcast as part of a 60-minute documentary on BBC One Scotland on Monday 24 January at 19:00.\n\nThe BBC wrote to Brewdog last week detailing its allegations.\n\nIn a LinkedIn post on Wednesday - entitled My Biggest Mistakes As Brewdog CEO - Mr Watt said: \"We made some mistakes with the paperwork on the first few shipments [to the US] …all taxes were paid in full, but the paperwork was not always correct.\"\n\n\"In hindsight, there were oversights ... due to the fact we were trying to run a growing business on one side of the Atlantic and start a new business on the other.\"\n\nMr Watt said the company self-reported the issue to the TTB, who told Brewdog there would be no further action taken.\n\nIt is not clear if Brewdog self-reported the issue at the time, or after the BBC wrote to them.\n\nThe TTB told the BBC that a three-year statute of limitations prevented any enforcement action being taken, and in any case, it would have to have been initiated against the US-based importer, who is legally responsible for the shipments.\n\nImporters face losing their import licence for serious breaches of TTB regulations.\n\nMr Watt said Brewdog had consulted a lawyer who believed the errors made would not risk an importer's licence.\n\nDaniel Shelton, who imported one shipment for BrewDog, said he was deceived by the company\n\nDaniel Shelton, who imported one shipment for Brewdog, said he was deceived by the company.\n\nHe said: \"I was misled. I had every reason to believe that they would tell the truth.\n\n\"We believed what we were told and we weren't told what was actually going on.\n\n\"They did lead somebody in my company to falsify documents. And, of course, I'm not happy about that; I don't respect that, I don't like it.\"\n\nAnother importer, Massachusetts-based MHW, told the BBC: \"Our focus is to comply with all Federal and State laws and we rely on all our suppliers for whom we import to provide truthful and accurate information as to all the ingredients in their products so we can determine the required Federal compliance processes to be executed.\n\n\"Regarding the two products in question, we executed the Federal compliance based on the information provided by the supplier at the time, which we believed to be truthful and accurate.\"", "James Greenhalgh says Plan B restrictions were \"a disaster\" for his cafe\n\nWorking-from-home guidance has been lifted but the owner of one coffee shop that relies on office workers says he's still nervous about the future.\n\n\"Ask me in a month how I'm doing,\" says James Greenhalgh, the owner of Leeds-based Flamingos Coffee House.\n\nHe believes it will take months before confidence comes back.\n\nOther firms are more positive about the changes in England, with one nightclub saying his customers will feel happier once Covid passes have been dropped.\n\nAdvice for people to work from home if they can in England has been dropped immediately.\n\nThe requirement for mandatory face coverings in public places and Covid passports will both be dropped from next Thursday.\n\nStephen Spensley, one of the directors of Stereo nightclub in Middlesbrough, said removing the need to show a Covid pass at the door would make his customers feel more welcome.\n\nCustomers had worried about the passes, sharply reducing the numbers coming to his 300-capacity club in the run-up to Christmas, Mr Spensley said.\n\nWhile concern about the virus had eased in January, the requirement to show proof of either vaccination or a recent negative lateral flow test was still putting some customers off, he said.\n\n\"I think our demographic of 18 to 25-year-old clients will feel a lot freer, because a lot of them are hesitant about getting the vaccine,\" Mr Spensely said.\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Greenhalgh said the reintroduction of working-from-home guidance in December had been \"a catastrophe\" for his coffee shop and \"custom went off a cliff\".\n\nDecember is normally his busiest trading period, and sustains the shop in the early part of the next year.\n\n\"These are normally the busiest days of the year, and there were days when we were stood around, and no-one came in,\" he said. \"It's been a disaster.\"\n\nThousands of hospitality businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic, and Plan B restrictions helped push many into trouble, according to insolvency firm Real Business Rescue.\n\nIn December, for example, more than 6,100 bars and pubs were in \"significant financial distress\" it said, more than a fifth more than in the same period last year.\n\nRestaurant owner David Abrahamovitch says his physical shops were hit hard by restrictions\n\nBut some café businesses have managed to diversify.\n\nOne coffee business that has expanded into e-commerce is Grind, which has eight shops in London.\n\nIt started selling compostable Nespresso-compatible coffee pods before the pandemic, and business has taken off, according to founder and chief executive David Abrahamovitch.\n\n\"That side of the business was helped by Plan B,\" he says. \"If people are working at home they are more likely to drink [coffee] at home.\"\n\nHe is expecting the business to have made £20m in sales for the year, and has plans to expand into the US and Europe after a cash injection of £22m, mainly from UK investor Richard Koch.\n\nStereo nightclub in Middlesbrough lost custom due to Covid passes, Stephen Spensley says\n\nMichael Kill, of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), said clubs in England had lost around 20% of their footfall while Covid passes were in place.\n\nThe \"debilitating restrictions\" had meant queues outside clubs were longer, he said, because security staff were trying to check Covid passes on top of checking people's age ID, in low lighting.\n\n\"What we're finding when people come up is there's frustration, from the challenges around exemptions, to civil liberties, accusations of discrimination.\"\n\nMr Kill said without question the sector would need further financial support from the government.\n\nMr Spensely said the extra Covid pass checks had added 20% to his staffing costs because he needs twice the number of security staff at the entrance.\n\n\"Its an extra layer of bureaucracy\" said Mr Spensely \"It slows the queue right down.\"\n\nPeter Marks, chief executive of Rekom, which has 42 venues including chains Pryzm, Bar&Beyond, Eden and Fiction, said vaccine passports \"took 30% off our business\".\n\n\"I'm not as critical as you'd think of Covid passports,\" he said. \"It's better than being shut, but it definitely affected us.\"\n\nTristan Moffat, operations director of The Piano Works, which has two late night live music venues in central London, said \"there'll be a lot of jubilation\" about Wednesday's announcement.\n\n\"We're certainly delighted about it,\" he said.\n\nWhile Covid passes had caused frustration among some customers, others had found them reassuring.\n\nBut other aspects of the Plan B restrictions, such as working from home guidance, had taken a \"huge toll\" on the business, as mid-week trade had fallen away, he said.\n\nIndustry group UK Hospitality said the removal of restrictions was \"a key milestone on the road to recovery for the sector\".\n\n\"Lifting the working from home recommendation is a particularly important move as it enables town and city centres, and the businesses that are their lifeblood, to begin their revival and recovery,\" said UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls.\n• None Face mask rules and Covid passes to end in England", "Fr Michael Meade pauses after being asked what his message will be to mourners at the funeral of young teacher Ashling Murphy, who was murdered in County Offaly five days ago.\n\n\"Be courageous,\" he replies, after a brief moment.\n\n\"Don't be afraid to speak up, and do not be afraid to continue living as we are called to live, showing respect for all people.\"\n\nThe parish priest of Kilcormac, in rural County Offaly in the Republic of Ireland, will be the celebrant at Ms Murphy's funeral Mass on Tuesday, at St Brigid's Church, Mountbolus.\n\n\"Everybody [in the local community] speaks about it with shock and horror, but they are coping very well together,\" he tells BBC News NI.\n\n\"There is a great community spirit here and it is a real example of how we are called to live, to care for each other as best we can and that has been given physical evidence.\"\n\nThe murder of the 23-year-old primary school teacher and musician, along the banks of the Grand Canal just outside Tullamore last Wednesday, has sparked shock, revulsion and anger, not just on the island of Ireland but further afield.\n\nThousands have attended vigils in Ms Murphy's memory across Ireland but also in London, New York and Dubai.\n\nThe nature, timing and setting of the killing - late afternoon in a quiet, rural area - has sparked calls for more to be done to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence towards women.\n\nAshling Murphy's mother Kathleen, father Raymond and sister Amy comforted each other at a candle-lit vigil near the scene of her murder\n\nIreland's National Women's Council has said this must be a \"watershed moment in ending men's violence against women\".\n\nThe country's justice minister, Helen McEntee, said she intended to publish a new national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence at the start of March.\n\nLocally, though, for a community reeling from such horror, the focus at this stage is not so much on that wider discussion, although vitally important, but more on rallying around and caring for Ms Murphy's family and friends as they grieve, says Fr Meade.\n\nMs Murphy was murdered just outside Tullamore, County Offaly\n\nHe adds there is awareness in the locality of the global attention but in their own minds, \"they haven't got that far yet\".\n\n\"It's personal. It's local, it will evolve into what all the politicians are talking about,\" he adds.\n\n\"It will evolve into something and hopefully it will only be for the good.\"\n\nMs Murphy was at the heart of her community.\n\nA former pupil of Sacred Heart School in Tullamore, she taught First Class (age six to seven) in nearby Durrow National School.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Scoil Cholmcille This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSacred Heart School principal Pauline McKenna says the community has always been proud of her.\n\n\"This is a terrible tragedy for her family, our community and our school.\n\n\"She will be greatly missed.\"\n\nMs Murphy was involved with the local GAA club, and she was also a talented musician, having played the fiddle and concertina.\n\nHer father, Raymond, is a well-known banjo player and her sister, Amy, also plays the concertina and button accordion.\n\nMourners have attended vigils in a number of cities, including at the Irish Centre in London\n\nBoth Ashling and Amy taught music to many young students in their local branch of traditional music group Comhaltas, and Ashling also played in the Comhaltas National Folk Orchestra at many national events, including the visit to Ireland of Pope Francis in 2018.\n\n\"There is a sense of numbness here, and a sense of disbelief that this could happen,\" says family friend Paddy Burke, chairman of the local Comhaltas branch.\n\n\"Worldwide, it's violence against women that is the big issue, but here it's a local person that has been murdered.\n\n\"It's the loss of her from her family and her music and GAA friends. She was an intricate part of the whole area.\"\n\nTeachers' unions in the Irish Republic are urging all schools and colleges to join in a tribute to Ms Murphy at 11:00 local time on Tuesday.\n\nStormont assembly members gathered outside parliament buildings to pay tribute to Ashling Murphy\n\nOn Monday, Northern Ireland's First Minister Paul Givan and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill joined other assembly members and party leaders on the steps of Stormont in a vigil to pay their respects.\n\nMs O'Neill said the murder was a \"watershed moment\" and called for anger to be turned into action.\n\nBut what next? Will this, as the National Women's Council has said, be a watershed moment for ending violence against women?\n\n\"In the wake of the senseless killing of Ashling Murphy, women across Ireland have been sharing their stories of abuse and harassment, and how they curtail their lives so that they feel safer,\" said National Women's Council director Orla O'Connor.\n\n\"Ultimately, we know there is no behaviour change women can make that will keep them safe from men's violence.\n\n\"So we need to talk about what we can do.\"\n\nChief executive of Safe Ireland Mary McDermott has called for an all-of-government response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.\n\nBack in County Offaly, Fr Meade says \"everybody is praying and they are united throughout the whole world, all these vigils\".\n\n\"Only something powerful can come out of this.\"\n• None 'What happened to her could have happened to me'", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nChelsea came from two goals down to earn a draw with Liverpool in a Stamford Bridge classic - a result that only strengthens Manchester City's stranglehold on the Premier League title race.\n\nLiverpool manager Jurgen Klopp missed the game after a suspected positive test for Covid-19 while Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel dropped £97.5m record signing Romelu Lukaku from his squad after a controversial interview in which he expressed discontent with his current situation.\n\nIt looked like Klopp would be the happier of the two bosses when Sadio Mane, fortunate to escape with only a yellow card after flattening Cesar Azpilicueta with a high elbow in the opening seconds, pounced on Trevoh Chalobah's mistake to put Liverpool in front after nine minutes.\n\nMohamed Salah's moment of individual genius, a feint to fool Marcos Alonso then a perfect near-post finish, put Liverpool in command before Chelsea staged their comeback on the stroke of half-time.\n\nMateo Kovacic's spectacular volley flew beyond Liverpool keeper Caoimhin Kelleher, in for Alisson who also had a suspected positive test for Covid, after 42 minutes before Christian Pulisic raced clear to equalise in first-half stoppage time.\n\nIn a hugely entertaining game, both sides had chances to win in the second half with Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy saving superbly from Salah and Mane while Kelleher thwarted Pulisic.\n\nA winner could not be found, which leaves Chelsea, in second, 10 points behind City while Liverpool, in third, are 11 adrift of the leaders with a game in hand.\n• None 'Chelsea and Liverpool dazzle but face steep hill for title'\n• None Reaction to Chelsea v Liverpool, plus the rest of Sunday's Premier League matches\n• None Go straight to all the best Chelsea content\n\nTuchel's decision to drop Lukaku from his squad for such a vital game was always going to be a high-risk strategy given the stakes.\n\nWas Tuchel showing strong leadership and imposing discipline or was he using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, weakening Chelsea in his determination to lay down the law?\n\nIt looked for 42 minutes like Tuchel's ploy would backfire as Liverpool's lethal attack punished Chelsea and Stamford Bridge was in subdued mood with the home team struggling to make an impact.\n\nSuddenly, spectacularly, the game turned around in those decisive moments before half-time and while Tuchel did not get the three points that would have answered all the questions about his decision, there was no doubting Chelsea's spirit and determination because many sides would have gone under with Liverpool in such an imposing position.\n\nChelsea dragged their way back into the game, although three points was really the required result with Manchester City seemingly on such an unstoppable roll.\n\nTuchel will now, presumably, reintegrate Lukaku into his squad and try to get the best out of a striker who was supposed to be Chelsea's missing link when he arrived back at the club from Inter Milan in the summer.\n\nThe title now looks a far-off prospect but there is still plenty to play for - and both Chelsea and Tuchel will hope Lukaku can play a major part in their pursuit of silverware.\n\nLiverpool, with Pep Lijnders in charge, were without three key players with Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino joining Alisson in returning suspected positive Covid tests.\n\nDespite the absences, they looked on course for a vital victory when they raced into that 2-0 lead - and while a draw at Chelsea is hardly a huge setback, the bottom line is they will know they squandered a position of authority in this game.\n\nTheir measure of command was never total in such a frantic, high-quality match, but they will be furious at how they allowed Chelsea back into the game in those closing minutes of the first half.\n\nLiverpool's second-choice goalkeeper Kelleher, 23, can be rightly satisfied with his performance as deputy for Alisson, making two fine saves from Pulisic and exuding an air of calm command that marks him out as someone of huge promise.\n\nKlopp and Lijnders will wonder whether it was wise for Liverpool to leave the game so wide open with that vital advantage and Chelsea chasing the game with an air of desperation. They will question their own game management.\n\nLiverpool still carried real danger until the final whistle but they were unable to beat the excellent Mendy and will now look back on two away games at Leicester City and Chelsea in which they picked up only one point - something which may prove very costly in a title race which would appear to have little or no margin for error.\n• None Attempt missed. Antonio Rüdiger (Chelsea) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Mason Mount with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Mateo Kovacic (Chelsea) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Callum Hudson-Odoi.\n• None Attempt saved. Marcos Alonso (Chelsea) left footed shot from long range on the right is saved in the top right corner.\n• None Ibrahima Konaté (Liverpool) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt saved. Mason Mount (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Mason Mount (Chelsea) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Li Jingwei was reunited with his mother on 1 January after he was sold into a child trafficking ring at four-years-old\n\nA Chinese man who was abducted over 30 years ago has been reunited with his biological mother after drawing a map of his childhood village from memory.\n\nLi Jingwei was just four years old when he was lured away from his home and sold into a child trafficking ring.\n\nOn 24 December he shared a hand-drawn map to the video sharing app, Douyin, which police matched to a small village and a woman whose son had disappeared.\n\nAfter DNA tests, they were reunited in Yunnan province on Saturday.\n\nVideo footage of the reunion showed the pair meeting for the first time in over three decades and shows Li Jingwei carefully removing his mother's coronavirus mask to examine her face before breaking down in tears and embracing her.\n\n\"Thirty-three years of waiting, countless nights of yearning, and finally a map hand-drawn from memory, this is the moment of perfect release after 13 days,\" Mr Li wrote on his Douyin profile ahead of the anticipated reunion. \"Thank you, everyone who has helped me reunite with my family.\"\n\nMr Li was abducted near the south-western city of Zhaotong in Yunnan Province in 1989 and subsequently sold to a family living over 1,800km away.\n\nNow living in Guangdong Province in southern China, he had no success asking his adoptive parents or consulting DNA databases about his origins. So he turned to the internet.\n\n\"I'm a child who's finding his home. I was taken to Henan by a bald neighbour around 1989, when I was about four years old,\" he said in the video, which was shared thousands of times.\n\n\"This is a map of my home area that I have drawn from memory,\" he said holding up a rough guide of the village, which included features like a building he believed to be a school, a bamboo forest, and a small pond.\n\nLi Jingwei drew a map of his childhood village from memory and shared it online\n\nChild abductions are not uncommon in China, a society which places high value on having a son.\n\nMany children are abducted at a young age and sold to other families. In 2015, it was estimated that 20,000 children were being abducted each year.\n\nIn 2021 there were numerous examples of young men being reunited with their biological parents after long absences.\n\nLast July, Guo Gangtang was reunited with his son 24 years after he was abducted in the province of Shandong.", "Young people in Scotland aged between 12 and 15 are being urged to get their second coronavirus vaccine before returning to school.\n\nDrop-in sessions for the age group are starting from Monday for those who had their first jab at least 12 weeks ago.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said an increase in capacity meant they were being offered earlier than planned.\n\nOne teaching union is calling for air cleaning equipment in classrooms and on-site testing to prevent disruption.\n\nThe NASUWT also said more funding should be available to hire temporary staff to cover for teachers who may have to self-isolate.\n\nThe health secretary said the drop-in appointments offered the chance to increase protection for pupils, and scheduled appointments can also be brought forward.\n\nWhile there is some evidence that fewer people are becoming seriously ill with the Omicron variant, Mr Yousaf urged young people to get vaccinated because of the risk of spreading the illness to vulnerable groups.\n\nHe told BBC Scotland: \"It's not just about protecting those young people - though that is, of course, important.\n\n\"We know that people can then spread the virus on to older people - maybe a grandparent or an older relative - so by getting a young person vaccinated you not only protect them but you also help to protect others, particularly those who may be vulnerable to severe disease from Covid.\"\n\nThe most recent data indicates about two thirds of 12 to 15-year-olds have had a first dose of a vaccine\n\nScotland saw unprecedented numbers of new Covid cases confirmed in the run up to Hogmanay as the more transmissible Omicron strain became dominant.\n\nAlmost 12,000 cases were reported on New Year's Eve, though it likely to be an underestimate due to delays in processing test results. On Thursday a record 16,857 positive tests were announced.\n\nThe Scottish government said there would be no updates about case numbers on 1 and 2 January, but headline figures would be available on Monday.\n\nOfficials said 77% of adults had received their booster vaccinations by 30 December, as part of a drive to get 80% of the eligible population vaccinated by the new year.\n\nHowever, Mr Yousaf said many vaccination clinics had also reported cancellations and a slowdown over the holiday period.\n\n\"I hope as we get through the festive period and back into a more normal routine that those numbers will begin to pick up again,\" he said.\n\nThe NASUWT union warned the rapid rise in Covid cases could cause \"significant disruption in schools\", some of which return later next week.\n\nIt urged ministers to have air cleaning units installed in schools and colleges, and for more on-site testing as well as funding for extra staff to cover absences.\n\nGeneral secretary Patrick Roach said: \"Teachers have been on the frontline throughout the pandemic to support pupils and students and provide them with the best education possible.\n\n\"However, the rising number of cases of the Omicron variant could cause significant disruption in the next academic term with many teachers being forced to self-isolate.\n\n\"The Scottish government must take immediate action to ensure that schools can continue to operate safely and provide high-quality education.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for the Scottish government said teachers had been \"outstanding\" during the pandemic, and guidance was informed by expert advice including the Covid Recovery Group which includes teachers' representatives.\n\n\"Our guidance for return to school includes a number of enhanced protections, including approaches to CO2 monitoring and ensuring good levels of ventilation are maintained, backed by £10mn of additional funding to local authorities to complete initial CO2 assessments of all learning, teaching and play spaces in their schools,\" the spokeswoman added.\n\nDetails of where vaccinations are available can be found on the NHS Inform website and local health board websites.\n\nThose who already have a scheduled appointment can bring these forward by calling the helpline on 0800 030 8013.", "\"You worry every time it rains,\" is the feeling of one man living near a coal tip.\n\nPhil Thomas is from Ynyshir, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and believes locals would have \"no chance\" if it moved down the mountainside.\n\nIt is one of the tips to have been classed as higher risk by the Welsh government.\n\nMr Thomas describes what it is like living near the site.", "Retired teachers are being asked to go back to schools in England\n\nRetired teachers offering to ease school staffing issues are unlikely to be in classrooms when schools reopen in England, supply agencies have warned.\n\nThey are being asked to go back because more Covid-related staff absences are expected next term.\n\nAgencies say they already have backlogs of potential supply teachers waiting for criminal record checks.\n\nThe government says ex-teachers who sign up after Christmas would be teaching in schools \"later in January\".\n\nThe Department for Education (DfE) said on Monday that the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) would continue to issue 80% of enhanced checks within 14 days, adding that it would \"be ready to meet any spikes in demand for its service\".\n\nHowever, Clare Othman, managing director of agency Supply Desk, said her agency had a backlog of around 100 candidates who were \"at the final stage waiting for DBS\" before the government's appeal.\n\n\"Some of these are taking a month, or two months plus, to actually come back,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"Each person could teach 30 children. That's 3,000 children who could have a teacher just from us awaiting DBS checks.\"\n\nShe welcomed the government's decision to call on ex-teachers, and said dozens had been in contact this week - but the agency was \"not going to be able to turn them around ready to work in January\".\n\n\"It's been lovely to see the willingness from people,\" she said. \"But it's about the reality - will [getting ex-teachers back] help solve a problem in January, in terms of keeping schools open?\"\n\nMr Church already has a DBS check because he promotes his children's book in schools and libraries\n\nJerry Church, 61, a retired primary school teacher in Essex, said he would be returning to teaching after five years because he missed the job.\n\n\"It's in my blood, you know? I'd always wanted to be a teacher,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"I've been triple-jabbed, so I'm quite happy to go back and help out. You test yourself each day. I'm happy to put my head over the parapet and help out.\"\n\nMr Church already has a DBS check, so does not need to wait.\n\nHowever, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which represents recruitment agencies, said its members had warned of \"a backlog of DBS checks recently, and that they can take longer than 14 days to clear\".\n\n\"This is a concern for us, as any delays to DBS checks mean delays to teachers and other staff being allowed into schools, making the current staffing crisis even worse,\" said the REC's deputy CEO Kate Shoesmith.\n\n\"The Department for Education has reassured us that the backlog has now been cleared - we hope this will mean no further delays, especially given the urgent call to action from the education secretary.\"\n\nSimone Payne said supply agencies cannot fill the staff absences they are being asked to fill\n\nSimone Payne, a board director at the REC and chief executive of agency 4myschools, said it would be \"highly unlikely\" that ex-teachers who register now will be able to teach at the start of January.\n\nShe said her agency had a backlog of around 50 candidates, adding that obtaining references from previous schools also took time: \"If a teacher hasn't been working for 10 years, the school may not have kept that information,\" she said.\n\nMs Payne said six ex-teachers had contacted the agency since the government's appeal, but there was still a \"chronic shortage\" of teachers in the long term, made worse by Covid.\n\n\"One of our schools had 20 staff absent in the last week,\" she said. \"Schools are desperate to stay open… We're all scrabbling around trying to find people, and there just aren't the candidates out there.\"\n\nMr Dawkins said 178 candidates at his agency were waiting for DBS checks\n\nDaniel Dawkins, managing director of the Aspire People agency, said newly registered teachers would probably be placed in schools \"towards the middle and end of January and possibly February\" rather than the first week back.\n\n\"It will still take some time to see the effects of this drive actually hitting schools,\" he said, adding that the agency would have to wait until schools reopened to get the necessary references for ex-teachers.\n\nA spokeswoman for the DfE said: \"Protecting education is our absolute priority, which is why we have asked any teachers no longer in the profession to come forward if they are available, to temporarily fill absences in the new year.\n\n\"We would urge any former teachers considering signing up to do so as soon as possible, but with increased staff absence possible into the spring term, supply staff who sign up after Christmas and are placed in classrooms later in January will be equally valuable in helping make sure young people can continue learning face-to-face.\"\n\nThe government has previously said that 99.9% of England's schools remained open in the autumn term, and that it is committed to ensuring they stay open in January.\n\nHowever, more than 30 local authorities told the BBC last week that some classes had moved online at schools because staff were sick or isolating, and they could not get supply teachers to replace them.\n\nAfter the government asked teachers to go back, many ex-teachers on social media said they thought the risk of catching Covid was too great.\n\nLesley Piearcey, 58, taught maths and ICT in secondary schools in Yorkshire and north-east England for more than 30 years.\n\nShe retired in 2018 and said she would \"certainly not go back\" in response to this appeal, adding that she thought not enough had been done to keep schools safe.\n\n\"It's far too dangerous in schools at present and I am not prepared to risk my health or bringing Covid home to my husband. It really is offensive to expect retired, and hence older and potentially more vulnerable people, to return to teach in schools.\"\n\nLast week, Education Minister Alex Burghart told MPs that testing on return to school, vaccination uptake, ventilation in classrooms and hygiene measures, would ensure in-person teaching could continue - and that the booster vaccination programme would be key.\n\nOlder pupils and staff are also being asked to wear face coverings in communal settings.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video shows black smoke coming from the roof of the building in Cape Town\n\nA man has been arrested after a large fire severely damaged the Houses of Parliament in the South African city of Cape Town.\n\nThe suspect, who is not a parliamentary employee, will appear in court on Tuesday, facing charges of arson, housebreaking and theft, police said.\n\nFirefighters worked for hours to extinguish the blaze.\n\nPresident Cyril Ramaphosa called it a \"terrible and devastating event\", as he vowed parliament's work would continue.\n\nFootage from the scene on Sunday showed a plume of black smoke filling the sky, with huge flames coming out from the roof of the building.\n\nOfficials say the fire started on the third floor offices and quickly spread to the National Assembly (the parliament's lower house) chamber, reports the BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Cape Town.\n\nThe parliament is not currently in session because of the holidays, and no-one was injured.\n\nHowever the building is home to thousands of treasures including historic books, photographs and important works of art. There is particular concern that the valuable Keiskamma Tapestry, which is 120m (394ft) long and documents South Africa's history, may have been damaged or destroyed.\n\nPolice say the suspect, who reportedly entered the building through a back window, is expected to be charged under the National Key Points Act, which protects sites of strategic importance.\n\nIt appears that private security used by the parliament in addition to police were not being paid overtime and were not on duty, Jean-Pierre Smith, a member of the Cape Town mayoral committee for safety and security, told the BBC World Service.\n\nParliament said some offices had been \"severely gutted\", and confirmed \"significant damage\" to the New Assembly Wing of the building, which includes the National Assembly chamber where lawmakers sit.\n\nThe fire, which began shortly after 06:00 local time (04:00 GMT), came the day after Archbishop Desmond Tutu's state funeral at St George's Cathedral, near parliament.\n\nMr Ramaphosa, who visited the scene, said news of the fire was a \"terrible setback to what we were basking in yesterday\".\n\nHe said the building's sprinkler system had not functioned properly, and praised firefighters for responding to the fire in minutes.\n\nMr Smith told reporters the roof above the old assembly hall was \"completely gone\" and further damage inside the old chamber had not yet been evaluated.\n\n\"It is not possible to see whether it's damaged. We hope it is not because it has so many historical artefacts, but you can't gain access to it without breaking the doors down and we don't want to do that,\" he said.\n\nHe also said that parliament's fire alarm had only sounded when firefighters were already on site.\n\nCity officials released photos of the effort to put out the fire\n\nFire and rescue service officials earlier said it would take hours to put the fire out completely because of the carpets and wooden floors in the building.\n\nThe damage from the fire can be seen in this image made available by the city of Cape Town:\n\nThe Houses of Parliament in Cape Town are made up of three sections, with the oldest dating back to 1884. The newer sections built in the 1920s and 1980s house the National Assembly. Meanwhile, the government is based in Pretoria.\n\nMr Ramaphosa on Sunday spoke of his sadness at \"this destruction of the home of our democracy\".\n\nParliament said \"all efforts\" would be made to limit any disruption to its work.\n\nCape Town's Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the city's Council Chamber would be made available as an alternative place for parliament to meet.\n\nIt was the second fire at the parliament in under a year. In March there was a fire caused by an electrical fault.\n\nLast year, a fire ravaged part of the University of Cape Town's library, which was home to a unique collection of African archives.\n\nThe smoke from the blaze could be seen from several miles away\n\nAre you in the area? If it's safe to do so, please share your experience via email - Haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Two people remain missing after a devastating wildfire hit the central US state of Colorado.\n\nOne of the missing was a 91-year-old woman whose family had been trapped by the incoming flames, local media say.\n\nThe blaze swept through several towns, destroying hundreds of homes and forcing thousands of people to flee.\n\nBoulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle had said it was unlikely any of the missing would be found alive. But one person had now been found safe and well.\n\nThe wildfire burned 6,000 acres across Boulder County, destroying at least 1,000 homes and businesses. It started under unusually dry conditions and came under control in part because of snowfall.\n\nMore than 10 inches (25cm) of snow has fallen on the Boulder area and is now hampering efforts to find those missing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Woman who evacuated from Louisville says families in her neighbourhood have \"lost everything\"\n\nResidents hit by the wildfire are coming to terms with what happened, in some cases returning home to find complete destruction.\n\n\"I feel like I made it out with my life and that's I think the most important thing,\" Jessi Delaplain, who lost her home to the fire, told CBS.\n\n\"I gathered myself and I gathered my cats which was no easy feat to stuff them into the car. And I pulled out of the driveway and there were flames surrounding us.\"\n\nThe cause of the wildfire is being investigated.\n\nClimate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires, and experts say that fires in western North America have grown more intense in recent years.", "A Belgian scientific research station in Antarctica has been hit with an outbreak of Covid-19, despite workers being fully vaccinated and based in one of the world's remotest regions.\n\nSince 14 December, 11 workers at the Princess Elisabeth Polar Station have caught the virus.\n\n\"The situation isn't dramatic,\" Joseph Cheek, a project manager for the International Polar Foundation, told the BBC.\n\n\"While it has been an inconvenience to have to quarantine certain members of the staff who caught the virus, it hasn't significantly affected our work at the station overall,\" Mr Cheek said.\n\n\"All residents of the station were offered the opportunity to leave on a scheduled flight on 12 January. However, they all expressed their wish to stay and continue their work,\" he added.\n\nThe IPF said that the first positive test was recorded on the 15 December, among a team that had arrived a few days earlier from Cape Town in South Africa.\n\nEleven people in total tested positive, according to the IPF. Three left the station in December while eight remain there - at present there are 30 members of staff at the station.\n\nAll residents at the base are required to be vaccinated before arriving and undergo several PCR tests.\n\nPrincess Elisabeth station is operated by the International Polar Foundation and went into service in 2009.\n\nIt isn't the first time research stations in Antarctica have been affected by a coronavirus outbreak.\n\nLast year, a number of Chilean military personnel based at Bernardo O'Higgins research station were infected after sailors on a supply ship tested positive for the virus.\n\nUpdate 5th January: This article originally reported the number of people infected at 16. It has since been established that this number was incorrect and so we have amended this line in the story.", "Israel has approved a fourth vaccine dose for the immunocompromised and the elderly in care homes\n\nIsrael's top health adviser says the surge of Omicron cases could see the country reach Covid herd immunity.\n\nNachmann Ash said the country would pay a price for this and he wanted to see herd immunity achieved via vaccinations instead.\n\nModellers have warned that up to four million people could be infected by the end of January.\n\nPrime Minister Naftali Bennett has admitted his current policy will not prevent a big rise in infections.\n\nOn Sunday, he said a fourth Covid-19 vaccine would be offered to people over 60 as well as medical staff.\n\nThe prime minister has previously insisted the aim is to prevent a spike in serious illness while keeping the economy open, even though he has not ruled out another lockdown.\n\nConfirmed daily infections in Israel have quadrupled to more than 3,500 in 10 days, but the number of deaths has not seen a similar rise.\n\nHerd immunity is a scientific term describing the point at which a population is protected from a disease, either by enough people being vaccinated or by people having developed antibodies by having the disease.\n\nProf Ash said a surge in Omicron cases was inevitable.\n\n\"The price of herd immunity is very many infections, and that may end up happening. The numbers need to be high to reach herd immunity, it's something that is possible,\" he said.\n\n\"But we don't want to reach it by means of infections, we want it to happen as a result of many people vaccinating.\"\n\nSalman Zarka, head of the health ministry's coronavirus taskforce, said herd immunity was not guaranteed.\n\n\"We have to be very cautious with this particularly in light of our experience over the past two years in which we saw people who have recovered be re-infected,\" Mr Zarka told the Ynet news website.\n\nMeanwhile another government adviser, Eran Segal from the Weizmann Institute, warned that cases would soon outstrip Israel's testing capacity, leaving the country unable to identify new infections.\n\nHe predicted that between two and four million people would be infected over the coming three weeks - but that a lower number of people would suffer severe illness than in the previous wave.\n\nHe urged people to get vaccinated.\n\n\"Everyone who walks around, no matter where, will be exposed and should be protected,\" he tweeted.\n\nAbout two-thirds of Israel's population of more than nine million have been fully vaccinated, which the health ministry defines as having either had a third dose or recently had a second dose.\n\nHowever many of those eligible for a third dose have not yet had one.\n\nIsrael has already approved a fourth vaccine dose for immuno-compromised people and the elderly in care homes.\n\nMeanwhile just over a quarter of Palestinians have been fully vaccinated, according to Our World In Data.\n\nThe Palestinians have received vaccine doses from Israel, Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates and the global Covax vaccine-sharing initiative.\n\nUN independent experts had been critical of Israel for not fully extending its vaccination programme to Palestinians under its control, arguing that it was obligated to do so as the occupying power.\n\nHowever, Israel has argued that under the terms of peace accords with the Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority is responsible for managing health matters in the territories.\n• None Is my Covid vaccine wearing off?", "Data for England is shown by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. Data for Wales and Scotland is shown by Health Board and in Northern Ireland by Health and Social Care Trust.\n\nWhen you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board and by Health and Social Care trust in Northern Ireland.\n\nComparative data is shown for a previous year where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Earlier data is not available for all measures, so comparisons between years are not always possible.\n\nA&E attendances include all emergency departments in that trust or health board, not just major A&E departments, for example, those who attend minor injury units.\n\nEach nation has different target times for some of the measures shown, therefore comparisons between them may not be possible.", "The man was pronounced dead at the scene in Springfield Road, Tameside\n\nA 74-year-old man who collided with two parked cars while riding an e-scooter has died.\n\nGreater Manchester Police (GMP) said he was travelling down Springfield Road, Tameside, when he crashed at about 13:40 GMT on Saturday.\n\nThe force said he died at the scene and appealed for information.\n\nSgt Marie Eldred, from GMP, said: \"Our thoughts remain with the man's family as they come to terms with this incredibly tragic loss.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Car burning has become a common event in cities across France during New Years Eve (file photo)\n\nA total of 874 cars have been set alight during New Year's Eve celebrations in France, police say.\n\nHowever, the interior ministry said the number was much lower than in 2019. Authorities also reported a rise in the number of people stopped and detained.\n\nA curfew to tackle Covid-19 meant no significant disruption took place this time last year.\n\nCar burning has effectively become an annual event in French suburbs since riots in 2005 in several cities.\n\nSome 95,000 police and gendarmes were mobilised during recent New Year's celebrations, French media report - including 32,000 firefighters and security personnel.\n\nIn Paris, where face masks have been made compulsory again, 779 people were fined for not wearing a mask.\n\nWhile restrictions have been partially lifted in France, more rules will come into place this month due to concerns for the Omicron variant.\n\nFrom 3 January, public gatherings will be limited to 2,000 people for indoor events, and remote working will become compulsory for those who are able to.", "There is nothing in the current Covid data to suggest new curbs are needed in England at this stage, ministers say.\n\nHealth minister Edward Argar appealed for \"cool, calm heads\", while colleague Steve Barclay said there had been \"significant behaviour change\" as a result of Plan B measures.\n\nDaily Covid cases have been above 100,000 for each of the past 12 days.\n\nDr Chaand Nagpaul, council chairman of the British Medical Association, urged ministers to bring case numbers down.\n\nOn Sunday, England and Wales recorded 137, 583 daily cases and 73 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test. Data for Scotland and Northern Ireland is due to be updated after the bank holiday weekend.\n\nThe latest figures for England are down on the 162,572 new cases reported on Saturday, which had been a record number for the fifth day in a row.\n\nNHS bosses have warned of mounting pressure on health workers against a backdrop of staff absences, rising hospital admissions, the implementation of the booster campaign and more planned treatments being carried out.\n\nSpeaking before the latest figures were published, Mr Argar insisted he saw nothing in current data to suggest further Covid measures were required.\n\n\"We need cool, calm heads,\" he told Times Radio, adding that introducing new curbs \"must be the absolute last resort\", echoing the health secretary's words on Saturday.\n\nHe said the data changes \"day by day\" and that ministers were keeping a close eye on it.\n\nAsked whether more measures may be announced this week, Cabinet Office minister Mr Barclay said the government did not think the data supported such a move \"at this stage\", but said that it would be kept under review.\n\nHe said changes in behaviour, brought about by the Plan B measures introduced in December, combined with the booster programme were a key way to \"avoid the need for further measures\".\n\n\"The widespread use of testing is an illustration that the British public are taking sensible steps to keep themselves safe to keep their friends and family safe,\" he said.\n\nThe Plan B measures currently in place in England include mandatory face coverings in most indoor settings, Covid passports for entry to nightclubs and large events and advice to work from home where possible.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have already imposed additional restrictions, with the closure of nightclubs, limits on live events and socialising with others as well as new rules for hospitality.\n\nSecondary pupils returning to schools in England this week have been recommended to wear masks in classrooms - bringing England in line with the rest of the UK.\n\nMinisters have also been tasked with developing \"robust contingency plans\" for Covid-related workplace absences. Public sector leaders have been asked to plan for a worst case scenario of up to 25% of staff absent at any one time.\n\nBut Dr Nagpaul said if 25% of healthcare staff were unable to go to work, this would have an impact on patients, services and care.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News, he urged the government to bring the infection rate down and to give medics better access to Covid testing and higher quality personal protective equipment (PPE).\n\nThe number of hospital admissions in England are at their highest level since January 2021, according to the latest figures, while NHS hospital staff absences due to Covid have nearly doubled in a month.\n\nHis comments come a day after Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, said the next few days would be crucial in understanding the impact of Omicron on the NHS.\n\nHe said staff were working \"flat out\" and the NHS was now under \"different, arguably more\" pressure compared to last January.\n\nThe health secretary warned on Saturday that there would be a big increase in the number of people needing NHS care in the next month, which he said was \"likely to test the limits\" of NHS capacity more than a typical winter.\n\nIn Wales, people have been urged to avoid attending the emergency department at Swansea's Morriston Hospital owing to a \"staff shortage worsened by Covid\".\n\nThe breakdown of Sunday's figures was 123,547 new infections and 59 deaths in England, while Wales reported 14,036 new cases and 14 deaths.\n\nWales' figures cover the 24-hour period to 09:00 GMT on Friday with the next update covering the bank holiday weekend due to be published on Tuesday.\n\nEngland's current restrictions are due to expire on 26 January, although a review is expected in the next few days.", "Last updated on .From the section Darts\n\nReigning world champion Gerwyn Price has been knocked out of the PDC World Darts Championship quarter-finals by Michael Smith, despite throwing a nine-darter.\n\nSmith, who won 5-4, and Peter Wright join James Wade and Gary Anderson in the semi-finals at Alexandra Palace, London.\n\nWright came back from 3-1 down to beat Callan Rydz 5-4 in another great match.\n\nWade and Anderson both won their quarter-finals on Saturday afternoon.\n\n\"I'm ecstatic that I won it. I'm over the moon,\" said Smith.\n\n\"I've just got to keep myself focused and prepared right, and sleeping right, and then I'll start thinking about playing and who knows... I could turn up tomorrow and play the worst darts I've played,\" he added.\n\nSmith will play Wade on Sunday in the first semi-final of the night and Wright faces Anderson in the second match in an all-Scottish semi-final.\n\nThe number one seed Price won the opening set against England's Smith with a huge 109 average.\n\nSmith won the next three legs on the spin, breaking Price's throw with a 107 checkout in the second leg to level the match at 1-1.\n\nWelshman Price took out a 125 and a 130 bullseye finish to win the third set. But despite throwing his first televised nine-darter in the fourth set, 2019 world championship runner-up Smith averaged a massive 121.33 to win the set and level the match at 2-2.\n\nBoth players broke each other's throw in the fifth set but it was the three-time Grand Slam champion Price who threw a 108 to break Smith's throw again and win the set.\n\nSmith won the sixth set and Price broke Smith twice to win the seventh.\n\nThe match was briefly stopped in the eighth set as Price spoke to the referee about off-putting noises from the crowd on his throw and Price twice missed match darts to win.\n\nSmith took the next two sets to make his second world championship semi-final.\n\nIn the first match of the evening, Rydz, 23, from Bedlington showed no nerves on the big stage at Ally Pally, throwing an impressive 152 checkout to win the opening leg and winning the first two sets of the match, throwing four 100+ checkouts in the process.\n\nThe 2020 world champion Wright came back to win the third set and Rydz took the fourth set to lead 3-1.\n\nWright threw a great 140 checkout to win the next leg and went on to win the fifth set with an 11-darter.\n\nIn a super sixth set, second seed Wright almost threw a nine-darter in the third leg, missing the final double but won the leg with 10 darts.\n\nRydz came straight back with a 141 checkout to level the set but a composed Wright took out a 96 under pressure with Rydz waiting on 20, to level the match at 3-3 and then won the seventh.\n\nWright levelled the match at 4-4 and broke Rydz's throw in the deciding leg to book his spot in the last four.\n\nEarlier in the afternoon, England's Wade, 38, whitewashed compatriot Mervyn King 5-0 in the first quarter-final at Alexandra Palace.\n\nThe second quarter-final was a much closer contest, with two-time world champion Anderson overcoming Luke Humphries 5-2 in a brilliant battle.\n\nScotland's Anderson, last year's runner-up, is through to his seventh World Championship semi-final after overcoming 26-year-old Englishman Humphries.\n\nIt was all square after four sets when Humphries drew level at 2-2. Scotland's Anderson, 51, broke Humphries' throw in the last leg of the fifth set to lead 3-2 and returned after the break with a 148 checkout to hold his throw and win the next set.\n\nFind out how to get into darts with our special guide.\n\nIn his third World Championship quarter-final, Humphries had chances to break Anderson and fought back in the seventh set to lead 2-1 in legs.\n\nHowever, Anderson threw a 108 finish to hold his throw and make it 2-2.\n\nHumphries just missed the bull for a 170 checkout to take the set and missed another two darts at a double, with Anderson taking advantage to check out with 80 needed to seal the win.\n\n\"The right shots at the right time came which I was quite happy about,\" Anderson said. \"I still want to play darts and I still want to win.\"\n\nAfter his victory on Saturday, Wade will make a fourth World Championship semi-final appearance and his first in nine years.\n\nThe fourth seed has lost only one set on his way to the semi-finals, in his round two victory over Maik Kuivenhoven.\n\nThe UK Open Champion was handed a walkover in round three as Vincent van der Voort was forced to withdraw because of a positive Covid-19 test.\n\n\"I know I can do it,\" Wade said. \"If I play well, I win. If I don't, I lose.\"\n• None Where in the world is Gotham City and Hogwarts? Check out the map that contains all our favourite fictional places\n• None 5 new things to learn in 2022: Fun and healthy challenges to inspire a new you", "One of the fastest-rising stars of UK rap, Central Cee has won fifth place in BBC Radio 1's Sound Of 2022.\n\nHailing from west London, his melodic take on drill has already earned him two Mobo Awards, and he's nominated for three Brits - including best newcomer - in February.\n\nHe burst on to the scene in 2020 with the straight-talking Day In The Life, in which he taunted his peers: \"Turn off the auto-tune, let's hear how you really rap.\"\n\nFreestyled while driving his car, the track was the culmination of 15 years of hard work. Born Oakley Caesar-Su in London's Shepherd's Bush in 1998, he's been cultivating his lyrical style since writing his first verse at the age of eight.\n\n\"I recorded my first song when I was 13 - recorded and released it,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"I'm 22 now, so it's coming up to 10 years. But I wasn't really in the game. I was still in school, balancing things and just going through life. It was only literally last year, 2020, where I got to take this stuff serious.\"\n\nDay In The Life and its follow-ups, Molly and Loading, framed him as a playful, mischievous character, eschewing the austere beats of drill for a more colourful sound - full of jazz samples and witty wordplay.\n\nAmassing tens of millions of streams, the music quickly attracted the attention of record companies - but the rapper knocked them all back.\n\n\"Take that risk and go independent,\" he explained on the 2021 single Pinging. \"I just turned down six figures.\"\n\nThe risk paid off, though. February's Commitment Issues secured Cee a number nine spot on the UK chart, and his first mixtape, Wild West, debuted at number two in March.\n\nHe celebrated the release by riding on horseback through Shepherd's Bush Market, and installing a giant mural on the nearby Goldhawk Road.\n\nWhen Cee turned up to have his photo taken in front of it, \"50 to 60 school kids turned up after, like, five minutes,\" he recalls.\n\nHe ended the year with a guest verse on Ed Sheeran's Bad Habits remix, and another top 10 single, Obsessed With You - a street love song that samples fellow Sound Of 2022 nominee PinkPantheress.\n\nCentral Cee is the first act to be announced for the BBC's Sound Of 2022, which aims to predict the biggest new stars of the coming year.\n\nThe rest of the top five will be revealed daily on BBC Radio 1 and BBC News. Now in its 20th year, previous winners of the prize include Adele, Celeste, Haim, Sam Smith and Ellie Goulding.\n\nHey there - how has your 2021 been?\n\nIt's been an eventful one, to say the least!\n\nYou sold out the Shepherd's Bush Empire in October. Did you ever walk past it as a kid and think, \"I'll play there one day\"?\n\nEvery time I passed Shepherd's Bush Empire - which was two to three times a day for 10 to 15 years, I would look at it and I would just look and see who was on the bill, taking it in subconsciously. We could have sold a lot more tickets than that - but it was a conscious decision to make sure I did that one. It's important to me that I did that venue no matter how many tickets I could sell.\n\nAt the Mobos, you said you weren't sure how you felt about winning awards. Has your opinion changed now it's had time to sink in?\n\nI still feel the same way but if I could reiterate it, what I meant is that I don't think people should feel like they need award shows to make them feel validated. We're all winners if we're in that room or releasing music, regardless of who gets the actual award.\n\nWhen you started making music, you'd record with just a MacBook and a pair of iPhone headphones. How did you teach yourself those skills?\n\nI'm just quite observant, I'd say. So when I've downloaded the software I kinda just messed around with it. I didn't even watch no tutorials or nothing. Because I've been in the studio so many times, when I'm in the sessions I'm just watching what they do. I'm a fast learner - it was pretty straightforward.\n\nWhere did the names Cench and Central Cee come from?\n\nCentral Cee just came. There's no interesting story behind it. And then Cench is just short for Central.\n\nLoading became your first chart hit in the middle of the pandemic. What was it like to see your numbers soaring while you were stuck at home?\n\nIt was strange. I couldn't get out there and interact with the fans, or perform, so I felt quite detached - just looking and experiencing everything through my phone, being at home.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by BBC Radio 1Xtra This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nYou recorded Six For Six the same day that Loading hit the charts. How significant is that line, \"this ain't no coincidence\"?\n\nWas there ever a time when you thought it might not happen?\n\nYeah - a couple times but I've been doing it for many years. For around 10 years. Within those 10 years there's obviously been bumps in the road and whatever but I was determined for the most part.\n\nA lot of your songs feel rooted in real situations… What's your writing technique?\n\nMy writing technique has changed since Day in A Life. Day In A Life, I wrote outside of the studio and them times, studio time wasn't as accessible. I was selective with it. The money was obviously coming out of my pocket - and it still is - but studio wasn't on tap the same way. So them times I'd write outside the studio and just go and record and then cut. Since Day In A Life I haven't written a song outside of the studio. I just write in the studio basically.\n\nThe Wild West mixtape doesn't have any collaborations or features. Was that important to you?\n\nIt wasn't really premeditated, as such. By the time I had all the songs laid out, they just happened to be all on my own.\n\nI haven't linked up to much people yet. I'm only just coming into the industry. I'm not in a rush to jump in the studio and work with everyone and this and that.\n\nCommitment Issues and Obsessed With You are more emotional than a lot of UK rap. You could almost call them love songs. How important is it not to be boxed in by convention?\n\nI don't try to not be boxed in by convention. It's not something I think about, but I have different emotions. I'm just a human being. So sometimes I might feel a bit more emotional or a bit more \"whatever\".\n\nObsessed With You samples another Sound Of 2022 nominee, PinkPantheress... What do you think makes her special?\n\nThere's a whole list of things, which would take ages to run through, but she's one of my favourite artists though - no cap. I love everything about her.\n\nThat song is the first track from your 23 mixtape. What can we expect when that comes out next year?\n\nExpect big things. If you thought 'Wild West' was hard...\n\nAnd finally, what's your grand plan for 2022?\n\nCentral Cee was speaking to BBC Music Correspondent Mark Savage and BBC 1Xtra's DJ Target.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Mourners line the route of Peter McNamee's funeral on Saturday\n\nThe deaths of three young men in a road crash in County Tyrone have \"cast a dark cloud\" over the community, mourners have been told.\n\nNathan Corrigan, Peter Finnegan and Peter McNamee died in a crash involving a car and a lorry on the A5 Omagh Road in Garvaghy on Monday.\n\nThe funerals of Mr Finnegan and Mr McNamee took place on New Year's Day.\n\nMonsignor Colum Curry told mourners at Mr McNamee's funeral in Beragh that the community had been left stunned.\n\n\"This terrible tragedy has cast a dark cloud over much of Tyrone and far beyond and it has left people shocked and bewildered and all of that is compounded even more because of the time of year,\" he said.\n\n\"This is not the way for any family to begin a new year.\"\n\nHe said the young man had enjoyed life to the full.\n\n\"We are grateful for the life he did have, grateful for the way he lived that life and grateful for the tremendous joy and fun that he brought into people's lives.\n\n\"His family and his many friends have a wealth of lovely memories to treasure.\"\n\nPeter McNamee (left), Peter Finnegan (centre) and Nathan Corrigan (right) died in the two-vehicle crash on Monday\n\nThe men, who were all in their 20s, died at the scene of the crash.\n\nA fourth man, also in his 20s, was taken to hospital for treatment to serious injuries.\n\nMourners at the funeral of Peter Finnegan at St Patrick's Church in Clogher were told there was a \"deep void\" in the lives of his parents following the crash.\n\nPolice at the scene of the crash\n\n\"The experience of death is always disturbing. But the death of a young person, in the prime of life, is overwhelming in its effects,\" Fr Noel McGahan said.\n\nGAA clubs in County Tyrone also offered their condolences to family and friends affected by the accident.\n\nBeragh GAA club said both Nathan Corrigan and Peter McNamee were past youth members.\n\n\"Words are hard to find to express the sadness of the local community about the heart-breaking events of Monday morning,\" the club said.\n\nGoalkeeper Niall Morgan said it was a \"sobering moment\" when the players were re-routed on their way to the complex after the collision.", "Restrictions on overnight movement have been in place throughout the pandemic\n\nSouth Africa has lifted overnight curfew rules, with officials saying the country may have passed the peak of its fourth wave of Covid-19 infections.\n\nA government statement said the Omicron variant, while highly transmissible, had seen lower hospitalisation rates than previous waves.\n\nThere had been a marginal increase in the number of deaths, it added.\n\nThe variant - first reported by South Africa last month - is spreading fast elsewhere leading to widespread curbs.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a \"tsunami\" of infections from Delta and Omicron variants that could overwhelm health systems.\n\nBut in South Africa, a statement released after a special cabinet meeting said cases and hospital admission rates had dropped in almost all provinces across the country.\n\nFor the week ending 25 December 2021, the number of confirmed infections stood at 89,781 - down from 127,753 the week before.\n\nThe changes announced include lifting restrictions on movement between midnight and 04:00. Businesses will also be allowed to sell alcohol under normal licensing rules, instead of closing at 23:00.\n\nOvernight curfew rules of varying severities have been in place since a national state of disaster was declared in late March 2020.\n\nThe country still has \"spare capacity for admission of patients even for routine health services\" despite the Omicron wave, officials said.\n\nThe public are still being urged to get vaccinated and follow public health protocols, including mandatory mask-wearing.\n\nGatherings remain capped at 1,000 people indoors and 2,000 outdoors or 50% at venue capacity to allow for social distancing.\n\nThe National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) will monitor the situation and make adjustments if necessary or if hospital pressure increases, officials said.\n\nSouth Africa has recorded almost 3.5 million Covid-19 cases and more than 90,000 deaths during the pandemic - more than any other country in Africa.\n\nMany countries around the world are battling the Omicron wave while weighing up restrictions:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nSilverwood, who is fully vaccinated, had already been isolating in Melbourne since Thursday after a member of his family returned a positive test.\n\nThe 46-year-old is asymptomatic and will stay in isolation until 8 January.\n\nHe was already set to miss the fourth Ashes Test in Sydney which begins on Wednesday, but he is expected to return in time for the fifth Test in Hobart.\n\nOn Sunday, England's practice at the Sydney Cricket Ground was disrupted after learning a local net bowler had tested positive for Covid-19.\n\nThey completed practice using their own bowlers and coaching staff, and have undergone another round of routine PCR tests.\n\nIn a statement, Cricket Australia said: \"Earlier today, the net bowlers provided for England's training session were withdrawn, following two of the bowlers returning positive Covid tests as part of Cricket Australia's pre-entry screening protocols.\n\n\"Both bowlers have recently recovered from Covid infections and therefore did not pose any risk to the England playing group.\"\n\nMeanwhile, earlier plans to add former England one-day skipper Adam Hollioake to their coaching team were shelved after a close contact of his tested positive.\n\nAll current Australia squad members, staff and families have returned negative Covid-19 results in the most recent round of testing, and continue to be tested daily.\n\nBatter Travis Head had earlier been ruled out of the Sydney Test following a positive test, with Mitchell Marsh and Josh Inglis called up as cover, while Nic Maddinson is remaining in Melbourne on standby.\n• None Tom Holland and Zendaya attempt a Harry Potter quiz and chat about Marvel's latest hit\n• None Running from a past he can't remember: Brand new drama set in the Australian outback starring Jamie Dornan", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe funeral mass for South African anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has taken place at the Anglican cathedral in Cape Town.\n\nTutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who helped end the racist regime in South Africa, died last Sunday aged 90.\n\nIn his eulogy, President Cyril Ramaphosa described Tutu as \"the spiritual father of our new nation\".\n\nTutu had insisted there should be no \"lavish spending\" on the funeral. He wanted \"the cheapest available coffin\".\n\nFamily, friends, clergy and politicians were among those who gathered at St George's Cathedral for Saturday's service, which had limited numbers because of coronavirus restrictions. Tutu's widow Nomalizo Leah sat in a wheelchair at the front of the congregation wearing a purple shawl - the colour of her late husband's clerical robes.\n\nTutu insisted that he be given \"the cheapest available coffin\"\n\nTutu was one of the driving forces behind the movement to end the policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government against the black majority in South Africa from 1948 until 1991.\n\nIn the main eulogy at the official state funeral on Saturday, Mr Ramaphosa described the archbishop as a \"crusader in the struggle for freedom, for justice, for equality and for peace. Not only in South Africa… but around the world as well\".\n\n\"If we are to understand a global icon to be someone of great moral stature, of exceptional qualities, and of service to humanity there can be no doubt that it refers to the man we're laying to rest today,\" he said.\n\nSaturday's funeral was given a special status, usually designated for presidents and very important people.\n\nTutu had requested that the only flowers in the cathedral should be a \"bouquet of carnations from his family\", according to the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.\n\nHis ashes are to be interred behind the pulpit at St George's Cathedral - the Anglican diocese he served as Archbishop for 35 years.\n\nIt was earlier revealed that Tutu is to be aquamated - a process using water that is described as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation.\n\nEven though only 100 invited guests physically attended Archbishop Desmond Tutu's funeral service at the St George's cathedral, many turned up to honour him by watching proceedings from public viewing areas. Most were visibly emotional.\n\nOne man described his attendance of Tutu's funeral as a full-circle moment because he also witnessed the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and watched Tutu and Mandela hold hands with their fists in the air as South Africa became a democracy.\n\nThe last of South Africa's well-known freedom fighters leaves behind a difficult task for the leaders of the nation: to rid the country of corruption and racial divisions and lead the way forward, in the spirit of the moral compass which was the guiding force of Tutu's leadership.\n\nIn a video message at the mass, the Archbishop of Canterbury described how Tutu \"lit up the world\". He said that his paying tribute to Tutu was \"like a mouse giving a tribute to an elephant\".\n\nTutu's daughter said the outpouring of love for her father had \"warmed the cockles of our hearts\".\n\n\"Because we shared him with the world, you share part of the love you held for him with us,\" she said.\n\nMany people in Cape Town turned up to file past the archbishop's coffin as it lay in state.\n\nOne man, Wally Mdluli, hitchhiked more than 1,000km (620 miles) across the country from Bloemfontein to Cape Town - enlisting the help of family and friends to pay for some of the trip and even sleeping at a petrol station on the way.\n\n\"I feel fulfilled after I saw the coffin. It's like his spirit is in me,\" he told the BBC's Nomsa Maseko in Cape Town.\n\nTutu used his high profile to speak out against the oppression of black people in his home country, always saying his motives were religious and not political.\n\nAfter Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994, Tutu was appointed by him to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to investigate crimes committed by both white and black people during the apartheid era.\n\nTutu was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984 for his role in the struggle to abolish the apartheid system.\n\nHe was also credited with coining the term Rainbow Nation to describe the ethnic mix of post-apartheid South Africa, but in his latter years he expressed regret that the nation had not coalesced in the way in which he had dreamt.", "Flowers have been left near the scene of the crash\n\nA 14-year-old girl has died after being hit by a car on New Year's Eve.\n\nWest Midlands Police said the girl was struck by a grey Mercedes near Rowley Regis railway station, in Sandwell, at about 16:45 GMT.\n\nParamedics attended the scene but the girl was pronounced dead at the scene about 45 minutes later, police said.\n\nThe driver, a 39-year-old man, stopped and was arrested on suspicion of causing death by driving while under the influence of drugs.\n\nPolice said officers had contacted the girl's family and a specialist officer would be deployed to offer them support.\n\nSgt Julie Lyman said: \"This is a truly awful way to start the new year and my heart goes out to the girl's family and friends.\"\n\nOfficers have appealed for witnesses to the collision which happened near the railway station\n\nShe added the investigation was in its early stages and urged people not to speculate online about what happened.\n\nOfficers have appealed for witnesses to the crash, which happened in Station Road, and for anyone with dashcam footage of the collision to come forward.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A second boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death in south London.\n\nZaian Aimable-Lina was found fatally injured after police were called to Ashburton Park in Croydon shortly after 19:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nHe died from a stab wound to the heart, police said.\n\nThe arrested boy, also 15, remains in custody, with another 15-year-old boy bailed until late January.\n\nZaian's death marked the 29th killing of a teenager in London in 2021.\n\nA 16-year-old boy stabbed in west London on Friday took the total number of teenage homicides in the capital in 2021 to 30 - the highest number since 2008.\n\nA post-mortem examination revealed Zaian died from a stab wound to the heart\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEvery time it rains, Phil Thomas is beset with worry and anxiety after finding out his young family are living below a potentially dangerous coal tip.\n\nHe has even thought about which way to run \"if something starts pouring down the hill\" behind their home.\n\n\"We've got no chance in reality,\" the 39-year-old father of two admits.\n\nConcerns about coal tips in Wales were put into stark focus when heavy storms caused 60,000 tonnes of spoil to run down a hillside in 2020.\n\nNo-one was injured in the slip down the empty valley at Tylorstown in Rhondda Cynon Taf, but the Welsh government has since revealed there are still almost 2,500 disused tips.\n\nMost have been concealed by nature and largely forgotten about but 327 are still classed as \"higher risk\", meaning they need to be regularly inspected for signs of movement, although do not necessarily pose an \"imminent\" threat.\n\nThe Welsh government is yet to say publicly where the most dangerous tips are or how many people live beneath them.\n\nThe collapse of a coal tip at Aberfan took 144 lives in 1966, including 116 children\n\nIt was in February last year that Phil, who runs a microbrewery, sat down at his local archives as a last resort after months of failing to get answers about a potential coal tip near his village of Ynyshir in Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nHe hoped the dusty old document in front of him could finally put his mind at rest.\n\nInstead, the report, written in the wake of the Aberfan disaster that killed 144 people in 1966, showed that his house - along with 20 others - had been described as \"at risk\" by engineers investigating the safety of the local tip.\n\nPhil's young family live under a tip in the south Wales valleys\n\n\"It made me sick to the core of my stomach,\" he said.\n\n\"I've got a family, that's our house. We've been there for eight years. This hasn't ever been mentioned, even when we purchased the house.\"\n\nSuch was the concern in the report done half a century ago, there was even a sentence about how much it might cost to buy the residents out of their homes.\n\nIn his community, the tip had been largely forgotten about over the decades - grass now covers the open black scars that once made them so easy to spot on the hillside.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Some 60,000 tonnes of spoil slipped down the hillside at Tylorstown in 2020\n\n\"I thought, perhaps naively, that most of the coal tips were made safe,\" said Phil.\n\n\"It makes you worried every time that it rains that something could happen, not just for me but for the 327 other high-risk tips out there in Wales.\n\n\"What do we do if something starts pouring down the hill? We've got no chance.\n\n\"If we could get the information today, I'm certain that people would be safer than they are without the information.\"\n\nAt the same time that Phil started his own quest for answers, both the Welsh and UK governments set up a coal tip safety taskforce.\n\nYnyshir is a small village near Porth in Rhondda Cynon Taf\n\nThe Welsh government quickly concluded that climate change and increased rainfall meant \"hundreds of millions of pounds\" were needed to make \"legacy\" coal tips safe for good.\n\nWales' climate change minister has since said plans were in place for a mobile phone alert system which could warn residents \"if there is a problem\".\n\nThe Welsh government said it would not reveal the precise locations of coal tips until later this year because of extra checks with \"accuracy\" and potential \"data protection issues\".\n\nThe Welsh government has already admitted that insurance and housing will likely be among the things affected when people find out they live underneath these tips.\n\nAs many as 70% of Wales' coal tips are believed to be on private land, including the one overshadowing Phil's family home.\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf is the area in Wales with the most higher risk coal tips\n\nHowever, the law means that councils have little ability to force an intervention unless they can prove a private tip is a \"clear and imminent threat\".\n\nIt is a system described as \"unfit for purpose\" by some local authorities - and the Welsh government has asked the Law Commission to review the current setup.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was \"trialling different methods to understand the best technology that could be used to inform of any changes in the stability of the tips\" as it was \"vital\" they made the right choice.\n\n\"In time, we would like to be able to share this information directly with people in local communities but need to do this in a way that we do not create false alarm or concern,\" a spokesman said.", "Face masks are to be worn in classrooms in England's secondary schools to reduce the spread of the Omicron variant, the government has announced.\n\nThe temporary reintroduction of face coverings aims to address concerns about schools remaining open for face-to-face learning this coming term.\n\nMeanwhile, six school staff unions have issued a demand for urgent action to limit the spread of the virus.\n\nThey warned national exams would be put at risk without further measures.\n\nThey also called for air-cleaning units, financial support for absence cover, help with on-site testing and a relaxation of the Ofsted inspection regime.\n\nSchools across the UK are re-opening after the Christmas break over the next week, with pupils being asked to take part in onsite Covid testing.\n\nUntil now, England was the only one of the four UK nations where face masks were not recommended for pupils in classrooms. Teachers will not have to wear them under the new guidelines.\n\nSome individual schools and local authorities in England had already required masks in classrooms, and face coverings were recommended in schools in England between 8 March and 17 May last year.\n\nEducation Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said face coverings would be required until 26 January.\n\nThis is when the current national Plan B Covid measures run out, although they will be reviewed on or close to 4 January.\n\nHe said education was the \"number one priority\" for him and the prime minister, and that they would do \"everything in our power\" to minimise disruption.\n\nThe government also said it would be making 7,000 air cleaning units available to early years settings, schools and colleges.\n\nThere are more than 24,400 schools in England, according to the latest government figures, but the Department for Education said the units would only be required in some areas of schools where opening doors and windows was not effective.\n\nStaff absences and rising Covid rates at the end of last term - caused by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant - have led to fears of further disruption to education.\n\nThe four main teaching unions covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland - ASCL, NAHT, NEU and NASUWT - plus the GMB and Unison, have issued a joint statement calling for urgent steps to help schools.\n\nIt said schools needed to avoid exam disruption for a third successive year, and remove uncertainty and additional workloads for students and teachers.\n\nMore specifically, it said:\n\nCabinet Office minister Steve Barclay said schools would be prioritised in terms of testing to ensure they reopened as planned.\n\nMinisters recognised that face masks were \"not something that many children will want to wear\" but said the introduction of them in classrooms was to ensure face-to-face education was available, he said.\n\nWhen someone who has Covid coughs, sneezes or exhales they release droplets of infected fluid.\n\nEvidence certainly shows wearing a face-covering reduces the release of these into the environment.\n\nBut what's not clear is what impact this has on transmission in the real world of schools.\n\nPeople wear different types of masks. Some work better than others. Ill-fitting masks or fidgeting with them will also naturally reduce their effectiveness.\n\nStudies that have been done have been pretty inconclusive at least in terms of proving they have a significant impact when used in school when the virus is spreading quickly in the community.\n\nOne of the problems is it is difficult to disentangle the impact of one measure with others steps that are being taken to reduce spread of the virus.\n\nWhat's more, any benefit has to be weighed against the costs in terms of harm to education.\n\nIt's the nature of a pandemic that decisions have to be taken without perfect evidence.\n\nBut this far in, plenty of experts are wondering why better research has not been done to work out what measures like this achieve.\n\nThis seems to be a policy which is being introduced more in the hope it will help significantly, rather than based on strong evidence it actually will.\n\nLabour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said that while he did not think anyone would be \"over the moon\" about masks being worn in schools, it was better than children missing out on learning.\n\nMr Streeting said the supply issues around lateral flow tests was causing challenges and called for the government to \"get a grip\" on testing.\n\nBut Conservative MP Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons education select committee, said he had worries about the mask policy, telling the BBC that the children's minister had told his committee \"there was no evidence of the efficacy of mask wearing\".\n\nHe said he wanted the education secretary to set out the evidence behind the policy and what the government was doing to assess the impact of it on children's mental health, wellbeing, anxiety and education.\n\nSir Daniel Moynihan, who runs the Harris Federation which educates 36,000 children, said his schools would probably return to pupil bubbles and that he disagreed with Mr Halfon on face masks.\n\n\"If we've got a thousand kids in a school all breathing all over each other, it is more likely they and their staff will be off sick and that will affect their mental health,\" he said.\n\nBeth Collins, assistant head teacher at Laurels Primary in Worthing, said she felt that \"once again primaries have been forgotten\", saying that as primary pupils were unvaccinated \"it has left us open to every danger going\".\n\nThe process by which schools can obtain the new air cleaning units is due to be set out by the DfE shortly.\n\nMr Streeting said that the government's announcement did not go far enough - suggesting that 7,000 was enough for about one in four schools in England to get one - and looked \"very much like appearing to be busy days before the start of school term\".\n\nFreelance piano and voice teacher Megan Skinner, who is based in East Sussex, said she was \"frankly terrified about returning to school\" as she had nearly died from blood clots in her lungs six years ago and her GP had told her she could develop them again if she caught Covid.\n\nShe said she was worried about the lack of adequate ventilation for some of her classes, adding: \"I am exposed to five times the number of pupils that most teachers will be, and apart from the risk to me, were I to contract Covid, I could certainly be a super spreader.\"\n\nHave you been affected by any of the issues raised in this article? You can share your experience via email - Haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nLionel Messi is one of four Paris St-Germain players to test positive for Covid-19.\n\nThe Argentine forward and team-mates Juan Bernat, Nathan Bitumazala and Sergio Rico were confirmed to have Covid a day before PSG's French Cup tie against fourth-tier side Vannes.\n\nThe quartet are said to be isolating.\n\nPSG boss Mauricio Pochettino added that Messi remained in Argentina where he spent the winter break and would not travel until testing negative.\n\nDuring a pre-match news conference on Sunday, Pochettino said he could not put a date on Messi's return.\n\nPSG's first league game of 2022 after their winter break is against Lyon on Sunday, 9 January.\n\nForward Neymar will miss that match as he continues his recovery from an ankle injury in Brazil.\n\nPSG say the 29-year-old is expected to return to training in three weeks.\n• None Tom Holland and Zendaya attempt a Harry Potter quiz and chat about Marvel's latest hit\n• None Running from a past he can't remember: Brand new drama set in the Australian outback starring Jamie Dornan", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAn early-warning system to detect movement in disused coal tips should be \"essential\", an expert has said.\n\nRemote monitors - used to pick up volcanic activity and tsunamis - would sense landslips and raise the alarm.\n\nPeople living nearby would also receive these alerts straight to their mobiles, according to Prof Karen Hudson-Edwards.\n\nClimate Change Minister Julie James said the Welsh government has been testing technology to issue such alerts via a mobile app.\n\nProf Hudson-Edwards, adviser in the Law Commission review into coal tips, said extra measures should be in place.\n\n\"Given that we had Aberfan in 1966 and the spill in Tylorstown last year, that thankfully didn't kill anybody, I believe such a system would be essential in Wales,\" she said.\n\n\"In a sense these are natural disasters, even though the coal tips are man and women-made.\n\n\"We definitely have things to learn from volcanoes because we often see a lot of landslide and debris from volcanos.\"\n\nThe collapse of a coal tip at Aberfan took 144 lives in 1966, including 116 children\n\nProf Hudson-Edwards said probes should be added to the face of coal tips to monitor any sudden changes in temperature or movement, while satellite imaging would also be essential.\n\nAuthorities in Wales are currently trialling remote monitoring devices on a small number of higher risk tips and began using satellite imaging in September.\n\n\"We could actually map the locations of different land uses, like buildings and housing or schools and agricultural land,\" said Prof Hudson-Edwards, of the Camborne School of Mines at Exeter University.\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf is the area in Wales with the most higher risk coal tips\n\n\"We can link that to where the coal tips are and work out what the path would be of any spilled material if there was to be a failure.\n\n\"In the mining industry we've talked about putting in warning systems for towns.\n\n\"You could definitely have a system that uses a phone app or even just a normal phone, where if you are monitoring a tip and you get the feeling it might be going, you could have evacuation plans and that kind of system in place.\"\n\nUsing Coal Authority data, the Welsh government estimates more than 40% of all UK coal tips are in Wales, with about one in seven classed as high risk.\n\nA recent study prompted by the landslide at Tylorstown, where 60,000 tonnes of debris collapsed from a former tip after heavy rain, identified 2,456 disused tips in Wales, with 327 in higher-risk categories.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. About 60,000 tonnes of debris collapsed from a former coal tip at Tylorstown after heavy rainfall in Storm Dennis in 2020\n\nScientists have warned the safety of coal tips is affected by climate change and have predicted south Wales would face more \"extreme weather\" in the future.\n\nThe Welsh government wants the UK government to fund work to repurpose, reclaim and remediate tips.\n\nBut Westminster said the Welsh government was \"more than adequately funded\" to foot the bill, which could be as much as £600m over the next 15 years.\n\nAround 70% of coal tips in Wales are privately owned, meaning installing a nationwide warning system would be complicated and likely require negotiating with a large number of landowners.\n\nProf Karen Hudson-Edwards is calling for extra safety measures on disused coal tips\n\nThe Welsh government released a council-by-council breakdown of where Wales' old coal tips are, but has not yet revealed the precise location of the tips despite pressure from opposition parties and residents.\n\nScientists have also suggested computer modelling could be used to help predict increased rainfall and flooding events near coal tips.\n\nThe Welsh government and councils have previously raised concerns that climate change and extreme weather could increase the possibility of tips becoming unstable.\n\n\"Arguably we're seeing some of the effects of climate change now,\" said Prof Patrick Foster, who is involved in an EU-funded project looking at the impact of extreme weather events on coal mines.\n\n\"There's no doubt that we are having more intense weather events in terms of precipitation. That resulted in the events we saw last year at Tylorstown and Skewen.\"\n\nProf Foster said it was difficult to predict precise changes in rainfall, but studies had suggested a 6% increase during winters in south Wales by the 2050s - and he added increased rainfall could weaken tips and lead to \"instability issues\".\n\n\"We've seen what can happen with tip stability and flooding with extreme weather events in recent times,\" he said.\n\n\"If that trend continues then we want to do as much as possible to stop events like that from happening again.\"\n\nClimate change minister Ms James told Wales Live she hoped the early warning system would never have to be used, but it was important that people didn't \"live in fear\" of sudden landslips.\n\n\"We've been doing the tech tests that we need to make sure we've got the right equipment on the right tips,\" she said.\n\n\"That it detects the right kinds of issues and that we have the right kinds of alerts for people, so they get the information they need, but not information that's unduly alarmist.\n\n\"Hopefully, there will never be a problem because we are putting in the mitigation measures to make sure we don't have slips and movement. But we want people to be alerted if there is a problem.\"\n\nThe Welsh government hopes to publish data about coal tip locations in the first half of 2022.\n\nMs James acknowledged that insurance and housing could potentially be affected for some people.\n\n\"We will be looking to see what we can do with the insurance industry, [such as] speaking to people, as we do for floods, to make sure we have the right schemes.\n\n\"We are very aware that people need to have the right information at the right time.\"", "The family of Lucy Clews said she would \"never be replaced in our hearts and will forever live in our memories\"\n\nPolice have appealed for anyone who knew a woman stabbed to death in Staffordshire to contact them.\n\nLucy Clews, 39, was found dead in a bungalow in Cannock on 29 December.\n\nDetectives from Staffordshire Police appealed for information to \"help us to piece together a timeline to help us understand where Lucy's been and who she's been associating with\".\n\nA 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of her murder and remains in police custody.\n\nMs Clews was found at an address in Bath Road in the West Chadsmoor area of Cannock\n\nDet Supt Tom Chisholm said officers were particularly keen to hear from anyone who had seen Ms Clews between 24 December and her death.\n\nShe was found by emergency services at the property in Bath Road, in the West Chadsmoor area, at about 00:40 GMT. Police had been called to the scene over concerns for her welfare.\n\nIn a statement, Ms Clews's family remembered her as a \"very special granddaughter, daughter and sister\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Twenty Conservative parliamentarians have called on the prime minister to tackle the spiralling cost of living.\n\nFive ex-ministers are among those who have written to the Sunday Telegraph arguing for a cut in environmental levies and the removal of energy taxes.\n\nTheir call follows big increases in wholesale gas prices. Experts say average bills could hit £2,000 in 2022.\n\nThe government says it is meeting suppliers and the regulator regularly to work out how to help consumers.\n\nHealth minister Edward Argar told Times Radio there were a range of measures to help those who \"feel the squeeze with particular house bills\", adding that the economy was \"bouncing back\".\n\nThe letter to the Telegraph has been organised by the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Conservatives, which keeps an eye on the potential consequences of the government's environmental commitments.\n\nThe group's chairman Craig Mackinlay is one of the letter's signatories, along with former Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey and senior MPs Robert Halfon and Steve Baker.\n\n\"We hardly need to point out that high energy prices, whether for domestic heating or for domestic transport, are felt most painfully by the lowest paid,\" the letter states.\n\nIt argues that by scrapping the 5% VAT rate on energy bills and suspending environmental levies which fund renewable energy schemes, the average household could save £200 on their energy bill.\n\nCabinet Office minister Stephen Barclay said: \"It is a matter for the Chancellor in terms of tax policy but the key issue for us all is to get the economy re-opened, to get businesses firing up again.\"\n\nBut Mr Halfon said he had \"huge worries\" about the rising energy costs for people across the country.\n\nWith the energy price cap going up in the spring, he said the government should look at other measures, including suspending green levies which he said were \"actually 25% of everybody's energy bill\".\n\nHe added that he was not suggesting to \"get rid of them forever\" but to pause them at a time when people could really struggle.\n\nLabour has also called for the lifting of VAT on fuel bills for the winter to help households, while Ovo Energy firm boss Stephen Fitzpatrick last week suggested that some \"environmental social policy costs\" should be removed by the government.\n\nOther suppliers including Good Energy, EDF and trade body Energy UK have called for government intervention, after the cost of gas in wholesale markets rose by more than 500% in less than a year.\n\nThe charity National Energy Action (NEA) has warned that a record six million UK households will be in fuel poverty when the next increase in the energy price cap comes into force in April.\n\nPrior to the most recent rise in the price cap in October, around four million homes in the UK were classed as being in fuel poverty. That number increased by 500,000 after prices rose and NEA estimates it will increase again by 1.5 million this year.\n\nMore than 20 energy suppliers have gone out of business since the start of September, with their customers shifted to new providers.\n\nBut many will find themselves on a different - and potentially more expensive - tariff than their previous energy deal.\n\nLast week the Resolution Foundation think tank warned that millions of UK families face a \"year of squeeze\" in 2022 thanks to rising energy bills, stagnant wages and tax rises. The Bank of England has said it expects inflation to reach 6% by the spring.\n\nThe Resolution Foundation says that an increase in National Insurance contributions from April, along with an expected rise in energy bills in the same month could amount to a £1,200 hit to household finances.\n\nAnd the foundation warned that poorer families will bear the brunt of these rises as they spend a greater proportion of their income on electricity and gas.\n\nThe government says it has taken steps to help, including reducing the Universal Credit taper, providing cold weather payments and freezing alcohol and fuel duty.", "Only gas and nuclear plants with the highest standards would be considered green\n\nThe European Commission has proposed plans to label some gas and nuclear power as green, prompting criticism from Germany.\n\nThe proposal argues that gas and nuclear are key to helping transition to cleaner power.\n\nIt comes months after countries pledged to keep temperature rises within 1.5C at the COP26 climate summit.\n\n\"It is necessary to recognise that the fossil gas and nuclear energy sectors can contribute to the decarbonisation of the Union's economy,\" the Commission's proposal says.\n\nUnder the proposal, only gas and nuclear plants with the highest standards would be considered green. Nuclear plants would also have to have strict waste disposal plans, Deutsche Welle reports. While gas plants would have a limit of how much carbon dioxide is released per kilowatt-hour of energy produced.\n\nIf a majority of EU members back the proposal then it will become law from 2023.\n\nFrance had reportedly pushed for nuclear power to be included. The country relies on nuclear energy for 70% of its electricity, although this will be cut to half over the next 15 years.\n\nFrance has also pledged to reduce its reliance on nuclear power by shutting down 12 nuclear reactors by 2035.\n\nThe move has been criticised by Germany, which is in the process of phasing out nuclear completely and only has a few plants remaining.\n\nGerman Environment Minister Steffi Lemke described the proposal as \"wrong\", adding that nuclear energy could lead to environmental disasters and large amounts of nuclear waste.\n\nEconomy and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck called the plan \"greenwashing\", saying it \"waters down the good label for sustainability.\"", "A new squad of dog detectors could help reduce the risk of exotic diseases arriving in Scotland.\n\nFunding from the Scottish government has led to the creation of a team of dogs who are specially trained to sniff out products of animal origin (PoAO).\n\nThe aim is to identify items that carry a risk of diseases such as African swine fever or foot and mouth.\n\nThe dogs will now be deployed at airports, ports and parcel hubs across Scotland.\n\nFigures provided by Border Force North show that in 2020, more than a tonne of products of animal origin were seized at ports and airports from people arriving in Scotland.\n\nRural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: \"The Scottish government and Border Force have worked closely to get the dogs operational in Scotland.\n\n\"Alongside their handlers, they have taken part in a robust training regime and now that they have passed their assessments they can get to work and help us detect PoAO entering Scotland illegally.\"\n\nAfrican swine fever does not affect humans but has led to the deaths of pigs around the world and can be spread through imports of pork and pork products.", "The Scottish government says there are currently no plans to delay the reopening of schools in January\n\nA teachers' union is calling for a delay in reopening schools after the Christmas holiday because of the rapid spread of Omicron.\n\nThe Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA) says there are already staffing issues and the problem is likely to get worse.\n\nHowever, the Scottish government has insisted there are currently no plans to close schools.\n\nIt comes as a number of colleges return to blended learning this week.\n\nThe move is aimed at protecting staff and students amid the rapid spread of the Covid-19 variant.\n\nColleges Scotland said several colleges were also planning hybrid teaching for the first two weeks of next year.\n\nSeamus Searson, general secretary of the SSTA teaching union, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme he was already hearing about schools that were not fully staffed due to rising Covid cases.\n\nAnd he said parents were keeping their children off to ensure they did not catch Covid in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nMr Searson said: \"At the moment, schools are struggling to keep open because of the number of teachers who are away because of the virus.\n\n\"We need to be reasonable and say that the virus will spread inside schools.\n\n\"There somehow seems to be a notion that the virus isn't spread in school and teachers are immune.\"\n\nThe latest official figures published last week showed there were 31,303 pupils off school for any Covid reason.\n\nAlmost 6,000 new cases of coronavirus were reported across Scotland on Sunday, with Omicron now the dominant variant.\n\nOn this day last year, I was standing outside a primary school speaking to parents. The Scottish government had just announced a delayed start to term in the January and some weeks of online learning after that.\n\nContrast that to one year later.\n\nThe government insists there are no plans to do the same this time around and instead has relaxed isolation rules for teachers in the hope of keeping schools open if cases continue to rise.\n\nBy this time in 2020, exams had already been cancelled for senior pupils. This year, we are still planning for a \"normal\" diet in the spring.\n\nDespite the spectre of further restrictions elsewhere in society, it looks like history won't be repeating itself when it comes to schools, for now at least.\n\nCurrently, Scots are being advised to reduce their socialising as much as possible and to limit gatherings to three households - though large-scale events including the Scottish League Cup final have been allowed to go ahead.\n\nBoth Edinburgh and City of Glasgow Colleges will switch to online learning from Monday until term ends on Wednesday, while other colleges - including Dumfries and Galloway College and Dundee and Angus College - will also minimise activity on campus and move as much as possible online.\n\nColleges Scotland said the aim was to to protect people and reduce pressure on public transport and the NHS as cases of Omicron rise.\n\nColleges will be keeping in touch with students throughout December and January as plans are subject to change.\n\nA number of colleges are returning to blended learning this week\n\nShona Struthers, chief executive of Colleges Scotland, said: \"Colleges have prepared very well for this model, and students can be assured that the quality of their college experience is being protected.\"\n\nShe said colleges had already been operating at a higher safety level throughout the autumn and winter and expected that to continue when learning resumed in January.\n\n\"Everyone over 18 in Scotland can now get first, second and booster doses of the vaccine and getting a jag over the Christmas holidays will help us all get back to classes more quickly and safely in the new year,\" Ms Struthers said.\n\n\"Students have also been able to access lateral flow tests at their college for many months, and I'd urge anyone attending a campus to test regularly.\"\n\nColleges Scotland said arrangements would vary at different colleges to meet local needs, and urged students to check information regularly.\n\nAudrey Cumberford, chairwoman of the College Principals' Group and Principal of Edinburgh College, said: \"Over the past 21 months colleges have become adept at delivering high-quality learning and teaching remotely or in a hybrid model, with vulnerable students and practical subjects prioritised for access to our campus spaces.\"\n\nPaul Little, principal of City of Glasgow College and vice chairman of the College Principals' Group, added: \"In order to keep the flow of qualified and skilled people coming into the workforce - including critical parts of the economy like health and social care, construction, and the maritime industry - the college sector has a crucial role to support our students gain their qualifications even while we deal with this latest wave of the virus.\"\n\nAlastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, said blended learning was the best way to protect students' educational resilience and mental health.\n\nHe said: \"Omicron is clearly a very fast-moving situation and we're in daily touch with the Scottish government. This will continue over the Christmas break, as needed.\n\n\"However, as it stands, we believe that it is in learners' interests for universities to continue to offer a safe blend of in-person and digital provision.\"\n\nA Scottish government spokesman said: \"The Scottish government is not considering school closures. As the first minister has made clear, protecting the education of children and young people remains a top priority.\n\n\"National school closures would only be an absolute last resort. Covid-19 protections will be reviewed on a daily basis due to the rapid increase in cases of the Omicron variant.\"", "More than three quarters of adults in Scotland have received their Covid-19 booster vaccinations.\n\nThe Scottish government had set a target of getting 80% of eligible adults and young people boosted by the end of the year.\n\nBy 30 December, 77% had received the jabs. The government said high infection levels had meant thousands of people had to delay their appointments.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said it was not too late to get vaccinated.\n\nHe paid tribute to the people of Scotland for their collective effort and success in getting more than 2.98 million people \"boosted by the bells\".\n\nOf them, about 790,000 have received their booster since 13 December, when the rollout was accelerated due to the threat of the Omicron variant.\n\nMr Yousaf initially set a target of boosting 70,000 people a day, but that was later revised down to 61,000. However, that was only achieved on five days.\n\nScotland leads the rest of the UK on first, second, third and booster doses, and the Scottish government said it continued to deliver one of the fastest and most successful vaccination programmes in the world.\n\nIn England, more than 70% of eligible adults have had their booster jabs while in Wales 71% of those aged 12 and above have had a booster.\n\nMr Yousaf told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme that there was the capacity to give boosters to more than 80% of eligible people.\n\nHe said: \"Unfortunately, we had a lot of cancellations, in this week in particular, given the high levels of infection but that shouldn't take away from the fact that our vaccination teams have done a brilliant job.\n\n\"It's been a phenomenal effort and Scotland continues to lead the rest of the UK in what is a very successful vaccination programme.\n\n\"We are investing in science, not just in vaccines but with anti-viral treatments coming on board as well. If we didn't have the vaccine, the situation we are in now would be far, far worse.\n\n\"The next few weeks will be really difficult given the high number of cases and the pressure on the NHS but I do believe 2022 will be a far better and far safer year for all of us.\"\n\nMr Yousaf said that in the week ending 26 December - with staff taking a break on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and amid high infection rates in some areas - Scotland achieved record-breaking numbers of vaccinations, with 77,927 jabbed on the busiest day.\n\nPeople queued up at Hampden Park vaccination centre for booster jabs before the Christmas break\n\nFigures from the Office of National Statistics show that in the week ending 23 December, one in 40 people in Scottish households - not including care homes and hospitals - had Covid.\n\nMr Yousaf said anyone who had to delay their booster due to a Covid infection or isolation period could now arrange a new appointment, 28 days after their positive PCR test.\n\n\"To deliver maximum benefits we need as many people as possible to get boosted as quickly as possible,\" Mr Yousaf said. \"It is everyone's duty to get a jab if you haven't already - vaccination could literally save your life as well as keeping family, friends and loved ones safe.\n\n\"And it is never too late to receive your booster - or even a first or second dose - so please come forward as soon as possible, as there is capacity available to get you vaccinated.\"\n\nThe expansion of the booster programme and other vaccine doses will continue into the new year and young people aged 12-15 who are still to receive their second dose will now be invited to reschedule existing appointments or attend drop-in centres from Monday 3 January.", "The next few days are crucial in understanding the impact of Omicron on the NHS, a health boss has said.\n\nChris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, said hospital admissions are rising across the country but what could happen next is unclear.\n\nHe warned ministers \"must be ready to introduce new restrictions at pace if they're needed\".\n\nBut the health secretary said any extra measures must be a \"last resort\".\n\nWriting on Twitter, Mr Hopson said staff were working \"flat out\" and the NHS was now under \"different, arguably more\" pressure compared to last January because more planned treatments were being carried out, the booster vaccination campaign was using up significant resources and staff absences were having a greater impact.\n\nEngland has reported 162,572 new cases - a record number for the fifth day in a row - as well as 154 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.\n\nScotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not report figures on Saturday.\n\nThe number of hospital admissions in England are at their highest level since January 2021, according to the latest figures, while NHS hospital staff absences due to Covid have nearly doubled in a month.\n\nMr Hopson said there was evidence infections peaked in London before Christmas and had plateaued since but the future trajectory \"remains very unclear\", ranging from hospital admissions plateauing and then dropping to numbers rapidly increasing.\n\n\"If the evidence shows that we are getting very significant numbers of people coming into hospital with Covid, then the government needs to be ready to introduce further restrictions at pace,\" he told the BBC.\n\nHe said there were currently not the large numbers of severely ill older people that were seen in previous peaks and intensive care occupancy was broadly stable.\n\nHowever, he said there were worries about the possible impact of intergenerational mixing over Christmas.\n\nUniversity Hospital of North Tees in Stockton has become the latest of more than a dozen hospitals to temporarily suspend routine visits because of rising infections.\n\nThe doctors' union, the British Medical Association, has said further public health measures should be introduced as a matter or urgency.\n\nThe association's council chairman, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said it was \"wholly erroneous to talk about the risk of the NHS becoming overwhelmed\".\n\nThe new year began with the health service \"already overwhelmed, in a parlous state, and with patient care suffering\", he said.\n\nWriting in the Daily Mail, Sajid Javid warned it was \"inevitable\" there would be a big increase in people needing NHS care over the next month due to the time lag between infections and hospital admissions.\n\n\"This will likely test the limits of finite NHS capacity even more than a typical winter,\" he added.\n\nThe problem facing the government is that the window to suppress the peak with restrictions may already have passed.\n\nModelling produced for government by Warwick University suggests even a return to lockdown with only schools open has virtually no impact on hospital admissions now.\n\nTo have had a significant impact, measures would need to have been introduced on Boxing Day or a week earlier.\n\nBut even then the argument for them was unclear - in both scenarios infections and hospital admissions rebound once restrictions are lifted. Largely all it achieves is delaying and spreading out illness.\n\nThat could have been of benefit by evening out the pressure on the NHS.\n\nBut there is, of course, the wider costs of restrictions to society, the economy and mental health to factor in.\n\nSome say it would also have bought you time to carry out more vaccinations, but with nine in 10 of the most vulnerable boosted and evidence protection wanes over time this may actually be the point in time when we have the most immunity across the population.\n\nThere are no simple solutions to this Omicron wave - and the options that the government did have may well have gone.\n\nEngland is currently under Plan B restrictions, which includes mandatory masks in most indoor public places, Covid passes for nightclubs and other large venues and guidance to work from home if possible.\n\nThe measures are set to expire six weeks after implementation, with a review after three weeks, which is expected on or close to 4 January.\n\nThere are already tougher restrictions for hospitality venues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.", "Pro-democracy protesters faced another violent crackdown from the military\n\nSudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has resigned after another day of mass protests rocked the capital Khartoum.\n\nThousands marched against a recent deal he had done to share power with the army, who staged a coup in October.\n\nChanting \"power to the people\", protesters called for a return to full civilian rule. But military forces again responded with force, leaving two people dead.\n\nMr Hamdok's decision to quit leaves the army in full control.\n\nIt is another blow to Sudan's fragile attempts at a transition to democratic rule after a popular uprising led to the overthrow of Sudan's long-term authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.\n\nIn a televised address, Mr Hamdok said the country was at a \"dangerous turning point that threatens its whole survival\".\n\nHe said he had tried his best to stop the country from \"sliding towards disaster\", but that \"despite everything that has been done to reach a consensus... it has not happened\".\n\nCivilian and military leaders had made an uneasy power-sharing agreement after the army staged a coup on 25 October and initially placed Prime Minister Hamdok under house arrest.\n\nThe country was just one month away from transition to a civilian head of state when the army seized power.\n\nMr Hamdok, an economist by training, is widely respected in the international community having previously worked as an official with the United Nations. He helped negotiate a deal to forgive some of Sudan's debts but this involved removing fuel subsidies, leading the prices of many basic goods to rise, and to anti-government protests.\n\nUnder the agreement reached with Mr Hamdok in November, the reinstated prime minister was supposed to lead a cabinet of technocrats until elections were held. But it was unclear how much power the new civilian government would have, and protests against the military resumed, which were often violently suppressed.\n\nProtests continued even after Mr Hamdok had returned to office, with some demonstrators saying that his reinstatement was helping to legitimatise the military takeover.\n\nThe United Nations' special representative in Sudan has expressed regret over Mr Hamdok's resignation. It puts at risk progress made since the December revolution when Mr Bashir was toppled, Volker Perthes warned.\n\nThe resignation of Mr Hamdok showed the military was losing their leverage to get international recognition and popular support, according to a spokesman for the opposition Sudanese Congress Party.\n\nFurther protests against the military are planned for Tuesday. Activists have told people to march to the presidential palace in the capital city, \"until victory is achieved\", according to the AFP news agency.\n\nThousands of people were on the streets of the capital Khartoum and the city of Omdurman on Sunday, chanting and calling on the military to leave politics.\n\nMore than 50 people have been killed during protests since the coup, including at least two on Sunday, according to the pro-democracy Sudan Central Doctors' Committee.\n\nCoup leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has defended last October's coup, saying the army had acted to prevent a civil war. He says Sudan is still committed to the transition to civilian rule, with elections planned for July 2023.\n\nJanuary 1 marked Sudan's Independence Day but there's little to celebrate in the country at the moment.\n\nThe resignation of PM Abdalla Hamdok is a big blow to the military leaders who had thought an agreement with Mr Hamdok would appease protesters and legitimize their stay in power.\n\nClearly those calculations were wrong. But it means the army are now firmly in power, reversing gains made as the country attempted to return to civilian rule.\n\nThe current political crisis now threatens to return Sudan to the authoritarian years of former ousted leader Omar al-Bashir.\n\nAnd there's also the risk that the country could go back to being a pariah state with the likes of the US already indicating that they would sanction those impeding a return to civilian rule.\n\nGiven Sudan's economic struggles, that could have an even worse effect on the lives of Sudanese people.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why are protesters back on the streets in Sudan?", "Aoife Beary, a survivor of the 2015 Berkeley balcony collapse that killed six students, has died, aged 27.\n\nShe died after suffering a stroke in the Irish capital, Dublin.\n\nMs Beary had experienced life-changing injuries after a fourth-floor balcony collapsed in June 2015 while she was celebrating her 21st birthday.\n\nA later investigation found that joists supporting the deck were suffering from dry rot and had been constructed by a company with a history of complaints.\n\nIn recent years she became an advocate for construction reform in California.\n\nMs Beary and her friends had been visiting the US under the popular J-1 summer working visa programme when the tragedy struck.\n\nThe balcony had been constructed by a company that had a history of legal claims against it and which it had not disclosed to the Californian state licensing board that regulates the building industry.\n\nA section of the collapsed balcony in 2015\n\nFive Irish students and one Irish-American friend were killed in the collapse, while seven others suffered a range of serious injuries.\n\nIn 2017 the families of those killed reached a confidential settlement with the companies involved in the building's construction.\n\nAoife Beary was left with a traumatic brain injury, broken arms, hands, pelvis and jaw, as well as lacerations to her liver, kidneys and spleen, a collapsed lung and broken ribs. She later underwent open heart surgery.\n\nIn 2016, she testified before the California state legislature during a hearing on legislation to force building contractors to be more transparent about past legal claims against them.\n\nDuring emotional testimony, she told legislators how she had lost much of her independence after the accident and that her career goals had been ended.\n\n\"My life has been changed forever,\" she said.\n\nShe also recalled how she and her friends, who she had known since the age of four, had travelled the world together. She said that her birthday would now \"always be their anniversary\".", "The giant European Union flag flew from the Arc de Triomphe over New Year\n\nA giant European Union flag displayed at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to mark France taking on the bloc's presidency has been removed after it was criticised by right-wing politicians.\n\nFar-right leader Marine Le Pen said \"replacing\" the French flag at the monument was an attack on the country's identity.\n\nA government minister said the move was only ever meant to be temporary.\n\nFrance has taken over the EU's rotating presidency for the next six months.\n\nMs Le Pen, who is a candidate in the presidential election in April, had vowed to file a complaint with the State Council, France's highest court for administrative matters. She described the EU flag's removal as a victory resulting from pressure on the government.\n\nFar-right independent candidate Eric Zemmour, who is also running against President Emmanuel Macron, called it \"an outrage\".\n\nConservative candidate Valérie Pécresse also objected to the position of the EU flag: \"Preside over Europe yes, erase French identity no!\", she tweeted:\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Valérie Pécresse This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut European Affairs Minister Clément Beaune denied the government had bowed to pressure from the far right and said the flag had been taken down as planned.\n\n\"It was scheduled that the flag was to be taken down this Sunday, we hadn't established an exact time,\" he told France Inter radio.\n\nMr Beaune also pointed out that the French flag which is sometimes displayed at the Arc de Triomphe is not a permanent fixture there.\n\nOn Saturday, Mr Macron, who has not yet said whether he will run for re-election in April, outlined the priorities of France's EU presidency based on three principles: strengthening European sovereignty, developing a new model of growth, and creating a Europe closer to its citizens.\n\nSpecific goals included better border protection and management of migration, improved security, technological innovation, and defending the rule of law, he added.\n\nOther landmarks in the capital and other French cities will be lit up in blue for the rest of the week to highlight France's EU presidency, including:\n\nThe Museum of Fine Arts in Lille, northern France", "St David is depicted in a stained glass window at the Chapel of Our Lady and St Non in Pembrokeshire\n\nThe shared religious and cultural history of Wales and Ireland is being celebrated with two pilgrimage routes in each nation.\n\nThe Ancient Connections project will see two routes in St Davids, Pembrokeshire, and Ferns, County Wexford, linked via a ferry service.\n\nIt is hoped the routes will boost green tourism after the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe aim is to attract about 5,000 people a year, whether they are keen walkers or making a pilgrimage.\n\nThe two routes will be Wales and Ireland and will be linked with a ferry service\n\nThe five-year project is being sponsored by Pembrokeshire and Wexford councils, and is also backed by European funding.\n\nThe nations are linked by the close bond that grew between St David, the patron saint of Wales, and St Aidan of Ferns during the early medieval period.\n\nPembrokeshire is also littered with sites which are notable for their importance to early Christianity and in medieval times it was said that two pilgrimages to St Davids was equivalent to one pilgrimage to Rome.\n\nIt is believed that St David was born at the site of St Non's Chapel, Pembrokeshire, named after his mother, in the 6th Century. There is a holy well at the site which reputedly has healing powers.\n\nSt Aidan is said to have travelled from Wexford to Pembrokeshire to study under St David.\n\nAccording to academics, there is clear evidence they were close.\n\nChristine Smith says being outside has a healing effect for everyone\n\n\"Welsh and Irish sources agree that was a close relationship between them and Aidan was a disciple of St David,\" said Dr Simon Rodway, who lectures in Welsh and Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University.\n\n\"It's clear that Aidan did spend some time in Wales with St David, and then he returned to Ireland where he was gifted lands at Ferns in County Wexford, where he founded a monastery.\"\n\nThe new routes will recreate the journeys followed by St Aidan and St David.\n\nJohn G O'Dwyer, chairman of Pilgrim Paths Ireland and author of Irish Pilgrim Paths, said the potential of the trails was \"absolutely huge\".\n\n\"We have quite a few pilgrim paths in Ireland but this is the first one that will recognise the fact that for the Irish, in the early medieval period, pilgrimage overseas was a very important thing,\" he said.\n\n\"It will have the added appeal of walking in two countries and at the same time, not having a particularly long walk.\n\n\"It's a Celtic nation and I think the more and more we look at our own identity, the Irish recognise a special affinity with the Scots, with the Welsh, the Cornish and the Bretons.\n\n\"I see a huge potential, particularly now as countries like Wales are, in the way we have 100 years ago, expressing their own independence and getting closer to a much more independent Welsh state, I think there will be a lot of interest.\"\n\nIain Tweedale hopes the paths will attract up to 5,000 walkers a year\n\nHoliday firm Journeying specialises in running pilgrimages and is a partner in the scheme, and its director Iain Tweedale said: \"It'll probably be called the Way of St Aidan and David.\n\n\"St Aidan was a protégé of St David... and St David would visit Ireland.\n\n\"They used the Irish Sea as the M4 of their day. We're setting up a new pilgrimage route that goes from Ferns in County Wexford, which is the ancient capital of that part of the world, it then heads down the coast to Rosslare.\n\n\"People can then jump on the ferry and come over to Fishguard.\n\n\"We then walk from Fishguard down to St Davids. It's about 130km (about 81 miles) in total.\"\n\nIt is hoped the extra visitors will boost local businesses during quieter times of the year.\n\n\"We've got a five-year plan to make this quite a significant path,\" added Mr Tweedale. \"We expect within five years there's going to around 4,000-5,000 on the path every year. On the Camino in Spain, there are 250,000 every year.\n\nNamed after St David - the Pembrokeshire city of St Davids has cultural and religious links to Wexford in Ireland\n\nHe added that they did not wish to reach those numbers in St Davids but it was a form of green tourism as people arrived on foot and would use public transport from start to finish.\n\nAccording to the British Pilgrimage Trust, pilgrimages have become increasingly popular, even for those who are not religious.\n\nGuy Hayward, director of the trust, said: \"Before Covid hit, I was talking to travel journalists who write for the top end travel and fashion magazines and they were saying that no-fly travel was coming.\n\n\"Covid brought that forward. It's tourism without the cars. Even before Covid, there was a move towards finding new meaning and that got sped up.\"\n\nHe said the new route could provide a welcome boost for tourism businesses in Wexford and Pembrokeshire.\n\n\"The average daily spend by a pilgrim is 42 euros, which is 2.3 times more than what the average tourist gives to the local community.\"\n\nThe original St Non's Chapel is one of many holy sites in Pembrokeshire\n\nNot-for-profit travel company Guided Pilgrimage shares the view that the new routes will also attract a wider demographic.\n\nDirector Christine Smith said: \"It attracts people from all walks of life. Particularly people who are questioning or they are at a crossroads in their life.\n\n\"Maybe they're coming out of a marriage, and during their time on pilgrimage they have time away from their normal lives to relax, see life from a different perspective.\n\n\"It's the healing power of being outside.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Air travellers in the US have already seen days of disruption\n\nFlight cancellations in the US have hit a new peak in a Christmas season hit hard by the Covid pandemic and bad weather.\n\nNearly 4,400 flights around the world were cancelled on Saturday, more than 2,500 of them in the US, air traffic site FlightAware reported.\n\nAirlines have been struggling with staffing problems with crew quarantining after contracting Covid.\n\nAdding to travellers' woes, heavy snow has hit the central US.\n\nFrom the US cancellations, more than 1,000 are from Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports.\n\n\"Today's cancellations are driven by Omicron staffing and weather-related issues. We did pre-cancel flights in anticipation of inclement weather. We've been contacting passengers early if their flights are cancelled to give them time to rebook or make other plans,\" United Airlines said in a statement.\n\nSunday, when many people often return home from their Christmas holidays, is likely to bring further disruption, with more snow and heavy winds forecast.\n\n\"It's too long and there's no space to spend the time, get something to eat, it's a long time here,\" one traveller stuck at O'Hare airport told ABC news in Chicago.\n\nMore on Covid around the world:\n\nSince 24 December, more than 12,000 flights have been cancelled in the US.\n\nAirlines have been trying to woo crew with extra pay to tackle the staff shortages. But unions say workers fear contracting Covid or having to deal with angry passengers.\n\nThe US is facing a surge in Covid cases powered by the Omicron variant.\n\nNew York City has seen record cases despite high vaccination rates. The virus has hit everything from the police force to Broadway shows, although there has not yet been a significant hike in hospitalisations.\n\nThe city's new mayor, Eric Adams, took office on Saturday after low key New Year celebrations.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Fireworks and light displays as the world welcomes 2022\n\nIn his first speech, he said the city would not be \"controlled by crises\".\n\n\"This pandemic has not only impacted us physically, but emotionally, and I'm going to really encourage people in this city to just find that inner peace, no matter what we're going through,\" he said.\n\n\"We have been through tragedies before. This is a resilient city and a resilient country and I want to bring that energy,\"", "Strong winds are hitting parts of south east England - with a storm warning in place until 18:00 GMT on Sunday\n\nA Yellow weather alert for thunderstorms, which brought heavy showers and high winds to the south and east of England, has come to an end.\n\n\"A band of thunderstorms\" moved across England on Sunday, with the Met Office warning of \"localised disruption\" and difficult driving conditions.\n\nIt follows unseasonably warm weather over the new year.\n\nSaturday marked the warmest New Year's Day on record, reaching 16.3C (61.3F) in London's St James's Park.\n\nThe original yellow warning, issued mid-morning on Sunday, encompassed a wide swathe of south and south west England, as well Cardiff, Monmouthshire and Newport in Wales - but the warning was later updated to focus on a smaller affected area in the south and east of England only.\n\nThere had been fears about damage to trees and buildings, or disruption to train and road travel but they appear to have come to nothing - although several flood warnings remain in place due to the significant rainfall causing some rivers to overflow.\n\nA Met Office tweet said it would be \"another mild evening\" but with \"some blustery winds at times\". Showers are expected to work their way eastwards \"perhaps with hail and the odd thunderstorm in places\".\n\nOn Friday, Britain saw its warmest ever recorded New Year's Eve with temperatures reaching 15.8C (60.4F) in Merryfield, Somerset.\n\nThe Met Office said the extremely mild spell was driven by a flow of warm, moist air from the Canary Islands.\n\nRecent temperatures in England have topped 16C where they more typically reach 7C\n\nBut climate change is also a factor: warm weather records are being broken nine times more frequently, according to the Met Office - a clear sign of an over-heating planet, according to BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin.\n\nGlobally, climate change has driven temperatures up by 1.1C. In recent days, the US reported dramatic winter wildfires in Colorado - halted by sudden, heavy snowfall - while the state of Alaska recorded its hottest-ever December day at the end of last month.\n\nThe Met Office said the weather across the UK was forecast to get cooler from Tuesday, potentially bringing wintry showers and frosts.\n\nBBC Weather's Tomasz Schafernaker said, following the \"extraordinarily mild weather\", it is set to turn colder and temperatures would be \"closer to the norm for the time of year\" - with temperatures expected to be below freezing in Scotland and Northern Ireland by early Tuesday.\n\nMost of the UK would continue to have above average temperatures, he said, warning of low pressure and an approaching weather front bringing \"a little bit of sleet and snow\" to some northern parts of the UK by Monday.\n\nIf you're in an area with storm warnings, how have you prepared? You can share your experience via email - Haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Zaian Aimable-Lina died from a stab wound to the heart\n\nA 15-year-old boy stabbed to death in south London has been named by police.\n\nZaian Aimable-Lina was found fatally injured after police were called to Ashburton Park in Croydon shortly after 19:00 GMT on Thursday over reports of an assault.\n\nA post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as a stab wound to the heart.\n\nA 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murder on Friday but was bailed until late January, police said.\n\nZaian's death marked the 29th killing of a teenager in London in 2021.\n\nA post-mortem examination revealed Zaian died from a stab wound to the heart\n\nA 16-year-old boy stabbed in west London on Friday took the total number of teenage homicides in the capital in 2021 to 30 - the highest number since 2008.\n\nPolice said the victim's family had been informed and they were being supported by specialist officers.\n\nDet Ch Insp Richard Leonard said: \"My thoughts continue to be with Zaian's family and friends as they cope with this tragic loss. My team are continuing to work around the clock so that we can give Zaian's family the answers they deserve.\n\n\"Zaian's death has sent shockwaves through the local community and London as a whole.\n\n\"He was just 15 years old and had his whole life ahead of him and we need the community to work with us to bring those responsible to justice. No matter how insignificant you may think it, if you have information that can help, you must do the right thing and contact us immediately.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "South Korean troops searched for the person in the DMZ but were unable to find them\n\nA South Korean citizen has crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea in an apparent defection, South Korea's military says.\n\nThe person was able to evade detection for several hours despite a search operation by South Korean troops.\n\nMilitary chiefs in Seoul said they did not know if the person was still alive, but had sent a message to the North asking for them to be protected.\n\nNorth Korea has implemented a shoot-on-sight policy during the pandemic.\n\nThe person was detected in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which separates the two Koreas, at a point on the east coast at about 21:20 local time (12:20 GMT) on Saturday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.\n\nDefence officials in Seoul had pledged to overhaul the border defence system after similar breaches in the past.\n\nIn September 2020 North Korean troops shot and burned a South Korean fisheries official who went missing at sea. The incident sparked uproar. Pyongyang blamed the anti-virus rule and apologised.\n\nNorth Korea's leader Kim Jong-un had earlier declared a national emergency and sealed off a town after a North Korean defector who Mr Kim said had Covid symptoms crossed into the North from the South.\n\nNorth Korea's pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions on movement within the country have also reduced the number of defections from the North to the South.\n\nThe border between North and South Korea is one of the most heavily fortified areas in the world. It is filled with landmines, surrounded by electric and barbed wire fencing and surveillance cameras and armed guards are supposed to be on alert 24 hours a day.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. North Korea defectors: Why it's getting harder to escape", "Denmark's Prime Minister says she wants to make flying green\n\nDenmark's government has announced a goal to make domestic flights fossil fuel free by 2030.\n\nIn her New Year's address, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she wanted to \"make flying green\".\n\nHowever she acknowledged that the solutions to reach her target were not yet in place.\n\nDenmark is aiming for a 70% cut in overall carbon emissions by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.\n\n\"To travel is to live and therefore we fly,\" said Ms Frederiksen, announcing her plan.\n\n\"When other countries in the world are too slow, then Denmark must take the lead and raise the bar even more,\" she said.\n\nShe added that achieving green domestic flights would be difficult but researchers and companies were working on solutions.\n\nThe European manufacturer Airbus has announced plans to develop hydrogen-fuelled planes that could be operational by 2035.\n\nIf the hydrogen used to fuel them is generated using renewable energy, this could be a way for Denmark to reach its goals.\n\nHowever it is unclear if the technology will be ready, and costs sufficiently low, for the 2030 target to be reached.\n\nSweden has also announced plans to make its domestic flights fossil fuel-free by 2030. It is also hoping to make international flights green by 2045.\n\nEarlier this year, the government there announced plans to introduce increased airport fees for high-polluting planes.\n\nMeanwhile France is moving to ban domestic flights where the same journey could be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours.\n\nThe measures could affect travel between Paris and cities including Nantes, Lyon and Bordeaux.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nWest Ham United survived a late fightback by Crystal Palace to start the new year with a narrow Premier League victory at Selhurst Park.\n\nThe three points move David Moyes' side back up to fifth in the table above Tottenham Hotspur, who had claimed an added-time winner at Watford earlier on Saturday.\n\nThe Hammers were aided by wasteful finishing from the home side and were clinical in front of goal themselves as they netted three times in the first half.\n\nPalace winger Jeffrey Schlupp swivelled and struck the post from a promising position after just 46 seconds and Odsonne Edouard rattled the crossbar with a first-time effort.\n\nBut in between West Ham capitalised on Palace's profligacy as Michail Antonio slid in to convert Said Benrahma's delightful cross midway through the half.\n\nThe visitors doubled their lead within three minutes courtesy of Manuel Lanzini's neat footwork and thumping finish.\n\nOn the stroke of half time, referee Darren England awarded a penalty against Palace skipper Luka Milivojevic for handball after reviewing the incident on the pitchside monitor, and Lanzini confidently converted it.\n\nThe hosts pulled a goal back seven minutes from time when Edouard poked home Michael Olise's cross and the substitute then also curled a late free-kick in for Palace's second - but they could not find a dramatic equaliser.\n• None Go straight to all the best Palace content\n\nPatrick Vieira missed his side's last two games as he isolated after testing positive for Covid-19 so it was a miserable first 45 minutes back in the dugout for the Palace boss as his team conceded three first-half goals.\n\nThe Frenchman has guided his new club to a solid first half of the season but will be unhappy with the manner in which they lost their second home game of the campaign.\n\nNo defender tracked Antonio's run for the first goal and his midfield failed to match a burst forward by Declan Rice - on his 150th Premier League appearance - to set up the second while skipper Milivojevic was culpable for the third.\n\nThe victory was West Ham boss Moyes' 10th on 1 January, equalling the record held by managerial legends Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.\n\nThe Hammers also emulated the feat of securing 10 victories from their opening 20 games last season, when they eventually finished sixth, and they are again challenging for a Champions League spot.\n\nPalace, meanwhile, stay in 11th place but players and fans can take heart from a good offensive display and the fact they almost completed a remarkable second-half turnaround.\n\nEdouard had already hit the woodwork and fired wide from a promising position before the Frenchman deservedly scored to begin an unlikely fightback.\n\nOn 90 minutes, Olise then swung in a cross from the right which sailed all the way in to give a raucous crowd hope of a sensational equaliser and they nearly got exactly that from a stunning acrobatic effort from Jean-Philippe Mateta which flew just wide.\n• None Attempt missed. Jean-Philippe Mateta (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Jeffrey Schlupp.\n• None Goal! Crystal Palace 2, West Ham United 3. Michael Olise (Crystal Palace) from a free kick with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Crystal Palace 1, West Ham United 3. Odsonne Édouard (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Michael Olise with a cross.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Tyrick Mitchell.\n• None Arthur Masuaku (West Ham United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Michael Olise (Crystal Palace) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Michael Olise (Crystal Palace) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Dr Gregor Smith has been Scotland's chief medical officer since April 2020\n\nScotland's chief medical officer has been knighted in a New Year's Honours list that celebrates health workers and Olympic athletes.\n\nDr Gregor Smith, a leading figure in the country's pandemic response, said he was \"surprised and honoured\".\n\nSwimmer Duncan Scott, who became the first British athlete to win four medals at a single games, has also been recognised with an MBE.\n\nOthers honoured include former MP Tommy McAvoy and retired MSP John Scott.\n\nDr Smith was appointed interim chief medical officer in April 2020, less than a fortnight into the first national lockdown, following the resignation of his predecessor.\n\nDr Catherine Calderwood quit after the Scottish Sun published photos showing her breaking Covid travel rules to visit her second home.\n\nDr Smith has been knighted alongside his fellow UK chief medical officers Prof Chris Whitty (England), Dr Frank Atherton (Wales) and Dr Michael McBride (Northern Ireland).\n\nIn his role, the GP advises the Scottish government on its public health response to the pandemic and often attends the first minister's Covid briefings where he answers questions from the media.\n\nDr Smith said: \"I am surprised and feel honoured to receive a knighthood in The Queen's New Year Honours list for services to public health.\n\n\"This means a huge amount to me but it is a reflection of the work that a good number of us have undertaken during the course of the coronavirus pandemic.\"\n\nHe also described his role as a \"privilege and a pleasure\" and praised those he had worked with for their contribution to the virus response.\n\nThe guitar-playing medic, who was formally appointed last December, often shares his love of music on his Twitter account, including bands such as The Foo Fighters and Iron Maiden.\n\nVolunteers and healthcare workers are also among those receiving honours for their work since the first Covid case was confirmed in Scotland in March 2020.\n\nThey include Joseph Freedman, for services to the Jewish community in Glasgow during the pandemic, and Dr Adaeze Ifezulike, a GP from Aberdeen for services to health inequality in minority communities in Scotland.\n\nPaul Fairie, the head of operations at Glasgow's Lighthouse Laboratory that has processed more than 20 million Covid tests joins Mr Freedman and Dr Ifezulike in being made MBEs.\n\nDuncan Scott has became the first British athlete to win four medals at a single games\n\nDuncan Scott will be able to add an MBE to his history-making medal haul from the Tokyo Olympics.\n\nIt consisted of gold in the 4x200m freestyle and silvers in the 200m freestyle, 200m medley and 4x100m medley.\n\nScott's parents had originally planned to go to Tokyo but had to cancel their plans when the Games were rescheduled because of the pandemic.\n\nBut despite his success, the 24-year-old from Alloa, Clackmannanshire, told BBC Scotland there was \"plenty\" to improve on when Paris hosts the games in 2024.\n\nParalympic gold medallist Owen Miller, from Fife, has also been made a MBE following his victorious debut in Tokyo in the T20 1500m, for athletes who compete with learning or intellectual impairments.\n\nAnd there is a MBE for Kathleen Dawson, also from Fife, who swam backstroke as part of the world record-beating mixed 4x100m relay team to win gold for Team GB at the Olympics in July.\n\nLord McAvoy was the MP for Glasgow Rutherglen for 23 years\n\nIn politics, long-serving former Labour MP Tommy McAvoy has been knighted for his political and public service.\n\nLord McAvoy, who was the MP for Glasgow Rutherglen from 1987 to 2010, spent much of his time at Westminster with roles in the Labour Party's whips office, serving in the governments of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.\n\nHe has been in the House of Lords since 2010 and is currently a senior whip and spokesman for both Scottish and Northern Irish issues.\n\nFormer Ayr MSP John Scott is also being made an OBE after 21 years at Holyrood.\n\nMr Scott, 70, was first elected as the area's Conservative MSP in a 2000 by-election, holding the seat in four subsequent elections.\n\nThe ex-farmer overcame pancreatic cancer, the same illness that killed his wife just nine months after he was first elected to the Scottish Parliament.\n\nHis service at Holyrood included a spell as a deputy presiding officer until May's election when he narrowly lost his seat to the SNP's Siobhian Brown.\n\nFormer St Johnstone chairman Geoffrey Brown, who rescued the football club from financial difficulty in 1986, has been made an OBE for services to Scottish football and to the community in Perth.\n\nAnd Dr Liz Cameron, director of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said she was \"deeply honoured and humbled\" to be awarded a CBE for services to the promotion of Scotland and UK international trade.\n\nDr Maggie Ellis has been recognised for a lifetime researching methods to help those with dementia, their families and carers\n\nAmong the academics recognised are three leading researchers at the University of St Andrews.\n\nDr Maggie Ellis, of the school of psychology and Neuroscience in the university, has been awarded an MBE for her dedication to improving the lives of people with dementia.\n\nMeanwhile, Prof Ailsa Hall is to receive an OBE for her decades of work in environmental protection and epidemiology and Prof Anne Magurran will receive an CBE for services to biodiversity.\n\nMembers of the emergency services have also been honoured.\n\nJudi Heaton, who recently retired as an assistant chief constable, head of road policing Chief Supt Louise Blakelock, and Ch Insp Marlene Baillie will each receive the Queen's Police Medal.\n\nAnd Graeme Anderson, who was the lead events planning officer for Tayside Division is to be presented with an MBE for services to event planning and law and order in Dundee.\n\nPat O'Meara (left), pictured with Scotland's national clinical director Prof Jason Leitch, recently led the Scottish Ambulance Service's planning and response to COP26\n\nThe Scottish Ambulance Service's general manager of events Pat O'Meara has been awarded the Queen's Ambulance Medal.\n\nIn a career spanning 23 years he been involved in major incidents, including the Clutha helicopter crash, the George Square bin lorry tragedy and the Stockline Plastics Factory explosion.\n\nMr O'Meara, 57, said: \"I have also attended a bombing, an aircraft crash at Heathrow Airport, I've been held hostage and attended an incident where I was chased with a knife.\"\n\nHe added that he was \"very humbled and grateful\" to received the award but said it would not have been possible without his colleagues.", "The NWAS spokesman said the device taken from the ambulance was \"much larger than those in public buildings\"\n\nA defibrillator that was taken from an ambulance while paramedics responded to an emergency call on New Year's Day has been found after a social media appeal.\n\nNorth West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said \"an unknown individual\" took it from a vehicle on Union St West, Oldham at about 00:15 GMT on Saturday.\n\nAfter an appeal on Twitter was retweeted hundreds of times, NWAS said the device had been found.\n\nA spokesman said details of how it was returned would be given \"when we can\".\n\nThe device, which is part of every ambulance's equipment, is used in life-threatening emergencies when people are in cardiac arrest.\n\nThe NWAS spokesman said the device taken from the ambulance was \"much larger than those in public buildings\" and specialist training was required to use it.\n\n\"Using them incorrectly can cause serious harm and they can be potentially fatal in the wrong hands,\" he added.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n• None How to use a defibrillator and save a life\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Met Office said flooding or lightning strikes could cause disruption to travel and power supplies\n\nThunderstorms could cause disruption to parts of south east Wales, according to the Met Office.\n\nA weather warning is in place until 18:00 GMT for Cardiff, Monmouthshire and Newport, although heavy rain has been affecting a wider area.\n\nThe Met Office said there was a slight chance the weather could cause power cuts and flooding.\n\n\"A band of thunderstorms will move quickly eastwards, perhaps leading to some localised disruption,\" it said.\n\nSince lunchtime, there has been intense rain in parts of Pembrokeshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd and Anglesey where lightning strikes have also been recorded.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The UK is having the warmest New Year's Day on record, with new high temperatures set for the second day in a row, the Met Office says.\n\nSt James's Park in central London saw temperatures of 16.3C (61.3F) on Saturday as 2022 was ushered in.\n\nWarm air from the Azores has been reaching the UK in recent days, bringing unusually mild weather.\n\nThe previous New Year's Day record was set in 1916, when it reached 15.6C (60.1F) in Bude, Cornwall.\n\nSaturday's high temperature was originally thought to be 16.2C before a slightly higher temperature was recorded later in the day.\n\nFriday was also the warmest New Year's Eve on record.\n\nBBC weather forecaster Ben Rich said: \"We've had winds coming from the south and south west bringing very warm air from the Azores - nearly all the way from the tropics - wafting across the UK and it's that which has lifted the temperatures.\n\n\"It's been with us for a few days now and warming up day by day.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Met Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSunday will be a little colder but temperatures will be still well above normal for this time of year, he added.\n\nThe mild weather currently being seen is widespread across the UK, he added.\n\n\"Around Tuesday it will be much colder as the southerly winds are replaced by northerly winds,\" he said. \"There could be some wintery showers, especially in the north of the UK. It will be a real change.\"\n\nIt will drop to somewhere between 6C and 9C, he said - in line with the average temperatures of 7C or 8C for the start of January.\n\nIn Edinburgh, it could get to as low as 3C on Tuesday.\n\nThe Met Office say the UK's record temperatures have all been elevated by manmade climate change which has raised temperatures globally by 1.1C.\n\nCold records are still being broken, as in the Beast from the East storm in 2018.\n\nBut the Met Office say warm weather records are being broken nine times more frequently - a clear sign of an over-heating planet.\n\nThe winter wildfires in Colorado are arguably even more alarming than unseasonal warmth in the UK.\n\nIt's too soon to say what role human-driven climate change may have played in the disaster - but it's the latest episode of regular weather patterns being disrupted.\n\nMeanwhile, different regions of Alaska are experiencing record high and low temperatures at the same time.\n\nClimate scientists warn that we can expect many more extremes as the planet continues to heat. And attempts to reduce emissions have been undermined by several factors, including President Biden's struggle with climate policies in the USA.\n\nThe Met Office said Scotland had also recorded its warmest New Year's Day temperature, which was 15.9C in Achnagart in the Highlands.\n\nThe previous record was 14.5C in Inverurie in 1992.\n\nThere is also a new record for Wales, with 15.6C in Hawarden, Flintshire.\n\nThose taking a New Year's Day dip in the Firth of Forth benefitted from warmer air temperatures\n\nAnd people in Scarborough have been enjoying the mild weather with a walk on the beach\n\nOvernight on Friday, it reached 16.5C in Bala, Gwynedd, north Wales, making it the hottest New Year's Eve on record.\n\nIt has been so warm that the skating rink at London's Somerset House had to close on New Year's Day because the ice was being affected.\n\nThe Met Office also said a new provisional record had been set for the UK's highest minimum - or overnight - temperature for New Year's Day and the month of January as a whole.\n\nThat was in Chivenor, Devon, which had a temperature of 13.2C. The previous record was 13.1C and was set in 2016."], "link": ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-60081436", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60077767", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-60084377", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60078151", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-60076381", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60080080", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-60070621", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60081041", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60091753", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-60083174", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60068612", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60092428", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60090113", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60071311", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-60055956", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-60073706", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60077773", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60075906", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60057282", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60087798", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60091899", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60085359", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60080934", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60088614", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60066434", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-wales-60083279", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60047215", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-60091003", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-60088560", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59944086", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60086840", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60083871", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60083088", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60072191", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60076837", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60057281", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59131036", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-60092458", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60031410", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60088413", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-60078540", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-60023556", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60077335", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60069429", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-60070614", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-60088087", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60066432", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60090991", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60063606", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-60084317", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60083089", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-60072278", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60074407", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60069090", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60080357", 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